Two of England’s biggest colleges have been slapped with notices of concern by the Skills Funding Agency following inadequate gradings from Ofsted.

City of Liverpool College got grade fours in every one of the education watchdog’s headline fields last month, just four years after it was praised as outstanding.

And, more recently, City of Bristol College fell from good to inadequate, with grade fours in all but leadership and management, where it was seen to be in need of improvement.

The Ofsted verdicts prompted the agency to act, issuing both colleges with notices of concern — the first step in a three-stage risk management process, introduced following the government’s New Chances, New Challenges review. Agency funding can be withdrawn at stage three.

Ofsted said the 17,000-learner Liverpool college, formerly Liverpool Community College, had too many students turning up late for lessons — if at all.

We can confirm the agency has followed its standard process and issued a notice to improve.”

It also said too many learners left the college, which had a turnover of £47.5m for the year ending July 31, 2011, without qualifications.

However, principal Elaine Bowker and her new senior team shared “a clear view of the college’s current weak position and have communicated the urgent need for improvement”, added the report.

An agency spokesperson confirmed it had issued a notice of concern to the college.

A college spokesperson said: “We can confirm the agency has followed its standard process and issued a notice to improve.

“Our staff and management team are committed to building on current successes and improvements that have been implemented since the new senior leadership has been in post.”

The 30,000-learner Bristol college — England’s sixth biggest with a turnover of £67.5m for the year ending July 31, 2011 — was last inspected in 2010, when it achieved a good
grading.

But, according to the latest Ofsted report, its teachers now paid “insufficient attention to the individual needs of learners and do not challenge learners of different abilities to achieve their potential”.

However, it also paid tribute to the efforts of new leadership at the college. It said an “impressively positive cultural change, instigated through highly effective communication, is enabling staff to become more responsible and accountable for learners’ outcomes”.

The agency spokesperson said: “We are applying our intervention process and have issued a notice of concern.

“We will remain in conversation with the college over the next few months to ensure it restores high quality provision and to ensure that the needs of learners continue to be met.”

A Bristol college spokesperson said: “The notice of concern is procedural and was fully expected.”

The National Careers Service (NCS) is to launch a range of services in 12 regions and is searching for contractors to take on the work.

Tenders have been invited for an “enhanced” provision of the current service from April 1, 2014.

The announcement comes as the service, launched by former Skills Minister John Hayes, celebrates its first anniversary.

It is part of the Skills Funding Agency, whose chief executive, Kim Thorneywork, said the service had achieved “great success” in its first year, providing advice that helped many people to get the right skills to enable them to “grow and prosper”.

She said that an “enhanced” service, focused on local needs, would build on that success. “We are aiming to continue to increase the reach and impact of the service.”

According to a position statement seen by FE Week, the local contracts will cover the maintenance of regional website pages, telephone facilities and community-based face-to-face services.

A national contact centre will provide personalised careers advice and refer adult customers to local telephone facilities, and an improved national website will allow customers to store and access their careers information and provide access to local sites.

Local contractors will liaise with local enterprise partnerships and Jobcentre Plus to provide up-to-date local labour market intelligence and information for the NCS, as well at its customers, advisers and partners.

The position statement said that the agency wanted to encourage more flexible and innovative approaches to delivering careers advice, “working collaboratively with partners, reflecting the drive towards localism and growth”.

Contractors will be able to bid in more than one of the 12 areas, “provided they are able to meet the detail and quality of the specification in each area for which they bid”, according to the document.

Face-to-face services will be available to prisoners as part of a move to target priority groups, which also include low skilled adults, ex-offenders, people with learning difficulties, unemployed people, including those aged 18-24 not in employment, education  or training, and those facing redundancy or recently redundant.

The agency’s estimates suggest that during its first year the NCS has provided guidance to more than 800,000 people; 76 per cent report progress in work or learning within six months.

To build on this, the service said it would also implement an outcome-based funding model that encouraged advisers to focus on achieving positive outcomes relating to customer satisfaction, personal career management, employment and learning.”

Interested contractors must fill in a pre-qualification questionnaire on the agency Bravo e-tendering portal before May 7. Contracts will be  awarded at the end of October.

Some providers are facing funding shortfalls of up to £750,000 for adults with extra needs, claims the National Association for Managers of Student Services (NAMSS).

As part of the new 24+ advanced learner loans regime for those wanting to take up an FE course, providers were distributed  £50m over two years to cover extra needs such as childcare, travel costs and extra tuition.

But many have reported less cash in their bursary allocation for 2013/14 compared with the demand they faced in the current academic year.

Association chair Jim Busher, who has written to the Skills Funding Agency with his concerns, said some providers “will need to turn away” applicants for the new FE loans because “they cannot support their childcare or additional learning support costs”.

Many colleges are wrestling with this potential shortfall and the impact it could have on applicants.”

A table of figures he shared with FE Week showed the shortfalls that 20 colleges were facing.

The Manchester College confirmed it was expecting a £750,000 shortfall — its 24+ bursary allocation was £250,000, although its demand for additional needs for 2012/13 was £1m. Principal Jack Carney said he was “concerned” the college would not be able to offer learners the level of support they previously had, “impacting on their ability to participate and achieve”.

Mr Busher’s research also suggested one college in the Midlands expected a £213,000 shortfall, while another in the far north anticipated a £120,000 shortfall.

Lakes College West Cumbria, where Mr Busher heads student support services, faces a £66,000 shortfall.

“Many colleges are wrestling with this potential shortfall and the impact it could have on applicants,” he said.

“NAMSS would urge that the agency revisits the bursary allocation, if only to mitigate against a significant number of colleges asking for additional funds.”

Jerry White, director of planning and performance at City College Norwich, which faces a £75,000 deficit, told FE Week that the types of courses that were loans-funded were “likely to have a very disproportionate number of users who need additional support.

“Adult learners are more likely to be on big full-time courses like Access to HE,” he said. “They have disproportionate requirements for childcare and tend to come from backgrounds where they may need a lot more learner support.”

Mr White said he believed the fund “should not be ring-fenced” but should be put back with the mainstream learners’ pot.

“Then we could go between the pots if we had excess demand,” he said.

As a result of the shortfall, his college expected to “incur costs” that it couldn’t claim back.

When asked if the agency would review the bursary allocations, a spokesperson said the bursary fund had been “developed in consultation with the sector”.

She said: “The agency will work with the sector during the 2013/14 academic year to monitor the take-up of bursary funding,
ensuring that as far as possible, available funding reflects demand.”