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UK training provider The Skills Network offers sexual consent training for post 16 educators across the country

The demand for tighter safeguarding regulations in schools and colleges throughout the country comes following thousands of anonymous sexual abuse testimonials and accounts of the sexual harassment endured by young people were flagged to Ofsted.

In a review involving thirty-two schools and colleges, as well as over 900 children and young people Ofsted found that “for some children, the incidents [of sexual harassment] are so commonplace that they see no point in reporting them” according to the Government website. Findings highlighted that 90% of girls, and nearly 50% of boys said “being sent explicit pictures or videos of things they did not want to see happens a lot or sometimes to them or their peers” said the government website. Worse still, the review found that many of the teachers and leaders within education settings underestimated the scale of the sexual harassment facing young people. “They either did not identify sexual harassment and sexualised language as problematic, or they were unaware they were happening and consistently underestimated the prevalence of online sexual abuse” said the government website.

Nationally the problem of sexual harassment and crimes is extensive. According to the NSPCC, a shocking 31% of young women aged 18-24 report having experienced sexual abuse in childhood. Similarly, research conducted by the NSPCC which involved 2,275 young people aged 11-17 who were asked about their experiences of sexual abuse, suggests that around 1 in 20 children in the UK have been sexually abused and the issue is only growing. Nationally collected statistics suggest that in the year ending March 2020 there had been an increase of approximately 267% of sexual abuse cases since 2013. One quarter of all child sexual abuse involved a perpetrator under the age of 18 and a disproportionate number of girls are affected by these crimes, with 90% of recorded offences of rape in 2018 to 2019 in children aged 13 to 15 being committed against girls.

Following Ofsted’s review the Department of Education revised statuary guidance, strengthening the protocol for handling sexual misconduct in education settings nationally.

Supporting educators throughout the country, The Skills Network introduced a new sexual consent course in the summer offering training which covers four key areas of concerns:

Defining consent
Defining sexual harassment, sexual assault and their myths and misconceptions
How do you gain consent
Responding to events and how to signpost

The course provides training on key legal information, including the definitions of consent, sexual assault, and harassment as well as information on the five F’s (Fight, Flight, Friend, Flop and Freeze). It also provides key information on identifying and responding to assaults, providing support to education providers nationally in fighting the harassment facing young people today.

The content can be deployed to all staff and students via The Skills Network’s award-winning Learner Management System EQUAL which provides a range of desirable benefits for both educators and learners. EQUAL is a cloud-based learning platform that allows education institutions to create, deliver, and track online learning. The platform uses videos, virtual tutorials, and online assessments to cater for a variety of learning styles.

The development of the courses comes following a stream of innovative content and technology the training provider has launched to the market, with the likes of an initial assessment tool and diagnostic assessment tool providing pre-emptive indicators of student success rates and tailoring learning journeys to the needs of the individual, while their CLFP tool is providing educators around the country with invaluable financial support.

The Skills Network’s course in Sexual Consent is auto assessed, offering education providers and employers the confidence that the content is understood by those who sit the course. The Skills Network also provide all course learners with a designated Learning Support Advisor to track and support their progress throughout their learning journey. This unique approach to distanced learning offered by The Skills Network has contributed to a pass rate of 90% on their training courses.

In pursuit of developing a culture that impedes the capacity for sexual harassment and crimes, Ofsted and ISI now explicitly offer inspectors powers to address how education providers are managing sexual abuse and harassment.

Ofsted advise that education providers should lead with a whole school/college approach in developing a culture that will not tolerate sexual harassment and abuse. This involves staff modelling “respectful and appropriate behaviour, where children and young people are clear about what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, and where they are confident to ask for help and support when they need it” said the government website.

Now, guidance suggests a need for “a carefully sequenced RSHE curriculum, based on the Department for Education’s new statutory guidance” said the government website. This specifically involves education on sexual harassment and sexual violence both online and offline.
More training for teachers in delivering the highest quality RSHE education
High level record-keeping and analysing of sexual misconduct to identify concerning behavior and intervene early.
An approach to behavior which includes appropriate sanctions to re-enforce the zero-tolerance policy of such behavior
Working with Learning Support Practitioners to provide young people with support should they need it
Support for safeguarding leads to ensure the highest quality safeguarding provisions
Training to ensure all staff can better understand the definitions of sexual harassment of all natures, identify peer-on-peer sexual abuse and consistently uphold high standards in response to sexual harassment of all natures.

The Skills Network was one of the first Independent Training Providers to develop an expert sexual consent course.

Mark Dawe, CEO of The Skills Network says: “Ofsted’s findings following a review of safeguarding within schools were deeply concerning, highlighting a gap in training on a national scale. As the UK’s leading provider of online training content and resources, we worked quickly and expertly to develop a provision to support education providers with the delivery of the highest quality sexual consent training.

“Following its launch in September our Sexual Consent course has trained thousands of young people on this critical subject and we are proud to have led in the development of this course.

“All education providers must protect and support children and young people, and through our sexual consent training we hope to continue to ensure that all young people throughout our country experience the safest and happiest journey during their time in education”.

To find out more and register your interest click here

Chamber-owned provider rated ‘inadequate’ for not matching curriculum to local skills needs

A chamber of commerce-owned training provider has been branded ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted for not using local skills information to plan its curriculum.

Chamber Training (Humber), an independent provider owned by the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Shipping, now faces a ban on new starts following today’s report.

However, the provider has criticised the inspectorate for “not completing the inspection in full,” and also protested how the new inspection handbook has been introduced.

It had 129 apprentices on nine programmes focused on hairdressing, adult care, refrigeration, and business between levels 2 and 3 at the time of the inspection. There were also 28 adult learners on a level 3 adult care diploma.

Provider caught out for teaching apprentices to perm hair

Inspectors found the provider’s leaders and managers “do not use information about local skills needs adequately in order to plan a curriculum for learners and apprentices that is relevant to the needs of their employers”.

This they saw when hairdressing apprentices were learning how to perm hair, a technique which is “no longer in demand,” rather than how to apply hair extensions, “a skill needed in local salons”.

That local skills information is not being used by Chamber Training to inform provision is particularly damning, as the government is lining up local chambers of commerce to run local skills improvement plans in the future.

Eight chambers are currently working as LSIP trailblazers, putting together plans which aim to align the courses on offer in their area with local employers’ needs.

Having a skills system led by employers, through employer representative bodies such as chambers, is something ministers have insisted on for the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, which will put LSIPs into law.

Speaking during a Commons debate on the bill last month, skills minister Alex Burghart told MPs: “We have been clear that we want to have an approach that is completely employer-led.”

Ofsted criticises provider for not ensuring off-the-job training time

Ofsted also found safeguarding arrangements at Chamber Training were not effective, with inspectors reporting: “Too few learners and apprentices understand well enough the local risks that they might come across, such as knife crime.”

Staff were also expecting too little of apprentices’ compliance with industry working practices, as storage areas in refrigeration workshops were “cluttered” because “apprentices leave crisp packets and soft drinks bottles in their workspaces”.

Leaders also do not carry out enough checks to make sure apprenticeship programmes meet funding requirements and do not work “well enough” with employers to ensure they understand they need to provide apprentices with ringfenced time away from work to complete training.

“As a result, too many apprentices do not receive the off-the-job training to which they are entitled.”

Inspectors did say tutors create a “respectful” atmosphere and the chamber’s leaders establish “meaningful” relationships with the local enterprise partnership and employers.

The report also approved of how tutors with “significant” industrial experience are recruited.

Chamber criticises cut in inspection duration

Chamber Training was found to have made ‘reasonable progress’ in all areas of a monitoring visit in 2019.

Ofsted also made an interim visit to the provider in November 2020, which Chamber Training said, “would have been a good time for Ofsted to mention any concerns it had.

“There were none, and Chamber Training therefore felt encouraged to continue on the path of making progress.”

In a statement, the provider said it “responded” to the report, which Ofsted “refused to change”.

Its curriculum is “designed and delivered” to help businesses develop the skills they need and their employers are “shocked by the report”.

They and learners “have been complimentary about the standard of training and the support they receive,” the statement added.

The provider insists it has made “significant” progress in identified areas and the ESFA is “satisfied with our safeguarding arrangements and have allowed us to continue training”.

Despite approaching the inspection with “confidence,” Chamber Training complained Ofsted was “unable” to train their staff in the new inspection handbook, introduced last year, until November.

Yet, the provider protested, inspectors “still questioned us on the content when they conducted our inspection in October”.

Chamber Training also took issue with how the inspection process took three days, instead of the four or five it did at the last inspection.

“It is our view that Ofsted would have formed a different view of our services had they completed the inspection in full.

“Ofsted did not make the most of the opportunities to do that and this was not the right time to reduce the duration of an inspection from four or five days to three days.”

College left ‘surprised’ as Ofsted grades apprenticeships ‘inadequate’

A college facing a ban on apprenticeships after Ofsted judged the provision as ‘inadequate’ has spoken of their “surprise” at the rating.

Oaklands College received its second consecutive grade three report this week but saw its apprenticeships grade fall from ‘good’ in 2018, to ‘inadequate’.

Inspectors claimed that leaders had “not maintained the good practice identified in the apprenticeship provision” at the last inspection.

Instead, “leaders have failed to identify and act upon the serious weaknesses in a substantial proportion of their apprenticeship provision.

“They underestimated the impact of the weaknesses they have identified on the quality of apprentices’ learning experience. As a result, too many apprentices do not enjoy or benefit from their training.”

The 2018 report found apprentices developed high levels of practical work-related skills and often progressed into enhanced roles at work.

Under Education and Skills Funding Agency rules, colleges and training providers which receive an ‘inadequate’ grade are removed from the register of apprenticeship providers so are unable to start new apprentices.

College working to ‘fully understand’ Ofsted’s decision

Oaklands College has 589 apprentices studying between levels 2 and 4 but overall has almost 5,000 learners spread across campuses in St Albans, Welwyn Garden City, and Borehamwood – all in Hertfordshire.

A college spokesperson told FE Week inspectors only revealed their apprenticeship grade would be downgraded on the final afternoon of the September inspection.

“This was surprising to us and our employers, as the college has excellent relationships with the businesses it works with, especially with all the issues impacting on apprenticeships due to Covid, who consistently gave positive feedback including during the inspection,” he said.

Oaklands is working with Ofsted to “fully understand the reasons for the change in grade on the final afternoon”.

Many of the employers they work with, he continued, are “fully supportive” of continuing to work with them on future provision and on existing learners.

New principal Andrew Slade had started just three weeks before the inspection and has “commissioned further work since the inspection, the output of which supports the college’s wish to fully understand the reasoning behind the judgement for apprenticeships,” which accounts for just 5 per cent of the college’s provision.

Ofsted reported that Oaklands learners on study programmes enjoy “a purposeful and focused curriculum,” but inspectors discovered “too many” apprentices do not get the opportunity to practice what they learn at college at their jobs.

They do not understand, the report reads, how the theory they learn will help them get better at their jobs.

Leaders and managers were found to not ensure enough employers fulfil the commitment to give apprentices time away from work to learn.

The watchdog also raised concerns about apprenticeships safeguarding as managers had not helped them understand well enough how the ‘Prevent’ duty applies to their work settings.

“Too many apprentices are not always aware that they may be vulnerable because of the sensitivity of their job roles,” according to the report, which did say safeguarding arrangements were effective overall.

Leaders have ‘high expectations’, report also says

But Ofsted gave Oaklands College a grade two for multiple other areas of provision, finding that leaders have “high expectations” for behaviour to ensure learners develop “work-ready attitudes” to learning.

Most teachers have developed a supportive and productive learning environment and help learners develop team working and communication skills.

For example, hospitality and catering learners demonstrated how to prepare and cook ingredients grown by horticulture students in a weekend festival called ‘From Farm to Fork’.

The college’s leaders also have a “good rationale” for subcontracted provision, working with two providers to offer courses not taught at the college, such as online English and maths courses for adults from diverse backgrounds.

“Throughout the inspection, the college received positive feedback across all areas,” the college spokesperson argued.

The ‘inadequate’ rating comes after education secretary Nadhim Zahawi told FE leaders at the Association of Colleges annual conference in November he would “love to see even more colleges involved in delivering apprenticeships”.

DfE lost over £12m supporting national colleges last year

The government lost £12.6 million helping two national colleges find a new building and merger partner respectively last year, new Department for Education accounts show.

Annual reports and accounts for the 2020/21 financial year were published yesterday by the department and show officials are increasingly optimistic about the FE sector’s finances.

But they show how the department spent £3,284,000 on research and development for a building project for Ada National College for Digital Skills.

This was before it was abandoned “in order to avoid further costs,” after “issues emerged prior to the start of construction, which would have pushed value for money and risk beyond a level of acceptability for public funding”.

It is not revealed in the accounts what the building project was for exactly.

DfE takes multi-million pound hit for national colleges

A spokesperson for the Ofsted grade two college said they have been working with the DfE to find a “suitable” new home, as “we have outgrown our existing site due to the popularity of the college.

“With no prospect of extending the existing building, we worked with the DfE to find a new building.

“The original site identified was not workable within the available capital envelope and so the team switched focus to work up alternative options.”

When asked whether it had found new premises, the spokesperson said the college hopes to say more in the coming months.

Ada operates from two campuses, in Haringey for its sixth form provision and Whitechapel for apprenticeships, in London and has a hub in Manchester.

Its 2020 accounts discuss how the Whitechapel site operated at full capacity after it recruited 96 apprentices in October 2019, leading them to rent additional space.

The long-term strategy, Ada’s accounts add, is to house sixth form and apprenticeship provision in one building and at the time there was an “ongoing project” with the DfE and local authorities to find long-term premises.

The national colleges programme, originally announced in 2015, have been plagued with problems, with two of them having to dissolve after facing financial problems.

During 2020/21, the DfE also forgave a £9.4 million debt owed by the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure.

This is called re-brokerage debt forgiveness, with the accounts explaining: “Balances owed by academies and colleges may in some circumstances be waived to facilitate the re-brokerage of the academy or college to a more sustainable academy trust or college corporation.”

NCATI, formerly known as the National College for High Speed Rail, dissolved earlier this year and reformed as a new institution, as part of the University of Birmingham.

This came after the college took £4.55 million from the department to sign off its 2017/18 accounts and entered FE Commissioner intervention.

It was the second national college to dissolve, after National College Creative Industries closed in February 2020 to reform under the auspices of Access Creative College and South Essex College.

The ESFA’s 2020/21 accounts show it waived or abandoned claims to a total of £33 million.

Much like with NCATI’s debt, the ESFA will have waived the balances to facilitate the re-brokerage of the academy or college to a more sustainable academy trust or college, or support closure.

‘Significant number’ of colleges still not financially resilient enough, but risk decreasing

Echoing warnings from last year’s accounts, the DfE has again included the financial resilience of further education colleges in its risk register.

“A significant number of further education colleges are not financially resilient enough to make the long-term investments needed to enable them to support the productivity of their local economies and to offer a comprehensive range of government priority programmes including T Levels, apprenticeships and the national retraining scheme,” the accounts read.

The accounts admit the financial position of colleges is “complex,” with income streams at risk due to coronavirus, while other sources such as recovery funding are growing.

“FE colleges operate on tight financial margins and require detailed cost planning to manage within resources,” it continues.

“The high level of instability in income means that a significant minority of colleges may need emergency funding.”

Yet, the risk does appear to have lessened somewhat from the 2019-20 accounts, where colleges’ lack of financial resilience was considered a “high” risk on the severity scale.

The 2020-21 accounts list the risk as “moderate/possible” and improving in direction, which it attributes to: “There is evidence from the latest financial returns from colleges that sector specific actions and national initiatives have minimised the initial impact of Covid-19 during 2020 and 2021.

“However,” it adds, “a small number of FE colleges have seen significant decreases in cash reserves which may impact on their financial resilience”.

Financial support leaves providers in millions in debt to the DfE

The FE sector owes millions of pounds to the department from either exceptional financial support or from the restructuring facility, the accounts reveal.

“These loans may be provided to FE colleges over a number of years based on the individual merits of each case,” it explains.

The department has current loans totalling £7 million with the sector, which is a slight decrease on the £9 million in 2019-20.

Non-current loans, which can be more long-term in nature, owed by the FE sector total £59 million this year, a decrease on the £114 million owed to the department last year.

T Levels attract 5,450 new students in 2021

Around 5,450 young people started on a T Level in the second year of the flagship rollout, new data shows.

The Department for Education has today published its annual T Level action plan for 2021.

The qualifications were rolled out for the first time in 2020 and expanded further this year. Ten T Level subjects are now being taught across four routes by 102 providers.

Provisional data submitted by the providers shows the construction route attracted 1,150 starts in 2021; digital had 1,200; education and childcare recruited 1,500; and the new health and science route enrolled 1,600.

Additionally, around 3,550 students started the T Level transition programme this year.

The Department for Education labels this as “early recruitment information” and “not official data”. It is being published “in the interests of transparency”.

It comes a week after an FE Week investigation found nine in ten T Level providers had missed their recruitment targets this year, with digital and health and science proving most difficult to meet their goals.

The DfE reiterated today that in the initial years of T Level rollout they have “explicitly focused on quality, rather than quantity”.

‘The sector has risen to the challenge’

In his foreword to today’s action plan, skills minister Alex Burghart said: “I am incredibly grateful for all the work that providers, employers, awarding organisations and other delivery partners have put into the first year of T Level delivery, and the preparation for the launch of year two.

“Despite the difficulties brought about by Covid-19, the sector has risen to the challenge and worked tirelessly to make these qualifications a reality.”

Ministers have watered down T Level policy in recent months. They have ruled that a chunk of the mandatory industry placement can be carried out remotely for the first two waves, offered employers £1,000 cash incentives to take on students, and removed the English and maths exit requirement for the qualifications.

Burghart said today: “We have continued to listen carefully to feedback. As we progress with the rollout of T Levels, we will continue to work closely with our partners across the education sector and industry to support their successful delivery.”

There were 43 providers delivering T Levels in year one of the rollout, where 1,300 students enrolled on a T Level and 950 students enrolled on the transition programme.

The DfE said it will publish official provider data returns via the individualised learner record in the future.

How important is FE to ‘levelling up’?

In the 2021 Queen’s Speech, the government stated that it intended to “level up opportunities across all parts of the UK, supporting jobs, businesses and economic growth”. Furthermore, the government has signified its prioritisation of levelling up, by creating the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to progress this agenda.

But how does further education tie in with levelling up, and how significant is its role?

While there may still be some ambiguity or vagueness about quite what levelling up really means in practice, one thing it clearly encapsulates is the idea of prioritising people and places that have not in recent decades received significant public investment. And that means a focus on technical and vocational education, among other things.

To further explore this alignment between FE and levelling up further, ETF commissioned some research from YouGov in November 2021. Some 1,712 UK adults were asked to identify their top three priorities for the Government to ‘achieve levelling up’.

Overall, four in 10 (40 per cent) said further education should be prioritised for achieving levelling up, when asked to select their top three. This was followed by investment in transport (33 per cent), and work-based training and CPD (32 per cent).

In contrast, just 15 per cent of the public said that higher education was a top three priority, with the same number indicating that early years education was important for levelling up.

The research also asked respondents to identify their top three priorities for enabling a ‘high-skilled, high pay economy’. Overall, half of respondents (50 per cent) said that further education should be prioritised, followed by work-based training and CPD (43 per cent), and investment in science and technology (33 per cent).

These ETF survey findings show the value to the government in making further education and training the centrepiece of its flagship levelling up policy. Although in the past universities were given top billing by policy-makers, overwhelmingly the public now believe that FE is the route to delivering economic growth and fairness.

Positively, the government has already announced a ‘lifetime skills guarantee’ in England, which enables adults aged 19 and over without an A-level or equivalent qualification to receive a free, fully-funded course. This course will be a full level 3 qualification, which is equivalent to an advanced technical certificate or diploma, or A Levels.

Furthermore, the government has made clear its ambition to prioritise, promote and expand T Levels. Given ETF’s role in T Level professional development (TLPD), we are likewise committed to playing our part in achieving this objective.

Indeed, the pandemic highlighted how much we all depend on the skills people gain in further education to make this country work. In turn, having a top-class further education system depends on recruiting, training and fairly rewarding excellent people to teach those skills.

Ultimately, further education improves social mobility, enables higher wages, and boosts productivity – something the UK has long lagged behind on. As we now move to an economic model of sustainable growth, rather than a narrow focus on GDP, the opportunities for FE to thrive are clear.

ETF will continue to work with industry and the Department for Education in supporting our sector and look forward to the government’s impending white paper on levelling up. We believe that the recruitment and retention of FE staff is a priority for enabling this important agenda.

Our sector now has a fantastic opportunity to seize the day. Let’s take it.

FE base rate to increase from August 2022 to £4,542

Colleges will see an 8.4 per cent increase in the national base rate for full time students aged 16 and 17 from August 2022, the government has announced today.

The rate will shoot up from £4,188 to £4,542. Most of the increase will pay for 40 additional teaching hours that officials have promised to monitor.

The Sixth Form Colleges Association said the rate has not been risen “to the level it should be” but is “enough to make a material difference to the education of many students”.

And the Association of Colleges said it is a “good start in putting back the money lost in cuts and absorbed by inflation over the last decade”.

The funding boost forms part of the extra £1.6 billion that the Treasury pledged to invest in 16 to 19 education by 2024-25, as part of October’s spending review. Details of how £615 million of that funding will be used next year have been published today.

In addition to the base rate rise, the Department for Education has announced a 50 per cent increase in its “high value course premium”, which will move from £400 to £600.

Programme weighting factors in five sector subject areas – medicine and dentistry; nursing; transportation operations and maintenance; building and construction; and urban, rural and regional planning – will also rise by 10 percentage points.

Disadvantage premiums will go up 5 per cent.

The enhanced funding rates for T Level students, who study between at least 1,180 and 1,730 hours over the two years of their course, will continue.

The DfE explained that it expects all T Levels and students funded in “band 5” – who receive at least 580 teaching hours – to “receive an additional 40 hours and we will monitor this”.

“If a provider already delivers more hours to the students than the new minimum required for their funding band, we still expect them to proportionately increase hours for students in future years to provide them with this additional time in education,” the guidance adds.

The Sixth Form Colleges Association’s Raise the Rate campaign has fought for the FE base rate to go up to £4,760; while the Association of Colleges has campaigned for as much as £5,000.

Following today’s announcement, James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said the “priority now” is to ensure the implementation of the 40 extra hours is as “light touch as possible, with monitoring and bureaucracy kept to an absolute minimum”.

“But overall, this is positive way to end the year,” he added.

Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said that after a “decade of neglect”, this announcement “feels like a significant turning point and shows a government which is starting to recognise the need to invest in colleges, in post-16 education and training”.

However, he warned that the funding increases “come at a time when inflation is rising, particularly costs like energy”.

Hughes also pointed out that a recent Institute for Fiscal Studies report showed that even after the planned three years of increases in 16 to 18 investment, the funding per student in 2024/25 will still be 10 per cent lower than in 2010.

The funding boost comes a day after the AoC recommended its members give staff a 1 per cent pay rise despite demands by unions for a more significant hike.

But Hughes did say that a “more meaningful” pay award might be possible next year.

DfE top boss handed £278k payout to leave after exams fiasco

The Department for Education handed former permanent secretary Jonathan Slater a £277,780 payout to leave last summer – just eight months before his term was due to end.

The department’s annual accounts reveal Slater walked away with the lump sum “for loss of office”, though his exit is described as an “agreed departure”.

Slater left the top civil service post after the prime minister signalled the need for “fresh official leadership” last summer.

It came amid the fallout from the government’s ill-fated grading algorithm last summer, as well as a wider civil service shakeup. He was the fifth permanent secretary to leave in six months.

The payout meant Slater is recorded as taking home a total of £380,000 in 2020-21, including not only the lump sum but also his regular salary and pension benefits. He was only in post for five months of the financial year.

Slater’s annual salary was recorded as between £165,000 and £170,000 in 2019-20.

The former mandarin told FE Week earlier this year the first he heard of his potential imminent departure was an enquiry from a Times journalist.

“When you become permanent secretary, part of that is the risk that you might be asked to step down,” he said in September.

With Slater taking office in May 2016, and permanent secretaries on permanent contracts but serving in the roles on five-year terms, he was just eight months away from his term ending.

It is not known whether Slater, now 60, would have wanted to stay on, move elsewhere in the civil service or retire.

Downing Street said at the time that Slater had agreed to stand down “in advance of the end of his tenure in Spring”.

A government spokesperson said then the cabinet secretary wanted to “put on record his thanks to Jonathan for 35 years of public service.”

But civil service managers’ union FDA accused the government of “scapegoating civil servants” at the time.

Before joining the DfE, Slater served as director of the prime minister’s delivery unit, chief executive of the office for criminal justice reform and in a number of director-general roles in other departments. He was replaced by Susan Acland-Hood.

The government has sought to clamp down on high public sector exit payments in recent years, as some have proved controversial.

Special severance payments above £95,000 require Treasury sign-off, and academy trusts require sign-off for all payments over £50,000.

A £95,000 cap on such exit payments came into effect two months after Slater’s departure, and was then swiftly abandoned three months later after a legal challenge by unions.

Slater and the Department for Education have been approached for comment.

Revealed: The winners in the £120m Institutes of Technology wave 2 competition

The names of the next nine colleges and universities to develop new Institutes of Technology have been named.

The winners include six colleges and three universities who will split a £120 million capital funding pot.

This is the second wave of the IoT programme, which are described as “unique collaborations” between employers, colleges and universities that specialise in higher technical training in subjects such as advanced manufacturing, digital and cyber security, aerospace and healthcare.

The decision to open up more IoTs was announced at the Conservative party conference in 2019 after FE Week revealed geographical issues with the first 12 IoTs – there were none planned for the north west and the east of England.

The additional institutes will ensure that every area of the country has access to one (see map).

All of the nine additional institutes currently hold an Ofsted ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ rating.

Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said the new IoTs will “boost access to more high-quality and flexible education and training – giving people the chance to learn at a pace that is right for them, while ensuring we have the skilled workforce needed to boost our economy”.

The lead organisations for the successful wave two IoT and the areas they will cover are as follows:

. Blackpool and The Fylde College (Lancashire LEP area)

. Cheshire College South and West (Cheshire and Warrington LEP area)

. Chichester College Group (Coast to Capital LEP area)

. DN Colleges Group (Sheffield LEP area)

. Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group (Stoke on Trent & Staffordshire LEP area)

. Solent University (Solent LEP area)

. South Essex College (South East LEP area)

. University of Derby (D2N2 and Leicestershire LEP areas)

. University of Salford (Greater Manchester LEP area)