A Lancashire-based training provider has been stripped of its £2.5m Skills Funding Agency contract following a damning Ofsted grading and monitoring visit.

Training for Travel (TfT) an independent provider offering workplace training in the travel sector to more than 2,000 learners, was deemed inadequate across the board by the education watchdog, following an inspection in September.

The agency terminated the contract, worth £2,501,343, plus a £401,025 24+ loan facility, with three months’ notice on October 9, two days before the company was due to be bought by Mardell Associates Ltd which trades as Smart Training.

An agency spokesperson said: “The agency took the decision to terminate its contract with TfT following an inadequate Ofsted inspection and an inadequate financial health assessment.

“This decision has been taken in line with the government’s rigour and responsiveness policy, which states that independent training providers can expect to see their contracts terminated, subject to protecting the interests of learners.”

Around 50 staff members are now faced with the possibility of losing their jobs.

The Ofsted inspection found that not enough learners completed their frameworks or made the progress they were capable of, too many learners were on programmes which did not enable them to reach their full potential and the quality of teaching and learning was “not good enough”.

It said: “Leadership and management throughout the company are not effective in bringing about improvement — too many areas for improvement identified at the previous inspection remain.”

A monitoring visit just over a month after the initial inspection found that “as of yet nothing has changed in respect of the TfT provision and the experience of the learners”, but expressed hope for the proposed buyout by Smart Training.

It said: “The company acquiring TfT is a good provider and has the capacity and capability to make improvements to the TfT provision.

“The transition strategy for acquisition and beyond is realistic and well thought out.

“A comprehensive and well-structured post-inspection action plan is in place which addresses all of the action points arising from the inspection.”

However, the withdrawal of the agency contract means the sale will now not go ahead.

Bev Platt,TfT chief operating officer, said: “We’ve not been treated properly.

“Ofsted said in its [monitoring visit] report that it was quite pleased with the solution we’d found… and the senior management team, myself included, was not transferring to Mardell.”

She claimed the financial health issue raised by Ofsted was “null and void”, as it was based on intercompany debt owed to TfT’s own holding company, which would not be recalled, and would be incorporated into Smart Training’s accounts.

“There’s nobody else in the travel sector, we’re the only ones, so who are they going to transition the learners to?” she said.

The agency spokesperson said: “The priority for the agency is to ensure minimal disruption to apprentices, learners and employers and we will work to ensure all learners and apprentices are transferred to alternative providers.”

The Skills Funding Agency will not remove City College Coventry’s Notice of Concern, despite Ofsted ruling it had made “reasonable progress” since its damning grade four inspection result.

The college received inadequate ratings across the board when it was inspected in March, but a monitoring visit carried out last month by the education watchdog found the college had begun to turn around.

However, an agency spokesperson told FE Week: “We will not be lifting the Notice of Concern.

“The notice requires that the overall effectiveness of the college, its leadership and management must be judged grade three or better at the time of re-inspection by Ofsted.”

Full re-inspections usually take place anywhere from a year to 15 months after the original inspection.

At the time of the college’s inadequate grading, then-principal Paul Taylor  told FE Week he was refusing to step down despite having previously had two other poor inspection results during his 16 years in post.

He was backed by Warwick Hall, chair of the governors at the college since 2001, who also carried on despite question marks over his continued role. Both men have since left the college.

Coventry’s monitoring visit report examined themes of self-assessment and improvement planning, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, work place learning and science, maths and business.

It also looked at progress made in strengthening governance, and found in all cases that “reasonable progress” had been made.

The monitoring visit report noted that stronger leadership and governance had played a role in the college’s improvement.

It said: “Much stronger leadership of teaching and learning has ensured that teachers are clear about their role and are being held accountable for making sure learners succeed.

“Teachers benefit from detailed feedback from observations which are more rigorous and accurate than previously.”

Interim principal John Hogg said: “This was a very important outcome for the college, laying down a significant marker on distance travelled since the last inspection.

“It is recognition of the hunger, passion and sheer hard work of the staff at the college.

“However, we are not getting carried away, there is still much to do and we’re getting on with it.”

The report also said college governance had been “strengthened” with the appointment of the new chair and vice chair of governors in July.

It added: “The decline in learners’ outcomes has been halted in most areas.”

New governors’ chair Maggie Galliers said: “We are obviously pleased with the outcomes from the monitoring visit which evidenced green shoots of recovery.

“However, green shoots are delicate and we need to nurture them by continuing to focus relentlessly on the student learning experience over the coming months.”

The Department for Education (DfE) has rejected calls by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (Niace) for a huge expansion in family learning to be paid for with Pupil Premium cash.

A Niace report spelling out the benefits for disadvantaged children, parents and carers of rolling out extra family learning schemes across the country was unveiled last month at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in London.

In a speech where he also expressed disappointment that no representatives from DfE attended the event, Niace chief executive David Hughes said he would like to see the expansion funded with 2.3 per cent of the Pupil Premium budget.

However, the DfE appears to have ruled that out. A spokesperson told FE Week: “We are taking decisive action to support disadvantaged pupils and close the unacceptable attainment gap between them and their peers.

“The Pupil Premium, which is increasing to £2.5bn a year, is extra funding to support those children who need the most help, from when they join school to when they finish GCSEs. It is completely separate to the range of measures the government has in place to support adult and family learning.”

Niace responded by pointing out Education Secretary Michael Gove expressed support for family learning in parliament six months ago.

During a House of Commons debate on literacy and numeracy, Caroline Dinenage, Tory MP for for Gosport, Stubbington, Lee on the Solent and Hill, asked him what what measures were being taken to support family learning programmes.

Mr Gove said: “If parents are given the opportunity to play a part in their child’s education and if they are given additional confidence in their own grasp of literacy and numeracy, the whole family can benefit from it.

“It is a commitment of myself and the MP for West Suffolk [Matthew Hancock], who has responsibility for skills and adult learning, to make sure that family learning programmes can be supported as effectively as possible.”

Mr Hughes said he still hoped to be able to convince the government to accept Niace’s proposals through a discussion on family learning he is set to hold with Skills Minister Matthew Hancock in a few weeks’ time.

He said: “We know that at the highest levels at the DfE there is support for family learning, exemplified by what the Secretary of State said back in April.

“We also know from working with local authorities, such as Sheffield City Council, the positive impact family learning has had on both children’s and their parents’ and carers’ attainment.

“We are very much looking forward to meeting the skills minister soon, where we will be discussing our proposals in more detail.”

The DfE spokesperson added that it had not sent anyone to the Niace family learning launch event because, “representatives from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills — the department responsible for adult learning — attended the event on behalf of government.”

Figures released this morning show just 239 loans for apprenticeships have been applied for  since the scheme began — 162 in September.

The figures are dramatically below government forecasts, in which around 25,000 applications for apprenticeship loans were expected this academic year (by July 31, 2014).

Provisional figures for the last academic year (ending July 31, 2013), before 24+ advanced learning loans were introduced, indicate there were 112,300 level three and above apprenticeship starts for those aged 25 and over.

A department for Business, Innovation and Skills spokesperson told FE Week this morning: “We are closely monitoring the take up of these loans and will continue to do so. We recognise that under the loans system where we have had over 49,000 applications in total, the current figures for apprenticeships are low. However, apprentices do not typically begin their role with the academic year so applications could increase throughout the year.”

Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association and Employment and Learning providers said: “There are changes we could make to the system to improve the position but we need a more radical solution sooner rather than later to ensure the apprenticeship programme is not damaged further.”

David Hughes, chief executive of NIACE said: “We are extremely concerned that this radical funding change has resulted in a massive shift in delivery. This shows how price-sensitive learners and employers are and the impact that has on choices people make about learning.

“This week the Government announced ambitious plans for the future of Apprenticeships, but these figures show that action is needed now to rescue the programme for adults over the age of 24.”

Read more in the next edition of FE Week.

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has been hit with further criticism over “serious difficulties” faced by colleges because of delays in the release of critical new software.

Lynne Sedgmore, 157 Group executive director, has written to the SFA today to add her voice to growing sector concerns about the wait for new programmes that generate the value of provision delivered.

Her letter follows another from Association of Colleges chief executive Martin Doel, who wrote to the SFA last week to express his concerns about the software update.

Mrs Sedgmore said:  “The problems with immediate implementation are causing serious difficulties for my members and it is imperative that they be resolved without further delay.”

Colleges and training providers have been expecting the Data Collections and Funding Transformation programme in which the Funding Information System (Fis) replaces Learner Information Suite (Lis).

Meanwhile, the Learning Aim Reference Service (Lars) is to replaces Learning Aim Reference Application (Lara).

But while an updated version of Fis was released today, allowing providers to test whether their data entries were correct, there is still no Lars, which complements the new system with funding values.

The delay in supplying providers with the full software system means providers now have just eight working days to check tens of thousands of Individualised Learner Records, rather than the usual fortnight.

“My members are extremely concerned about the ongoing problems with the Fis software and its effect on the 2013/14 academic year,” it said in Mrs Sedgmore letter, seen by FE Week.

These problems, said Mrs Sedgmore, included being unable to accurately calculate income generated from adult enrolments, enter into sub-contracts or calculate the ‘rollover’ value of students.

“These are all very real and serious problems for the sector and I hope we can work together to an immediate resolution,” she added.

Mr Doel called for “concerted action” from the SFA to rectify the situation in an open letter sent to its chief executive Kim Thorneywork.

“Colleges need a clear, non-technical statement to be issued which explains to all those interested in [agency] funded activity what the situation is, plus concerted action to ensure the current implementation timetable is met,” he wrote.

Mr Doel added communication from the agency’s Data Service to colleges and stakeholders had been “insufficient and late”.

And his concerns about communication were echoed by Mrs Sedgmore, who further wrote: “In general, communication has been poor. My members would like short, clear, concise information about how the problems will be resolved and request a new timeline and clear indication of when the software will be released.”

Nobody from the SFA was available for comment as to what was causing the new system delay.

More information on this story will be found in next week’s edition of FE Week.

The Association of Colleges’ boss has written to the Skills Funding Agency expressing concerns over software funding delays and outlining the problems providers are facing. Click here to read the letter.

The Association’s chief executive, Martin Doel, called for “concerted action” from the agency to rectify problems caused by a delay in releasing software to calculate and track colleges’ funding, in an open letter sent to its chief executive Kim Thorneywork yesterday.

In the letter, Mr Doel said: “Colleges need a clear, non-technical statement to be issued which explains to all those interested in [agency] funded activity what the situation is, plus concerted action to ensure the current implementation timetable is met.”

Mr Doel added communication from the agency’s Data Service to colleges and stakeholders had been “insufficient and late”.

The release of the Funding Information System (FIS), the software system for checking data errors and calculating funding, has been delayed by almost two months.

Currently, only a test version of the programme, FIS Beta, is available, which does not calculate funding.

The updated version was due to have been published yesterday, but instead, the beta version will be taken offline and re-uploaded with some updates on October 28, leaving providers just eight working days to check tens of thousands of Individualised Learner Records, rather than the usual two weeks.

Mr Doel listed problems faced by providers as a result of the delay in his letter.

These included being unable to monitor enrolment performance or use of agency funds, a lack of management information for governing body meetings, and a lack of information to help colleges pay partners or subcontractors.

He also said it had put “unacceptable pressure on college staff in a month when the final 2013-14 ILR data was also brought forward.”

Mr Doel concluded by urging the agency to reflect on the issue, once the problems had been solved, perhaps through a report to its Audit and Risk Committee.

The funding software delay has been met with anger from the sector.

FE Week is still making enquiries with the SFA about when the Learning Aims Reference System (LARS), which is also in the process of being updated, will be available.

A new training course is set to be launched to prepare FE lecturers for a massive expansion in students who will need to be taught English GCSE.

The Department for Education (DfE) has confirmed it is developing an English enhancement programme to help FE lecturers teach the subject at GCSE.

This is being developed with the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) and the Association of Centres for Excellence in College Education (ACETT) for teachers.

It is understood the programme could be launched as early as spring next year.

A spokesperson for ETF, said: “The DfE does have an English continued professional development course in development, but delivery models and arrangements are yet to be confirmed.

“The foundation [ETF] will work to make the programme as accessible and affordable for providers as possible.

“What this may look like will be determined as the programme develops.”

This comes after the ETF announced three weeks ago it will subsidise a new GCSE maths enhancement programme, which will limit the cost of the course to be launched in November to £100 per person.

The courses are needed because the government has announced learners aged 16 will no longer be able to drop maths or English, unless they have achieved at least grade C in their GCSEs.

This will mean thousands more teenagers having to be taught GCSE maths and English in FE.

An ACETT spokesperson said: “An English enhancement programme is currently being developed, with a view to launch it in the new year.

“We cannot go into details at present because it is only the early stages, but it will serve a similar purpose to the maths enhancement programme, in that it help prepare FE lecturers to teach GCSEs.”

John Westwell, from the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, which is developing the maths enhancement course, said it will focus on areas including algebra, trigonometry, geometry and statistics.

He added the course will specifically look at the most effective ways of preparing learners for resits.