Latest news from FE Week | FE Week

The dismantling of a sector: Adult education in crisis

Only two years ago, the adult education sector was called ‘the crown’ and community learning its ‘jewel’ by the education select committee.

So why is a narrow offer (unless you can pay) possibly set to become even narrower? Jess Staufenberg finds out

The “existential decline” of the adult education sector because of drops in funding, status and public awareness of provision is a national tragedy, say sector leaders and experts.

FE Week can reveal a mass move among adult education providers towards fee-paying courses as free languages and creative arts provision is squeezed out; preventative programmes under threat from a new government consultation; and a residential adult provision that believes its specialist funding will be pulled from 2023.

It comes at a time when the case for lifelong learning has perhaps never made so much sense. A potent combination of the skills shortage laid bare by the pandemic and Brexit, people living longer lives and a public largely sick of austerity measures means the timing seems politically ripe.

Visit either of the main party conferences and you’ll hear “skills” mentioned on repeat. Perhaps not since the end of the world wars has the case for lifelong learning seemed so important.

Adult education – which is delivered by general FE colleges but more broadly by the adult community education sector – could finally get the recognition it deserves.

But there are two big problems.

Firstly, skills for what? Skills for jobs? Or for life? For communities? For oneself? The debate rages on between ministers and providers – and the heat has turned up after the government proposed narrowing the ‘outcomes’ it is willing to fund to those only related to employment.

Secondly, the adult education sector is no longer engaging anywhere near the number of adults it once was. Despite an additional £900 million pledged in last year’s spending review for adult education by 2024–25, total spending on adult education and adult apprenticeships will still be 25 per cent lower in 2024-25 compared to 2010-11, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

Another way of putting it, from Learning and Work Institute, is there will be £1 billion less in adult education in 2025 compared to 2010 (and the 2010 level wasn’t even high enough, the LWI adds).

The result of these cuts – also fuelled by the 2013 switch to advanced learner loans for those over 24 studying levels 3 and 4, saddling adults with debt – has been “plummeting participation” in adult education, says Simon Parkinson, chief executive at the Workers’ Educational Association (WEA), in what will be news to nobody.

It means there has been a 50 per cent fall in adults taking qualifications at level 2 and below, alongside a 33 per cent fall in the number of adults taking level 3 qualifications since 2010. By 2020, that meant about four million “lost learners” according to LWI.

But adult education also includes non-accredited courses relating to personal growth, social activism, health, creativity, employability skills and so on. Here, data on participation is harder to come by – but providers have widely told FE Week they have been forced to introduce fees for formerly free courses and focus their scarce resources on the most vulnerable.

Exhibition of advanced children’s book illustration at City Lit

To remind you, the adult education budget is about £1.5 billion a year and is divided into two funding lines.

The first is the ‘education and training’ funding line, which is for accredited courses and usually covers English and maths, ESOL and digital skills qualifications, with various entitlements to free courses depending on your situation. This funding line is delivered by both general FE colleges and adult education community providers.

The second is the ‘community learning’ funding line, which covers both accredited and non-accredited courses, both free and fee-paying (depending on who and where you are). This funding line is not delivered by general FE colleges, but by adult communication education providers only, including local authority services, specialist ‘institutes of adult learning’ colleges and charities such as the WEA.

It’s an especially varied sector encompassing 200 providers, 10,000 venues, 15,000 staff and around 500,000 learners, according to sector body HOLEX. But it only has a budget of £215 million a year (almost unchanged since 2005), which amounts to less than one per cent of the entire post-18 education and skills budget (for context, 84 per cent of that budget goes to universities).

Overall, adult education – and community education particularly – is now a tiny drop in the ocean of the entire education budget of £99 billion a year.

A proud (potted) history

Let’s start in 1919. After the First World War the newly formed ‘ministry of reconstruction’ launches a sub-committee for adult education, which produces a radical report. It calls for ‘extra mural’ departments (meaning ‘outside the walls’) to be set up in every university to engage adults in the community in non-vocational, non-accredited courses – a national commitment to adult education for education’s sake, led by HE.

Then before the end of the Second World War, the 1944 education act empowers local authorities to get more involved in delivery. The following 1960s and 1970s are the “heyday” of adult education, says John Holford, professor of adult education at Nottingham University, with strong links between providers, trade unions (who often fund their workers’ courses) and community groups.

The 1980s then bring “enormous change” under a Conservative government, with a drive towards employability outcomes, says Holford. Meanwhile, the 1992 further and higher education act separates FE and HE funding, so breaking up the partnership between the WEA and extra mural departments.

The 1980s brought enormous change for adult education

Also, adult education stops being a ringfenced funding stream for higher education, so universities largely pull out. Now, community providers such as local authorities and FE colleges are the main players.

By 2000 the new adult learning inspectorate is launched (later rolled into Ofsted), with regulations and outcomes continuing to be firmed up. By 2005, the Leitch review of skills argues employers should be directly involved in deciding what the training priorities should be. It also says individuals and employers should pay towards any courses which only have a “private benefit”.

Funding cuts follow from 2010. The sector does get a welcome 2011 policy document, which states that community learning should “develop stronger communities”, improve personal confidence and social wellbeing. The New Challenges, New Chances strategy also calls for public funding to be focused on those most disadvantaged, with fees for “people who can afford to pay”.

But as the cuts begin to bite, there is a rush of reports arguing for a more generous adult education model from 2016 onwards.

A UNESCO paper on adult learning and education praises its impact on everything from “healthier behaviours” to greater awareness of “arts, ethics and cultural heritage”. In 2017, University of Warwick academics report that adult education helps meet “major challenges including ageing, loneliness, mental health” and saves the NHS and social services money.

The LWI make a similar argument in ‘Healthly, Wealthy & Wise’ the same year, before academics at the UCL Institute of Education put forward the case that every adult without a degree should get £10,000 to spend on education or training.

By 2019, the ‘Centenary Commission’, launched 100 years after the 1919 report, calls for a clear national strategy for adult education and lifelong learning, chaired by Helen Ghosh, an Oxford university academic and former civil servant.

To top things off, the education select committee produces “A Plan for an Adult Skills and Lifelong Learning Revolution” in 2020, calling for a community learning centre in every town. Bitingly, it adds: “The report finds that the Department for Education does not fully grasp the value and purpose of community learning”. By contrast the committee dubs community learning the “jewel in the crown” of adult education.

But the DfE is headed in a different direction.

The “employer-led system” approach is well under way with local skills improvement plans, with higher technical skills having been prioritised with free level 3 courses from 2021 (despite the government’s own research revealing in July that many people can’t get onto these courses because they haven’t got lower-level qualifications).

And then this summer a funding and accountability consultation quietly announced the “need to re-orientate the vision for non-qualification provision” along three new objectives: employment outcomes for all learners, progression into further learning that moves learners closer to the labour market, and helping those with special educational needs and disabilities with their personal development. The “stronger communities” and “confidence” objectives have both disappeared.

Double whammy: review and recruitment

FE Week spoke to 16 members of staff in organisations dedicated solely to adult education – institutes of adult learning, local authority adult education services and adult community learning providers.

We also visited two providers: City Lit, an institute of adult learning college in London, and Wensum Lodge, Norfolk county council’s adult education centre in Norwich.

With 93 per cent of the adult community education sector graded Ofsted 1 or 2, it is unsurprising to find some brilliant practice across the board.

In Norfolk, for instance, the local authority applied to the government’s community renewal fund and landed £600,000 to develop two new construction skills centres this year. It is expecting 900 adult learners to attend the two new sites on non-accredited courses, and is working with City & Guilds to develop qualification pathways. Impressively, 30 per cent of enrolments are women.

At Wensum Lodge, one learner says he sees the construction skills as a “back up” to his job in computing, and he can now do some home DIY without having to pay someone. But above all, the course has helped him “feel happy”, he explains.

A construction learner and tutor at an adult education centre in Norwich

FE Week also met a class of four ESOL learners from Ukraine (the service works with about 500 displaced people), three apprentices on a level 4 accounting apprenticeship and a roomful of older clients learning the ukulele. Half of the council’s provision is for education and training, the other half is for community learning.

But it is rare for community adult education providers to access capital funds for new premises, according to Denise Saadvandi, head of service for adult learning.

“Whereas colleges have been able to access pots of capital funding, we usually haven’t. We really need more of that type of funding stream if you want us to be able to respond to the labour market.”

And even with new facilities, staffing them is a problem, explains Carl Fiander, assistant head of service at Wensum Lodge.

“It’s exceptionally difficult, especially for construction and in accounting, where pay in the industry is so high,” he says. To tackle the issue, the service pays for people to do the level 3 and 4 education and training qualification in teaching, training about 12 staff a year this way – but there are still vacancies.

A ukulele lesson at an adult education centre in Norwich

Down in London, the Westminster adult education service delivers everything from level 1 to 3 graphic design courses, working with partners such as the Royal Palaces and Transport for London, to the library information and archive service apprenticeship with the British Library and Tate Modern.

But other programmes would be under threat from the new objectives proposed in the funding and accountability consultation, says Arinola Edeh, service principal. The council spends 20 per cent of its budget on community learning.

This includes a course on household finances which “isn’t about getting into work, but is about protecting the most vulnerable, helping them improve their credit rating,” says Edeh.

Similarly, there’s a course on how to use your phone – so people can access services online, but not necessarily find employment – and a programme called ‘Brave’, which “helps parents spot signs of radicalisation, grooming and violence”.

“Community education is rarely in the first instance about getting into work,” Edeh adds. “All of that would be under threat from this review.”

At Lewisham council in south London, the local authority delivers a mental health course called Mindlift for £100,600 a year, which Sidra Hill-Reid, head of adult learning, says helps ease pressures on the NHS.

But as the local authority’s transition data for all its courses shows, 76 per cent progress into other adult education courses and only four per cent straight into employment, so she again fears the provision could be under threat. “That lovely outcome around ‘building communities’ isn’t in there anymore,” she worries.

Just as in Norfolk, recruitment of staff is also a big problem. “They jump to an FE college where they can get a permanent contract, which is understandable,” continues Hill-Reid.

Staff jump to an FE college to get a permanent contract

The last government pay survey shows that teachers in adult education are paid £17,500 a year on average, compared to £27,000 in colleges – a huge gap.

Kerry Roberts, an adult education tutor with the WEA who delivers confidence-building courses, says her job is “very rewarding” but not paid “what it deserves”.

She adds her family learning courses, such as how to plan a day-trip focused on strengthening family relationships, wouldn’t clearly fall under the consultation’s new objectives. Multiple providers tell FE Week their family learning programmes feel particularly under threat from the review.

For free or for a fee?

But aside from the threats to their existing courses, providers also warn about the ongoing issue of fees.

At Lewisham council for instance, where 65 per cent of adult education is community learning, much of that is now fee-paying. Of its £4 million in income for adult education last year, 12 per cent (£470,000) came from residents paying fees, of which £167,600 were for community learning courses.

“From 2010 onwards, there were such significant cuts to funding that local authorities had to make tough decisions about who they were going to target,” explains Hill-Reid, service lead, adding fees from wealthier residents are used to subsidise courses for their poorer neighbours.

But residents “still come through who say ‘I can’t afford this’, she continues. “There is a gap in provision for those who earn over the London living wage but still can’t afford to do this stuff.” Adults are reluctant to take on learner loans, she adds.

Community learning fees are also rising at the council: from £6 on average an hour (£3 when subsidised) last year to £6.50 (and £3.25) this year.

Jewellery-making at City Lit college in London

Similarly at Bristol city council about a quarter of income for adult education comes from fees, bringing in £378,000 a year (though all community learning is kept free).

The most expensive course is £253 for 36 hours – with the reduced fee usually 70 per cent of the full fee – and the least expensive £12, according to Jane Taylor, head of service.

“What about all these other people on low incomes? I just have to say, we don’t have the funding for that,” she says. “It means that languages and arts are not so widely available.”

Languages and arts are now not widely available

She adds: “In days gone by we had more adult education centres in Bristol, but they are all closed now.”

Meanwhile at Birmingham adult education service, the council has seen its fee income drop because of the need to focus staff and resources on courses for the poorest residents.

“As we are reengineering the curriculum to offer more to the most disadvantaged, we’re getting less from fees,” explains Ilgun Yusuf, principal of the service. Whereas the council got £1.4 million in fees in 2016-17, only £453,000 came from fees in 2021-22.

“Of course we need to make sure we’re not using public funds for courses people can afford. But because we have less money, we have to prioritise certain things,” continues Yusuf.

“It’s absolutely tragic. I call it the existential decline of adult education.”

College offer under threat

We also spoke to five colleges: four institutes of adult learning and one general FE college.

Two are the only residential adult education colleges left in the country, taking some of the most vulnerable learners in the Yorkshire area (Northern College) and West Midlands (Fircroft College). Other residential colleges have closed or merged, with their provision scaled back.

Both the remaining institutions, which have relatively small incomes of only £4 million and £2.6 million respectively, have been threatened for several years with the removal of their funding uplift for residential placements, which is worth 4.7 times the base funding rate.

Now, FE Week can reveal that Northern College says it has been told by the ESFA “not to expect residential funding from DfE” from 2023-24.

“That’s massive for us,” says principal Yultan Mellor. “It would be a very silly move to whip away residential funding next year, when the market has bounced back and we are oversubscribed.”

The college, which has 75 bedrooms, is at full capacity, says Mellor. She has even reduced the length of residential stays from a full week to three days because “so many people need to work as well as study”.

This has doubled residential placement availability, but the college is still full, according to Mellor.

Mel Lenehan, principal at Fircroft College, adds: “Residential provision is unique because it’s a wraparound experience for our most vulnerable adults.” Half of her students declare a mental health need when they enrol. “We can’t just expect that type of adult to succeed on a limited set of outcomes.”

A DfE spokesperson said no decision on residential adult education funding had been made.

Less residential provision has also reduced the space where people could learn how to transform their communities, says Sharon Clancy, assistant professor in educational leadership and management at Nottingham University. For instance, the working-class MPs Dennis Skinner and John Prescott both went to residential colleges (now closed) and on to Parliament.

The focus on individual health and wellbeing overlooks the importance of social and political education, continues Clancy, who also sat on the 2019 centenary commission. “It’s not about individual social mobility, but about returning to your own community and enacting change. That small ‘p’ political purpose is being lost.”

Meanwhile Rebecca Taylor, vice principal for curriculum and standards at John Ruskin College, says adult learner numbers “are not the same as they were” due to funding cuts.

“We’ve had to focus on competency-based offers, with a clear qualification, rather than the more diagnostic work that is more exploratory and will help someone decide what they might like to do.” During the pandemic, colleges found it so hard to spend their adult education budgets that 103 institutions had to return money to the government, with 19 handing back more than £1 million.

Finally, FE Week’s tour around the sparkling facilities at City Lit in London revealed fantastic children’s illustration exhibitions, ceramics displays, jewellery and book-binding workbenches, a spacious drama studio, adult lipreading unit, a classics and American history departments, and much more. There are 6,000 courses at the college, which is open seven days a week, 46 weeks a year.

“Adult education is a way to find respite from the day-to-day,” explains principal Mark Malcolmson.

Adult education is a way to find respite from the day-to-day

“But my biggest worry is adult education could get priced out. London is very, very expensive.” His institution doesn’t have sliding fees but does have bursaries and instalment payments for some programmes.

But the pressure is on: the college’s fee income dropped from £10.1 million prior to the pandemic to £7.4 million in 2020-21. The college, though, is now back on track to producing more than half its income through enrolment fees, says Malcolmson.

Cause for hope?

Experts are clear – the current situation is serious. Sixty-three per cent fewer adults are in literacy and numeracy classes now than in 2010, according to LWI research. “It’s disastrous, a complete crisis,” says chief executive Stephen Evans.

He adds: “The other depressing statistic is it’s not just about government spending. Employers are spending 28 per cent less on employee training than in 2005.”

There have been good policies – the apprenticeship levy, Multiply and devolution – which just need tweaks, adds Evans. The new skills fund, which the AEB will be rolled into, should also be accompanied by “much simpler eligibility criteria” so people are less confused, he adds.

A big government push for greater awareness of adult education is also needed, says Alice Wilcock, head of education at the Centre for Social Justice. Research shows degree-educated people are more likely to know about adult education than those without.

“So what opens up is this cumulative learning gap,” says Wilcock. Instead, she calls for a “lifelong learning strategy that starts at foundation level not level 3”, and “a place to tell people centrally about what opportunities are open to them”.

Community providers must also be brought to the table to help determine local skills improvement plans, she adds.

There is food for thought for the sector, too. More high-quality career coaches in both adult education colleges and services could be a good idea. There is one career coach at Bristol city council, with another soon to join. Is that enough? Do such roles need to be more widespread to aid transition into work?

Meanwhile, Gerald Jones, director of community learning at Morley College, believes “simple and effective ways to measure the impact” of adult education holistically is genuinely possible. He sits on a government working group on how such outcomes might be measured (although it’s not clear whether it will continue under the new government). “Even an app could work,” he says.

For now, the sector is firefighting. The next battle is the funding and accountability consultation, which closes in mid-October. However, a long-term strategy, and future, remain unclear.

Our WEA tutor, Roberts, concludes. “I honestly think that a society that doesn’t look after itself is headed for a massive disaster.”

Low-key launch for T Levels for adults pilot

A two-year trial to deliver T Levels for adults was quietly launched this month, as education chiefs look to test the flagship qualifications on 150 older learners ahead of a potential 2025 rollout.

The Department for Education previously said that its new technical education courses for 16- to 19-year-olds would eventually become available to adults, but ministers hadn’t put a timeframe on that.

It has now emerged that 11 colleges have been selected to deliver a pilot, starting from this month, with around 150 learners expected in the first cohort.

The launch has been decidedly subdued, with no external communications from the government on the scheme to date, and only a few details emerging following enquiries from FE Week.

What the department has confirmed is that 11 colleges are part of the pilot, although not all of those may have started delivering the courses as they may be on flexible delivery models.

The pilot covers wave one and two pathways in the digital, construction, education, and health and science routes. While total numbers have not yet been confirmed, the DfE said it did not expect any more than 150 learners in total.

The DfE said ministers will be given evidence at the end of the trial in 2024 that will inform any decision on whether to roll the courses out nationally to adults from September 2025. However, that decision is “likely to be subject to Treasury approval”.

The DfE said it cannot name the providers in the pilot because it has not released its own external communications yet.

FE Week found reference to delivering the courses for adults on the websites of six colleges: Exeter, Barnsley, Derby, East Sussex, TEC Partnership and Barking and Dagenham College. All have been approached for comment.

The DfE has also refused to clarify funding arrangements, saying only that while funding is different to that for 16- to 19-year-olds, the funding levels were comparable.

It is understood that the funding has not come through the adult education budget but from a separate pot.

A DfE spokesperson said: “The pilot is deliberately small scale and numbers of participating providers and learners will be small.

“We hope to learn valuable lessons from the pilot regarding how adults can be supported in accessing T Levels, should we decide to offer T Levels to adults in the future.”

T Levels were launched in September 2020 as technical equivalents to A-levels, but originally intended for those aged 16 to 19.

Students aged 19 to 25 who have an education health and care plan can currently access any T Level available for 16 to 19s.

Offering T Levels to adults was a pledge made by Gavin Williamson in October 2020 during his time as education secretary. A date had never been set however for when that may emerge.

A consultation by the DfE in 2021 on post-16 level 3 qualifications asked the sector whether T Levels should be offered to adults. It found that 71 per cent agreed the qualifications should be offered to learners aged 19 and above, with respondents in favour saying it would provide progression opportunities, upskilling options and specialist training for those changing careers.

Exeter College, which taught 330 T Level students aged 16 to 18 in 2021/22, is one of the colleges selected for the adult trial. The college this month began delivering the digital production, design and development T Level to adults on a part-time basis only.

That was a decision made to enable flexible learning so adults could continue working alongside their studies. Learning is timetabled over two days a week there.

Despite the quiet launch of the pilot nationally, Exeter said recruitment of adult learners was not an issue, with 18 adults applying for its 15 places.

Lucinda Sanders, director of higher education and adult learning, said the college had formed a dedicated digital and data department specifically for adult learners, as it is one of the biggest skills gaps in the south west. It meant it could market the T Level alongside existing offers such as digital skills bootcamps and a free level 2 digital technologies course it had already been offering.

“Under the branding of this digital and data department is really where we got people. We have had some level 2s progress on to it, and some of our ex-bootcamp learners who are now working in industry and choosing to work part time because they want to come back and do the T Level,” Sanders said.

“We have full employment in Exeter, so whereas the bootcamp might be really good for someone wanting to upskill, the T Level is for somebody who wants to retrain and get into that sector. Someone who might not have the skills to get on an apprenticeship in digital but really wants to get into the industry, but at the same time needs to be able to work.”

Sanders said the line-of-sight to employment “seems to be a big hook for adults”, adding that those who had enrolled were already enthusiastic about the course and its links to industry through the mandatory 45-day work placement.

The college has confirmed it is teaching its adults in separate classes to its 16- to 18-year-olds and will be providing data returns to the DfE on starts, retention figures, progress marks and completion rates.

Barnsley College was among the few to publicly announce it was delivering adult T Levels from this month in childcare, construction and digital.

It said that adult learners will complete a “skill-scan” as part of their enrolment. That is to analyse their existing skills and experience, to determine the length of their study. It said that flexible options could be available to help students fit in the course alongside their existing commitments.

Leaders vow sector-wide march on parliament if Whitehall cuts hit FE

Further education leaders have vowed to march on parliament if proposed cuts to Whitehall budgets hit the sector.

The Treasury will write to all government departments in the coming days to demand they find efficiency savings to reduce the level of borrowing needed in a bid to calm the financial market, according to reports.

The moves comes despite prime minister Liz Truss saying that she was “not planning public spending reductions” during the Conservative party’s leadership contest.

Leaders of colleges and training providers now fear that their frontline services, which are already under huge pressure because of high inflation, will bear the brunt of cuts to the Department for Education’s budget.

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “The idea of further cuts to college funding is chilling. After 12 years of underinvestment there is no fat to cut. Reduced funding would mean fewer courses on offer, lower hours of teaching, less student support and an even worse staffing crisis.”

Hughes also took to Twitter to say his membership body would organise a protest after Derwentside College principal Chris Todd tweeted: “If this [Whitehall cuts] comes to further education, after everything we’ve been through, I’m marching on the capital. Who’s with me?”

The University and College Union, Sixth Form Colleges Association and adult education provider network HOLEX all told FE Week they would join a sector-wide protest.

Jo Grady, UCU general secretary, said: “It would be a grotesque act of harm and deeply damaging to the life chances of those who rely on further education to announce further devastating cuts. If further cuts are visited on further education, UCU and its members will have no hesitation in taking to the streets.”

Bill Watkin, SFCA chief executive, added: “If the request to find efficiency savings leads to the possibility of cuts in frontline services we will respond in the strongest possible terms. Funding cuts would affect the whole of 16- to 19-year-olds education, so it would be important to respond with one voice. We saw from the Raise the Rate campaign what can be achieved when colleges, schools, students, and trade unions work closely together.

“We hope that common sense will prevail, but if it does not we will do everything we can to ensure that the government’s economic experiment does not damage the life chances of sixth form students.”

The DfE’s total departmental spending came to £102,897,000 in 2020-21, according to its most recently published accounts. It is not clear at this stage how much in savings each government department will be told to find by the Treasury.

Last year’s spending review pledged funding increases to 16- to 18-year-olds and adult education budgets.

But the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that due to significant cuts over the past decade, government spending will still be 25 per cent lower in 2024–25 than 2010–11 for adult education.

Per student spending in further education and sixth form colleges for 16- to 18-year-olds will also be 10 per cent lower by 2023-24 than when the Conservatives entered government, according to the IFS.

Sue Pember, the director of policy at HOLEX and a former DfE senior skills civil servant, said all services should be worried that the government is beginning to talk about cuts but she urged her counterparts to “not do the government’s work for them and use this exercise to create division in the wider education sector by suggesting some things are less important and therefore can be cut”.

“All the slack, if there was any, was cut out of the sector in 2012. What is left is the minimum needed to build a cohesive society and support economic growth.”

Pember added: “What we must do is work collectively to reiterate the importance of adult education and skills development in a period of recession. People are worried and they need support through learning new skills so they can ride out of this period of upheaval and set of unknowns.”

Jane Hickie, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive, said her membership body is also “deeply concerned” with reports that cabinet ministers will be asked to find “efficiency savings” which are tantamount to funding cuts.

“The training provider sector can ill afford any more financial blows at this challenging time,” she said. “I hope the education secretary Kit Malthouse will make a strong case for continued – and ideally increased – investment in further education and skills.”

Lynette Barrett, chief executive, National Star

From care worker to chief executive, Lynette Barrett has risen up the ranks at National Star, the adult special educational needs college in Gloucestershire. She tells Jess Staufenberg about how to keep staff during a cost-of-living crisis

Time clearly flies when you’re a member of staff at National Star.

It keeps happening as we walk around – staff are surprised at how long they’ve been here. In one classroom, I’m chatting to student Sam Vestey, who is showing me his BBC interview about why the blue disabled badge needs changing (it should feature more than just a wheelchair because some disabilities are hidden, he explains).

At one point I ask the delightful Simon Welch, college principal, how long he’s been here. He thinks for a moment, then grins: “14 years”.

In another building, the college’s irrepressible students’ union leader, Chelsea Pettitt (who seems to know literally everybody), comes scooting around the corner. She takes us to the hydrotherapy pool, where a student is in a session with two apprentice physiotherapists.

One of them, surprising even herself, explains that she’s been at the college for almost four years. Welch too is surprised. “I can’t believe that,” he exclaims.

In the music room, we meet a professional musician who now works at the college leading its music department. In the physiotherapy room, a physiotherapist runs out of fingers trying to count all the physiotherapists employed on site (turns out it’s about 30).

Chelsea Pettit, National Star student union president, and Simon Welch, college principal

And as we head towards the dance room – where, brilliantly, students can use hanging ropes to spin themselves around – we continue to meet people who greet one another like old friends. The banter is endless (I particularly enjoy the mock scraping-and-bowing to Chelsea in recognition of her new elected role as campus queen).

Finally, we reach the “manor house”, or Ullenwood Manor, which was the original Star Centre back in 1967. In an upper room is newly-appointed Lynette Barrett, chief executive of the £46 million turnover organisation.

Guess when she began here?

In 2001, aged just 25.

She arrived as a care worker, with only a couple of years’ experience as a care worker and two small children at home. Since then, she has climbed up and up – from senior facilitator, to deputy manager, head of department, director of residential services and finally chief operations officer in 2017 – before landing the top job in July.

She’s also chair of Natspec, the membership association for FE providers with SEND learners.

Finding and keeping staff is core to Barrett’s mission. As the former chief operations officer, she saw the impact of the pandemic on staffing up close – too close.

“Last year was incredibly difficult. The health and social care sector was having a massive staffing crisis. People were looking to come out of health and social care.

“Suddenly I felt very out of control” she adds. “It didn’t matter how much I put in, I couldn’t sustain the quality I’d prided myself on for all those years.”

The college needs 600 facilitators (support and care workers who help students access their lessons). They are the backbone of the organisation but during the pandemic 100 of these roles went unfilled.

Everyone had to pull double their weight. Two students, due to their vulnerability to Covid-19, ended up in intensive care – mercifully, nobody died.

Barrett chatting with a college student

“My biggest concern wasn’t the 100 vacancies, my fear was that would grow,” says Barrett, wide-eyed at the thought. “I was saying to [then-CEO David Ellis] ‘we have to retain who we’ve got. For every one we lose, that’s ten years’ experience out the door.”

Barrett and Ellis jumped into action. The college had already launched a ‘training unit’ for staff in 2004, but it now changed its advertising to emphasise career progression.

Current job postings for facilitators, for example, promise a £250 ‘golden hello’ after probation, highlight a five per cent salary increase from January this year and a free college bus service from Cheltenham and Gloucester (which Barrett wants to expand). Staff who stay get a ‘commitment payment’ and those who help hire someone also get a financial reward.

At the same time, a new director of people, Elaine Gisby, was found. She moved away from text-based adverts to more videos on social media, says Barrett.

The team even switched from making people download a job form online – which needs digital skills – to ringing on a phone. Meanwhile for staff already in college, there was a big boost to internal communications “to keep staff informed and engaged”, says Barrett.

Barrett at her desk in the main manor house

It was a huge “one-off investment” from the college’s reserves, costing £2.5 million.

And Barret herself is, of course, perhaps the best advert of all.

Things had looked a bit bleak when she was younger. She had the “attention span of a gnat” in primary school and found writing especially difficult (eventually diagnosed as dyslexia). Special support helped, and Barrett soon reached the top of her classes. But the move from a primary school with 28 pupils to a secondary with 1,200 was a disaster.

“Some of the solutions for me were very extreme. In those days you were either in mainstream, or in remedial class, with some children who had severe learning disabilities. I could not identify myself with that. So I stopped going.”

Barrett took a job as a groom at a stable, leaving school in 1991 aged 15. It didn’t work out, and she landed a hairdressing apprenticeship, working for five years until marrying and having her first son aged 21.

When I was 15 I stopped going to school

Not long after, she took on some shifts at a nursing home where her older sister worked, gaining level 2 and 3 in health and social care. When the nursing home shut, she stumbled across National Star.

How does it feel to sit here now as chief executive?

“It is a bit surreal. There was never any intention to end up here. I feel very proud, but I also feel very privileged, in terms of the trust and confidence in me as a person.”

Barrett also admits that a big part of her drive for more senior roles was a need to pay the bills.

“It was very difficult to make ends meet,” she says of her earliest years. “One of my drivers in terms of career progression was not just being ambitious, I needed to earn more money.” Even with a husband working, Barrett was feeling the bite.

Barrett’s experience might resonate with applicants for the college’s current facilitator vacancies: the advert online offers £10.50 to £10.92 an hour, or £13.13 to £13.65 at the weekend.

(It’s worth adding that the job “encourages those with no experience” to apply, pledging access to training and qualifications).

At the same time, the college’s energy bill is set to rise from £200,000 a year to half a million. The college is also due to post a “small deficit” this year and again in 2023.

But Barrett insists that she “can’t just pass that cost straight onto the local authority”. The college has already increased its charge to the local authority – where it was £100,000 per student place a year ago, it’s eight per cent higher today.

I can’t just pass the costs straight onto the local authority

So with finances tight, how can Barrett hold onto staff?

“There is something about the culture of the organisation that makes it a desirable place to be,” she says. She’s right – it’s tangible. But that’s partly because of the facilities, which look fantastic. For example there is a new £6 million residential site underway. The campus feels like an exciting, enduring place.

A computer generated image of the £6 million residential facility being built

While the LA’s payments cover staff costs, philanthropy and fundraising must cover any capital projects, facilities and equipment like the hydrotherapy pool.

But this isn’t easy either. “There’s so much more competition out there in terms of charities, and so many were hit hard by the pandemic,” says Barrett. “A charity that supports disabled adults is not so sexy in that sense. It’s surprising how many people never rub shoulders with someone with a disability.”

Career progression and development remain a key weapon in Barrett’s arsenal for keeping her expert staff. There are 70 staff working on care apprenticeships, seven training in leadership and management in adult care, six on nursing or physiotherapy degrees and two doing post graduate qualifications.

With specialist education, the quality comes from expertise

Proving the value of providers like National Star also helps. The college is in talks with two general FE colleges outside the south-west to offer its expertise to their learners. “It could be a satellite site, or they could subcontract us,” she says, saying more detail will be announced later this year. It’s a way to show the college adds real value across the system.

And in her role as chair of Natspec, Barrett is supporting member efforts to increase the prominence of adult learners in the SEND review consultation, because it is so “school focused” (see FE Week ad nauseum).

Barrett is adamant that “whatever we end up with” from the review, local authorities are made to implement the policies. “Unless local authorities are held to account and made to follow it, it won’t work.”

Meanwhile Natspec has also expanded its own training offer to members, in an effort to keep and develop more staff, according to Barrett.

“This is not the time to cut back,” she concludes. “With the specialist education sector, the quality comes from expertise. The only way to get that, is to remain in the sector.”

Ministers confirm exams and grading plan for 2023

Next year’s GCSE and A-level grades will return back to pre-pandemic levels, government has confirmed, albeit with a “soft landing” and exam aides will be allowed in some subjects.

In summer 2022, grades were set at a “midway” point between 2019 and 2021 after two years of teacher grades due to the pandemic. Top grades had soared during these years.

The Department for Education and Ofqual confirmed today that grades will fall back to pre-pandemic standards. But there will be “protection” for students impacted by Covid disruption. It will also help “in case students’ performance is slightly lower than before the pandemic”.

DfE said senior examiners will use the grades achieved by previous cohorts of students, along with prior attainment data, to inform their decisions about where to set grade boundaries.

This means, for example, a typical A-level student who would have achieved a grade A before the pandemic will be just as likely to get an A this summer.

Advance information – which was used last academic year to help students target their revision – will not be available again. It has already been confirmed that optionality in some GCSE subjects would be removed.

But formulae and equation sheets will be staying in GCSE mathematics, physics and combined science

Consultations to “futureproof” exams will also be held. This includes guidance for schools about gathering evidence to ensure “preparedness” should exams need to be cancelled ever again.

Exams boards body the Joint Council for Qualifications will consult on maintaining extra spacing between exams next summer. This was brought in during Covid, but Ofqual said it was well received by schools and reduced the chance of students missing exams through illness.

A third consultation will propose removing the expectation that students engage with unfamiliar and abstract material, such as unfamiliar vocabularly, in modern foreign language GCSE exams from next year onwards.

Chief regulator Dr Jo Saxton said its 2023 plans were a “step further” towards normality, but still recognised Covid’s impact.

“Our approach to grading in 2023 will provide a soft landing for students as we continue the process of taking the exam system back to normal.”

But this means students face a big drop in grades next year. Just a third of the pandemic grade inflation was wiped out among top GCSE results this year, rather than the half that Ofqual aimed for.

Education secretary Kit Malthouse said the transition back to “pre-pandemic normality” was because students working towards qualifications next year “expect fairness in exams and grading arrangements”.

Ofqual has also confirmed that it does not expect adaptations previously used to respond to the pandemic to be used in vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) this year, meaning the qualifications will return to pre-pandemic standards.

Awarding organisations “are expected to take account of the approach used in general qualifications so that students taking VTQs are not advantaged or disadvantaged in comparison”, Ofqual said.

In T Levels, Ofqual has asked awarding organisations to be “generous in the first years of awards, to reflect the fact these qualifications are new”.

Strike cancelled at London college after staff win up to 8% pay rise

Staff at Croydon College have called off a strike after accepting a new pay deal worth up to 8 per cent.

The University and College Union said the offer also includes a commitment from management to look at workloads and to create joint working groups that will aim to improve career progression for learning support workers and technicians.

Strike action was suspended at Croydon College after the offer was made but went ahead this week at 17 other colleges, with a further 12 set to join the strike next week.

Staff at eight further colleges also have mandates to strike but are not yet going forward with action.

The UCU rejected a 2.5 per cent offer from the Association of Colleges in June, describing it as “totally unacceptable”. That had been increased from first 1 per cent and then 2.25 per cent.

Staff across the country are calling for a 10 per cent rise with a minimum uplift of £2,000 to help them cope with the cost-of-living crisis.

Croydon College’s pay award means those earning under £25,000 will see their pay rise by 8 per cent, and those earning between £25,000 and £40,000, including lecturers, will see their pay rise by 5 per cent.

UCU regional official Adam Lincoln said: “This deal is the result of determined organising from our members at Croydon College. We are always willing to negotiate fairly with management and we thank the college leadership team for their serious engagement with UCU in negotiating this agreement.

“We are in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and our members in further education are taking action like never before with around 4,000 staff hitting colleges across England with strikes. There are up to seven days of strikes still set to take place over the next three weeks. Employers urgently need to make improved offers that address the cost-of-living crisis. If they fail to do so, they will face further disruption.”

Croydon College was approached for comment.

Labour pledges to widen the apprenticeship levy

Labour would reform the apprenticeship levy so that it can be spent on other types of training if the party comes into power.

The party plans to turn the policy into a “growth and skills levy” where businesses could use up to half of their contributions to fund non-apprenticeship training such as modular courses.

Full details of the policy are set to be published in a report produced by Labour’s Council of Skills Advisers – led by Lord Blunkett – in the coming weeks.

It is unclear at this stage how small and medium-sized employers would continue to access apprenticeships under the proposed system, but shadow skills minister Toby Perkins promised that non-levy payers will not see a reduction in the amount of funding available to them.

Keir Starmer made no mention of apprenticeships in his speech at his party’s annual conference today, but he did make a commitment to “give employers new flexibility to invest in world class training they need”.

Following his speech, the Labour Party press office announced several skills reforms to be overseen by a new body called Skills England, which would enforce greater devolution of adult education funding streams as well as an overhaul to the apprenticeship levy system.

Only employers with a wage bill of £3 million or more pay into the apprenticeship levy, at a rate of 0.5 per cent of their annual wage bill.

The current government’s levy policy was designed so that large employers would not use all their funds. Levy-payers lose access to their contributions after 24 months and unspent money is made available to small and medium-sized businesses who do not pay the levy to use to train apprentices.

Expanding the apprenticeship levy was a policy idea favoured by the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who pledged to reform the policy in his 2019 general election manifesto. His commitment followed calls from multiple industry representative bodies for apprenticeship levy payers to be able to fund wider skills training from their levy cash.

A Labour spokesperson said that under its newly proposed “growth and skills levy”, firms will be able to “spend up to 50 per cent of their levy contributions, including currently unspent money, on non-apprenticeship training, with at least 50 per cent being reserved for apprenticeships to preserve existing provision”.

“This flexibility will enable businesses to use more of the money in their levy pot for training, rather than it sitting unspent, investing in essential skills that we need to prepare Britain for the challenges of the next decade,” the spokesperson claimed.

It is unclear whether it is therefore Labour’s hope that all levy-payers will utilise all of their levy-contributions, which would mean there is no money left to fund SME apprenticeships, or if additional funding will be made available.

Perkins told FE Week that full details of how SMEs will be able to access apprenticeship funding will be shared by Labour’s Council for Skills Advisers. But he offered assurance that SMEs would not see a reduction in the apprenticeship funding they can access.

Labour’s spokesperson said that for SMEs who do not pay the levy, they would “be able to reclaim 95 per cent co-payments on approved courses in the same way as they do for apprenticeships”. Again, it is not clear at this stage precisely how this will work.

Labour said it will establish a new expert body, Skills England, to oversee its skills reforms. This includes approving a list of qualifications that businesses could spend their “flexible levy money”.

The list of qualifications will include modular courses in “priority areas, which lie at the core of our industrial strategy, including digital and green skills, social care and childcare that would boost training opportunities with a view to supporting national ambitions such as the transition to net zero”.

The growth and skills levy would also fund “functional skills and pre-apprenticeships training helping tackle key skills gaps especially around basic digital skills that hold back individuals and organisations”.

Labour said it also plans to merge the various adult education skills funding streams such as the Shared Prosperity Fund and Multiply, with the existing adult education budget. This would then be devolved to combined authorities who currently have control of the AEB for their area.

‘Skills England’, which would replace the current Unit for Skills within the Department for Education, would oversee this effort. Labour said the body would be run by experts from the Treasury and Department for Education, and pull together relevant trade associations, large and small employers, representatives of trade unions, central and local government, further and higher education.

Meet the ministers: Who’s who in Liz Truss’s first DfE lineup

The government has finally confirmed portfolios for new Department for Education ministers appointed in Liz Truss’s first reshuffle.

Andrea Jenkyns remains minister for skills – although her title has been shortened from “minister for skills, further and higher education”. Meanwhile Baroness Barran – who had been minister for the school system – is now minister for the school and college system.

According to the DfE website, Jenkyns’ role now also includes strategy for post-16 education and covers funding for educating or training 16- to 19-year-olds, however higher education reform and Covid-19 recovery for further and higher education are no longer listed in her responsibilities.

Obligations she held for reducing NEETs (not in education, employment or training) and careers education and guidance have moved across to Barran.

In addition, Barran’s role includes education provision and outcomes for 16- to 19-year-olds, governance and accountability of colleges, and intervention and financial oversight for further education colleges.

The DfE has confirmed that universities will come under the skills portfolio, and said that the FE brief has been split between two ministers given its breadth. Jenkyns will drive the skills agenda and Barran take responsibility for the college system, it said.

Elsewhere, the previous schools and children and families briefs have been carved up and shared between new ministers Kelly Tolhurst and Jonathan Gullis.

In another sign Truss plans to make good on her promise to open more grammar schools, Tolhurst’s brief includes “strategy for schools, including standards and selection”.

She will also oversee exams and SEND. While Gullis will take charge of overseeing school accountability, behaviour and catch-up.

Here’s what’s in each minister’s brief…

Kit Malthouse, education secretary

Early years

Children’s social care

Teacher quality, recruitment and retention

The school curriculum

School improvement

Academies and free schools

Further education

Apprenticeships and skills

Higher education

Andrea Jenkyns, skills minister

Strategy for post-16 education

T-levels

Qualifications reviews (levels 3 and below)

Higher technical education (levels 4 and 5)

Apprenticeships and traineeships

Funding for education and training for 16 to 19 year olds

Further education workforce and funding

Institutes of Technology

Local skills improvement plans and Local Skills Improvement Fund

Adult education, including basic skills, the National Skills Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund

Higher education quality

Student experience and widening participation in higher education

Student finance and the Lifelong Loan Entitlement (including the Student Loans Company)

International education strategy and the Turing Scheme

Baroness Barran minister for the school and college system

Academies and multi-academy trusts

Free schools and university technical colleges

Faith schools

Independent schools

Home education and supplementary schools

Intervention in underperforming schools and school improvement

School governance

School capital investment (including pupil place planning)

Education Investment Areas (jointly with Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for the School Standards))

Education provision and outcomes for 16 to 19 year olds

College governance and accountability

Intervention and financial oversight of further education colleges

Careers education, information and guidance including the Careers and Enterprise Company

Reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training

Safeguarding in schools and post-16 settings

Counter extremism in schools and post-16 settings

Departmental efficiency and commercial policy

Kelly Tolhurst, schools and childhood minister

Strategy for schools, including standards and selection

Qualifications (including links with Ofqual)

Curriculum including relationships, sex, and health education and personal, social, health and economic education

Admissions and school transport

Early years and childcare

Children’s social care

Children in care, children in need, child protection, adoption and care leavers

Disadvantaged and vulnerable children

Families, including family hubs and early childhood support

Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including high needs funding

Alternative provision

School food, including free school meals

Children and young people’s mental health, online safety and preventing bullying in schools

Policy to protect against serious violence

Jonathan Gullis, school standards minister

School accountability and inspection (including links with Ofsted)

Standards and Testing Agency and primary assessment

Supporting a high-quality teaching profession including professional development

Supporting recruitment and retention of teachers and school leaders including initial teacher training

Teaching Regulation Agency

National Tutoring Programme

Education Investment Areas (jointly with Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for the School and College System))

School revenue funding, including the national funding formula for schools

School efficiency and commercial policy

Pupil premium

Behaviour, attendance and exclusions

School sport

Digital strategy and technology in education (EdTech)

Geoff Barton to step down from ASCL role in 2024

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Geoff Barton has announced he will stand down from his role in 2024, three years earlier than planned.

The union leader, who was re-elected unopposed to a second five year term last year, was due to hold the role until 2027.

But Barton said he believed 2024 would be the “right time for our association to have a new leader with a fresh approach”. He will leave in April of that year.

The former headteacher was elected in a landslide in 2017, in the first contested election in ASCL’s history. He said he was giving notice now to kick-start the “lengthy” election process for a new leader, to “ensure that there is a smooth transition”.

“I’ve decided to step down as ASCL general secretary in April 2024. By that point I will have been in post for seven years, and I believe it will be the right time for our Association to have a new leader with a fresh approach.

“Over the next 18 months, it will be business as usual for me, and I look forward to continuing to work with the ASCL team – with, and on behalf of, our 22,000 members. As we always say, we work on behalf of members and act on behalf of children and young people.

“That’s what I’ll keep doing.”