A college which recruited a robot to help students with autism, and a project to ease learners’ return to classrooms have been recognised at this year’s Natspec awards.
Eight awards were handed out to the specialist further education sector at a virtual ceremony this afternoon, for categories such as student voice, pathways into employment, and home learning.
Chair of the awards’ judging panel and retired Ofsted inspector Nigel Evans called it a “privilege” to play a part, with the standard of submissions being “very high and demonstrating the innovation, expertise, and creativity within the specialist FE sector.
“It was a challenging task for the judges to single out individual winners in each category.”
The panel, he said, was “delighted” to see how many of the submissions were aimed at students with severe or profound disabilities.
‘Genuinely innovative’ approach recognised
One of the winners, of the innovative use of technology award, was Bridge College in Manchester for introducing a “QT Humanoid Social Robot” into the classroom.
The robot is designed to help improve the communication skills, engagement, and mental wellbeing of learners with autism spectrum disorder.
Rohan Slaughter
Category judge Rohan Slaughter, a lecturer in assistive technology at the University of Dundee, called the use of the robot “genuinely innovative and is clearly effective in both the project elements described”.
The wellbeing and mental health award has been awarded to community interest company Eat That Frog’s community wellbeing programme.
The online course used simple modules on various wellbeing aspects, tailored for the learner, and judge Liz Maudslay, the Association of Colleges’ SEND policy manager, said she “really liked the range of activities”.
“The enthusiasm with which staff and students entered into the activities was very evident.
“I was also impressed with the very real and meaningful links that were made with the community, especially the way in which the project recognised that one of the key aspects of improved mental health is doing things with and for others – something that often doesn’t happen with SEND students, who are so often ‘done to’.”
College’s coronavirus recovery programme sees success
The curriculum innovation award went to the ‘RESET, RECOVER, RECONNECT!’ programme run by Orchard Hill College in London and Surrey.
This programme involved a “recovery curriculum”, so students could transition back into education; as well as tackling anxieties and worries before moving onto students’ learning objectives.
Evans, who judged this category, said it “successfully helps students return to classroom-based learning after extended periods of absence.
“In particular it responded to students returning to college following the disruption caused by Covid-19”.
He highlighted how the project had placed great importance in rebuilding routines, managing friendships, and getting used to being a student again.
And how the project could be adapted for other situations, he added, such as students returning to college after a long absence or joining a course other student had already started.
Ambitious College, based in London, received the home learning award for what judge and former Department for Education official Helen Brooks called a “tailored programme for each student” including “Zones of Regulation” to help regulate students’ mood, “bright and clear instructions” for tasks such as making tortilla wraps from home, and occupational therapy television.
The full list of Natspec award winners is as follows:
Amanda Spielman is set to stay on as Ofsted chief inspector for an extra two years, FE Week‘s sister title FE Week understands.
While the extension to the role is believed to have been agreed by government, it still has to be officially signed off by the Privy Council, the queen’s formal body of advisers.
Should it get approval, Spielman would become the longest serving Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, at seven years – with Sir Chris Woodhead previously leading the watchdog for six years during the 1990s.
The HMCI began her five-year term in January 2017 and was originally due to hang up her hat at the end of this year.
Amanda Spielman
But, should she leave at the end of this year, the education inspection framework (EIF) which she introduced and helped mastermind would only have been in place for less than two terms because of Covid.
Covid disruption to Ofsted
Ofsted introduced the EIF in September 2019 but just six months later was forced to suspend all routine inspections when the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in March the following year.
FE Week understands Spielman is eager to extend her reign in order to ensure the changes she introduced have an opportunity to become fully implemented within the sector.
The new framework saw the inspectorate place more focus on curriculum and less emphasis on exams results and hard data.
How is a HMCI usually appointed?
The HMCI is appointed by the Queen for a term of five years, however there are a number of steps candidates must complete beforehand.
Nicky Morgan in 2016
First they must receive the green light from the education secretary, who will recommend them as the “preferred candidate.”
Agreement is then required from the parliamentary education committee who will meet with the candidate before deciding whether to proceed.
Finally agreement is sought from the Privy Council, the queen’s formal body of advisers. An appointment cannot be confirmed until an order is laid by the Privy Council.
Spielman received a recommendation from former education secretary Nicky Morgan in June 2016, before taking the helm the following January.
Ofqual has warned exam results could be delayed and students miss out on places if the government relies on slashing marking time to deliver a radical overhaul of university admissions.
The regulator said post-qualification admissions reforms would rely on results for level 3 courses, including AS and A-levels, being released up to three weeks sooner than usual.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson has said the PQA model would see universities base offers on actual results, ending the reliance on predicted grades which is “letting down” bright disadvantaged pupils.
Research from UCL’s Institute of Education showed almost a quarter of high-ability applicants from lower-income households had their results under-predicted between 2013 and 2015.
But Ofqual has now warned that cutting marking time alone to deliver the reforms would “introduce delivery risks that are simply too great and would be unacceptable”.
It says current marking quality cannot be “compromised” by the reduced time for both individual examiners and exam boards carrying out quality assurance.
A shorter marking window will also require more examiners, but Ofqual says it “could not be certain that there would be sufficient examiner capacity.” Recruitment is already sometimes “challenging” in some subjects.
This could see some results delivered late, “disadvantaging those whose results are delayed” in their bid to secure places.
The reforms could also erode the current “contingency time,” which factors in risks like particular subject marking being slower than expected or technology outages.
Ofqual accepts a “limited reduction in marking time could be explored,” but says it “cannot bear all the weight” and changes must come across the system.
It proposes bringing exam start dates forward by a week, starting AS and A Level exams earlier relative to qualifications like GCSEs, and scrapping the one-week gap between issuing results to UCAS and to students.
Introducing a fixed results date could also help, according to the regulator.
Overall Ofqual argues in its response to the DfE’s consultation that “a combination” of such adjustments would be needed to deliver PQA successfully.
It also proposes a pilot of any changes first to boost confidence and “identify unforeseen and unintended consequences”.
The DfE has said its preferred route is “to compress the exam timetable, the marking period and the requirement for UCAS to receive results data well in advance of results day”.
Two models have been proposed, with one delaying only offers until after results and a second delaying both applications and offers.
Following the Queen’s Speech, there are a number of issues to keep an eye on when the Skills Bill arrives, writes Aveek Bhattacharya
In one sense, not much has changed in terms of government FE and adult education policy as a result of the Queen’s speech.
Last July, in a speech to the Social Market Foundation, education secretary Gavin Williamson promised a “comprehensive plan to change the fundamentals of England’s further education landscape”.
Then in September, the prime minister announced a lifelong loan entitlement, offering every student four years’ financial support on equivalent terms to the university student loan system by 2025.
And in January, the government published its Skills for Jobs white paper which set out a raft of proposals. These included reforms to higher technical education to encourage greater provision and take up of level 4 and 5 courses, and Local Skills Improvement Plans to be drawn up by employers, FE colleges and other providers and local stakeholders.
This week’s announcement of a new Skills and Post-16 Education Bill to be introduced in this parliament doesn’t tell us any more about those measures.
But it is significant – and welcome – nonetheless because it tells us that education and skills will be a legislative priority for the coming year.
For all the government’s fine ambitions on lifelong learning and vocational education, it wasn’t a given that it would make it onto this year’s parliamentary to-do list.
And it is no small thing that the government chose to focus on the Skills Bill in its briefings prior to the Queen’s Speech.
If you have any doubts, just ask the people still waiting for a plan for adult social care.
Adult and further education’s moment in the political spotlight is long overdue.
Previous SMF research has shown that funding for adult education (excluding apprenticeships) has nearly halved since 2009-10 whilst participation rates have suffered, falling by 49 per cent since 2004.
It is estimated that £1.3 billion is required to reverse funding cuts since 2009-10.
The devil, as ever, will be in the details.
January’s white paper is full of laudable ambitions: ending disparities between HE and FE, simplifying funding and making it more stable and predictable, creating more modular and flexible courses.
However, we are yet to see the specifics of how these are to be achieved. For those, we must wait a few more days until the draft Bill is published.
There are a number of issues to keep an eye on when we do know more.
Equally important is providing the necessary resources to return to or even exceed previous funding levels
First, what provisions is the government making for learners in the intervening four years until the Lifelong Loan Entitlement is fully up and running?
Structural change takes time, but as we attempt to rebuild economically from the pandemic, expanding opportunities for retraining can hardly wait for the Whitehall machine to spark into life.
Second, how effective are the measures in combining flexibility for learners and stability for providers?
Will all students and courses be able to benefit from modular, evening or home learning, or will some be prioritised?
We need to know whether the government can offer more financial security and reduce complexity in a way that allows and encourages institutions to invest in new types of courses.
Third, will the government produce collaboration or conflict between universities and colleges?
Our interviews with sector leaders highlighted a brewing “turf war” between the two over who should deliver the new higher technical qualifications that the government wants to see provided.
Given the interest learners have in a system with strong connections between universities and colleges that permits easy movement and sharing of knowledge and resources between the two, stoking tensions could have terrible consequences.
Passing legislation is only the first part of fulfilling the government’s ambitions on FE and adult education.
Equally – and perhaps more – important is providing the necessary resources to return to or even exceed previous funding levels.
On that front, we will have to wait a few more months until the spending review to get a full sense of the government’s intentions. But for now, it is a very promising start.
A fresh European Social Fund tender worth £17 million is in the works and is expected to launch next month.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency today revealed plans for the procurement which would be open to eight local enterprise partnership (LEP) areas that have gaps in provision.
It is, however, subject to funding being secured from the European Social Fund “managing authority” – the European Commission.
The ESFA completed a European Social Funding procurement in January 2019, where a total of £309 million of contracts for use up to 31 July 2021 were won by 49 training providers.
Contracts were then extended to March 2023 supported by additional funding of £137 million.
In its weekly update, the ESFA said today there are eight LEP areas of the country where learning provision was not extended or existing provision will finish significantly ahead of March 2023.
The new procurement is intended to “ensure that gaps in provision are filled and learners supported”.
Training providers who are successful in the bidding process will “have the opportunity to provide a flexible support and respond to Covid-19 recovery for learners most affected by the pandemic (NEETs, unemployed and low skilled workers in employment),” the ESFA added.
The ESFA delayed issuing contracts several times, after multiple providers claimed that the government broke tender rules, namely by excluding the “track record” section when marking bids, while the ESFA has admitted to “errors”, such as naming Serco Regional Services Limited as a winner instead of Serco Limited.
Providers were also aggrieved to find out that Learndirect’s new owner had secured contracts worth more than £20 million, in conjunction with his other company Dimensions Training Solutions.
Further questions were asked about the tender in March, after FE Week discovered an “unprecedented” amount of tie-breaks in the procurement.
One aggrieved provider even threatened legal action against the ESFA, but decided to drop this because of the likely cost and a fear of repercussions from the agency.
For the new £17 million tender, the agency anticipates that an invitation to tender will be made in mid-June 2021 and the contracts are expected to commence in mid-October this year.
The proposed eight LEP areas include:
Worcestershire LEP
York North Yorkshire & East Riding LEP (More Developed & Transition Areas)
The government has pledged to introduce legislation to support its lifetime skills guarantee policy and enable flexible training throughout people’s lives in the Queen’s speech today.
In her address to the state opening of Parliament, the monarch also promised that ministers would address lost learning during the pandemic.
Last night, Downing Street confirmed that a new Skills and Post-16 Education Bill will be introduced on May 18.
It will put into law the promised reforms from the FE white paper, including a new lifelong loan entitlement, local skills improvement plans and greater powers for the education secretary to intervene in colleges that fail to meet local needs.
The Queen’s speech included one sentence which addressed the topic.
Specifically, the monarch said: “Legislation will support a lifetime skills guarantee to enable flexible access to high quality education and training throughout people’s lives.”
Further detail on what the legislation will look like in practice is expected next week.
Prime minister Boris Johnson has said these new laws “are the rocket fuel that we need to level up this country and ensure equal opportunities for all”.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson added: “Through legislation, our vision is to transform the sector and expand opportunity right across the country, so that more people can get the skills they need to get good jobs.”
Documents published after the Queen’s speech said the main benefits of the Skills Bill would be:
●Offering adults across the country the opportunity to retrain in later life through the lifetime skills guarantee, helping them to gain in–demand skills and open up further job opportunities.
●Realigning the system around the needs of employers so that people are trained for the skills gaps that exist now and in the future, in sectors the economy needs including construction, digital, clean energy and manufacturing.
●Improving the quality of training available by making sure that providers are better run, qualifications are better regulated, and that providers’ performance can be effectively assessed.
Two years on, the sector’s ‘centres for excellence’ in special educational needs will be joined by mini-hubs. Jess Staufenberg looks at how the model is working so far
This week, the three colleges representing each centre officially start their third year. So what have they achieved so far? FE Week can reveal what they’ve been up to, with what resources – and how a drop in funding has come at the same time as a planned expansion of the model.
In June 2019, Derby College in the East Midlands, Weston College in the south-west and City College Norwich in the east of England won contracts to become the centres for excellence.
They were to get a slice of £1.2 million every year via the Education and Training Foundation, as part of the ETF’s wider “SEND workforce development” programme.
The need for sharing expertise was real then and continues to be now. There are 200,000 students in general FE colleges with a learning difficulty or disability, or about one in five students. Of those, only around 65,000 have Education, Health and Care Plans.
This means that mainstream colleges don’t get extra funding for most students, and finding that support from somewhere else is crucial.
“We noticed we couldn’t always get leaders to engage with SEND provision because they had so many other pressing priorities,” says Teresa Carroll, head of inclusion at the ETF.
“So we really wanted to address that with the centres. The majority of learners also haven’t got plans, so it was about using that resource really well.”
‘Community, curriculum, people’
City College Norwich got the focus of “community”, which largely means engaging employers. Derby College got “curriculum”, with a focus on inclusive learning pathways, and Weston College got “people”, with a focus on staff development.
Each centre has a “strategic leadership” focus on supporting CEOs and senior leaders, as well as a “community of practice” focus on webinars, resources and support for practitioners.
In the first year, the centres were supposed to reach 45 leaders and 360 practitioners, but the ETF says an additional 400 people were reached.
In the second year, the centres were asked to reach 90 leaders and 360 practitioners, and this time an additional 2,500 people were engaged with, says the ETF. The targets are even higher for 2021-22.
In its first year, Weston College worked with 30 leaders on putting SEND at the heart of college strategy through one-to-one conversations with their own CEO.
“I will sit down with the leader, and ask what’s on your shopping list? Then we will jigsaw together what’s needed,” says chief executive Paul Phillips.
In 2013, his college was recognised for its ‘outstanding’ SEND provision by Ofsted, and in particular for the “independent, enriched” lives his learners led as a result of the college’s approach. Phillips has also visited 19 prisons in the past two years to help with SEND provision.
Meanwhile, 1,000 participants joined the college’s “community of practice” conferences in the first year, focused on staff development. Participants are also invited to a “day in the life of Weston College” to look at its autism residential training facility and sensory base.
“People want to see it in practice,” explains Phillips. Sam Mayhew, head of inclusion at the college, says: “You’re giving both practical and operational ways for practitioners to work, and then supporting leaders about the strategic direction too.”
Meanwhile at Derby College, director of inclusion Sarah Le-Good and her principal, Mandie Stravino, have booked in senior leaders from other colleges for weekly sessions. Follow-up sessions with Le-Good are then offered half-termly or monthly.
For six colleges in need of significantly more support, the team has run “full two-day reviews” to help identify issues and a comprehensive strategy forward.
Overall, 60 leaders have been supported. Training has also been offered in topics such as “compassionate agitation”, which Le-Good describes as learning how to “ask compassionate, difficult questions” around the SEND provision on offer in a college.
City College Norwich has similarly engaged with leaders through one-to-one sessions with principal Corrienne Peasgood. They have been particularly interested in the college’s employability focus, she says.
Paula Ottaway heads up the college’s MINT Centre, which “is like an employment agency, where each young person is allocated a job coach. They’ve built up relationships with hundreds of employers over the years.”
The results speak for themselves: during lockdown, the college managed to get 40 young people with SEND into employment. Nationally, only six per cent people with a learning disability are in work.
The MINT Centre at City College Norwich
‘Employability spokes’
It is this employability focus that the DfE now wants replicated, FE Week can reveal.
As the pandemic has laid waste to job opportunities for young people – particularly those with SEND – the ETF is tendering for six new providers to come on board, as mini-hubs for best practice around engaging with employers. The ETF are calling these providers “spokes” to the three centres.
“We want those spokes in the regions where the centres aren’t,” says Carroll. The smaller amount of cash reflects the narrower focus: “This is a very particular piece of work around engaging employers.”
The invitation to tender goes out on May 21 and there will be £30,000 up for grabs to each provider, who will need to be Ofsted grade 2 or above and working in the north-west, north-east, Yorkshire and the Humber, West Midlands, London or the south-east.
Each will need a strong track record of securing employment for SEND learners and, alongside an employer, must deliver at least three joint activities to 150 participants. They will also be expected to run face-to-face activities in the region, online activities nationally, and hit all targets by March next year.
‘Drop in funding’
But even as it expands the model and raises targets, the DfE is not providing more money to the ETF for 2021-22. Instead the money has dropped, FE Week can reveal.
Whereas £1.2 million was provided in 2019-20 and 2020-21, this financial year the funding is about £1.18 million, says Carroll.
And that money does not all go to the centres: “over 80 per cent” goes directly to the three colleges each year, with the rest going on the ETF’s SEND workforce development, says Carroll. FE Week has roughly calculated that, if split evenly, this should amount to £320,000 per centre per year.
The ETF says this is a “reasonable calculation”, but refused to say exactly how much each centre receives yearly. The amounts will have “slightly differed between the centres, depending on their programmes of work”, they add.
The remainder of the cash goes to the ETF’s other SEND workforce activities, such as delivering courses and developing new resources, and also on an external evaluator of the programme, RINA, whose services cost around £16,000.
Corienne Peasgood, principal, City College Norwich
The centres for excellence have noticed the funding drop. Phillips says the funding is “not so good this year” and the college has done “a lot of supplementing” from its other funding pots.
Peasgood says the funding “went up a bit, then down a bit” while Le-Good says, “The targets are higher this year, and we are having to do it with significantly less income”. Phillips adds that “the funding isn’t proportional to the targets”.
Targets have risen steeply: for this coming year, 200 senior leaders and 3,000 practitioners must be reached. Le-Good explains that last year her target was to engage with 150 practitioners, but her college engaged 1,000, so that is this year’s target.
In a way it shows colleges are already managing some of the higher targets. But on less money it’s a tougher ask. It means that Derby College, for instance, will no longer be able to offer its two-day full review.
The other question is, are these the right targets? The number of staff engaged surely isn’t the end goal: why not better learner outcomes, or at least better Ofsted comments?
“We don’t really want to have hard targets, but we do want to see changes,” says Carroll. “We want to see more and more providers being recognised for their inclusive practice.”
Yet the centres are clear the real challenge lies in knitting-up all services – not just theirs.
“It’s about transition in and transition out,” says Peasgood. “How does this link to schools, and then adult services and employment? You can improve the middle bit, but if the transition isn’t improved, then we’re a bit of an island.”
Paul Phillips, chief executive, Weston College
It’s a valid comment. All three colleges sit in local authorities that have been blasted under “local area SEND inspections” by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission.
Phrases like “no coordinated response”, “long waiting times for diagnosis”, “poor access to services” and “lack of confidence among parents” make the reports for North Somerset Council, Derby City Council and Norfolk County Council damning reading.
If the government wants a system-led solution, Clare Howard, chief executive at Natspec, has a suggestion. Her organisation, which represents the 115 specialist FE providers for learners with SEND, would like to set up centres for excellence out of its membership network too.
“We want to run an equivalent to these centres for more complex needs, to provide the kind of training that is not happening locally. Mainstream colleges, schools and other providers are lacking this kind of expert support”.
The SEND centres have done much to support and upskill leaders and lecturers. Adequate funding, more expert partners, and a less embattled wider context would now allow them to really fly.
[UPDATE 11/05/2021: Downing Street has said the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill will be introduced on 18 May]
Ministers are set to introduce a new Skills and Post-16 Education Bill on Wednesday, according to reports.
It will follow tomorrow’s Queen’s speech and encompass the legislation promised in the FE white paper to create more local training and learning opportunities.
But what can we expect from the Bill? Here’s a recap of what has been mooted and what we’ve learned since the white paper was unveiled in January.
Make new local skills improvement plans legally binding
Central to the government’s reforms are the creation of local skills improvement plans, led by employers and in collaboration with colleges and training providers.
The plans will aim to make colleges align the courses they offer to local employers’ needs.
According to the white paper, the government “intends to legislate to put the employer leadership of local skills improvement plans on a statutory footing, strengthening the voice of employers in local skills systems across the country”.
Speaking at an FE Week webcast in March, the Department for Education’s director of post-16 strategy and architect of the white paper, Keith Smith, said putting the employer role on a statutory footing will do two things.
Keith Smith
“One, we want there to be real confidence in employers and business that they have a voice that will be connected into the system going forward. We want there to be true representation not just in the employer conversation, we want it to be meaningful. We want them to know they have a place and purpose in coming together in being able to articulate the shape of the skills system is put together and how it is prioritised.
“The second bit is of course we want it to become part of the core purpose in the skills delivery space that actually, whether you’re a college or part of the institution delivery, that there is a link that you have to pay due regard to those local priorities.”
Local skills improvement plans will form part of what the government is now calling a “skills accelerator programme”, which also incorporates Strategic Development Fund pilots announced in the white paper to create greater collaboration among local colleges and providers.
Give government new powers over further education colleges
The white paper said the government would introduce “new powers” that allow the education secretary to intervene “where local providers are consistently unable to deliver the skills priorities for that area”.
This will include new legislation to enable the education secretary to intervene where colleges refuse to deliver courses decided through local skills improvement plans.
Smith clarified this would be the case during FE Week’s webcast in March, although he said the extent of these powers was still being determined.
According to the white paper, the “strengthened” powers will enable the education secretary to “intervene locally to close or set up college corporations, bring about changes to membership or composition of governing bodies or review leadership, or take other actions where there are long term weaknesses.
“This includes the possibility of intervention within a local area, where there is evidence of issues affecting a limited number of providers. Use of these powers is envisaged only as a last resort, where agreement has not been possible through other means and there are no alternative options for resolution.”
Introduce a ‘lifelong loan entitlement’
The other part of the government’s white paper reforms that appears to involve legislation is the promised lifelong loan entitlement.
Part of the prime minister’s lifetime skills guarantee first announced last September, the entitlement will enable people to access four years’ worth of student loan funding across further and higher education providers to study modular provision throughout their lifetime.
The idea is to create a system that allows for more part-time studying while people are working.
The FE White Paper specifically said: “For the lifelong loan entitlement to be a success it is crucial that the user is at the heart of these reforms. Creating a more efficient and user-friendly system, meeting the needs of individuals, employers and the economy will require new legislation to move away from a system grounded in the concept of full years or courses of study. It will also require significant changes to Student Loans Company systems.”
However, the DfE has promised to first consult on the details of this entitlement and has set a rollout date of 2025.
Students will no longer wear face masks in school and college from next week, Boris Johnson has confirmed.
The recommendation that masks be worn in classrooms and by learners in communal areas will be lifted from May 17.
However, the rule that staff and other adults wear face coverings in situations where social distancing is not possible, including corridors and communal areas, will remain in place.
The prime minister told a Downing Street briefing that from next Monday, the government “will no longer require face coverings in classrooms, or for students in communal areas in secondary schools and colleges”.
The Department for Education had already said it planned to remove the recommendation in line with step three of the government’s roadmap out of lockdown.
Today, the prime minister confirmed that the next phase of restrictions would be relaxed from Monday.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson tweeted shortly after to say the decision has been taken as “infection rates decrease and the vaccination roll-out covers most adults”.
Pupils will no longer be advised to wear face coverings in schools and colleges from 17 May, as infection rates decrease and the vaccination roll-out covers most adults.
All other protective measures such as ‘bubbles’, extra hygiene & social distancing will remain in place.
— Gavin Williamson (@GavinWilliamson) May 10, 2021
Earlier this month, unions and scientists called for the recommendation, which has been in place since schools reopened more widely in March, to be extended to June 21 at the earliest. They warned that not doing so would have “consequences” for the health of young people and parents.
But the DfE said last week that it planned to remove the rule “as infection rates continue to decline and our vaccination programme rolls out successfully”.
