University Technical Colleges (UTCs) should function as part of multi-academy trusts (MATs) to make them “stronger”, the skills minister has said.
Nick Boles (pictured above) told the House of Commons this afternoon he wanted to replicate success stories where the 14 to 19 technical institutions functioned well as part of academy chains, and not as standalone institutions.
Responding to a question from Gareth Johnson MP about Leigh UTC, Mr Boles said the institution was a “particularly good example”, not least because it was “part of a very successful multi-academy trust (MAT)”.
He continued: “That is a situation that we want to see replicated across the UTC movement, because UTCs are stronger inside MATs.”
Data obtained by FOI requests from the 15 UTCs, all of which are now going into their third year, showed that six of them saw their learner numbers decrease for 2015/16. Royal Greenwich UTC had the most dramatic drop, with 140 fewer students for 2015/16 – a fall of 35 per cent compared to figures for 2014/15.
The overall increase in student numbers at the UTCs that opened between 2010 and 2013 was just 5 per cent for 2015/16. Together, these 15 UTCs have reached just 50.4 per cent of their combined capacity (4,598 students for a total capacity of 9,126).
Mr Boles’s remarks echo those made by Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw to MPs at the Commons Education Select Committee last Wednesday (March 2).
Sir Michael said that schools moving together into a clusters provided a “really great opportunity” to ensure high quality vocational education.
“If I was running one of those I’d have primary schools, I’d have secondary schools and I’d have a couple of UTCs as well,” he said.
The key assessment criteria for conversion is the development of “stronger partnership and collaboration between the college and schools with which they will work”.
Colleges that propose to “establish or join a multi-academy trust (MATs) should be well-placed to meet the partnership criteria”, the guidance states.
Only SFCs that are “financially and educationally strong [assessed by the department and Ofsted as good or outstanding for both]” will have the option of converting to become a standalone academy.
The Department for Education (DfE) finally published its guidance on how SFCs can go about converting to academies on February 19.
And although providers involved with phase one of the post-16 area reviews were given draft guidance at the end of last month, it still left the 33 SFCs involved with little time to digest the information and potentially lodge applications before the process closes for many in March.
Principal of Hartlepool SFC Alex Fau-Goodwin complained to FE Week that the timescale was far too tight for his college, which is part of the Tees Valley area review, and for many others.
“As a college in wave one, this places significant pressure on effective strategic decision making in order to meet the timescales of the area review,” said Mr Fau-Goodwin.
Invitations to tender for the European Social Fund (ESF) Youth Programme in London have been launched by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA).
The new contracts for 2014-20 cover the youth talent and careers clusters strands of the ESF programme for young people in London.
Applications for the tendering process that launched yesterday (March 7) must be made via the SFA’s e-tendering portal, and the deadline is April 8.
The ESF Youth Programme is a “comprehensive package” designed by the London Enterprise Panel (LEP), according to a statement on the LEP website.
The programme’s key objective is to support young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET), or at risk of being NEET, to find employment, education or training.
The youth talent strand of the programme “aims to promote a ‘gateway’ for businesses to work with a range of providers and offer traineeships, work placements, internships, employment and apprenticeship opportunities for young people”, according to a document outlining the different strands of the programme, published by the LEP.
The careers cluster strand is designed to “improve the labour market relevance of education”, the LEP document says.
Each cluster will be made up of around six schools and FE colleges, who will support young people into work placements created through the youth talent strand.
The latest invitation to tender comes after three rounds of ESF contracts for NEETs, across 15 LEP areas, were published by the SFA between December and January.
FE Week exclusively reported on November 10 that 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 number of Skills Funding Agency offices are to be radically reduced as they become ‘Further Education funding centres’ from 2018, FE Week understands.
The plan was set out in an internal document, ‘2020: Future and Beyond’, which has been circulated through the Department for Education (DfE) and Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
It is understood that post-16 FE funding staff from SFA and EFA will be brought together in bases in Cheylesmore House, Coventry, where SFA is now and EFA staff are moving back in to, and current BIS offices in Birmingham and Swindon.
The move casts further doubt over the long-term future of the SFA and EFA as independent entities — and comes after Peter Lauener, the chief executive of both agencies denied that merger plans were in the pipeline during an exclusive interview with FE Week editor Nick Linford in our last issue.
A spokesperson for BIS, EFA and SFA told FE Week on February 25: “This document [2020 : Future and Beyond] is not referring to creating any new organisations, it’s talking about developing a location strategy that better meets the needs of BIS in 2020.”
When asked if the funding agencies would merge, Mr Lauener said during the interview that he was “trying to put to one side the question of whether there should be a merged agency”.
But the senior mandarin, who was already in charge of EFA when he was appointed chief executive of the SFA in November 2014, added: “At some point we may come back to question of whether there should be a merged agency, but that is actually a matter for the two parent departments [Dfe and BIS].”
He previously answered questions on the possible merger of both agencies, during a House of Commons Public Accounts Committee hearing on October 19.
Mr Lauener told MPs he was working on delivering “savings” for both, but “actually took the job on the basis that there was no planned merger”.
FE Week revealed three days later that SFA finance director Paul McGuire was stepping down —clearing the way for responsibilities falling under his remit to be shared with the EFA.
The government has since revealed it will launch a new Funding Agencies Shared Service Team (FAS2T), to run across the SFA and EFA, covering finance, IT and data from April 1.
The DfE is advertising for a data science director to work within the new unit. The advert on the Civil Service Jobs website stated that it “will be responsible for paying and assuring some £60bn of public funds annually”.
FEFC was the acronym for the agency before the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was created in 2001, but then referred to ‘Further Education Funding Council’.
The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has defended itself after the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA) said an upcoming strike would be “ill-timed and ill-judged”.
The NUT ballot, which closed on February 29, showed 86 per cent of members in favour of strike action, from a 44 per cent turnout.
It means that union members are set to embark on strike action at sixth form colleges across the country on March 15, which SFCA chief executive David Igoe warned would be highly disruptive for students preparing for summer exams.
When invited by FE Week to respond to the criticism, NUT deputy general secretary Kevin Courtney said: “The NUT strike action is part of the ongoing campaign to ensure teachers and therefore students get a fair deal from the Government.
“We have gone way past the point of sitting on sidelines. Many college principals are supporting our campaign and we will continue to work with SFCA wherever we can.”
He added: “Alongside the deterioration in teachers’ conditions, if we do not reverse the [Government funding] cuts, it is young people’s 16-19 education that is being put at grave risk.
“Many colleges face closure or unsuitable mergers putting many jobs and local education at risk.”
A total of 1,689 NUT members took part in the ballot, with 1,453 voting for the strike action and 235 against.
The question put to members was: “In order to persuade the Secretary of State for Education to increase presently inadequate funding levels which cause detrimental changes to terms and conditions within the sixth form college sector, are you prepared to take a day’s strike action?”
Mr Igoe told FE Week after the ballot result was announced that SFCA had “no problem standing alongside the NUT in a campaign to improve the funding levels for sixth form colleges”.
“However, we consider this strike action to be ill-timed and ill-judged,” he added.
“It comes at a critical time in preparing students for public examinations in the summer and any disruption to that learning is regrettable.”
A Department for Education spokesman said: “Any strike action is disappointing. The disruption caused by strikes holds back children’s education and damages the reputation of the profession.
“We recognise the importance of investing in education which is why, thanks to the difficult decisions we have taken elsewhere, we have been able to protect core 16 to 19 funding.
“At the same time we have ended the unfair difference between post-16 schools and colleges by funding them per student to ensure that all young people leave education with the skills they need to thrive in modern Britain.”
South Staffordshire College and South Thames College have joined the 157 Group, the body has revealed.
The announcement was made by 157 Group today on Twitter.
It tweeted: “We are delighted to announce two new colleges @southstaffs and @SouthThamesColl, bringing the 157 Group to 30 fantastic members.”
Graham Morley, chief executive principal of South Staffordshire College, said: “We are delighted to be joining the 157 Group. As a business facing organisation we are committed to connecting with similar organisations who share our vision, values and principles.
“We are looking forward to making a significant contribution to the work of this group for the benefit of those we serve.”
Both South Staffordshire, which was last inspected in April 2013, South Thames, which was last inspected in May 2012, are rated good overall by Ofsted.
It comes after FE Week reported on March 1 that City College Plymouth (CCP) had become the second college to join the 157 Group since it exclusively revealed that it planned to expand to FE Week in January
In 2013-14 a host of UK providers jumped at the chance to take part in a programme in Saudi Arabia that provided the opportunity to share their expertise overseas. The UK government promoted the ‘Colleges of Excellence’ programme widely, calling the huge contracts secured by providers a “£1 billion exports win for UK education” and championing involvement in the region.
The ‘winning’ UK institutions set about establishing their new colleges in the region, with the aim of furthering vocational education and training in Saudi Arabia for men and women. But two years on, the programme has not lived up to expectations and an FE Week investigation has uncovered grave financial problems at some of the colleges taking part.
With the projects in Saudi struggling to recruit students and some colleges in the region being forced to close, some UK providers are now mired in damage control. FE Week senior reporter Alix Robertson examines the extent of the problems.
Lincoln College — a challenging overseas venture
Lincoln College has included a significant loss associated with a contract in Saudi Arabia in its accounts for 2014/15, FE Week can reveal.
The accounts, which all colleges submit each year to the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), show that involvement in the Colleges of Excellence (CoE) programme has led to the college facing financial challenges.
Al-Aflaj colleges’ governor Zaid Al Hussein and Paul Batterbury, dean of Lincoln Al-Aflaj College at Lincoln College International, Lincoln College Group, at colleges’ opening ceremony in October last year
FE Week understands that this is likely to result in an SFA financial notice to improve.
In March 2014, Lincoln College was awarded a huge contract worth £250m from the CoE programme, a scheme designed to improve technical and vocational education and training in Saudi Arabia. Winning the opportunity to go to the Middle East and run three new colleges was seen as a coup for the college. However, after recruitment problems led to two of the colleges in the Al-Aflaj region being closed down, the costs began to mount up.
Commenting on the colleges’ finances, a spokesperson for the SFA said: “We make judgments on the financial health of colleges based on colleges’ financial plans and their published, externally audited, account statements.
“We are currently in discussion with the college about their end of year financial position.”
The CoE programme was promoted by the UK government as a good opportunity for both the education sector and the economy. Lincoln College had to compete against 50 other applicants from across Europe, America, Canada, Australia and New Zealand for the contract.
The successful bid meant it would be responsible for Lincoln Al-Aflaj Female College of Excellence, Lincoln Al-Aflaj Male College of Excellence and Lincoln Al-Muzahmiya College of Excellence, with a focus on developing English language skills in a vocational context.
At the time, the managing director of Lincoln College International (LCI), Simon Plummer, saw great potential for the project.
He said in a college press release dated March 13, 2014: “We aim to replicate the success we’ve had in the UK in Saudi Arabia and help the 4 per cent of under 30s who are currently unemployed to find jobs.
“Staff and students in the UK will also benefit as we will be able to ensure that surpluses resulting from this five-year £250m contract will be used to further improve the facilities at its campuses in Lincoln, Newark and Gainsborough.”
Lincoln planned to initially employ 100 staff across the three Saudi colleges (primarily UK residents), with further recruitment drives in December 2014 and April 2015.
However, in January 2016, less than two years into the programme, Lincoln College announced via its lincolnksa.com (Lincoln Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) website that its two Lincoln Al-Aflaj colleges would be closed by the end of the month.
A statement on the website said: “Unfortunately, the number of students able to participate in this unique education in Al-Aflaj is not sufficient and, in agreement with CoE, we have taken the decision to close both Lincoln Al-Aflaj Colleges.
“Our intention is to close the colleges to students this trimester, with the last day of teaching later this trimester.”
FE Week questioned the college further on the closures, and received the following statement from an LCI spokesperson: “By mutual agreement, two colleges in Al-Aflaj were closed during this trimester, enabling us to concentrate our focus on enhancing further our work in Al-Qatif for our learners there and maximising benefits to the wider Lincoln College Group.”
Lincoln College — board minutes reveal ‘surprise’ at loss from venture
After the college closures, FE Week analysed Lincoln College’s board meeting minutes, finding that the extent of the financial impact of the Saudi project is still unclear.
Minutes from December 15, 2015 confirm the reasons given for the college closures in Saudi Arabia, stating that, in Al-Aflaj, “the local population would not bring in the student numbers to support the college, particular due to the other provision in the area (vocational college and university) and it was felt the due diligence had not been effective”.
They emphasise that because the college is the only provider operating as a single entity in Saudi Arabia, the risk is bigger than for other providers, who have partnered with other organisations and therefore spread the risk.
Crucially, these minutes record that the chief executive officer “explained a verbal agreement had been reached to: close both colleges; give free choice of new college/s; defer the bridging loan repayment until March; undertake a joint review; consider contract extension”.
FE Week questioned Lincoln College on these points and the nature of the “bridging loan” in particular.
A spokesperson for the college refused to comment on the size of the loan and whether it would be paid in March, saying the figures were commercially sensitive.
When asked by FE Week if the “free choice of new college/s” meant Lincoln would be taking on new projects in Saudi, despite having to close two colleges, the spokesperson said: “We would consider other colleges should the opportunity arise and should due diligence and process conclude they were viable”.
The minutes from December 15, 2015 also highlight a “deficit” in the college’s KSA finances.
They state: “The COO [chief operating officer] will be visiting KSA in February to follow up on the rebuilding of the financial model. The Chair asked for an indication of when the finances would move into the positive and the COO responded that within the five year contract there would not be a deficit.”
When this point was queried with Lincoln, the LCI spokesperson said: “These accounts spanned an 18-month period and not the usual 12-months. They included unforeseen exceptional costs.”
He added that these “exceptional costs” were related to the “initial mobilisation and recruitment for a male college, which was discontinued by CoE and replaced with the female college in Al-Qatif”.
The spokesperson said other problems included the fact that members of staff recruited for the male college were not transferable to the female college and costs were incurred by “damage to IT Infrastructure”.
He added the college is seeking compensation for these losses from CoE.
FE Week also found in minutes from a meeting on December 10, 2015 that the loss recorded against KSA was “a surprise” to the college’s Finance Committee. The minutes state that after this an agreement was made to keep the committee updated through “monthly management accounts”.
Going back to Lincoln’s early involvement with the programme, minutes from a May 20, 2014 meeting refer to the College Board agreeing to secure “£5.7m credit with NatWest Bank”. FE Week asked the college whether there were any concerns about repaying this loan.
The LCI spokesperson said: “Minutes referring to £5.7m of credit simply relate to the initial bond taken out to mobilise our colleges in the Kingdom at the start of the contract.
“In relation to our ability to meet loan repayments; our Al-Qatif college is forecasted to make enough surplus funds to repay the loan.”
Of Lincoln College’s overall involvement in the CoE programme, he said: “LCI has been in constructive discussion with CoE for some time over the re-negotiation of our offering in KSA.
“The initial framework allocated providers with a mix of large colleges in areas with significant recruitment potential and smaller ones in more rural locations.
“It was anticipated that across each provider’s portfolio, there would be balance. This has proved not to be the case — a fact recognised by CoE, who have been proactive in approaching providers to re-negotiate terms with them.”
Hertfordshire colleges facing financial ‘losses’
A Hertfordshire college consortium may also be facing serious financial challenges as a result of involvement in the Saudi Arabia CoE programme, FE Week has found.
The Hertfordshire Vocational Education Consortium (known as Hertvec, or Hertfordshire London Colleges in Saudi Arabia) won a five-year £225m contract from the CoE in April 2014.
The consortium would run three Colleges of Excellence in Saudi Arabia, with a total capacity of 2,000 students each. As with Lincoln College, this presented significant challenges and questions remain about the impact on the Hertfordshire group.
Hertvec began as a partnership between Hertford Regional College (HRC) and North Hertfordshire College (NHC) supported by the University of Hertfordshire and Samama Holdings Group, a Saudi Arabian company specialising in construction and facilities management.
However, following an enquiry from FE Week, a spokesperson for the University of Hertfordshire confirmed that the university pulled out shortly after the bid for the contract.
She said: “The University of Hertfordshire was part of the initial bid proposal process regarding the three colleges in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
“However after careful consideration, the University decided not to participate in the organisation, delivery or administration of the colleges … We have no involvement of any kind with these colleges in the KSA.”
And on analysing the board meeting minutes of NHC and HRC, FE Week found that the CoE programme may have jeopardised other relationships within the consortium —as well as causing financial concerns.
The NHC Corporation Board meeting minutes from September 7, 2015, state: “We have agreed with HRC a 90 day option, to mid Sept, to replace them as a partner in Hertvec. HRC have agreed to pay 60 per cent of the losses to date and also make a one off payment of £250k to NHC.”
FE Week contacted HRC and NHC to clarify this, asking whether it meant that HRC is no longer part of the Hertvec consortium and the CoE programme.
The enquiry also asked whether HRC had been replaced by another provider, what the root of the “60 per cent” of losses was, and whether this and the one off payment of £250k had now been paid to NHC.
The individual colleges declined to comment.
Questions were also raised by the content of HRC audit committee minutes from March 16, 2015. The minutes state that “the Chair queried when the college might expect to be paid the £713,000 due from the Saudi Arabia project” and said “everything was now in place for the College to invoice for this sum” and “funding should be available this month”.
However, they also say this depended on a member of the leadership team in Saudi arranging “the release of the funding as the loan to Hertvec from the mobilisation funds [had] still not been confirmed”.
FE Week put this to HRC and NHC, asking who the £713,000 was owed to, why it was owed and whether the money was received, but the individual providers declined to comment.
Instead, a statement was issued from Hertvec, saying: “We believe that the success or otherwise of a business like Hertvec should be considered over the medium to long term.
“As should be expected for a contract of this nature our first year was a challenging one, from which we take many invaluable lessons. Over that period we have also made huge progress in building three vibrant institutions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia working with local employers and stakeholders.
“We remain committed to our work in the Kingdom and are working with CoE to make sure that the programme realises its objectives. We will not be making any further comments on Hertvec or the wider CoE programme at this time.”
‘Unrealistic assumptions’ says former advisor
FE Week asked Tom Bewick, an expert on overseas skills ventures who advised the Saudi government in 2012, for his views on the findings of the investigation.
Tom Bewick
He said: “I’m not surprised if some UK providers are getting into difficulties with the CoE programme.
“The Saudi approach of heavily weighting contract payments on job outcomes resulted in some very crude and unrealistic assumptions being made about the relative growth and maturity of the Saudi labour market.
“The danger is that many of the skills and employment forecasts they were working to are no longer relevant, particularly when you consider that the price of oil has dropped significantly and the Saudi economy is now struggling.
“My advice to any UK provider that’s developing market opportunities overseas is to make sure that they do proper due diligence, and crucially, employ only those who have the locally trusted business knowledge and relationships. Despite the downside risks, I do still think it is important for FE colleges to look to grow by exploiting international market opportunities.”
Background to the £850mcolleges of excellence programme
In April 2014, then Minister of State for Skills and Enterprise Matthew Hancock announced that UK education providers had won four contracts worth £850m to establish 12 technical and vocational training colleges in Saudi Arabia.
In total, 100 colleges were to be set up across Saudi Arabia as part of the Kingdom’s CoE programme.
UKTI Education, jointly set up by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), took responsibility for bringing together consortiums to bid for the contracts, working in 2013-14 to raise awareness amongst education providers across the country.
By April 2014 UK education providers were responsible for operating 16 of the 37 colleges let at the time, valued at more than £1bn.
This included successful bids from TQ Pearson and the Nescot consortium (North East Surrey College of Technology; Highbury College, Portsmouth; Burton and South Derbyshire College; the University of Hull; and Birmingham City University) in the first wave of the programme in 2013.
The groups taking on contracts in 2014 were Lincoln College; Hertvec; the Oxford Partnership, comprising Activate Learning, GEMS Education Solutions and Moulton College; and FESA, a further consortium of UK colleges and training providers.
Mr Hancock said at the time: “I visited Saudi Arabia earlier this year in support of UK bidders and am particularly pleased that they will soon be offering high quality practical skills training to an additional 24,000 Saudi students.
“I look forward to seeing the UK’s education and training presence continue to grow in Saudi Arabia and internationally.”
In December 2015, FE Week reported that the English colleges involved in the CoE programme could be facing severe financial issues as their projects were proving less popular than expected, after an article appeared on the topic in Education Investor.
Alongside raising financial concerns, the report said TQ Pearson had dropped out of the programme in June last year and was understood to be in a legal dispute with CoE.
Other providers involved hit back at claims that the scheme might lead to bankruptcy, but UKTI Education conceded that CoE had “encountered challenges”.
The Government has pushed back its consultation over plans to close the Sheffield base for hundreds of civil servants with “a huge amount of FE expertise”, FE Week has learned.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was accused of launching an “FE brain drain” after unveiling plans in January to close its Sheffield office (see right), which it is feared could lead to nearly 250 people losing their jobs.
Lois Austin, the PCS full-time official for BIS covering the Sheffield office, told FE Week on Thursday (March 3) that widespread opposition to the plans to centralise the department’s policy-making in London had forced BIS to delay its consultation by two months.
She said: “They told us back when all this was first announced that the consultation over the closure of the Sheffield office should be completed by the start of March. But we’ve now been told that it will be May 2, which shows how shaken up they are by the scale of opposition to this.
“They’re saying that centralising to London will save money and improve policy decisions.
“But we asked Permanent Secretary [for BIS] Martin Donnelly for evidence of the analysis they have done to prove this and no one from his team has been able to provide this.”
Mr Donnelly held strained talks with representatives from PCS on February 29 and further talks between the union and senior BIS representatives took place two days later, Ms Austin added.
It comes after a former senior employee at BIS told FE Week the planned closure of the Sheffield office, where they produce most BIS data on FE and skills, would amount to an “FE brain drain”, as “they all have a huge amount of FE expertise and it looks like everyone will lose their jobs”.
The source claimed that BIS had not offered sufficient resettlement packages to make moving to London a viable possibility for many Sheffield staff, and failed to take into account the number of part-time female staff, who would find moving south near impossible.
A BIS spokesperson told FE Week on Thursday: “There are ongoing discussions with staff members and their representatives to support staff affected, but any specifics would be confidential and so we can’t comment on anything individuals might have said.”
Mr Donnelly has previously said: “The decision to close Sheffield by 2018 has not been taken lightly. It is my top priority that all our staff are fully briefed and consulted on the process. We will provide comprehensive support to all those facing a potential change or loss of job.”
The government will be providing cash to help colleges to implement area review recommendations – but has made it clear that no more money will be made available once these are completed.
The updated guidance is almost twice as long as the previous version and includes a number of lessons learned from the first area reviews.
Colleges will be expected to seek alternative sources of funds for implementing any changes but “in cases where the required funding cannot otherwise be secured there is a restructuring facility available,” the guidance says.
Cash from the fund “is being made available to reflect the one off nature of the restructuring of the sector, through area reviews, to achieve long-term sustainability”.
“A key objective of the reviews is that they result in resilient institutions in each area, and therefore no further Exceptional Financial Support will be available for colleges following the implementation of review recommendations in the relevant area,” the guidance continues.
As previously reported in FE Week, the “default position” of the facility, which is being held by the Treasury, is that “it will be provided as a loan on commercial terms” and it will “cover only a proportion of the total costs”.
In exceptional cases, the guidance states, cash may be available as a non-repayable grant.
Skills Minister Nick Boles is understood to have said during an event for the Association of Colleges (AoC) on Wednesday that grants of between £50,000 and £100,000 would be available from the facility.
A spokesperson for BIS has confirmed that the grants will be either £50,000 or £100,000 “depending on circumstances”. More detail will be published shortly, the spokesperson added.
The updated guidance was welcomed by Martin Doel, AoC chief executive, who said it was more comprehensive.
“It would have been useful to have the guidance at the start of wave one, but now it has been published it can be used by colleges going forward,” he added.
The guidance also features an expanded section on the area review process, as well as a number of lessons learned from the first wave of reviews.
These include the importance of “early engagement between colleges on options” and “early communication between the colleges and the LEPs [local enterprise partnerships] and LAs [local authorities]”. The role of LEPs and LAs in the area reviews in setting out the “economic vision” and “skills base” needed is now stated in the updated guidance.
The “critical role” of banks, as colleges’ creditors, is acknowledged, with the guidance stating that the government has “initiated national level discussions” with the banks.
The guidance also reveals that the government is “proposing to introduce an insolvency regime for FE and sixth form colleges,” which would come into effect once the area review process has finished.
A new section on implementation “highlights some key issues for colleges in the implementation phase”, which it describes as challenging. These include the ‘in principle’ decision, appointing the right people to lead the colleges and the stages of implementation ahead of merging.
“Fuller implementation guidance” should be published in the spring.
Other changes in the new guidance include an extension in the area review timescales, from three to four months in the initial guidance to four to six months, and the removal of the option for “proactive proposals” for area reviews.
The guidance also covers the option for sixth form colleges to convert to academies, full guidance for which was published by the Department for Education in February.
The Sixth Form Colleges Association declined to comment on the updated guidance.
Shane Chowen calls for greater recognition of the impact welfare cuts will have on FE students.
The parliamentary process isn’t one that lends itself to straight forward explanation at the best of times.
But when complicated and contentious pieces of legislation work their way through Westminster, it’s all to easy to get caught up in the process and the politics and lose sight about the practical realities that new laws and regulations will have on people’s lives.
I often use this column to call on leaders in our sector to involve themselves more in the public policy debates surrounding the lives of learners, not just those directly affecting their institutions, and do all they can provide spaces for learners themselves to use their experiences to improve the quality of policy that is affecting their lives.
Looking to welfare, figures published in July 2015 showed that the number of benefit claimants enrolling in FE courses has risen to 650,000, up from 480,000 in 2009/10.
The overall number of learners in that time has decreased substantially, so as a sector, an increasing proportion of our learners are on benefits.
The majority claim Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) or Employment Support Allowance (ESA).
Theatre aside, reforms to the welfare system are happening alongside reforms to FE and skills and both impact on the lives of learners and their ability to access the support they need to get on in life
This is why the passage of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill is really important to our sector.
The bill seeks to increase a number of policies to help the Government meet its commitments to reduce spending on benefits, achieve full employment and half the disability employment gap.
Putting to one side for a moment whether you think current public spending on welfare is acceptable or not, we everyone in FE can probably agree that getting more people into good jobs, particularly helping to find more and better employment opportunities for people with disabilities, is laudable.
However, the Government is struggling to convince members of the House of Lords to agree to one element of the bill in particular.
It’s the plan to reduce the amount people on ESA, who are ill or disabled but deemed fit for ‘work-related activity’, down to the same level as JSA, which is a cut of about £30 a week for new claimants.
Opponents of the cut in ESA argue that cutting the incomes of disabled people will hinder rather than help them to find work, whereas proponents argue the changes won’t affect current claimants and people with severe health conditions and disabilities will continue to receive higher levels of support from elsewhere in the benefits system.
Having passed through the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the bill which includes this controversial cut in benefits to disabled people, is now at the stage known as ‘ping pong’ where measures that both houses disagree on are passed back and forth either until there is agreement, or until Ministers use measures to pass the legislation without consent from the Lords.
Theatre aside, reforms to the welfare system are happening alongside reforms to FE and skills and both impact on the lives of learners and their ability to access the support they need to get on in life.
That’s why I would like to see both agendas work much closer together over the coming months and years.
In particular, more recognition is needed through area reviews of the provision that people on benefits need — 88 per cent of which are level two and below, alongside what employers say they need.
Also, look out for a government white paper on disability, health and employment expected soon and contribute.
Shane Chowen is head of policy and public affairs at the Learning and Work Institute
