The future of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) could be just as much on the line as the United Kingdom, FE Week can reveal.
With voters in Scotland due to go to the polls this week over whether they want independence, it has emerged that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has not planned for the UKCES in the event of a split.
A BIS spokesperson conceded the future of the UK-wide research and policy body was not planned for if Scotland was to break away after Thursday’s referendum.
She said: “We will not be making or commenting on plans for the possibility of an independent Scotland before the referendum.”
The organisation, which had a budget of £66.9m for 2013-14 and employs around 100 staff, produces an annual employer skills survey for each of the four UK nations, as well as an overall survey — but much of its work focuses on the UK as a whole.
The Scottish government directly contributes £500,000 a-year to the UKCES to support the development of National Occupational Standards. And the Scottish government claims to have made an “active contribution” to the development of the UKCES.
The Scottish government website says: “Scottish Ministers influenced and agreed the organisation’s remit and year one objectives, ensuring that UKCES focussed appropriately on Scottish issues from the outset.”
A spokesperson for the UKCES, which was created in April 2008, said she was unable to comment on plans for the future of the organisation.
But Sir Charlie Mayfield (pictured front), UKCES chair, speaking in his role as chair of the John Lewis and Waitrose partnership, appeared to express misgivings about the prospect of Scottish independence, warning there would be “economic consequences to a Yes vote”.
And Colin Borland, head of external affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses Scotland warned the future of many projects such the UKCES could be at risk.
“There are many cross-UK institutions who are wondering what’s going to happen to them,” he told FE Week.
“Whether or not a lot of the good work could continue in the event of a Yes vote or a more devolved situation, we don’t know but it’s going to have to be sorted out.”
The BIS spokesperson said: “The UKCES has a commissioner appointed from each of the home nations by their respective governments. Each year, the four nations have the opportunity to influence the work of UKCES through their grant-in-aid letter.”
However, she declined to comment further on the grounds that the government was observing Purdah — an electoral convention where all parties agree not to publish material that could sway the vote just before an election.
But both the Yes and No campaigns have accused the other of breaking Purdah following a host of new policy announcements affecting Scotland.
A former principal who stood down from the top job at London’s Newham College amid a series of damaging allegations has been given a deputy’s role at another college.
Densie Brown
Denise Brown (formerly Brown-Sackey) left Newham in January, two months after it was claimed the college had failed to take action over a recording posted on YouTube of former head of drama Dr Mark Walcott seeming to make homophobic comments about gay teachers.
The 20,000-learner college also faced allegations that passes had been awarded to students who did not attend any lectures, or had attendance rates of 40 per cent or less.
Ms Brown was confirmed as permanent vice principal for curriculum and quality at South Essex College, which has around 19,000 learners, this month — six months after taking up the post on an interim basis.
Angela O’Donoghue, principal of South Essex College, said: “Ms Brown was appointed as vice principal for curriculum and quality, on an interim basis, on March 25, before being made permanent earlier this month.
“She went through a rigorous interview and selection process and was considered the most appropriate person to meet the needs of the college by our governors and senior staff.
“She is highly experienced with more than 30 years’ experience in FE, working her way up from being a lecturer to senior manager, vice principal and principal. It is right that we utilise those skills to help take our college forward.”
Ms Brown had served at Newham for almost 25 years, starting as a lecturer in 1988 and working her way up to principal, with a brief stint as deputy principal at Havering College between 1999 and 2002.
Her move to a deputy role is thought to be at least the second time in recent years that a principal has gone from the top job to a lesser role at another college.
Martin Penny quit as principal of Stratford-Upon-Avon College, which has around 6,000 learners, in October.
It was given a grade three Ofsted inspection result the following month, before its financial health was branded inadequate by the Skills Funding Agency, in turn prompting a visit from FE Commissioner Dr David Collins
Mr Penny has since become interim director of finance and corporate services at Devon’s Bicton College.
A spokesperson for Newham said its investigation into the grade massaging allegations was ongoing. It is understood that Mr Walcott no longer works for the college.
Two FE colleges and one sixth form college are expected to bid to open their own free schools when the next round of Department for Education (DfE) bidding opens, FE Week can reveal.
Croydon College and New College Swindon want to open free schools with sixth form provision, while New College Pontefract — a sixth form college — is hoping to open a free school for 16 to 19-year-olds.
Croydon College’s planned New Croydon Academy would be situated on its own campus, taking on 180 students a-year, starting with just the year seven cohort in 2016.
New College Swindon is looking at a free school and sixth form on a separate site, and New College Pontefract wants to open a free school sixth form college for 1,200 learners in Doncaster.
The colleges are expected to hand their free school proposals into the DfE when the bidding window opens, on September 29 — closing on October 10.
If the bids were successful, all three free schools would open in September 2016, adding to the FE sector’s existing free school offer with South Staffordshire College and Hadlow College already running one each. Richmond upon Thames College won permission earlier this year and plans to open a free school in 2017.
Free schools are state-funded schools which are not required to follow the national curriculum, operate outside of local authority control, and answer directly to the Secretary of State for Education.
Frances Wadsworth, principal at Ofsted grade two-rated Croydon College, said: “This is an exciting opportunity for Croydon. Together, we can provide resources, expertise and world-class facilities to benefit the pupils, the community and the future prosperity of the borough and beyond.”
A vision statement on the proposed new free school’s website said it planned to deliver “teaching and learning through the use of digital literacy and science”.
Amanda Walton, head of marketing and customer services at the grade two-rated New College Swindon, told FE Week: “We were approached by the MP for Swindon North Justin Tomlinson and the council and asked if we wanted to put together a bid.
“We felt that having run an FE college we were in a good position to do it and we wanted to help and support learners.”
The new school, which would have capacity for 1,500 students, will have a focus on business and enterprise, but would follow the national curriculum, she said.
New College Pontefract principal Pauline Hagen told FE Week: “We had a few areas in mind, but we chose Doncaster because in many ways it’s very similar to Pontefract — it’s a former mining community where
the manufacturing base has disappeared, leading to worklessness and low expectations.
“We’ve had experience of dealing with that in Pontefract, of raising aspirations of parents and students, and we thought we had a lot to bring to Doncaster, where most existing providers are grade three or four.”
The college, rated outstanding by Ofsted, had been motivated to get involved with the free schools project, she said, because sixth form colleges were in danger of being overlooked.
“Sixth form colleges are not part of the government’s thinking at the moment — we were a 1970s creation, but we are still top-performing providers,” she said.
“We want the secretary of state to notice what we do and appreciate what we do and so we are embracing the government’s agenda.”
The National Careers Service (NCS) figures in many of the hopes for improved information, advice and guidance (IAG). However, its source of funding recently underwent a key change, as Freddie Whittaker reports.
Department for Education (DfE) responsibility for NCS funding was shifted to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) just months before the service plays a bigger role in schools.
The NCS currently provides phone and web services to anyone aged 13 and over. Only those aged 19-plus can access its face-to-face service. But new statutory guidance for schools, issued in April, says the NCS will “expand its offer to schools and colleges” from next month.
However, while the DfE dished out £4.7m last year to the NCS — it gave nothing this year. The DfE said it previously paid for the helpline and webchat service for young people and “this formed in effect a ring-fenced budget within the NCS”. Shifting the budget to BIS, it said, “provides some flexibility in the way NCS is able to develop online and telephone advice for young people”.
However, with BIS picking up a £94m bill for the NCS this year, up £10m on last year, a DfE spokesperson was unable to identify any of its funds that had been transferred to BIS along with the added responsibility. And a spokesperson for BIS was also unable to confirm if it had received any additional funding — from DfE or elsewhere — to cover any of its extra £10m for NCS. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) pays £14m and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) £1.5m of the NCS £109m budget for 2014/15. Last year’s budget of £106m was made up of £84.4m from BIS, £14m from MoJ, £1.5m from DWP, and DfE’s contribution.
The funding of NCS has previously proved a bone of contention with National Careers Council (NCC) members Professor Tony Watts and Heather Jackson resigning from the body last year. They walked out in a row over the way an NCC report covered NCS funding, arguing it “ducked the issue” of BIS paying for youngsters’ careers guidance, allowing DfE to “escape its responsibilities”.
Funding for the NCS was also one of the main points in the Association of Colleges’ (AoC) Careers Guidance: Guaranteed campaign with chief executive Martin Doel, writing in FE Week last year: “Let’s be frank about this, the DfE contribution to the NCS has been extremely disappointing.” And in light of the funding shift, Joy Mercer, AoC education policy director, said: “We feel the DfE should contribute equally [with BIS] both in terms of money and engagement.”
Former Skills Minister Matthew Hancock was also grilled about the issue last year by the education select committee, including chair Graham Stuart. At the time, Mr Stuart said: “Will the minister reassure us that the DfE is committed tosupporting the work of the NCS properly? Will the DfE realise the opportunity that the NCS provides to ensure that we have an all-ages, competent, re-professionalised careers service?”
FE Week contacted Mr Stuart’s office, but was told he had no comment on the latest development.
The Education and Training Foundation (ETF) has broken through the milestone of £20m in sector contracts.
It gave out a total of £23,364,323 to 77 different organisations, from charities and unions to universities and private training providers, since its official launch around August last year and the beginning of last month.
The three biggest-earning contractors, Tribal Education Ltd, the Association of Colleges (AoC) and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), were awarded contracts worth almost £9m between them for various services.
The biggest single contract, with Tribal, was £2,930,000 for the maths teacher recruitment incentive scheme.
David Russell, ETF chief executive, told FE Week: “All of our contracts are designed to generate high value outputs and impact. Quite rightly we are held up to account on this by our sector owners, our board, expert panels and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) — as our funding body.
“An English enhancement programme is about to start which will enable 1,400 teachers to teach at GCSE level. This will impact thousands more learners. This stands out as it provides practical support to a sector under pressure to respond to the new GCSE requirements. Regional leads across the country will put organisations in touch with the support available to them.
“Also topical this month is the contract we issued for workforce data collection which has resulted in the most comprehensive set of characteristics we have ever had about the FE workforce.”
Last November, the ETF, which is owned by the AoC, AELP and the Association of Adult Education and Training Organisations (also referred to as Holex), said it was handing back £7m of its £18m budget to BIS due to an underspend.
Nevertheless, the ETF got an £18m budget for 2014-15 and is set to get a reduced figure of £10m next year.
The House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee report on adult literacy and numeracy paints a troubling picture of a society in which those who have been failed by the education system continue to miss out on opportunities to learn.
The report is critical of the current government’s approach and of its predecessors’ failure to develop a coherent strategy for adult literacy and numeracy. It calls for a national campaign to boost adult literacy and numeracy and urges government to develop a more coherent, cross-departmental approach to dealing with the UK’s dreadfully poor performance in literacy and numeracy, with better screening, and support for more flexible provision.
The report mentions the ‘inevitable impact’ of low adult skills on economic performance. This is true and important, but the impact goes deeper.
Poor skills don’t just affect people’s ability to do a job well. They hold you back at every stage and in every area of life, with consequences for your health, political participation, relationships with others and, of course, your children’s life chances.
Many of those who leave compulsory education without the basic skills necessary to function in society are reluctant to re-engage with education. And those who do often struggle to find the right kind of opportunity. For many this will not be in a traditional classroom.
Some of the government’s interventions are making a bad situation worse
The report makes sensible suggestions for dealing with these problems. There is recognition of the need for flexibility, in terms of types of programme and provider, and a call for the reversal of the recent funding reduction to unionlearn, imposed in spite of its success in engaging exactly this type of learner.
The committee also calls for more investment and promotion of family learning schemes and a move away from the ‘traditional, linear approach to achieving qualifications’, typified by the government’s obsession with the GCSE ‘gold standard’.
Some of the government’s interventions are making a bad situation worse. The cut to funding for unionlearn is an example of the short-termism of many of the policies implemented under the banner of austerity. The 35 per cent drop in the adult skills budget over the past five years is closing rather than opening up opportunities for adults to learn and making it more difficult for providers to target the hardest to reach.
The community learning budget, though maintained in cash terms, has also been reduced in real terms. At the same time, reductions in voluntary sector support make it harder to replicate on the ground the kind of cooperation the committee would like to see between government departments.
We have struggled with this issue for decades. Despite that, it is still not the case that every child leaves compulsory education with the resources they need for a decent life. Those who fared the worst in compulsory education continue to be those least likely to take up educational opportunity as adults. Many of those who are most in need of support are bearing the brunt of austerity politics, working longer hours for less pay as they struggle to provide for their families. When your day-to-day life is all about survival it is hard to get your head up and think about the future (even if, by some chance, you have heard that the government guarantees to fund adult students up to level two in maths and English).
Cuts in FE funding have made the situation worse with providers given little incentive to invest time and resources in engaging the hardest-to-reach adults rather than focusing on those more likely to complete their courses and progress. As the report notes, funding continues to be ‘driven by the need for qualifications’. Some of the committee’s recommendations, if implemented, will help — and it is difficult to argue against the need for a national campaign or for greater cross-departmental cooperation.
But it is hard to escape the feeling that some more fundamental change — involving the way we do politics and how we address wider social and economic inequalities — will be necessary too.
After a school in Cheshire announced it would be closing its sixth form over plummeting learner numbers, local colleges said they would be able to step in to take on the abandoned learners. David Igoe explains why the situation may be more than a one-off.
The story, late last month, of Culcheth High School in Warrington deciding to close its sixth form may be just the tip of the iceberg, as schools increasingly face up to the high cost of delivering sixth form education when numbers are declining.
With the average size of a school and academy sixth form hovering around 220 there will be many, like Culcheth, with numbers below 100.
It is hard to imagine how such schools maintain a reasonable curriculum and provide the tutorial support and enrichment that makes the sixth form experience an effective preparation for the world of work, or for further and higher education.
We could be facing an avalanche of displaced students, as schools and academies do the sums and realise that the amount of funding available for the sixth form is woefully inadequate.
Many choose to subsidise their small sixth forms by effectively ‘raiding’ the more generous funding available for their 11 to 16-year-old pupils, but there are obvious questions about whether this is either fair to pupils for whom the money is intended, or right to use it to maintain a sixth form when other parts of the service are being strapped for cash.
As the recent report from London Economics exposes, schools and academies can subsidise their sixth forms with up to £2,202 per student and this serves to mask the inadequacy of the 16 to 19 funding pot.
It will be mainly sixth form colleges, general FE and tertiary colleges who will be expected to mop up abandoned sixth formers
The truth is that, as the high levels of transitional and formula protection reach the end of their life in 2015, the reality of the 16 to 18 funding ‘level playing field’ will dissuade more and more schools and academies from offering a sixth form.
The irony is that successive administrations have promoted sixth forms as a major driver for school improvement and have encouraged all schools to have a sixth form no matter whether there is existing good local provision. Indeed, 138 new sixth forms have opened since 2011.
As all this unravels, it will be mainly sixth form colleges, general FE and tertiary colleges who will be expected to mop up abandoned sixth formers.
Fortunately, they are generally well placed to do so.
With the average sixth form college having 1,700 students they have a curriculum mix which can adapt to new demands and absorb additional students relatively easily. That is not to say there won’t be issues.
The lagged funding system makes it expensive to absorb extra students in the first year (you only get paid a year later) and there are more complexities when students transfer half way through their courses, as rarely do subject syllabi and examination boards dovetail into the existing provision with no guarantee that topics have been taught in the same order.
Most sixth form colleges have also outgrown their premises and pressure on space may require a swift Portakabin solution followed by a prompt capital injection to increase accommodation.
However, in general terms there are rarely insurmountable problems if and when a school/academy looks to offload its sixth form, provided there is a good quality sixth form college or general FE/tertiary nearby.
All this begs two glaring questions. What is the ‘best’ size for the sixth form? It is difficult, on curriculum grounds, to argue for a number less than 400 which rules out all but a handful of existing academies/schools and makes the case strongly for more sixth form colleges.
Secondly, what is a ‘sufficient’ funding rate to deliver an effective sixth form experience? Clearly the current level isn’t working and relies on subsidies. Even sixth form colleges, with their economies of scale, are struggling and colleges with fewer than 1,000 students are under great pressure.
Wouldn’t it be a final irony if it took the demise of the small school sixth form to rescue sixth form colleges most at risk from current policies on funding and sixth form proliferation.
Implementation of the government’s study programmes among providers surveyed by Ofsted has been “too slow,” the education watchdog’s director for skills has said.
Ofsted director for FE and skills Lorna Fitzjohn (pictured) made the comments during her lecture today at Spotlight youth centre in Poplar, East London.
Ms Fitzjohn used the lecture to release Ofsted’s report on study programmes, which were launched by the government last year and require learners aged 16 to 19 to demonstrate progression to a higher level of attainment, take part in work experience and study maths and English to level two if they have not done so already.
She began her lecture on the subject of youth unemployment, claiming that 1,184,000 young people aged between 16 and 24 did not have a full time job and were not attending full-time education or training courses, and that 955,000 of these were considered not in education, employment or training (Neet).
Ms Fitzjohn said: “The 16 to 19 study programmes, introduced on August 1 last year, seemed to hold some of the answers. They were developed to provide a step-change in provision for all young people. All learners aged 16 to 19 should now be on individualised programmes which support their progression to their next planned step, be it further, higher education, training or employment.
“We used inspection findings and specific visits to explore how well providers were adapting their provision in line with the new requirements. The survey [on youth participation] explored how well local authorities, schools, FE and skills providers and the voluntary and community sector ensure effective participation of all 16 to 19-year-olds in education, employment or training, especially those who are disadvantaged.
“Both surveys identified a few providers with good practice, but much more needs to be done to ensure a secure future for all of those aged 16 and beyond.”
She added: “I fully acknowledge that the field work for our survey, undertaken in the first six months of the programme, only captured providers’ initial stages of implementing this new provision, however, even though providers had a full year to prepare, inspectors found little evidence that the transformational step-change intending in schools, academies and FE and skills providers sampled.
“Too many of these providers had not changed what they offered sufficiently. They were not yet offering programmes which met the pre-requirements of the study programmes. In particular we were concerned that too many learners were not progressing to a higher level of study to meet their educational potential or career aspiration, particularly on those level one and two programmes.
“Most of the providers didn’t use work experience effectively. Inspectors also found that the introduction of these programmes had disappointingly led to little change to level three programmes. Many school and academy leaders seemed to be unaware of the requirements, and the implications for sixth form provision. Implementation in these contexts was too slow.”
She also used the lecture to call for extra powers for councils, which currently have a duty to record data on the status of young people, but don’t have the legal power to demand the information from providers.
She said: “We need to know the world we are in better. Understanding fully the extent of youth unemployment is made difficult by the lack of definitive data on the number of young people who are in fact Neet.
“Quite simply, there are far too many people who are un-accounted for. The category used for these people is ‘current activity unknown’. They are often called the unknowns. If you don’t know who these young people are, how can you support them?”
James Kewin
Sixth Form Colleges’ Association deputy chief executive James Kewin said: “It is very early days in the life of study programmes, but this report provides some useful initial insights and recommendations that will aid their development.
“The study programme model, particularly the flexibility it provides, has been welcomed by sixth form colleges. However, the accompanying reduction in funding (more than 15 per cent for some institutions) has been less welcome – greater flexibility has come at a very high price for sixth form colleges. The government has got the model right but the funding wrong for 16 to 19 education.
“Sixth form colleges will build on the findings in this report. At the same time, Ofsted and the Department for Education [DfE] should ensure that their inspection and audit regimes do not penalise institutions that are adopting the flexible and innovative approaches to delivery that the report encourages. There must also be an acceptance that it is colleges and schools that are best placed to make decisions about the content of individual study programmes.”
Lynne Sedgmore, executive director of the 157 Group, said: “Coming, as this survey does, less than one year into the implementation of the most
Lynne Sedgmore
radical reform to 16 to 19 education for many years, it is perhaps unsurprising to see Ofsted’s comments about the pace of change.
“We know from other countries with high-performing education systems that major change takes time to embed and to produce results, and we know there is more to do here.
“What is clear from this report is that all those with a stake in the success of the study programmes policy must work together to ensure its success – colleges, schools, employers, local authorities and the government. It is reassuring that today’s report acknowledges this, with a comprehensive package of recommendations for all.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “The number of young people Neet is at its lowest level since consistent records began. And it is encouraging that this report by Ofsted shows our plan for post-16 education is already having a positive impact just two terms after coming into effect.
“The report shows positive early signs that schools and colleges are entering young people for more rigorous qualifications. In fact, the latest figures show that the numbers of those over the age of 17 taking GCSEs in English and maths are rising, giving thousands more the vital knowledge and skills demanded by employers.
“Following Professor Alison Wolf’s ground-breaking review of vocational education we have scrapped thousands of low-quality qualifications so that only the gold-standard, employer-valued courses remain. And providers are now incentivised to ensure young people study valuable courses after we changed post-16 funding from per-qualification to per-student.”
See edition 110 of FE Week, dated Monday, September 15, for more coverage.
