SEND reforms for schools won’t solve FE’s high-needs problems

The government’s SEND reforms are primarily focused on solving problems that affect schools: lack of inclusion in mainstream settings; spiralling costs; identification of need and support not happening early enough.

But these are not the big issues for colleges. Here, 90 per cent of learners with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are already in a mainstream setting; less than 10 per cent of the high-needs budget goes on post-16s despite them accounting for 26 per cent of EHCPs; and needs have usually (though not always) been identified well before young people enter FE.

To improve the SEND system for FE learners and providers, the government must consider a different set of issues and other ways forward. Critically, ministers mustn’t impose on colleges a set of solutions to problems we don’t have. Taking medicine for symptoms we aren’t suffering won’t cure FE – and it may make matters worse.

The fact that SEND reforms are being wrapped up in a schools white paper doesn’t fill me with hope that FE will get much of a look in. But that’s not going to stop Natspec – and the Association of Colleges – from pressing the case in the final weeks of drafting before the promised autumn publication date.

We’ll be pushing policymakers to prioritise three key areas: better mechanisms for facilitating transition from school to FE; fairer levels of funded support for FE students with SEND; and ending the cliff-edge experience of leaving college, where support is suddenly withdrawn and rather than opportunities opening up, they fall away.

Specifically, we’ll be looking for the white paper to include plans for:

Transition from school to college

  • Creating a better system for commissioning high-needs placements in FE that can be consistently applied across mainstream and specialist colleges
  • Developing an information-sharing mechanism between schools and colleges for those without EHCPs

Fairer funding for FE

  • Committing an equitable level of funding to SEND in FE through a dedicated SEN support funding stream for students with lower-level needs
  • Allocating FE a proportionate amount of both the high-needs budget and SEND-related capital funding

Post-college opportunities

  • Cross-departmental work to ensure sufficient support and opportunities exist to enable young people post-college can put into practice the skills, knowledge and behaviours they have gained through FE, and go on to lead fulfilling adult lives
  • A system for the early planning of individuals’ post-college social care, support for employment and ongoing learning opportunities

Recognition for specialist FE colleges

The white paper presents the perfect opportunity for government to fully recognise the essential role of specialist colleges. While they may serve just a small number of learners (around 9,000), specialist colleges are the only state-funded alternative to mainstream FE and are therefore essential to ensuring the inclusiveness of the FE system as a whole.

Despite this, specialist colleges are treated very differently to their mainstream counterparts, particularly in terms of eligibility for government support and funding streams. Now could be the time to announce a new designation for specialist colleges that brings them fully ‘inside the tent’.

And if the government really wants to demonstrate that they value the specialist sector, they could start by announcing:

  • A one-off capital improvement catch-up fund to enable specialist colleges to carry out urgent and overdue improvement works
  • A commitment to giving specialist colleges access to future capital funding rounds in a way that is equitable with general FE colleges

FE provides a vital last rung on the ladder to a successful adulthood for many young people with SEND. Reforms that fail to make that rung secure risk wasting all the time, effort and funding invested in getting young people to this point.

Badenoch: I’ll double apprenticeships budget by slashing uni degrees

A future Conservative government would double England’s apprenticeships budget to £6 billion a year by slashing university student numbers.

Leader of the opposition Kemi Badenoch plans to use her speech at the Conservative Party conference tomorrow to pledge to reintroduce student number controls on “poor value” degrees and direct the “savings” towards apprenticeships and “worthwhile” courses.

She is expected to say: “Every year, thousands of young people go off to university but leave with crippling loans and no real prospects. Nearly one in three graduates see no economic return, and every year taxpayers are writing off over £7 billion in unpaid student loans. Wasted money, wasted talent. A rigged system propping up low-quality courses, while people can’t get high-quality apprenticeships that lead to real jobs.”

Individual higher education institutions would be subject to student recruitment caps, which were abolished by the Conservatives in 2015, for courses “on the basis of quality and graduate outcomes”.

Badenoch expects this will reduce university student numbers by 100,000 a year by the end of the next parliament. The Conservatives claim this would free up enough cash to double England’s apprenticeships budget from £3 billion to £6 billion over that period. New apprenticeships for 18 to 21-year-olds would be “incentivised”.

The University and College Union (UCU) called Badenoch’s plans “economically illiterate”.

Return of ‘rip-off’ degrees

Badenoch, who claims to be a former apprentice, will say: “A lot of people know I did two degrees. One in engineering. One in law. But while I can’t remember how to do parallel integration. I can remember how to fix a broken computer. Which I learnt on my apprenticeship. We need more apprenticeships.

“I was working with adults. I was paying my own way. And it gave me self-confidence in a way my university degrees never did. And unlike my subsequent university degree, I wasn’t still paying off my debts in my early 30s.

“So we will shut down these rip-off courses and use the money to double the apprenticeship budget. Giving thousands of young people the chance of a proper start in life. Just like I got.”

In Manchester, Badenoch will echo Conservative Party announcements from before last year’s general election, which also raided funding from “rip-off” university degrees to pay for more apprenticeships. 

But the party has not spelt out which university courses would be at risk. A press notice trailing the speech said caps would be placed on courses “that consistently lead to poor graduate outcomes”.

“We will introduce controls on student numbers in specific subject groups, so the taxpayer is not left subsidising courses which are leading to low graduate earnings or limited career prospects,” the party said.

Controls on university student numbers were abolished in 2015 by then-Chancellor George Osborne.

Apprenticeship consensus

Ministers would decide on the courses and the number caps, which would then be allocated to providers “on the basis of quality”.

Last week, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer used his party conference speech to replace Tony Blair’s 50 per cent higher education target with a pledge for two-thirds of young people to achieve higher-level qualifications through universities or apprenticeships.

Ben Rowland, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said having both leaders talk about apprenticeships shows “there is now a welcome political consensus behind more apprenticeships”.

He added: “AELP welcomes the gauntlet that Kemi Badenoch has thrown down of a commitment to doubling apprenticeship funding.”

The apprenticeships budget for financial year 2025-26 is £3.075 billion.

Voter intention polling by YouGov currently places the Conservatives third behind Reform UK and Labour.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “This is an economically illiterate policy; no country has ever grown by slashing university places. Nonsensical ideas such as this come as no surprise from the party that crashed the economy, and fortunately, have no hope of being enacted, as the Tories will not be winning an election anytime soon.

“The way to deal with the student debt burden is through a return to public funding, this could be paid for with a wealth tax, so those who benefit the most from getting a degree contribute more.”

10-year adult ed rescue plan would boost economy by £22bn, says L&W

The government, employers, and individuals should inject an extra £2.2 billion every year over the next decade to restore skills attainment to 2010 levels, boost the economy and save £8 billion annually for the taxpayer, a think tank has said.

Learning and Work Institute (L&W) has today unveiled a decade-long roadmap to reverse government and employer cuts in training investment and undo the decline in adult literacy and numeracy skills.

In a new report, the think tank urged for an expanded lifelong learning entitlement, an incentivising skills tax credit and reiterated proposals for a “flex and match” skills levy for employers to spend part of their money on non-apprenticeship training.

It comes a week after prime minister Sir Keir Starmer announced a new target for two-thirds of young people to enter higher-level learning by age 25.

L&W said that any plan to deliver this ambition would need to triple level 2 and 3 achievements every year for a decade.

The Department for Education last year calculated around one in five 16 to 64 year olds – nine million people – have low literacy or numeracy, and millions more have low digital skills.

By 2035, the UK should aim to have nine in ten adults (3.5 million more people) with essential English, maths and digital skills and an extra three million more people to have at least a level 2 qualification.

Stephen Evans, L&W chief executive, said the ambition arose after their research revealed that the UK had growing inequality in the proportion of people with essential skills compared to  other OECD countries. 

“A step change in effort from government, employers and communities to create a lifelong learning century could reap the rewards of a £22 billion growth prize,” he added.

“It’s time to rewire our learning and skills system, focusing more on outcomes, encouraging employers to invest more, and harnessing the digital learning revolution.”

10 years of effort

L&W reported that population growth has meant stretched and reduced public spending has caused a 22 per cent real terms spending fall per 16 to 64-year-old since 2010-11, from £154 each year to £120. 

“Reversing this fall would mean an extra £1.6 billion per year,” the report said.

It also calculated a 20 per cent drop in government spending on adult skills in England between 2010 and 2025.

“This has to change,” the think tank said.

An extra  £2.2 billion would need to be spent on lifelong learning to reverse the cuts. This would come from a mix of government funding, employer spending and individuals.

Around £1.4 billion should be earmarked for level 2 and 3 qualifications, assuming each costs £5,000.

Another £800 million should go towards essential English, maths and digital skills qualifications, based on a £1,800 per qualification.

The report concluded: “Lifelong learning can help turn changes in demography, technology and society shifts from a gathering storm to a time of opportunity. That will take a ten-year concerted effort from people, employers, community organisations and governments. The prize from this is great, the cost of inaction large.”

The report proposed redirecting funding, such as £140 million of spending on level 7 apprenticeships and “already highly qualified people” on skills bootcamps to learners to achieve essential skills and up to level 3.

It added that the £60 million expected annual revenue from the immigration skills charge could add to the public spending on skills.

L&W also recommended an “expanded” lifelong learning entitlement that would give extra help with the costs of learning, including maintenance loans for level 3 in “priority areas” and allowing training up to one year while on universal credit. 

The think tank proposed the expansion should also include a new learning account, where the government provides every learner with an initial £5,000 toward course fees, and “targeted” top-ups for career changers.

“[The LLE] should be paired with a strengthened right to request time off to train so people can come back to their current job should they decide while training that they did not want to switch careers,” the report added.

World-class skills base could help employment rate target

L&W laid out several targets for adult attainment by 2035. 

One target was to aim for at least nine in ten adults having essential skills like functional literacy, numeracy and digital, equating to an extra 3.5 million people, over 3 million of which would be in England.

To achieve these, the report estimated that literacy and numeracy skills achievements would need to double to 600,000 per year for a decade, with full level 2 and 3 achievements trebling to 430,000 per year. 

The economic benefits, L&W said, would equate to a boost to the economy of £22 billion.

It explained that there would be 170,000 more people in work, saving £7.8 billion annually to the taxpayer per year once delivered.

This would also contribute 10 per cent of the employment growth needed to reach the government’s 80 per cent employment rate ambition.

But the report added that the benefits are “likely to be underestimates” as researchers looked purely at employment and earnings impacts.

“It doesn’t include potential spillover impacts of a more highly skilled workforce on innovation, investment and the productivity of other workers, or social outcomes like health, or impacts of learning that don’t result in full qualifications,” the report said.

£31k FE teacher training bursaries to continue in 2026-27

Tax-free bursaries worth up to £31,000 to further education trainee teachers in key STEM shortage subjects will continue to be offered next year, the government has confirmed.

The decision is part of education secretary Bridget Phillipson’s drive to recruit and retain 6,500 additional teachers by the end of this Parliament in 2029.

Bursaries were increased to £31,000 in 2025-26 for FE trainee teachers in computing, engineering or manufacturing, mathematics, and science, including biology, chemistry, or physics.

SEND-specialist trainees are also being offered £15,000 this year, while £10,000 is on offer for those training to teach English.

The Department for Education suggested these bursaries will continue in 2026-27 at the same rate in the same subjects, in a notice to the press this evening.

It said: “As part of today’s package, bursaries for teacher trainees in further education will also be available, with £31,000 for those teaching in key shortage STEM subjects, £15,000 for SEND-specialist trainees and £10,000 for those training to teach English. 

“This reflects the importance that the government places on supporting colleges and other FE institutions to train and recruit high-quality teachers.”

Full confirmation of the STEM subjects that attract £31,000 bursaries is expected tomorrow morning (October 7).

A DfE spokesperson said the department will also offer schools up to £29,000 to “cover the cost of training apprentices in mathematics, chemistry, physics, and computing, as well as £20,000 in modern foreign languages, meaning apprentices pay nothing for their training and will earn a salary while they are training before moving on to a qualified teacher salary”. 

The Postgraduate Teaching Apprenticeship (PGTA) funding “will, for the first time, will be equivalent to the initial teacher training incentives in all subjects”.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We welcome the fact that the government recognises the need to get more specialist teachers into the classroom. 

“The recruitment and retention system is badly broken, with the majority of schools and colleges suffering from teacher shortages. Bursaries and scholarships may be helpful in some areas, but it is hard to see how they will turn the tide of this crisis on their own.”

Jack Worth, education workforce lead at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), added: “Our research has shown bursaries are very effective for recruiting more teachers and retaining additional teachers long-term, particularly in shortage subjects such as physics and maths.

“This announcement could go a long way towards helping the government meet its pledge to recruit and retain 6,500 additional teachers.”

The government has committed to publishing the full details of how it will deliver on its pledge for 6,500 more teachers by December, a year and a half after being elected.

Forecasts suggest up to 12,400 more teachers will be needed in colleges alone by 2028.

‘Inadequate’ apprenticeship provider accuses Ofsted of creating ‘state of fear’

An apprenticeship provider in Kent has accused Ofsted inspectors of creating a “state of fear” for its staff following an ‘inadequate’ result.

Art Providers Ltd, which mostly delivers adult care apprenticeships nationally, was hit with Ofsted’s lowest grade in a critical inspection report this morning.

But leaders at the independent training provider said they did not agree with the rating and alleged poor conduct from inspectors, including evidence being ignored.

A team of inspectors examined Art Providers’ apprenticeship delivery between July 15 and 18, when it had 154 apprentices on its books.

The watchdog claimed that “too few apprentices achieve their apprenticeship in the time expected”, adding that the “small minority” who do complete are “well prepared for their final assessments”.

A spokesperson for Art Providers told FE Week that the report did not reflect around 20 apprentices who are currently registered for their end-point assessment.

“We’re not claiming to be perfect but we’ve not had a single learner fail. We’ve had distinctions, people graduated with distinction merit so I don’t know where the inadequacy is coming from,” they said.

The ITP has been providing apprenticeships since January 2023 and has no published qualification achievement rate yet.

Ofsted said it found “consistently poor” attendance from apprentices and condemned leaders’ lack of planning of on- and off-the-job training.

The Art Providers spokesperson claimed that inspectors based their judgment on only seeing the one-to-one teaching delivered during inspection week and did not consider the monthly group teaching sessions.

The Ofsted report also noted leaders’ failures to mitigate “fundamental weaknesses” in its provision, poor oversight and poor sequence training.

Inspectors said: “[Leaders’] lack of a clear and accurate understanding of the challenges facing apprentices has significantly limited their ability to make improvements. As a result, too many apprentices fall behind or disengage from learning without getting the help they need.”

The ITP challenged Ofsted’s rating when they found out they had been awarded ‘inadequate’ in four out of the five areas.

Leaders told FE Week that they submitted “hundreds” of pages of evidence for Ofsted after they complained.

“Out of almost over 100 pages of evidence provided, the person they brought in to look at this matter agreed that they should just look at a single page, which simply means they didn’t look into the evidence we supplied,” they said.

They also raised conduct complaints about one of the inspectors “practically creating a state of fear in the staff”.

“When the inspectors were here, we actually complained against one of the inspectors, who was basically shutting people down when the inspection was going on,” they added.

Private providers judged ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted are usually sanctioned by the Department for Education, which can include contract termination.

The ITP said they had not spoken with DfE yet, but was positive the department would hear their case to retain their apprenticeship contract after the local DfE representative had been “quite sympathetic”.

Ofsted is currently overhauling its inspection process after a coroner ruled that an Ofsted inspection contributed to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry and amid wider concerns about the reliability of inspection judgments.

New-style report cards are due to be rolled out from November 10, with headline overall grades for FE providers removed in favour of sub-judgments in up to 16 areas using a colour-coded five-point scale.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 509

Laura Woods

Chair, Middlesbrough College

Start date: August 2025

Previous job: Former Director of Academic Enterprise, Teesside University

Interesting fact: Laura found a whole new world of interests after full-time work, from creative writing to swing dancing, cryptic crosswords and all things French

Robert Halfon

Executive director – policy, membership and external affairs

Start date: September 2025

Previous job: Former minister for skills

Interesting fact: Robert is an enthusiastic horologist and at one point had a collection of over 200 watched though, with a mortgage to pay, it’s now a more manageable 25

More than half of Turing trips turned down

A record-breaking number of applications to the Turing Scheme were rejected by the government this year following a spike in interest ahead of the programme’s expected closure.

Latest data reveals that bids from education providers to organise international trips for young people soared to 951 in 2025-26 – but just 454, or 48 per cent, were accepted.

In 2021-22, the programme’s first year, 91 per cent of 412 applications were granted. The proportion of successful bids fell to 61 per cent of 520 requests the next year, before hitting 77 per cent of 619 bids in 2023-24, and then 85 per cent of last year’s 755 applications.

The Turing Scheme was supposed to end last year but the government agreed to a one-year extension. However, the total funding pot was trimmed by nearly a third to £78 million as part of the Department for Education’s cost-cutting spree.

Figures published this week show the government even underspent this reduced budget by over £4 million despite record numbers of applications.

‘Shorter mobility’ for FE students

The data shows applications from further education providers rose to 318 this year, but half were rejected. It means just £24 million in Turing cash has been handed out to FE providers in 2025-26, a 28 per cent cut from the previous year.

DfE acknowledged the lower success rate of applications, but said it funded successful applications in full as well as appealed bids to ensure providers can deliver the projects they applied for.

The DfE also limited the maximum funding pot available per FE provider application to £205,000 and has almost halved daily living costs for students going abroad this year. DfE said it placed the limit to avoid stretching the available funding across many providers and increase the risk of providers not being able to deliver their intended placements.

It also said where providers applied for funding above the cap, the applications were scaled down to the cap.

This funding cut and low approval rate means around 11,000 FE learners and apprentices will go on a trip this year, a 6 per cent fall from last year.

Richard Lloyd, co-founder of Further Afield, an initiative that arranges trips with FE providers, said funding pressures were resulting in “shorter mobility” placements across the board. He said: “It can sometimes mean experiences feel more like short group trips rather than the longer, more independent exchanges traditionally associated with study abroad.”

Erasmus+ return?

Named after the mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing, the DfE-funded initiative replaced Erasmus+ in March 2021 with a new focus on social mobility. The then education secretary Gavin Williamson also allowed trips to be made outside the EU.

Figures show FE providers continued to target more disadvantaged students despite dipping into a smaller funding pot. Two thirds of FE participants going on a Turing trip this year are from a disadvantaged background, compared with 59 per cent in 2024-25.

Schools have ramped up their social mobility efforts too, with around 82 per cent of all school placements being handed to students from deprived backgrounds, up from 56 per cent the previous year.

But universities bucked the trend with their share of disadvantaged students on Turing trips rising just 2 per cent to 52 per cent of all 18,826 participants.

No funding has been announced to continue the Turing Scheme next year. In May, skills minister Jacqui Smith said the government had begun negotiating to “work towards” rejoining Erasmus+.

The DfE was approached for comment.

UCU launches England-wide college strike ballot

Staff at 68 colleges will ballot on whether to strike over demands for a “serious” pay offer, action on workloads and national pay bargaining.

The ballot, which will run from October 13 to November 17, follows the Association of College’s non-binding recommended pay award of 4 per cent.

The University and College Union (UCU) calls this recommendation “disappointing” and alongside other education unions, has launched its “A New Deal for FE” campaign which demands a 10 per cent or £3,000 pay rise, whichever is higher.

Unions are also calling for pay parity with schoolteachers within three years, a minimum starting salary of £30,000, and a return to national bargaining.

But Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said the 4 per cent recommendation is “strong” and warned that colleges cannot meet the 10 per cent pay claim under current “funding constraints”.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “It is unacceptable that following years of pay degradation, college staff are expected to stomach further real-terms pay cuts, while at the same time dealing with ever-higher workloads.

“The prime minister said this week that Labour wants to put further education on an equal footing with higher education, but this will be impossible unless the government tackles the issues causing half of college teachers to leave the sector within three years. 

“Our demands are reasonable. If they are not met, the sector will face serious disruption in the coming months’”.

Last week, the UCU said it wrote to 76 college principals to outline its demands ahead of confirming a formal ballot.

This total has decreased as active negotiations on pay and conditions are ongoing between UCU branches and college leaders, FE Week understands.

Hughes told FE Week: “The unions know that colleges cannot meet that 10 per cent pay claim given the funding constraints they are under.

“In our national negotiations, we clearly set out the financial position of colleges, alongside the ambition of every college leader to do the best they can on pay. 

“Our 4 per cent recommendation is a strong one and I would hope that college staff would see the enormous strides colleges are taking to achieve that, even though we all know it is not enough to ensure that college pay is fair. The reality is that we need the government to invest more in colleges.

“We will continue to work hard to ensure that the strong backing from the prime minister this week in Liverpool leads to a fully-funded, long-term solution to address pay and workforce challenges across the sector.”

News of the ballot comes days after prime minister Sir Keir Starmer told the Labour conference he will make it a “defining mission of this Labour government” to no longer ignore further education.

This includes a promise to pump “nearly £800 million” extra funding into 16 to 19 education next year.

The Department for Education has been contacted for comment.

DfE removes funding to develop HTQ courses

Subsidies to develop a set of flagship technical qualifications have been quietly ditched after ministers shifted resources as part of the spending review, FE Week has learned.

Higher technical qualifications (HTQs) – a suite of government-approved level 4 and 5 certificates launched in 2022 – offer learners one and two-year technical courses as a “true alternative” to the university degree route.

More than 280 qualifications, most of which already existed, carry the HTQ name, which signifies high quality, alignment with employer needs, and gives learners access to university student finance.

But ahead of the spending review, the Department for Education closed a grant programme to help colleges, universities and awarding bodies grow HTQ delivery.

The grants could be used for building refurbishments, equipment such as robots and virtual reality headsets, employer engagement schemes, staff upskilling and curriculum development.

News of the decision comes in the same week prime minister Sir Keir Starmer announced a new target for raising participation in higher technical courses.

Ambitions changed

The most recent data shows around 4,300 learners signed up to study HTQs in 2023-24, in subjects including applied computing, early years and animal welfare.

The DfE estimates about 850 signed up the previous year when HTQs were launched.

The qualifications are part of a wider set of reforms to English technical education prompted by the 2016 Sainsbury review, which recommended developing T Levels and apprenticeships which both align with employer-led occupational standards.

HTQs were designed to address long-running concerns about a lack of level 4 and 5 educational options and attainment.

The government has positioned them as a “practical and advanced next step” for T Level students and sees them as part of its offer of modular shorter courses available through the upcoming lifelong learning entitlement.

According to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), which scrutinises government projects, the government had concluded ministers’ ambitions were “no longer in place” and £23 million earmarked for this financial year was redeployed to “support wider and ongoing work to drive up quality in provision”.

The whole-life cost of the grant programme, which was planned to last until 2027, was estimated at £176 million.

A further £300 million was spent on 21 institutes of technology (IoT) centres that specialise in delivering HTQs through regional collaborations of employers, colleges and universities.

Losing interest

While Skills England continues to add to its list of approved HTQs, the early withdrawal of funding to develop the courses was seen by some as evidence that government interest had waned.

Former Dudley College of Technology chief executive Lowell Williams, a director of Black Country and the Marches IoT until this summer, said the government took a “disappointing and disjointed” approach to HTQs.

He praised the concept of offering young people a study route to higher education and work but believed the qualifications failed to “break the mould”.

By Williams’ final year, he had concluded the government had “given up” on HTQs and the IoTs they are often taught in, choosing instead to focus on new technical excellence colleges which are “at best overlapping and at worse competing”.

A review of the HTQ approval process funded by Lord David Sainsbury’s Gatsby Charitable Foundation voiced concerns that the qualifications lacked brand awareness from learners and employers, and the Skills England approvals process was “complex” and sometimes too slow to keep pace with industry.

One organisation said: “We’re trying to move quickly to meet the demands of industry and it becomes cumbersome. It can take 18 months [and then] another year after approval before you can run it. So three years from the idea to getting students on it.”

Graham Hasting-Evans, chief executive of awarding body NOCN, said HTQs were not a “phenomenal success” due to limited employer demand.

FE Week understands the government still views higher technical education as a priority but the development and delivery of HTQs should now be “business as usual”.

The DfE was contacted for comment.