The government will not be cutting the 18-year-old funding rate again next year, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has told MPs.

She made the statement during education questions in Parliament this afternoon.

“We have no plans to reduce the 16 to 18 academic funding rate in the 2015/16 academic year,” she said.

However, she said: “We can’t confirm the base rate of funding until we know how many places we’re going to fund and we won’t know that until January.”

The comments came in response to questioning by Labour MP Barry Sheerman over the number of cuts affecting sixth form colleges, and come just days after FE Week revealed how a letter to providers from Education Funding Agency director for young people Peter Mucklow explained that the 2015/16 funding rate for 16 to 18-year-olds would not be announced until January.

Colleges and sixth form colleges were hit this academic year with a 17.5 per cent funding rate for full time 18-year-olds — a move implemented by Ms Morgan’s predecessor, Michael Gove.

Funding for 16 and 17-year-olds remained untouched from the previous year, at £4,000, while for 18-year-olds the rate cut meant it fell to £3,300.

For more, read edition 116 of FE Week, dated Monday, November 3.

 

The 2015/16 funding rate for 16 to 18-year-olds will not be announced until January, an Education Funding Agency (EFA) director has confirmed.

Last year providers were warned in December that the EFA funding rate for 18-year-olds would be cut by 17.5 per cent, but they weren’t told what the top line figure for 16 and 17-year-olds would be until March, when it was announced it would remain at £4,000 per learner.

Providers have now been told they will have to wait until January to learn how much they will get for each student for 2015/16.

In a letter to providers, the EFA’s director for young people Peter Mucklow (pictured) said: “There will be no additional changes to the funding factors within the national funding formula for 2015/16. We hope to provide stability in funding rates for 2015/16.

“We plan to confirm the national funding rate in January 2015, informed by final data on academic year 2013 to 2014 (2013/14) student numbers and early data on 2014 to 2015 academic year (2014/15) student numbers.

“However, we can confirm now that the funding rates for disadvantaged students without GCSE Grade C or above in English or mathematics are unchanged at £480 per subject for full time students and the equivalent reduced rates for part time students.

“In 2014/15 we implemented a reduction in funding for 18-year olds (other than those with high needs) on full time programmes and provided some short-term protection for the change in that year.

“The reduction in funding for 18-year-olds will continue to apply in 2015/16 and there will be no further transitional protection applied.

“Transitional protection from the Spending Review 2010 decisions to equalise school sixth form funding with other institutions and to reduce funding for enrichment also comes to an end in 2014/15 and so will not apply in 2015/16.”

The letter asked providers to take the letter, along with their own “financial health” into account when planning for 2015/16, and added that notification of allocations would come in February in most cases.

It says: “In planning their offer to young people for 2015/16 institutions will wish to take into account the information in this letter, their financial health and cost pressures, and the wider local environment including the continued demographic downturn across England in numbers of 16-year-olds.

“We recognise the importance of early information on funding to allow institutions to plan effectively. We are planning this year to bring forward the notification of allocations to institutions to February 2015 wherever possible.

“The main exceptions are likely to be commercial and charitable providers (CCPs) and any other FE institutions where allocations are based on R06 data received by EFA in February, where the allocations will be sent out in early March.

“This means that any business cases (excluding high needs) for changes to funding due to exceptional circumstances will be dealt with in March/April 2015 after allocations have been issued.”

New apprenticeship frameworks will no longer be forced to include pass, merit and distinction gradings, the Skills Minister has revealed.

Skills Minister Nick Boles told FE Week he would be assessing whether apprenticeships should be graded on a “case by case” basis.

The U-turn by the new Minister follows “very strong representations” by the sector, Mr Boles said.

Concerns were first raised when the implementation plan for apprenticeship reform, published under previous Skills Minister Matthew Hancock in October 2013, said all elements of every apprenticeship framework would have to be graded at pass, merit or distinction.

In March 2014 Mr Hancock said only the end result would be graded but Mr Boles has now said there may be some areas where it is “inappropriate” to grade apprentices’ work at all and instead a simple pass or fail should be offered.

Mr Boles spoke to FE Week following publication today of ‘Guidance for developers of apprenticeship standards and related assessment plans’, which stated that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) had “agreed a compromise position which ensured grading was applied where it could be”.

However, the document stated: “In a small number of cases it may not be possible to grade any aspect of the apprenticeship due to assessments within the apprenticeship being aligned with external organisations or regulations which do not incorporate grading.”

It added BIS would consider requests not to grade an apprenticeship where assessments were aligned with professional registration, regulation or a licence to practise, but would only make exemptions for specific standards, not for an entire sector or industry.

Standard developers wishing to request an exemption form grading should contact their relationship manager, it said.

The document also suggested that a merit grade may not be required.

“A pass grade in any apprenticeship must demonstrate full competency against the standard you have set and there will need to be at least one grade above pass to recognise exceptional performance.”

Mr Boles said: “It’s still very much a strong preference that as many can be graded are graded.”

But he said, in cases involving “very strongly regulated activities” or “particular safety aspects”, he would be willing to make an exception.

He said: “There have been very strong representations that grading is inappropriate – because bluntly does anyone want to know that somebody responsible for their safety in an aeroplane was a good and somebody else was a distinction?”

He added: “You want to know that everybody has met all of the standards fully.”

FE Week understands that some frameworks connected to the maritime industry are among the first to be allowed go without grading.

“We’ve made the odd exception and we’ll make the odd one where the arguments are good enough,” Mr Boles said.

“Case by case, we’re willing to take arguments but the broad thrust is that where at all possible we want graded because we want the qualifications to be like other qualifications, which are graded.”

Picture: Nick Boles with BSkyB interns Kiran Hussain, aged 18 and Priscilla Ossai, 21, in the Sky Sports studios, where he spoke to FE Week