Two colleges have told how Skills Funding Agency accounts showing what they spent on salary for the post of principal in 2013/14 were incorrect.
The accounts, which showed a dozen FE colleges handed over more than £200k in salaries to principals, were wrong for NCG (formerly Newcastle College Group) and Blackpool Sixth Form College (SFC), they claimed.
An NCG spokesperson told FE Week that the £225k figure listed by the SFA under principal’s salary for Newcastle College was actually for the chief executive of the overarching NCG, Joe Docherty. He said principal Carole Kitching’s salary fell into “the £120k to £130k band”.
A spokesperson for Blackpool SFC said that a member of its staff had mistakenly input £211k for then-principal Felicity Greeves. She was actually paid £139k, they said.
An SFA spokesperson said: “We ask colleges to provide the remuneration of the most senior officer at the organisation. For Newcastle College we have included the figure provided by NCG. NCG’s financial statements confirm that this is for the chief executive of NCG.” She added: “Information supplied by colleges has been subject to basic credibility checks, either by the SFA or EFA. While every effort has been made to cleanse the data, colleges may see inaccuracies.”
A teacher who worked at Basingstoke College of Technology (BCoT) has been charged with dozens of sex offences, including rape and sexual activity with a child.
A Hampshire Constabulary spokesperson said Lloyd Dennis, aged 32, of Sopwith Road, Eastleigh, had been remanded in custody after being charged with 28 offences.
BCoT deputy principal David Moir said Dennis had been employed at the college “very briefly over a year ago — he actually worked in college for one week only”.
“The matter is subject to a police investigation and we have been asked not to comment,” added Mr Moir.
It is understood Dennis was a lecturer in health, social care and education during his short time at the college, and has also taught at several schools in Hampshire.
A spokesperson for Hampshire County Council said: “Officers in children’s services are doing all that they can to assist Hampshire Constabulary with its investigation.”
He added that Dennis had not worked in a Hampshire school since May last year.
Detective Constable Sarah Fox said: “These charges are in relation to a number of incidents involving two victims. Our investigation into the circumstances surrounding these incidents continues.”
Dennis is due to appear before magistrates in Southampton this month.
As many as 250 jobs are set to be axed at Birmingham Metropolitan College — a move branded “catastrophic” by unions.
College bosses have blamed government funding cuts after staff at the college, which is one of the largest in the West Midlands following a 2013 merger with Stourbridge College, were told 200 to 250 jobs were at risk in a bid to cut costs “significantly”.
Principal Andrew Cleaves (pictured) said the “challenging times”, for the sector had forced the college to cut costs.
“Government funding has reduced by a third in recent years and greater competition in the sector, combined with demographic factors, has put pressure on student numbers,” he said.
The 30,000-learner college currently has around 1,600 members of staff.
“These conditions have highlighted the need to focus on efficiency, by reducing costs where we can and improving the way we do things,” said Mr Cleaves.
He added: “We have informed staff that we need to reduce costs significantly, and regrettably, around 200 to 250 positions across our colleges could be made redundant by the end of the academic year.”
He said he was “hopeful” that the cuts could be made through voluntary redundancies and that current students would not be affected.
“The efficiency drive we are currently undertaking will leave us better placed to form even stronger partnerships and deliver excellent educational services in the future,” he said.
The University and College Union (UCU) described the job cuts as “catastrophic”.
UCU West Midlands FE regional support official Teresa Corr said the redundancies were “much worse than we expected.”
But, she added: “With budget cuts they [the college] can’t not do anything”.
The Skills Funding Agency’s national success rates were published this month — and for the first time ever were divided into classroom qualifications and apprenticeships.
This week, FE Week reporter Rebecca Cooney takes a look at the results for classroom qualifications.
Yellow and blue went head to head as the two coalition partners made their policy pitches to the nation.
The Liberal Democrats and Conservatives launched their manifestos a day apart and in very different locations — and while the settings of the launch events might have been the most noticeable difference between their manifestos, it wasn’t the only one.
See page three for full coverage, and stay tuned for our special General Election supplement free with the next edition of FE Week.
Main pic: Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg launches his partyÕs manifesto on Wednesday (April 15) Ñ the day after David Cameron had done the same for his Conservative Party at Swindon University Technical College
College sector leaders have called for a review of the drive for more University Technical Colleges (UTC) after one of the very first to open announced it was closing — on the same day the Prime Minister visited a UTC to promise one “within reach of every city”.
Black Country UTC announced on Tuesday (April 14) it would be closing its doors on August 31 after a “disappointing” Ofsted inspection carried out last month and low student numbers. It has an overall capacity for 480 learners but has been running at around 33 per cent full for three years and, while the latest inspection report is not yet out, just over two years ago the education watchdog gave it a grade three rating.
The science and engineering UTC, which opened in 2011, becomes the second to close for failing to attract learners after Hackney announced in July it would be shutting.
Despite question marks over UTC learner numbers and Ofsted grades, Prime Minister David Cameron gave them his backing when he launched the Conservative election manifesto last week — at UTC Swindon. Labour has also backed calls for more UTCs.
However, 157 Group executive director Dr Lynne Sedgmore said the demise of Black Country UTC meant such “commitment” should be questioned. “In many parts of the country, high quality skills training and excellent employer links are available via FE colleges. It is also worth remembering that UTCs which have been successful have often been made so by FE colleges — at inception or by being bailed out when failing,” she said.
She added UTCs’ performance “should be kept under strong and continuous review as their true benefit is as yet unproven”.
There are currently 30 UTCs, which offer specialist vocational training alongside key literacy and numeracy qualifications for 14 to 19-year-olds, operating — with 15 more due to open in 2016 and a further five the following year.
University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt branded UTCS “an expensive gamble”. “The next government should focus on properly funding existing schools and colleges to provide flexible academic and vocational learning options, and review any plans to expand UTCs,” she said.
Gill Clipson, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “For UTCs, or indeed any new institutions to be successful in recruiting a significant number of students, there needs to be a consistent demand across all the necessary age groups. We hope that the next Government will factor this into their plans before opening any new institutions.”
A spokesperson for the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, which oversees UTCs, said: “We would expect to play an active part in any review of the UTC programme if that was to be required by an incoming government.”
How do you handle your new principal’s demands? Is the managing director refusing to budge? Dr Sue Pember, the former head of FE and skills investment at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), who was awarded an OBE for services to the sector in 2000, puts her extensive sector knowledge to good use for FE Week.
On the third Monday of every month she answers your questions, backed by the experience of almost a decade as principal of Canterbury College, in addition to time served in further senior civil service posts at the Department for Education and Employment, Department for Education and Skills, and Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.
Email DrSue@feweek.co.uk to ask her your question.
I don’t know where to turn — I am a staff governor and I think the board is being given misleading information on performance.
At the last governing body meeting we received a report from the head of quality that showed good results in certain curriculum areas, but I know the staff in those areas are worried about their completion and success rates. So worried in fact that they feel classes will need to close. The vocational area is quite a high profile one and I just don’t understand why governors are not being told.
What should I do?
Anon
This is a serious issue. Boards must have access to timely, reliable and assured data. There are different ways you might tackle this, but it must be dealt with.
I take it you haven’t the type of relationship with the principal where you can express you concerns in person. It’s a shame if that is the case. Many principals have regular meetings with their staff governors for potential issues like this to be discussed.
There could be a simple answer here, such as a different time frame or cohort. It is likely that the principal was relying on the data presented and is not aware that things may have taken a turn for the worse.
If you don’t feel confident enough to talk the principal or the senior manager who presented the data and, if there is a quality sub-committee happening soon, then ask for a paper on data validity to be put on the agenda. If this doesn’t seem to cover it, you should talk to the clerk and explain you are concerned that the board may be receiving misleading information. The clerk should then talk to the chair, who should ask the principal to assess whether there is a problem and how widespread it might be. An external perspective on the data, either through audit or a data expert, might be appropriate.
If for some reason you feel you can’t tackle this through speaking to the clerk then you should use your staff whistle blower procedures, which are there to protect you.
I have noticed that there have been a considerable number of clerks resign and/or retire over the last twelve months and that colleges have to resort to advertising more than once in order to recruit suitable successors.
You said in your review of governance that “each college should review the role of the clerk”. Do you think they are and if they are not, might that be linked to the difficulty in recruiting that some colleges are experiencing?
Joanne Dean, managing director JD Management Solutions, and an Association of Colleges national subject specialist in governance
I can understand colleges having to go out twice. It is very important to get the right person. Clerks have a pivotal support role and development of their skills and expertise will be an important factor in securing strong governance. As highlighted in the FE Commissioners Annual Report, there is a big difference between “best practice” and the “working practice” in most colleges.
Clerks are most effective when they are fully integrated into college life whilst still retaining their professional integrity and ability when they are needed to give the board independent advice. In such colleges the Clerk is up to speed on both external and internal FE matters and able to make the right connection between issues and activity and, therefore, able to provide meaningful advice to the Board. The reverse of this is where the clerk is little more than a post box for meeting papers. In reality, most practice sits somewhere in between, which may not be appropriate for the present environment.
Hence, there is a growing need for every college to ensure its clerk has the right support and now is time to review their job description, position in college, time allocated and status. It may be the time is now right to introduce the concept of company secretary.
We are assuming that after the election there will be a new Minister — how do we get them to visit us?
Anon
The simple answer is to write to them on the day of their appointment. Do your homework now and personalise the invitation to a vocational area or student group they have an interest in and make the reason for them coming as compelling as possible. Be realistic, they probably will not be able to do it immediately so give a realistic date. Include what sort of media plan you have in mind.
The stereotypical picture of an accountant, says Mark Farrar, chief executive of the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT), is “a desperate image of a white bloke in a pinstripe suit hunched over a great ledger or a spreadsheet”.
But that is “a million miles away” from the truth about financial management, he says as we sit in AAT’s airy, open-plan office surrounds, which he tells me were chosen specifically to dispel the myths that accountancy is closed-off and obscure.
“The image of a sector can be very important to attracting people to it and that’s a harder fight these days because all sectors are looking for the best,” admits the 53-year-old.
Farrar’s own career beginnings are probably a long way from most people’s idea of a typical accountant.
Born in Dublin, Farrar grew up in Bangor, Northern Ireland, where he harboured dreams of joining the Royal Navy — a choice which “would have been controversial if you’d announced it loudly,” he says with a wry laugh.
“It perhaps wasn’t the most usual of choices — and for a southern Irish guy as well.
Farrar sailing off the east coast of England
“But it was something I wanted to do and I wasn’t going to let anything stand in my way.”
Growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1960s and early 1970s meant “you gained a good dose of common sense and street wisdom very quickly,” explains the father-of-four.
“But, actually, it was safe,” he adds.
“The headlines in some ways transcended the reality because actually The Troubles were in isolated areas most of the time — I grew up by the beach in a pleasant place and to this day I value the experience I had.”
The Navy sponsored Farrar through a degree in oceanography at Swansea University, so he joined the so-called brain drain leaving Northern Ireland at the time.
“I was always fairly independent,” he says. “I’m the one who picked myself up and moved over here to go to university and never went back — something that was fairly common at the time.
Farrar as a baby with dad Ron and mum Doreen in 1962
“One of the jokes was that on one of the signs at the Rosslare ferry terminal, someone had spray painted ‘Last one out, turn off the lights’.”
After university, where “the rugby was good, the beer ok and the people great,” Farrar joined the Navy full time, generally finding himself in the north Atlantic and the North Sea, while friends found themselves deployed to sunnier climes in Asia and the Caribbean.
After a few years, Farrar set a course for dry land, and set his sights on accountancy, training with Deloitte Haskins and Sells in Southampton, having discovered a love for the south coast of England.
However, at the time accountancy was a means to an end.
“From the beginning I’d said that I was really only in it for the qualification and wanted to go and do business, which I duly did,” says Farrar.
His business career took in Unipart Distribution Group, Barclays Bank and overseeing the demutualisation of Norwich Union, which led Farrar to move to South Norfolk where he met his now-wife Fran, and still lives.
Farrar’s wedding to wife Fran
However, as the company merged and changed, Farrar was left with a choice — move to London or York and leave his beloved coast behind, or find another job.
“So I did something I said I’d never do, which was join a government agency,”
he says.
“I’d seen myself then, possibly incorrectly, as a hard-nosed commercial animal — but I probably found out over time I wasn’t quite that.”
More by luck than planning, concedes Farrar, the organisation he joined as chief executive was the government research body, the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science — which wrote the textbooks he studied during his oceanography degree.
From there he moved to the Construction Industry Training Board, which took him “firmly into the world of training and education” which he found was “something of a maze”.
But, he says: “I find it quite helpful to come into it reasonably cold because you look at things in a different way, and you’re aware it is complex and if I get lost in it sometimes how is a small business meant to finds its way around?”
The complexity of the system is what gives him pause over the apprenticeship reforms.
“Looking at the financial flows behind it, I buy into the principal of more employer involvement,” he says.
“But I remain wary. What works for a very large corporate with a very large training department is different to a small or micro business which needs help to get through each and every day — so I think the jury’s out.”
Meanwhile, the Trailblazers, he says, “have been a great catalyst” for refreshing the frameworks, but again, there’s a note of caution.
“The sector really does need stability to let the dust settle and really find out what and does not work,” he says.
What works for a very large corporate with a very large training department is different to a small or micro business
“With governments changing we end up going round the circle again — there’s always an understandable tendency from government to try to fit things into coherent boxes that look similar whereas each and every sector is very different.
“And the temptation is to tweak qualifications into something that isn’t want employers truly want.”
What attracted him to the AAT role, he says was “is making a difference”.
“For me that’s important,” he says.
“Ultimately we change people’s lives for the better and through that we change organisations for the better.”
But, he admits, this isn’t always how he’s seen FE.
“I think initially I always approached it from a business angle, the creation of value, economic value,” he said.
“I admit I came at this through business, it’s what I was trained to do but actually as I’ve gone on in general management, I’ve learned that life is about people.
“I think they’re complementary — if you’ve got the individuals and teams working and they are skilled you will get the economic value.
“Perhaps at the start of my career I was all about numbers and straight lines and very clinical ways of looking at things which is a very good discipline to carry with you over time, but actually I think I’ve become more rounded as a person as I’ve travelled.
“I hope not to become a crotchety old bloke, but every so often you can feel it coming,” he adds.
It’s a personal thing
What’s your favourite book?
I think one of the ones that left a mark was Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves. When I read it some while back, at the start of my career in the Navy, I think it struck a chord in terms of the territory, because it’s a well-written account of the terrible things that happened in the First World War trenches
What do you do to switch off from work?
Offshore sailing — I sail off the east coast, generally for pleasure but I do a bit of racing as well. I find it a completely different environment when you step into it. By definition you forget about the working week and any other stresses and strains that might go with it. It’s literally a breath of fresh air
From left: Farrar’s father Ron, mother Doreen, Farrar and his younger brother Peter at his graduation from Swansea University in 1983.
What’s your pet hate?
I reckon life’s too short for pet hates, but if you pushed me, it’s people making a distinction between FE and higher education. I think it’s all part of education, training and skills development and our vocabulary as a nation needs straightening out a little. But that’s easier said than done
If you could invite anyone, living or dead, to a dinner party, who would it be?
Sir Ben Ainsley — I’d like to know what drives him and what motivates him, and how he thinks. My wife Fran would endorse the choice, so she’s invited too. And maybe Charles Dickens, too
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
When I was very young I recall wanting to be a Mountie [a Canadian mounted police officer] and then I focused on joining the Royal Navy, which I eventually did and thoroughly enjoyed it
Eight months after the Children and Families Act came into place with the aim of better meeting the needs of learners with special educational needs and their families and all is not well with the policy, explains Kathryn Rudd.
The Children and Families Act, which came into effect in September, promised a brave new world. It was designed to offer transparency, clarity and a more joined-up system.
But young people and their families are reporting a very different reality.
At the Natspec conference last month we heard from two parents about their experiences and their views of the new system.
One mother said she entered into the new planning process for her son with positive expectations that they could establish provision that would meet his requirements.
The first planning session took two hours and they quickly outlined her son’s interests, aspirations and the services he required. She was really optimistic that the plan would work for him.
What she hadn’t realised was that the plan and the funding were not connected. It took her 11 months and 21 different assessments to get the funding required for her son’s plan to be carried out.
Instead of introducing national procedures to support the new legislation in its early stage, the government opted for a system where individual local authorities (LAs) introduced policy and guidance appropriate for their local area.
Families report a ‘post code lottery’ based on where they live, the blanket policies operated in their area and the ability they have as a parent or family to fight the system
Somehow it is assumed that all young people want to stay within two miles of their parents, that LAs have the capacity, funding and expertise to make all the aspirations of the Act a reality, and that the LAs will telepathically deliver the same solutions to funding constraints and expectations.
It also assumes that the various government agencies will ‘play nice’ and set exactly the same thresholds for services and support and, that they will walk hand in hand into the sunset linking up budgets and systems around the young person.
The reality for many young people couldn’t be further from the truth. Families report a ‘post code lottery’ based on where they live, the blanket policies operated in their area and the ability they have as a parent or family to fight the system.
The heralded joined-up education, health and care plan was described by one parent as a fight to the death to protect each agency’s budget from actually funding the plan established.
The Department for Education has recognised the issues and spent a considerable amount of money and resource on tackling the individual issues as they are raised.
Now it has launched a wider review of the high needs funding reforms which all of us who work in this field are desperately hoping will address some of the cultural and systemic issues young people and their families are facing.
Without a considered review of the system, we are hurtling towards a two-tier system of educational provision post 16.
Parents and families who are articulate and well-informed are desperately using all available resources to fight the system (including ever-expanding legal support) to get the education they believe is right for their son or daughter.
On the other end of the spectrum the more disadvantaged families are seeing services and access removed.
This system unfortunately does not have any clear winners — young people, their families, providers, LAs are all suffering under expectations they cannot deliver and a plethora of different systems, paperwork and approaches.
As a country we need to consider carefully what we want, and equally, what we are prepared to fund, for young people with disabilities.
We need to ensure we can make this a reality ‘on the ground’ and carefully think through the unintended consequences of reform, so we can be clear that any future changes really do enable young people to have aspiration and choice over their lives.
