Lady Spielman and Lord Gove: Tories confirm peerages

Former Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman will be made a Conservative member of the House of Lords, it has been confirmed.

The former education secretary Michael Gove, now editor of The Spectator, has also been awarded a peerage and James Cleverly, who was education secretary for just under two months in 2022, has been knighted.

Spielman led Ofsted from 2017 to 2023. The end of her reign was mired in controversy after a coroner ruled an Ofsted inspection had contributed to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry. 

The life peerage was trailed in the press last month and was branded “inappropriate and insensitive” by school leader groups. 

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch’s citation for the peerage highlights Spielman’s 20 years of service in education, children’s services and regulation.

“She served two terms as His Majesty’s Chief Inspector at Ofsted, promoting substance and integrity in education for all children and young people, and also high-quality social care. She previously chaired the exam regulator Ofqual, overseeing the programme of qualification reform,” Badenoch said.

Her years working as a research and policy director at Ark academy trust was also cited.

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s resignation honours list, also published today, featured two former education secretaries. 

James Cleverly becomes third education secretary in two days

Michael Gove was the longest-serving education secretary in the previous government, taking office when the coalition government was formed in 2010. Before leaving parliament in last year’s general election, Gove had also led the justice and environment departments and finally served as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He has been awarded a life peerage. 

Sunak said: “As education secretary, he introduced changes to the English school system which have resulted in sustained improvement in performance in world rankings in literacy, mathematics and science.”

James Cleverly’s knighthood citation references his time as home secretary and foreign secretary but omits the 1 month and 30 days he served as education secretary during the downfall of Boris Johnson’s premiership in 2022. 

Sunak has also put forward Henry de Zoete, a special adviser to Michael Gove while at DfE, to be made an OBE for public service. 

The investor held a number of other roles in the last government, including non-executive director of the Cabinet Office and was Sunak’s adviser on artificial intelligence.

Unions demand 10% pay rise amid looming strike threat

Further education unions will demand 10 per cent pay rise alongside national commitments to reduce teaching hours and class sizes to tackle “impossible” workloads in upcoming negotiations.

The National Joint Forum (NJF) of five teaching and support staff trade unions issued its annual claim for pay and conditions this week, arguing that current strategies to close pay gaps with schools “are not working” and that the sector is “at a crossroads”.

Negotiations are held between the joint forum and the Association of Colleges (AoC), which then issues a non-binding recommendation on behalf of England’s FE colleges.

In their letter to Gerry McDonald, New City College chief executive and AoC employment policy group chair, the unions repeated calls for a “functioning bargaining mechanism” and “concrete action” on workload.

These are “essential” to making colleges “vibrant and attractive” places to work, they added.

The joint forum urged the AoC to join trade unions in calling for a “better” bargaining system that would align with the school teacher’s review body (STRB).

In recent years, the AoC has held off on pay recommendations until STRB recommendations are published, in the hope that the government will cough up extra money for colleges to make a “meaningful offer” to staff.

This paid off in 2023, with an extra £470 million extra announced over two academic years and an AoC pay recommendation of 6.5 per cent, in line with schoolteacher pay rises.

But last year the new Labour government snubbed FE with no extra funding, while offering school teachers a 5.5 per cent rise.

The AoC then said it was “forced” to recommend only 2.5 per cent, or at least £750, although it argued this was above inflation.

Julian Gravatt, the AoC’s deputy chief executive, said: “We thank the unions for their pay claim and look forward to meeting with them in June to discuss it.

“Association of Colleges and its members share the same aim as the unions to improve college pay.

“That is why we work so hard to persuade the government to invest more in skills, to increase funding and to ensure that colleges can offer competitive salaries.  

“Our concern is that the already unacceptable pay gaps between college lecturers and schoolteachers and with industry will widen further unless funded.

“We will do everything we can to secure that extra investment.”

The DfE later agreed to extra funding for pay increases for teachers worth £50 million amidst a judicial review threat from the Sixth Form College Association and National Education Union strikes.

The unions say a 10 per cent or £3,000 pay increase this year, whichever is greater, would be a first step to reversing fifteen years of real terms pay reductions, which have created a “yawning pay gap” with schools and resulted in a “recruitment and retention crisis”.

Other demands include minimum starting pay for FE lecturers to equal schoolteachers’, talks on standardised increments and pay scales, maximum weekly and annual teaching hours, and an agreed national policy on guided learning hours.

October’s budget committed £300 million to further education colleges’ revenue budgets; £50 million was designated for college pay this academic year, with the remaining £250 million going towards a 3.78 per cent increase to the 16-19 funding rate.

However college leaders say they have seen unprecedented growth in younger learners this year, with more expected to enrol this September.

Meanwhile, devolved and national adult education budgets have been cut for 2025-26 with hopes of good news in June’s spending review waning as the country’s economic growth outlook looks increasingly bleak. 

Members of UCU are discussing the feasibility of a ballot for national strike action in the coming months. 

The union – which is campaigning for a “new deal for FE” – recently reported that its further education committee decided it would tentatively consult members “to gauge the levels of support for an industrial action ballot”.

Several UCU branches have submitted motions to the annual congress this May calling for a national strike ballot.

Weston College governance failure allowed ‘concealment’ of £2.5m payments to former principal

Governance failures at Weston College allowed the “concealment” of £2.5 million in undeclared payments to England’s highest-paid former principal Sir Paul Phillips, a damning FE Commissioner investigation has found.

Newly published financial accounts by the college, also published this morning, revealed Phillips was paid an eye-watering total pay package of £1.898 million in 2023, including a “significant” retention payment of £909,000, which his son as chief operating officer “resisted” paying.

A long-awaited intervention report into “funding irregularities” at Weston College published by the FE Commissioner today highlighted failures by the then board of governors to have proper accountability over public funds.

Regular payroll procedures were “bypassed” to make direct payments to the ex-principal, who also provided “partial information” to external auditors and believed full details of his remuneration package could be withheld from disclosure.

It comes after DfE fraud investigators began probing the former college principal’s salary last June, following an FE Week investigation in 2023 questioning a specially created “presidential” role for Phillips upon his upcoming retirement.

Between 2017 and 2023, Phillips was paid £2.5 million more than was officially declared through a combination of bonuses, allowances and benefits, including the £909,000 retention payment. The report said the “majority” of these undeclared payments were not approved by the board of governors.

Weston College remains in intervention amid a separate ongoing DfE investigation into “other aspects” of financial controls at the college.

Principal and CEO of Weston College Pat Jones said: “Staff and the wider college community will understandably be concerned and dismayed about the remuneration package revealed by this investigation, and we recognise those frustrations.”

“We want to reiterate that the focus of the investigations and subsequent financial notice to improve are about past issues dating back to a period concluding in the summer 2023. The financial notice to improve does not relate to our sustainability, to the high quality of education we deliver, or to our general finances, which are in good health.”

The college told FE Week it has not been asked to repay any funding off the back of the FE Commissioner’s findings.

Payments bypassed normal procedures

The FE Commissioner said it was clear from the evidence they uncovered that Phillips “believed that the full value of his annual remuneration could be withheld from publication”.

Investigators found evidence that the college had a “deliberate” policy of maintaining a monthly pensionable salary that was declared in the official accounts. 

Phillips then received additional direct payments, which bypassed normal payroll procedures to achieve an undeclared total actual remuneration package. 

“This led to a failure of proper governance processes and to poor decision-making around the best use of public funds,” the report said.

The process was a blatant breach of ESFA (now DfE) funding and regulating rules to fully disclose every component of personal payments to the principal and CEO of a college.

The report also revealed there was a small group of trusted governors who made decisions on the previous principal’s pay in the remuneration committee, which were never reported to the full board for approval.

“Some members of the committee expressed surprise at the actual sums of money paid to the previous principal, despite being party to decisions on remuneration of the senior post-holder,” the report noted.

Weston College was awarded the AoC beacon award for excellence in governance in 2022/23. 

FE Commissioner Shelagh Legrave placed Weston College in intervention in May 2024, installing advisor Tim Jackson to chair the board. Weston’s long-standing chair, Andrew Leighton-Price, stood aside at that point and resigned from the board.

Jackson said: “[The current governors] believe the remuneration sums at this level are unacceptable and agree with the FE Commissioner intervention report concerning this being a matter of a failure of proper governance processes and poor decision making around the best use of public funds, which we note were made by a past membership of the board of governors.”

He added: “I would like to thank those members of staff, who were brave to raise concerns with regulators in relation to this matter as and when these were discovered and who prioritised the integrity and interests of the college, their colleagues and students.”

Millions raked in by former principal

The college’s delayed 2023 financial accounts were published alongside its statement about the intervention report, outlining Phillips’ restated 2022 and 2023 earnings.

Phillips held the title of England’s highest-paid principal whilst he was in post, from an originally stated remuneration package of £362,000 in 2022. 

The accounts now show his basic salary was not £258,000 but £348,000. Alongside this, he was paid a previously undisclosed performance bonus of £395,000 and £13,000 in other salary-related payments.

In 2023, Phillips’ basic salary was £349,000. His other salary-related payments shot up to £128,000, and he was paid a £370,000 performance bonus and a £909,000 retention payment.

Including other benefits and pension contributions, Phillips took home £1.898 million in total in 2023. 

Additionally, the FEC report outlined three years of unused holiday allocation payments made to Phillips, despite “his contract of employment specifically did not allow for such payments”, as well as £15,000 in annual car allowance which was not fully used each year.

Phillips’ £369,000 bonus in 2023 included £105,000 for “historic annual unused elements” of this car allowance.

Finance team refused to pay six-figure retention package

Phillips’ retention payment of £909,000 appeared to cause some contention amongst staff, investigators also revealed.

The report said the board of governors signed a retention agreement in 2011, which allows for an “annual accrual” of retention value for Phillips to keep him in post. Phillips served as principal of Weston College for 22 years.

The payment was calculated by multiplying total annual salary package by 10 per cent and by number of years’ service and various other unspecified conditions.

In November 2022, Phillips was paid the £909,000 as a severance payment, including a £190,000 pension adjustment and £30,000 as a tax-free element.

“The reasons that the combined payment for retention payment and pension adjustment was made as a severance payment are unclear. The payment was made whilst the principal was still the accounting officer for the college,” the report said.

The report added that Phillips’ son Joe, the chief operating officer (COO), resisted paying the retention payment to his father in his capacity as chief operating officer, according to evidence investigators found in the remuneration committee minutes. 

The finance team also refused to make the payment, and Joe Phillips supported his team in their refusal.

Instead, the payment was initially made directly by the governors “under the authority of the remuneration committee”.  

On at least one occasion, the previous clerk to the board processed additional payments outside Phillips’ monthly salary “under the authority of the remuneration committee” because the finance team refused to do it. 

Joe Phillips was appointed COO of the college from May 2023 until January 2024. His promotion at the time to lead the college’s finances sparked concerns of poor governance and conflicts of interest.

The FEC report stated: “There is no specific disclosure of this close family relationship in the financial statements, nor is it set out in the annual regularity self-assessment questionnaire.”

A spokesperson from the Department for Education said: “Weston College is currently subject to an ongoing investigation by the Department for Education. As this is an active matter, we are unable to provide further comment at this time.”

Improvement orders

Today’s report, dated June 2024 but only published today, lists 13 recommendations for the college to bring its governance and financial process in check.

Decisions on senior staff remuneration must now be set out in a formal scheme of delegation and terms of reference must be updated so senior pay can only be approved by the full board.

Non-confidential board minutes have to be published in a “timely fashion”, and the college must ensure all salary payments follow standard payroll processing with “no exceptions”.

Interim chair of governors Tim Jackson, who was appointed by the FEC, said the board approved “significant” changes in July 2024 to strengthen governance.

These include the appointed of a governance professional who does not report to the CEO/Principal, a review of the terms of office for all governors, and more “robust” reporting procedures. 

The FEC also recommended the college undergo a skills audit of the current board of governors, review the governor induction process and always have a qualified accountant on the audit committee.

‘Loyal servant’

Phillips did not respond to requests for comment from FE Week.

However, in a statement to BBC News he said the undeclared payments were “contractually due” to him and blamed governors for failing to manage funding correctly.

Phillips disagreed with the five year period alleged in the report, arguing that some of the payments related to a “recompense for pension errors and a retention package” for his 22 years at the college, due only after he retired.

“During my extensive tenure at the college, approaches from other organisations occurred and therefore the college introduced a retention scheme to retain me”, he added.

He claimed governors had refused to pay him the £909,000 retention payment on an annual basis.

He said the pension error correction was “insisted upon” by college auditors, and he was under the impression legal advice had been obtained.

He added: “All of this information was provided to the FE commissioner and it is regrettable their report was not corrected prior to publication.

“As the FE commissioner’s report clearly states, this is a ‘governance issue’ of which I played no part in other than being a loyal servant to the college for over 20 years.”

DfE seeks job share director to oversee T Levels and level 3 reforms

The Department for Education (DfE) is advertising a job share role for the civil service role responsible for T Levels and level 3 qualification reform.

This weekend, the DfE posted an advert for a part-time director of technical qualifications and essential skills to share with current permanent director Kiera Harper.

The role includes being the senior responsible officer for T Levels, a DfE major project with a “substantial” £1.6 billion overall budget – currently rated ‘amber’ by government infrastructure project experts.

It also involves oversight of the DfE’s reforms of level 3 and below qualifications, which has faced controversy due to its proposed axing of popular vocational courses, such as some BTECs, that “overlap” with T Levels.

At three days a week, the role has a full-time equivalent salary of £98,000 per year and comes with a civil service pension contribution equivalent to £28,390 per year.

Harper, who is currently on maternity leave, is hoping to find a job-share partner to work with when she returns.

Since going on leave in June 2024, her role has been covered by job sharing interim directors, Jane Belfourd and Rebekah Chatwin. Harper replaced previous director Sue Lovelock in 2023.

High profile job sharers

If appointed as planned, the job share will be the second announced in recent months, following the appointment of Skills England joint chief executives Tessa Griffths and Sarah Maclean, who have held the same roles together for almost two decades.

The civil service, which aims to be “the most inclusive” employer in the UK, promotes job sharing in senior roles, believing that benefits include an improved work/life balance and promoting gender equality, particularly for women.

It has created a ‘job share notice board’ for finding a job share partner and published practical advice for candidates and hiring departments in 2020.

In recent years government blog posts have promoted case studies of senior job sharing roles in various departments, including current director generals for policy at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, who have shared for fifteen years.

The T Level challenge

It comes shortly after the National Audit Office (NAO) cast doubt on the scalability of T Levels after finding student number forecasts were missed by three quarters.

Following the NAO report, Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said a lack of widespread awareness, declining pass rates and challenges securing industry placements show a risk to the DfE’s “ability” to scale up T Levels.

According to the description posted on the Civil Service Jobs website, the role is a “challenging and high profile” that needs an “extraordinary leader” who can think “strategically and at pace” about a complex policy and delivery landscape.

The DfE hopes to recruit someone with “strong financial management and Major Project discipline” due to the “substantial amount of public funding” the director is accountable for.

The directors will oversee a team of around 160 staff across multiple sites and will report to Julia Kinniburgh, director general for skills.

As a senior civil servant, the successful candidate will be expected to commit to a minimum duration of three years “to enable them to deliver on the agreed business outcomes”, although this is not a contractual requirement.

Applications must be submitted by April 28, ahead of interviews and assessments in May.

Luminate boss to retire

The chief executive of one of England’s largest college groups will retire at the end of the year.

Luminate Education group chief executive Colin Booth has announced he will step down in December after a decade at the helm of the Leeds-based college group.

Booth’s retirement comes after a 40-year career beginning as a teacher in Surrey to heading up one of the country’s largest college group.

Colin Booth, chief executive, Luminate Education Group

Booth said: “I’m incredibly proud of everything we have achieved together at Luminate as a team of staff and leaders and together with all of our key partners.

“Our collective efforts have not only ensured the continued success of our institutions but have also had a profound impact on the communities we serve.”

He began his career teaching at Carshalton College in Surrey, and then moved onto establishing courses for learners.

His four-decade career in education includes stints at South Thames College and Newcastle College and working as a part-time Ofsted inspector.

Booth also spent seven years steering Barnsley College from its ‘satisfactory’ (now known as ‘requires improvement) rating to an Ofsted ‘outstanding’ in 2010. He moved to Leeds City College Group in 2015, which became Luminate three years later.

He also used his expertise to advise other colleges, working with the FE Commissioner as one of the national leaders of further education since 2020.

Over his time at Luminate he has spoken out on a range of issues, most recently on the lack of growth funding to meet demand for the rising number of 16 -18- year-olds in Leeds. His efforts appear to have paid off as Leeds was one of two areas to have been awarded £10 million last week for additional capacity.

John Toon, Luminate Education Group’s chair of governors, said: “Personally, it has been my pleasure and a privilege to work closely with Colin over the last eight years.

“He has raised expectations around innovation and excellence and has driven teams to exceed expectations, improving the financial and quality performance of all organisations he has worked for.”

Applications for a new Luminate CEO will close on May 5.

Ministers funding LSIPs until at least September

Funding for local skills improvement plans has been confirmed for the next six months, as the sector awaits long-term financial decisions expected at the Spending Review.

Each employer representative body leading England’s 38 local skills improvement plans (LSIPs) has been awarded £100,000 to continue working from April to September.

The Department for Education originally allocated £20 million, or £550,000 per employer representative body, to manage the plans from 2023 to last month.

The government is thought to be planning the commissioning of new LSIPs, with increased input from local mayors and other strategic authorities.

Exactly how much funding will go towards LSIPs from October is understood to be being considered as part of the Spending Review, expected in June this year.

However, in her spring statement last month, the chancellor announced an additional £20 million for LSIPs to “form partnerships between colleges and construction companies.”

A key aim will be increasing the number of teachers with construction experience to “train the next generation of workers.”

Last year, the British Chambers of Commerce urged the previous government to commit to funding until “at least” 2028, to provide businesses with long-term certainty about input into skills training in their areas.

Gareth Thomas, who advises the East Midlands Chamber on developing the LSIP for Leicester and Leicestershire, said he understood there would be a “competitive process” to decide who will deliver the next round of plans.

He added: “This is partly, at least, due to some changes in geographic boundaries, such as Rutland being aligned with Leicester and Leicestershire moving forwards.”

“We understand these will be led by employer representative bodies.

However, in areas with mayoral strategic authorities in place, the approach to be taken will require agreement from the authority.”

“The details of such mechanisms are still to be communicated.”

Thomas warned that while the government can “see the value” in LSIPs, there should be collective agreement that local authorities, mayoral authorities and others should not “duplicate” work when engaging local businesses.

He added: “Collectively, we need to gather the intelligence once and use it to support the development of local growth plans, LSIPs, and work and health plans as they come to fruition.”

The DfE confirmed the £100,000 funding extension but declined to comment further.

T Levels for adults ‘under review’ amid ‘very little interest’

There are no plans to roll out T Levels to adults after a pilot scheme attracted just 14 people, FE Week understands.

Former education secretary Gavin Williamson made an “absolute guarantee” to Parliament in 2020 that the flagship two-year technical qualifications, designed for 16- to 19-year-olds, would be available to adults in the future.

A trial of the idea was launched in 2022 with a target of recruiting 150 adults at 11 FE colleges.

But only 14 were enrolled due to “very little interest.”

The Department for Education hoped to learn “valuable lessons” about supporting adults to access T Levels before a potential wider rollout from September this year.

Final adult education payments to providers for 2022-23, published this week by the DfE, showed three colleges out of the 11 that initially volunteered for the pilot received £97,000 between them, with no further funding allocated the following year.

The DfE told FE Week it was keeping the T Levels for adults idea “under review” while being “focussed on ensuring the programme succeeds for learners.”

Adults prefer ‘intensive’ learning

One principal told FE Week adult students at their college preferred courses tailored for older people and delivered in more “intensive” time frames than T Levels.

Only Exeter College recruited a full group of adult learners – 12 in total – who were taught separately from their 16- to 18-year-old cohort between 2022 and 2024.

They studied the digital production, design, and development pathway.

Principal John Laramy said: “Exeter College did pilot an adult T Level.

“It was a discreet group and the pilot came to an end and was not continued.”

East Sussex College Group (ESCG) recruited only one learner who joined its wider cohort of younger students that year.

A spokesperson said: “East Sussex College opted to be part of the T Level adult pilot in 2022, but this unfortunately attracted very little interest and only one adult T Level student was recruited.

“The T Level funding we retained as part of this pilot covered the programme delivery costs for this one student.”

ESCG’s principal and chief executive Rebecca Conroy previously told FE Week low recruitment was partly due to the small number of subjects offered and the limited time the DfE gave to promote the pilot.

A single rate of £10,000 per learner was available, split over two years, with an additional £1,000 provided for learning support.

TEC Partnership, the third college involved in the pilot and which only claimed £5,000, did not respond to requests for comment.

The adult T Level recruitment and payment figures suggest some of the 14 participants did not complete their course.

No demand

The aim of the pilot was to understand adult learners’ appetites for T Levels and whether any flexibilities would encourage them to enrol.

A DfE spokesperson failed to respond when asked about the findings of an “evaluation” that officials were understood to have made following the pilot.

T Levels gained national attention in recent weeks after the DfE axed three more of the courses due to low demand.

The National Audit Office also last week revealed the enormity of the take-up failure for the qualifications, which are designed to be the technical equivalent to A-levels.

The NAO found that student number forecasts for 16- to 19-year-olds were missed by three quarters – resulting in a near-£700 million spending shortfall.

MPs on the Public Accounts Committee warned the DfE it had “much to do” to convince people of T Levels’ “worth as a desirable and valuable” qualification.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 493

Lucy Auchincloss

Director of Operations, Remit Training

Start date: March 2025

Previous Job: Partnership Development Director, Lifetime

Interesting fact: Lucy’s greatest passion is music and especially Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones, both of whom she’s seen live multiple times across 3 continents

Jeremy Kerswell

Chair, Landex

Start date: March 2025

Concurrent Job: Principal & CEO, Plumpton College

Interesting fact: After graduating from Reading Uni, Jeremy worked in a lab in which was the first place to recreate the polio virus this side of the Atlantic

Ben Owen

Start date: March 2025

Vice Principal (Business Growth, Skills and Partnerships), DN Colleges Group

Previous Job: Vice President of Customer Services, Lightcast

Interesting fact: In his spare time, Ben can be usually found either walking the South Yorkshire countryside with his wife and dog or attempting to play golf

It’s not only Leeds and Manchester desperate for demographic boom help, say leaders

News of cash to help two northern cities meet a surge in FE students has prompted pleas to help the rest of the country.

This week, the Department for Education revealed it would hand £10 million each to Leeds City Council and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to help post-16 institutions cope with a demographic bulge of young people.

It also announced £302 million in condition funding ring-fenced for repairing colleges’ “leaky roofs, broken windows and dilapidated buildings.”

But while the capacity funding given to Leeds and Greater Manchester was welcomed by college sector leaders, it is understood England’s seven other core cities are facing high levels of demand due to a “demographic boom.”

‘We need a plan’

Association of Colleges (AoC) deputy chief executive Julian Gravatt said: “With 16-to-18 student numbers having risen by 7 per cent this year and forecast to rise by 5 per cent nationally, the government needs a plan for technical education growth.

“The funds for Leeds and Manchester will help, but there are pressures in other cities and towns across the country.”

The number of 16 to 18-year-olds is estimated to have grown by 230,000, or 13 per cent, between 2017 and 2024. It is projected to increase by a further 110,000, or five per cent, by 2028.

Government capital capacity funding was last released between 2021 and 2023. Around £230 million was shared between 89 colleges and sixth forms with the aim of creating additional capacity by September 2024.

‘Bursting at the seams’

The DfE said Leeds and Greater Manchester got funding this time around based on their levels of demographic growth and college capacity pressure.

Population pressures on education are kept under review, a spokesperson added.

But Sixth Form Colleges Association deputy chief executive James Kewin said: “Many of our members are bursting at the seams, but there is currently no capital funding available to support expansion projects.

“The funding announced for Greater Manchester and Leeds is welcome, but the demographic boom is not limited to those two areas.”

He told FE Week that one of the government’s spending review priorities “should be to create a capital expansion fund for sixth form providers that operates on an annual basis,” adding that the alternative is “cramming more students into already overcrowded classrooms or turning students away.”

Positive development

Colin Booth, chief executive of Luminate Education Group, called the £10 million in funding for Leeds a “positive development” that could go “some way” to tackling rising numbers of young people not in education, employment or training.

He said: “Over recent years, post-16 capacity constraints in Leeds have resulted in growing numbers of young people being unable to access suitable forms of post-16 education.

“The announcement represents forward-thinking investment that could benefit both the local economy and young people right across the city.”

However, he warned funding should be “targeted” at growing capacity for high-demand courses such as level 1 and 2, and some technical courses such as health and care, rather than local sixth forms or other providers offering A-levels.

He said: “In Leeds, there is an oversupply and competition between sixth forms for A-level students.

“But in the most disadvantaged postcodes of Leeds, fewer than half of 16-year-olds are able or want to study A-levels.”

Condition funding

The £302 million in further education college condition allocations (bizarrely, the exact figure given was £301,999,999.98) announced this week will be shared between England’s 179 college groups based on a methodology that takes into account learning hours in the last academic year, space requirements for each subject, modelled non-teaching space, residential space, local construction costs and total expected space.

While the methodology does include apprenticeship delivery, it excludes learning aims such as distance learning, higher education, T Level occupational specialisms or end-point assessments.

Large college groups such as NCG and Capital City College will receive more than £7 million each, while 48 smaller institutions such as Calderdale College and Capel Manor College will get less than £1 million each (see full list at FE Week).

Gravatt said the £302 million investment was a “significant and crucial step” towards improving colleges and praised the DfE for using a formula to allocate funding “for the first time in 20 years.”