A major online training provider has put a stop to its loss-making apprenticeship division and turned full focus to skills bootcamps and adult education.
The Skills Network (TSN) has started the process of moving its current apprentices to alternative providers to complete their training.
Chief executive Mark Dawe (pictured) put the decision to pull out of the provision down to the “real challenges” with current funding levels for apprenticeships in sectors like care, which do not cover the true cost of delivery.
TSN moved into the apprenticeships space at the time of the levy reforms in 2017. The provision is a minor part of its business, having recorded fewer than 300 starts in each of the past two years in sectors that also include early years, leadership and management and IT.
FE Week understand that fewer than 30 staff will be impacted by the closure of TSN’s apprenticeships.
Dawe said: “It is a sad, but well-established fact, that there are real challenges with the current level of apprenticeship funding bands.
“We had already suspended starts in care, as we couldn’t continue to guarantee a high quality of provision for this vital sector, with the funding government provides per learner.”
TSN, rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, has long been one of the largest providers of subcontracted provision in further education. Government data shows the provider currently holds 36 separate subcontracting deals with colleges and councils worth over £8.5 million.
The company’s accounts show it enrolled over 25,000 students onto adult education courses last year, which are all delivered online.
TSN has also moved into skills bootcamps – a flagship government scheme worth over half a billion pounds that involves free courses for learners of up to 16 weeks in length, designed to get people quickly trained in areas of key skills shortages.
“Hundreds” of people enrol onto TSN’s bootcamps every month, according to the company, in areas that include care, digital marketing, cyber security and project management.
TSN said this period of “exciting growth” in bootcamps, the company’s online resources and adult education contributed to the “strategic decision” to cease its direct apprenticeship delivery.
A statement from the provider said: “We are very proud of our achievements in the apprenticeship space in which we have helped over 700 apprentices across a variety of sectors over the past five years – but the time is right for us to focus on the increased growth of our core business, maximising the positive difference we can make to learners, businesses, and communities across the UK.”
TSN added that while it will not be providing direct delivery of apprenticeships going forward, the company will “continue to support other providers of apprenticeships through our online learning resources and assessment packages through our platform EQUAL”.
Dawe said: “We are doing everything we can to find alternative roles for the small proportion of TSN staff affected, either within the business or transferring with the apprentices.”
TSN’s accounts for 2022 show turnover of £18.8 million but a loss before tax of £700,000.
The financial statements said the “negative financial impact” for the year was due to “combined cost implications of the return to normality post Covid-19, the wider economic factors and the new strategic activities have”, but added the company “expect these changes to bottom out and improve during 2023 and onwards”.
The government’s end-point assessment organisation (EPAO) register is set to be shut down and merged with the register of apprenticeship training providers (RoATP).
From August 1 the new single register will be called the “apprenticeship providers and assessment register” (APAR).
The move will drop a current requirement on training providers to prove that the employer has itself chosen which organisation should deliver their apprentice’s end-point assessment (EPA), and switch to a default position of the provider choosing the EPAO. Employers can however continue to select the EPAO themselves if they wish.
Under this new system, when an organisation receives recognition for an apprenticeship standard from Ofqual or the Office for Students they will automatically be placed onto APAR.
New EPAOs will still need to create an account on the apprenticeship service to confirm their place on the register, but they will no longer have to undertake two application processes.
Skills and apprenticeships minister Robert Halfon and the Department for Education’s director of apprenticeships Peter Mucklow teased this change during last week’s Federation of Awarding Bodies EPA conference, telling the audience they planned to help cut bureaucracy in EPA, but stopped short of announcing the registers would merge.
‘Welcome any efforts to streamline and reduce bureaucracy’
Announcing the change today, the government said: “From the August 1, 2023, when an organisation receives recognition for a standard from Ofqual or the OfS they will automatically be placed onto the list of approved EPAOs. DfE will merge this list with the ROATP and rename it the ‘apprenticeship providers and assessment register’ (APAR).
“Maintenance of the register will be undertaken automatically through data exchanges between the regulators and the awarding bodies, and we are now developing that process.
“Although DfE are merging RoATP with the new APAR the application process for providers and supporting providers will remain the same.
“Both Ofqual and OfS are fully supportive of these changes and are working alongside DfE to implement them.”
Further information and guidance on both changes for employers, providers and EPAOs will be made “in the next few weeks”.
Tom Bewick, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said: “FAB members welcome any efforts to streamline and reduce bureaucracy associated with apprenticeship delivery and post-16 qualifications reform. Cutting down on the number of different registers is a great place to start.”
Colleges and providers are being invited to bid for a slice of a £165 million fund designed for initiatives that “respond to the specific priorities” identified in each area’s local skills improvement plan.
The Department for Education today launched the local skills improvement fund (LSIF) that aims to help “plug local skills gaps” and “get more people into jobs closer to home”.
Further education providers can use the cash to “renovate facilities with up-to-date equipment, help to upskill teachers, and deliver new courses in key subjects such as green construction, carbon capture and cyber security”, according to a DfE press release.
Minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education Robert Halfon said: “Building a world-class skills and apprenticeships nation means listening to the specific needs of local people, businesses, and institutions.
“This funding will revolutionise how we plug local skills gaps and provide a boost to the economy.”
Successful applicants will receive funding to invest in projects linked to priorities that have come out the employer-led local skills improvement plan (LSIP) for their area.
First proposed in the FE white paper in January 2021, the plans aim to make colleges and training providers align the courses they offer to local employers’ needs.
The plans have been created by employer representative bodies – mostly local chambers of commerce – in every region of the country.
Final LSIPs will not be submitted by the employer representative body for each area until May 31 and published in summer 2023. But DfE guidance said providers can use the draft plan priorities, which were shared with them on March 31, to develop their LSIF application.
The LSIF is the successor to a previous pot of cash called the strategic development fund (SDF), which was worth £157 million for the FE sector to invest in the equipment and facilities in areas such as electric and hybrid vehicle maintenance, automation and artificial intelligence.
Results of the bids to the new LSIF are expected to be announced by the DfE in October 2023.
Colleges, training providers and universities across Greater Manchester will part host the WorldSkills UK national finals this November.
Manchester College, Oldham College, Tameside College, Trafford College and Wigan and Leigh College have been chosen to host 40 finals between them.
Mantra, a local training provider which specialises in logistics and automotive training, will host five finals, while Rochdale Training and Japanese robotics company FANUC will host one apiece.
Two finals will take place at the University of Manchester, while four will be at the University of Salford.
The finals will begin on November 14, and will culminate three days later in an awards ceremony at Bridgewater Hall.
The finals will see the UK’s most skilled apprentices and students compete across professions (see list below) including automotive technology, aircraft maintenance and health and social care.
WorldSkills UK interim chief executive Ben Blackledge said: “As well as boosting young people’s personal skills and developing the skills that employers and the economy needs, events like the WorldSkills UK National Finals shine a light on the vital importance of high-quality skills to the UK and the vast talent and potential we have in the next generation.”
Anna Dawe, chair of GMColleges and principal of Wigan and Leigh College said she was “delighted” the finals are coming to Manchester.
“WorldSkills UK is a showcase of the very best technical skills so it is a cause for celebration that it is to be held in a city-region that is creating the first integrated technical education system,” she added.
“Our university and independent training provider partners are also hosting finals and together we hope to make this a competition to remember for young people and apprentices.”
The finals come at the tailend of a seven-month process including regional competition heats and intensive training.
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ chief executive Jane Hickie has been suspended pending an investigation, FE Week understands.
[UPDATE – FE Week has since learned the AELP investigation was dropped following Hickie’s departure from the organisation.]
Hickie has worked at the membership body since 2016, initially as chief operating officer before taking over as managing director in July 2020 when former leader Mark Dawe stepped down.
She was made chief executive in January 2021.
The reasons for Hickie’s suspension are unclear at this stage. AELP chair Nichola Hay and vice chair Rob Foulston will support the organisation’s senior team for an interim period.
An AELP spokesperson said: “We understand there are rumours surrounding AELP and, for the record, we do not comment on individual employees. We also ask all our employees, members, and associates not to speculate.
“We can however provide reassurance to our members that the chair and vice chair of AELP will be supporting the senior management team on the operational leadership of the organisation for an interim period whilst our CEO, Jane Hickie, is taking a short period of absence.”
Hickie was approached for comment.
AELP represents around 800 organisations that deliver training and vocational learning. Prior to joining the membership body, Hickie was operations and corporate partnerships director for Groundwork, the national environmental charity.
She was also previously head of regeneration at Genesis Housing Group, and spent seven years at a firm called West London Leadership, recruiting corporates into a network which provided pro-bono support to hard-pressed communities.
Twickenham-based Hawk Training is celebrating another ‘outstanding’ Ofsted rating – a decade on since the provider first achieved the grade.
The apprenticeship firm received grade ones in all areas barring personal development, which was judged as ‘good’, in a report published today following a visit in March.
Inspectors heaped praise on managers and staff who “ensure that the vast majority of apprentices benefit from a challenging and demanding curriculum”, adding that leaders have “considered very carefully the content of programmes to ensure that apprentices build on existing and gain substantial new knowledge and skills”.
The report said apprentices have an “extremely positive attitude towards their studies and are highly committed to their training”, with many completing all targets they are set ahead of time, achieving high attendance and overall make “very good progress, develop their confidence and achieve their qualifications”.
Managing director Crawford Knott told FE Week the achievement was a testament to the dedication and commitment of his team against a backdrop of a “really challenging time for independent training providers”.
“If you think the last time we inspected, the landscape has changed hugely, obviously by the apprenticeship reforms in 2017 with the move to the levy, the switch from frameworks to standards and we’ve had a global pandemic.”
Hawk, founded in 1988, delivers training in early years, business and administration, and team leading and management to over 1,000 apprentices and 400 different employers.
Ofsted said Hawk Training apprentices receive “outstanding support” from tutors and praised tutors’ subject knowledge and plans for on and off-the-job training activities. Inspectors found that apprentices also receive helpful careers advice and guidance.
Inspectors praised the “exceptional” behaviour of students who “rapidly develop a range of personal and professional behaviours that support them in their social and working lives”.
Leaders and managers were lauded for having a “forensic oversight of the quality of their provision, which they use to inform their clear and concise improvement plans”, and gain this oversight through activities such as sampling teaching, speaking with apprentices and employers, and reviewing the progress of apprentices.
The provider also has “highly effective” governors and non-executive directors who “have a broad skillset that they use with great effect to improve the provision”, as well as a “detailed understanding of further education and take a real interest in the experience that apprentices and their employers have with Hawk Training”.
Knott said: “This is great for our employer partners and learners to receive that affirmation that we’re delivering an outstanding service.
“We hear a lot of bad news of providers and colleges that have slipped from ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ so for us, we are absolutely delighted.”
Hawk is one of 40 independent training providers to currently hold an Ofsted grade one judgement.
The apprenticeships minister should be a joint Department for Education and Treasury role to ensure the policy and financial side of the levy are aligned, a think tank’s director and former special adviser to education ministers has said.
Policy Exchange has also called for the requirement for apprentices to pass GCSE level equivalent maths and English to be abolished, for small and medium-sized employers to be funded for off-the-job training hours for apprentices under 25, and for a quarter of the levy to fund non-apprenticeship training.
Iain Mansfield, Policy Exchange’s head of education who is a former special adviser to three education ministers, published a report that warned the apprenticeship system is not delivering the number of apprenticeships the UK needs – with young people, those from disadvantaged backgrounds and SMEs being hit the hardest.
Endorsed by former education secretaries Nadhim Zahawi, Gavin Williamson and Lord Blunkett, as well as the DfE’s former director of apprenticeships Keith Smith, the report makes several “significant” proposals for reform.
It pointed out that the government’s apprenticeship levy system suffers from both a “lack of transparency and poor understanding about its purposes”, adding that the apprenticeship budget, the money raised by the apprenticeship levy, the amount of money in levy-payers’ accounts and the money actually spent on apprenticeships are “all different things, both in principle and in fact”.
The report claimed that over the last five years, “£4.3 billion was raised by the levy but not spent on apprenticeships, but rather kept by or returned to the Treasury”. To calculate this figure Policy Exchange compared the annual funds raised from apprenticeship levy employer receipts to the spend on the DfE’s annual budget for England. It does not include apprenticeship spending in the other devolved administrations – data that is not published – so the true figure likely to be smaller.
Join up the apprenticeship minister role
Mansfield’s report warned the current situation, in which the minister for apprenticeships – the minister most directly accountable in the eyes of parliament and the public for apprenticeships – has no responsibility for the levy has “hindered reform, by splitting responsibilities and reducing the incentives to deliver change”.
To address this, he said the apprenticeship minister role should be a joint ministerial role between the DfE and Treasury, with responsibility both for apprenticeship policy and the apprenticeship levy.
Spend a quarter of levy funds on non-apprenticeship training
The report also called for the levy to be transformed into an “apprenticeship and skills levy”, with up to 25 per cent of the levy able to be spent on “high quality employer-relevant skills training that relates to occupational standards, studied at a regulated college, university or training provider”.
This should include bootcamps, T Level placements, approved Higher Technical Qualifications and “specified qualifications relevant to the shortage occupation list, as well as pre-employment development for those currently in long-term unemployment”.
Policy Exchange’s report said all employers should also be able to draw down £1,000 for each T Level placement they provide, which would cost the government an additional £50 million annually.
Fund off-the-job training for young apprentices at SMEs
Training providers have long argued that the government’s rules that require an apprentice to spend around a fifth of their time studying off-the-job training is a major barrier for SMEs.
To overcome this, Policy Exchange has recommended the government provides SMEs with a contribution of £2,500 to fund the off-the-job training hours for apprentices under 25, with an additional £500 achievement premium for completion. The think tank estimates that this would cost around £260 million a year.
Develop new contract for employers that could force apprentices to repay training costs
For use “only by employers that wished it”, Policy Exchange said the government should develop a “model apprenticeship contract for employers” who wish to ensure they retain apprentices after completion, to require an apprentice who completed their qualification to continue with the employer for a period of time, or else repay a portion of their training costs.
This would not impact apprentices who did not complete their apprenticeship and use of this contract would be “entirely optional”.
The model contract would be a template that would be of use to employers where concern that apprentices would leave after completion was seen as a barrier to taking on apprentices.
How to increase apprenticeships among young people
The report states that the “rapid and severe” fall off of apprenticeships among young people “must be reversed if we are to increase social mobility”.
To this end, the government should abolish the apprenticeship minimum wage with minimum wages aligned with the national minimum wage for each age group.
The child benefit regulations should then also be amended so that parents of an apprenticeship aged 16 to 19 continue to receive child benefit, as they would if the child was at school or college, while mayoral combined authorities should offer free public transport to all apprentices under 25.
Policy Exchange has also called for 16 to 19 apprentices to be funded through the DfE’s education funding budget instead of the levy, and for an end to the requirement to pass GCSE level equivalent maths and English to complete an apprenticeship as this rule is “limiting opportunity for those who are not academically gifted”.
In the wake of the shocking murder of George Floyd by a police officer on the streets of Minneapolis nearly three years ago, businesses and public institutions pledged to redouble their efforts to tackle racism and discrimination. Pledges, diversity charters and steering groups were launched to show that action was being taken.
Representative organisations in further education joined in making firm commitments to act on equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and improve non-white representation in sector leadership positions. Jeff Greenidge, diversity director at the Association of Colleges (AoC), was determined to hold them accountable and ensure they were not just virtue signalling.
AELP, WorldSkills UK, the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) and the Federation of Awarding Bodies are all on board, and the FE commissioner has recently committed their support, an “important indicator” for Greenidge that the dial is shifting.
But real cultural change needs more than just the big players to make grand statements. Has the sector really changed in the way that Greenidge had hoped?
He believes the FE sector has “shifted the conversation” on EDI in response to global movements, particularly the murder of Floyd, the Me Too movement, the murder of Sarah Everard, increased awareness of “up-skirting” and, more recently, Andrew Tate-inspired misogyny and debates around the rights of transgender people. But change is still needed when it comes to the sector’s own diversity.
As Greenidge admits, “progress is slow”.
It’s less about characteristics and more about the practice that people undertake
The percentage of ethnic minority college leaders dropped from 13 per cent in 2017 to 5-6 per cent in 2020, and has fallen again over the past year, according to FE commissioner Shelagh Legrave, a situation which she describes as “regrettable”. The AoC said it did not collate that data so was unable to provide up-to-date figures.
At the same time, the percentage of ethnic minority students continues to rise – from 37 per cent in 2019-20 to 41 per cent in 2021-22.
Jeff Greenidge
The ETF and AoC are currently providing programmes for people from under-represented backgrounds to get into college leadership roles, but Greenidge warns that “we also have to have the pipeline coming in at the bottom”.
The sector bodies all have advisory groups within their organisations looking at diversity and inclusion, which Greenidge describes as a “positive step forward”, and he praises City and Guilds for its work in making their staffing more inclusive.
But he wants to see more sector bodies “amplifying each other’s voices” in order to have that wider impact.
The dangers of data
Greenidge will not be drawn on specifics about the sector’s key objectives, because “that leads you down the road of box ticking”.
He is wary of box ticking, having been one of the authors of the independent culture review of London Fire Brigade published last November, which found the service to be “institutionally misogynist and racist”.
“It’s quite easy for people to say, ‘we’ll make sure we’ve done our awareness training’, to tick the box on equality and diversity processes. But actually the practice falls far below what needs to happen,” he says.
The FE sector is “very data-driven”, however – something which Greenidge sees as a “challenge”. While data tends to capture visible diversity, it does not capture people’s invisible characteristics.
When it comes to LGBTQ+ identities, it is hard to chart progress without “delving into” a person’s sexual identity, and data cannot easily capture “intersectionality” such as “a black woman who is menopausal”.
“It’s less about characteristics and more about the practice that people undertake within further education that’s important, and I’m beginning to see a shift there,” he says.
Coaching movement evolves
In 2019, he set up a “game-changer” coaching programme for FE leaders to create a “groundswell of practitioners” in FE who were “daring to do something different”.
Originally restricted to those from under-represented backgrounds but now open to all, the programme has coached more than 120 people, giving them “the confidence to put forward a compelling vision for the future”.
About half (60) have since started change projects within their own organisations, which have included coaching others.
Greenidge is pleased to see principals being “much more vocal about their vulnerability in some cases”, and “enabling things to happen within their organisations”.
He applauds individuals such as Lynette Leith, vice principal of Hull College, who is making a positive impact with white working-class boys. Also Kam Nandra, assistant principal at South and City College Birmingham, and Hilda Koon, assistant principal of The Manchester College.
But he wants more people in the sector to speak up about the good work that they are doing.
“People in colleges often hide what they’re doing because they feel it’s never quite good enough. They want the perfect end result. But there’s good stuff I know taking place.”
The whole college approach
Greenidge highlights how the entire staff of Highlands College in Jersey have undertaken a coaching programme involving a “complete rethink” when it comes to EDI. Similarly, Wiltshire College put in place EDI training for all its staff.
Gail Larkin , Wiltshire’s HR director, believes EDI “has to be talked about at every table” and “woven through all its strategies”.
EDI has been included in her college’s strategic plan in a way that is inclusive of “the whole college community – students, staff and stakeholders too where appropriate…led from the front” by principal Iain Hatt.
Wiltshire is “very aware” of its own lack of racial diversity; only 3 per cent of the county’s population is non-white, doubling to 6 per cent of the college’s students. Its EDI agenda is therefore “very different” from that of a diverse metropolitan college.
“Our students need to be prepared to go out into the wider world, where there is a lot more diversity than they see within their communities,” says Larkin. “So we really need to be able to talk about it and model behaviours.”
Any strategic groups designed for ethnic minority students would be “too small”. So the college has formed a student-centred group capturing intersectional diversity, asking: “if you are demonstrating any diversity, what does that look and feel like for you?”
Wiltshire’s Jo Grenfell and Gail Larkin
FE commissioner
EDI has been a “focus” for FE commissioner Shelagh Legrave since she took up the reins in 2021. It is a subject she feels “very strongly” about, and the recent drop in black college leaders is “regrettable”.
Both The Black Leadership Group, formerly known as the Black FE Leadership Group, and the AoC have provided training to her team of six deputy FECs and 11 advisors.
She says her team has been “stressing the importance” of the EDI agenda at the annual strategic conversations with each college principal or chief executive and governors, and uses her termly letters to “remind colleges to have strategies in place to address EDI “challenges”.
But she cautions that it will take time to see the results of such initiatives.
The FE commissioner will also “actively look to encourage” those with diverse characteristics to apply as mentees on the FE leadership mentoring programme run by the ETF, which launches later this month. It will provide FE staff with up to 18 hours of confidential, one-to-one sessions with mentors with experience as senior leaders in colleges.
WorldSkills UK
Neil Bentley-Gockmann, who just stepped down as chief executive of WorldSkills UK, made boosting diversity one of the body’s key objectives in recent years. His approach was led by good quality, albeit perhaps uncomfortable, evidence.
In 2020 WorldSkills UK commissioned independent research to “investigate its record” on the inclusivity of its skills competitions. Its findings showed that WorldSkills UK competitors were not representative of young people in the UK, and white, non-disabled men were over-represented.
Having the evidence gave them the ammunition to respond. An EDI steering group, with representation from across the sector, was launched. The EDI heroes awards were created to profile role models and a competitor support fund was established to help young people access their programmes.
It has also launched centres of excellence in partnership with NCFE to widen participation in its programmes, with colleges predominantly in deprived areas.
Its strategy seems to be working. Registrations for WorldSkills UK competitions from ethnic minority students are up 14 per cent this year (from 8 per cent in 2020) and females up 44 per cent (from 31 per cent in 2020).
Winners and judges of WorldSkills UK Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Heroes Awards
LGBTQ+ identities
Greenidge says there are “transgender challenges out there” that colleges are currently “finding it difficult to understand, support and manage”.
One organisation working to increase awareness of LGBTQ+ issues is the awarding body VTCT.
More than 6,000 learners have now gone through its EDI qualifications, includinglevel 2 certificates in equality, diversity and inclusivity in an educational environment and in LGBT inclusivity in a health and social care environment.
Its head of customer engagement, Mark Child, says teaching staff are getting “more and more learners coming through that don’t identify as male or female, and they want to understand how to support their learners more fully”.
He says the LGBTQ+ qualifications have been “really popular with learners and teaching and assessment staff”, and “everyone is really keen to understand the changing landscape of how people identify”.
VTCT is also undertaking a review of its qualifications to ensure that gender-neutral language is used “to break down stereotypes that barbering, hairdressing and beauty, adult care, early years qualifications are not just male or female-centric but instead are gender fluid”.
It is also supporting colleges and training providers with curriculum planning to embed added value qualifications alongside apprenticeship delivery, with a focus on LGBTQ+, mental health, sustainability, and equality and diversity.
New forms of discrimination
Racism is “still there” and “always will be” in FE, just as in society, says Greenidge. But there are also new and evolving forms of discrimination on campuses that the sector needs to be alert to, particularly around misogyny and the “fear that some women have” as a result, often for their own safety.
So, while people may feel they are making progress on misogyny, without “underlying culture changes” and the “calling out” of those misogynistic individuals by their friends and colleagues, they will simply “go underground” and “come out sometime in the future”.
Wiltshire has organised workshops for staff and students in response to a rise in misogyny over the past 12 months. While this was sparked by the online popularity of Tate, Larkin says that – like many colleges – they are “trying not to directly mention” the social media influencer because “you’re directing young people to that content if you talk about him”.
At 65, Greenidge knows that he won’t be able to hold the sector to account forever, and he wants to ensure that progress is sustainable.
“This is not about me as an individual. I create a space for those tough conversations to be had, but this has to be a collaborative effort across the sector.”
His final plea to his colleagues across the sector is to be “comfortable having uncomfortable conversations”.
“The more we have principals and senior leaders who are comfortable in that uncomfortable space, the more the culture changes and people feel much more willing to call things out.”
Two London training providers stung with ‘inadequate’ Ofsted ratings last year have been allowed to see out their adult education budget contracts.
Care First Training Ltd and London Vocational College Limited both received grade four ratings in inspection reports published in September 2022.
Both were swiftly removed from the register of apprenticeship training providers and banned from delivering apprenticeships, in line with central government guidance from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
But the pair, who also held adult education contracts in London which has devolved powers for that provision, have since had monitoring visits from the education watchdog, both in March with reports published this month.
Now, Greater London Authority has confirmed that their adult education budget contracts will continue until the end of July 2023, in line with the original end date. It means the providers have been allowed to continue for nearly a whole academic year despite the concerns raised by the education watchdog.
The authority said the decision to retain the providers’ contracts was to ensure the programmes were closed with minimum impact to learners.
It added that its performance and intervention policy includes termination where necessary, including for grade four Ofsted ratings, but this is at the discretion of the authority and made on a case-by-case basis rather than an arbitrary decision made across the board.
According to the GLA’s AEB allocations, London Vocational College held a contract for £2.5 million from 2019 to 2023, while Care First had a contract worth just under £1.5 million from 2021 to 2023.
At the time of their inspections last year, 70 adult learners were studying at Care First while London Vocational College had 664 adult learners on programmes ranging from entry level to level 3.
Greater London Authority’s stance is one mirrored across most mayoral combined authorities.
All of the authorities confirmed they took a discretionary approach on whether to terminate AEB contracts for providers rated ‘inadequate’, except for Liverpool City Region which takes a more hardline approach.
A spokesperson for Liverpool City Region said: “Under Liverpool City Region terms, an ‘inadequate’ rating for quality for a contract for service provider is considered as a breach of contract. In these situations, in line with the Department for Education’s policies dating back to rigour and responsiveness in skills, contract for service providers can expect to have their contracts terminated.
“Where providers have quality-related issues outside of inspection or have ‘insufficient progress’ identified, a range of risk-based interventions are employed, including recovery plans monitored with increased levels of support and challenge on a more frequent basis.”
West of England was the only authority not to respond to FE Week’s approach for comment.
The ESFA’s contracts guidance states that it has discretionary powers which can include options such as suspending new starts, reducing payments or terminating the contract entirely following an Ofsted grade four report.
However, it is understood that on non-devolved AEB contracts the ESFA usually opts to terminate within three months of an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted report.
The only exception to this rule appeared in the case of Learndirect, which was England’s biggest training provider when it was rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in the summer of 2017 and was allowed to continue its national AEB contract until July 2018.
Officials in the DfE explained at the time that the provider had around 70,000 learners and allowing it to complete its programmes would minimise disruption for learners.
The Department for Education was unable to provide another instance of where it had allowed a provider to see out its contract, explaining that it did not comment on the contractual performance of individual training providers it funds.
London Vocational College declined to comment, while Care First did not respond to FE Week’s request for comment.
