Collab Group closes after 20 years

A national body that has represented UK further education colleges for nearly two decades has closed.

Members of the Collab Group were offered refunds for their annual membership subscriptions last month, and were told the organisation would soon be dissolved.

A communication to member colleges sent in early December said: “The board of directors have made the decision to dissolve Collab Group. The company will officially be closed from December 31, 2023.”

It is not yet clear precisely what will happen to Collab Group as a company, but multiple principals of member colleges told FE Week they expect it to be subsumed into the Association of Colleges (AoC).

The company was listed as active on Companies House at the time of going to press but its website has been removed.

FE Week understands the Collab Group board, chaired by LTE Group chief executive John Thornhill, is in talks with the AoC about how it can better represent large college groups. Those talks are ongoing, and no decisions have yet been made about whether a formal merger of the two organisations is on the cards.

Thornhill paid tribute to Collab’s “distinguished history” in the sector and said the board is exploring options.

He told FE Week: “The Collab Group has a distinguished history of supporting its members across the UK in shaping and delivering skills policy. In recent months the Collab Group Board has been working closely with members to identify their priorities and the role they would like Collab to play in representing their interests going forwards.

“We have also held positive discussions with a range of partners and senior stakeholders, including government departments, ministers and other representative bodies. Our deliberations also include a review of sector representation nationally and of representation in the devolved regions. We will confirm our future plans once these have been finalised.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, told FE Week: “We have had several discussions with the Collab board about the needs and opportunities for large college groups. They’ve been positive discussions, but nothing has yet been decided.”

Collab Group chief executive Ian Pretty retired from his role in December and was not replaced. It had 26 member colleges from across the UK at the time, a number which has fluctuated over the years.

Its website is no longer active, and it hasn’t posted on its X or LinkedIn pages since May. Companies House lists seven company directors, including Pretty, Thornhill and the leaders of Newham College, Bradford College and Walsall College.

Collab was founded in 2006 as the 157 Group following a review of further education colleges commissioned by the then secretary of state for education, Charles Clarke, and Chris Banks, the then chair of the Learning and Skills Council, a predecessor to the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The review, Realising the potential: A review of the future role of further education colleges, was led by Sir Andrew Foster and was published in 2005.

Paragraph 157 of Foster’s report called for “greater involvement of principals in national representation, in particular those from larger, successful colleges where management capacity and capability exists to release them for this work”.

“There is a strong need for articulate FE college principals to be explaining the services they give society and how colleges can make a significant contribution to the economy and to developing fulfilled citizens,” Foster said.

A year later, the 157 Group, named after Foster’s paragraph above, was formed, initially as a group representing large and Ofsted ‘outstanding’ colleges. It was reported at the time as an equivalent to the Russell Group for universities given its “elite” membership requirements.

Over the years, under the leadership of Lynne Sedgemore, the group became a high-profile national voice for colleges and widened its membership criteria to allow more colleges to join.

Sedgemore told FE Week she was “very sad” to hear the news of Collab’s closure.

“I am very sad to hear this. In its heyday, 157 Group made a significant contribution from the particular perspective of large urban colleges on various fronts. I wish everyone involved a successful way forward,” she said.

Sedgemore retired as CEO in 2015 and was succeeded by Ian Pretty, who quickly launched a review of the organisation’s role which led to the rebranding of 157 Group to Collab Group.

Under Pretty’s leadership, the group pivoted away from high-profile policy and political work and instead focused on college commercial activities and supporting its members on specific government priorities, such as apprenticeships, Institutes of Technology, and higher technical skills.

Ofsted reforms to ensure ‘no more tragedies’

Ofsted will look at “decoupling” safeguarding from judgements, publish reports quicker, and appoint a sector expert to lead an independent inquiry into how it responded to the death of Ruth Perry.

Today Sir Martyn Oliver, the chief inspector, accepted all of the senior coroner Heidi Connor’s recommendations as he issued a heartfelt apology for the watchdog’s role in the death of the Caversham Primary School headteacher. 

Both Ofsted and the Department for Education have published their response to Connor’s prevention of future deaths report.

Ruth Perry

Oliver “apologised sincerely for the part our inspection of her school played in [Ruth’s] death” and said: “As the new HMCI, I will do everything in my power to help ensure that inspections are carried out with professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect and with consideration for staff welfare. 

“Such tragedies should never happen again, and no one should feel as Ruth did.”

The Ofsted changes

The inspectorate will run a formal, internal review of how safeguarding fits with individual inspection judgements, including whether it should be “decoupled” from the leadership grade and have its own judgement entirely.

An independent, expert-led learning review is to be commissioned into Ofsted’s response to Perry’s death. The inspectorate will review its “quality assurance processes” with a view to slashing “the time between inspection and publication of the report.” 

An “expert reference group” will also be created to “provide constructive challenge to Ofsted,” focusing on “aspects of training and where well-being might be incorporated more explicitly across the education inspection framework.” 

Connor last month ruled an Ofsted inspection in November 2022 contributed to Perry’s suicide in January last year.

This will come alongside the “Big Listen” consultation and further mental health training that has been already promised.

Ofsted also admitted that there had “previously been no clear, written policy for pausing inspections.” 

During Perry’s inquest, Connor said it was “suggested by Ofsted witnesses that it is an option to pause an ongoing inspection because of reasons of teacher distress.” 

The DfE’s response

The government’s response had fewer clear-cut changes. The DfE has reviewed how it communicates with schools facing intervention to ensure contact is “undertaken sensitively and with full consideration of the possible impact on school leaders.” 

DfE does not make clear how much of its response will apply to the FE sector.

Training on how to pick up on distress and adequately respond has been delivered to all officials in the DfE’s regions group and “relevant” staff at the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

Future work on “tone and style” of communications is planned, including on termination warning notices.

The DfE will also launch a call for evidence on whether further changes to safeguarding guidance are needed. This will run alongside Ofsted’s “Big Listen,” with small clarifications from September and “any fundamental changes made in 2025.” 

Speaking earlier this week, education secretary Gillian Keegan said when appointing Oliver she “was making sure that we got somebody who recognised that we needed to have a different culture, a different approach, a more supportive approach to inspection as well.” 

The sector response

Professor Julia Waters, Perry’s sister, said Ofsted’s “new direction is encouraging. Had these reforms been in place just over a year ago, perhaps my beautiful sister Ruth might still be with us today.”

“Much work now needs to be done to bring about the radical overhaul to the culture of school inspections, so that a tragedy like Ruth’s cannot happen again,” she added.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges said: “I welcome the promise of transparency and openness to rebuild and strengthen confidence in Ofsted and inspection.”

“While a lot of the discussion has been focused on schools, there are very real consequences for colleges when a grade 3 or 4 is given around funding and provision. AoC is in talks with both the government and Ofsted about how those rules can change to support, rather than hinder, colleges to continually improve,” he said.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said Ofsted’s response showed “positive steps in the right direction”, but “does not address all the problems with the inspection system.” 

Inspections are due to restart on Monday, when all lead inspectors should have completed new mental health awareness training.

Ofsted Ruth Perry report response: What you need to know

Ofsted and the Department for Education have responded to a prevention of future deaths report from the coroner who oversaw the inquest into headteacher Ruth Perry’s death.

Here is your trusty FE Week speed read on what inspection changes the watchdog has promised today (and a reminder of what changes have already been implemented). Ofsted have confirmed that changes affecting schools will also apply to colleges unless otherwise stated.

Coroner’s concern 1

The schools with serious safeguarding concerns and those with issues that can be fixed quickly receive the same overall grade.

What Ofsted plans to do:

  • Conduct a formal internal review of where safeguarding fits with individual inspection judgments
  • Explore having safeguarding as a standalone judgement, “decoupled” from the leadership and management grade
  • Examine whether further changes can provide more time for improvement with ‘ineffective’ safeguarding but judged ‘good’ or better in other areas
  • Hold a comprehensive listening exercise called “The Big Listen” between March and June
  • “Where appropriate,” changes will come in immediately. Ofsted will consult by September on more major changes, and introduce them in the 2024-25 academic year

Coroner’s concern 2

An ‘almost complete absence’ of training or policy on spotting and dealing with distress and pausing inspections

  • Publish a new policy today on pausing inspections where a serious issue has been identified requiring “substantial action”
  • Develop a long-term programme of training for inspectors on mental health and supporting leaders’ wellbeing, with a roadmap due this spring
  • Form an expert reference group to provide “constructive challenge” and look at “aspects of training and where well-being might be incorporated more explicitly across the education inspection framework”
  • DfE regions group will proactively notify responsible bodies when a provider receives an adverse inspection outcome

Coroner’s concern 3

Absence of a clear path to raise concerns during an inspection if these cannot be resolved directly with the lead inspector

  • Work with sector bodies to make sure “roles, responsibilities and process for raising and responding to concerns about leaders’ welfare” are understood clearly by the inspection team and the responsible body
  • Clarify in handbooks, guidance, code of conduct and complaints procedures how providers can raise concerns about inspectors’ behaviour. Process to be complete by the end of March

Coroner’s concern 4

Changes to the confidentiality requirement after an inspection have not yet been written into policy, meaning some leaders may fear discussing outcomes

  • Communicate the message that leaders can share provisional outcomes and the draft inspection report with those they deem appropriate, including partners, health professionals and those providing personal support

Coroner’s concern 5

Timescales for report publication

  • Review, in the first half of 2024, quality assurance processes to “see if we can make further changes to reduce the amount of time between an inspection and the publication of a report”
  • Findings will feed into the “Big Listen” and will be part of the proposals put to the sector and parents for their views
  • Where reports do take longer to be published, “we will endeavour to explain why”

Coroner’s concern 6

No learning review of these matters was conducted by Ofsted. There is no policy requiring this to be done

  • By March, appoint a “recognised expert from the education sector to lead an independent learning review of Ofsted’s response” to Perry’s death
  • The independent expert will consider “whether Ofsted’s internal policies and processes for responding to tragic incidents need to be revised”
  • Define clearly the “circumstances in which a learning review will be commissioned, who will conduct it, how it will be carried out and arrangements for publishing and disseminating the lessons learned”

Coroner’s concern 7

Ofsted was not able to say what additional support government was providing for leaders

  • Ensure inspectors are “conversant with this support and ready to remind leaders that it is available”
  • Through training, “reinforce the expectation that they share this information with leaders at the beginning of an inspection”

Refresher: What Ofsted has already done

  • Updated handbooks to make clear that providers can fix minor administrative issues during inspections (schools only)
  • Introduced policy of revisiting schools with safeguarding issues but that are otherwise “good” within three months
  • Introduced a national safeguarding duty desk that inspectors can call if evidence points to ineffective safeguarding
  • Changed its handbook to allow leaders to have a colleague join discussions with inspectors
  • Introduced a helpline for managing concerns about the inspection process
  • All lead inspectors are now required to request contact details of the person responsible for leaders’ wellbeing
  • All lead inspectors are given mental health awareness training. All remaining inspectors to be trained by end of March
  • Proposed a new complaints process allowing providers to contact Ofsted the day after an inspection and for direct escalation to an independent body

Latest apprenticeship funding review uprates 35 standards

Funding bands for a further 35 apprenticeships have been increased following the government’s review of the 100 supposedly “most-used” apprenticeship standards.

However, some apprenticeships that received the largest increase had low, or even no starts in 2022/23.

The Department for Education tasked the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education with reviewing and updating 100 apprenticeship standards as part of its “crackdown on rip-off university degrees” media push over the summer.

IfATE then told the sector it would “review the content of 100 of the most-used standards so they reflect the latest technological advancements and work better for employers and apprentices”.

FE Week revealed in September that just 59 apprenticeships had so far been reviewed. IfATE confirmed this week that the process has now been completed, and 127 apprenticeships have now been reviewed, exceeding its target.

The biggest winner from this week’s update was the level 6 church minister degree apprenticeship which received a £9,000 funding increase and now attracts £22,000. Government data on apprenticeships starts though show that 10 apprentices took that standard in 2020/21, with none since.

Click here to see the full list of reviewed apprenticeship standards

Analysis by FE Week shows 21 of the 127 reviewed standards, which excludes new apprenticeships, had no starts in 2022/23. However, of those, 14 have been either retired or replaced as a result of the review.

Forty-one standards chosen for the review had fewer than 20 starts in 2022/23.

The most popular apprenticeship deemed worthy of a funding increase as part of this review was the level 3 early years educator, as reported by FE Week last week, moving up from £6,000 to £7,000.

Level 3 plumbing and heating technicians can now attract £22,000, up from £21,000, and funding for the level 2 supply chain warehouse operative apprenticeship has been increased from £3,000 to £5,000.

Three standards have seen their funding reduced. The level 2 arborist, now £12,000; the level 3 battery manufacturing technician, now £24,000; and the level 3 process industry manufacturing technician, now £24,000. They were each reduced by £3,000.

IfATE said the 127 reviewed apprenticeships were taken by over 60,000 apprentices each year.

Ben Rowland, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “Employers and providers need to see this momentum continue as regularly reviewed standards are central to a high quality and sustainable provider market which helps meet the needs of employers.”

“There are also aspects of the funding model which still need attention – including the list of eligible costs and the data which feeds into the model on fixed inputs (such as initial assessment, formative assessment and administration). We also need to fairly fund providers for every aspects that they’re expected to deliver such as Prevent and British values,” Rowland said. 

Robert Halfon, minister for skills and apprenticeships, said it was “fantastic news” that IfATE exceeded its target.

“It’s vital that we ensure all apprenticeships remain up to date and offer high-quality training so more people and businesses can benefit, and we can grow the economy.”

Halfon also hailed “almost 80 per cent of the standards revised received a funding boost, including those in key sectors such as social care, transport and logistics and engineering”.

However, FE Week analysis of previous and current funding bands shows that only 45, or 60 per cent, of the 76 apprenticeships that were not new, retired or replaced received a funding increase.

As previously announced, the apprenticeship which received the largest funding increase in IfATE’s review was the level 6 chartered legal executive, which increased in September from £12,000 to £27,000. Forty apprentices started that standard in 2022/23.

The review resulted in 26 apprenticeship standards being retired, most of which had low or no starts recorded.

Alongside church ministers, level 4 healthcare science associate apprentices now also attract more funding, with their funding band increasing from £9,000 to £16,000. The level 3 spectacle maker standard, which was taken by 60 apprentices in 2022/23, had seen its funding doubled to £8,000.

Others, like the level 7 solicitor and level 6 civil engineering degree apprenticeships were reviewed but did not receive a funding increase.

Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of IfATE, said: “This has put us in a fantastic position starting the new year with apprenticeships bang up to date with the latest industry requirements. I’m absolutely delighted to have exceeded this target. 

“Achieving it required everyone at IfATE to maintain laser focus and I would like to say a huge thanks to all the large and small businesses across the country who advised on what was needed.”

Almost 50 jobs at risk as college seeks £1m savings

A north east college has put around 50 jobs at risk in a bid to make savings of £1 million, citing under-recruitment of students in several areas.

Tyne Coast College expects to make 22 posts – or 17 full-time equivalent posts – redundant in addition to placing a hiring freeze on non-critical staff. It will also not fill the nine currently vacant posts “to mitigate redundancy” and offer voluntary redundancy elsewhere.

The move has angered the University and College Union, who labelled the proposal as a “kick in the teeth for hard-working staff”.

Tyne Coast College’s proposal follows a series of strikes from staff, who took to the picket lines last June and September over low pay, and the controversial closure of its sixth form. 

Tyne Coast College chief executive Lindsey Whiterod told FE Week: “Efficiencies need to be made due to under-recruitment in certain curriculum areas for 16 to 18 learners, as well as apprenticeships and higher education.”

The college recruited 2,200 16 to 18-year-old students in 2022/23, a drop from 2,400 in the previous academic year. 

However, the college saw 100 more apprentices and the same number of higher education students – 1,100 – in 2023 compared to the year before. It did report a drop in adult learners from 4,600 to 4,000 in 2022/23.

The college’s enrolment figures for 2023/24 are not yet publicly available.

According to its 2023 financial accounts, the college generated a deficit of £3.3 million, down from a £3.5 million deficit the year prior.

Whiterod said the college needed to make necessary savings worth £1 million.

But, this is not the first time the college has made headlines this year. 

Bosses had proposed to close its sixth form – Queen Alexandra Sixth Form College in Wallsend — abruptly last summer due to a decline in numbers. The decision was delayed by one year after community backlash. It will now close at the end of this academic year.

Staff had agreed to strikes in October over a three per cent pay award but were called off at the last minute after a better deal was reached.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Coming so soon after strike action over low pay and the closure of an entire sixth form campus, this is a real kick in the teeth for hard-working staff at Tyne Coast College. 

“Management has yet to provide any information to substantiate claims it has to sack staff and unless it starts engaging meaningfully in the consultation process the college is at risk of acting unlawfully.

“North and south of the Tyne, our members have continued to give everything to their jobs and the education of our local communities. Being told they are no longer wanted less than halfway through the academic year will not be a welcome message.”

College leaders must join the fight for an EHCP system that delivers

My daughter Ornella is 18 and “educated one year below her chronological year group”. She has been in desperate need of support despite having been assessed for an education, health and care plan (EHCP) at the age of 9 and being granted one two years later.

When Ornella was 4, chickenpox left her with complex chronic health issues. Ever since, because she has had over twenty operations, long hospital stays, a life-threatening septic shock, multiple heart attacks and a prolonged coma, her health needs have had an increasingly detrimental impact on her learning.

I am her full-time carer. I have put my career on hold to look after her for the past 14 years, spent all my savings on private tutoring to make up for the lack of EHCP implementation, and had to become her teacher too for years at a time. I am exhausted. I suffer from PTSD from fighting constantly for the support she is entitled to.

Despite regular requests for annual reviews, we have been consistently ignored by school and local authority alike, year in and year out. This means that for six years Ornella was vaguely educated at home by tutors with variable academic abilities and no training or experience in learning needs.

We once received a letter of apology from a SEN team manager, promising new behaviours. For the first time, the LA provided intensive and costly tutoring to make up for missed learning opportunities leading up to her GCSEs. It lasted two months. Nothing else has been offered since.

Ornella is now at college, not only bearing the brunt of years of inadequate provision but also of unfathomable backlogs in specialist assessments. Cruelly, even when she finally managed to get assessed by CAHMS neuropsychiatrists as requested by the LA to document the aftermath of her coma seven years ago, the LA then employed more delaying tactics by refusing to incorporate her brain injury diagnosis into her EHCP, making for a mockery of it altogether.

The EHCP had become an obstacle to my daughter’s learning

Her educational needs have been heavily documented over 15 years, yet repeatedly ignored. The LA has consistently failed in its legal duties under the Children and Families Act, SEND Code of Practice and the Equality Act. We have just had an emergency annual review, but we are fast approaching A Level exams season and Ornella is still nowhere near accessing specialist support.

As a result, she has now disengaged from attending college and I find myself teaching her all over again. Her EHCP has actually compromised my ability to be her full-time carer because my precious time has been wasted on jumping through administrative hoops instead. I often wonder whether we wouldn’t have been better off not having one at all.

This is echoed by her college leaders who find themselves also wasting their time on the LA’s administrative blunders instead of spending it teaching. It is as if the EHCP had become an obstacle to her learning, and the whole sorry process is surely more expensive than delivering the support Ornella needed in the first place.

What it has done is made me a fighter. That and the PTSD might mean I and parents in my position present as challenging when we meet a new educational provider and have to start again from square one. Please bear that in mind.

But also, please join the fight. We are long past the point of needing urgent national and local policy changes. Parents like me need leaders like you to go beyond the battle for each individual learner like Ornella and demand systemic change.

We need simplified EHCPs, consistent over time and across the country, a digitised system that notifies all stakeholders when EHCPs are due for review, and proper accountability for spending and implementation. We need EHCP case officers who are qualified, trained, regulated and paid as professionals. And we need much more thought given to transitions.

I am now taking our case to tribunal, but I am not hopeful. In fact, the backlog plays in the LA’s favour because by the time a judgment is reached, many young people are likely to have left education anyway.

That might be the case for Ornella, but I am determined that it shouldn’t be the case for anyone else. If the LA think I’m going away, they are badly mistaken. Will you help?

First winners of OfS degree apprenticeships cash revealed

Fifty-one colleges and universities have won a share of a £12 million funding pot designed to expand degree apprenticeships. 

The Office for Students (OfS) has today released the names of ten colleges and 41 universities that have been awarded funding from wave one of its £40 million degree apprenticeships fund launched in September.

Bidders for this wave had to be able to demonstrate they could deliver projects that could increase starts and improve the diversity of their degree apprentice recruits. Funding must be spent by the end of July 2024.

Of the £16 million that was made available for this round, just under £12 million was awarded in total and 51 of 69 bids submitted were successful. 

Liverpool John Moores University scored the most cash, winning £1 million to boost its intake across 10 apprenticeships including police constable, chartered manager, transport planner and registered nurse. 

Further education colleges that won the most funding were Weston College (£272,000), DN Colleges Group (£211,600) and Gloucestershire College (£203,000).

Click here to view the full list of successful providers

The University of the West of England was awarded £175,624 for role model and employer outreach projects aiming to enrol more women on its aerospace, civil engineering, building services design and manufacturing engineering degree apprenticeships.

Funding awarded to Bournemouth University has been committed to creating a new route for under-represented students to its nursing and operating department practitioner degree apprenticeships. 

Weston College will spend its funding on expanding four degree apprenticeships including digital user experience professional, project manager, registered nurse and digital and technology solutions professional. 

Exeter College has been awarded £68,227 for its data scientist degree apprenticeships while Abingdon and Witney College bagged £93,771 for its chartered manager apprenticeships.

John Blake, director for fair access and participation at the OfS, said: “We set universities and colleges a challenge to deliver an extensive range of degree apprenticeships that students from all backgrounds could access. They responded with a wide range of innovative and ambitious bids.”

The OfS launched the fund in September to increase the number of providers delivering degree apprenticeships as well as increasing overall numbers and improving diversity. 

It said at the time that the “relatively small proportion” of registered higher education providers offering degree apprenticeships, as well as “uneven and slow” concentrated in a small number of providers, were “market failures.”

Robert Halfon

The fund seeks to support projects that target students who are least likely to access higher education. 

This comes as evidence from organisations such as the Sutton Trust found that degree apprenticeships were more socially exclusive than traditional university university courses. 

Skills minister Robert Halfon said he is “delighted that the institutions awarded a portion of this £40 million will not only be expanding the number of degree apprenticeships offered but have also demonstrated their commitment to boosting access and participation and prioritising equality of opportunity.”

Future waves

The remaining OfS funding will be awarded across two further waves. 

Bids for wave two closed in December but the winners have not yet been announced. 

Providers funded under waves two and three will have more time to deliver results. Activities funded under these waves must conclude by the end of July 2025. 

Providers new to the degree apprenticeship market were ineligible to bid for wave one funding but were eligible for wave two and will be eligible for wave three.

Applications for wave three will open this spring and are expected to close in June. 

Staff at London’s biggest college stage 8 day walkout

Teachers at London’s largest college group have launched an eight-day strike amid a dispute over pay and working conditions.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at Capital City College Group (CCCG) walked out yesterday across London’s biggest college group’s four sites across the city.

Negotiations have broken down over the college’s offer of a pay award between 4 per cent and 6.5 per cent, beginning from January 1 this year.

The union says the offer goes against the Association of Colleges recommendation last September of a 6.5 per cent pay award from the start of the 2023/24 academic year.

Staff are also disputing the working conditions such as workload as well as a maximum class size of 20 to 22 students as opposed to classes of up to 30 students, as some workers report.

They are also demanding an agreement of 36 teaching weeks per year.

College workers will walk out from January 16 to 18, and the entire week beginning January 22 – during a busy period for exams and during the first few weeks of new CEO Angela Joyce’s tenure.

The strike will impact the group’s sites in Enfield, Camden, Finsbury Park and Westminster.

The staged walkout is not new for the large college group. In 2021, staff walked out for 10 days and settled on a one-off payment and notified monitoring of teaching.

Before the end of the 2021/22 academic year, staff then agreed to a 9 per cent pay rise for those earning under £30k, and 6 per cent for those earning between £30k and £45k, beginning August 2022.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Our members are being forced to take sustained strike action because CCCG would rather see its staff use foodbanks than make an acceptable offer.

“We have reached deals at 60 colleges, but CCCG is shamefully holding out and refusing to negotiate. It urgently needs to get back to the table, recognise that staff need decent pay, and settle this dispute.”

A Capital City College Group spokesperson said: “The 2023/24 pay award for all CCCG staff ranged from 4 per cent to 9 per cent, with part of the award unconsolidated and the larger part consolidated. This action is primarily linked to workload, namely class sizes and the number of teaching weeks. We hope UCU will work more constructively with us to resolve these matters.”

‘Inadequate’ college for vulnerable adults returns to ‘good’ Ofsted rating

A college for disadvantaged adults has returned to a ‘good’ Ofsted rating just a year after it was downgraded to ‘inadequate’.

Ruskin College was last year accused of safeguarding failures after inspectors claimed leaders were unaware of the “significant personal challenges that some vulnerable adults faced while in their care” and were “unable to help staff keep these learners safe”.

But since then, leaders have “monitored improvements to ensure that safeguarding is effective and ensure that learners’ well-being is also supported effectively”, a follow-up full inspection report for the college published today said.

Inspectors found that staff are provided with “essential training” in safeguarding and found that learners feel safe at college and “know how to protect themselves from radicalisation and extremist views”.

Learners “appreciate the welcoming and supportive environment that staff create”.

The college, which was teaching 326 adults at the time of the latest inspection in November, is now deemed ‘good’ in every category judged by Ofsted.

The result is the latest improvement success for Oxford-based Ruskin College, founded in 1899, which designs its courses for local residents furthest from the labour market, those who are socially isolated and those seeking a second chance at education.

Ruskin had its financial notice to improve lifted by the government in March 2023 almost 10 years after the notice was first served.

The college’s former principal was fired in 2021 following a significant funding clawback, and the college was forced into a last-minute merger with the University of West London (UWL) later that year.

Last year FE Commissioner Shelagh Legrave praised “important progress” in improving the college’s financial performance after years of decline and contraction – mainly caused by falling student numbers.

While “challenges remain to grow FE provision to make best use of the funding available for the benefit of students and to secure sustainability”, there is now a “clear educational vision for the college”, Legrave’s report said.

Today’s Ofsted report said most learners “value the inclusive culture that staff create” and all students “develop new knowledge and skills that are essential to their personal and professional lives”.

Staff were praised for being “highly qualified, experienced and passionate about their subjects”, while leaders and trustees are “increasingly well informed about the quality of provision, which enables them to evaluate and drive improvement”.

A UWL spokesperson said: “UWL is delighted with the continuing and considerable progress since UWL acquired Ruskin College to secure its future in 2021. We are committed to ensuring the highest standards in all aspects of the college’s performance, and we are very pleased to have had this recognised by Ofsted and the FE Commissioner alike.”