London’s Stanmore College has been handed the ignominious honour of being the first general FE college to be branded inadequate under Ofsted’s new common inspection framework (Cif).

It slumped from requiring improvement in its previous inspection report in May last year, to the grade four result with principal Jacqui Mace (pictured below right) and her governors coming in for criticism.

Inspectors said they had not taken “swift and decisive action following the previous inspection and consequently the quality of provision declined further”.

She told FE Week that she would not be stepping down, and claimed the result would have been better under the old Cif, which was replaced in September.

However, Ms Mace said the 3,500-learner college, which has a current Skills Funding Agency (SFA) allocation of £2.1m, accepted the Ofsted grading.

“I think we would have got a better grade under the old Cif as we had self-assessed ourselves as requiring improvement — we think that we still require improvement,” said Ms Mace.

She added: “I’m here to provide some continuity for the Ofsted monitoring visits we’ll now get and the FE Commissioner inspection and then we’ll see what the best way forward is.”

The blow comes with college leaders having agreed to “explore closer collaboration” with grade two-rated Harrow College, which has an SFA allocation of £6.6m and is less than four miles away. It also comes with London’s post-16 education area review, in which the capital’s mayor Boris Johnson is expected to play a leading role, set to launch soon.

The deal, signed by Ms Mace and Harrow principal Pat Carvalho on October 22, states: “We believe that such collaboration could potentially provide a broad and inclusive offer, building on each college’s strengths while seeking to enhance education and training opportunities for students and employers in West London.”

Stanmore’s report was made up of six inadequate and one ‘requires improvement’ headline field ratings.

Among Ofsted’s criticisms were that managers “do not use data and information well enough to identify weaknesses and to intervene to bring about rapid improvement” and they “have an unrealistic view of the quality of teaching, learning and assessment because their evaluation of teaching focuses on what teachers do in lessons rather than on the progress that learners make”.

“Leaders have not yet implemented fully the principles of study programmes for learners aged 16 to 19,” inspectors added.

Just one strength was listed for the college, with learners benefiting from “very good welfare support that helps them to overcome the personal difficulties that they face in their everyday lives”.

Ms Mace said: “We’ve taken on board what Ofsted said and we’ve got w very rigorous action plan in place which we are following. We already feel that it’s making an impact.

“But we don’t necessarily agree with all the findings of Ofsted. We did feel that the whole process, the inspection process, in its new framework was extremely different from previous years and one of the things that we noticed very much was that they hardly carried out any lesson observations.

“I think only about three lesson observations, everything else all the teaching and learning was assessed through learning walks and they didn’t necessarily see a broad range of lessons — they kept going back to the same ones that they’d already seen.”

Ms Mace, who said she planned to retire this year, also described the nine-page Ofsted report as “very short”. The previous inspection report ran to 16 pages.

“It doesn’t really give Ofsted enough space to talk about the good things,” said Ms Mace.

Ofsted said it did not comment on individual inspection results.

Ofsted has identified progress across all areas looked at in a third monitoring visit of previously-troubled Barnfield College.

Inspectors were at the Luton-based college last month to review performance in a number of areas, including teaching, learning and assessment; teaching and learning of English and maths in discrete classes and within subjects; quality and accuracy of self-assessment; arrangements for work experience; and collection of destination data to inform curriculum planning.

The college, hit with an inadequate rating a year ago and slated as having “no key strengths”, was noted as having made “reasonable progress” in each, and was even achieving “significant progress” in a sixth and final area of learner management.

It comes just weeks after FE Week reported how FE Commissioner Dr David Collins, who was sent in to the college first over its finances in January last year and then for a second time over the Ofsted grading, had ended his involvement at the college after a visit in July from his adviser that concluded all his recommendations had been achieved.

The adviser’s report, seen by FE Week, praised the college, which has more than 7,250 learners, for progress in “reviewing staff and removing those who are not willing to change the way they work” and notes that a new leadership team is in place “with a clear vision of where they want the outcomes to be”.

Principal Tim Eyton-Jones (pictured above) told FE Week: “We are very pleased with the results of the latest monitoring visit by Ofsted, they have picked up the many improvements that we have made, and witnessed the very real progress that our learners are experiencing.

“We are particularly proud that the improvement in behaviour and conduct of students has been recognised as ‘significant progress’.”

The areas reviewed by Ofsted were identified in its first monitoring visit report, published in February. The report of the second visit, in May, indicated reasonable progress in all but teaching and learning of English and maths in discrete classes and within subjects and arrangements for work experience.

But on the third monitoring inspection, Ofsted noted how attendance and punctuality were significantly better and managers had boosted their monitoring of students’ progress. They also saw several staff appointed to ‘advanced practitioner’ posts, although their impact was not yet clear.

The college was commended on the introduction of new performance management for teaching staff and the plans for professional development in the near future. The report also noted that English and maths had been overhauled and new staff been hired for the subjects.

Despite being generally positive, the report did highlight some points that still require work at the college, such as lesson planning, constructive feedback and progress in GCSE and functional English and mathematics sessions.

“There is still a lot of work left to do, and we will be maintaining current the pace of change until our transformation plan has been achieved,” said Mr Eyton-Jones.

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) today unveiled its “tight” timetable for handing out £650m of delayed European Social Fund (ESF) cash — with delivery completed in just 18 months, FE Week can exclusively reveal.

It is planning to run a “sequence of procurement” that 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 today with details of the timeline.

It follows a summer in which ESF-funded providers were forced to lay off staff amid delays in issuing 2014-2020 contracts as the government sought to iron out regional devolution issues.

“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.

“As a consequence, all ESF contracts will have to come to a close in March 2018.

“By closing the contracts at this time, the SFA will have enough time to accrue the necessary match-funding and gather the necessary data from providers to submit our claims to the European Social Fund Division (ESFD) by the summer of 2018.

“This will then give ESFD enough time to make claims to the European Commission before the end of 2018, triggering final audits in 2019.

“However, at the same time we are also aware that we are all under pressure to begin to spend the ESF following the late approval of the Operational Programme in order to avoid any future financial penalties.”

Mr Bell’s letter, which was leaked to FE Week, adds that Lep and ESIF committees could either “retain the current funding, targets and outcomes to be delivered within a two rather than a three-year period,” or the SFA would “reduce the funding and deliverables pro rata to fit the two-year period”.

“This option will not help meet the spend, targets and outcomes allocated for the period and as such is less favoured by the Managing Authority,” wrote Mr Bell.

He added: “We realise this will be disappointing to some of you but we are now in a position in which contracts must be closed at the end of the 2017 to 2018 financial year.

“The attached timeline shows the tight deadlines that we will have to meet so that all contracts are at least 18 months long.”

Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee chair Iain Wright accused Business Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured above) of “talking a good game” as the pair clashed over apprenticeships today.

Mr Wright, who is currently overseeing six committee inquiries with at least half touching upon apprenticeships, raised the issue of programme starts with Mr Javid during business questions in the House of Commons today.

Mr Javid had already answered a number of questions on the subject, claiming that “more than 2.4m apprenticeship starts have been delivered in England since May 2010” and that there had been a “45 per cent increase in apprenticeships since 2010”.

But Mr Wright, whose inquiry on the government’s Productivity Plan is taking a detailed look at the proposed large employers’ levy, said: “The Secretary of State talks a good game, but the fact is that apprenticeship starts have dropped in every single year since 2011-12.

“The ambition for 3m new apprenticeship starts is commendable, but would he concede that, in the light of the uncertainty surrounding key policy aspects such as the apprenticeship levy, he is going to struggle to hit that target?”

Mr Javid said: “First, I must point out that there were more than 492,000 apprenticeship starts in 2014/15, which was up 50,000 on the previous year.

“The honourable Gentleman mentioned the apprenticeship levy, and I know that he and his Select Committee have done some work on this.

“I hope that he will acknowledge that that will be a way of ensuring proper funding for apprenticeships, not just for the quality but for the quantity too.”

Latest figures, from last month’s statistical first release, show that provisionally there were 492,700 apprentice starts in 2014/15. The final confirmed figure is expected later this month.

Final figures from previous years show there were 457,200 starts in 2010/11, then 520,600 in 2011/12 and 510,200 the following year after a 12-month minimum duration was introduced for apprenticeships in August 2012, before slumping further in 2013/14 to 440,400.

And although the combined figure, including last academic year, stands at 2.4m starts, former Business Secretary Vince Cable conceded in December that around one-in-four learners might not have qualified, and he accepted start figures included multiple starts per learner and, prior to August 2012, frameworks of less than 12 months’ duration.

Four-in-ten sixth form colleges and GFE colleges could close under Conservative spending plans, Labour said new House of Commons Library research showed.

It revealed the budget for FE colleges could fall by at least £1.6bn under Government spending plans — the equivalent of four-in-ten FE colleges, it was claimed.

Labour’s education team arrived at the figures, a party spokesperson said, after working with the House of Commons Library to predict how Department for Education savings of 25 per cent and 40 per cent, as requested by Chancellor George Osborne, might be realised within unprotected budgets.

Shadow Education Secretary Lucy Powell (pictured above) said: “Before the last election, Labour committed to protecting the whole education budget from the early years to 19, because we value the entire journey of a child through education, including early years and post-16. Under the Tories, these areas face cuts, putting four-in-ten colleges under threat of closure.

“This country’s future success depends upon making sure every young person has the opportunities they need to fulfil their potential. At the moment, the Government’s narrow and backward-looking plan for education is simply not up to that task.”

David Batten, principal at Barrow-in-Furness Sixth Form College, said: “We have made many efficiency savings already; we have restructured management, increased workloads, cut non-pays costs, especially energy and have had to say goodbye to many good colleagues but we are getting to the point where the funding available for sixth form students, which is less than that available for a school pupil and far less than that for a university undergraduate, is simply not enough to offer a good education to students and to keep a small sixth form college running.”

A source close to Education Secretary Nicky Morgan dismissed the figures as “back of the fag packet nonsense” and “scare-mongering”.

It nevertheless comes amid the government’s programme of post-16 education area reviews. They have so far been announced for 83 general FE colleges and sixth form colleges in the West Yorkshire, Tees Valley, Sussex Coast, Solent, Birmingham and Solihull, Greater Manchester, and Sheffield city areas. The government has said the “need” to move towards “fewer, often larger, more resilient and efficient providers,” underlies the area reviews.

Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “Investing in the high-quality education and training provided by sixth form and FE colleges is essential to help government tackle the skills challenges faced by this country and to promote social mobility.

“College budgets have been decimated in the last five years and the sector, as innovative and flexible as it is, simply cannot take more cuts.”

He added: “As the Spending Review approaches we would strongly urge the government to fund the education of our 16 to 18-year-olds at the same level provided for the education of 14 to 16-year-olds and ensure that adult skills training does not become a thing of the past.”

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association said: “This is a deeply worrying report and confirms our fears that some sixth form colleges could be wiped from the educational map after the spending review.

“Funding for 16-19 year olds – already significantly lower than for younger students – has been cut three times since 2011, and it seems certain that further reductions will be made next year.”

When asked why Labour was sharing its analysis with the media for publication today, a party spokesperson said: “Because that’s the day we’ve decided to put it out.”

A government spokesperson said: “We have protected the schools budget and ended the unfair difference between post-16 schools and colleges by funding them per student, rather than discriminating between qualifications.

“We have provided sufficient funds for every full-time student to do a full timetable of courses regardless of institution.”

He added that the base rate of funding for 16 to 19-year-olds in the academic year 2015/16 would continue at the same level as in the academic year 2014/15: £4,000 for full-time 16 and 17-year-olds and £3,300 for full-time 18-year-olds.

Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw told the House of Lords Social Mobility Committee today that government should do more on promoting vocational routes.

He appeared in front of the committee flanked by his chief operating officer, Matthew Coffey (pictured below right), to give evidence on the role of the education watchdog in providing skills and employment opportunities for under-served groups of young people.

“We need to say a lot more about apprenticeships … perhaps government should say a lot more about what it is going to do to promote a strong vocational offer in schools and post-16, it’s not just up to Ofsted to say we’re going to do this,” said Sir Michael.

He added the fact that only 5 per cent of young people were going into apprenticeships, and only 3 per cent from disadvantaged backgrounds, was “a nonsense” that must be addressed.

He also called on head teachers to make sure their students understood the opportunities outside the school and criticised some for encouraging learners to stay on into sixth form when other pathways might be better.

He added that employers also needed to “take ownership” and act as the “gatekeepers” for apprenticeships, saying that this would help to ensure that a high level of quality was maintained as progress was made towards achieving the government’s target of 3m new apprenticeships by 2020.

Sir Michael also commented on the role of local enterprise partnerships (Leps), saying that that they “vary very much in quality” and are sometimes perceived as “remote” by education providers.

The hearing comes just weeks after his report on apprenticeships was critical of government funding of the programme where learners were aged 25-plus and already employed.

See @FEWeek for live Twitter coverage from this morning’s hearing and also using the #HLSMC hashtag.

 

Prime Minister David Cameron today called on businesses to back the apprenticeship levy — only for Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis to later warn how it would “wipe out” the supermarket giant’s entire annual training budget.

Mr Lewis (pictured above) issued the warning as he called for a “balance to be struck” between allowing firms to invest and the government’s collection of taxes.

They were both speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference today, with Mr Cameron explaining how the levy was key to his hopes to achieve 3m apprenticeship starts by 2020.

“We have to share some of the burdens, and that’s, of course, what the apprenticeship levy is all about.” he told business leaders at the conference.

He added: “We are asking a lot of you, I accept that. We’ve set this target for 3m apprentices in this parliament, compared to the 2m we trained in the last parliament and were introducing the apprenticeship levy to pay for that policy.

“I think it’s in both our interests and I think it’s actually in the interest of responsible businesses who train apprentices and pay forward that money not to have other business that don’t spend the money on training but take the apprentices after they’ve been trained by their competitors. I think this is in our interest.”

The official consultation on the levy proposals ended last month amid widespread speculation that if adopted it could well be set at 0.5 per cent of payroll costs.

And for Tesco, based on its 2015 annual report and financial statements [see note 4 page 100], this would give it an apprenticeship tax bill of £41.3m.

But Mr Lewis, in an interview with Sky News Business presenter Ian King, was clear about what the levy could mean for the accounts of his company, which is an employer provider and was rated as good by Ofsted at most recent inspection, in January last year. It also has a current Skills Funding Agency allocation from the adult skills budget and 16-18 apprenticeships of just over £3m.

“I’d like us to be able to innovate together on tough employment, skills and training challenges,” said Mr Lewis.

“The opportunity for government is to enable us to continue offering personal mobility through training, development and progression. We can do the heavy lifting, from no skills to some skills.

“To continue offering crucial flexibility to enable mums and older workers to return to work in very large numbers.

“Let’s not constrain ourselves after a decade of progress, creating 5,000 long-term jobs for the unemployed in locations from Corby to Woolwich through our regeneration partnership scheme, or to choke the progress that’s created 9,500 apprenticeships between 2012 and 2014.

“Employers like us can be innovators on tough agendas, sharing the burden of government priorities. But a balance has to be struck between allowing investment for growth and collecting taxes through mechanisms like the apprenticeship levy, which wipes out the equivalent of our entire training budget.”

Pic: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire

Dozens of lucky guests got to taste a mouthwatering menu created by apprentices at the launch of the new HIT Chef Academy.

The apprentices worked alongside 10 of HIT’s training assessors to make a four-course lunch, which included jerk belly of pork and loin of venison, and canapes on Wednesday (November 4).

The event was headed by the Academy’s executive chairman John Hyde, managing director Jill Whittaker and academy principal Paul Mannering at the Hospitality House, London.

Mr Mannering said: “I would just like to say thanks to the guys in the kitchen and what has been going on there for the past couple of days really epitomises what we really are all about.”

The academy currently has 17 apprentices, aged between 16 and 42, who are taking level one to level four professional cookery across the country.

Main image: George Field, aged 18, HIT advanced professional cookery apprentice at Calcot Manor hard at work in the kitchen for the Chef Academy launch

Prime Minister David Cameron today outlined his vision of post-16 education and training as one in which learners are either on an apprenticeship or at university — casting further doubt over the future of two-year classroom-based college courses.

Just days after FE Week revealed Department for Education plans to get 16-year-old vocational learners onto apprenticeships after a year in college, Mr Cameron told an audience at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual conference that he wanted to see “either apprenticeships or universities for almost everybody”.

“We’ve got to build an economy where you don’t go either one way with apprentices or the other way with universities,” he said at the event in London’s Grosvenor House Hotel.

“The apprenticeship system needs to be flexible enough, as it is at the moment, so that many people can go on and do a degree while they are working in one of your businesses. That’s what we want to build.

“At the end of the day though, we want to see fewer and fewer 18-year-olds leaving school without taking either path. If we’re going to compete in a global economy then we need to make sure that our young people are more highly skilled, more highly trained than our competitors. So either apprenticeships or universities for almost everybody.”

Critical reaction to Mr Cameron’s comments was swift, with many taking to Twitter.

Jane Pothecary, a Labour member of Thurrock Council, for instance tweeted that it was “the end of further education and educational opportunity”. It was echoed by Lynne Taylerson, who tweeted: “The end of #FE as we know it????”

Meanwhile, education and skills adviser Mark Browne tweeted: “3m Apprenticeship target hit at what cost?” and Sue Gerrard labelled Mr Cameron’s outline “catastrophically counterproductive”.

Pic: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire