This week Shane is joined by David Russell, chief executive at the Education and Training Foundation, and Fiona Aldridge, head of skills insight at West Midlands combined authority – to discuss the biggest stories.
Have the government’s special educational needs reforms failed – and if so, what should be done?
Who is providing solid, top-down leadership on sustainability in the FE sector?
And the guests discuss their reflections on the spending review after time to mull it over during the half-term break.
Listen to episode five below, and hit subscribe to follow the podcast!
The chancellor took some heat from FE leaders last week for his “clear as mud” approach to presenting the sector’s spending settlement, and it’s easy to see why. Big numbers and grand statements like “skills revolution” are designed to lead us in a particular direction; to be impressed or even grateful.
The problem is, though, it also raises expectations – and the sector’s expectations are high.
Chancellor accused of ‘smoke and mirrors’ in spending review
A week later, and despite the chancellor Rishi Sunak and the new education secretary Nadhim Zahawi appearing before the House of Lords’ economic affairs and Commons education committee respectively, we know little more than we did a week ago.
Sunak was challenged to confirm that he was not “guilty of smoke and mirrors” in presenting pre-existing spending commitments as something new as part of the £3.8 billion announced for skills.
In his reply, the chancellor admitted that “almost everything that I announced last week was a function of things that are already in train, and then new things for the next three years” going on to list apprenticeships growth, T Level and bootcamps expansion as examples.
“Those things are already in place and are being expanded over the [spending review] period,” he concludes.
In fact, the only new initiative the chancellor was able to mention was the Multiply scheme, which is set to be funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, not existing adult education or national skills fund budgets.
At the education committee, in replying to challenges about funding for a longer school day, the education secretary was at least a little clearer about where some of the extra £1.6 billion for 16-to-19-year-olds would be going, in confirming numerous times it is for the “extra one hour a week”.
Real skills revolution ‘would have empowered the sector’
So of course the sector’s scepticism is justified, not least in the face of Institute for Fiscal Studies analysis showing that, per-student, the spending review still leaves the sector ten per cent lower than 2010 levels. At the same time, providers continue to face risings costs, such as the rise in employer national insurance contributions, projected energy price rises and continuing pressure to increase staff salaries.
As budgets and spending reviews over the last ten years go, there was an undeniably larger further education and skills presence. But you can’t spend rhetoric on classroom upgrades or staff pay awards.
A real “skills revolution” wouldn’t have been so ambiguous and difficult to disassemble. It would have empowered a sector to be at the very least slightly more confident in its ability to invest in its chronically underpaid staff and provide the per-student rates to give adults and young people a globally competitive learning experience.
Previous job: Director of policy and operations, UVAC
Interesting fact: One of her first jobs was co-organising a fine art exhibition, celebrating the centenary of Leeds as a city, with baby Ed Sheeran’s mum and dad.
Ann Limb, Chair, City & Guilds Group
Start date: October 2021
Concurrent job: Vice chair, The Prince’s Foundation
Interesting fact: She loves skiing and was named #1 LGBTQ+ public sector role model OUTstanding List 2019, Northern Power Woman 2019.
Jennifer Rudder, Trustee, WorldSkills UK
Start date: November 2021
Concurrent job: Finance and IT director, Apollo Fire Detectors Limited
Interesting fact: She previously built sports cars in the Sports Car Club of America. This involved not only converting street cars to race cars, but also the maintenance and development of Formula cars.
Faried Chopdat, Trustee, WorldSkills UK
Start date: November 2021
Concurrent job: Director, EQUARIO8
Interesting fact: He loves reading and understanding the impact of numerology, and how numbers were used in lost civilisations.
The Department for Education has insisted it still has no T Level recruitment target, even though the Treasury has made funding available for “up to 100,000 students” by 2024.
The investment was laid out in last week’s spending review but the DfE has told FE Week this does not constitute a target.
A spokesperson said: “In developing and rolling out T Levels our focus has been and remains the quality of the qualifications, rather than chasing arbitrary numbers of students.
“The spending review document talks about ‘funding for up to 100,000 T Level students by 2024/25’. So while the funding to enable significant expansion is welcome, this does not constitute a target, either from Treasury or DfE.”
Shadow skills minister Toby Perkins said the government’s stance shows they “clearly don’t believe their own hype around uptake of T Levels”.
Around 1,300 young people started T Levels last year – the first year of their rollout. The DfE said figures for this year’s enrolments will not be available until “the end of the year”.
Former skills minister Sir John Hayes criticised the DfE earlier this year for moving away from T Levels student recruitment targets. This came after the DfE had originally set student number “estimates” for the first three T Levels but later claimed they have no fixed targets.
Hayes, Conservative MP for South Holland and The Deepings, who held the skills brief between 2010 and 2012, told a Westminster Education Forum event in March that numerical goals are essential to making new programmes “credible”.
He said targets are vital to “gauge success” and that he has “never bought the argument” that you cannot focus on both quality and quantity when rolling schemes out.
A panel of ex-prisoners shared their experiences of education in the nation’s jails to MPs on the education select committee this week.
During the session on Tuesday, the five witnesses covered topics such as the use of technology in cells and why prisoners should be allowed to become apprentices.
Here are six key things we learned from the session…
1. Witnesses critical of prison education quality
Committee chair Robert Halfon quizzed the panellists about the quality of education they received while in prison.
Kiri Jolliffe, who is now a case worker with the St Giles trust, told the committee she did “not have much communication” with PeoplePlus, the provider at her prison.
Ben Leapman, who now works as a journalist for Inside Times, said his provider was Novus and that it was “dreadful”, with “no education I could do, so I worked in laundry for two years”.
However, he believed this was more to do with the prison itself, saying the governor was “not supportive at all of education”.
There was no education I could do, so I worked in laundry for two years
Fellow witness David Breakspear, now a prison reform campaigner, said it was down to his tutor, rather than the provider itself, that he was sitting before MPs that day.
In response to the witnesses’ complaints about Novus, a spokesperson said ensuring high-quality provision is their “top priority” and 95 per cent of their provision passes the Ministry of Justice’s quality assurance mechanism. PeoplePlus declined to respond.
2. Work is accepted by the prison, but education can be ‘completely shut down’
Jolliffe also told MPs that when the prison was on lockdown, or if there was a lack of staff, education would be “completely shut down” and learners locked in their cells. However, prisoners who worked as gardeners or in the kitchen would be allowed out their cells. “So it was really hard to want to do something to better myself when I knew I’ll be spending more time in this room.”
Femi Laryea-Adekimi, a network coordinator for the Prison Reform Trust, said if a prisoner worked as a wing cleaner, for example, “the prison accepts it” and the person is let out. But “if someone achieves a qualification, maybe business studies, there’s no acknowledgement of that from the prison, except from the prison’s education department”.
3. More can be done for short-term prisoners
Prisons should “get people moving on to a course”, especially if they are on a short sentence, “because every day counts when you’re on a short sentence,” Jolliffe said.
She spent several months in prison on remand before being acquitted and was not sure if she would end up with a criminal record following her trial. But, in the meantime, “they weren’t prepared to give me any type of work or any type of education whilst I was waiting.
“A big thing if you are on a short sentence as a woman and you come out of prison, you’ve got a criminal record. You’ve lost some time, however long that is, so you’re facing quite a bit of discrimination already.”
4. Allow more technology in cells
Breakspear told MPs that prison education “has to move with the times” and “too much” of prisoners’ time in cells is being wasted.
Committee member Kate Osborne MP said “a lot of people were nervous” about prisoners having technology in their cells. But Breakspear responded: “We’re not talking about having access to the internet. We’re talking about having access to pads that are read-only that doesn’t have any access to the outside internet.”
He said it would be “great” to have proper access to the internet under supervision, but “everything is about technology these days”, so his point is about “providing skills for digital technology”.
A lot more prisoners would be able to move into employment from the education within the prison
Last month, the Prisoners’ Education Trust called for “major investment” in digital technology in prisons and criticised government plans to roll out in-cell technology in just nine of 117 prisons next year.
5. Prisoners could have local impact and should be able to start apprenticeships
Prison education could have a “local impact” and “react to what their area needs,” said Breakspear. “Why not utilise schools, colleges, universities and prisons” to fill their area’s skills gaps, he asked.
This comes as the Department for Education is preparing to roll out local skills improvement plans nationwide, with employer representative bodies being handed responsibility for orientating local training provision towards the needs of local employers.
The panel also pressed for prisoners to be allowed to undertake apprenticeships, with Laryea-Adekimi saying local employees should not “sideline prisoners,” as allowing them to take up apprenticeships would mean “a lot more prisoners would be able to move into employment from the education within the prison.
“100 per cent apprenticeships should be able to be started in prisons,” he said, raising the example of someone starting an electrician course: “What stops them from achieving the practical side within the prison – there’s electricity within the prison?”
The government proposed a “prisoner apprenticeship pathway” in 2016, with close involvement from the Association of Employment and Learning Providers – but in 2019 the association was still calling for the pathway to get off the ground.
6. National college for prison education should be created
Leapman used the session to speak about the idea of a national college for prison education, where prisoners can transfer to take higher education courses.
“I think it would be a really, really powerful incentive for prisoners, every prisoner all over the country who felt that they had the potential to do a degree level study.”
Pictured top, from left to right: Ben Leapman, Femi Laryea-Adekimi, David Breakspear, Kiri Jolliffe, Jonathan Gilbert
Brand new digital functional skills qualifications have already generated error messages, after the government warned special educational needs learners could be excluded from the “essential” courses.
Skills minister Alex Burghart last week heralded the launch of new subject content for the reformed entry-level and level 1 qualifications, following a consultation on the content in 2019. The old digital functional skills qualifications were shut down in July 2021.
However, an equalities impact assessment released alongside the consultation revealed the “design and delivery of digital FSQ assessments has the potential to negatively impact on learners with learning difficulties and disabilities or special educational needs”.
These learners “make up a significant proportion of enrolments on existing basic digital qualifications,” the assessment warns.
But it goes on to state officials believe: “We cannot change the subject content to the extent that assessment would not pose any potential barriers to learners with special educational needs.”
This is to ensure the qualifications can command the “full confidence” of learners, providers and employers, and to ensure “comparability across different awarding organisations and individuals”.
The need for digital FSQ subject content to reflect the “vast majority” of the skills government believes people will need for work, study and life “outweigh the need to ensure all learners can achieve a digital FSQ,” the assessment continues.
‘Essential’ that DfE ensure there are no barriers to digital skills
This is despite a new legal entitlement, introduced in August 2020, which entitled adults with little to no digital skills to a fully funded digital qualifications at entry level and level 1, on top of existing entitlements to English and maths training.
Respondents to the consultation had raised their concerns with the DfE about whether the subject content would be accessible for special educational needs learners.
After being shown the impact assessment by FE Week, Zoe Spilberg, head of education for BCS The Chartered Institute for IT, said “ensuring there are no barriers to participation in functional skills qualifications is essential”.
“Computing education and digital skills courses should be accessible by design and with the right support in place to meet the needs of every learner,” she added.
Fil McIntyre, manager of specialist provider network Natspec’s TechAbility assistive technology support service, said the organisation believes digital FSQs “should be as accessible as possible and that greater flexibility should be integrated into their design”.
He said it was “often the design of the content which can create an accessibility issue, asking learners to demonstrate a skill they would never be able to perform”.
‘Too many adults lack the know-how,’ says Burghart
Launching the new subject content on Friday, Alex Burghart said the Department for Education had reformed “essential digital skills so more adults will have the confidence and knowledge they need”.
In its consultation response, the department cited evidence from Lloyds Bank that one in five adults lack essential digital skills.
Alex Burghart
“From sending emails, to keeping our data safe online, digital skills are vital for navigating our everyday lives and getting on in work, but too many adults still lack the know-how,” said Burghart.
In addition to new digital functional skills qualifications, which are set to be rolled out in 2023, new essential digital skills qualifications (EDSQs) launched alongside the implementation of the digital skills entitlement in August 2020.
These replaced all low-level IT courses, which had been studied by over 100,000 people a year.
FE Week reported last July how just 270 people had achieved an essential digital skills qualification by June 2021, with the slow start having been blamed on Covid-19.
DfE insists SEND learners can be supported to take courses
A DfE spokesperson insisted learners with special educational needs are “not prevented” from taking digital FSQs, as “support is available through the adult education budget to meet the cost of putting in place a reasonable adjustment for individuals with an identified LDD to achieve their learning goal”.
Awarding organisations must make reasonable adjustments for their qualifications under the 2010 Equality Act, the spokesperson added, and must have “clear arrangements in place” and made public for such adjustments under Ofqual rules.
Awarding body Pearson, which took part in the consultation, told FE Week it makes every effort to make specifications and assessments accessible to all learners as far as possible.
But, the DfE spokesperson said, if a digital FSQ was “not appropriate” for a learner, they can also take one of the EDSQs.
The consultation opened on May 16, 2019 and closed on July 11, 2019, but the release of the results was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, the DfE said.
Support for special educational needs students beyond age 16 is an area of “serious weakness” in ten areas visited by Ofsted after inspections restarted this year.
Experts have warned the situation is so bad that colleges are being left to pick up the pieces and help the learners “almost by magic”.
The watchdog told FE Week the trend is not new, “but the pandemic has certainly made issues worse.”
“It’s a real concern that young people aren’t getting the support they need as they transition between services and into adulthood.”
FE Week found ten of the 16 reports published after the inspections resumed in May highlighted problems faced by post-16 special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) learners, mostly in their transitions from school to further education or employment.
Councils were slammed by Ofsted for having “too many” young people not in education, employment or training, and for having “limited and variable” pathways to adulthood.
Inspectors also spoke with college leaders who were concerned about how accurately young peoples’ needs had been identified before they started post-16 courses.
This comes as the government last month parachuted in a SEND commissioner to remedy failures in Birmingham – the first intervention of its kind.
‘Confusion’ at transition points for SEND learners
Learners with SEND can stay in school until age 19, but can leave earlier and many will go to a college. It is estimated that over a quarter of colleges’ 16-to-18 population have SEND.
Not all will have an education, health and care plan (EHCP), which sets out the needs of a young person with SEND.
From age 19 to 23, they will leave college and move into employment or care, among other options.
It is at age points 16, 19, and when they are in their twenties that information becomes “confused” between the councils, health authorities and education providers involved in SEND services, experts say.
Young people’s transitions’ into post-16 ‘not a positive experience’
Of the 16 reports, seven out of the eight areas visited for the first time in this wave of inspections were told to produce a written statement of action owing to “significant areas of weakness in the local area’s practice”.
Sunderland is one such area, where inspectors reported a parent said: “Everything goes at 18.”
Many parents in the area “feel they need to find out everything themselves”, the report adds.
In Tower Hamlets, adult services were found to be refusing referrals from children’s health teams until a young person’s 18th birthday, which the report says “hinders effective transition planning”.
Preparation for adulthood was a “serious weakness” in Rotherham’s services, with support stopping for “too many” young people once they reach 18.
In Birmingham, young people’s transitions into employment and training are “not a positive experience” for families.
Haringey was picked up for its delays in assessments for young adults with learning disabilities, which parents said had a “negative effect” on their children’s longterm outcomes.
SEND families deal with ‘appalling’ lack of guidance
Specialist providers’ network Natspec’s chief executive Clare Howard blamed the problems on a “really appalling” lack of advice and guidance for families on post-16 options and on local authorities not engaging in a “timely manner” in what happens once a SEND learner leaves education.
Howard
Howard highlighted a comment from Haringey’s report that “preparation for adulthood is not planned well… That is a comment that could have come from anywhere,” she said.
A survey of 137 families of a young person with an EHCP, carried out by Natspec, found 58 per cent believed discussions about post-16 options came too late.
The Local Government Association has called for the deficits to be written off and for the government to “urgently” complete its review of SEND services, launched in 2019.
Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi told MPs this week the review will be published in the first quarter of 2022.
Howard also said Ofsted tends to “overemphasise the children in schools and under-emphasise the young people in colleges”, and Natspec has “rarely” heard colleges being involved in the reviews.
Ofsted responded that FE and skills provision is an “important part” of SEND support, but they “do not focus on individual providers”, but rather “how services from health, education and care are working together to improve outcomes for children with SEND”.
Colleges having to use ‘out-of-date’ EHC plans
EHCPs were introduced in the 2014 Children and Families Act, which also brought in a SEND code of practice, mandating how councils, NHS bodies and education providers should support young people with SEND from the age of 0 to 25.
The Association of Colleges’ senior policy manager for SEND, David Holloway, argues the 2014 act is “excellent legislation, badly implemented”. The personalised EHCPs are “a positive”, but the “whole process stands or falls on its accuracy” and councils “aren’t keeping the plans up to date”.
Warwickshire’s local area SEND review, for instance, chastises the local authorities for plans that are “well out-of-date”.
Learners with an EHCP can choose which post-16 provider they wish to attend, but Holloway says colleges report this decision is often made “very late in the day”.
Local authorities are also often absent from annual reviews of EHCPs to update them with learners’ current needs, which are passed to colleges to decide whether they can take on the learner.
If the plans are out-of-date, “colleges won’t be fully informed about whether they can cater for the individual student who selects to go to that college”.
Consequently, colleges are providing to those young people “almost by magic,” Holloway said.
Howard said young people with SEND have “missed a year completely” while problems with their transition are rectified.
Councils admit there is ‘significant work to do’
Several councils have acted on their SEND provision since the publication of their area review.
In a joint statement, Sunderland’s city council, children’s services and NHS clinical commissioning group said it recognises “there is more do” to improve provision and they are “taking steps in the right direction to ensure children and families’ needs are addressed”.
Birmingham City Council told FE Week that the “local area partnership together with DfE and NHS England are working on a programme of work to address all 12 outstanding areas of significant weakness.
Progress will be monitored through the SEND Improvement Board, chaired by the DfE appointed commissioner.”
Tower Hamlets’ council and CCG admits they have “significant work to do” and plans “are in place to build on our strengths whilst improving the quality and delivery of our SEND provision to better establish and meet the needs of our children and young people”.
Rotherham Council’s assistant director for young people’s services Nathan Heath said they will publish a written statement of action in January 2022, with a “clear focus” on “developing positive transitions into post-16 pathways”.
Haringey Council’s cabinet member for families Zena Brabazon says the local authorities are “developing a partnership action plan,” focusing on young people with SEND.
The plan “greatly improves the way we co-design, co-produce, communicate, engage and interact with carers and parents going forward”.
FE providers unlikely to benefit from Budget’s £2.6bn SEND boost
Councils were handed £2.6 billion in last week’s spending review for new school places for SEND pupils, whereas post16 providers received nothing for their students.
Despite local authorities being responsible for SEND learners up to the age of 25, it is unlikely any of the £2.6 billion will go to post-16 providers.
Following the Budget, the Special Needs Jungle blog said just one per cent of non-ringfenced SEND capital grants paid to local authorities by the DfE over the past three years went to FE and early-years providers.
Ninety-five per cent went to mainstream or special schools and alternative provision providers – which educate children who are outside the school system.
When asked whether any of the £2.6 billion will go to FE providers, the LGA said it wanted the SEND review to grant “long-term certainty of funding”.
SEND consultant Barney Angliss argues the capital funding announced in the budget would not be much help to colleges though, as “just building another classroom doesn’t solve the issue”.
Students with EHCPs are “phenomenally expensive” compared to their peers, he said, and this all comes ahead of a demographic bump which will mean an extra 90,000 students in college classrooms by 2024/25, according to the AoC.
Though Angliss did say the extra money going towards school SEND places could mean specialist schools expanding their age range from 16 to 19, taking some pressure off colleges.
Providers, regulators and government representatives headed to Manchester this week for the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ (AELP) autumn conference – the organisation’s first in-person event since the Covid-19 pandemic. FE Week has rounded up the key take-aways…
ESFA’s Evans concedes traineeship target will not be met
The government will “not quite” achieve its ambition of 43,000 traineeship starts this year, a top skills civil servant has admitted as they expressed “frustration” at delays to the programme’s expansion.
Kirsty Evans, the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s director of FE, has made the concession just three months into the 2021/22 academic year.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak earmarked £126 million this year for the “largest ever expansion” of the pre-employability programme.
Kirsty Evans
It followed a £111 million traineeship investment in 2020/21 to achieve almost 37,000 starts – a target that was missed by more than half as only 17,000 enrolments were recorded last year.
Starts figures for this year have not yet been released, but addressing Tuesday’s AELP conference, Evans admitted the government will not reach the target of 43,000 starts in 2021/22.
Providers previously warned that progress towards the goal has been scuppered by the delayed 19-to-24 traineeships procurement – an issue that FE Week understands personally “annoyed” Sunak – as well as the belated 16-to-19 market entry exercise that is still yet to be finalised.
Evans told delegates: “I’ve been frustrated about how long it has taken but it’s great that we’ve now got that exercise underway.”
The tender closed at the end of October and results are due to be announced later this month.
Evans also told conference there are “conversations happening” about extending the £3,000 employer cash incentives for hiring new apprentices beyond January 2022.
She said she is not part of those conversations, however, so could not share any further information.
IfATE’s Nitsch to ITPs: ‘Keep an open mind on T Levels’
Independent training providers have been implored to keep an “open mind” about offering T Levels by the government’s technical education quango.
Rob Nitsch, the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s chief operating officer, told AELP delegates he was aware the new flagship post-16 qualifications were “a long stretch at the moment”.
But as take-up has been “affected by the pandemic”, he added, “I encourage you to approach them with an open mind and also to see the opportunities they offer for learners”.
From left: Chair Shane Mann and Rob Nitsch
Of the 194 institutions offering T Levels during their initial rollout between 2020 and 2022, just four are independent training providers.
None of the four was part of the first wave in 2020, but two joined in 2021, and a further two will begin delivery in 2022.
Around 1,300 young people started T Levels last year. Figures for this year’s enrolments have not yet been released.
To encourage more private providers to look at T Levels, Nitsch told AELP’s conference that there is work ongoing on the feasibility of an adult option for T Levels and changing the entry-level requirements, particularly around English and maths.
The institute, which is responsible for the rollout of T Levels, is also exploring how to make the substantial industrial placement component “easier” to deliver across the country and “how we bridge into work and other forms of training at the end of T Levels”.
Nitsch also gave an update on the proposal for a level 2 “public sector organisation administrative assistant” apprenticeship, which was submitted earlier this year after repeated bids for a level 2 business administration apprenticeship standard to replace the old-style popular framework were rejected.
He said it is “some distance off” meeting the quality bar for apprenticeships and refused to commit to giving the proposed standard a “rubber stamp at all”.
The institute has “had a look” at the proposal, and while his quango is “not casting off” the trailblazer group, they will need to change it substantially to meet the quality threshold.
Ofsted’s Joyce calms fears on achievement rates
Training providers will not have their Ofsted grades limited if their achievement rates take an expected dip this year, the watchdog’s deputy director for FE has promised.
Paul Joyce reiterated to AELP delegates this week that Ofsted’s new education inspection framework places “much, much less weight on data” than the old common inspection framework.
He said this is not to say that achieving qualifications is not important “because it clearly is”, but inspectors will look “in the round” when judging providers’ delivery.
Paul Joyce
Many in the sector fear that apprenticeship qualifications achievement rates (QARs) will take a substantial hit this year, partly due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. They are concerned this will spark more debate around the quality of apprenticeships, which Ofsted has repeatedly said is “troubling” .
Apprenticeship QARs dropped slightly from 64.8 per cent in 2018/19 to 64.2 per cent in 2019/20. They have not been published at institution level for the past two years owing to the pandemic but will return in 2021/22.
Joyce told conference: “I can assure colleagues in the room that just because achievement rates may dip or may not be as high for a number of reasons that will not lead inspectors to limit their judgments.
“We focus far more on the development of knowledge skills and behaviours.”
He also said Ofsted had managed to complete 800 new provider monitoring visits last year despite Covid.
Inspectors were “very concerned” in the first phase of the visits because the number of providers being awarded ‘insufficient progress’ grades was “particularly high”. He added that at the end of the academic year, around one in five providers were not making sufficient progress.
The government’s insolvency watchdog will take “no further action” against the ex-directors of former apprenticeship giant Aspire Achieve Advance (3aaa) following an inquiry.
The Insolvency Service began investigating the company’s directors’ conduct following its collapse in 2018, in line with usual procedure when a firm enters compulsory liquidation.
A spokesperson for the government agency said this week the official receiver for the case has now concluded their enquiries and decided not to impose any sanctions.
3aaa was one of the largest apprenticeship providers in the country. Its downfall came after the government terminated its multi-million-pound skills-funding contracts following a five-month investigation into alleged inflated achievement rates and funding overclaims. The case was then passed to the police through Action Fraud.
This was the DfE’s second investigation into the provider in two years.
Derbyshire Constabulary took on the case but decided in January 2020 not to pursue any further action.
A spokesperson for the ESFA said at the time it would “not hesitate to take swift and decisive action against those who attempt to break, or manipulate, the rules, regardless of whether the relevant authorities take forward criminal proceedings”.
The provider went bust following the ESFA’s investigation and the High Court placed 3aaa into compulsory liquidation in late October 2018. Anthony Hannon was then made the official receiver handling the insolvency.
The Insolvency Service has three years from the date of the company winding-up order to launch enforcement action “if it was to determine doing so was in the public interest in the light of any investigation findings”.
Sanctions imposed by the official receiver, if they uncover unfit director conduct, include director disqualification of between two and 15 years.
3aaa had 4,200 learners and 500 staff on its books when it went bust.
The firm was holding £16.5 million in ESFA contracts and received more than £31 million in government funding the year before its collapse.
3aaa was co-founded by former Derby County Football Club owner Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson in 2008. They both stepped down in September 2018 in the midst of the ESFA’s investigation.
Neither Marples nor McEvoy-Robinson had responded to requests for comment at the time of our going to press.
