The Association of Colleges (AoC) has issued a plea to the Labour Party not to raid the FE budget to pay for higher education.

An Aoc spokesperson said Labour leader Ed Miliband (pictured above) was expected to announce a policy of cutting maximum university fees for students by a third, from £9,000 to £6,000.

And the BBC’s Robert Peston said yesterday that he had been told by the Labour Party that it was planning to cut the maximum fee higher education providers could charge by a third. Labour did not deny the claim.

But AoC chief executive Martin Doel (pictured below right) warned the FE and skills sector could not “stand by” while funding to pay for the higher education policy was taken from its budget.

“While we welcome Labour’s commitment to ensuring that higher education is accessible for as many people as possible, we must urge caution about how the funding for a reduction in tuition fees will be found,” he said.

“Great care would be needed to ensure there is not a knock-on effect for the rest of the education system.”

University tuition fees were raised from £3,000 a-year to £9,000 in 2010, despite a Liberal Democrat promise to abolish them.

However, in October, Business Secretary Vince Cable revealed he had blocked moves by civil servants to “effectively kill off FE” by taking from the sector’s budget to fund the pledge.

Mr Doel said: “FE for people aged 19 and over has already sustained heavy funding cuts of 22 per cent since 2009-10. We can’t stand by and see this budget raided to sustain higher education in universities alone, just as it was in Scotland.”

He said political parties should not forget that colleges also provide technical and professional education at levels four and five.

“As all parties look to increase the number of apprenticeships, we need to ensure that the money to fund university fees is not taken away from the FE sector which is expected to deliver this training,” he said.

He added the next government should conduct a “once in a generation funding review” spending at each stage of education.

A Labour spokesperson said: “In trebling tuition fees, this government has managed to find a system of university finance that puts a huge burden of debt on students, while almost costing the taxpayer more than it saves.

“It lets down both the next generation and the public finances.”

He added the party would announce details of its education policy in due course.

The FE sector has had one of its key spokespeople recognised on the 2015 Debrett’s 500 list of the most influential people.

Dr Lynne Sedgmore CBE, executive director of the 157 Group, has been named as one of the UK’s most influential people in the 2015 Debrett’s 500 list, which was first published in yesterday’s Sunday Times.

She joins other notable figures from the education world on the list, including Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw, skills charity Achievement for All founder and chief executive Professor Sonia Blandford and UCas chief executive Mary Curnock-Cook.

Other names on the wider list, which covers a range of fields, including sport, new media and politics and recognises those who “persuade and inspire others” and those who have “instigated change over and above exception”, include Prince Charles, chef Jamie Oliver and film director Danny Boyle.

Dr Sedgmore said: “It is a great honour to be included in such a prestigious list, and I am particularly delighted with the recognition for FE, which is all too often overlooked. I have worked in this sector for 35 years.

“Colleges and training providers have a vital role to play in helping young people develop the skills that will make them employable and successful citizens and in giving adults the chance to upskill or reskill for meaningful and sustained employment.”

Her Debrett’s listing says: “As executive director of the 157 Group of FE colleges, Lynne heads an association of several of the UK’s largest FE colleges.

“A qualified teacher, over her career Dr Sedgmore has held a range of leadership roles in further education. She was chief executive of the Centre for Excellence in Leadership from 2004 until 2008, principal of Guildford College, vice principal of Croydon College and head of Croydon Business School.

“Today she is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the Institute of Directors, and was awarded a CBE in 2004.”

She added: “I applaud Debrett’s work to encourage social mobility through its not-for-profit foundation, which helps strong achievers from less privileged backgrounds develop the social skills and confidence they need to network and gain internships and work experience. I was born on a council estate and have succeeded in my career through the support of my family, hard work and a good education.”

Newcastle-under-Lyme-born Dr Sedgmore has been executive director of the 157 Group since 2008. Under her stewardship, the consortium of large and influential FE colleges has become established as a major organisation in the sector, regularly commenting on and influencing policy.

A regular contributor to the experts section of FE Week, Dr Sedgmore became interested in the sector when she landed her first job out of teaching college with a youth opportunities programme. Her career has included jobs at Croydon College, Hackney College and Guildford College, where she was principal for six years.

Following a four-year stint at the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL), Dr Sedgmore cancelled plans for a retirement in the country when she was offered the 157 Group role.

 

 

Ofsted’s system for flagging up falling standards has been described as offering an “insecure comfort blanket” after two formerly outstanding providers fell straight to inadequate having gone uninspected for a total of more than 12 years.

The grade-four-across-the-board results for Four Counties Training Limited (FCT), in West London, and Venture Learning Limited (VL), in Greater Manchester, both came out on Wednesday (January 21).

Inspectors visited on December 1, which was six years and nine months after Ofsted was last at FCT and five years and 10 months since it was last at VL — with both inspections resulting in outstanding grades. But FE Week has discovered falling success rates at both providers that should have alerted the education watchdog to the need for reinspection long before last month.

Barry Lord-Gambles, contracts director for VL, said: “The current regime of inspections is of no benefit to providers. It provides a very insecure comfort blanket. Regular mini-inspections [for grade one-rated providers] would ensure that providers can stay on track and keep up with current Ofsted thinking.” He added: “To go from a grade one to four seems a long way to travel and we cannot emphasise the effect on staff, learners and employers.”

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Overall apprenticeship success rates for the 1066-learner FCT, which received £1.3m of Adult Skills Budget (ASB) funding and £259,859 16 to 18 apprenticeship funding for 2013/14, had fallen from 87.3 per cent in 2010/11 to 71.1 per cent by 2012/13. And they went from 76.1 per cent in 2010/11 to 69.5 per cent in 2012/13 at the 195-learner VL, which received £122,934 ASB and £661,313 16 to 18 apprenticeship funding for 2013/14.

Former Ofsted FE and skills inspector Phil Hatton, who now works as an adviser at the Learning Improvement Service, said: “The reports on FCT and VL both mention that the proportion of learners completing their apprenticeship has fallen significantly over three years. This should have made it evident to the Education Funding Agency (EFA), Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and Ofsted that something was going seriously wrong, at both, for some time. It raises the question of ‘why wasn’t this picked up on?’ so that Ofsted inspected sooner.”

It comes six months after FE Week revealed how former EFA-funded provider Chelmer Training, which also plummeted straight from outstanding to inadequate, had escaped a visit for eight years despite success rates more than 10 percentage points below the national average in 2010/11.

An Ofsted spokesperson declined to comment on whether its warning system failed with FCT and VL, but said: “We prioritise those providers judged to require improvement or be inadequate to help raise standards in FE. Those providers judged to be outstanding are not routinely inspected.”

A spokesperson for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said: “We have made it clear to Ofsted that more clarity as to when inspections might fall is needed.”

The Ofsted spokesperson said: “We will only inspect an outstanding provider when there is a clear basis to do so.”

An EFA spokesperson said it had terminated its contract with FCT. An SFA spokesperson said no decision had been made on whether it would cut ties with VL and FCT, which declined to comment.

Editor’s comment

Expect a reinspector

Something’s wrong if providers are not being inspected when evidence points towards declining standards.

A system of monitoring is meant to be in place, and success rates apparently play a part. So how then can the huge time lapse between inspections of VL and FCT be explained? The indications that something was up were there a while ago, just like they were for Chelmer last year.

For how long had these actually deserved the ‘outstanding’ honour? How many learners had passed through their doors assuming Ofsted’s grade one judgment of five or more years ago would be indicative of their learning experience.

But outstanding providers, unlike those at other grades, do not have a set timeframe within which reinspection will take place. They, according to Ofsted, will only see an inspector if there is something is reportedly going wrong.

While those with anything less than outstanding should rightly expect a visit from the education watchdog more often, there’s no reason to monitor the supposedly best performers by forever relying simply on alert system.

So, while it’s time for Ofsted to stop ‘outstanding’ providers on the slide from escaping inspection, it’s also time for these providers — whether standards are slipping or not — to get a date by which they will have been reinspected.

What do you think? Should outstanding providers face reinspection within a definite time period? Cast your vote above.

Chris Henwood

chris.henwood@feweek.co.uk

Association of Colleges (AoC) boss Martin Doel (above) has leapt to the defence of his members after a former Ofsted director and civil servant launched a scathing attack on colleges claiming “lots of them are frankly, rubbish”.

Richard Brooks (inset, above-right), who was the education watchdog’s director of strategy from September 2009 to August 2013 and previously a senior adviser to Ed Balls during his time as Education Secretary, made the comments at the Fabian Society’s new year conference on Saturday.

Mr Brooks, now a freelance strategy consultant who authored a paper published by the Society in December entitled Out of Sight, about those not in education, employment or training (Neet), has been accused of making “unsubstantiated” comments by Mr Doel, the AoC’s chief executive.

During a panel discussion at the conference, which also included Estelle Morris, who was Education Secretary from 2001 to 2002, Mr Brooks said improving FE provision was a key step in addressing the issue of Neets.

He said: “These people have been in full-time public education for 14 years, and we have failed to equip them with the skills and qualifications they need. It is a scandal, and it’s not something we talk about enough.

“It’s only 230 or 240 of these [FE] institutions, and lots of them are frankly, rubbish. They are huge public bureaucracies, sucking up public money and churning out young people who don’t have the skills and qualifications they need. It’s absolutely outrageous.

“The people who run them are paid always in excess of £100,000 a year. We should be angry about this, but because they’re below the radar, they get away with it by saying ‘these people are hard to help’ and ‘we’re doing the best we can’. It’s nonsense.

“They are failing to serve the very average-looking young people who want to get on in the way they should be served.”

He said many young people were failing because they received bad advice from colleges, giving one example of learners told to do level two childcare courses without being informed they would need to have English and maths qualifications to study later at level three.

He said: “It’s beyond a joke, and it happens to thousands of young people. They carry on their education on false promise this is going to lead them to where they want to get to, they get blocked because they don’t actually have the core skills they need.

“When they go into beauty therapy at level two, when they go into motor mechanics at level two, it doesn’t get them onto the apprenticeship they need or the level three courses they need. So they stay in education at 16 and 17 and they become Neet at 18. So the Neet rate is low at 16, low at 17 and doubles at 18.”

Mr Doel said: “While the Fabian Society report is a considered piece of work with some sensible recommendations, Mr Brooks’s spoken comments are unsubstantiated.

“Every year colleges educate and train over 830,000 16 to 18-year-olds. They offer some of the best professional and technical education with experienced teaching staff and industry-standard facilities supported by their local business community. Ofsted’s annual report, published in December, showed 82 per cent of colleges achieved a good or outstanding grade despite a swathe of funding cuts.

“It is extremely disappointing to hear Mr Brooks criticising a sector that is giving our young people the employability skills they need to take their first steps in their career or continue to university. In fact much of what colleges achieve with young people is in spite of education policy rather than because of it.

“Good English and maths skills are vital but the influx of 16-year-olds needing to retake GCSE English or maths as a result of the government’s new policy is going to prove challenging for colleges. For those unable to pass GCSE due to the way it is taught, we would like to see a post-16 qualification which teaches applied English and maths.

“To improve our education system at all levels, central funding needs to be allocated fairly across all education age groups. A once-in-a-generation review of education funding carried out by the next government is what’s needed to ensure all young people have the opportunities they deserve.”

Lambeth College has retained its grade three Ofsted rating despite inspectors visiting amid long-running industrial action that ended with staff returning to the classroom last week.

Principal Mark Silverman was praised in the report, out on Friday, for “resolute and resilient management,” while staff efforts and contingency plans “helped to mitigate some, but not all” of the effect of the strike on learners.

Courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages were most badly hit, according to Ofsted.

The report said: “Following the previous inspection, where success rates were exceptionally low, prompt and effective action by the new leadership team resulted in a significant rise in learners’ outcomes at the end of 2012/13, albeit that they still required improvement.

“In 2013/14, success rates declined due to a prolonged period of industrial action that resulted in many learners not being able to complete their courses.”

Mr Silverman, who was appointed just after inspectors visited in early 2012 and gave the college an inadequate rating before it improved a grade the following year, said: “We clearly have some work to do to improve, which will be monitored and controlled by a post inspection action plan specifically addressing the points raised by the report.”

He also thanked staff who “worked diligently throughout strike action to ensure lessons and support for learners could continue”.

University and College Union member voted on Wednesday to return to work and were back in the following day. Lecturers had walked out on Monday in the latest in a series of strikes going on since March, including an indefinite walkout in June that lasted five weeks, ending just before the summer holidays. The UCU claimed new contracts would leave staff with fewer holidays, less sick pay and longer working hours.

But the strike ended with the college allowing existing staff to change their hours without transferring to the new contract and made changes to the first year of sick pay.

Mr Silverman said: “I am pleased that we can now put the dispute behind us.”

A UCU spokesperson said: “We repeatedly asked for talks aimed at resolving the longstanding dispute over contracts. It has now emerged from their December report that Ofsted also wanted a swift resolution. It is regrettable that we had to wait until the middle of January and an indefinite walkout before things could finally be resolved.

“The very nature of industrial action means that it will have an impact, which is why it was a last resort for us after negotiations failed. Our members are glad to now be back to doing what they do best and we hope we to restore good working relations with the college.”

Main pic: Lambeth College staff on the picketing line

Local authorities “need more legal powers to ensure partners share vital information” in tracking the education and training status of 16 to 18-year-olds, it has been claimed.

Local Government Association children and young people board chair Coun David Simmonds (pictured) hit back at a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report that highlighted how up to 20 per cent of young people’s activity was unknown among some local authorities.

“Councils urgently need more legal powers to ensure partners share vital information as quickly as possible,” said Coun Simmonds.

“Too often the challenging task of reducing teenage disengagement is made far more difficult when schools, colleges, Jobcentres, national schemes and UCas do not provide the information needed to identify those in need of help.”

The report, published on January 22, recommended the Department for Education (DfE) “works urgently with local authorities to identify and disseminate good practice on the most effective ways to track young people’s education and training activities”.

A DfE spokesperson said: “The levels of 16 to 18-year-olds not in education, employment or training (Neet) are at their lowest since consistent records began and the proportion of young people whose activity is not known by local authorities is also decreasing.

“But we are not complacent. We continue to work with councils to encourage the exchange of good practice and regularly publish data on the progress made by each local authority so we and the public can effectively hold them to account.”

The PAC also found that although the proportion of Neets was at its lowest since records began, there were still 148,000 at the end of 2013. Its three-month inquiry led chair Margaret Hodge (pictured) to warn the DfE had “little understanding of the impact of existing initiatives and programmes” for 16 to 18-year-olds.

The report made six recommendations altogether, including a DfE evaluation of the “relative effectiveness” of its initiatives and in recommending the DfE look at how local authority transport policies for young people impacted on participation, it echoed one of the Association of Colleges’ (AoC) current manifesto calls.

The AoC wants transport rights for 16 to 18-year-olds in education to mirror those which apply to school children, according to the AoC manifesto.

Martin Doel, AoC chief executive, said: “Colleges have told us how they currently have to subsidise students’ bus and train fares using money intended for teaching and learning.”

He added: “College students who choose vocational courses are disadvantaged compared with schools pupils, and this inequality must be addressed.”

Coun Simmonds said: “Despite not being legally required to do so, many councils have dug deep to try to fund travel costs for young people to get to college. Funding for the concessionary fares scheme for elderly and disabled residents has reduced by 39 per cent during the life of this Parliament. This means vital post-16 transport services can no longer be protected and councils are forced to take difficult decisions to scale them back.”

A DfE spokesperson: “Councils are responsible for setting local transport policies and they are required to make appropriate decisions with the needs of young people in their area in mind.

“Most young people, including those who live in rural areas, have access to discounts or concessions on local buses or trains, either from their council, schools or colleges, or from transport companies.

“In addition, our £180m Bursary Fund, available to schools and colleges to meet the needs of disadvantaged young people, is often used to help with transport costs.”

Click here for further coverage from an expert piece by Stewart Segal, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive

The Department for Education (DfE) has not ruled out another college intervention to take on a school from troubled academy chain E-Act (formerly EduTrust Academies Charitable Trust).

South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS) has announced it was the new sponsor of Forest Academy, formerly Heywood Community School, Forest of Dean, from March.

The school, given a grade three “requires improvement” rating by Ofsted following inspection in May 2013, is currently sponsored by E-Act, which has been hit with two financial notices to improve by the Education Funding Agency.

The chain controlled more than 30 schools before it agreed with the DfE to scale down by 10 last year after Ofsted inspectors raised concerns about the performance of a number of the chain’s academies.

The school, which converted to academy status in 2012, was the ninth to be given up by E-Act in response and the fourth taken on by a general FE college — Lincoln College Academy Trust took on Trent Valley Academy in May and renamed it The Gainsborough Academy, and three months later Leeds East Academy and Leeds West Academy were both transferred to the White Rose Academies Trust, which was set up by Leeds City College.

A DfE spokesperson told FE Week that it “hasn’t ruled out” a further intervention from a college. She said it was a possibility “where there is a strong local college”.

Andy Gannon, 157 Group director of policy, public relations and research, welcomed the move by SGS.

He said: “This announcement reinforces the argument we have long made that FE Colleges are often a trusted, well respected and reliable nucleus within their local communities.

“It is a vote of confidence in the pedagogic and business leadership skills of college principals and leadership teams.

“If this trend continues, it can only be good for enhancing collaboration between the school and college sector, for improving student success and for raising awareness of a broader range of educational pathways among young people.”

The move comes after Bedford College was asked by former Education Secretary Michael Gove last year to step in and take over the inadequate-rated Central Bedfordshire UTC, and after The Manchester College took on London’s £17m prison education contract following the withdrawal of welfare-to-work firm A4e.

A spokesperson for the Association of Colleges said: “A strong local education system is vital and colleges play an active role in that, often working in partnership with other organisations to benefit their local community.”

An E-Act spokesperson said: “E-Act has no plans to transfer any additional academies to alternative sponsors. Our focus continues to be on supporting the academies remaining in the trust.”

Kevin Hamblin, SGS principal, said: “We will be able to provide considerable support to the [Forest Academy] school and we will be working with staff, parents and pupils to relaunch the school from September 2015.”

We are developing a brand new enhanced curriculum with an extensive vocational offer and with immediate effect we will provide additional classroom support for all students and a comprehensive enrichment programme.”

Main pic: Andy Gannon

Click here for an expert piece by SGS principal Kevin Hamblin

 

 

The Sixth Form Colleges’ Association (SFCA) has written to Skills Minister Nick Boles in a bid to clarify his comments to fellow MPs about the issue of a VAT exemption for its members.

Mr Boles said he was prepared to discuss the matter with the “fierce” Treasury as he answered Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins during an education questions session at the House of Commons on January 19.

“I am aware of this issue [VAT for sixth form colleges], which has been a long-standing issue which the last government also failed to correct,” said Mr Boles.

“One of the things I am looking into is the possibility of enabling sixth form colleges to change their status if they are willing to link up with other schools.

“But that is something that has to be brought forward by sixth form colleges themselves and it is still subject I’m afraid to discussions with the Treasury who are always pretty fierce on these matters.”

It comes after former Education Secretary Michael Gove claimed in January last year that his “hands were tied” by the Treasury over the issue.

Nevertheless, it is the focus of the Drop the Learning Tax campaign currently being run by the SFCA, whose deputy chief executive, James Kewin, told FE Week: “We have written to the minister asking him to clarify the remarks made at education questions.

“I can only assume that he is looking into the possibility of allowing sixth form colleges to become academies, something the government told us was not possible last year.”

He added: “The commitment from Mr Boles to look again at the VAT anomaly is very welcome.

“We would prefer sixth-form colleges to be treated fairly in their current guise, but will explore all avenues to ensure that students in the sector are funded fairly and sufficiently.”

The SFCA campaign’s petition launched before Christmas has already been signed by more than 11,000 people including Oscar-winning actor Colin Firth, X Factor presenter Dermot O’Leary and Education Select Committee chair Graham Stuart.

Mr O’Leary, a former student at The Sixth Form College, Colchester said: “I’m supporting the Drop the Learning Tax campaign because I want future sixth form college students to benefit from the sort of education that has served me so well over the years.”

The DfE and Treasury declined to comment.

Main pic: left James Kewin, right Colin Firth