Vulnerable adolescents deserve better than a maze of bureaucracy

In an era of unstable politics we see government retrenching and making policy in silos, but the real challenges and ‘wicked’ issues we face cut across Whitehall departments. Supporting vulnerable adolescents is a classic example.

As the Public Accounts Committee outlines in our latest report, the issues vulnerable young people face cut across agencies, and failure to tackle them has a devastating impact on them, their communities, wider society and the public purse. The estimated lifetime cost of the adverse effects for children who have ever been allocated a social worker is around £23 billion every year.

Yet too often the buck is passed from one organisation to another because none owns the problem. For a parent or carer, and especially for a young person, it can be impossible to navigate the system or even secure the support necessary to do so.

This is not new. In 1994 as a local councillor I saw the same challenges – from the sharp end of child protection to the vulnerable young adolescents in children’s homes groomed into sexual activity. As an MP in inner London nearly 20 years on, I see gang leaders adept at identifying, abusing and using vulnerable children – now very often in brutal county lines activity.

Too many young people get sucked into crime as perpetrators and victims because they are vulnerable. We have known this for decades and yet the problems go on and on. Now, we also have a growing crisis with young people’s mental health. And the fact that young women and young people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are so disproportionately affected adds to the impetus to act.

Too often the buck is passed from one organisation to another

The solutions can be simple. Take the Hackney teenager eventually excluded for missing school. A home visit revealed a mother with alcoholism whose two sons owned one pair of school trousers between them and alternated attendance. A pair of school trousers solved part of the problem (he went on to university), but the system took too long to identify it, leaving those boys at risk. Today, I fear the home visit would never happen.

The Department for Education is theoretically in charge of support for vulnerable adolescents, but there are so many parts of the system that should work together to support this group of young people – schools, colleges, health, police, councils, housing, youth services, courts and voluntary groups. School and college leaders know all too well that the challenges are often beyond the ability of one organisation to deal with; just navigating the complex web of support a young person needs is hugely challenging.

My experience as a councillor and MP is that often it is schools and colleges who pick up the problems early on. Increasingly, even they are struggling to access support when they do. I have seen tragic cases where schools have flagged issues but the young person gets lost in the maze of bureaucracy that is supposed to be supporting them. More empowerment at the front line and strong advocacy from a named individual could help target support where it is most needed.

It’s never been truer than now, and the costs alone dictate: we need a more joined up approach. This is financially possible; a fraction of that £23 billion could divert many vulnerable young people from falling through the cracks in the system.

We need to see evaluation of the cost and impact – and the value to wider society and the taxpayer – of interventions to change the life opportunities of this cohort.

Ownership of such a complex issue by one department means it does not get the attention it deserves – at huge, unacceptable and unnecessary cost to young people and communities. We don’t just need a strategy anymore; We need to see regular reports to parliament of the actual, measurable, long-term impact on young people’s outcomes.

By and large, schools and colleges do a great job of identifying young people who need help early. It’s time they were supported to do so, and confident that everyone else will play their part to put long-term help in place. It’s what our education system needs, and what our vulnerable adolescents desperately deserve.

Two days of strikes announced at Havant and South Downs College

Staff at a Hampshire-based college are set to strike for two days this week after union members received an “insulting” pay offer.

More than 100 employees at Havant and South Downs College could take part in industrial action on February 22 and 23 amid a row over low pay, with members of both the University and College Union and National Education Union voting to picket.

It comes as the unions have decried a 3 per cent pay offer for most college lecturers, which they claim is a real terms pay cut when inflation is running at more than three times that figure.

The UCU said the final pay award offered was 3 per cent for most college lecturers, who are largely on between £30,000 and £40,000 per year, with a one-off payment of around £400 for most staff.

This is, however, higher than the pay award recommended by the Association of Colleges of 2.5 per cent in the face of a decade of government funding cuts.

UCU branch chair Steve Pattenden said: “It’s frankly insulting that Havant and South Downs College thinks it can get away with offering staff just 3 per cent when inflation is soaring and our members are being pushed into poverty. We are determined to get a pay award that helps us meeting the cost-of-living crisis and management urgently needs to come back to the table with a fair offer.”

NEU representative John Rogers said that “enough is enough”, dubbing the situation “unsustainable”.

He added: “This year’s pay offer, coming during a time of high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis, represents a huge real terms pay cut. This continues what has been a relentless year-on-year attack on teaching and support staff pay and conditions.”

A spokesperson from Havant and South Downs College said it recognised the hard work of its teachers and support staff, and the impact the cost-of-living crisis was having.

They added: “With government funding FE colleges at a significantly lower level than schools and universities we simple do not have the resources available to meet the unions’ pay demands. We continue to discuss with unions what other measures could be agreed to reduce workload and related administrative pressures.

“Despite an increasingly challenging financial environment and inadequate funding, HSDC is determined to continue to provide a safe and stimulating environment for young people to learn and progress to university and employment and will strive to ensure that all three campuses remain open during the planned strike action.”

A statement on the college’s website said that while it was hoping to keep all campuses open “certain learning provisions may not be able to continue for health and safety reasons”.

UCU member staff at 26 colleges opted for strike action in the autumn over pay disputes. Havant and South Downs College was not one of those to take part in industrial action then.

At that time, the AoC had recommended a 2.5 per cent pay increase, with AoC chief David Hughes explaining that “the money simply isn’t there” for anything higher.

He recognised that the “modest” increase is “both inadequate compared with inflation but also on the cusp of what is affordable for most colleges”.

Addressing sector pay has been one of the AoC’s key asks of government in its submissions over the last year.

The UCU has been lobbying for a 10 per cent uplift with a minimum increase of £2,000.

According to Havant and South Downs College’s accounts for the year ending in July 2022, it had 853 staff on its books of which 382 were teaching staff.

Its financial plan for 2022/23 shows that £26.8 million had been budgeted for pay, with a provision of £1.1 million for the pay award.

The accounts said that after “several years when staffing costs have been at unsustainably high levels and significantly above FE sector norms”, the college has now brought its pay costs “under control”.

It reported that pay outturn was just over £26 million – 70.2 per cent of income, which was slightly above the FE Commissioner recommended target of 70 per cent for general FE colleges.

Havant and South Downs College recorded a £1.198 million “education specific EBITDA” (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) surplis in 2021/22, which was £866,000 better than it had budgeted for.

Former top DfE skills civil servant joins PwC

The Department for Education’s former top skills civil servant has been appointed as a senior adviser and global director for education and skills at accounting giant PwC.

Paul Kett left the DfE as its director general for skills in December, having served in several roles at the department over the last six years.

PwC, which is considered one of the “big four” accounting firms in the world, announced today that Kett would join to develop the company’s “education and skills practice and delivering business transformation work for clients both in the UK and globally”.

Kett said: “With investment in people and skills a priority for businesses and governments around the world, I am excited to bring my knowledge and experience to support clients close the skills gap and help secure more inclusive and sustainable economies and societies.”

As the DfE’s director general for skills, Kett was responsible for higher and further education policy, apprenticeships and T Levels as well as being the lead sponsor for the Office for Students and Students Loans Company.

He served in several roles in the government. Initially responsible for education standards policy, he became director general in 2017 and in 2019 took over the higher and further education brief. 

Damien Ashford, education leader at PwC, said Kett brings a “wealth of experience to complement our own commitment to harness talent and skills across the UK”.

Julia Kinniburgh, the DfE’s previous director general for strategy, replaced Kett as director general for skills in December.

‘Expert’ teacher sweeteners needed to tackle ‘growing’ FE recruitment crisis, report says

Incentives such as tax breaks for employers and paying teachers in skills shortage areas more should be introduced to address the “growing” teacher recruitment and retention crisis in further education (FE), a new report has said.

Research published today has also indicated that golden hellos of between £3,000 and £7,000 have been used by FE colleges to help get new teachers on board in certain subjects as they continue to struggle to offer competitive salaries compared to industry.

The Lifelong Education Commission and Chartered Institution for Further Education (CIFE) have penned the study, called ‘developing industry expert teaching for higher skills’, in which they call on the government to do more to address the FE teacher recruitment and retention crisis.

It says that “dual professionals” – those with up-to-date industry experience who can also spend some time teaching – should be developed to help combat the problem.

It highlighted latest government data that indicated average FE teacher wages were around £10,000 lower than school teachers, with universities able to pay even more, all while many technical and vocational lecturers can earn more in their industry. The document suggested that staffing in FE may have fallen by a third in the last 10 years, and said that college vacancy rate was at around eight or nine per cent – double what it was prior to the pandemic.

The report has called on the government to up the pay of FE teachers in skills shortage areas.

Report author Andy Forbes from the Lifelong Education Commission told FE Week this recommendation was “deliberately a bit vague” but envisaged a similar model to that used by academy trusts which have the ability to pay extra to teachers with additional responsibilities.

Forbes suggested something that was not an overall change to the pay structure but “something that will enable that pay structure to be supplemented,” such as an “expert teacher supplement”.

Elsewhere, the report calls on tax breaks or other such incentives to help employers release their staff for a day or two a week to teach in FE.

“At the moment I cannot see any incentive for the employer to do that,” Forbes explained. “It’s about the government incentivising employers to say if you release someone for a day a week we will subsidise for the loss of that person’s time. So much is being asked of employers – T Level placements, apprenticeships, it’s only fair national government should consider incentives for employers to release people which would be mutually beneficial for the employer and the receiving institution.”

According to the report, CIFE is already developing a scheme where industry experts in the latter stages of their career will be targeted with a “remuneration and training package to support a phased transition from full-time employment to a mixture of employment in industry combined with teaching”.

That scheme aims to use large employers’ corporate social responsibility budgets to fund the release of staff members into local colleges.

In addition, the research reported that “all CIFE colleges interviewed use pay supplements of around £3,000 to £7,000 per year – variously described as ‘market supplements’, ‘scarcity allowances’ or ‘golden hellos’ – to attract staff in shortage areas”.

Forbes said the use of golden hellos was “very mixed at the moment because there isn’t anything on a national scale and people have needed to improvise to look at what they think is effective”.

He explained that some colleges had formal policies that indicated they will pay a defined pay supplement if they have failed to recruit after two attempts, while others have used them much more loosely on a case-by-case basis.

“In practise, the majority of colleges have used variations of the golden handshake, or market supplements, but there are numerous variations in how small, how strict and how consistently it’s used. Local labour markets tend to vary quite considerably – it’s very much about what people think is necessary to winkle out somebody good at the right level,” he added.

Other recommendations in the report called on the government to “move away from piecemeal initiatives” and develop instead “a more integrated strategy”. It found that while efforts like the Teach in FE and Taking Teaching Further campaigns and a professional development grants pilot have been welcome, no publicly available evaluation of those programmes meant it was hard to see if they were working.

It has urged the government to speed up its evaluation of those campaigns to enable those delivering the most promising results to be quickly identified.

The report also called on the government to strengthen its collection of FE workforce data, explaining that it needs to be “detailed enough to facilitate analysis of the proportion and range of industry-expert teachers,” that will help aid recruitment planning.

Robert Halfon, minister for skills, apprenticeships and higher education said there has “never been a better time” to consider teaching in further education with the range of routes including apprenticeships, skills bootcamps and T Levels.

He added: “Industry professionals know better than most the skills that employers need, and we recognise we need more people with this industry expertise to share their knowledge and skills and extend the ladder of opportunity to people from all walks of life.

“That is why we’ve launched our Teach in Further Education recruitment campaign, empowering people to use the skills they’ve gained in their careers to inspire and train up the next generation of workers whilst expanding their own skill set, and we are providing bursaries worth up to £26,000 each tax-free in priority subject areas for 2022/23 to support FE teacher training.”

UTCs group seeks millions from DfE for ‘sleeves’ in schools

The body that represents university technical colleges (UTCs) is seeking support for the expansion of “sleeves” of their vocational education offer in existing secondary schools.

But millions of pounds in government funding is needed for the initiative, which may still need to be subsidised by host schools or academy trusts because of a lack of cash for technical subjects.

In a new consultation, the Baker Dearing Educational Trust hopes to hear from “interested parties” including school and multi-academy trust leaders.

Supportive views would then “reinforce the trust’s advocacy for the initiative with the Department for Education”. The charity initially wants a funded pilot in 10 schools.

So-called sleeves would provide a technical education curriculum for 14 to 18-year-old pupils in mainstream schools.

To be eligible, schools would need to be in a “strong” academy trust which either already sponsors a ‘good’ UTC or is able to form a “close relationship” with one.

DfE must pay start-up costs

Each sleeve would require up to £100,000 in start-up costs, which the charity wants the DfE to grant-fund, with future funding potentially coming from other government pots of money or employers.

But schools and trusts with the new UTC sleeves would need to cover some of their running costs in future, Baker Dearing has admitted.

This is because technical subjects at post-16 receive funding uplifts, whereas no such increase exists at key stage 4.

The “sleeves” would also need up to £1 million each in capital cash to “procure specialist equipment and to make necessary changes to the school’s infrastructure”.

The move follows what the trust described as the “successful founding” of a UTC sleeve in Bristol.

However, the sleeve at Abbeywood School formed last September after it took over the former Bristol Technology and Engineering Academy, a UTC that had been rated ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted and was well below its capacity.

Baker Dearing’s chief executive Simon Connell has previously said that under the initiative, schools would ideally open new mini-UTCs, rather thank take over existing settings.

‘Sleeves’ would replicate UTC model

The charity hopes sleeves would replicate the work of UTCs, with students progressing to T Levels, the new technical equivalent to A-levels, during their post-16 study.

Meanwhile, curriculums would include employer-based projects with the aim of developing skills such as team work, “resilience” and adherence to professional standards.

These curriculums would be informed by an employer board of representatives from local companies, and based on skills specialisms in short supply in each area.

Each school would have a “sleeve lead” in their senior management team, acting as liaison for sponsor universities and employers and managing the sleeve’s delivery and outcomes.

Baker Dearing said these could be seconded from a UTC in the same trust.

DfE grant funding of up to £100,000 per school would be needed to cover start-up costs, including paying for the sleeve lead’s time, the charity said.

But Baker Dearing’s consultation suggested future cash could come from other DfE pots, like its skills “strategic development fund” or academy trust capacity funding, or from employers.

However, eligibility for the trust capacity fund is currently restricted to academy chains taking on extra schools or schools forming new trusts with other settings.

Baker Dearing also hopes the DfE will raid funding for T Level upgrades to provide capital cash of up to £1 million per sleeve.

‘Several’ MATs interested in scheme

“Schools, students, parents, and employers are eager for a careers-focused technical education which gives young people the skills they need to take up fulfilling careers in industries in dire need of fresh talent,” said Connell.

He added that the consultation should be seen as a “rallying cry” for those in the sector or interested parties to show support for the initiative.

According to Baker Dearing, several trusts have already expressed interest in the proposed scheme.

It will support applications to the DfE for interested schools, which must be able to evidence both local skills needs and “willing” employer and university partners.

Scheme could enable UTCs to grow

Plans for two new UTCs were submitted in the most recent round of free school bids, while work on a third bid is ongoing.

But UTCs have struggled with low rolls and performance since their inception in 2010, with twelve having already closed.

Last week, it was reported The Watford UTC would close at the end of the academic year due to a lack of student demand.

Also potentially standing in the way of bids for new UTCs is a lack of government capital funding and a predicted fall in numbers of secondary pupils from 2024.

But Baker Dearing pointed to recent gains for the sector. Enrolment at UTCs rose by 8 per cent this academic year.

Ofsted data also shows 78 per cent of the colleges are rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.

In a prior interview with FE Week, Connell said sleeves could provide an alternative way for the programme to grow.

Skills minister Robert Halfon described the concept as “exciting” at last year’s Conservative party conference, adding it could “help mitigate the higher costs of building new facilities”.

National Apprenticeship Week 2023

There is the will, and the ideas, to do things differently

Shane Chowen, editor

Welcome to FE Week’s special supplement marking this year’s National Apprenticeship Week. 

What’s great about putting together a publication like this is the palpable determination by everybody to make apprenticeships a success. As Jennifer Coupland, CEO of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education writes in her piece, there is undoubtedly a shift happening in education policy towards wanting more and better apprenticeship opportunities. 

Throughout these pages you’ll see a range of views on what the short and long term priorities should be to achieve that growth in participation and improvements in apprenticeship experience. This publication comes just one month ahead of the Budget and the first set of achievement rates data we’ve seen since before the pandemic, so debates on funding and quality will inevitably dominate the pages of FE Week in the weeks and months to come. 

Chiefs of two of the sector’s leading representative organisations have penned a joint piece looking at functional skills on page 15. They make the case that the current requirements on apprentices is one of the factors leading to the high apprentice drop-out rate and offer some suggestions on how a better use of technology in initial assessment can deliver better outcomes for learners.

Since his return as the minister responsible for apprenticeships, Robert Halfon has been banging the drum, or rather, hanging his ladder of opportunity, on the role of apprenticeships in social justice. His ambition is widely known and widely respected in the sector. He gives an honest account of this when challenged by FE Week’s deputy editor Billy Camden with evidence that suggests, at degree level, apprenticeships are more socially exclusive than traditional university entry. You can read Billy’s full interview on pages 5 and 6. 

Of course funding is never far away from the debate. While there’s been some welcome news this year on “exceptional” funding uplifts for some standards, there’s still debate about utilisation of the apprenticeship levy. Shadow minister Toby Perkins makes the Labour Party’s case on page 7 for a broader skills and growth levy and Kirsti Donnelly talks about City and Guilds’ latest research with employers on page 24. 

This time last year saw the launch of flexi-job apprenticeships. FE Week reported Tallulah Taylor spoke to some employers, apprentices and new flexi-job apprenticeship agencies to see how the programme is playing out. Tallulah finds some unexpected benefits to the scheme but reports that a lack of commitment from the government could halt further expansion. And all of this has to fit in the wider economic context facing our country. Apprenticeships are in a uniquely vulnerable position in the education system as employers battle rising costs and competing priorities. But, as these pages show, there is not only the will but also the ideas in the sector to do things differently.

Marples family to sue DfE for over £37m

The former owner of collapsed apprenticeship giant 3aaa is attempting to sue the Department for Education for over £37 million.

Peter Marples and three other members of his family recently filed a lawsuit in the high court that claims negligence and “misfeasance” in public office.

The claim centres around the sale of 3aaa (Aspire Achieve Advance Ltd) to Trilantic Capital Partners in 2016, which was aborted after the DfE’s then-Skills Funding Agency refused to sign off on the deal because officials feared a change of control would prejudice delivery of the agency’s contracts.

Court documents seen by FE Week claim the refusal was unjustified. If the acquisition completed, the Marples family would have immediately received the sum of £26,752,979 as well as “deferred consideration” in the form of “roll over loan notes” to the value of £10,271,389, the documents claim.

The Marples family therefore “expect to recover the principle (sic) sum of £37,024,368” in damages, plus interest and costs. There are four claimants in the case: Peter, Sarah, Lee and Thomas Marples.

It comes almost five years after 3aaa went into administration when the Education and Skills Funding Agency – the successor to the SFA – terminated the firm’s skills funding contracts worth over £15 million following an investigation in 2018. The agency passed its findings to the police through Action Fraud, but the police ultimately decided not to pursue a criminal investigation.

This was the ESFA’s second investigation into the provider in two years.

One reason listed for the demise of the company relates to claims by a whistleblower who shared information with the agency in 2016 that alleged non-compliance with funding rules including incorrect start dates for learners and artificially inflated success rates by failing to report breaks in learning.

This led to an unannounced external audit conducted by KPMG, described in the court documents as a “dawn raid”. The KPMG report, codenamed “project vanilla” and seen by FE Week, found dozens of funding “overclaims”. Marples’ court documents state that the ESFA confirmed, however, that “there was no evidence found of deliberate circumvention of funding rules by 3aaa” pursuant to the KPMG investigation.

Marples and family claim that the whistleblower was later identified by the ESFA’s former chief executive as Nick Linford, the former editor of FE Week.

Linford said: “During my time as the editor of FE Week, whistleblowers approached me numerous times wanting to share information about various publicly funded organisations. In some circumstances, based on the information shared with me and with the consent of the original source, I would share the information given to me with the relevant funding body or government department.

“This was the case with 3aaa. I shared the information obtained with the funding agency.”

The court documents claim that Peter Marples was subject to a “particular animosity within the ESFA” and was seen by the agency’s top officials as a “necessary evil”.

There is no mention in the documents of the events that occurred after the aborted sale to Trilantic Capital Partners that led to the termination of 3aaa’s funding contracts.

The ESFA is yet to file its defence with the high court.

Both the ESFA and the Marples family lawyers, DWF Law LLP, declined to comment.

Read next week’s edition of FE Week for the full story on the case.

Over 100 jobs lost as Go Train files for liquidation

Long-standing training provider Go Train is filing for liquidation with over 100 staff set to lose their jobs. 

Following an unsuccessful acquisition attempt and low learner numbers, the company told staff yesterday the board had taken the decision to close, ending over 30 years in the sector.

According to firm’s latest accounts, the company’s owners, Go Train Holdings Limited, held “significant” debts and recruiting to pre-pandemic levels of learners became essential to fulfilling its contracts and its survival. 

Chief executive Graham Clewes told FE Week that slow recovery from Covid-19 lockdowns and an unsuccessful attempt at being acquired by a larger company means the board had no option but to close the business immediately. 

Clewes said: “It is with deepest regret that yesterday we informed our hard-working staff that we are in the process of filing for compulsory liquidation.

“The board decided that Go Train would be better, more secure and more sustainable as part of a larger group. This is because recovery from the disruption of covid-19 lockdowns has proven too challenging to overcome and attempts to consolidate services and curriculum have not had sufficient time to stabilise the company.

“The board received an offer to acquire the company which would have provided a way forward but unfortunately, despite best efforts it has not been possible to progress this to completion.”

Go Train website home page

Attempts to rescue the business were unsuccessful and low learner numbers meant “the organisation lacks capacity to fulfil some of our contracts”, Clewes added. 

Go Train has offered adult learning programmes as a sub-contractor since 1992 and began direct delivery of the adult education budget with its own ESFA contract in 2017.

Since then it secured contracts with the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) and Greater London Authority as well as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for employability programmes including the Restart scheme. 

FE Week understands that some of Go Train’s employability work, including a number of members of staff, have been transferred to Serco, which also delivers Restart for DWP.

Provider pulls out of £3m devolved contract due to low student uptake

At the time of its last Ofsted inspection, July 2022 where it was judged to be ‘requires improvement’, Go Train had 700 learners on a range of face to face and online programmes.

The provider was one of only 88 training providers to successfully win a procured national adult education budget contract (AEB) with the ESFA in its last procurement round, and one of only four to win an annual contract worth over £2.5 million.

It’s AEB allocation for this year was just over £2.5 million and £536,000 was allocated from the National Skills Fund.

Last year FE Week reported that Go Train had handed back its £3 million adult budget contract with the West Midlands Combined Authority mid-year due to low recruitment.

Marco Ferrara was interim chief executive of Go Train at the time. He left the business in October 2022. Ferrara said low adult enrolments following the pandemic, particularly job centre referrals, meant continuing the WMCA contract was “unviable”.

Go Train held seven ESFA subcontracts in 2021/22 worth £730,000.

Holding company loans

Go Train Ltd received a £1 million loan in 2020/21, according to its latest available accounts. The company was reliant on learner numbers recovering to pre-Covid levels in order to maintain the cashflow needed to honour its loan repayments. Failure to achieve that learner footfall could “indicate that a material uncertainty exists that may cast significant doubt on the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”. 

Go Train’s controlling company, Go Train Holdings Limited, carried further debts. These include a £5 million loan with HSBC and £2.6 million owed to directors. Up to the end of 2020/21 reporting year, Go Train Holdings had total debts of £7.5 million, up from £6.7 million the year before. Just under half of that was reported to be due this year.

The company’s debt levels were highlighted as a risk in Go Train’s accounts which said: “The holding entity has significant bank loans and should learner numbers not be sufficient, then it may mean that the group (including this entity) will be unable to pay debts within agreed timescales, in particular bank loans.”

‘Terrific’ staff

Clewes first joined the business as chief operating officer in December 2017. He left in March 2021 but returned in April 2022 as chief operating officer and was promoted to chief executive in November 2022.

He appealed to other providers in the sector to take on his “terrific” staff.

“We all work education and employment services because we know it’s power to transform lives, families, communities and the economy. This is incredibly sad news for our hard working staff, our learners, customers and partners. We are working hard to ensure our learners and customers continue in their journeys and that our staff can make swift progression into roles in other organisations where their undoubted skills can be used to continue to transform lives. 

“All Go Train staff are, at this point, at risk of redundancy and we continue to explore options for them; they are a terrific team and we hope other organisations quickly attract them.”

Redundancy risk as former national college consults on its future

A recently merged college is consulting on its future and warned its staff of a risk of redundancy as it struggles for financial viability. 

NCATI, which has campuses in Birmingham and Doncaster and was formerly known as the National College for High Speed Rail, is proposing to cease direct delivery and instead work through partner training organisations and employers. 

College interim CEO Lowell Williams
Williams

It’s interim principal and CEO, Lowell Williams, told FE Week that the college was “a long way” from recruiting apprentices at the volume needed to operate as a traditional college. 

DfE statistics show the college, under its previous guise as the National College for High Speed Rail, started 150 apprentices in 2018/19. In 2020/21 however that was down to 100 and in 2021/22 was just 40.

So far this year 61 apprentices have started with the college.

The college has two sites, one in Birmingham and one in Doncaster, and offers courses at levels 3 to 6 as well as apprenticeships and the “fast track to rail” skills bootcamps.

The college has not yet published its accounts for 2021/22, but reported deficits of nearly half a million pounds in the preceding two financial years. 

Williams stressed there was no immediate threat to the college’s solvency as it is being sustained by its owners, the University of Birmingham.

The consultation launched by the college’s board today admits “there are challenges with its current operating model” and offer proposals to “explore alternative models of delivery based on collaboration with existing providers to ensure a viable future for NCATI.”

Williams, who took over from Ian Fitzpatrick as NCATI principal and CEO on an interim basis last month, told FE Week that the college’s current “medium to long term business plan looks problematic.”

“There is still a will to deliver the mission and vision of NCATI, which is about getting young people into good jobs in the rail industry and making sure the industry has the skills it needs, particularly as it digitises.

“What the consultation is doing is saying that people don’t want to walk away, but find a way of delivering the mission differently.”

The college confirmed that its 50 staff have been notified of the risk of redundancy in anticipation of a potential change in delivery model. 

After years of financial challenges, the college was effectively taken over by the University of Birmingham in February 2021 following a structure and prospects appraisal of the college. 

The university said at the time it wished to turn it into a “successful and financially sustainable educational institution to support local, regional and national economic growth”.

Professor Stephen Jarvis, pro-vice-chancellor and head of the college of engineering and physical sciences at the University of Birmingham is the chair of NCATI’s board.

NCATI’s consultation closes on March 30, 2023.