NUS sacks president Shaima Dallali after antisemitism investigation

The National Union of Students has sacked its president Shaima Dallali after an independent investigation into allegations of antisemitism.

Dallali was elected as NUS president in March but was suspended from her role at the end of August and has now been dismissed after she was found to have “significantly breached” the union’s policies.

Since her election, the Department for Education and its quangos have cut ties with the union.

In a statement, the student union said: “Following the independent KC-led investigation into allegations of antisemitism, specifically into the then-president elect under the NUS Code of Conduct, an independent panel has found that significant breaches of NUS’ policies have taken place. As per this finding, we have terminated the president’s contract.”

The union said it will not be sharing any further details on the investigation into Dallali, who can appeal the decision.

“We are sorry for the harm that has been caused and we hope to rebuild the NUS in an inclusive way – fighting for all students as we have done for the past 100 years,” the NUS added.

DfE minister Robert Halfon said: “We welcome the verdict to this initial investigation and look forward to seeing the outcome of the next stage, which will provide more detail on National Union of Students’ plans to address antisemitism within the organisation.”

Dallali’s sacking is the outcome in the first of two investigations in to NUS, the second of which has not yet concluded and will look at the organisation as a whole.

The DfE previously said that it would want to see antisemitism addressed across the organisation as a whole before deciding whether to reengage with them.

Dallali said she is considering “all available legal remedies” following her dismissal, and has hired Carter-Ruck – one of the UK’s best-known law firms – to fight her case.

A statement from the law firm said Dallali rejects the findings of the disciplinary panel, and she considers the process to have “constituted discriminatory treatment of her as a black Muslim woman and her beliefs concerning the plight of the Palestinian people”.

Earlier this year, Lord Mann, the government’s antisemitism adviser, called for action against the NUS in response to “escalating revelations about the continuing poor treatment of Jewish students and the lack of leadership on anti-Jewish racism from the union”.

Jewish students had expressed concerns after it emerged that Dallali had made anti-Semitic posts on social media ten years ago.

Dallali wrote in 2012 on social media: “Khaybar Khaybar O Jews … Muhammad’s army will return #Gaza” – a reference to a massacre of Jews in 628. She later apologised for the post, calling it “unacceptable”.

Chloe Field, the vice president of higher education will now step up as acting chair of the NUS UK board.

She said: “As the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite, I will continue to hold the government to account and push for greater support for students. As students and apprentices reach breaking point, at NUS we have developed a series of clear recommendations for the government and education institutions to ease the burden on students, and I look forward to championing them during my time at NUS.”

Ofsted plans ‘shadow nominee’ for training providers during inspections

Ofsted has announced it will allow training providers to provide a second nominee during inspections, after lobbying by sector leaders.

Currently, training providers must nominate one person in their organisation to be the link between the provider and the inspector at the time of inspections.

Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills Paul Joyce revealed this morning at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ autumn conference that from January 2023, a second nominee – known as a “shadow” nominee – can also be put forward by the provider.

Full details and a briefing by Ofsted will be presented before the rollout in the New Year, but the shadow nominee is expected to only have an observational capacity, with the primary nominee still being the point of liaison.

Joyce, who announced the measure to applause from the conference, said: “Our current practice is to usually only allow one nominee as the link between the provider and the inspector, but increasingly as providers have got larger, as the stakes on inspection have increased, and, particularly with large and complex providers where there is geographic spread, where there are lots of sector subject areas, or where there are many learners, we do appreciate a lot of responsibility rests on one person’s shoulders.

“We are wanting to ease that burden, and we also want to help the sector with succession planning.”

When asked by FE Week whether that was because of any concerns from the sector around the way inspections have been carried out, Joyce said that was not the case, but more around professional development and easing the burden on one person.

Colleges already put forward two nominees, but that is because of the nature of their “enhanced inspections”, according to Joyce. For colleges, the role of the primary nominee stays the same, but the second nominee looks at the skills needs of a college as part of the enhanced inspection.

Joyce said the protocol is being put together so that at the planning call, which acts as the notification of upcoming inspection, the training provider can put forward their nominee and decide if they want a shadow nominee.

Joyce said that the shadow nominee role is as an observer and “won’t expect that nominee to contribute during team meetings or to ask questions, but they are there to take notes and support your nominee”.

Jane Hickie, chief executive of AELP, said: “I am really pleased that Ofsted will adopt AELP’s shadow nominee proposal, as of January 1 2023.

“One of the key challenges for providers is to ensure appropriate succession planning for the next generation of inspection nominees. An experienced nominee can often make the difference to a training provider having a positive inspection experience.”

Hickie said that while nominee training is widely available, there was a lack of practical exposure to the role, which the shadow nominee plans will help address, adding that it will ensure a “high-quality and well-informed inspection” for both the provider and Ofsted.

Temporary apprenticeship funding band uplifts planned for later this month, DfE reveals

Providers and employers will be able to apply for temporary funding uplifts for apprenticeships where costs have “substantially” increased from the end of this month, the Department for Education has announced.

Peter Mucklow, director of apprenticeships at the DfE, revealed the plans at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ (AELP) autumn conference in Manchester today. He said the government would provide a short-term boost to apprenticeship standards in the hardest hit sectors while they wait for full funding reviews.

Few details of the support package have been announced so far, with more guidance expected from the Institute for Apprenticeships and technical Education (IfATE) in mid-November.

Mucklow said: “Our intention is that from later this month, employers and trailblazers will be able to apply for a temporary increase in funding for individual standards, where they can present conclusive evidence that costs of delivery have been substantially impacted. This will support apprenticeship delivery in the short term until a full funding review can take place for these standards. I hope that this is welcome news.”

He said that there was a limit to the number of full funding reviews IfATE could carry out at once, and recognised that some sectors would be harder hit by current rising cost pressures than others.

The AELP published research yesterday which showed funding for current apprenticeship standards were not meeting the true cost of delivery in sectors such as catering and hospitality, transport and logistics, care, construction, and engineering and manufacturing.

It is not yet clear what will constitute “substantial impact” or how much funding is being made available to deliver the uplift.

Mucklow said it was “more appropriate and better value for money for the taxpayer” to take an approach to supporting standards which will be more impacted rather than increasing funding for all standards across the board.

He added: “With government not generally supporting across-the board increases in funding rates across the education sector with cost-of-living increases, that offers the best opportunity of preventing of what we might envisage as a shortage of provision, a shortage of supply, because of affordability issues.”

IfATE chief executive Jennifer Coupland also spoke about the temporary funding uplifts at today’s conference. She said: “We have really heard from providers how difficult things are with rising costs across the board, but particularly in certain sectors where we know that there were already challenges around recruiting suitable trainers, suitably qualified teachers etc.

“We also know that consumables, the costs of training are higher in some apprenticeships than others, I am thinking particularly around construction trades where people are using a lot of materials by the very nature of the apprenticeship, and those sorts of things we want to try to reflect as best as we can within the funding uplift programme.

“We need to do something quickly.”

She added that she hopes the temporary funding uplifts can be reviewed and approved within a month of the application being received.

AELP chief executive Jane Hickie said: “It is positive to hear IfATE plan to implement a funding band uplift, where employers can evidence increased costs.

“I hope this support comes quickly and will help alleviate financial pressure on providers in light of inflation. Along with any interim measures, IfATE should commit to reviewing funding bands at least every two years, ensuring apprenticeship funding matches the true cost of delivery.”

Former skills minister Matt Hancock set to join I’m A Celebrity…

Former skills minister Matt Hancock has reportedly signed up to join I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!

The West Suffolk MP, who resigned as health secretary last year after breaking Covid-19 lockdown rules, was immediately suspended from the Conservative Party after the news emerged today.

The Sun reported that Hancock, who was skills minister from 2012 to 2014, would be the 12th celebrity to go into the jungle on the ITV programme which starts this Sunday.

Following this, according to multiple national newspaper, the government’s chief whip Simon Hart said: “Following a conversation with Matt Hancock, I have considered the situation and believe this is a matter serious enough to warrant suspension of the whip with immediate effect.”

Other celebrities set to join Hancock in Australia for the long-running show are Boy George, former footballer Jill Scott, Coronation Street’s Sue Cleaver, reality TV star Olivia Attwood, radio DJ Chris Moyles, rugby star and royal Mike Tindall, and Loose Women star Charlene White.

Two former schools ministers to run for education committee chair

Former schools ministers Robin Walker and Jonathan Gullis will run to become the next chair of the Parliamentary education committee.

Walker, who resigned in July over Boris Johnson’s leadership and Gullis, who was fired last week in Rishi Sunak’s first reshuffle, have both confirmed they will seek election to the role.

David Simmonds, a former committee member who used to chair the Local Government Association children and young people board, has also confirmed he will run for the job.

The chair position is vacant after Robert Halfon, who has served in the role since 2017, returned to the Department for Education as a minister. It is understood he is returning to his old skills brief.

Halfon’s place must be taken by a Conservative. So far Gullis, Walker and Simmonds have confirmed they are running.

According to the Guido Fawkes blog, ex-children’s minister Brendan Clarke-Smith and current committee member Caroline Ansell are also putting themselves forward. Both were approached for confirmation.

Nominations for a new chair opened today and will close on November 15. Each MP must gather at least 15 signatures from fellow Conservatives. If there is more than one candidate, a vote of MPs will be held on November 16.

In the meantime, the committee can appoint an interim chair, who is usually an existing committee member and the longest-serving member from the opposition party. This would be Labour MP Ian Mearns.

Evidence sessions already in the diary will still go ahead, but all other business is put on hold until a permanent chair is elected.

Gullis left his DfE role after just 50 days last week following the announcement that former long-serving schools minister Nick Gibb had returned.

Cost of living: 8 in 10 providers warn of soaring salary and facility costs

Eight in 10 private training providers have warned that they are being seriously impacted by rising salary and building costs, with two thirds fearing staff turnover could hit their business hard, a new survey has found.

More than 200 providers responded to a September survey by the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) around the biggest cost of living impacts.

Some of the findings, published today ahead of AELP’s autumn conference in Manchester tomorrow, outlined the stark picture trainers were facing amid the economic gloom.

Survey respondents have asked the organisation’s future recommendations to government to include an increase in funding bands and review of overall delivery costs, assessing wage inflation and staff shortages, measures to address increasing bureaucracy, and increasing employer incentives to take on more apprenticeships.

Here are the key findings…

Salaries and facilities costs top providers’ pressures…

Rising salary costs topped the list of biggest cost pressures, with 86 per cent saying they would be seriously impacted.

More than eight in 10 also cited the rising costs of facilities and premises as a big issue.

AELP said its findings indicated that higher level apprenticeship standards were suffering because of “increased wage expectations of appropriately qualified tutors and trainers”.

One respondent said that “in the past year the market salary rates for good quality tutors at these standards have increased by almost a third”.

…prompting fears for staff turnover

Two thirds of survey respondents (67 per cent) said increased staff turnover was a fear, while training consumables and travel and subsistence costs were also raised by more than two thirds.

The AELP findings said: “It is becoming difficult to retain and recruit staff on a trainer’s salary for a lot of higher-level qualifications and financial standards, as individuals can attract much more by staying in the industry.”

Assessment costs have crept up

More than half – 53 per cent – of respondents said they had noticed the costs of assessments, which included apprenticeship end point assessments (EPAs), had gone up while their own funding had remained static.

Providers have asked for AELP to consider assessments in their future recommendations to government.

Some providers said that prices had changed notably when it was confirmed that end point assessment organisations could charge up to 20 per cent of the standard for the cost of an EPA.

Some sectors impacted more than others

Catering and hospitality, transport and logistics, care, construction, and engineering and manufacturing were the sectors most impacted, according to the findings.

AELP said that these were the “sectors with high capital or resource outlays that were in general being very badly affected”.

In addition, it found that standards relying on practical skills and higher proportions of training materials, like construction, were particularly vulnerable.

In the case of areas like care and early years provision, many respondents said that they were already badly funded and inflation movements had made that situation worse.

‘Rising costs are really starting to bite’

Jane Hickie, AELP chief executive, said: “Our research backs up what AELP members tell me on a daily basis – that rising costs are really starting to bite. Many training providers are extremely concerned about what the future holds, and, despite unprecedented inflation rates, some funding bands have not been reviewed for many years.

“The current situation is simply not sustainable and – alongside continued long-term investment in skills – we need urgent intervention from government to ensure funding matches the true cost of delivery.”

School and college system minister Baroness Barran stays on

School and college system minister Baroness Barran will remain in post – seemingly completing the Department for Education’s ministerial line-up.

Barran, who founded domestic abuse awareness charity SaveLives, has survived all the recent reshuffles, meaning she will work under a fifth education secretary this year.

Barran’s appointment seems to complete the DfE’s ministerial line-up. Gillian Keegan is education secretary, Nick Gibb and Rob Halfon are ministers of state, and expected to take up the schools and skills roles respectively.

Claire Coutinho is a junior minister. That leaves the university brief, which did have its own minister but was recently made part of the skills minister’s portfolio.

Barran took on some responsibilities for post-16 education following Liz Truss’ reshuffle in September. These included education provision and outcomes for 16 to 19 year olds; college governance and accountability; intervention and financial oversight of further education colleges and reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training.

Full briefs for the new ministerial team have not yet been confirmed.

Claire Coutinho appointed education minister 

Claire Coutinho, the MP for East Surrey, has been appointed as a minister at the Department for Education.

She was appointed as minister for disabled people just last month, and became an MP in 2019.

She will join the department as a junior minister. Coutinho work at investment bank Merrill Lynch and accounting firm KPMG before being elected to parliament. She’s also served as a special adviser at the Treasury.

She will join Nick Gibb, who FE Week understands will be named schools minister, and Robert Halfon, who is set to be named skills minister.

That means Coutinho is likely to replace Kelly Tolhurst, who was schools and children’s minister. 

Tolhurst tweeted that it had ”been a privilege to serve as Minister for Schools & Childhood. I have decided that now more than ever, with the challenges we face I want to focus on supporting & helping the people of Rochester & Strood, representing my constituents & businesses from the backbenches.”

A ‘British Baccalaureate’? What you need to know

New prime minister Rishi Sunak reportedly wants to reform post-16 education with a new ‘British Baccalaureate’.

So, what do we know about the policy, and how likely is it to come to fruition?

FE Week has all you need to know…

1. Compulsory English and maths to 18, but 🤷 on the rest

Calls for some sort of Baccalaureate to replace GCSEs or A-levels have been around for some time.

The National Baccalaureate Trust published detailed plans earlier this year which would see pupils study English and maths up to 18, but also personal development and research projects, such as the Duke of Edinburgh.

The EDSK think tank proposed a new three-year baccalaureate to replace A-levels, BTECs and T-levels. EDSK director Tom Richmond said if government was “serious about boosting technical education, it must end the political obsession with A-levels”.

Returning DfE minister Robert Halfon has also previously called for GCSEs and A-levels to be scrapped and replaced with one “holistic baccalaureate” for 18-year-olds which recognises academic and technical skills and personal development.

There isn’t much meat yet to the proposed Sunak policy. It was one of the policies he put forward during his failed leadership bid earlier this year.

Sunak said a new “British Baccalaureate” would require all pupils to continue to study core subjects like English and maths in sixth form.

When asked at the time, his campaign would not provide a full list of subjects.

Two problems: the government is already struggling to recruit enough maths teachers, so would have to come up with a plan to recruit more.

The second is cash: post-16 education has seen the largest funding cuts of all education areas.

The British Baccalaureate policy was one of the key proposals in the recent Times Education Commission, which called for a “broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18, with parity in funding per pupil in both routes, and a slimmed-down set of exams at 16 to bring out the best in every child”.

2. Plans part of vocational education push

The Times reported a Downing Street source saying Sunak believed if there were “one silver bullet in public policy” that would improve lives, it would be investment in education and skills. “This is an absolute priority for the prime minister,” the paper reported.

Rather than pumping more funding into existing and well established colleges and providers, Sunak supposedly wants a new network of ‘elite’ technical institutes to transform vocational training. This was an idea also favoured by Liz Truss.

But the focus is very much on putting vocational schooling at the forefront of policy, The Times added.

Former skills minister Gillian Keegan, who left school at 16 to do an apprenticeship, has been made education secretary to oversee the drive.

Before it was announced he would be returning as skills minister, Halfon told the Times the new baccalaureate would see students “have a much wider curriculum so they get the skills that they need and employers want”.

He said Sunak was “supportive of vocational education because he understands to improve productivity we have to improve skills”. Halfon has long called for a baccalaureate system to “ensure pupils can access skills and vocational education as well as academic learning”.

3. But there are big barriers: time, and Nick Gibb

A big stumbling block to introducing any new major education reforms is time – the current government essentially has two years tops to drive through changes before a general election.

The current students starting A-levels last month won’t finish their courses until the summer of 2024, so such reforms would almost certainly need longer.

This could potentially mean the next two years are used to scope out the plans, with them becoming one of the Conservative government’s key education election pledges in 2024.

But, there’s still a likely blockage: returning schools minister Nick Gibb – a strong traditional education advocate who has driven education reform, based on those principles, for the best part of the last ten years.

A move from academic study at post-16 to a more vocational focus is unlikely to get his backing.

As one policy expert said: “I can’t see Gibb signing off the end of A-levels before an election.”

For a change, the Conservative government proposal would likely get support from unions.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the government must also be “more flexible in allowing and supporting a choice of subjects that students can study pre-16 which embraces technical and vocational education”.