The government has been urged to do more to promote sixth-form colleges after the sector’s second outstanding grade under Ofsted’s tough new inspection regime.

Rochdale Sixth Form College, which has around 1,000 students, got grade one rankings across the education watchdog’s headline fields following its first inspection.

“Teaching is energetic and often inspirational, and builds students’ confidence to achieve their potential,” said the report.

“Lessons start promptly with a good pace that promotes a vibrant learning environment and strong work ethic.

“Teachers use a wide range of interactive activities and skilful questioning to engage and challenge students, and progress in lessons is very good.”

The result, which follows the outstanding achieved by Brighton, Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College late last year, has prompted a call for more government focus on the sector.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, said: “We are delighted that Ofsted has recognised the outstanding work of Rochdale Sixth Form College.

“As the most recent sixth-form college to have opened its doors, it is a great advertisement for our sector and highlights the transformative effect our colleges can have on local communities.

“While the government continues to promote the establishment of new academies and free schools with 16 to 19 provision, similar support for new sixth-form colleges has been conspicuous by its absence,” he said.

“Rochdale shows that investing in sixth-form colleges can result in swift and positive returns.

“Our message to government is to focus on the product, not the brand — sixth-form colleges may not have the academy or free school name above the door, but they continue to outperform these new providers, and school sixth forms, on a range of measures.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Education said the government valued sixth-form colleges.

“Their record of getting large numbers of students into top universities is outstanding, and they offer fantastic value for money,” she said.

“By 2015, we will end the disparity in funding for 16 to 18-year-olds so that all school and colleges are funded at the same rate.

“The evidence is clear that academies are transforming the life chances of thousands of pupils, and free schools will do the same. Both academies and free schools are funded on a comparable basis to other state-funded schools.”

Rochdale’s outstanding grade came under the new inspection framework that was introduced in September.

It followed Ofsted’s Good Education For All consultation that ended in May and includes a reduced inspection notice period from three weeks to two days, and a potential re-inspection of providers ‘requiring improvement’ within 12 to 18 months.

Providers must also achieve outstanding in the headline field of teaching and learning to be considered for an overall grade one.

Surprise plans that could end government funding for around 1,600 qualifications might hit the job hopes of thousands of struggling learners, it has been claimed.

Graham Hasting-Evans, managing director of the National Open College Network (NOCN) awarding body, said he feared unemployed students could see courses stopped as a result of the plans, which he said had been unexpected.

“When we saw what the Skills Funding Agency was planning to do, and it’s doing it quite quickly, we found that over a year this could affect up to 50,000 people,” he said.

“These are generally learners at the lower credit levels, where qualifications are very much for people who are in difficulties and trying to get into employment or further education — the unemployed, for instance.

“There may well be a good reason for it [ending funding], but it’s never been explained to us. We weren’t aware this was coming.”

The agency revealed, in its New Streamlined Funding System for Adult Skills document, that it would stop paying for certain ‘awards’.

An agency spokesperson said the move was being made as part of a “strategic review of the qualifications offer in consultation with the sector”.

We and our members had no prior warning”

She said: “This will ensure that only those qualifications that are demanded by learners and employers and that meet the highest standards will be supported by public funding.”

Qualifications with credit values of 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11 under the Qualifications and Credit Framework will not be funded from January.

Exceptions, according to agency guidance, were expected to include “very small” English and maths qualifications, as well as “other small qualifications” for students with learning difficulties or disabilities, and “those who are unemployed”.

The move could result in the end of public funding for, FE Week understands, more than 1,600 ‘awards’ — including 27 NOCN courses, such as using employability skills.

We are concerned about the adverse effect it is likely to have on qualifications.”

Mr Hastings–Evans said: “The only action we could take would be to rewrite qualifications so they fit the 3, 6, 9 or 12 brackets, then they’d have to go to Ofqual for approval, and the agency for approval for funding.

“They could find lots of people coming up with new qualifications.”

A spokesperson for the qualifications watchdog Ofqual said it was aware of the changes and had been in talks with the agency.

“The way qualifications are funded can have an impact on the market, and create particular incentives,”
she said.

“We are alert to this and will take action to make sure that qualifications are fit for purpose and meet the appropriate standards, with credit allocated appropriately.”

The move is the second cull on qualifications in as many months.

The agency was warned in February by the Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) that it risked “destabilising the system” with plans to stop paying out for nearly 2,500 qualifications that had little or no uptake.

The latest cull has drawn further criticism from FAB.

Its chief executive, Jill Lanning, said: “We and our members had no prior warning and we have sought clarification from the agency about the rationale for the change.

“We are concerned about the adverse effect it is likely to have on qualifications.”

The agency spokesperson added: “We have set out a process to focus funding in 2013/14 for very short courses on qualifications that are more meaningful.

“Therefore, the qualifications that will be funded have a clear track record of demand from learners and employers.”

————————————————————————–

Editorial: A crude and brutal cull

The government could stop funding more than 1,600 qualifications in less than a year from now.

Finding out on page 13 of a Skills Funding Agency funding reform update, you could be forgiven for thinking this was common knowledge.

But it came as a complete surprise to providers and awarding organisations.

No consultation and no warning, it would appear — and a more than questionable rationale.

Why, for example, would removing one credit from a 10-credit qualification make it worthy of continued funding?

It can’t be argued that not enough people do these qualifications as they passed the agency’s volume threshold that was behind a cull two months ago.

Perhaps cynically, I would suggest this is a crude and brutal move driven by a central dictat in the name of simplification.

Yet our Skills Minister has said qualification design should be driven by the needs of learners and employers.

I fail to see how reducing choice and forcing awards to be one of only four credit values, can be good for anyone.

Nick Linford, editor of FE Week

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.”