Recent findings from the Institute for Fiscal Studies show that social mobility is at its worst in over 50 years. Alongside alarming NHS data revealing a 50 per cent surge in mental health emergencies among children and young people over the past three years and a government study revealing an equally worrying rise in adults experiencing depressive symptoms, it paints a bleak picture of our current societal challenges.
If education is the gateway to social mobility, then this rise in poor mental health is a significant barrier. Without good mental health, students are unlikely to be focused on learning or where they want to go next. Lacking that motivation too easily leads to poor standards of work, lateness and non-attendance.
That’s why I thoroughly believe that government and education sector efforts to improve social mobility must focus on mental health and wellbeing outcomes.
This must start with challenging the misconception that social mobility means going upwards all the time. In truth, social mobility is about enabling individuals to choose their direction (including sideways or even staying still), safe in the knowledge they can move and armed with the confidence to do things differently.
Accessible and safe solutions
As educational providers, we are often powerless to address the external factors that impact learners’ mental health. However, we can provide the support and the tools they need to develop strong mental fitness and resilience.
Whether their struggles are academic or personal, and whether they would benefit from joining a club or more formal counselling, we need to support them to find the solution that works for them.
Familiarity and shared experience are often key to opening up. When I led student support at the University of Salford, we created the first integrated service of its kind, located within the student union. We overhauled the system so that our student counsellors were new graduates who looked and sounded like those seeking help.
By removing barriers where we could, we were able to create a genuinely safe and supportive space.
Social mobility superheroes
Few people experience social mobility challenges and the potential for poor mental health more than refugees. According to the Mental Health Foundation, those seeking asylum are five times more likely to have mental health needs than the general population, but much less likely to receive support.
Amid a skills crisis and government efforts to grow the economy, we can’t afford to ignore the experience, skills and resilience refugees bring with them. And yet their huge potential is often overlooked.
Through NCG’s ‘Our Community is Your Community’ initiative, we help refugees overcome the barriers they face upon arrival beyond language acquisition. From navigating local transport and setting up bank accounts and bills, to social events and access to entrepreneurial opportunities, we aim to give this community a sense of purpose and confidence.
As well as the technical English that allows them to share their skills and make a purposeful contribution to their new communities, these are crucial to their mental health and their social mobility.
Taking support to the next level
More broadly though, we need to do much better than guessing at what our learners need from us. Reinventing the wheel in every college is a highly inefficient way to proceed.
That’s why we have partnered with Activate Learning and signed up to be part of the largest college-based Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) of its kind. Using a mobile mental health app called eQuoo, developed by PsycApps Ltd, the trial launched in February with a sample size exceeding 8,000 students across both college groups and focuses on the mental health issues that contribute to non-attendance, drop-out rates, behaviour and academic struggles.
Participating in this research will support the creation of an evidence base which will tell us what does and doesn’t work. More than that, sharing those outcomes will better inform policy makers, the health system and industry.
My hope is this will result in positive change, not least in terms of how things are funded. Ultimately, getting this right is key to mental health and educational outcomes – and therefore to social mobility.
Both Labour and the Conservatives have made similar pledges to cut overseas recruitment and immigration by targeting training at sectors facing staff shortages.
Appearing on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg last weekend, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper claimed a Labour government would set up a “new skills system” and target key sectors with “training plans” to reduce the need for overseas recruitment.
The pledge appeared strikingly similar to a Conservative announcement made the day before the general election was called.
In a speech on May 21, Conservative work and pensions secretary Mel Stride claimed that his party would combine “tighter visa rules” to curb overseas migration with training schemes targeted at key sectors.
Stride claimed he had set up a taskforce to come up with “interventions”, such as initiatives to fill HGV driver shortages in 2021, which included skills bootcamps and jobcentre training opportunities.
The key difference between the two parties’ proposals appears to be Labour’s pledge to develop “major workforce plans” for several priority sectors.
Cooper told Kuenssberg that Labour agrees that net migration “needs to come down”. She claimed her party would get unemployed people “back into work”.
She said Labour would target five critical sectors which see high levels of overseas recruitment: engineering, social care, health, IT and construction.
Labour’s ‘proper plan’
The shadow home secretary said the current government lacked a “proper plan” to increase the number of engineers in the UK, despite overseeing a drop in the number of apprentices for the role, which is on the government’s list of shortage occupations.
Today, the party shared further details on the policy, which includes encouraging employers to train workers in Britain by refusing to grant sponsoring work visas to companies that are not doing enough.
Labour says it could also remove roles from the shortage occupation visa list if it felt a sector is not engaging with the workforce plan.
Labour has also pledged to reform the apprenticeship levy as the growth and skills levy, giving employers flexibility to spend their contributions on other forms of training for their staff.
Keir Starmer’s party has also said some of the rebranded levy would fund 150,000 traineeships for young people, a programme which was scrapped in 2022 after a decade of delivery but low starts.
Labour has also said it will set up Skills England, a “taskforce” which would work with the government and devolved authorities to “develop outcome agreements” to ensure accountability for skills spending.
Emma Meredith, director of skills policy and global engagement at the Association of Colleges, which has called for a new national skills “partnership”, said the UK needs a “coherent and cohesive national strategy” on training and immigration policy to address its “chronic skills shortages”.
Labour and the Conservatives were approached for comment.
Principal, City of Stoke on Trent Sixth Form College
Start date: June 2024
Previous Job: Director of Student Engagement & Partnerships, Stafford College
Interesting fact: Lesley is a fan of music and musical theatre. She sings as part of a four-part choir and has recently joined a local ukulele band
Lawrence Wood
Principal & CEO, Telford College
Start date: August 2024
Previous Job: Principal, Coleg Llandrillo
Interesting fact: Lawrence has worked in further education for nearly 25 years. In addition to his leadership responsibilities, he has been a peer inspector for Estyn, the Welsh education and training inspectorate
College learners across the country this week helped to build wellbeing hubs and served free lunches in their communities as part of Volunteers’ Week 2024.
Volunteers’ Week is a national initiative running from June 3 to 9 June, which has been running for 40 years and in the past drawn interest from around 140 colleges.
It is also being pushed by the Good for Me Good for FE campaign, which launched its first awards ceremony last year and is due to open nominations for next year’s ceremony in a few months’ time.
This year it features some of the 2023 Good for Me Good for FE Award winners, including Nottingham College, which won volunteering college of the year last year.
Plastering, carpentry and joinery students at the college have built a wellbeing hub on the campus, which is set to open to students in September and will be available to those who need downtime in between classes and/or access to wellbeing support.
The group decided to take on the project after they learned that construction workers are almost four times more likely to take their own lives than those in other sectors.
Caleb Sansom, a level 2 plastering student at Nottingham College
Caleb Sansom, a level 2 plastering student and one of the group leaders, said he wanted to help support others after experiencing his own mental health challenges.
He was also recently named runner-up in the Nottinghamshire Police youth outreach team’s Live our Best Life awards, in the category of Bringing People Together.
“Coming from a construction background, and also dealing with my own mental health issues, I know this is a real issue,” he said.
Meanwhile, London South East Colleges’ students welcomed local residents into the college BR6 restaurant for a complimentary lunch as part of the London Borough of Bromley’s tackling loneliness initiative.
Hospitality students ran the “warm Wednesdays” events this year and, due to popular demand, the college will be hosting its first “summer wellbeing Wednesday lunch” this month.
LSEC’s strategic programme manager Karen Oliver said: “By volunteering in their local community, students understand the importance of what they are doing and the skills they are learning as they can see the impact directly on those living nearby.”
Oliver was a finalist in the special recognition award for last year’s Good for Me Good for FE awards.
Uefa under-19s football tournament team, Belfast Metropolitan College
Another finalist taking part in Volunteers’ Week is Natalie Thompson, from Belfast Metropolitan College, who was highly commended as staff volunteer of the year in the 2023 awards.
Thompson (pictured right) is helping with mascots and half-time matches for young girls in the Uefa under-19s football tournament, which is being held in Northern Ireland in July.
Sam Parrett, group principal and CEO of LSEC, which leads Good for Me Good for FE, said: “Volunteers’ Week is a great opportunity for us to once again shine a light on the amazing work being done by staff and students in colleges around the country, to support their communities.
“It’s fantastic to see some of the winners of last year’s awards continuing their volunteering efforts and inspiring others. We are looking forward to launching this year’s awards and hearing about many more incredible people within our sector – and urge every college to get involved and nominate their community heroes!”
Good for Me Good for FE is launching its second year of awards to showcase the best local volunteering and fundraising efforts. Nominations will open in early September.
The future of billions of pounds in funding for employment and skills training programmes aimed at the country’s most deprived areas is facing “huge uncertainty” following the prime minister’s proposed introduction of a “modern national service”.
Created to replace the European Social Fund and European Regional Development Fund following Brexit, the £2.6 billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) is dedicated to projects that improve local social and economic outcomes between 2022 and 2025.
Much of it funds crucial “third sector” programmes for priority groups, such as lone parents, ex-offenders, or people classed as not in education, employment or training (NEET).
The fund is targeted at the most disadvantaged parts of the UK and is a core part of the Conservatives’ levelling up agenda to “spread opportunity more equally” across the country.
About a third of the £1.5 billion is also ringfenced for “multiply” numeracy courses, which vary widely across the country but include teaching people how to avoid debt, budgeting for the self-employed and maths for parents and carers.
Last week, however, Rishi Sunak pledged to scrap the fund completely from 2028 to pay for a new national service scheme for 18-year-olds. This could be one of 30,000 selective full-time military placements lasting one year or 25 days of voluntary placements with organisations such as the fire service, police, NHS or a charity.
Keir Starmer attacked Sunak over the funding of national service during Tuesday night’s ITV general election debate, calling the idea “desperate” and “taking money away from levelling up”.
Sunak replied that his national service plan would be “transformational”, adding: “The money we spend on levelling up is partly spent on spreading skills and opportunities for young people.”
It is not clear whether Labour would retain the UKSPF, but a report published by Gordon Brown in 2022 recommended “merging” the fund with the main adult education budget.
‘Betrayal’
A study by Jonathan Payne at De Montford University has already found that the third sector faces “huge uncertainty” due to its reliance on UKSPF funding.
Payne, who surveyed 64 third-sector organisations, said that three-quarters of them have already reduced their services due to a drop in funding during the transition between EU funding, which ended in 2020, and the UKSPF’s launch in 2022.
Ian Ross, whose company Whitehead-Ross Education has £2.4 million of UKSPF contracts across nine local authorities, told FE Week that scrapping the fund would be a Conservative “betrayal” of its levelling up promises.
Neither Labour nor the Conservatives responded to requests for comment.
Marguerite Hogg, senior policy manager at the Association of Colleges said members are reporting that the UKSPF and Multiply are both making a “real impact” on learners’ lives.
She added: ““For many adults, maths can be a huge source of anxiety, and Multiply can be a real stepping stone towards a maths qualification as it is an introduction to numeracy in a non-intimidating way.
“The potential risk facing Multiply is worrying, and there must be policy development and funding to ensure that adults can continue to access maths provision like this.”
Simon Ashworth, the Association of Employment and Learning Provider’s director of policy said: “Elements of the European Social Fund previously had a strong focus on support for those not in education, employment or training (NEET) and much of this has already been lost following the introduction of its infrastructure-heavy replacement, the UKSPF.
“Given there are currently 900,000 NEETs, any further reduction in spending on UKSPF creates a real risk of critical funds getting lost for what should be priority groups.”
A combined authority has made the “highly unusual” move of “rewinding” its adult education budget tender despite already revealing the winning training providers.
FE Week understands that West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) informed bidders of their procurement outcomes on May 14, with contracts set to start on August 1.
But, on May 31, bidders were told that officials had decided to “rewind the procurement” following complaints.
An email to providers, seen by FE Week, added: “No further information is required from bidders at this time and the combined authority will be in touch further in due course once the re-evaluation has been completed.”
The exact value of the tender, which is for adult education budget (AEB) contracts in 2024/25, is not known but the previous procurement round totalled £11 million and was shared between 19 private providers including Back 2 Work Complete Training, Learning Curve and Realise Learning and Employment.
FE Week understands that WYCA had reduced the overall number of private providers with a procured contract to just nine firms next year before the tender was rewound.
‘The move is highly unusual and controversial’
A source with knowledge of the bidding process called the move to rewind evaluations “highly unusual and controversial”.
They told FE Week they believe that the bidding process was “fundamentally flawed” due to the way competing bids were scored in terms of “social value” and “economic advantage”.
The source added that a lack of information about the procurement process and timeframe made it more difficult to challenge WYCA’s decisions.
When asked why the procurement process was being rewound, a WYCA spokesperson said: “We are confident in our decisions around our adult education budget allocations, but following substantial challenges we are reviewing them to ensure they’re fair.
“We are building a stronger, brighter region and providing world-class adult skills courses is a key part of that, as it will help people get good jobs and ensure businesses have the workforce they need to succeed.”
Due to its commercial nature, mayoral authorities usually manage the procurement of training from private providers behind closed doors until contracts have been finalised.
But WYCA’s published allocations from last year suggest it had already confirmed its provider funding allocations by March – well ahead of the August 1 contract start date.
AEB funded training delivered by private providers in West Yorkshire includes short courses in construction, customer services and hospitality. Digital skills courses include digital technologies and creative skills.
The combined authority, which has a population of 2.3 million, is run by Labour mayor Tracey Brabin and has had devolved control of its adult education budget of about £66 million since 2021.
While around £11 million is distributed to private providers through procurement, the rest is handed to grant-funded education institutions like colleges annually. Under Brabin, the authority’s priorities have included supporting people into employment, progressing those on low wages and insecure work into better roles and increasing the supply of skilled workers into key sectors. It funded courses for 47,000 residents in 2022/23.
The number of colleges requiring government intervention could “rise fast” in the coming years as margins continue to be squeezed, a finance expert has warned.
Cash rose 7 per cent from £1.5 billion at the beginning of the academic year to £1.6 billion by 31 July 2023. The proportion of colleges that met the FE Commissioner’s benchmark of 25 or more cash days in hand grew from 94 per cent in 2022 to 96 per cent in 2023.
Those meeting the FE Commissioner’s benchmark of education-specific EBITDA of 6 per cent or more of total income – the best measurement of a college’s financial performance – fell from 56 per cent in 2022 to 51 per cent in 2023.
Association of Colleges (AoC) deputy chief executive Julian Gravatt said cash has been going up due to big pots of capital funding from government being handed to colleges in 2022/23 but not yet spent, including advance payments of grants following reclassification.
Julian Gravatt
At the same time margins have been getting tighter because of higher staff turnover, an upwards pressure on pay and the three main non-staff cost lines of energy prices, IT infrastructure and exam fees all rising, Gravatt added.
He said rising inflation, which peaked at 11 per cent in the year to October 2022, coupled with the energy price spike, made colleges “justifiably cautious about setting budgets”. Total energy costs soared almost 50 per cent from £123.6 million across colleges in 2022 to £183.3 million in 2023.
Andrew Thomas, the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s chief operating officer, told a recent AoC finance directors conference that colleges have got more cash and so their financial health ratings overall were looking “better”, but he warned that their margins were getting tighter.
There are currently 10 colleges with a financial notice to improve from the government. Gravatt predicts that this number will shoot up over the next couple of years due to the tight margins and running down of the cash that colleges are currently sitting on.
He warned that colleges are also dealing with a decline in the real-term value of funding, recent falls in student numbers, costs of estate maintenance and upgrades and student cost-of-living issues.
FE Week’s analysis was based on the DfE’s college accounts spreadsheet for 2022/23 published last month. It includes accounts data for 202 colleges but is missing information for around 20 due to late filing.
While the database is therefore not a completely full picture of all college finances, it is the best available source for sector-wide financial analysis.
The next government should phase in a “flex and match” skills levy that allows employers to spend part of their money on non-apprenticeship training – but only if they invest as much in apprenticeships for young people, a new report proposes.
The Learning and Work Institute has put forward a detailed blueprint of how the current apprenticeship levy, which the research body claims has been “counterproductive” to increasing apprentice numbers, could be reformed.
It comes amid vague plans from Labour to introduce a “growth and skills” levy that allows up to 50 per cent of employer payments to be spent on non-apprenticeship training.
The Conservatives have meanwhile committed to retaining the apprenticeship levy in its current form if the party wins next month’s election.
L&W chief executive Stephen Evans (pictured), who wrote the report which has been shared exclusively with FE Week, claims his proposal would allow the next government to flex the levy gradually while protecting the apprenticeship budget in real terms and encouraging more investment in young people.
A flex, match and cap skills levy…
Under the plans, the apprenticeship levy would be broadened, with greater flex for employers to use their funds for training outside of apprenticeships matched to a maximum of the amount they spend on apprenticeships for 16 to 24-year-olds and capped at up to 50 per cent of the levy.
The changes would be introduced over time to identify and deal with unintended consequences as they arise, with up to 15 per cent of levy funds able to be spent on other qualifications in years one to three, 30 per cent in years four to six, and 50 per cent thereafter.
For example, a firm paying £2 million as a skills levy could in time spend up to £1 million on approved training outside apprenticeships, but only if it had spent £1 million on apprenticeships for young people.
This training outside of apprenticeships would include functional literacy, numeracy and digital skills and other training from an approved list up to level 5 that is reassessed each year, helping to support national priorities such as net zero, housing and productivity.
…at no extra cost
The apprenticeship levy is a 0.5 per cent payroll tax on businesses with annualised wage bills of £3 million or more. In England, levy-paying employers spend an average of 50 per cent of their payments on apprenticeships. The remainder is kept by the Treasury and helps to fund apprenticeships for smaller firms.
In 2023-24 the levy raised £3.9 billion, but only around £3.2 billion was spent on apprenticeships by the government, including distributions to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
L&W’s report said natural growth in the amount raised by the apprenticeship levy is likely to mean the headroom grows to allow its proposed skills levy to happen.
Based on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecasts, and assuming the amount allocated to the Department for Education for apprenticeships rises in line with inflation from 2024-25 onwards, the government will be raising £1.1 billion more from the levy than it spends on apprenticeships and gives to devolved administrations by 2028-29, L&W said.
The report claimed that maintaining this margin at the estimated 2023-24 level (over £700 million) would mean a “spare” £412 million by 2028-29.
SMEs won’t be left out
Evans told FE Week that his proposed skills levy should continue the same trend of levy-payers spending around half of their funds in total, with the remainder going towards funding apprenticeships in small and medium-sized employers who do not pay the levy.
He said £200 million of the “spare” funding that would be generated each year could then be used by SMEs to invest in training outside apprenticeships. This would be in addition to current policy where the government covers 95 per cent of small firms’ apprenticeship training costs, and 100 per cent where the apprentice is aged 22 or less.
More apprenticeships for young people?
Apprenticeship numbers are down 34 per cent since 2015-16, before the apprenticeship levy and other reforms were introduced in 2017, and down 40 per cent for under 19s. Only one in two apprentices completes their apprenticeship.
L&W has also found that one in four apprentices at levy-paying firms is aged over 25 and studying at higher education level.
The report said it was “likely” that the proposed changes would lead to levy paying employers reducing some of their higher apprenticeships for existing employees and instead funding qualifications for them, while increasing funding on apprenticeships for young people.
Evans said:“We need a new skills levy that gives more flex for employers to invest in training that makes a difference, but demands they increase apprenticeships for young people to unlock that flexibility. We can do that while protecting the apprenticeship budget for England in real terms.
“Coupled with a laser-like focus on improving quality and increasing poor apprenticeship completion rates, the next government has the chance to revitalise apprenticeships and training opportunities.”
Cash-strapped local authorities are under pressure through safety valve deals to place high-needs young people in placements that may not be suitable for them.
Councils are under increasing pressure from the government to drive down soaring high-needs deficits, predicted to rise to more than £3.5 billion by March next year.
But attempts to save cash by not funding specialist provision for learners with complex needs are creating a new set of challenges.
These challenges are particularly evident in councils that have signed “safety valve” deals with the Department for Education. In return for short-term cash lifelines, councils sign up for longer-term savings plans that have stringent conditions.
Since 2021, 38 have signed deals worth more than £1 billion.
While most of these deals have conditions on making mainstream schools more inclusive and reducing reliance on costly independent special schools, their reach also extends to FE.
Of the 28 “safety valve” authorities that responded to a freedom of information request from FE Week, more than half (15) were reducing the use of post-16 independent specialist provision – thereby increasing pressure on general FE colleges to accept more young people with high needs. Five councils made pledges around reducing reliance on “out of borough” provision to slash transport costs.
Barnsley Council says there is “clear evidence” of “many young people accessing specialist provision who could have their needs met in local mainstream provision post-16”.
It set the “key objective” to “transition ALL our young people with high needs placed in out-of-borough specialist settings to in-borough settings from year 12, over a three to four-year period”.
Only two councils say they do not intend to reduce post-16 specialist provision, with the others vague as to their intentions.
Hounslow set a target of no more than 3.3 per cent of young people with a education, health and care plan (EHCP) to be educated in a special post-16 institution.
Devon is making a capital funding bid to the DfE as part of its safety valve plans to boost high-needs capacity in local FE colleges by more than 300 places. It has also targeted savings for 2023-24 of £1.97 million in post-16 placements.
Catriona Moore, policy manager at the Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA, says safety valve councils are aiming to “reduce the number” of young people attending specialist colleges, and “setting explicit targets for mainstream placements”.
“These actions not only undermine the rights of children and young people with SEND, but also risk local authorities exposing themselves to more legal challenges than ever before.”
Deal failure
The main aims of the deals – to plug high-needs deficits and make those councils more financially resilient – are not being achieved while demand for EHCPs soars. In 2019, 77,587 16 to 19-year-olds had EHCPs. This increased by more than a third to 105,900 in 2023.
A third of the safety valve councils say the risk of them not being able to deliver their statutory duties for children and young people with SEND have increased in the past 12 months – despite cash injections.
Richmond’s deal set a target to keep its spending on independent schools and colleges to 28.9 per cent of overall spend, but in the year up to March 2023 it had spent 30.4 per cent.
It also maintained a controversial £3,486 target for average costs per placement at its FE colleges, which it exceeded by £53. Its high-needs block spending continues to rise month on month.
Scott Gardner, senior SEND management accountant for Achieving for Children, the community interest company that runs its children’s services, says Richmond had been “highlighted by the DfE as a success of the [safety valve] programme. However, if the funding ceases there is a high risk that within five years the borough will be in the same financial position it was before [it] was introduced”.
Dorset, which signed a deal in 2021, says its “progress” has “not yet translated into financial savings or efficiencies”.
“Authorities that are in better financial positions may be in a more adversarial position with children and families,” a council report noted.
Councils with safety valve deals are also trying to cease as many EHCPs as they can, which means more young people with SEND entering college without support arrangements in place.
Merton made its intentions in this respect quite explicit: “Work on ceasing plans is continuing and dedicated staff in the post-16 team are concentrating on this.”
Tony McCardle, DfE’s safety valve deal negotiator
Bankruptcy threats
In 2020, the government issued a “statutory override” of standard accounting rules, letting councils across England keep their dedicated schools grant (DSG) – which includes college high-needs funding – deficits off their general revenue books. This meant they could still set balanced budgets, despite the overspends.
That override is set to end in March 2026, after which councils are expected to have eradicated their DSG deficits.
But this seems unlikely for many.
More than a third (38 per cent) of the safety valve respondents said they are at risk of issuing a section 114 notice – meaning they cannot balance their budgets – in the next three years, partly driven by the escalating cost of SEND provision.
These notices restrict council spending to the statutory minimum.
Stoke-on-Trent told FE Week it is facing “a risk of section 114 due to pressures and demands across all of children’s services”. It is “not on track” to balance its DSG deficits by 2025, as agreed in its safety valve deal, with its officers in “constant dialogue with the DfE”.
Similarly, North Tyneside’s risk of not being able to ensure financial sustainability without raiding reserves is currently flagged as an “A1 risk” with “very high likelihood”.
However, the authority said this did not mean that it expected to issue a section 114 notice between now and 2028.
Five councils have been forced to issue section 114s in the past two years.
They include Birmingham, which after issuing the notice last year indicated that it would cut back on placements at the specialist college The Hive. But the college’s executive principal, Kim Everton, subsequently, said council staff had u-turned and “acknowledged the needs of these young people for access to education”.
Birmingham is cutting back post-16 SEND transport – as are Kent and Cheshire East Councils.
Another 54 councils are part of the government’s “delivering better value in SEND” programme, in which cost-cutting experts are parachuted in to help them find ways of driving down costs.
Clare Howard, the chief executive of Natspec, the membership body for specialist colleges, says her members are “feeling the effects” of the safety valve.
Specialist colleges in safety valve areas are “being told that there’ll be across the board, no inflationary fee increases”, she says.
“Colleges have clearly had increased staffing and energy costs, and have experienced inflationary pressures. Yet the amount they’re getting for each learner is exactly the same.”
Clare Howard of NATSPEC
Duty to admit
School and post-16 education systems operate very differently.
While just under half of children with EHCPs attend special schools, only 11 per cent of college students – those who generally have the most acute needs – are in specialist provision, with the other 89 per cent registered at general and land-based FE colleges.
“This means that although local authorities sometimes think they might be sending too many young people to specialist colleges, there’s not many cutbacks they can make,” says David Holloway, senior SEND policy manager for the Association of Colleges.
And unlike independent special schools, relatively few (15 per cent) of the 130 post-16 specialist colleges are private equity owned companies with an eye on profit margins – although several private equity owned companies operate special schools offering provision up to age 19.
But some councils are cutting post-16 services wherever they can, and not just in safety valve areas.
Holloway believes there is growing evidence of local authorities becoming “more aggressive” in their use of the “duty to admit”.
Even in instances where a general FE college has indicated it would be unable to meet a particular young person’s needs, and where the young person’s family stipulate a preference for a specialist provider, councils are sometimes still obliging mainstream colleges to accept these placements.
“This is very problematic,” said Holloway. “It’s leading to young people being in the wrong place for them”.
David Holloway, senior SEND policy manager for AoC
Conflicting duties
Specialist college placements tend to be much more expensive because of higher staff to learner ratios and specialist facilities and equipment for students with more complex needs.
In Richmond-upon-Thames, for example, the average placement cost in 2023-24 of an independent specialist post-16 provider was £37,693, compared with £3,306 in FE colleges and £40,907 in independent special schools.
Last year Holloway held a webinar on “duty to admit”, expecting to get maybe 30 people on the call. About 180 people from “nearly every college in the country” signed up, indicating the growing scale of the problem.
He emphasises that college SEND managers “go into the job to be inclusive”, and “hate saying no” to potential students – only doing so where there is a “good reason for it”.
While he understands the need for a “duty to admit” to be applied to the school sector where some have been accused of not being inclusive, “the same medicine should not be applied to colleges because we don’t have that problem”.
Colleges are sometimes reluctant to accept a young person whose behaviour cannot be managed safely, or because they lack the appropriate staffing to meet medical needs. A young person may have learning needs too profound to suit their local college classes, or the college may lack the appropriate facilities.
Holloway believes that “deeply misguided” commissioning by councils is “placing colleges in a really difficult position from a safeguarding perspective”.
“Commissioning decisions are being made on financial grounds, sometimes in defiance of what the college has said it can do…you hear colleges saying, ‘we’ve got legal duties to admit the students under the Children and Families 2014 act – but The Health and Safety Act trumps those’.”
Howard says that some councils are also placing some young people in specialist colleges that are “entirely unsuitable” for their needs – often chosen because they are local – to limit transport costs.
Lynette Barrett of National Star College
Disorganised commissioning
Young people with high needs are also bearing the brunt of “disorganised commissioning” by overstretched councils, says Holloway.
Often decisions about which college to name in an EHCP are made by caseworkers “without real knowledge of the post-16 landscape”. And these are made long after the March statutory deadline when a provider should be named on a young person’s EHCP for the upcoming academic year.
Howard believes that missing the deadline is “so routine” that it is “unusual to find a council that has actually complied with the law”. Some placements are not confirmed until after the term has begun, leading to “money wasted” because colleges bring in more expensive supply staff to plug staffing shortages.
Lynette Barrett, the chief executive of National Star College, a SEND college in Gloucestershire, says delays to naming provision on EHCPs is “leaving families in limbo” and means her college ends up planning for placements that never materialise.
But Barrett believes that “as much as the system is broken, local authorities are victims in all of this too. They’re in an untenable position with so many demands, they don’t have the resources available to provide for it all.”
National Star College, which relies on fundraising donations for capital funding
Funding complexities
Schools get what’s called “notional SEN” funding for those with low special educational needs, but there is no equivalent for colleges. For them that money comes under the disadvantage fund, which is allocated based on other factors. AoC research in 2022 found large disparities between colleges in how much they received based on economic disadvantage levels, with some getting 12 times more than others. This makes the fund effective in predicting need based on economic disadvantage, but “it’s not working for students with SEND”, says Holloway.
There is also unfairness when it comes to the £2.6 billion high-needs provision capital allocations (HNPCAs) pot distributed by local authorities for building projects for learners with SEND.
With schools, colleges and early years providers all in scope, councils are meant to consult before it is allocated. But they often only consult school representatives.
Research by Special Needs Jungle, the parents’ network, shows that in previous rounds, 99 per cent of all HNPCA spending was on schools, with the remaining 1 per cent split between early years and FE.
“The obvious consequence of skewed investment is that accommodation in the college SEND sector is not improving to meet demand,” says Holloway.
Howard also says it is “ludicrous” that specialist colleges are exempt from the £1.5 billion FE capital transformation fund, leaving some “having to raid their reserves for maintenance, and reliant on fundraisers to carry out essential repairs”.
Kent Council acknowledges this challenge in a council report that explains how post 16 training providers “cannot draw down” capital funding, which “hinders the development of their offer across the county, as premises costs are high”.
The government’s SEND improvement plan contains reforms yet to be rolled out
Some positive progress
Much of the disorganised commissioning is laid bare in the 32 Ofsted area SEND inspections that have taken place since January last year. Overall, nine (28 per cent) were graded 3 (‘systemic failings’), the same percentage grade 1 (‘typically positive’), while 14 (44 per cent) were grade 2 ‘inconsistent’.
The reports are particularly critical of post-16 SEND arrangements. Only a quarter were generally positive, 16 per cent mixed and 59 per cent poor, our analysis revealed.
Ofsted found that in North Northamptonshire, “inaccurate” EHCPs do not support students to “access appropriate placements”.
In Bury (a safety valve council) inspectors reported “systemic failings” – with no provision in place for 18 to 25-year-olds to access an ADHD or autism assessment.
In Haringey, EHCPs “do not adequately address preparation for adulthood”.
However, Middlesbrough was praised for how “young people learn about pathways” to FE. In Oxfordshire planning for adult transition was found to be “coordinated” and avoided “delays”.
Some councils are keen to engage more with colleges around SEND provision. Hertfordshire Council was last year criticised by Ofsted for “systemic failings” and admitted that until recently, “increasing demand coupled with resource constraints, high sickness levels and high staff turnover has led to strain on existing systems”.
But after a meeting was arranged in April with representatives from four Hertfordshire colleges and then Watford MP Dean Russell, the council launched a “new regional partnership”, including colleges in strategic planning for specialist provision and high-needs funding discussions.
