The Department for Education has been asked to find savings of “at least” 5 per cent, leaving it facing cuts that could amount to £4.5 billion and prompting fears of an impact on FE budgets.

The Treasury announced this week that the spending review, a plan for public spending over the next three years, will accompany the autumn budget on October 27 this year.

Ministers have announced plans to increase funding for health and social care in the wake of the pandemic by raising national insurance contributions, but are looking to find savings elsewhere.

Given the impact of Covid-19, the Treasury said spending plans would be “underpinned by a focus on ensuring every pound of taxpayer funding is well-spent, so that we can continue to deliver the highest-quality services to the public at the best value”.

Departments have “therefore been asked to identify at least 5 per cent savings and efficiencies from their day-to-day budgets as part of these plans, which will be reinvested in our priorities”.

The instruction, which is similar to one given in early 2020 before the pandemic began, has prompted unease in the FE community.

Spending on FE represents just 6 per cent of the Department for Education’s £89.6 billion resource budget, and a 5 per cent cut overall based on 2021-22 spending would leave the department having to find almost £4.5 billion.

 

‘Colleges have already made hundreds of millions of pounds of efficiencies’

Julian Gravatt, the deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, warned that colleges have already made “hundreds of millions of pounds of efficiencies” in recent years as a result of government decisions to fix funding levels in cash terms “regardless of cost” – at annual efficiency gain of 2 per cent a year for the past decade.

“We have said to DfE and Treasury for years that there are areas where the education system could be more efficient but government needs to be careful about using a fixed percentage target for these exercises,” he said.

Areas that the AoC highlights for savings include “administration, assessment and the duplication of A level provision”.

Sue Pember, a former director of FE funding in the DfE who is now the policy director of adult education network HOLEX, said the DfE will be considering what system they are going to use to make the savings.

They could, for example, “salami slice” – taking 5 per cent of everybody’s budget – or enforce targeted cuts such as removing “dead weight activity and letting others pick up the tab”.

“They will look at the non-statutory budgets, such as early years, the adult education and HE support, and trawl the work of their agencies and look at development funds like the £600 million qualification reform.”

However, Pember added, these budgets are “not big enough to give this level of saving so they will need to look at more radical solutions such as reducing the graduate repayment level or adding 1 per cent to the apprenticeship levy”.

 

‘We will see a lot of window-dressing in the spending review’

Tom Bewick, the chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies, said the government’s decision to plan future tax rises on supporting health and social care does not “bode well for those of us who have consistently been calling for more investment in further education”.

He predicts the spending review will see a lot of “window-dressing, as we’ve seen already with the investments made in T Levels, bootcamps and the lifetime skills guarantee”.

While he had “no real idea” where the DfE might go for the efficiency savings, there is “no doubt in my mind that in recent years the quango state in skills has become rather bloated with over-the-top senior salaries and far too many non-jobs being created in areas like inclusion and strategy officers”.

Bewick suggests the department should “pair back the ambitions of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education which is planning to spend millions of pounds on a needless dual regulatory system of approving and managing vocational qualifications”.

He added: “You can also create a single funding council in England for all forms of post-18 tertiary education, replacing ESFA, Student Finance England and the Student Loans Company into a consolidated organisation.

“Given the dissatisfaction of many MPs and parts of the FE sector of the poor performance of the Careers Enterprise Company, I can’t really see that lasting out any major cull.”

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Jane Hickie said the “reported large skills shortages in certain key sectors mean that the DfE needs to have a sharper focus on how it spends its current budgets which includes adult education becoming more effective in retraining adult workers”.

She added that AELP would “strongly resist any opportunistic calls to divert the current apprenticeship levy underspend to other programmes because the underspend is simply a result of the lockdowns and workplaces being closed”.

The government is going to hand out around 300,000 carbon dioxide monitors to colleges in a £25 million scheme to help improve ventilation from September.

It follows pressure from unions who called for “urgent action” this week on ventilation before students return to classrooms next month.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the announcement, but said the equipment should have been ready for the start of term and earlier in the pandemic.

“This is an important and reassuring step in the right direction. Now we reiterate our call for the government to ensure that high-quality ventilation equipment is made available to schools and colleges where it is needed as soon as possible.”

The “majority” of the monitors “will become available over the autumn term” DfE said, but a procurement exercise is not due to start until Monday.

 

‘All state-funded settings’ to receive monitors

All schools and colleges are expected to receive “at least partial allocations” during the autumn term.

When asked whether independent providers would be included in the scheme, a DfE spokesperson would only say: “It is all state funded education settings.”

DfE said the number of devices available to each setting will be dictated by the size of their estate and be in the region of one device per two classrooms and staff rooms.

Final numbers are subject to the completion of the procurement exercise and further details will be provided next month.

DfE says the monitors are portable so colleges can move them around and test the full estate “in a relatively short space of time” and will help staff to “act quickly” where ventilation is poor.

Meanwhile, the Department for Health and Social Care is funding a £1.75 million pilot project on the use of air purifiers in schools. However, the research only involves 30 primary schools in Bradford.

 

Ventilation help is ‘too little too late’

Paul Whiteman, NAHT’s general secretary, said earlier this week that the trial was “too little too late”.

“The government should have taken action on this much sooner – they have had well over a year to ascertain the situation and make improvements.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “Providing all settings with CO₂ monitors will help them make sure they have the right balance of measures in place, minimising any potential disruption to education and allowing them to focus on world class lessons and catch up for the students who need it.”

Boris Johnson has defended Gavin Williamson for doing a “heroic job” in “difficult circumstances”, amid rumours he could be replaced as education secretary.

The prime minister gave his public backing to Williamson, who is one of several cabinet ministers tipped for demotion or the sack in the rumoured upcoming reshuffle.

The education secretary has faced heavy criticism for his handling of the pandemic’s impact on schools, colleges and training providers.

They include the way school and FE provider closures were planned, the confusion caused when BTEC and other vocational exams were told to go ahead in January before Williamson backtracked and left it to principals to decide whether they should run, and FE and skills providers originally being included, then excluded, then included again in catch-up funding.

Referring to Williamson’s net approval rating among Conservative Party members of -53, shadow schools minister Peter Kyle asked if the prime minister could “get to his feet, put his hand on his heart, and promise the country, this House and his own supporters that the education secretary is the right person for the job and he’s up to the job”.

Johnson replied: “I think the whole House will recognise that the education secretary has done a heroic job of dealing with very difficult circumstances,” which had led to education settings being closed.

“And never forget, I think the job of teachers, the job of parents up and down the land would have been made much easier if Labour and the Labour leadership in particular, had had the guts, and he’d had the guts, to say that settings are safe.”

 

Williamson makes ‘appalling’ mix-up

The prime minister’s defence of his education secretary comes as Williamson faces more criticism for mixing up two black sportspeople – Marcus Rashford and Maro Itoje – in a newspaper interview.

The Evening Standard reported today that Williamson claimed to have met Rashford, who campaigned for better free school meals provision during school holidays, on a Zoom call, describing the footballer as “incredibly engaged, compassionate and charming”.

But the paper reports that Williamson’s team later clarified that he had in fact met rugby player Maro Itjoe.

Shadow justice secretary David Lammy tweeted: “This is appalling. Gavin Williamson what was it about Maro Itoje that made you mistake him for Marcus Rashford?

“You must be the most ignorant, clueless and incapable education secretary in the UK’s history.”

Williamson has since clarified his remarks, but did not apologise: “Towards the end of a wide-ranging interview in which I talked about both the laptops and school meals campaigns, I conflated the issues and made a genuine mistake.

“We corrected this with the journalist before publication of the story.

“I have huge respect for both Marcus Rashford and Maro Itoje who run effective and inspiring campaigns.”

The Department for Education has stood firm on plans to strip public funding from a range of qualifications at level 3 in the face of a 13,000-strong petition protesting the move.

The petition was started by the Sixth Form Colleges Association as part of its #ProtectStudentChoice campaign and calls on government to reverse a decision to defund applied general qualifications such as BTECs.

It has now received an official response, in which the DfE says it is “streamlining and improving” the quality of post-16 qualifications, and says the future alternatives to A-levels or T Levels “may” include some BTECs, so long as “they meet the new criteria for funding approval”.

 

Students ‘leaving education without the skills employers need’

In its response to a consultation on level 3 qualifications which ended in July, the department said funding would continue for BTECs where there is a “real need” for them, though it later added it expected applied generals to become “rare”.

The DfE is looking to introduce a twin-track system of A-levels and T Levels, where most young people pursue one of these qualifications at the age of 16. “Poor quality” qualifications which duplicate or overlap with T Levels or A-levels will have their funding removed from 2023.

Officials have restated the “strong” case for changing the current system, arguing: “For too long we have allowed too many young people to leave education without the skills employers need.”

The response cites a review of vocational education carried out by the prime minister’s now-skills advisor Alison Wolf, published in 2011, which found “the content of many technical qualifications was not valued by employers and provided little value to students”. What employers had told the 2016 Sainsbury Review, that “many individuals who have successfully completed qualifications remain poorly equipped to enter skilled work,” was also referenced in the DfE’s response.

“Now more than ever as we recover from the pandemic, we need students to finish education well equipped to progress to further training or to get a skilled job, allowing businesses to recover and thrive,” the response reads.

The government did say it plans to fund A-level-sized qualifications which will complement the general course but have a practical component and enable students to go on to specialist higher education courses.

What support students need to get to level 3 will be explored with a consultation on level 2 and below qualifications later this year.

 

Does DfE know the difference between technical courses and BTECs, SFCA asks

Upon receiving the government response, the Sixth Form Colleges Association said citing the Wolf and Sainsbury review showed the DfE “does not know the difference between technical qualifications and applied generals or is attempting to mislead”.

The Wolf report said BTECs are “valuable in the labour market,” while reform of the qualification was outside the Sainsbury Review’s remit, the SFCA retorted.

Gov response to #ProtectStudentChoice petition published today. Using Wolf and Sainsbury reviews to justify scrapping BTECs suggests @educationgovuk a. does not know the difference between tech quals and applied generals or b. is attempting to mislead 1/4https://t.co/DHKKvs62h4

— SFCA (@SFCA_info) August 20, 2021

“So the DFE case for change for scrapping BTECs rests on one report that rated them highly and another that did not look at them at all.

“The case for ‘streamlining and improving’ these qualifications is very thin given there are not very many of them (e.g. 40 BTEC subjects across our sector) and they are very popular with students, employers and HE. Scrapping BTECs would be a disaster.”

The association, along with multiple other sector representative groups, published a joint letter to education secretary Gavin Williamson in July, under the banner #ProtectStudentChoice.

The letter highlighted how scrapping applied generals would hit disadvantaged students the most and urged the government to rethink.

You can see the petition for yourself here.

 

Read the government’s response to the #ProtectStudentChoice petition in full:

The government is streamlining and improving the quality of post-16 qualifications. We will fund a range of qualifications in addition to T Levels and A levels, which may include some BTECs.

The government will fund a range of qualifications to be taken alongside or as alternatives to T Levels and A-levels in future. This may include some Pearson BTECs provided they meet new criteria for funding approval.

Final plans setting out the groups of qualifications that will be available alongside T Levels and A-levels in future were published on 14 July. This followed a consultation on level 3 qualifications that ran from 23 October to 31 January.

The case for change is strong. For too long we have allowed too many young people to leave education without the skills employers need.

The Wolf Review (2011) found that the content of many technical qualifications was not valued by employers and provided little value to students.

Similarly, the Sainsbury Review (2016) found that employers continue to report that many individuals who have successfully completed qualifications remain poorly equipped to enter skilled work.

Now more than ever as we recover from the pandemic, we need students to finish education well equipped to progress to further training or to get a skilled job, allowing businesses to recover and thrive.

Our reforms to level 3 qualifications will strengthen pathways to progression, creating clearly defined academic and technical routes centred around A-levels and T Levels with qualifications leading to further study, and/or skilled employment.

This clarity of purpose will provide students with a range of good options and allow them to see more easily how their study will help them to progress.

We have consulted in two stages on reforms to level 3 qualifications alongside T Levels and A-levels and have listened to feedback at each stage of the review.

The response to the second stage consultation sets out the range of situations where we see a role for qualifications to sit alongside T Levels and A-levels. Alongside T Levels, this includes technical qualifications that support progression to occupations outside of the T Level framework.

On the academic route, we will fund a small range of high-quality academic qualifications to sit alongside A levels and help students to progress to higher education (HE). These include A-level-sized qualifications designed to complement A-level study, often with a practical component, and large qualifications designed to enable access to specialist HE. These qualifications will fulfil a role similar to current applied general qualifications, which include some BTECs. We will set a high bar for quality and for demonstrating the need for qualifications, particularly if there is overlap with A-levels.

We recognise that some students do not always know what they want to do at 16 and that is why we need outstanding information, advice and guidance to support them to make good choices. Others may also need to study in different ways in the future such as accessing T Levels through the newly launched T Level Transition Programme.

We will explore how to support students who need additional support before they are ready for A-levels and other academic qualifications at level 3 through a consultation on level 2 and below qualifications later this year.

Organisations with their sights set on the future of assessment have been invited to apply to a £1 million fund, supported by NCFE.

The Assessment Innovation Fund is being made available for two pilots on an initial 12-month basis, with up to £100,000 being up for grabs for organisations such as providers, qualification developers, and awarding bodies.

“The fund is now open for applications from any organisation with an interesting idea about what the future of assessment might look like for the various stages of the learner journey,” NCFE has said.

 

NCFE wants ‘truly transformational’ assessment system

The awarding body envisions creating “innovative, robust and reliable” assessment solutions, which are “inherently fair and will provide an appropriate level of ‘recognisable value’ to all stakeholders who have invested in learning”.

Governance for the pilots will be provided by a panel of six AIF board members, which draws from awarding bodies, education technology organisations such as Jisc, providers and NCFE representatives.

NCFE’s head of assessment innovation Janine Oliver reasoned that, “as the pace of change in the world is ever-increasing, particularly due to disruptive new technologies, major societal trends, and not to mention the ongoing global pandemic, the needs of the labour market will continue to rapidly evolve”.

Which will require people to “continuously develop themselves to overcome challenges and seize opportunities” and integral to that will be “looking at the future of assessment and identifying the key ingredients required to create a system that is truly transformational for learners in technical and vocational education.

“Through this fund, we hope to enable and empower organisations to think big – to explore, innovate and importantly evidence how we can continue to evolve the way we assess in the future, learning lessons from the seismic global changes over the last two years.”

Applications for phase one of the fund close on 1 October.

Questions have been directed towards aif@ncfe.org.uk