Providers have been warned that government funding to help long-term unemployed people back into work was likely to be dramatically cut by 2020, FE Week can reveal.
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) director for contracted employment provision Matt Thurstan last month sent a letter, seen by FE Week, to providers advising on what will happen after current Work Programme contracts end in April 2017.
The scheme, launched in June 2011, involves private, public and voluntary organisations helping to find jobs for people who have normally been unemployed for at least 12 months, although shorter-term unemployed people can also be referred by local Job Centres.
Total funding to providers through the payment-by-results scheme was around £2,001m up to June — which worked out at just over £500m a-year.
But Mr Thurstan said in the letter that the department now recognised “the number of those requiring this support is reducing” — so “core funding” could be cut to just £130m-a-year by 2020/21 for a replacement scheme expected to be launched from May 2017.
“Our new provision will support long-term unemployed claimants reaching the 24-month point in their claim, as well as targeted referrals of claimants with health and disabilities issues,” he added.
Funding cut for back-to-work support The DWP currently has contracts with 15 providers for 18 regions across the country.
The only FE college group contractor is NCG, which currently covers Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country.
The DWP terminated NCG’s contract for the North East Yorkshire and the Humber last March, replacing it with Devon-based Maximus.
The DWP told FE Week at the time that this was because it was the “lowest performing [contract] assessed against a range of measures”.
No-one from NCG was available to comment, but Employment Related Services Association (ERSA) chief executive Kirsty McHugh (pictured above), which represents employment support providers, said: “The programme has done fantastically at moving the long term unemployed into work, but it’s no surprise that the new contracts from April 2017 will focus far more strongly on jobseekers with disabilities and health conditions.
“Our understanding is that the funding mentioned in the letter is the minimum available for the new work and health programme.”
A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said: “The number of people who have been out of work for over a year has fallen by a quarter in the last 12 months, so providers had anticipated that a replacement programme would be on a smaller scale.”
A spokesperson for the DWP said:“Our welfare reforms and the Work Programme have helped thousands of these individuals return to work. We now have two million more people in work, and employment at a record high.
“We want to build on this success and provide further support to those with health conditions and disabilities. That is why we are increasing funding by around 15 per cent, and creating a new ‘Work and Health Programme’ to help them to return to, and remain in, work.”
Ofsted deputy director for FE and skills Paul Joyce has outlined how the story of the education watchdog’s 2014/15 annual report was one of a huge rise in maths and English learners “undoubtedly” impacting upon worsening inspection grades.
He spoke to FE Week moments after Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw unveiled the report, which raised concern that only 35 per cent of English and maths provision had been judged good or outstanding, on Tuesday (December 1).
Sir Michael Wilshaw
It blamed the percentage in part on colleges struggling with the consequences of meeting a rule obliging providers to ensure 16 to 19-year-old FE learners without at least C grade GCSE maths and English continued to study the subjects or miss out on funding.
Mr Joyce told FE Week: “Maths and English undoubtedly has had an impact on [overall Ofsted] inspection grades, although it is important to realise they’re not the only factors.”
The research showed the proportion of general FE and tertiary colleges inspected up to that point and graded inadequate or told to improve was up 27 percentage points on the previous year, while the percentage of sixth form colleges and independent learning providers with grade three or four inspection results had also increased.
The previous year, 36 per cent of inspections across the sector had resulted in providers being rated as inadequate or requires improvement — it stood at 66 per cent in February.
And the 2014/15 annual report warned the performance of general FE colleges had been hit harder by maths and English resit requirements than sixth form colleges (SFCs) with higher GCSE entry requirements.
Mr Joyce said these pressures “had a detrimental impact in terms of inspection outcomes [across the sector] in that many providers are struggling to deliver maths and English to the required quality standards that both they and we would like to see”.
“I think there’s a whole host of reasons [for this], undoubtedly one will be due to the number of learners that are now having to do these qualifications,” said Mr Joyce.
“Often when I speak to principals or chief executives, particularly when there are very large numbers on these programmes, their concern is the recruitment of staff that can deliver to the standard they would like.”
Sir Michael recognised in the report that “many colleges” had been placed under “considerable” pressure, because of funding cuts and merger proposals, including this year through post-16 education and training area reviews.
Mr Joyce told FE Week: “The financial situation the sector finds itself in, and the reorganisation potential through area reviews, are obviously challenging circumstances.
“Area reviews are something additional for leaders to deal with, but in many cases some of these colleges, particularly those in financial difficulty do need that support in order to survive.
“Inevitably there’s likely to be recommendations around merger,” he added.
But, said Mr Joyce: “Inspectors are not, or predominantly not, auditors or accountants. When we go in we are primarily looking at the quality of education and training provided.
“But clearly under leadership and management, you wouldn’t expect our inspectors not to take account of the financial viability of a provider, so they are provided with that information by the funding authorities and people qualified to make those judgments.”
Mr Joyce also said inspectors saw “a variable picture over employer engagement”.
“Providers that we see as good or outstanding have very good relationships with employers, have employers involved in their curriculum planning and perhaps involved on their governing board.
“Hence, the shape of the curriculum and the courses are tailored to those employer needs.
“However, we do see some instances where employers aren’t as engaged and providers are not doing enough to engage with employers.”
But the report also raised concern about poor progression rates to apprenticeships from traineeships and a lack of “high quality training” through apprenticeship programmes run by colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs).
Mr Joyce told FE Week: “You can see in the report that we are worried about delivery of apprenticeship provision, whether that’s with an ILP or a college.”
“Our key message is whether you’re a college, ILP, or an adult community provider, what matters is getting leadership and management, the curriculum, and teaching and learning right, so the outcome for learners on apprenticeship or study programmes are positive,” he added.
The report was based on inspections from 2014/15 which were carried out under a common inspection framework (Cif) that was changed this academic year.
However, Mr Joyce said the annual report was still of relevance.
Gill Clipson
“I think the report lays out the challenges that the sector faces in light of the new Cif — so with progression from learner starting points, the increased focus on personal development and behaviour, and learner destinations,” he said.
She said: “Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector has highlighted a decline in the overall performance of FE colleges. We are pleased though that Ofsted has recognised the ‘context’.
“Considering the level of funding cuts colleges have had in the last five years, and the massive task of providing thousands of young people with GCSE maths and English qualifications, it is a great achievement that nationally, 77 per cent of colleges are good or outstanding.”
James Kewin
James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, said: “This year’s report acknowledges that more SFCs are good or outstanding than any sector.
“All of this has been achieved against a background of funding reductions and curriculum reform.”
Stewart Segal, the Association for Employment and Learning Providers chief executive, said: “Despite funding pressures acknowledged in the report, it is pleasing Ofsted found the percentage of training providers judged good or outstanding increased again in 2015 to 79 per cent, up a point from last year.”
Stewart Segal
A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills responded to the concern raised in the report about FE funding cuts.
She said: “By 2019/20, government spending on apprenticeships will have doubled in cash terms compared to 2010/11.
“Funding for the core adult skills participation budgets will be protected in cash terms.”
She added: “Area reviews will help improve quality by securing an efficient and financially resilient sector.”
Poor prison education back in the dock
Learning and skills in prisons came in for severe criticism once again from Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw in his 2014/15 annual report.
He said it had been one of the “worst performing elements of the FE and skills sector for some time, and Ofsted has long been critical of this failure”.
There were 50 prison and young offender institution inspections — of which four resulted in outstanding grades, 24 good, 56 requires improvement and 16 inadequate.
Sir Michael wrote: “The overall quality of the education and training funded by the Skills Funding Agency was reflected in the judgements given for the offender learning and skills service.”
The report comes with Justice Secretary Michael Gove having ordered a review of the system of prison learning in September, as previously reported by FE Week.
Former Education Secretary Mr Gove wants the inquiry to, in part, look at how the Offender Learning and Skills Service (Olass) — currently contracted regionally to three general FE colleges and one independent learning provider — operates.
It will be led by Dame Sally Coates, director of academies south for the United Learning schools group, and an interim report is due by the end of next month with the full report, including recommendations, expected two months later.
Rod Clark, chief executive of the Prisoners Education Trust (Pet), said: “We have long called for learning to be at the heart of prisons and this latest report highlights the increasing and urgent need for improvements to be made.
“We agree with Ofsted that there must be more accountability and leadership to achieve this and the government’s Coates Review provides a timely opportunity for new policies to reform learning in prison.”
David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace), said: “Once again, the chief inspector was highly critical of learning and skills in our prisons.
“This cannot continue and we must make sure the Coates Review and re-tendering of Olass contracts really do make a difference.”
Falling numbers in community learning
Falling numbers of people taking part in community learning was an issue addressed by Sir Michael Wilshaw.
A graph appeared in his 2014/15 annual report’s section on adult learning, showing how the number of funded students undergoing personal and community development learning had fallen from around 580,000 in 2009/10 to just under 500,000 in 2013/14.
“The community learning budget has been frozen and therefore buys less each year,” he said.
“There has also been a shift towards courses for people who are more disadvantaged, which are more expensive to deliver. As a result, across the sector, the number of learners in ‘personal and community development learning’ has dropped by just over 80,000.”
Ofsted inspected 60 community learning and skills providers in 2013/14, including specialist designated institutions, not for profit organisations and local authorities.
Of these, two resulted in outstanding overall grades, 32 good, 19 requires improvement and seven inadequate.
“There has been increasing pressure for providers to deliver value for money by aligning publicly funded adult learning to some demonstrable community benefit,” said Sir Michael.
With no school or academy listed as automatically involved in any of the seven area reviews announced so far, it was thought that dropping the SFC status might provide an exemption.
However, in response to a parliamentary question from Conservative MP Bob Blackman, Mr Boles said any SFC conversion plans would be addressed alongside other area review outcomes, and added that colleges choosing not to convert would face further scrutiny.
“We will give sixth form colleges the opportunity to establish themselves as 16-to-19 academies as part of the area reviews of post-16 education and training,” said Mr Boles.
“When a college’s application is approved, it will be eligible for VAT reimbursement as soon as it has been re-established with 16-to-19 academy status,” he added.
“Once all the area reviews have been completed, we will of course review which SFCs have not yet taken up the option and what course they want to take.”
It has led to a call for the seven area reviews already under way to be extended to allow the 33 SFCs involved to “develop their plans and understand the finer detail of conversion”.
But just days after Mr Boles’s answer to Mr Blackman, Education Minister Lord Nash said he expected the number of SFCs becoming academies to be in “double figures”.
There are currently 93 SFCs which educate around 160,000 16 to 19-year-olds, therefore his estimate, aired at the House of Commons Education Select Committee meeting on December 2, could theoretically mean all SFCs converting.
James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, said he welcomed the news his members would be able to apply for academy status via area reviews.
“Academy status is a great opportunity for some SFCs, but governing bodies will want to see the formal guidance that is expected in February 2016 before making a decision on whether to convert.
“It would be helpful if the first wave of reviews was extended to allow the SFCs involved more time to develop their plans and understand the finer detail of conversion.”
A Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) spokesperson said: “We recognise the urgency for sixth form colleges in the first wave of reviews.
“We will be working with these colleges to ensure that they have the opportunity to develop information to support an application and can begin preparing applications in advance of publication of detailed criteria in February, while continuing to be a key player in the local review to secure the best outcomes in their area.”
Phil Hatton reviews the Ofsted 2014/15 annual report and pinpoints as key its mention of how funding issues are affecting quality.
Reading the learning and skills section of the Chief Inspector’s annual brought few surprises for those who have been monitoring inspections throughout last year.
However, the picture painted of being ‘above’ or ‘below’ the line of being good or better made difficult reading.
Being a principal or leader of any learning and skills provider is becoming an increasingly demanding and difficult task, as reflected by Sir Michael.
Ofsted has recognised that the declining budgets to run our sector are so severe that they are contributing negatively in their impact on quality
At least Ofsted has recognised that declining budgets to run our sector are so severe they are contributing negatively in their impact on quality.
The report is a key one in that it is also brings to an end the last Common Inspection Framework (Cif) after a relatively short three years.
Sadly, a substantial chunk of the sector did not get the chance to be evaluated against that Cif, which put more emphasis on developing the English and maths skills of learners, even if they have a grade C or above in their previous GCSE results.
It has been a real game-changer, as a key part of both study programmes and apprenticeships, contributing to ever declining overall and timely success rates for the latter.
Sir Michael likes to headline what the sector looks like by quoting what providers look like at their most recent inspection, giving a falsely high and reassuring picture of learners attending ‘good or better’ providers.
For example, general FE colleges (GFEs) are headlined as having dropped from 79 per cent to 77 per cent for the gradings, while in reality for the 48 colleges inspected only 35 per cent achieved them.
Rather oddly, Sir Michael claims that ‘what differentiates the colleges that succeeded from those that are in decline is the calibre of the leadership and management’, yet inspections found leadership and management to be good or better in 44 per cent of GFEs.
Ofsted has put more emphasis on leadership in the new Cif, including governance, by placing the judgement before that of teaching and learning and increasing the inspection focus on it.
Good or better for outcomes in GFEs was only 27 per cent while for teaching and learning 40 per cent. The last year saw an increased focus on linking curriculum development to local and national priorities.
It is good that Ofsted has recognised the prior attainment of learners in GFEs is much lower than in school sixth forms and sixth form colleges, with prior attainment for those elusive GCSEs in English and maths also being lower.
Hopefully, this will be taken into account more when making judgements under the new Cif. The loss of some 270,000 mainly 25+ learners is also acknowledged as a consequence of funding.
The report continues the Ofsted rhetoric when assessing the performance of independent learning providers that only certain types of apprenticeship are worthy of the name.
While there is some substance that there is a need to get equality in levels of apprenticeship right (NVQs at level two vary too much in content and difficulty) it is not the fault of the providers that there are more places with employers who want customer service than there are in aeronautical engineering.
Oddly, comments around weak subcontracting performance are made around small providers when it is a feature of parts of the entire sector including colleges and community learning. Little mention is made of traineeships save to say they appeared to have little success in fulfilling their primary role of being a stepping stone into apprenticeships.
This is a disappointing oversight as it is an area that is being pushed by local enterprise partnerships as a possible stepping stone. Ofsted needs to be giving government a firmer steer on the success, or not, of the value to young people of the current traineeship model.
In summary, Sir Michael has at last stated what those of us with lifetimes in the sector have always known, that the inequalities in funding impact on what we can do with our learners.
Sue Pember casts her eye over the Ofsted 2014/15 annual report.
Ofsted’s mission statement is ‘raising standards and improving lives’ and that is certainly the focus of the 2014/15 annual report.
Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw was absolutely right to highlight the failure of many secondary schools and point out how the performance of secondary schools in the North is worse than those in the South.
I do worry though that poor schools in the South will think they are now off the hook. It is scandalous that the good work of primary schools is undermined and not followed through into secondary schools.
Shouldn’t we be encouraging Ofsted to get involved and help shape the activity when it is being developed rather than leaving it to when a programme is up and running?
However, this is not new. Ask any FE lecturer and they will tell you stories of bright youngsters who didn’t do well at secondary school but flourished when they went to college, and they tell you of the heartache they feel when they have to try to re-motivate a young person who has been turned off learning for five years, has completely lost confidence, and has to start back at the basics.
What is also interesting in the chief inspector’s report is that the North/South divide is not there for primary schools, or for colleges.
I struggled to find in his report a comparison of how schools are doing compared to colleges, or any recognition that this element was always going to be very problematic. This is an area where we all need to work together and, if Ofsted has the answers, then course managers and lecturers must listen and respond.
But, this issue, did make me reflect on the role and timing of inspection.
In business and in manufacturing, inspection is key to quality control and the inspectors don’t just appear at the end of the process — they are in the mix from the start, making it clear what they will be looking for in the final inspection.
So shouldn’t we be encouraging Ofsted to get involved and help shape the activity when it is being developed rather than leaving it to when a programme is up and running and only then saying what they are looking for?
I don’t want to distract from the issue of improving quality, but I do feel this is what has happened on study programmes. Wouldn’t it have been more effective to detail the inspection criteria at the start?
I am worried that we may repeat this scenario again with apprenticeship standards and we will find ourselves in two or three years’ time with Ofsted offering their critical assessment of the new standards without having said in development stage anything about what they will be assessing.
There will be many hundreds of standards with different delivery patterns and many with different end tests/assessments — these could be about how to build a wall, completing a workplace project or sitting a viva voce.
Many of these will be delivered without being piloted. Therefore, it is vital that the quality measures/outcomes which the inspectors will be reviewing are determined now, otherwise we will undermine the policy and the inspectors will be back criticising apprenticeship quality in three years’ time.
The chief inspector was right to draw attention to the drop in adult learning participation. We need to do more and collectively we need to refocus our adult learning strategies. Our nation’s productivity is never going to improve unless we tackle the legacy workforce with poor basic skills. We need a sustained programme of adult English and maths courses in the work place and we need to share the cost between the state who failed them when they were at school and the employer.
Adult education is not a luxury but an essential service, to meet the demands made on it, it will need to grow in the future and our collective challenge is to ensure we provide the leadership and direction and not to let down those older learners who are relying on us. Therefore it was right to feature in the annual report and I hope that it now galvanises us all into establishing a new focus on adult learning.
The launch date for the first round of long-overdue invitations to tender for European Social Fund (ESF) contracts has been set for Monday (December 7), FE Week can reveal.
The previous 2007 to 2013 Euro skills contracts closed on July 31 and none have gone out to tender through the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) since.
A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said that resulting funding gap had “led to staff redundancies, centre closures and even providers having to cease trading [because of the sudden loss of the ESF cash]”.
But an SFA spokesperson told FE Week this afternoon that “as communicated to our stakeholder group today, we have processed six specifications for NEET [not in education, employment, or training] provision, and we are now in a position to launch six Invitations to Tender on December 7”.
“The second set of invitations to tender are scheduled to be launched on December 14,” she added. “In line with our procurement process there will be a 30 calendar day bidding window (excluding December 24 to January 3 inclusive).
“The procurement programme is flexible and when we are in receipt of agreed specifications from Leps, we will process and launch them in appropriate sets, at regular time frames.”
The SFA is yet to comment on which six NEET geographic areas the first round of contracts will be tendered for.
It comes after FE Week exclusively revealed on November 10 that the SFA planned to run a “sequence of procurement” for handing out £650m of delayed ESF cash, which must be finished by the end of September next year at the very latest to allow a minimum delivery period of 18 months.
The delivery period, up to March 2018, was determined with ministers unable to say that the SFA would oversee anything other than apprenticeships beyond then.
Mike Bell, SFA deputy director for localism policy implementation, wrote to Local Enterprise Partnership (Lep) and European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) committees with details of the timeline (pictured above).
“Ministers have agreed that we cannot put in place contractual or match-funding arrangements beyond the point at which the SFA might cease to be accountable for the non-apprenticeship adult skills budget,” wrote Mr Bell, who said a new “simplified procurement initiation document” would help the process.
Furthermore, FE Week revealed in March that then-Minister for Communities and Local Government European Programmes, Lord Ahmad, had told Leps that only the London Lep would be allowed to “take decisions” over ESF funding.
The government had previously planned to give all 39 Leps a “direct role” in dishing out ESF cash, but his letter to them said the European Commission had barred this.
It is thought that the long-running dispute between the government and the European Commission leading up to Lord Ahmad’s announcement, over the role that should be played by Leps in the process, was a significant cause of delay with launching the tendering process.
These are the first areas which the will be involved in the first round of long-awaited invitations to tender for European Social Fund (ESF) contracts, FE Week can exclusively reveal.
The previous 2007 to 2013 ESF contracts closed on July 31 and none have gone out to tender through the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) since.
However, FE Week revealed last night that the launch date for the first round of six invitations to tender for not in education, employment, or training (NEET) provision had been set for Monday (December 7).
The SFA did not say which regions these would apply to — but FE Week now understands the local enterprise partnership (Lep) areas that the invitations to tender will go through will include Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire, and Solent (covering the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton).
The other Leps involved will be Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership, Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership, and Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, which is understood will be involved with two contracts including one specifically for offenders.
An SFA spokesperson declined to comment on the areas this morning, saying it had to “follow a 48-hour rule which is in the new public contracts directives 2015”.
“The information has to be published to the rest of the EU prior to us publishing nationally,” the spokesperson added. “Therefore LEPs can publish on their website on Monday after 5pm but not before.”
It comes after an SFA spokesperson told FE Week yesterday that “as communicated to our stakeholder group today, we have processed six specifications for NEET provision, and we are now in a position to launch six Invitations to Tender on December 7”.
“The second set of invitations to tender are scheduled to be launched on December 14,” she added. “In line with our procurement process there will be a 30 calendar day bidding window (excluding December 24 to January 3 inclusive).
“The procurement programme is flexible and when we are in receipt of agreed specifications from local enterprise partnerships (Leps), we will process and launch them in appropriate sets, at regular time frames.”
It follows another FE Week exclusively on November 10, which revealed how the SFA was planning to run a “sequence of procurement” for handing out £650m of delayed ESF cash, which must be finished by the end of September next year at the very latest to allow a minimum delivery period of 18 months.
The delivery period, up to March 2018, was determined with ministers unable to say that the SFA would oversee anything other than apprenticeships beyond then.
Mike Bell, SFA deputy director for localism policy implementation, wrote to Local Enterprise Partnership (Lep) and European Structural and Investment Fund (ESIF) committees with details of the timeline.
“Ministers have agreed that we cannot put in place contractual or match-funding arrangements beyond the point at which the SFA might cease to be accountable for the non-apprenticeship adult skills budget,” wrote Mr Bell, who said a new “simplified procurement initiation document” would help the process.
Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission chair Alan Milburn (pictured above) has told a Lords committee how the FE sector is “an absolute jungle” for learners and it needs to “take lessons from the higher education system”.
Mr Milburn told the House of Lords Social Mobility Committee that FE was in need of “simplification” as he gave evidence on improving the social mobility in the transition from school to work.
He appeared before the committee at its penultimate evidence session on Wednesday (December 2) and said: “The choices that young people are making are not the greatest choices.
“And that is for a whole variety of reasons, like the lack of transparency in the [FE] system.
“In fact to grace it with the word system seems to me a complete misnomer — this is not a system it’s a jungle.”
He said the higher education system had “total clarity” and “a portal of entry” — referring to Ucas, which operates a system called Progress for the FE and skills sector.
The FE system, he claimed, was “almost designed to induce more complexity and the wrong choices”.
He added: “We need to imbibe some of the lessons from higher education and translate those lessons into how we structure and guide people through vocational education.
“I think we have got to do some serious rethinking of all of this and almost go back to basics in terms of design.”
Mr Milburn referred to “16,000 courses” to choose from in FE and said “with such a multitude of organisations and qualifications, it’s almost impossible to make a trade-off between them”.
He said: “Heaven help us — if there is ever, ever a need for simplification it is here.”
He also commented on last month’s Budget and said “colleges probably breathed a sigh of relief” after hearing Chancellor George Osborne’s speech, but added that “there are some real challenges” with growth, which “has obviously fallen”.
The Social Mobility Committee evidence session came just a day after Association of Colleges (AoC) president John Widdowson (pictured) discussed higher education at the House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee.
John Widdowson
He said: “It’s tempting to use university as a proxy for all higher education, but clearly it isn’t, and will become less so in the future.”
Mr Widdowson added that a set of metrics “might work perfectly well in the current university system, probably won’t work with some of the new entrants that are coming into the higher education world”.
The set of metrics to enhance teaching and learning in higher education include, focusing on enhancement, enhancing reputation, preserving diversity, preserving autonomy and efficiency within the sector.
The final Lords Social Mobility Committee evidence session is due to take place on Wednesday, December 9 at 10.35 with Education Secretary Nicky Morgan and Skills Minister Nick Boles as witnesses.
The committee has already heard from high profile figures including former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw.
It is expected to report its findings by late March.
Six reviews have been detailed in the Midlands, London and the North West among other areas, and are set to begin next month.
And just like the seven reviews of the first wave, in which 83 colleges are being reviewed, no school sixth forms were listed.
Steering groups for the second wave, each of which will be chaired by either FE Commissioner Dr David Collins or Sixth Form College Commissioner Peter Mucklow, are expected to get under way between January 18 and March 10.
The indicative timings for waves three, four and five to begin were April, September and November next year respectively, and comprising 22 proposed area reviews — although the government acknowledged that some local areas may wish to change the timing of their reviews and circumstances at some colleges may change.
“Together these three waves cover all of the areas in England not covered in waves one and two, although area reviews covering Greater London are yet to be confirmed. We currently anticipate that they will form part of waves two and three,” said a government spokesperson.
In the Marches and Worcestershire area review in wave two seven FE colleges will come under scrutiny, along with four SFCs. Thames Valley will have the greatest number of FE colleges reviewed in the second wave at eight institutions, but only one SFC — The Henley College.
The West of England will have four colleges examined and one SFC, St Brendan’s Sixth Form College, while Cheshire and Warrington will see six FE colleges and two SFCs under review.
In Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire it will be five FE colleges and one SFC, City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College, and in Surrey four colleges and six SFCs — the great number of SFCs for the regions in this second wave of reviews.
The first group of area reviews to be announced, as reported in FE Week on September 8, covered 22 FE colleges and 16 SFCs in Birmingham and Solihull, Greater Manchester, and Sheffield. More reviews, involving 21 FE colleges and 13 SFCs, were announced on September 25 for the Tees Valley, Sussex Coast and Solent regions.
The seventh and final region in the first wave of area reviews was announced on October 16 as West Yorkshire and included seven general FE colleges and four sixth form colleges.
The government has said the “need” to move towards “fewer, often larger, more resilient and efficient providers,” underlies the area reviews. However, Dr Collins has said “divorces” could also be on the cards.
Main image indicative only and based on local enterprise partnership boundaries
Wave two
The Marches and Worcestershire
FE colleges
Heart of Worcestershire College
Hereford College of Arts
Herefordshire and Ludlow College
North Shropshire College
Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology
South Worcestershire College
Telford College of Arts and Technology
Sixth form colleges
Hereford Sixth Form College
New College Telford
Shrewsbury Sixth Form College
Worcester Sixth Form College
Thames Valley
FE Colleges
Abingdon and Witney College
Activate Learning (City of Oxford College, Banbury and Bicester College and Reading College)
Amersham and Wycombe College
Aylesbury College
Berkshire College of Agriculture
Bracknell and Wokingham College
East Berkshire College
Newbury College
Sixth form colleges
The Henley College
West of England
FE Colleges
Bath College
City of Bristol College
South Gloucestershire and Stroud College
Weston College of Further Education
Sixth form colleges
St Brendan’s Sixth Form College
Cheshire and Warrington
FE Colleges
Macclesfield College
Mid Cheshire College
Reaseheath College (specialist land based)
South Cheshire College
Warrington Collegiate
West Cheshire College
Sixth form colleges
Priestley College
Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College
Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire
FE Colleges
Burton and South Derbyshire College
Newcastle-under-Lyme College
South Staffordshire College
Stafford College
Stoke-on-Trent College
Sixth form colleges
City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College
Surrey
FE Colleges
Brooklands College
East Surrey College
Guildford College
North East Surrey College of Technology
Sixth form colleges
College of Richard Collyer
Esher College
Godalming College
Reigate College
Strode’s College
Woking College
The government also announced the following regions for indicative area reviews*:
Mr Joyce said these pressures “had a detrimental impact in terms of inspection outcomes [across the sector] in that many providers are struggling to deliver maths and English to the required quality standards that both they and we would like to see”.
But the report also raised concern about poor progression rates to apprenticeships from traineeships and a lack of “high quality training” through apprenticeship programmes run by colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs).
