Additional learning support funding is set for reform and functional skills requirements for SEND apprentices will be relaxed next year, according to new proposed apprenticeship funding rules.
The Department for Education is also introducing a new subcontracting threshold and plans to review “more flexible approaches” to active learning.
Draft apprenticeship funding rules for 2024/25 were published today and revealed a series of proposed changes.
Here’s what you need to know:
Funding claims for learning support made easier
From the next academic year, the government will move reviews for additional learning support from monthly to every three months.
Officials will also allow an assessment for learning support to happen at any time during the apprenticeship instead of just at the start.
Providers can claim learning support funding to make “reasonable adjustments”, such as specialist equipment and extra staff, to support an apprentice who has learning difficulties or disabilities so that they can complete their apprenticeship.
It is a fixed amount of £150 per month which can only be claimed by the provider for each month where reasonable adjustments are delivered, evidenced and result in a monetary cost.
ALS funding claims can, however, be a difficult area for providers which has led to several cases of large clawback.
The DfE said its 2024/25 reforms will “reduce bureaucracy associated with claiming learning support”.
Importantly, the ALS changes will apply to existing apprentices not just new starters.
SEND pilot flexibilities rolled out
The government will allow all providers to use a flexibility that allows apprentices with learning difficulties but without a pre-existing education health and care plan (EHCP) or statement of learning difficulties assessment (LDA) to work towards a lower level of functional skills.
Under current rules, apprentices must achieve level 1 English and maths functional skills qualifications if they’re on a level 2 apprenticeship and did not pass the qualifications at GCSE. And if a similar learner is on a level 3 or higher apprenticeship, they must achieve functional skills at level 2.
Those with an EHCP or LDA can, however, work towards and pass the lower level of functional skills English and maths at entry level 3.
Over the past year around 20 providers trialled a change to the rules that allows special educational needs and/or disabilities coordinators (SENDCOs) to conduct additional assessments and judge whether a learner without an EHCP or LDA – but with equivalent needs – can be approved for this flexibility.
Pilot providers previously told FE Week how this “game-changing” reform was allowing hundreds of people who found themselves blocked from apprenticeship opportunities to enrol on programmes thanks to the exemption.
The DfE said today that following this “positive” pilot, “we are extending English and maths flexibilities for apprentices who have learning difficulties or disabilities but no Education, Health and Care Plan, to study a more suitable level of English and maths”.
£30k subcontracting threshold
DfE will also introduce a new £30,000 threshold for subcontracting from August, today’s rules state.
A provider will be allowed to use a subcontractor that is not on the published apprenticeship provider and assessment register (APAR) but who will deliver “less than £30,000 of apprenticeship training and on-programme assessment under contract across all main providers and employer-providers between 1 April and 31 March each year”.
The DfE said this will make it “easier for providers to bring in industry specialists to deliver training by introducing greater flexibility in subcontracting arrangements”.
Onboarding and progress monitoring admin reduced
Initial assessment will be integrated with development of an apprentice’s training plan, the DfE said, which will “reduce the number of documents employers and providers need to review and sign”.
Providers will also “no longer need to ask employers to sign off each progress review”.
5% co-investment payment lag
Prime minister Rishi Sunak announced this month that the 5 per cent co-investment for non-levy paying employers taking on apprentices aged 16 to 21 will be scrapped for new starts from April 1.
DfE has however warned that the associated changes to its payment systems will take “several weeks” to introduce.
This means that providers will continue to receive monthly payments representing 95 per cent of the agreed price for training and assessment until June when backdated payments for April and May for the 5 per cent balance of funding will be made.
Active learning review
The DfE is reviewing the “minimum requirement” for active learning, which refers to off-the-job and English and maths training.
Today’s draft rules said the department will begin seeking views in April about potential changes, as it is “keen to explore changes which support more flexible approaches to the delivery of training, such as front-loaded or block release training, as well as providing more flexibility for employers”.
The North East Institute of Technology (NEIoT) with lead partner New College Durham and collaborating FE institutions Middlesbrough College, East Durham College, and Tyne Coast College, along with industry stalwart Esh Group, is pioneering a project, ‘Retrofitting for the North East’. an innovative initiative that promises to redefine the future of retrofitting across the region.
This transformative journey began with the recognition of a skills deficit within the retrofitting sector. Working closely with regional employers and education partners, NEIoT identified an urgent need for a highly skilled workforce capable of meeting the growing demand for energy-efficient and sustainable living environments.
Retrofitting has become a critical aspect of sustainable development, key to future-proofing homes and meeting our net-zero goals. This is leading to growing demand for skilled professionals such as retrofit installers, advisors, assessors and coordinators to transform existing properties.
The impact on the construction industry is significant; forecasts indicate a requirement for 500,000 skilled retrofit operatives by 2030. Employers will need to upskill and reskill significant numbers within their workforce, and retrofitting will be an essential aspect of young learners’ education.
With almost 3.4 million homes in the North East and Yorkshire Energy Hub areas outlined for domestic retrofit in the coming years, NEIoT’s adaptive approach not only aims to bridge the current skills gap but establish the groundwork for sustained industry-education relationships and continuing development of additional courses to meet future industry needs.
A pivotal aspect of this adaptive curriculum approach involves the engaged participation of members from the NEIoT Construction & Built Environment Employer Advisory Board. This board consists of representatives from the construction industry, including both SMEs and large companies, as well as associated employer representative bodies (ERBs).
We are establishing sustained industry-education relationships
These industry professionals offer invaluable insights, guidance and feedback to shape curriculum development and delivery. Regular meetings of the advisory board and retrofit sub-group facilitate knowledge-sharing sessions, cultivating a sense of community and shared responsibility to address the needs of learners and employers.
By integrating industry expertise, the NEIoT educational offerings will align with industry standards and best practices while incorporating the latest developments in retrofitting technologies and methodologies.
Working with organisations such as Green Leaf Engineering, North Star Housing, Livin Housing, believe housing, and Constructing Excellence North East, the NEIoT and Esh Group have ensured that the courses are not just theoretical; they will address the practical skills needs of the sector and offer mentorship opportunities.
Implementing this adaptable methodology has presented challenges, including navigating regulatory frameworks, securing buy-in from stakeholders and overcoming logistical hurdles. However, the relationships established through our collaborative efforts to overcome these have solidified our commitment and determination to succeed. The NEIoT consortium has embraced adaptability as a guiding principle, emerging stronger and more resilient.
A suite of nationally accredited courses has been meticulously developed to cover the retrofitting process. Delivery of NEIoT Retrofit Courses for Installers, Advisors, Assessors, and Coordinators ranging from level 2 to level 5 will start throughout 2024. These courses will be standardised in terms of delivery, cost and resources across all NEIoT campuses, ensuring a consistent regional experience.
Employers can be confident that their employees will gain from a high-quality, NEIoT-branded, accredited learning experience. And workers can be confident the skills and knowledge they gain will be industry-standard.
This initiative illustrates that tackling skills shortages is about more than just education; it’s about cultivating a community of proficient professionals to instigate change.
As the retrofit offer nears completion, NEIoT and Esh Group will be engaging in discussions on sharing course development and delivery across the National IoT Network, aiming for broader adoption and scalability of the adaptable methodology.
Backed by substantial government investment, these IoT collaborations between FE and HE providers and industry are leading the way in meeting business and education needs by establishing regional collaborations for skills excellence.
Embracing adaptability is indicative of a significant shift in education and workforce development to empower learners and innovate our way to resilience and excellence.
Eight colleges have been named as participants in a Department for Education (DfE) pilot aiming to simplify funding, audit and reporting rules.
From 2024/25 the colleges will be given more flexibility over funding rules and some ringfenced budgets across adult and 16 to 19 provision.
They will also be allowed to deliver skills bootcamps without the need to bid for funding through procurements.
The pilot will be used to judge how wider changes can be made to the way colleges are funded and audited.
However, details of how rules will be simplified for participants are yet to be confirmed.
The eight colleges are spread across the south, midlands and north of England.
• Basingstoke College of Technology, Hampshire
• The Bedford College Group, Bedfordshire
• Bridgwater and Taunton College, Somerset
• Exeter College, Devon
• Loughborough College, Leicestershire
• Middlesbrough College, Middlesbrough
• Sunderland College, Tyne and Wear
• TEC Partnership, North East Lincolnshire
The launch of the pilot comes as part of the DfE’s wider reforms which aim to simplify FE funding and accountability – including a merger of several adult skills budgets into the single adult skills fund in 2024/25.
In an appeal for volunteer colleges in January, the DfE said the pilot will help it deliver adult skills funding “and improve predictability”.
It will also “capitalise on the reduced funding rules and ringfences to simplify how we audit and assure FE funding as well as simplify back-end data processing”.
The DfE added that it will develop options with a view to test several simplifications for apprenticeships, which could “include simplifying onboarding, testing new funding approaches and streamlining end point assessment processes”.
A film and media training firm has jumped from Ofsted ‘inadequate’ to ‘good’ after exiting apprenticeships and moving into skills bootcamps delivery.
All Spring Media Ltd endured what managing director Martina Porter described as a “traumatic” inspection 18 months ago that resulted in the lowest possible judgment.
The Buckinghamshire-based provider accused inspectors of “lacking industry expertise” and went on to file legal action after the government threatened to terminate the company’s apprenticeship contract over the disputed result. But the provider eventually withdrew its claim.
After the fiasco, All Spring Media continued delivering a range of entry-level and CPD programmes, specifically for production-related roles in the screen industries. It then won a skills bootcamps contract with Hertfordshire local enterprise partnership in September 2023 which brought the provider back into scope Ofsted.
Inspectors found that the 24 learners “rightly recognise how the skills bootcamp is providing them with the required skills and industry introductions essential to them achieving their ambitions”.
The report added: “Learners enjoy their learning and build positive relationships with their trainers, peers and with those working in the sector.”
Inspectors also praised leaders for having “designed a programme of learning logically to build the fundamental knowledge learners need to work in the television and film industry” and as being “clear in their ambition to provide opportunities for learners from diverse backgrounds to access the sector”.
Porter said: “Our team was understandably apprehensive before the inspection due to the unjust nature of the first one. However, the inspectors arrived with a different approach, putting our team at ease and wanting to learn about our industry. We hope this is the start of a new era of collaborative inspections from Ofsted.”
Luke Hall has been appointed as a Department for Education minister following the sudden resignation of skills, apprenticeships and higher education minister Robert Halfon.
The Thornbury and Yate MP was minister for regional growth at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government from September 2020 until September 2021.
Hall has also served in junior ministerial roles at the ministry as minister for rough sleeping and housing and was a parliamentary private secretary to the ministerial team in the DfE in 2017.
Number 10 announced his move to the DfE as a minister of state this evening following the departure of Robert Halfon, who will also stand down as the MP for Harlow at the next general election.
Hall’s full brief and ministerial title is yet to be confirmed by the DfE.
Hall was elected as an MP in 2015. He has sat on several House of Commons committees including for work and pensions, petitions and environmental audit.
He has also held the post of Conservative Party deputy chair.
Robert Halfon has resigned as minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education and plans to stand down as an MP at the next election.
Posting on X this afternoon, he said he “feels it is time for me to step down” after more than two decades in parliament.
Halfon became skills minister for the first time in 2016 but was sacked a year later by then-prime minister Theresa May.
He moved on to become the chair of the education select committee, serving for five years, before returning to the skills brief, with the additional job of higher education, in the Department for Education in October 2022.
It is not clear at this stage who will replace Halfon as skills minister.
He becomes the 63rd Conservative MP to announce they are resigning at the next election.
In a letter to the Harlow MP, prime minister Rishi Sunk said: “I wanted to pay tribute to your greatest legacy in parliament, which is of course your passion for promoting apprenticeships.
“You have been a stalwart champion for this remarkable and life changing programme, which is underpinned by our conservative principles to empower people to climb the ladder of opportunity.”
‘Political life has its ups and downs’
Halfon, who has commonly said in ministerial speeches that he is a huge admirer of author JRR Tolkien, signed off his resignation post with a quote from the Lord of the Rings.
He said: “Political life, while fulfilling, has its ups and downs. At these times, I read J.R.R. Tolkien both as a great source of comfort, but also for some good advice.
“As I move towards stepping down at the general election, I am reminded of what Gandalf said to Frodo Baggins after the defeat of Sauron in the Lord of the Rings: ‘I am with you at present…but soon I shall not be. I am not coming to the Shire…My time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help folk to do so. And as for you, my dear friends, you will need no help…among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you.’
“Although I often feel more like the character Bilbo Baggins than Gandalf, I believe these words have great resonance, and perfectly capture my feelings as I move onto my next journey in life.”
The frontbencher has become well-known for his “ladder of opportunity” catchphrase and has been influential over policies including the apprenticeship levy, T Levels, adult education budget devolution, the lifelong learning entitlement and level 3 qualification reforms.
The staunch champion of further education and skills also frequently states that he was the first MP to employ an apprentice when he was elected in 2010.
Halfon used his maiden speech to call for “root-and-branch cultural change” so apprenticeships are “held in the same regard as higher education by secondary school teachers”.
Speaking at the Annual Apprenticeships Conference last month, Halfon said he was “most proud of evangelising about apprenticeships” in his time as minister. He added that even with reforms like the Baker clause, “I want even more done in schools, even now”.
‘His drive to back FE will be missed’
Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said Halfon’s “drive to promote inclusion and to back further education will be missed”.
He added: “He has been a passionate champion for further education, skills and apprenticeships throughout his tenure as chair of the education select committee, and as minister, bringing to the roles a commitment to colleges and to understand from students and apprentices as much he can about what works for them.
“I am confident that he will continue to be a passionate supporter of our sector and a fervent advocate of students and their needs when his time as an MP comes to an end.”
Sue Pember, director of policy at adult education network HOLEX, said Halfon “will leave a void that will be keenly felt”.
“He has been a great advocate of the role of adult community education and has been unwavering champion of innovation and raising standards,” she added. “The policies he has introduced in the last three years will have a beneficial impact on lifelong learning for a generation.”
Ben Rowland, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive, described Halfon as “somebody that has spent his political career fighting for the skills sector”.
He said: “AELP has seen first-hand how Robert Halfon has understood the important role independent training providers play in delivering high-quality skills provision right across the country.
“We need champions for the skills sector on all sides in Parliament, so it is a shame that Robert Halfon won’t be able to continue that work after the next election. However, it is clear that without his work over the last 15 years, the apprenticeship system would not be as strong as it currently is and everyone at AELP would like to wish him all the best for the future.”
Specialist colleges have warned the government that its controversial English and maths resit reforms are an “unwieldy demand” for SEND learners and could increase dropout rates.
An overwhelming majority of SEND colleges (91 per cent) in a new survey published today by the National Association of Specialist Colleges (Natspec) have condemned the “dictated hours” announced last month.
Under the new rules from 2025, post-16 providers must teach students a minimum of three hours a week of English and four hours of maths if they failed to achieve a pass in the subjects at GCSE, or risk losing funding. Teaching must be “whole class” and “in person”.
Students with special educational needs and/or disabilities and an EHC plan, who are assessed as unable to study towards either GCSE, functional skills or stepping stone qualifications, can be made exempt from the condition.
However, these students must be individually assessed, there should be no blanket exemptions and colleges “must make every effort to enable students to study approved qualifications” before assessing them as exempt.
SEND leaders have added their voice to furore from general FE college bosses, saying that the move will be “counterproductive”, increase dropouts, reduce learner attendance, lead to additional stress and take time away to develop vocational and vital social skills for vulnerable learners.
Natspec’s survey involved 46 of its members who currently teach 1,536 students English and maths, the majority of whom study functional skills (68 per cent) or stepping stone qualifications (20 per cent).
The results show that for 63 per cent of English students and 65 per cent of maths students currently study fewer guided learning hours than the new increased minimum.
For many, current guided learning hours for the subjects are around 1.5 hours per week, according to the report.
One respondent said that “the new guidelines will cause a huge amount of behavioural and staffing issues”, while another highlighted that they would “impact on other areas of the curriculum, such as learning skills for employment and independent living, which are the primary aims of the courses the learners have enrolled for”.
Another surveyed college said: “Good functional skills development and enhanced communication skills are absolutely essential, but if learners have not achieved after 15 years of classroom provision through school and FE it seems unhelpful for both learning and motivation to bring in such an unwieldy demand.”
‘Unmanageable’ for the most vulnerable learners
Meanwhile, 81 per cent of respondents said that the requirement for “stand-alone, whole-class, in-person teaching” would have a negative impact on some or all students, citing the importance of a “person-centred approach and flexible teaching methods”.
One respondent said learners would not be able to cope with being in larger groups, as they find it distracting and overwhelming, “which has an impact on everyone’s learning and safety”.
One small SEND college said the change would ultimately impact their funding from the ESFA “due to learners likely needing one-to-one or very small group sessions which costs more”.
Clare Howard, chief executive of Natspec, said: “The findings from our survey highlight the negative consequences of the Department for Education’s recent condition of funding rule changes on students with SEND. These are made all the more frustrating given the lack of consultation with Natspec and other key stakeholders in the education sector.
“I am pleased that the department is now consulting with the sector and I hope that listening to the collective expertise of FE organisations and colleges will lead to more inclusive policies which acknowledge the nuanced needs of students with SEND.
“Moving forward, it is imperative that any policy affecting such vulnerable learners is shaped by thorough engagement with those who understand their needs best.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Our Maths and English Condition of Funding changes, backed by significant new funding for colleges, will help make sure all young people get the English and maths skills they need to progress in work and life.
“We are continuing to work with the sector on implementation including how to maximise the benefits for students with SEND.”
A private training provider has lost contracts worth over half a million pounds with Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) after Ofsted branded its adult skills training ‘inadequate’.
In 2023-24, GMCA paid Blackburn-based Get SET Academy (GSA) £521,690 for adult education services, but an update on the authority’s spending this week says this has been cut to zero as the provider “failed Ofsted minimum requirements”.
Following an inspection in August last year, Ofsted rated GSA ‘requires improvement’ overall but its adult learning programmes as ‘inadequate’, describing the standard of training that adult learners receive as “poor”.
Ofsted also slammed GSA’s 12-week digital skills bootcamp as “too complex” and taught at an “extremely rapid pace”.
Inspectors reported that few bootcamp learners developed “substantial new knowledge” and raised concerns that learners were unclear about whether or when they would have a job interview lined up with a local employer – despite this being a key part of the course.
According to GMCA’s adult education contract specifications, providers are expected to have a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating.
No uniform approach to poor Ofsted grades
Last year, FE Week reported that most mayoral combined authorities with control over their adult education budget take a discretionary approach to whether providers with ‘inadequate’ Ofsted grades see their contracts terminated.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s contract guidance states that it has discretionary powers over poor-performing providers, which can include options such as suspending new starts, reducing payments, or terminating the contract entirely following an Ofsted grade four report.
GSA told FE Week it lost three contracts with GMCA, including free courses for jobs training, adult education, and skills bootcamps, which has “curtailed” the company’s growth plans.
However, the company continues to provide digital marketing skills bootcamps with Lancashire County Council extending its contract into 2024.
It also continues to provide Multiply maths training and apprenticeships in early years and pharmacy.
A spokesperson said: “Although we had a poor grade for adult learning, specifically the digital skills bootcamp, that was due to having an over-ambitious curriculum as we tried to cover the majority of what the employers were looking for.
“Since then, we have condensed the curriculum, which is relevant to the learner to progress and gain the right level of knowledge and skills to enable them to progress towards an apprenticeship or employment.”
A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: “Following the Get Set Academy Ofsted report in October, a visit has taken place to meet the quality team, review the quality improvement plan and conduct an observation.
“During this meeting learners were interviewed and presented a positive attitude towards their course.
“Retention on the course is excellent and job outcomes are very positive.
“Lancashire will continue to monitor performance of leaners and seek their feedback.”
A spokesperson for GMCA said: “Since Greater Manchester took responsibility for the devolved adult education budget we have worked hard to ensure that adult skills provision is of a good standard for learners in our city-region.
“These standards are set out clearly in our procurement process and in contracts with providers.
“Where providers are found not to meet these standards we reserve the right to take action, including terminating contracts.”
Keith Smith has a unique perspective on the FE sector’s challenges, having viewed them at bird’s eye level as one of the Department for Education’s top policy masterminds, and now on the campus frontline as chief executive of Harrow, Richmond & Uxbridge Colleges (HRUC).
Smith’s fingerprints are all over many of the policies that have shaped the FE sector as we know it. At the Education and Skills Funding Agency, he led on apprenticeship funding reforms and the introduction of the levy, before becoming the architect of the 2021 skills white paper as DfE’s director of strategy.
After receiving a college education, Smith skilled himself up further during his 25-year civil service career by taking short courses at night school. He later helped come up with the government’s lifelong learning entitlement (LLE) policy, which aims to ease the way for others to bypass the traditional degree route to success too.
Nowadays, Smith sees himself as “living the skills white paper” he helped design. The strategic vision he’s drawn up for HRUC is the embodiment of it.
He sees the purpose of his colleges as being to drive local economic prosperity and social mobility, which he is aspiring to do by consolidating links with local employers, embarking on new relationships with schools, and expanding apprenticeships provision.
While Smith is no longer a civil servant, he is still unflinchingly loyal to his old bosses and is clearly wary of being drawn into any criticism of them. His deeply engrained Whitehall mindset and his wish not to discuss his life outside of his current role makes him a tough, but fascinating, interviewee.
Keith Smith
The college route
Smith does not fit the stereotype of a senior civil servant in that he did not go to university, never mind the traditional Oxbridge route.
A 2019 report by the Sutton Trust found that 100 per cent of permanent secretaries across government had attended university, reflecting how rare Smith’s education journey was for a senior civil servant.
Smith is from and still lives in the Midlands, these days commuting from there to the three colleges he oversees across five London campuses. He studied business and finance at a college and skilled himself up later in life through night school “lifelong learning” courses.
“I only started to do university-type training later on in my career as professional development,” he said.
He went on to propose through the skills white paper a Lifelong Loan Entitlement, enabling any adult to access loans for higher technical courses as they would for a university degree.
Ministers pin their hopes of reversing the decimation of adult education on the LLE, and you can to a point see Smith’s own education journey in the policy’s design.
“I talk about the progressive nature of education and skills creating a future for everyone, because I was a product of that myself,” he says.
“My hope is that if we do our job well now, there’ll be more people in boardrooms who haven’t been to university and have acquired skills in many different routes.”
Keith Smith speaking at a conference in 2015
Civil service ladder
Smith’s career began with eight years at an employment benefit office. Seeing people “at their most vulnerable, when they’ve just been made redundant”, made a deep impression on him.
“It’s a really terrible thing to go through, and you see how much people need support. That duty to help stayed with me.”
He then worked for what is now the Department for Work and Pensions (then called the Employment Service), before moving onto the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, working mainly for non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) on the “operational side of policy”.
He has “always loved being at the frontline where policy touches delivery,” and continued doing that when he moved to the Education and Skills Funding Agency. He worked his way up to director of funding and programmes and later director of apprenticeships, and was heavily involved in the rollout of the apprenticeship levy in 2017.
He points out how for a decade before that, the “big policy” of government had been “getting more young people to go to university”.
Therefore, his “overwhelming feeling” at the time was, “isn’t it wonderful that we’re now putting apprentices back on the map”.
He sees this period as the “start of the renaissance of apprenticeships”, which Smith believes are part of the skills systems of all the “really innovative” countries.
His aim now at HRUC is to be able to “offer an apprenticeship to anybody that wants one”.
But Smith is not blind to the challenges facing the apprenticeships market. Last year, he endorsed a report from Policy Exchange claiming that the levy system suffers from both a “lack of transparency and poor understanding about its purposes”.
Smith admits, when asked about criticism of the levy, that “systems always have to improve”.
Keith Smith in his ESFA role
White paper architect
When Smith became DfE’s director of strategy in 2020, it was the first time he had been focused solely on policy rather than “running a major programme” and “actually delivering things”.
Some of the policies in the Skills for Jobs white paper that he drafted have since been enacted – local skills employment plans, for example, which aim to align college and training provider courses to local skills needs, are now being turned into actionable goals.
Ministers insist the LLE is on track to be introduced from 2025, even though in a recent higher education short course trial of the entitlement, only 125 students from an expected 2,400 enrolled onto the courses.
“Who knows what” the upcoming general election will bring, Smith says. “You just hope enough of that [policy work] sticks for long enough that we will see really meaningful change.”
After finishing the white paper, Smith felt it would “not be easy” to “keep being in that space” at DfE. “How do you match that?” he questions.
But his decision to leave in 2022 was not easy, given that his entire career had been in the civil service. Smith reflects on his time there, he says, without regrets. He feels “very lucky” to have worked on “big system issues”. But he also admits that he “never felt fully complete in doing that”.
“I loved that job, and I’d be doing it today … except that I wanted to take all of the things I thought we could do as a system and do it within an organisation.
“There’s no better way in my mind of doing that than with a college.”
These days, he misses the “really fantastic people” he worked with in government. He has “huge respect” for ministers, “because they’ve got constituency jobs too and many of them are parents”.
“When you work really closely with them, you see just how committed they have to be just to even turn up every day, let alone deal with all of the weight of the problems they have to deal with. You see their human side, whereas many people just see the person on TV or the letter that they’ve sent.”
As a civil servant Smith could, to some extent, hide behind the ministers fronting policy decisions. As a college leader though, he sees his role as “time to be held accountable personally for doing things within an organisation”.
Keith Smith at HCUC
Merger beginnings
Smith joined the then HCUC (Harrow College and Uxbridge College) at a turbulent time. A merger with Richmond-upon-Thames College (RuTC) was looming after the college had been put at “significant risk” by financial management failures two years previously.
RuTC already had plans in motion to rationalise its college estate, with some college buildings being bulldozed to make way for new homes.
Meanwhile, HCUC was leading the West London Institute of Technology, one of 12 IoTs rolled out nationwide.
As part of the merger plans, it was decided that the West London Institute of Technology would expand into a new £10 million STEM facility as part of RuTC’s estate redevelopment, which is set for completion this summer.
The merger was finally sealed in January 2023 after a 17-month delay due to “ongoing risks” around the Richmond redevelopment, a finance report said.
The merger involved a “huge amount of work” from Smith, but he is proud of having gone through it without making anyone redundant as a result.
“If anything, we want to grow what we do between the colleges.”
Although he admits that “financial constraints” were a consideration, Smith does not see the merger as having been driven by finance. He believes that viewing it “through the lens of money” would mean that “things would fail over time”.
“You’ve got to have a clear purpose for why you want to be coming together. Ours was all about how we enhance the offer in Richmond and play to the strengths we have in Harrow and Uxbridge.”
Keith Smith
Sixth form provision
Smith believes his Whitehall experience has made him more “visionary” and prepared to “take risks” as a college leader. “No relationship is too big” to consider.
This helps explain why he is currently linking West London IoT with The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, through an industry liaison programme. He is hoping the partnership will enable his staff to learn from the American experts what makes for a successful IoT.
Another initiative Smith is excited about is a unique “sixth form plus” offer that RuTC is partnering with its local Richmond upon Thames School on, at its redeveloped RuTC campus.
The partnership, which will provide a hybrid teaching model of A-level and vocational courses, will be operate under a co-ownership model overseen by an executive management board.
Smith sees the provision as bringing “the best of schools and colleges together through collaboration”.
He is concerned that the “big system challenge that policymakers in the future have” is the “challenge of competition”, with colleges, school sixth forms and sixth form colleges “for too long being often pitted against each other”.
Smith sees opportunities on the horizon if the advanced British standard (ABS) qualification goes ahead as planned – as long as educators can “collaborate differently”.
Keith Smith
‘Messages do get heard’ by DfE
He welcomes that the ABS qualification would spell “more contact hours” for college students, but concedes that the sector is already facing “constraints” in the contact time it can currently offer.
As a college CEO, his biggest challenge is teacher recruitment, and although he knows “there’s no single easy fix”, it is still “important that we tell our DfE colleagues that this is a real problem for us”.
He urges the college sector “not always to get frustrated when it feels like we’re not being listened to [by DfE], because there are fiscal, political and practical constraints” in the echelons of power that “we are not part of.”
“One thing I know for sure, having done the job for a long time is that the messages do get heard. It doesn’t always feel like that. But we should never give up trying to improve and advocating, because it matters so much.”
