The report on plans to reduce the full-time funding rate for 18-year-old learners to 17.5 per cent less than 16 and 17-year-olds was published by the Department for Education today — nearly a month after it was promised by Education Secretary Michael Gove.
It reveals that general FE colleges will be among the worst-hit of all institutions — with an average reduction in funding of 3 per cent. For land-based colleges it’s 2.5 per cent, for commercial and charitable providers it’s 1.5 per cent, and for sixth form colleges it’s 1.2 per cent.
But for school sixth forms it’s just 0.4 per cent. However, the report does not say how much the funding rate cut is expected to save.
Nevertheless, it does also reveal that four options for a cut were considered. Firstly, a reduction in funding across the board for 16 to 19-year-olds, secondly a reduction in funding for disadvantaged learners, and thirdly a reduction in funding for apprenticeships — but it was considered that the fourth option of cutting for 18-year-olds would be the “least detrimental” option.
It was further revealed that no decision to reduce the impact of the policy could be made until the end of next month at the earliest.
In an open letter to Education Select Committee chair Graham Stuart, Mr Gove said: “As we discussed, the department’s budget has been cut; this means that we are in the unfortunate position of having to make tough decisions about 16 to 19 funding.
“I looked at the options available, and came to the conclusion that reducing funding for full-time 18-year-olds was the least detrimental option, though certainly regrettable.
“I offered to share with the committee the impact assessment of the reduction in funding for 18-year-olds.”
He added: “I told the committee that I would consider options to mitigate the impact of the decision.
“I will do this, but I need to look at it in the context of the 2014/15 academic year demand on the 16 to 19 budget, and because this is based on lagged student numbers we will not have firm figures until the end of February.”
The report highlighted the fact the biggest impact would be in London, the South East and North West, which have the highest percentage of learners over the age of 18.
One of the main concerns raised about the proposal was that black and minority ethnic (BME) students would be disproportionately affected.
And although the report accepts that there is a higher proportion of BME learners among full-time 18-year-old learners than the total 16 to 18-year-old student population, it does not say how adversely they will be affected.
The plans have been condemned by sector groups such as the Association of Colleges (AoC), the 157 Group, the National Union of Students, the Sixth Form Colleges Association and the Association of School and College Leaders.
A letter originally sent out by the Education Funding Agency last year said the decision had been made as those who were 18 years old at the start of the academic year “will already have benefited from two years of post-16 education and will not therefore need as much non-qualification provision within their study programmes as 16 and 17-year-olds”.
Work has started on a £9.5m scheme to transform Northumberland College.
A new state-of-the-art engineering workshop is set to be completed by this summer.
It will be home to the college’s training centre for advanced manufacturing, which will prepare young people for careers in research and development, automative, and aerospace industries.
Work has also started on a new teaching block and a tractor workshop, both of which should be ready for use later this year.
Stuart Cutforth, principal of the college, said: “We are very excited. The new facilities will greatly enhance the teaching and learning facilities for our students and local employers.
“The new engineering workshop will provide training to meet the demands of growing industries in our region.”
Main pic: Stuart Cutforth, principal of Northumberland College, and Andy McLeod, managing director of the construction firm doing the work, Robertson
Dudley College has been praised by Ofsted for its impressive student support services.
Inspectors carried out a social care inspection on the Midland college in November last year and their report, which has now been published, gave it an “outstanding” rating.
They assessed the overall level of support for learners, promotion of diversity, and standards of residential care.
The report said learners felt safe and well-supported by the college’s knowledgeable lecturers.
It also praised the college’s Students Union for welcoming learners of all ages, nationalities and ability.
Lowell Williams, principal at Dudley College, said: “We are delighted to have achieved an outstanding grade.”
Main pic: Krishna Singh, Dudley College’s international operations manager, celebrating with students Bruna Mirella Martins, aged 20, Harpreet Singh, 23, Lara Kapfer, 17, and Sanjeev Ohri, director of worldwide operations
Weston College performing arts student Jordan Gulvin felt the love at a talent show after belting out a Donna Summer disco anthem.
He had not originally planned to take part in Weston’s Got Talent and only went along to the competition’s heats to support fellow Weston student Rich Pedler, aged 19, who impressed with his beatbox skills.
But the 20-year-old ended-up stunning the audience with his falsetto rendition of the disco diva’s classic hit, I Feel Love.
Both of them made it to the final next month at Blakehay Theatre, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.
Jordan said: “I just went down to watch Rich and got persuaded into doing it. I gave it all I had, then left because I thought I wouldn’t get through. I was amazed when I heard I had.”
Main pic: Talented students Rich Pedler and Jordan Gulvin
Just over a year ago, South Worcestershire College was deemed by Ofsted to be inadequate. A host of measures, including a possible merger, were subsequently set in motion before Ofsted inspectors revisited and handed out a new, good grading, explains Viv Gillespie.
We were graded as good in our Ofsted inspection report in early December having been graded as inadequate in October the previous year. This represents the fastest turnaround from a grade four to grade two.
The grade four inspection report found, in particular, failings in leadership and management and in poor outcomes for students.
Having arrived as interim principal in January 2013 it was clear that we had to address quality improvement as quickly as possible to result in improved outcomes for learners.
I was aware that the outcomes for 2012-2013 would be the only ones taken into account for the re-inspection.
This meant that a lot of new systems, and approaches to teaching and learning had to be introduced very quickly.
Building the confidence of staff and the whole leadership was essential as everyone was shocked by the inadequate result, which had not been anticipated.
I was also aware that Ofsted was likely to look at how well the 16 to 19 study programme had been introduced, so planning was started very early for its implementation.
A robust and rigorous plan was put in place, with crucial key information enabling our governors to monitor and challenge the progress.
The first priority was about raising expectations and ambition for the college.
The second was an improved set of processes, measures and data. Milestones judged effective progress against areas of improvement and flagged-up any ‘early danger’ signs.
Everyone was shocked by the inadequate result, which had not been anticipated
For example, the expansion and systematic monitoring of ‘learners at risk’ really helped to improve retention and achievement.
The third area was teaching, learning and assessment. We designed a set of ‘prompt cards’ for staff to help simplify the key ‘must-haves’. For example, ‘ways to embed equality and diversity’.
Within the year, long course success rates rose to 87.5 per cent and will position us within the top results for 2012/13.
High grades also improved dramatically — a reflection of the improved ambition and aspiration of students and of the staff who have enabled these achievements.
The improvement activities were underpinned by staff development, coaching, transference of good practice and the use of some good external support.
As a small college, resources are very limited and we were in no position to throw money at the problems.
While of course wanting to learn from external best practice, it was up to us to take responsibility and enable change across the organisation.
It is also fairly unusual for a college in the process of recovery from a grade four to start to undergo its own options review process.
We are mid-way through the process of reviewing options to ascertain a sustainable future for the college.
I was asked to stay on by governors in order to see the options process through to a successful conclusion.
I have been very aware that the complex project must not divert attention from our core business of delivering high-quality education and training.
It is an absolute credit to staff that they have worked so hard to bring about the college’s Ofsted good grading while being in a period of such uncertainty about the future.
The Ofsted report is very complimentary about the improvements made and their positive impact on learners.
I am pleased that Ofsted recognised in the report that staff morale, confidence and self-esteem are high and are reflected in the high level of support they provide to students and apprentices in a safe and caring environment.
The report also stressed the focus that the college gives on our students gaining good employability skills and accessing relevant employment.
Viv Gillespie, interim principal, South Worcestershire College
Skills Minister Matthew Hancock has laid the blame for the Skills Funding Agency’s new payment software fiasco on providers’ “own internal management information systems”.
He claimed providers were at fault as they struggled to work out what they are owed for delivery of education and training — calculated with the agency’s new and troubled funding information system (Fis).
It comes after the agency itself had acknowledged and held its hands up to problems with the new system.
But, in a written parliamentary answer over the issue [also available to view on the WhatDoTheyKnow website], Mr Hancock wrote: “There have been some issues for colleges and other providers in calculating funding due to them where their own internal management information systems have not been able to report accurately their management position.”
Management information system (MIS) officers have repeatedly told FE Week of the strain and financial burden of trying to prepare and submit monthly funding data returns through Fis.
Prime and sub-contractors with the agency, and also Education Funding Agency (EFA), use Fis in the hope of generating the values of provision delivered.
But a message on the agency website conceded it had been plagued with problems. It read: “We apologise for any difficulties caused by the delayed delivery of the data collection system and technical issues.
“We are committed to ensuring you can make accurate data returns, recognising that key funding and allocations calculations are based on them.”
The problems prompted a written question to the minister from Tory MP Caroline Dinenage.
She asked: “What representations has the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills [BIS] received from colleges and other providers on (a)funding data not being reconciled by the Skills Funding Agency’s systems and (b) resulting delays in payment to private providers?”
Mr Hancock replied blaming providers, adding: “The agency is moving to a new data collection system that underpins a more streamlined and less complex funding system.
“The system will remove the need for thousands of different funding values for each course and qualification, replace old and complex funding formulas with a single cash figure and replace the different funding systems with a single one.”
He continued: “BIS and the agency have been working with representatives from the sector to develop the new system.
“The agency has continued to pay all providers and colleges on time. The agency is not aware of any late payments being made by the agency to private training providers.”
Is the minister right to say providers are at fault? Please leave your comments below.
Mature student Billy Plimbley recalled most of his teachers thought he was either “thick” or simply not paying attention at school. It was only after he enrolled South Leicestershire College more than 30 years later that he discovered his problems had been caused by dyslexia, writes Paul Offord.
eading blue letters against a black background might sound like a headache-inducing task to most, but for 51-year-old Billy Plimbley it has proved his ticket to an English education.
Billy, from South Wigston, in the Midlands, registered for a level one English functional skills course at nearby South Leicestershire College in 2012.
Despite being a capable student, lecturer Karen Gregson noticed the dad-of-two found reading difficult.
“She saw there was a problem,” said former bus driver Billy.
“She offered to carry out some tests and found that I was dyslexic. Then she set about finding what help I needed.
“It was taking me an awful long time to read. They tried different coloured transparent screens for me to read through.
“It turned out I can read best when there are black letters on a blue background.”
He went on to pass level one easily and then level two within a year.
College bosses were so impressed with his progress that they named him English
student of the year at the recent South Leicestershire College student star
awards.
He said: “Now I would like to eventually do a degree and go on to teach people with similar problems to myself in a college.”
He added: “Dyslexia was pretty much unheard of when I left school in 1978. I scraped through most of my CSEs with the lowest possible pass marks and was always playing catch-up. The teachers would say I wasn’t listening or paying attention, or that I was deliberately being thick.”
Billy the Coventry schoolboy, in 1973
Mrs Gregson said: “Billy had a bad time at school and would assume he couldn’t do things at the start.”But I noticed that while Billy answered questions very well, he was struggling to read. There was obviously a discrepancy there, so we did some tests on him.”
She added: “He grew and grew in confidence after that and was so enthusiastic, which inspired everyone else in his classes to do the best they could too.”
Billy hardly read any novels before he was diagnosed, but now places his blue transparent screen over the pages to help him understand what’s on the pages.
He said: “I used to read a bit at school but gave up when I started work. Now my nose is hardly ever out of a book.”
Billy, who is father to Kyle, 21, and Melissa, 22, spent his working life in a variety of jobs in the catering sector, as a builder’s labourer, and driving buses.
He said: “I was made redundant as a bus driver and there were no vacancies around at the time. I decided I was going to use my time off productively and try and prove everyone who said I was thick wrong by going back to college.
“It has done me such a lot of good to find out I’m dyslexic and that’s the reason why I struggled to read and write. Now it’s hard to believe I’m student of the year.”
Main photo: Marion Plant, principal of South Leicestershire College, and Billy Plimbley after he was given the student of the year award
The sight of Ofsted inspectors is not the only thing to strike fear into the heart of principals at poorly-performing colleges now the FE Commissioner is in town. But while such principals rightly face a grilling, the rest of the sector should be able to learn from the mistakes of others and the experience of the commissioner, says Jayne Stigger.
espite many calls for better early warning signals to allow early and pre-emptive interventions in FE, we now have a commissioner, David Collins, who investigates after the fact, using strong measures to ensure improvement.
In his own book, A Survival Guide for College Managers and Leaders, published in 2006, he wrote: “Institutions that are not so good work in isolation, performing poorly in a number of areas … there remains a considerable range of performance levels across the sector, … linked to the quality of the leadership and management that the college possesses.”
Is this a clear statement on his opinion of the causes of inadequate performance in FE?
Dr Collins has investigated at least four colleges since his appointment, leading to administered status at Stockport and K College, and recommendations for Bristol and Liverpool.
Yet, he does not seem to have visited Coventry, where all 16 outcomes in the main findings were inadequate, following on from two poor inspection results and overseen by a principal of 16 years’ tenure.
Are those four colleges guilty of ‘working in isolation, poorly performing in a number of areas’, or really worse than Coventry, particularly when ‘protecting learners’ interests is the primary purpose of intervention’ is the prime consideration?
Key judgements following a visit by the commissioner, leading to ‘administered status’ and/or ‘recommendations’ must be shared
Truth is, we don’t know. Currently, the commissioner’s findings are not made public, nor do we know whether that situation will change.
My view and that of many in the sector is that it should change; we need to know.
No one is suggesting that highly sensitive material be made public, but the key judgements following a visit by the commissioner, leading to ‘administered status’ and/or ‘recommendations’ must be shared with other providers.
The rules we play by are complex and as Dr Collins writes, we do operate in ‘a choppy sea of ever-changing government policies’.
If colleges are to respond to these environmental conditions, they can only benefit from full and frank sharing of information, so, why the secrecy and who benefits from it?
Not us. How can we improve, change and adapt if we don’t know the new rules?
Is the secrecy because it highlights perpetual weaknesses in the provider which Ofsted should have identified and acted on, but did not?
Or is it that the provider has simply not complied with Ofsted, departmental or Skills Funding Agency requirements?
Or maybe the reasons are not sufficiently strong to justify the response of the commissioner?
Swimming blind, in a ‘choppy sea’, is no way to run a sector.
Obfuscating the underlying concerns for the commissioner’s visit and particularly his recommendations for improvement, are against the very open nature of FE, which is collaborative, inclusive and by our very nature dedicated to continuously improving our delivery for the benefit of our learners, local communities and national economy.
Simply put, we need to know.
This information, this judgement, this determination of our status cannot be made in a ‘secret court’. These should not be closed material procedures, where secret intelligence can be introduced but will only be seen by the judge and special advocates.
These decisions are made, but we have no counsel to weigh the evidence.
As yet, there has been no college dissolution, but it is a possibility we face. There is a danger that these actions come to be viewed as politically punitive rather than educationally corrective.
If the commissioner feels it is necessary to act, then we should have feedback on why and how.
We do not doubt his knowledge and integrity, only asking that it is shared, widely, for the benefit of the whole sector.
Colleges are delivering what government has asked of them, but if the goal posts are changing, we should be told.
If there is no agenda other than clear improvement and backing for FE, then there can be no justification for withholding this information from the very sector it is purported to support.
Jayne Stigger, head of maths and science (HE) at North East Surrey College of Technology (Nescot)
The importance of education as a means to getting on in life was instilled into Christine Doubleday by her parents who both left school when they were 13.
She grew up on a huge council estate in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in a catholic, working class family with her brothers Martin, now aged 60, Paul, 56, and John, who died in 1999 at the age of 35.
Her father, Jack, worked on the railways as a goods guard and was secretary of the local branch of the National Union of Railwaymen.
“He started going to literacy classes through the union. He got to the point where he could have gone to the trade union college in Oxford, but he didn’t go because he wouldn’t have left the family,” she says.
“However, while my dad was really proud of being working class, he and my mum, Pat, had an old fashioned view held by many people from their background that education gave the kids a chance to get up and out.”
Doubleday, 58, recalls how her father was prepared to take drastic action when he feared his children were being distracted from their studies.
We occupied the building where they took their exams. I seem to remember sleeping on the corridor floor for about two nights, before being removed by the university police,
“My dad was always telling us: ‘If you don’t do your homework, the telly will go back to Radio Rental’,” she says.
“As kids, we didn’t believe him, but I came home one day when I must have been about 11 and it had gone. It never came back until after I had done my O-levels.”
Doubleday went on to get eight O-levels and four A-levels and was offered a place studying medieval history at Leicester University.
But, she says: “I went a bit weird when I was 17. I discovered boys and music and decided I wanted to go to the university of life instead.
“I went to work in a hotel in Switzerland for about six months. When I came back to England, I went to visit a friend at Oxford University and never came back.”
Christine with her brothers Paul (back left), Martin and baby John
She became involved with student politics while visiting a friend at Pembroke College, Oxford, joining in protests supporting a campaign for a central students’ union for the entire university.
“We occupied the building where they took their exams. I seem to remember sleeping on the corridor floor for about two nights, before being removed by the university police,” explains Doubleday. “I ended up living in Pembroke College for a whole term in 1973, even though I wasn’t a student there.
“It was the first time I had experienced southern middle-class politeness. I thought I would get away with it for as long as I could.
“In Wakefield that would have been about five minutes, but no-one ever questioned why I was there — which was funny because it was an all-male college.”
One of the middle-class students she met, Miles Doubleday, became her husband for 23 years, before they divorced in the late 1990s.
They had three children, Tim, 35, Clare, 33, and Katie, 31.
She worked at a bakery, before marrying aged 20 and doing a social studies degree at Oxford Polytechnic, which she completed shortly before having her first baby, aged 23.
She set out on her career in education in the early 1980s, teaching adult literacy in colleges, through local authority-run classes, and with the Workers’ Education Association.
She was then thrilled to be one of the first people in Britain to be trained by American feminist icon Anne Dickson to give assertiveness training to women.
She said: “I used to get women turning up with badminton rackets and yoga mats because that’s what they told their husbands they were doing. But the idea was to give women the confidence to get on in their careers.”
Doubleday secured her first managerial post in 1989, as regional organiser for community education for Cumnor and Kennington, in Oxfordshire.
She says: “It was a case of running things like badminton and sugarcraft classes to pay for more of the things I really wanted to do, like adult literacy and numeracy classes and assertiveness training.”
Between 1992 and 1997, Doubleday also travelled regularly to Russia to train trade unionists how to recruit in the post-communist era.
She says: “It wasn’t very fashionable to be in a union out there at that time. It was quite funny because I would be trying to teach these older people, who had been part of the communist regime, and their approach was very much ‘you must join’, which wasn’t really how we did things.”
It was also during this period that she completed a masters degree which changed her approach to FE.
She says: “I had this notion you shouldn’t accredit adult education, following the liberal idea of education for education’s sake.
“I did my thesis on the idea that accreditation has no place in adult education, but completely disproved this notion through my research — all the adults I spoke to really liked having a qualification to show for their studies.”
Doubleday took this on board when she set up the Oxfordshire Open College Network in 1991. She says: “We would accredit curriculums, for example for special needs and access to HE courses.
“Some of the tutors hated it, but there was me saying: ‘You have to have aims. You have to have an outcome’.”
Doubleday had a difficult period in the late 1990s. She left FE for a few years, taking a post graduate diploma in careers guidance, having divorced and suffered the heartache of her brother committing suicide. “Being bereaved by suicide when there is no explanation and no clue it is coming leaves not only a massive gap, but also confusion,” she says.
“I never did find out and I guess I never will, but have gradually let go and learned to simply grieve.”
Doubleday emerged from this dark period by 2001, when she returned to FE as director of research for the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) for Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
She became acting director for two years from 2003 and permanent area director for Stoke and Staffordshire LSC in 2006.
She says: “I really loved that job, but after Gordon Brown created two separate departments for our sector, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department for Education, it was obvious the power of the local LSC offices had gone, as the very notion of a council for both learning and skills no longer applied.
“I moved briefly to the LSC’s national office in 2010, but was looking to move on.
“I kept bumping into Lynne Sedgmore [executive director of the 157 Group] at meetings. She was one of those people who made me think ‘that’s where it’s going to happen’ and I was lucky enough to be able to move to the 157 Group in 2011.”
Doubleday, who still lives in Oxford, started-off as shared services manager and became deputy executive director in 2012.
She says: “I love it. Education is so important and FE is the cog in the middle that turns everything else.
“To have a job that helps turn that cog a little bit just makes me think ‘what a bloody privilege’.”
The person on the rail platform who waves the flag and blows the whistle to say the train can go
What do you do to switch off from work?
I have been learning to be a silversmith through FE courses for the last three years and can make my own jewellery. I also sing with my local choral society
If you could invite anyone, living or dead, to a dinner party, who would it be?
Eddie Izzard, [scientist] Brian Cox, pianist Helen Grimaud and my brother, Paul
