The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) is looking for a general FE college to step in after a major private provider pulled out early from London’s £17m prison education contract, FE Week can reveal.

In the latest example of a college taking on provision where the private sector has waked away from a multimillion pound Skills Funding Agency contract, welfare-to-work provider A4e has given notice it was terminating its Offender Learning and Skills Service (Olass) contract for a dozen London prisons — although it would continue providing the service until an alternative provider was found.

It had won London’s Olass4 contract in August 2012 and had been expected to deliver the training until July 2016. It had won the work with Kensington and Chelsea College having delivered all three of London’s previous prison education contracts since the Olass system was first rolled out across the country in 2006.

An A4e spokesperson said: “Over the last two years, delivering the service in London has become extremely challenging due to a number of constraints beyond our control and which could not have been anticipated when the contract was let. These have had a heavy impact on learner attendance, completion and achievements.

“We have concluded, in order not to continue to deliver the contract at a loss, to give notice to terminate our provision of Olass 4 in London.”

It comes just over a year after Newcastle College Group’s Intraining division took on the apprenticeship contract for supermarket giant Morrison from Elmfield, which later went into administration, and nearly two years after West Nottinghamshire College saved more than 100 jobs when it took on apprenticeship providers Pearson in Practice. And Newcastle College struck a similar deal in March 2008 when it acquired Carter and Carter.

An SFA spokesperson told FE Week that it was looking to return London’s prison education to a general FE college provider. She said that the three other providers to have won Olass4 — the Manchester College, Milton Keynes College and Weston College — had been invited to “express an interest” in taking on the A4E work.

She said: “We have invited providers who were awarded contracts through the original Olass4 open and competitive tendering process to express an interest in delivering the service in London.

“Following this stage we carried out an assessment of the capability and capacity of those organisations to take-up this contract and discussions are now under way to secure ongoing provision.

“We expect to announce which successor organisation will be awarded the London Olass contract in good time for handover of responsibility by December.”

She added no other providers would be invited to submit bids.

And it looks like Manchester College could be getting the contract with Weston and Milton Keynes appearing to have distanced themselves from the opportunity.

Dr Paul Phillips, principal at Weston College which provides prison education in the South West England, indicated to FE Week that he would not be pursuing the contract.

He said: “It would be our intention to expand our offender learning portfolio in the future rather than now.”

A spokesperson for Milton Keynes College, which holds the South Central and East Midlands Olass4 contracts, said it would “not be pursuing the contract at this time”.

The Manchester College, which holds the North East, North West, Kent and Sussex, and Yorkshire and Humberside Olass4 contracts, declined to comment.

The A4E spokesperson said that transfer of undertakings protection of employment (TUPE) rules were expected to apply to its 400 teaching and support staff in London, adding that the company would continue to run its Olass4 contract for 14 prisons in the East of England.

Rod Clark, Prisoners’ Education Trust chief executive, said: “The delivery of education for prisoners across the country is being seriously affected by overcrowding and staff shortages which are leaving people locked-up for longer, so they can’t get to class and providers struggle to meet their [payment] targets. It may be that this latest decision by A4e to stop working in London’s prisons is a result of these problems.”

Efforts to simplify FE funding and bureaucracy by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) are under the National Audit Office (NAO) microscope.

The NAO has launched a probe, called Further Education and skills sector — the simplification plan, with findings due for publication this autumn.

“The study will examine the work done by BIS to simplify the way in which the FE and skills sector is funded and overseen, while maintaining an effective assurance regime,” a spokesperson for the NAO told FE Week.

“It will follow up on a number of the issues raised by the [House of Commons] Public Accounts Committee [ PAC] in its March 2012 report on reducing bureaucracy in FE in England.”

The 2012 report from the PAC raised concern there was “no clear accountability” for reducing bureaucracy in FE with the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and Education Funding Agency (EFA) “separately accountable” for funding.

It added neither BIS nor the Department for Education (DfE) had taken “ultimate responsibility” for co-ordinating efforts to cut bureaucracy across the sector and suggested BIS should take the lead.

The PAC also raised concerns that there was insufficient appreciation among the government departments and funding agencies of the cost and inconvenience to providers caused by having to deal with different bodies for pre 16-year-olds, 16 to 18-year-olds, 19+ and prison education.

The NAO raised similar concerns about a lack of co-ordination between government departments and funding agencies in its report on reducing bureaucracy in FE just four months earlier.

And in February this year it produced a report that warned the EFA was in danger of becoming “overloaded” as financial constraints, staffing difficulties and an increased workload took hold.

The NAO spokesperson added it would also look at the impact of additional issues that had arisen over the last two years — which it is thought could include the problems at the EFA, apprenticeship reform and the transfer of skills capital funding from the SFA to local enterprise partnerships from April next year.

It is understood that a number of colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs), representative bodies including the Association of Colleges (AoC), the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) and BIS and the DfE have already been consulted.

Julian Gravatt, AoC assistant chief executive, said: “It is good that the NAO is following up their earlier study on reducing bureaucracy in FE. In the years since the first report, progress has been made by government and funding agencies in some areas, including removing unnecessary regulations and rewriting their own rulebooks.

“But there’s a risk that current reform plans for apprenticeships and qualifications make matters more complicated and unstable again.”

Stewart Segal, AELP chief executive, said: “We welcome the NAO study because we firmly believe that further reductions in bureaucracy for providers would result in them being able to deliver more sustainable employment outcomes for young people and adults.

“We have members who deliver programmes for DfE, BIS and DWP and more coherent procurement across those departments is needed together with more consistent contract management and sharing of evidence.

“Programmes must be delivered by those providers with a proven ability, with a level playing field for all providers. Performance and contract management systems are different for colleges and ILPs, but based on common principles.

“As well as less bureaucratic, the contract performance process must be more open with clear and consistent priorities.  We will continue to lobby for a more transparent and open intervention policy for independent training providers.”

A spokesperson for the 157 Group said: “We believe that the government should examine much more closely the disconnect between policy intent and policy implementation.

“Funding and accountability changes which have been intended to create more freedom have, over the past few years, invariably ended up with colleges feeling more, rather than less, constrained.”

A joint statement from the funding authorities, BIS and DfE said: “The findings of the report will be reviewed when it is published in the autumn.”

Visit www.nao.org.uk/contact-us/contact-us to contribute, directing emails to NAO director Peter Gray and audit manager Phil Hyde. BIS declined to comment before the NAO findings were published.

The new leadership team at inadequate-rated South London college Lesoco has been praised by the FE Commissioner, it has been claimed.

Dr David Collins was back at the college last month having initially been sent into the college by then-Skills Minister Matthew Hancock in January after it had been given a grade four Ofsted inspection result.

And, following criticism of the college leadership following his first visit,  he is understood to have been complimentary about those at the top now with ex-Warwickshire College principal and former 157 Group chair Ioan Morgan the current interim consultant principal — officially employed by the Association of Colleges’ (AoC) recruitment arm AoC Create.

He took over from former principal Maxine Room, who announced in May that she would step down the following month.

And according to the college, Dr Collins concluded after his latest visit that, “an interim leadership team with the mix of skills and experience required to address the quality issues within the college is now in place”.

He is said to have added: “In the weeks since the interim team have been in place, the pace of change has rapidly increased. Communication issues with staff have greatly improved.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said Dr Collins’ follow-up visit had resulted in a “stock-taking report” that would not be made public.

It comes two months after Ofsted’s third and latest monitoring visit report, which said the 17,600-learner college was making “insufficient progress” in key areas.

It said Lesoco, formerly grade three Lewisham College and grade four Southwark College, had made insufficient progress to improve quality of teaching, learning and assessments, learner attendance rates, or in strengthening tutorial and learning support arrangements. However, it had made “reasonable progress” in improving maths and English provision.

But that monitoring visit took place before Mr Morgan was in place. The only inspection at Lesoco with Mr Morgan at the helm has been that of Dr Collins last month, and his positive conclusions were welcomed.

“We very much welcome Dr Collins’s input and are taking full account of his guidance, along with that of Ofsted, which have been both helpful and constructive and have given us a clear route forward,” said Mr Morgan.

“Our focus is to put the student first in everything we do, which means not just putting the college on a firm financial footing but also ensuring that teaching in all subject areas is carefully observed and improved where needed.

“We have some excellent teaching in the college and we will ensure that, where standards are at their very highest, the approaches behind the best-quality teaching are shared in other subject areas.

“I continue to have confidence in the staff and I’m pleased to say that morale has improved since we have started focusing on the service we provide to our students free of distractions. I am a firm believer that managers need to listen to staff and learners if a college is to excel.”

The number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) in England is at its lowest quarterly level for nearly a decade, according to government figures out today.

There were 809,000 16 to 24-year-old Neets for April and June — the lowest since 2005 and down 125,000 on the same period last year.

And the figures for 16 to 18-year-olds have been credited with showing the success of the government’s raising of the participation age (RPA) policy — which requires young people to continue in education or training beyond the age of 16 — with a fall in the age group’s Neet figures on the same period last year by 22,000, to 146,000.

Meanwhile participation for 16-year-olds was at 95.3 per cent — up 1.2 percentage points compared to the same period in 2013.

Skills Minister Nick Boles welcomed the figures as “hugely encouraging,” and evidence that government reforms were “properly equipping young people for life in modern Britain”.

However, they come the same week that a report from Lancaster University’s Work Foundation said the RPA was in danger of becoming a “lost opportunity” if a number of problems were not addressed.

Beth Foley, author of Staying Power: Making the raising of the participation age a policy success (pictured below right), argued for extra investment in careers advice and vocational qualifications.

She wrote: “The quality of many vocational options remains questionable.

“While a number of recent changes to provision have been announced — including the introduction of study programmes, traineeships and reforms to apprenticeships — there are still concerns about take-up, quality and market value of available options. Such issues are exacerbated in an environment where funding for FE has seen significant reductions.”

Pointing at recent budget cuts, including the 17.5 per cent cut to the full-time funding rate for 18-year-olds, she said 16 to 18-year-old learners were funded at £4,645 per head in 2012/13, while those aged 14 to 16 got £5,620.

She added: “With providers under RPA having to address new challenges around provision, tracking and learner engagement, we recommend that government reconsiders the justifications for the significant gap that currently exists between spending per head for 11 to 16-year-olds and those aged 16 to 18 now affected by RPA, and the ringfencing only of the schools budget.”

The recommendation had echoes of a Lib Dem pledge made by Nick Clegg two months ago, when he said he wanted to ringfence the entire education budget for two to 19-year-olds — although there would be no 16 to 19 ringfence within that. The current budget is only protected for learners aged five to 16.

And the Association of Colleges in May described the ringfencing of school funding as “unsustainable” as it predicted a departmental budget black hole of £4.6bn by 2018/19.

Nevertheless, today’s Neet figures show there are now 7,000 fewer 16 to 18-year-old Neets than when comparable records began in 2000, and 91,000 fewer than when 16 to 18-year-old Neet levels peaked in 2009.

Mr Boles said: “Today’s figures are hugely encouraging and show how this government’s reforms are properly equipping young people for life in modern Britain.

“With the number of young people not in education, employment or training at their lowest levels for nine years we are seeing the huge progress being made to ensure they have the skills to pursue high-quality careers.

“This shows how our long-term economic plan is working and we will continue to focus on securing young people’s future.”

The government has backed down on its GCSE entry requirement plans for early years educator apprenticeships.

It had been planning to make grade C or above English and maths a requirement for course starts from next month, rejecting Functional Skills quals, as reported in FE Week in February.

The Department for Education (DfE) claimed its rejection of Functional Skills would “raise the overall quality of literacy and numeracy skills of those entering the workforce”.

But in a new apprenticeship standard released today as part of the trailblazer programme, the GCSE requirement was shifted to completion of the course.

The National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) also confirmed GCSE would be a completion requirement from September until the new apprenticeship standard comes into effect in early 2015.

The move has been welcomed within the sector, in which fears had emerged the GCSE requirement for entry might have put many learners off.

Marc Ozholl (pictured right), funding and apprenticeship specialist at the Council for Awards in Care, Health and Education (Cache), told FE Week: “The sector has been campaigning for some time for GCSEs to be a completion requirement rather than an entry requirement, to ensure there are no barriers for the large number of talented and dedicated early years learners wishing to undertake the early years educator apprenticeship.

“We are pleased that the concerns of the sector have been addressed and believe that the decision will have a positive impact on the quality of the workforce, as well as ensuring there is sufficient provision of quality care in a wide variety of childcare settings.”

Concerns have emerged at the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) that FE and skills providers may have been claiming funding they weren’t entitled to.

Una Bennett, SFA deputy director for funding systems, has written to providers about the ILR funding codes used for learners aged 24 and above after a review uncovered full funding claims below level three, where most provision is co-funded.

An SFA spokesperson told FE Week: “Following the review of data submitted to us for provision at entry level, level one and level two for learners aged 24 and over, we have identified a number of cases where providers are claiming full funding for a learner, but it is not clear from the data that the learner has an entitlement to full funding.

“There may be a number of reasons for this and the learner may in fact be entitled to full funding. We have asked providers to review their data and ensure it reflects the information held in learning agreements, correcting where necessary, and asking them to contact us if they need further advice and support.”

Full funding can be claimed for a 24+ learner in several circumstances below level three and they are outlined in the SFA’s Funding Rules 2013/14, page 109, points 41.4 to 41.7.

The SFA spokesperson said these circumstances were where the full funding entitlement applied to any eligible learner aged 19 or older (usually in a particular identified group), rather than being a rule specifically for a 24+ learner.

The circumstances include learners who need help to move into work, progress in work or remove a barrier to getting into work and who are receiving Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA); receiving Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and are in the work-related activity group (WRAG); receiving Universal Credit because they are unemployed, and who are mandated (required) to undertake skills training; or, in custody who are released on temporary licence (RoTL) following learning outside a prison environment and not funded through Olass (Offender Learning and Skills Service).

It also includes individuals who are unemployed and receiving any state benefits not listed above but who want to enter employment and believe skills training will help them to do so. This includes individuals receiving Universal Credit who are not mandated (required) to undertake skills training.

Outside of these, 24+ learners can be only be co-funded for other listed learning aims up to and including level two.

Stephen Hewitt, Morley College’s strategic funding, enrolments and examinations manager, said: “It seems odd the SFA is contacting individual providers about this when no clear rule-breaking is taking place.

“There are, as the SFA states, a large number of reasons where learners over 24 should be in receipt of full funding and all the providers I’ve been in touch with have had to exert additional effort to prove they are doing the right thing over and above any other data requests or their own data checks.

“Everyone I’ve discussed this with has understood the rules and applied them to their learners correctly. I’ve heard of no great outcry from auditors about this issue.  Of course, the reason SFA can’t tell why this cohort of learners are being fully funded is because they removed the field ‘Reason for Fee Remission’ from the ILR four or five years ago because they claimed they didn’t need to know, so it’s rather ironic that they’re now asking providers to check this status in particular.”

The SFA spokesperson said:  “We do not have any plans to bring back the ‘Reason for Fee Remission’ field. This field was removed as it was not required for funding processes.

“Providers should review their data to ensure it reflects the information held in their learning agreements and that their learners are eligible for all funding, as per the agency’s Funding Rules.  Providers can contact the agency directly should they require any further support or guidance.”

Details of long-awaited new English for Speakers of Other Languages (Esol) qualifications due to run from next month have been finalised, FE Week can exclusively reveal.

Awarding organisations (AOs) including NOCN and City & Guilds have agreed their latest Skills for Life (SfL) offers with Ofqual.

The quals have been under development since February last year when the Skills Funding Agency set out the principles to shape the future of SfL Esol.

A number of AOs, including Ascentis and Cambridge English Language Assessment, have been working with NOCN to produce a suite of qualifications, ranging from six (reading), nine (writing) and 12 (speaking & listening) credits, to the full certificate of all three at 27 credits.

City & Guilds developed its new suite independently and has come up with a slightly different version, with quals in reading, writing and speaking & listening ranging from nine to 12 credits and the combined certificate of all three ranging from 29 to 34 credits.

The new qualifications had been due last month at which point the SFA was expected to cease funding for the old quals.

However, it said in May that it would fund both old and new Esol SfL qualifications until January, with “existing” Esol SfL quals funded in 2014/15 at the 2013/14 rates.

Graham Hasting-Evans, NOCN managing director, told FE Week: “Our new Esol SfL awards are six credits for reading, nine for writing and 12 for speaking & listening, and there is a combined certificate-sized qualification of 27 credits.

“These qualifications will allow providers greater flexibility in providing smaller qualifications for each of the components of Esol rather than just speaking & listening, while still allowing accreditation for the full Esol curriculum at a specific level.

“The sizes of the qualifications were agreed by the group of awarding organisations which worked together to develop the new qualifications following consultation with providers and other interested parties. Each credit has 10 guided learning hours attached, regardless of the level of the qualification.”

The other AOs working with NOCN were EMD (Qualifications) Ltd, English Speaking Board (International) Ltd, Pearson Education Ltd and Trinity College London.

“We sought advice from the SFA regarding whether funding will continue to be in place until the end of December 2014 for the current NQF qualifications now that all our QCF qualifications are approved by Ofqual,” said Mr Hasting-Evans.

“The SFA confirmed that funding will be available for both suites up to the end of December, although it stated that it ‘would expect providers to switch to the QCF versions as soon as they are able’.

“Therefore, NOCN will allow registrations until the end of December on the ‘old’ NQF qualifications, while also allowing access to the ‘new’ QCF versions if centres wish to start using the qualifications.”

A spokesperson for City & Guilds said: “Our new suite of Esol Skills for Life qualifications will be launching on September 1 to anyone based in the UK who wants to improve their understanding and use of written and spoken English.

“It will include single-unit awards in reading, writing and speaking & listening, as well as a full-mode certificate, combining the three units.

“The qualifications vary slightly in size, depending on the level the individual is taking. All of the single-unit awards range from nine to 12 credits, whereas the full-mode certificates range from 29 to 34 credits.

“To ensure the transition is as smooth as possible, centres currently approved for the old (NQF-based) Esol Skills for Life suite will be given automatic approval for the new qualifications.”

She added: “We are allowing dual registration up to the end of December — the older qualifications have been extended until December and so will also be available alongside the new ones.”