5 things we learned from Keegan’s education committee hearing

The government won’t confirm its deadline to rid every school and college of crumbly RAAC until the new year, Gillian Keegan has said.

The education secretary said she would not give a “definitive date” until mitigations to make every education setting safe were complete, adding that her department “expects there to be more” cases identified.

Keegan made the statement during a hearing with MPs on the House of Commons education committee today, in which she was also quizzed on the Department for Education’s guidance on gender recognition, proposals for the new Advanced British Standard and teacher recruitment in further education.

Here are five takeaways from the session:

RAAC: ‘We expect there’s more’

The DfE confirmed 231 schools and colleges have potentially dangerous crumbling RAAC concrete, in an update published this morning. 

The total added three more FE colleges to the list: Abingdon and Witney College, Barnet and Southgate College and The Oldham College. Ten colleges have now partially closed campuses due to RAAC.

Keegan told MPs the DfE has received all questionnaires back from every education setting but expects they will identify more schools and colleges with RAAC as they further investigate.

“They’ve all had the first survey and 231 currently have confirmed RAAC. Now we do expect there will be some more because as we go back for follow up survey work, we will identify a few more,” Keegan told MPs.

She added that she won’t give a deadline to rid every school and college of crumbly RAAC until the new year.

“We will be able to give you a definitive date when all schools are safe because that was my very first objective.”

Pressed by MPs, Keegan said this would be “very shortly”, but not before Christmas, calling the expected announcement a “new year present”.

Gender recognition guidance due ‘before Christmas’

The education secretary also said the long-awaited guidance on transgender learners in schools and colleges will “hopefully” be published before the Christmas period.

The “gender questioning” guidance was previously due to be released earlier this summer.

“We had to change that because it is quite a complex area,” Keegan explained.

She added that the guidance will be non-statutory as the department has been “going backwards and forwards and trying to understand how these various layers of law will fit together”.

She indicated that the guidance would cover how colleges can support learners who want to socially transition, as a ban on students socially transitioning at school/college would require changing equalities law.

“I know there’s been other people who’ve called for not having any social transitioning in schools, full stop,” she said. “That would require a change in equalities law and that will be a matter for the equalities minister.”

ABS consultation expected ‘shortly’

Since prime minister Rishi Sunak announced his intention to replace A-levels and T Levels with the Advanced British Standard, MPs and sector leaders have awaited a consultation setting out the details of the new proposed qualification.

Keegan told MPs today that the document, which contains plans for 10 years’ worth of reform, will be released “shortly”. 

The three things it will detail will be having “more breadth in 16 to 18” and extending the timetable of 16- to 18-year-olds in school and college.

The third detail will describe the “breakdown” of the so-called artificial barrier between technical and academic education. 

She added that the document will also expand on the work from the DfE’s maths advisory group.

Upon questions of scepticism of the replacement of the relatively new T Levels, Keegan insisted T Levels will be used as the building blocks of the ABS.

DfE ‘doesn’t underestimate’ the T Level placements ‘task’

Keegan was also pressed on the difficulty of getting businesses to host T Level work placements.

Labour MP Ian Mearns referenced DfE’s own 2022 employer polls showing that not enough businesses are interested in offering industry placements.

Keegan disagreed and added that the department is working with businesses “more and more” but admitted the T Level nine-week work placement has been a “big challenge”.

“The skill shortage in a way kind of helps us and actually, even some of the changes to immigration yesterday, because it basically says to businesses, we have to all work together to develop the pipeline of talent,” she said.

She added: “When there are particular skill shortages, companies do tend to get a bit more strategic and look to try and build the pipeline. T Levels and workplaces are an excellent way of doing that as are apprenticeships because they broaden access to lots and lots of different people. 

“We don’t underestimate the task. I don’t. But I think it’s the right challenge.”

Keegan ‘aware’ of FE recruitment crisis 

During a grilling on the recruitment and retention crisis in school education, conservative MP Robin Walker argued that the recruitment in the post-16 space is “significantly greater”. 

Keegan said she is aware of the challenges, but she doesn’t have a large role in setting salaries for FE staff.

“We don’t have as much role in the setting of the salaries and the scales, but we have provided an additional £470 million across the financial year 2023/24 and 2025/26, to support colleges and other providers with recruitment and retention challenges,” she said.

“We’ve also got the stem and technical shortage subjects will receive those working in disadvantaged schools and colleges in particular, will receive up to £6,000 after tax annually on top of their pay.”

She also skirted questions from committee member Miriam Cates on the recruitment of maths teachers, given the government wants to extend maths education until 18.

Provider that trains 5 apprentices judged ‘inadequate’

An apprenticeship provider that trains just five apprentices has been judged ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted after inspectors found tutors offering no direct vocational teaching.

Astro Martin Ltd, based in Croydon, began offering the level 2 customer service practitioner apprenticeship to a single employer in Oldham in February 2022.

But inspectors, who conducted a full inspection of the firm in October, found that leaders started teaching the course “without having the staffing expertise to do this effectively”.

The provider was dealt the lowest possible rating from the watchdog in a report published today, which said apprentices are “left too much to their own devices to complete their apprenticeship”.

Tutors require apprentices to complete their apprenticeship through workbooks, which they check at monthly intervals, but they “do not do any direct in-person or online teaching of the vocational aspects of the course” and do not “provide apprentices with feedback on their work”.

“This results in apprentices not knowing what they need to do to improve, or knowing whether they are meeting the standard necessary to pass the end-point assessment,” the report said.

Tutors do, however, support apprentices “well” to achieve qualifications in English and maths and to “prepare for their next career step”.

‘Leaders do not know what actions they need to take to improve’

Companies House shows that Astro Martin Ltd was incorporated in 2013. Its website claims the firm “specialises” in work-based training and vocational qualifications, and has a “proven track record of successfully delivering quality training and development to organisations and individuals”.

Ofsted’s report said leaders and managers have an “overly positive view” of the quality of their provision and are “not evaluative enough in their self-assessment”.

Leaders were criticised for failing to work with employers to make sure that what apprentices learn in off-the job training aligns adequately with their job roles.

Tutors also do not liaise with the apprentices’ employer to “plan the training so that it meets the needs of the employer”.

Instead, they rely on workbooks that are based on the order in which the knowledge, skills, and behaviours are listed in the apprenticeship standard – they “do not adjust this to suit the employer’s or apprentices’ needs”.

There is also “little or no alignment of the training that apprentices complete with the activities that they do as part of their job”, leaving apprentices with “limited ability to apply what they have learned in the workplace and ensure that their knowledge is secure”.

Ofsted criticised tutors for requiring all apprentices to work through the same series of workbooks in the same order, regardless of the prior knowledge or skills they have.

“This contributes to apprentices making slow progress and lacking the motivation to complete their course,” inspectors warned.

The report said leaders “do not have any external oversight of the quality of their provision to help them to have an objective view,” adding that this “means there is no challenge to leaders and managers on the quality of the apprenticeship programme”.

“Leaders do not know what actions they need to take to improve,” the report concluded.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency typically terminates the funding contracts for independent training providers if they receive a grade four from Ofsted.

Astro Martin Ltd did not respond to requests for comment.

‘Underutilised’ college campus to reopen as specialist high needs centre

An “underutilised” college campus that was controversially closed this autumn is set to reopen next year as a specialist centre for young people who have high needs.

The Sheffield College has announced plans to refurbish its Peaks Campus and retain it for educational purposes.

Its local community and MP Clive Betts voiced discontent over the sudden decision to shut the site earlier this year as it would leave the area with no further education offer. The college said the decision was necessary due to rising costs in a difficult financial climate.

The campus had around 300 students at the time of closure, against a capacity of almost 800, who studied a range of courses including games design, health and social care, public services and science courses, apprenticeships and the Prince’s Trust programme.

It will now be transformed into a centre solely focussed on provision for 16 to 24-year-olds who have high needs and require specialist support to progress, with a capacity of 300 students.

The college said it will partner with Sheffield City Council for the project after both identified a “vital and growing requirement” in the city and wider region for further post-16 high-needs places.

Principal and chief executive Angela Foulkes said: “We are delighted that Peaks Campus will be retained for educational purposes and will continue to play a vital role in the community and city, and that we have a long-term sustainable solution for the site.

“The transformation of the campus into a new facility that young people and the city needs will ensure that no one is left behind and enable us to provide more places for students who have high needs.

Clive Betts MP welcomed the move.

He said: “When Sheffield College announced they were closing their Peaks Campus I was clear that under no circumstances should the building simply be left empty and unused.

“Like the rest of the country Sheffield faces huge pressures on SEND provision and supporting young people with specific needs. This plan will be a big step in helping address that and I want to make sure we can have the campus reopened in this capacity as soon as possible.”

The college said the new centre will provide additional capacity for high-needs students from September 2024 rather than replacing existing provision.

New facilities will include adaptations to the building to meet the needs of the students such as quiet spaces, sensory rooms and an independent living suite, according to a spokesperson.

Student recruitment to the new centre will be phased and start with 100 places being offered.

Councillor Dawn Dale, chair of Sheffield City Council’s education, children and families policy committee, said: “We are pleased that The Sheffield College want to develop Peaks Campus in this way. The Sheffield College and the council recognise the growing numbers of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and are taking action to support them.”

RAAC: 3 more colleges with crumbly concrete confirmed

Three more colleges have confirmed cases of crumbly RAAC concrete on their campuses, the Department for Education said today. 

An extra 18 education institutions have been added to the DfE’s updated list of affected schools and colleges, bringing the total to 231. 

There are now 10 colleges, including one specialist college, with confirmed cases of the potentially dangerous crumbly concrete.

Abingdon and Witney College, Barnet and Southgate College and The Oldham College are the latest colleges to join the list. 

The data states that students at Barnet and Southgate College and The Oldham College remain in face-to-face to education. At Abingdon at Witney, a “triage process” is in place. Details published today are accurate as of November 27.

RAAC was found in The Oldham College’s Grange Theatre, but the building has not been in use for two years so has had no impact on learning.

Four schools have now been removed from the list since October after initial tests showed the material was not present in buildings.

Essex remains the worst affected area, with 63 settings affected. 

The most common “mitigation” in place is all students being in face-to-face education, on-site in other buildings or “nearby”, affecting 98 per cent of settings on the list.

Previously reported colleges with RAAC confirmed in their buildings include Grantham College, Farnborough College of Technology, Marple Sixth Form College – part of The Trafford College Group, Petroc, Camborne College – part of Cornwall College Group, Peterborough College – part of Inspire Education Group and Royal College Manchester (Seashell Trust).

First T Levels relicensing tender launched

Awarding bodies are being invited to bid for contracts to “refresh and develop” seven existing T Levels.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education yesterday launched the competitive relicensing process, dubbed “Generation 2”, for most T Levels that were part of the wave one and two rollout.

However, three of those T Levels – offered by NCFE in health, healthcare science and science – have been left out. All of those qualifications suffered with well-publicised issues which led to results being regraded in their first year. Various changes have been made to the content of the T Levels over the past year to make them fit for purpose.

FE Week understands that a separate relicensing process for the health and science T Levels will be conducted at a later date.

Each T Level typically has a five-year license attached to them. The procurement launched this week will decide whether the awarding body currently assigned to each early T Level will continue with its development, or whether it will be switched to another.

NCFE delivers three of the seven T Levels part of this tender, while Pearson & City and Guilds are responsible for two each. The contracts are worth £28,093,974 in total.

T Level nameCurrent AOContract value
Education and Early YearsNCFE
£5,526,068
Design, Surveying and Planning for ConstructionPearson£3,426,668
Building Services Engineering for ConstructionCity & Guilds£3,962,768
Onsite ConstructionCity & Guilds£3,902,468
Digital Business ServicesNCFE£2,786,268
Digital Support ServicesNCFE£3,789,868
Digital Production, Development and DesignPearson£4,699,868

A spokesperson for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education said the chosen Generation 2 suppliers will be “expected to refresh and develop the content and assessment methods”.

The bidding process, overseen by IfATE, will comprise of two stages. The first closes later this month and those that successfully pass will progress to stage two to complete their bid submission by early 2024.

Chris Morgan, IfATE’s deputy director for commercial, said: “This exciting opportunity will see the first two waves of T Levels, rolled out from 2020, going back to market for bidding in three key sectors. We welcome widespread interest and look forward to receiving submissions from awarding organisations.”

The IfATE spokesperson pressed that T Levels will “underpin” the technical options within the government’s long-term plans for the new Advanced British Standard (ABS), announced by the prime minister in October.

Plans for the ABS, which will effectively combine T Levels and A-levels into one standalone qualification, will be developed over the next decade.

T Levels will, in the meantime, “remain the gold standard employer-shaped technical qualification at level 3 for 16- to 19-year-olds”, the IfATE spokesperson claimed, adding that it is “vital that the Generation 2 qualifications are refreshed and developed to the highest standard”.

Ofsted: First ‘outstanding’ for Burton and South Derbyshire College

Burton and South Derbyshire College has been awarded top marks across the board from Ofsted.

The medium-sized general FE college received ‘outstanding’ grades in every category for creating a “high performing culture” and “exceptionally strong” relationships between teachers and students as well as employers.

This is the first ever grade one for Burton and South Derbyshire College and follows a previous ‘good’ judgment in 2017 and ‘requires improvement’ the year prior.

Chief executive Dawn Ward said the college was “delighted that the hard work, passion, dedication and commitment of all college staff to serve our learners and industry partners has been recognised in this result”, but added that she is “very conscious that it’s at a point in time”.

“We are therefore focused on continuing to serve our communities and working hand in hand with our industry, education and voluntary partners to nurture the talent of the future,” Ward added.

Inspectors visited the college in October when it had 1,724 learners on level 1 to 3 programmes, 684 adult learners and 86 learners with high needs. The college also operates a construction academy and specialist apprenticeship development centre for level 2 and 3 engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships for Toyota Manufacturing UK.

The watchdog found that learners benefit from “high-quality teaching” and have plentiful academic resources and extra-curricular activities.

These activities include construction skills certification scheme cards, participating in international work experience, exchange placements, and opportunities to participate in WorldSkills competitions.

“Collectively these activities successfully support learners and apprentices to make informed decisions about their futures and career aspirations,” the report said.

Ofsted praised the “exceptionally strong” relationships between teachers, learners and apprentices.

Inspectors said learners have excellent attitudes to learning and are considerate of each other, their teachers and visitors to the college.

The college was also found to deliver “well planned and carefully crafted support” for learners who have experienced difficulties and/or trauma in their lives, such as care leavers and those with mental health difficulties.

In Ofsted’s new remit to examine whether colleges are meeting local skills needs, Burton and South Derbyshire College was found to be making a ‘strong’ contribution through its “highly productive” partnerships with employer representative groups, civic and community organisations and other key agency partners.

“For example, as part of a seven-college partnership, leaders at BSDC contributed to the curriculum design and development of a digital literacy and capability programme to enhance the information technology skills of learners across Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire,” the report said.

Pastoral and academic support were found to be “outstanding”. The watchdog found that tutorial provision is structured around the ‘BE’ model of BE Tutorial; BE Independent; BE Social. This allowed learners to develop a precise understanding of life in modern contemporary society and their role in advocating democratic principles, such as the importance of celebrating differences and treating each other as equals.

Ofsted also found that the leadership and governance of BSDC have created a “high performing culture” which brings out the best in everyone, where staff feel valued and morale is high.

“Leaders have a clear sense of purpose in meeting the educational and skills needs of the communities and industry-related sectors that the college seeks to serve,” inspectors said.

Teachers ensure foundation learning components are taught early in the course and are “highly adept” at ensuring learning increases in complexity over time.

“They are excellent role models, providing inspiration, motivation and challenging learners and apprentices to do their best at all times. Teachers integrate English and mathematics effectively into almost all lessons,” inspectors praised.

Older workers nervous about lifelong learning financing

New polling suggests the government could struggle to convince older workers and people outside of London to take out a student loan for lifelong learning tuition costs.

Over 2,000 adults were surveyed by Public First last month for their views on lifelong learning and their expectations of who should pay for it, in a poll about the upcoming lifelong learning entitlement (LLE).

This comes as the government stands by its commitment to deliver the LLE from 2025, despite the DfE’s most senior civil servant warning of “significant challenges” meeting the timescale.

However, meeting the launch date may be the least of the government’s concerns.

Public First’s latest round of polling showed interest in lifelong learning declined significantly the older people get: 78 per cent of people in the 25 to 34 age bracket expressed an interest in lifelong learning.

But, by ages 45 to 54, that declined to 60 per cent. And by 55 to 64 just 35 per cent expressed an interest.

The LLE will provide learners up to the age of 60 with a loan entitlement to the equivalent of four years – around £37,000 – of higher education study.

They will be able to use the funding over their lifetime through a credits system to study qualifications at levels 4 to 6, for both modular and full-time study at colleges, universities, and other providers registered with the Office for Students.

Public First also found wide variation in people’s attitudes towards taking a government loan to cover lifelong learning tuition fees.

Two in five Londoners said they’d be willing to use a government loan for fund course costs, compared to just 13 per cent in Yorkshire and Humber.

And while people with lower level qualifications, such as GCSEs, were more interested in lifelong learning, they were less keen on the idea of taking out a government loan to pay for it than others with graduate and post-graduate level qualifications.

The policy was originally launched as the lifelong loan entitlement. Previous Public First polling revealed potential learners found the term “lifelong loan” to be “negative and unappealing.” The government dropped the term “loan” from the LLE this September and replaced it with “learning”.

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Strikes: Minimum service levels will ‘inflame’ tensions

New proposals for minimum service level (MSL) laws in colleges when staff are on strike would further “inflame” tensions between colleges and unions, leaders have told FE Week.

The Department for Education launched a consultation last week with proposals that would allow colleges to require staff to work during strikes so priority groups of students can still attend classes.

One college principal told FE Week the plans could wreck carefully managed relationships between unions and colleges, which have been under strain in recent years due to industrial disputes over low pay and workload.

Education secretary Gillian Keegan first floated MSL last month and opened talks with unions for a voluntary agreement that would avoid legislation.

However, “not enough progress” was made, according to DfE, so powers under The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023 will now be used to bring in regulations to limit disruption in education on strike days.

The department said that ten days of strike action by the University and College Union (UCU) and nine days by the National Education Union (NEU) took place in further education in the last academic year.

Jo Grady, the general secretary of UCU, said the proposals were a “transparent political ploy designed to create a dividing line in advance of the general election”.

“There is no call for minimum service levels from within the sector. We are disappointed at the bad faith the government has shown in pressing forward with this consultation on curtailing our members’ right to strike. The engagement up to now has been a sham and this consultation is full of loaded questions,” Grady added.

Further education and sixth form colleges will be in scope of the new rules, as well as the specially designated institutions. Independent training providers and specialist post-16 institutions are not in scope as they are deemed at low risk of strike disruption.

Keegan said: “Whilst I know many schools and colleges worked really hard to keep children and young people in face-to-face education during strikes, we must make sure that approach is applied in every school [sic], in every area of country.”

Colleges choose minimum staffing levels

Under the proposals, college leaders can choose to issue a work notice ahead of a strike which would list the staff needed to deliver a minimum level of service.

Staff that can be named in a work notice can include leadership, teachers and lecturers, teaching assistants, safeguarding leads, administration staff and other non-teaching staff.

Janet Smith, principal and chief executive at Nottingham College, which until recently had regular strike action, said issuing work notices would be “inflammatory”.

“I think it would be very difficult to do and it would be inflammatory. We work very, very hard to build a good relationship with our staff and with our unions … and it’s partly through fostering and nurturing those relationships, even if we are looking at things through a different lens at times, that we actually head off strike action. I think that’s more effective than trying to strong-arm people into work.”

The regulations will not tell college leaders how many staff they must direct to work during strikes, but they will specify which groups of students should be protected from disruption.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, questioned how college leaders will be held to account under the new rules.

He said: “It’s one thing to say that college leaders have the freedom to choose whether to issue a work notice, but they are also told that they are responsible for ensuring the delivery of a minimum level of service. If leaders choose not to issue a work notice for a particular reason, but then fail in their duty to deliver, how will they be held liable?

“At least this consultation gives employers, who have to manage the tension between a right to strike and the imperative to deliver an education without disruption, and who have not previously been invited to contribute to the debate, an opportunity, at last, to express their views.”

Priority student groups

The department is proposing that young people defined as vulnerable, students due to take exams and assessments (excluding apprenticeship end-point assessments), and children of critical workers be prioritised.

Students that are looked after by their local authority, are aged 25 and under with an
EHCP, have a child protection or child in need plan, and/or receive special educational needs support will count as vulnerable under the MSL regulations.

Also on the priority list would be students due to take exams or formal assessments in the same academic year strike action takes place. This includes assessments for GCSEs, A levels, T Levels and other vocational and technical qualifications.

Apprentices, however, will not be included in this priority cohort. This is because strike action has a “limited risk” to the delivery of end-point assessments.

The final group of students to be prioritised under MSL rules will be children of critical workers, such as health and social care workers, transport workers and certain education roles.

But for colleges to prioritise the attendance of those students, it is proposed that both parents or guardians must be critical workers, or that a single parent in a household is a critical worker.

For students not prioritised for attendance on a strike day, the DfE said it would “expect every effort” to provide teaching remotely.

The consultation closes on January 30, 2024.