Revealed: The 22 areas sharing £2m in careers hubs funding

Almost 900 additional schools and colleges will join the government’s careers hubs from September as the programme expands with a £2 million injection.

Skills minister Gillian Keegan announced today that the funding for the third wave of the scheme will be shared between 22 local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) across England (list below).

Each area either has or will create its own careers hub to work with a group of 20 or more schools and colleges to train staff to give better careers advice and offer students more “encounters” with employers.

The Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC), which runs the scheme and distributes the funding on behalf of the government, said the allocation of the one-year £2 million funding boost will be dependent on how many schools and colleges are in each hub.

The first 20 careers hubs launched in 2018 and were backed with £5 million, covering 710 schools and colleges. A further 19 opened or expanded in 2019 and were given with £2.5 million as the programme scaled up to cover 1,300 schools and colleges.

The CEC said an additional 882 schools and colleges will join the programme in September 2020 – taking the total to around 2,200, which is nearly half of all state sector schools and colleges. In eleven regions, all schools and colleges will now be covered by a careers hub.

The quango could not name the colleges joining the scheme this September as that detail won’t be submitted by the LEPs until July.

The CEC said the hubs will play a “critical role in supporting local skills development, and as key responses to LEP’s and Mayoral local economic recovery plans” to Covid-19.

They added that the existing hubs have been “at the forefront” of efforts to respond to the initial period of lockdown.

Keegan said: “The expansion of our careers hubs will mean we are now supporting more than 2,200 schools and colleges, bringing them together with employers to provide high quality careers guidance. 

“Now, more than ever, it’s vital young people make the most of their talents and are aware of the range of opportunities available. This is brilliant news and I look forward to hearing about the progress made.”

Careers hubs comprise colleges working with local schools and universities, training providers, employers and career professionals to pool their expertise on improving careers education in their area.

They include a “hub lead” who works with school and college leaders to provide “strategic support” on their careers plan and access to business networks, as well their delivery against the Gatsby Benchmarks.

The hubs also have “careers leaders”, who offer face-to-face careers training to schools and colleges.

The CEC said today that hubs have already “accelerated levels of support and improvement in young people’s career development”.

Evidence published by quango in October last year found that two thirds of schools and colleges in hubs ran “regular encounters with employers”, compared with just over a third in schools and colleges outside the network.

Nearly three in five schools and colleges in hubs were also found to run work experience compared to around a third (35 per cent) outside the network, while nearly two thirds of schools and colleges in hubs were “learning about careers direct from the jobs market”, compared with only three in 10 outside the network.

John Yarham, interim chief executive of the CEC said: “Careers Hubs bring people together. They create a powerful partnership between schools, colleges, employers and local agencies focused on improving skills and opportunity for young people, tailored to local need – nationally led, locally developed and delivered.

“This partnership is a critical point of difference from the past and means we are better positioned to weather the storm and help our next generation navigate the choppy waters ahead.

“Schools, colleges and young people have a real time connection to the changing jobs market – opening opportunity in areas that are emerging the strongest and growing the fastest. What this means is we have the opportunity to more closely match real people to real jobs in real time. It is a proven robust and sustainable model for the needs of now and into the future.”

The 22 LEP areas part of the new expansion of careers hubs:

.            Black Country

.            Birmingham

.            Buckinghamshire

.            Coast to Capital

.            Cornwall & Isles of Scilly

.            D2N2

.            Dorset

.            East Sussex

.            GFirst

.            Greater Manchester

.            Heart of the SW

.            Hertfordshire

.            Lancashire

.            Liverpool

.            New Anglia

.            Sheffield City Region

.            Stoke on Trent

.            Swindon & Wiltshire

.            Tees Valley

.            The Marches

.            West of England

.            Worcestershire

ESFA finally reveals Covid financial support offer for 16-19 private training providers

Private training providers whose recruitment of 16 to 19 students has been “limited” due to Covid-19 have been offered financial support to ease budget pressures.

From today, independent learning providers (ILPs) can make a business case to the Education and Skills Funding Agency to prevent clawback of any underperformance they have experienced for this group of learners.

The ESFA said: “ILPs may be recruiting fewer part-time students than they would normally recruit between March 2020 to July 2020.

“This will impact on the level of funding that these students would usually attract and will result in clawback of funds for 2019 to 2020.

“The ESFA will support ILPs whose recruitment of students, to a 16 to 19 study programme, have been limited due to the lockdown situation and who have faced clawback for under performance.”

For approved cases, the ESFA said it will base the expected delivery in March to July on the previous year’s delivery for students recruited between 1 March 2019 and 31 July 2019, taking up to half of this into account.

In addition, the agency will “add the actual delivery for students recruited between March 2020 and July 2020, up to a maximum of 100 per cent of the 2018 to 2019 funded delivery for March 2019 to July 2019”.

No clawback relief will be possible if the cash delivery in 2019 to 2020 exceeds the cash delivery in 2018 to 2019 for the period from 1 March to 31 July for each year.

The ESFA added that to further support ILPs, they are extending the clawback period to include January 2021 to March 2021.

“The clawback that is planned for July 2020 will be included into the re-profiling, from August 2020 to March 2021. This does not need to be requested and will be shown in the R10 reconciliation statement.

“There may be a small number of exceptions where a risk to ESFA and public funds is identified. In these instances, we cannot delay July 2020 clawback, but we will extend the clawback profile until March 2021.”

The ESFA made clear this funding support is a “one-off” in response to the unexpected disruption caused by the arrival of coronavirus and ILPs should “not expect this to be repeated in future”.

ILPs making a business should also “not seek” support from government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) to furlough staff whose salaries are paid from continuing ESFA or any other public income.

“ILPs submitting a business case must demonstrate they have not received support from the CJRS to furlough staff involved in the continued direct delivery of provision remotely of 16 to 19 study programmes and where possible recruitment of 16 to 19 students between March 2020 to July 2020,” the ESFA said.

“The Department for Education is considering appropriate measures to monitor use of claims from CJRS in order to detect any duplication of public funding and will be considering potential options to recover misused public funding as required.”

We must embrace diversity in the post Covid-19 world

Let’s learn from the pandemic and how it has brought social and economic inequalities into sharp relief, says Teresa Carroll

More than 30 young leaders in the arts, entrepreneurship, politics, sports and more are featured in Tomorrow’s leaders: a world beyond disability that was published earlier this month. They are all achieving personally, shaping their communities and generally creating a fairer society. And they all have a special educational need or disability.

The publication’s inspiration came from two sources: young people telling us that too often society gets hung up on their “need” or “disability”, rather than focusing on their aspirations and strengths, and the Power 100 list, which showcases the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK. The journalist, presenter and comedian, Alex Brooker, (presenter from The Last Leg) was voted No 1 in 2019.

FE is all about harnessing potential. However, as Dame Christine Lenehan says in the publication’s foreword, “we still have a long way to go in creating a world that is accessible and inclusive”. Many of the young people in Tomorrow’s Leaders talk about how they faced barriers along the way. As Jabe says (page 10): “I have developed resilience and am able to overcome challenges by accepting my disability and everything that comes with it.” Sadly, “the everything that comes with it” is often the expectations and judgments made by others and wider society that can create the challenges in the first place.

So how do we get to a world where we begin to see others in their totality rather than particular characteristics? Well, it’s not going to be easy. Our reflexive brain (amygdala) is programmed to make swift judgments (based on the evolutionary fight or flight principle). It is involuntary, outside our awareness, irrational, and reactionary, and is typically recruited because it is fast and effortless.

We therefore have to reprogramme our reflexive mind. It is programmed by habits, experiences and information. Becoming aware that this is how we’re behaving is the first step in making a change.

We also must listen and learn from people’s lived experience. Together we can then remove barriers and challenge structures and processes that tend to maintain and often reinforce inequalities. Jess, a law graduate and motivational speaker, who is training for the Bar, talks about being referred to as a “triple minority” as a black woman with a disability. “My glass ceiling has triple glazing but, still, I intend to break through it, taking as many people with me as possible!” (page 24). Jess and the other young leaders in this publication show what can be achieved if those of us who work within the systems in place listen to what we’re being told and work together to ensure processes and structures work for those they are supposed to serve.

Covid-19 has brought into sharp relief the structural social and economic inequalities in our society: FE providers have worked hard to mitigate them where they can. The Education and Training Foundation’s three Centres for Excellence in SEND, which aim to support all FE providers to become inclusive organisations, highlight the reality of home life for many learners. The centres reported the absence of technological devices and/or the lack of digital skills of parents and carers desperately trying to home school.

By listening to learners, parents and carers, FE and social care professionals worked together to find solutions, including access to grants to purchase laptops and, where not available, supplying laptops for home use. College technicians and teachers supported parents and carers to develop their skills so they might access and use the various digital platforms.

So let’s bring what we’ve learned to the post-Covid-19 world and use it to create a society that is more caring and inclusive. Covid-19 has allowed us to recognise how we might create a world that serves and brings out the best in us all.

I’ll leave the last word to Siena (page 32): “Never be ashamed of being different: it is this difference that makes you extraordinary and unique.”

Principals sound warning on high cost of Covid safety measures

College leaders have warned of spiralling Covid-19 safety costs as their membership body calls for a £70 million fund to ease budget pressures.

Multiple principals who spoke to FE Week said they are having to fork out hundreds of thousands of pounds on personal protective equipment (PPE), hand sanitiser, signage, shields and temperature guns.

The Department for Education guidance for the wider reopening of colleges, a process which got under way on June 15 after 12 weeks of lockdown, states that any costs associated with implementing social distancing and safety measures must be funded from “existing college budgets”.

Last week the Association of Colleges asked for a one-off £70 million grant fund for social distancing adaptations for their members as part of a £3.6 billion post-pandemic skills package.

FE Week spoke to four college leaders about their unforeseen expenditure on safety equipment required to create a Covid-secure campus.

Mike Hopkins, principal of South and City College Birmingham, said he has already spent between £120,000 and £150,000 in additional costs to date and estimates spending between £250,000 and £300,000 next year.

He said: “So we’re trying to assess everything, but there is not only the lack of guidance, but trying to crystal-ball gaze a month ahead of the moment is nigh on impossible.”

Hopkins added his college had donated all their PPE on the assumption they would have until September to source replacements but had to buy it at “phenomenal prices” due to limited availability for the earlier return this week.

The college, which has eight campuses across the West Midlands, has also had to invest in signage, screens and soap as well as £130,000 on hand sanitiser and high-tech heat detectors that cost £800 to £1,200 each.

The move to remote learning has also incurred additional costs for software, online courses and laptops.

Lydia Devenny, deputy chief executive of Luminate Education Group – which comprises four colleges and an academy trust– estimates that around £60,000 has been spent on PPE, signage to manage walkways and additional cleaning to get 2,000 learners back at a limited number of campuses this week.

It has set aside another £200,000 in the group’s estates budget for extra PPE and cleaning across the rest of the year.

Devenny said the sum was “substantial” but added their financial health should not be impacted too heavily as “we’re a large group – our turnover will be about £100 million next year”.

The college group is also providing protective screens for receptions and other counters in the colleges and campuses, different face masks for people exposed to varying risks, hand sanitiser and temperature guns.

Lewisham College’s head of estates Michael Gayle described the extra costs to wider reopening as “astronomical”.

To date, Lewisham has spent £9,700 on signage, £8,500 on hand sanitiser refills and stations, £4,800 on PPE, £4,500 on protective screens and £900 on an external security booth hired to manage a new one-way exit system (see here).

Lewisham College principal Asfa Sohail warned there will also be ongoing additional costs in September for security, extra cleaning staff, consumables and the purchasing of further stock.

She said if the college had still been a standalone (it merged with NCG in August 2017) they would have found it “really difficult” to survive owing to Covid-19’s “significant” costs.

Zoe Lewis, Middlesbrough College’s principal, said she had spent £100,000 on laptops and mobile phones to ensure all staff could work effectively from home during the pandemic, as well as £150,000 to date on students being able to do so.

The college has also set aside £80,000 to replace existing classroom desks with some that are more adaptable for varying social distancing configurations and £50,000 to adapt the campus with screens, signage, deep cleaning, sanitisers and PPE as well as water treatment due to an unoccupied building.

Lewis would like to ask the government to set up a fund to support colleges to implement these measures and added that it is also “important that we see a meaningful commitment to colleges and skills in any future Covid-19 skills recovery budget”.

Hopkins believes assurances over guaranteed funding for the next year would be preferable to a social distancing fund, citing concerns that “the real killer” to South and City College Birmingham is likely to be losses due to a potential reduction in adult learning come September.

Similarly, Devenny said Luminate Education Group welcomed flexibilities brought in by the Education and Skills Funding Agency in regard to guaranteeing funding during the pandemic and the pause on audits. She would like those flexibilities to continue next year, as well as an increase in adult funding rates.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We recognise the challenges that colleges are facing as a result of Covid-19.

“Our current policy is the costs for wider opening and safety measures should be funded from existing budgets.”

What might a virtual industry placement project look like?

The nature of work was forecast to change well before the virus hit. So instead of thinking in terms of ‘lost months’, let’s take this opportunity to provide students with experience of the new workplace roles, says Bev Jones

There’s no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic is having a hugely negative impact on young people’s education. While the focus remains on getting children back into school and college safely, those of us in FE realise that there will be many wider implications for post-16 education.

Industry placement plays a vital role in preparing young people for work. The work we do with our Career Colleges has real-life interactions with employers at its heart – but the lockdown has brought many physical placements to a standstill. With more employees working remotely and social distancing measures in place, employers have been understandably less willing and, indeed, less able to take students on.

However, we are encouraging our colleges to view this challenging period as an opportunity to change the status quo and to think outside of the box when it comes to providing students with authentic experiences of work.

The reality is that the nature of “work” was forecast to change well before the virus hit. Digital technology has been having a disruptive effect on every sector of industry for some years. The inevitable consequence of this is that businesses will change the way they operate. The Bridging the Digital Divide report from the Open University last year stated that 37 per cent of workplace roles would change in the next five years – and this was without the impact of Covid-19.

The workforce of the future will need increased digital skills, as technology is already changing and impacting every job role. So rather than viewing the current situation as “lost months” – we should be looking on it as a great opportunity to provide students with the chance to experience the impact of these workplace changes first-hand.

Experiencing the physical environment of a good industry placement is of course important. But do not forget that it is also extremely beneficial for young people to have interactions with a range of employers. The Gatsby Benchmark recommends two encounters with employers, but the Career Colleges Trust believes students should have far more exposure to industry. Our colleges offer employer-led curricula, with employers engaging students via projects, masterclasses, webinars, well as physical placements.

Now is a fantastic time for colleges and businesses to work together and develop virtual work experience programmes. These can be delivered effectively through technology that businesses already have established and many employers are already doing this, including PWC and Lloyds.

So what might a virtual industry placement project look like? It might include:

  • An overview of the organisation and sector
  • Insight into different departments of the organisation: this is critical as it is not always covered in the curriculum
  • Roles and careers in the company – hearing from employees on how they have progressed
  • Overview of how technology is used in the industry and opportunity to use technology in a simulated environment
  • Learning about sustainability and innovation through research projects – something that may be used as an interview task
  • Shadowing online meetings with internal teams or external contacts
  • Taking part in projects established before the placement and supported by an industry mentor
  • Digital challenges
  • Learning about the recruitment process from HR teams and experiencing an online assessment centre and interview
  • Webinar on impact of Covid-19 on the employer
  • Virtual tours of facilities

This generic programme can then be adapted for individual industries, such as:

  • A project to develop a menu for a restaurant and present online to the chef
  • Digital design challenges in construction
  • Project on assistive technology in healthcare

Crucially, developing a virtual industry placement programme will not only provide opportunities for students to learn from employers, but will help them develop many other skills. These include developing teamwork, problem solving, decision making, collaborative communication and writing skills. Most importantly, however, it will develop students’ use of technology in a way they simply can’t experience in a classroom environment.

So at a time when young people are facing huge challenges in terms of progressing into jobs, it’s time to do things differently. Colleges must work with employers in a progressive way and make the changes needed to support our future economy.

Remote inspections of ‘paused providers’ will be challenging, but possible

Good planning is key, says Richard Moore, especially for off-the-job inspections

An article in FE Week last week, “Frustration builds as Ofsted refuses to inspect paused providers”, got me thinking about how feasible a remote inspection might be in reality.

I have worked remotely with a number of providers since lockdown, carrying out activities that would normally be part of a full Ofsted inspection – although, I should stress, they have not been “mock inspections” per se.

I also worked before lockdown with the provider featured last week and empathise with the financial concerns of new providers over not being able to recruit new learners beyond the six to 12-month window in which the follow-up full inspection should take place. I also recognise the uncertainty this causes for staff who, in most cases, will have been working hard to get their provision up to that magical “requires improvement” grade they need at their next inspection. This gives them the green light to start recruiting apprentices again.

Let’s look at this objectively. Is it possible to do a full inspection remotely? In my view it is. There will be challenges, but no more so than for providers since the lockdown. They have had to adapt their practice, so why shouldn’t Ofsted – a valid point made by the managing director of one of the providers affected.

The biggest sticking point undoubtedly will be the inspection of off-the-job training. However, with good planning, it is perfectly possible to observe this remotely, particularly if it is one-to-one in the workplace.

And now that learners are allowed back into training centres, albeit with a number of caveats, this could easily be set up for group workshop sessions. Judgments about online learning, now so prevalent, can easily be made by talking to learners, viewing it and talking to managers about the content and sequencing (curriculum intent). And, lest we forget, inspectors often see no off-the job training at all on a full inspection anyway, as its delivery doesn’t coincide with the dates of the inspection, but still have to make judgments about its quality.

Progress reviews can be observed remotely – many providers record them for their own evidence-gathering. This can be backed up, or “triangulated” to use Ofsted parlance, by looking at online copies of completed reviews. Again, Ofsted inspectors often don’t get the chance to see any live reviews during an inspection if they don’t take place on the days they are there.

Telephone interviews with learners and employers are easy to set up: many inspections already feature inspectors telephoning around both parties, having preselected who they would like to talk to to avoid any cherry-picking by the provider. Indeed, on many inspections, Ofsted inspectors do this ringing around from the comfort of their own homes. It’s quiet, they can concentrate, it’s time-efficient and saves on travel and accommodation. A good example of Ofsted already having changed its inspection practice for good reasons.

Inspectors can look at assessed work online with members of staff remotely to judge assessment practice – what is known as “joint work scrutiny” – and can easily interview senior leaders, governors and staff about various aspects of leadership and management, including governance and safeguarding, as well as about curriculum intent. Other paperwork can be viewed online as required.

And if, at the end of all that, Ofsted wants any additional reassurance that inspectors have “got it right”, it could always instigate a one-day follow-up onsite visit, say, six months after the remote inspection. This could involve one inspector evaluating some key lines of enquiry, either specific to that provider or generic to all as per the three themes for the original short monitoring visit that led to the “paused inspection” in the first place.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 321

Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving.

Martin Gray, Board member, Education Training Collective

Start date: May 2020

Concurrent job: Director of Children’s Services, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

Interesting fact: Martin has done both a skydive and bungee jump.

Carol Thomas, Principal, Coventry College

Start date: August 2020

Previous job: Group Director of Curriculum and Performance, Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group

Interesting fact: Carol was awarded the ‘most hilarious moment’ on a trek to climb Mount Kilimanjaro after the camp was woken up one night by screams of ‘get it off me’ when a giant furry caterpillar decided to take a nap stretched across her face.

Shru Morris, Governor, Blackburn College

Start date: April 2020

Concurrent job: Chief Executive Officer, Napthens LLP

Interesting fact: She started life as a chartered accountant and had many education clients including FE colleges and academies.

FE snubbed in ‘corrected’ DfE £1bn catch-up plans

The government is facing fierce criticism for snubbing colleges from its £1 billion Covid-19 “catch-up” package after appearing to include them and other 16 to 19 providers in their initial plans.

Prime minister Boris Johnson and education secretary Gavin Williamson have today launched the funding in a bid to help school pupils catch-up on the teaching time they have lost because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But it has been announced under a cloud of confusion and frustration.

Last night the Department for Education initially won praise from the likes of the Association of Colleges after telling the press that £700 million of the funding would be “shared across early years, schools and 16 to 19 providers over the 2020/21 academic” to “lift educational outcomes”.

But two hours later the DfE sent out a correction which removed the inclusion of early years and 16 to 19 providers and reduced this part of the fund down to £650 million.

The other part of the package is a £350 million national tutoring scheme “specifically for the most disadvantaged” – which was originally set at £300 million.

David Hughes, chief executive of the AoC, said the government is “right to take action to help school pupils catch up for lost time” but it is “indefensible to overlook the needs of the 700,000 in colleges”.

“I expect their exclusion from this announcement to be followed rapidly by clarification on the funding and support for college students,” he added.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said the last-minute exclusion of FE providers was “unjustifiable”.

“Our understanding was that 16 to 19 providers would be able to access at least some of the proposed Covid catch up support.

“However, today’s announcement specifically excludes 16 to 19 providers so we await further clarification on what elements of the package and related funding our members will be able to access.”

He added: “Young people of all ages have shown great resilience in response to the Covid crisis; it would be entirely unjustifiable to exclude sixth form students from the package announced today.”

Toby Perkins, Labour’s shadow apprenticeships and lifelong learning minister, told FE Week the “very fact” that FE was included and has now been excluded is “very revealing about the governments entire attitude towards post-16 vocational education”.

“If this means that there is a plan for schools but not for FE then that would be an unforgivable disgrace,” he added.

“But if in fact what it shows us is that colleges are simply an afterthought and whilst having time for a plan for schools they have not got around to one for the FE sector then that would expose exactly the extent to which FE is not a priority under this government.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the package of support for schools but said that he was “also concerned to see that there is now apparently no funding for early years or 16 to 19 provision, when these sectors are absolutely vital to the future of children and young people”.

He added: “It remains frustrating that we haven’t had the opportunity to discuss any of this with the government ahead of this announcement and that we once again find ourselves having to piece together the detail.”

Pressure has been mounting on the government in recent weeks to produce a proper plan for helping students catch up with the teaching time they have lost after 12 weeks of lockdown.

Meg Hillier, chair of the influential public accounts committee of MPs, accused Williamson of being “asleep on the job” while Johnson has faced repeated questions on the issue during his coronavirus briefings.

Johnson said today that the £1 billion package will help “headteachers to provide extra support to children who have fallen behind while out of school”, adding that he is “determined to do everything I can to get all children back in school from September”.

Williamson claimed the package will “make sure that every young person, no matter their age or where they live, gets the education, opportunities and outcomes they deserve, by spending it on measures proven to be effective, particularly for those who are most disadvantaged”.

The DfE said further guidance will be published “shortly”.

 

Colleges announce free summer food scheme for vulnerable 16-18s

Two colleges have announced they will offer free meals over the summer holidays to their most vulnerable 16-to-18-year-old students.

Cornwall College Group and Yeovil College both made the commitment in the same week the government U-turned on its decision not to provide free lunch vouchers to school pupils during August. The change of mind followed mounting pressure led by footballer Marcus Rashford.

Boris Johnson’s official spokesperson announced the creation of a £120 million “Covid summer food fund” on Tuesday, but the scheme is expected to benefit only students up to the age of 16.

Principal of Cornwall College Group John Evans said: “With the impact coronavirus has had, the pressure on many households has never been greater… Feeding our most vulnerable learners throughout the summer is a vital way we can serve the communities in which we operate.”

He added that the college had “certainly been inspired” by Rashford’s campaign to run its own free meals scheme, which normally ends at the end of the academic year, during the summer.

The Manchester United striker penned an open letter on Monday to MPs about his experience of relying on free school meals, and the Labour party had called an opposition day debate on the issue in parliament on Tuesday, before Downing Street reversed its decision and approved the extension.

Evans said his college was “ensuring the same applies for 16-to-18-year-old learners”.

Cornwall College Group, which has seven sites across the south-west, said it has 192 eligible students. This includes those staying at the group next year as well as those who are finishing their studies this academic year.

It expects the scheme to cost around £26,000, which will be funded from the existing discretionary budget it receives from the Department for Education for offering free meals.

Students will either receive the free meals through payments into an approved personal or guardian’s bank account, or through vouchers for a supermarket they have access to.

Cornwall College Group’s summer food scheme will run from July 6 until September 4.

Yeovil College’s free meals will continue for all eligible current and progressing students aged 16 to 18 who “remain actively engaged in their college learning” during the summer period.

The Somerset-based college said it has ring-fenced money within its own college budget to ensure it is not dependent upon additional government funding to make this commitment.

Principal Mark Bolton said: “I feel strongly that all students are entitled to nutritious food, which encourages and supports positive mental health as a basis for positive academic learning.

“It is key that students feel both empowered and capable of continuing their education during the holiday period, enabling them to maintain strong learning habits and to catch up with practical assessment where necessary to move forwards with their learning.”

FE Week has asked Yeovil College how many students will be eligible for their summer food scheme as well as how the meals will be provided but they did not respond at the time of going to press.

The government extended its national school food voucher scheme, which has replaced school lunches for many disadvantaged children during partial closures, to colleges that were having “practical difficulties” delivering free meals to students during the coronavirus pandemic in term-time at the end of April.

However, colleges had to exhaust their 2018- 19 and 2019-20 free meals in FE and 16-to-19 discretionary bursary allocations and submit a business case to the Education and Skills Funding Agency for access to it.

At the time of going to press the DfE could not confirm the age range that the government’s summer food fund would apply to. A spokesperson would only say that full details will be announced in “due course”.