DfE publishes furlough rules for colleges and training providers

The government has this evening published their rules for furloughing staff for colleges and training providers.

Here they are in full:

“Further education and apprenticeship providers include further education colleges, sixth form colleges, designated institutions, independent training providers, adult and community learning providers, and higher education institutions to the extent that they provide further education or apprenticeships. They are funded in 3 main ways: by grant; under a direct contract for services with ESFA; or through a funding agreement with the ESFA (where provision is delivered under a contract for services between a levy paying employer and an apprenticeships training provider, or advanced learner loan funded learning).

Where the provider is continuing to receive public funding through any of these routes they should continue delivering this provision where feasible, including through remote delivery. They should not furlough staff whose salaries are paid from continuing Education and Skills Funding Agency (or any other public) income. This applies to both teaching and non-teaching staff.

We recognise that many providers rely on funding from a mix of public sources and other income streams such as fees, employer contributions and commercial income. Where public income has reduced or non-public income has ceased or reduced, it may be appropriate for providers to seek support from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to furlough staff. Providers should only furlough employees if they meet the following conditions:

  • the employee works in an area of business where services are temporarily not required and whose salary is not covered by public funding
  • the employee would otherwise be made redundant or laid off
  • the employee is not involved in delivering provision that has already been funded
  • (where appropriate) the employee is not required to deliver provision for a child of a critical worker and/or vulnerable child
  • the grant from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme would not duplicate other public grants received and would not lead to financial reserves being created

If it is difficult to distinguish whether staff are funded through continuing public funding, for the purposes of meeting the first 3 conditions listed above, then the total proportion of teaching and non-teaching staff (based on gross payroll) that are retained (for example, not furloughed) should, as a minimum, be equivalent to the continuing public income, as a proportion of all income that the provider usually receives. For example, if the only source of public funding is through a grant, and non-grant income makes up 25% of total income, then this should be the total maximum proportion of staff (based on gross payroll) that could be furloughed.

Where providers consider furloughing staff, they should ensure that they take a fair and reasonable approach to part-time, sessional and temporary staff, reflective of good HR practice and legal requirements.

Where a provider receives Adult Education Budget (AEB), or apprenticeship funding, as part of a direct contract for services with ESFA, and is at risk financially, they may be eligible for support (subject to meeting additional criteria) as part of DfE’s response to the Cabinet Office’s Procurement Policy Note 02/20. Support provided through that mechanism would count as public funding for the purposes of conditions covering the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.

Further guidance on the operation of any supplier relief scheme for providers funded under a contract for services with ESFA will be published when available. Providers should email ESFA.PPN220Queries@education.gov.uk to register their interest in the scheme.

In instances where public funding is not delivered under a contract for services with the ESFA, the Cabinet Officer’s Procurement Policy Note 02/20 is not applicable.

The DfE is considering appropriate measures to monitor use of these schemes in order to detect any duplication of funding, and will be considering potential options to recover misused public funding as required.

Some providers may also be eligible for the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme or Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme. For more information on eligibility, please consult your commercial bank or refer to the financial support for businesses guidance.”

NHS opens coronavirus testing sites on college car parks

College car parks are being transformed into coronavirus testing centres for NHS and care sector workers.

Hopwood Hall College, based in Rochdale, and Preston’s College are among the first to offer up their facilities for the service while they’re closed to the majority of students.

Another, Central Bedfordshire College, has agreed to have two of its car parks used for the same purpose, while London South East Colleges has offered one of theirs to the London Ambulance Brigade.

Hopwood Hall College launched its car park testing centre, built with portacabins and marquee-style tents, on Tuesday after being approached by the Northern Care Alliance NHS Group on 8 April. It is set up to conduct around 40 tests per day, strictly for NHS and health and social care staff.

The service can only be used on an appointment basis.

Principal Julia Heap said: “We are extremely proud to be able to support our NHS colleagues in enabling this to happen so swiftly.”

A college spokesperson added that their students “remain our priority” and they will “continue to assess the situation working with our NHS colleagues”, but they were not able to say how long the temporary testing centre will run for.

Meanwhile, tents were set up at Preston’s College’s main campus on St Vincent’s road on Wednesday.

The “drive-in” facility, operated independently of the college, will initially provide testing for NHS frontline staff and other critical key workers in the form of self-administered and administered tests.

Principal Lis Smith said: “We are extremely proud to provide the additional use of one of our car parks as a testing centre at this crucial time.

“When our staff and learners temporarily moved to home and online working, we decided to offer whatever help we could to the NHS and key workers, providing full access to parking spaces for local hospital staff and visitors.”

John Newton, national coordinator for the UK Coronavirus Testing Strategy, said: “New testing sites such as this one [Preston’s] are critical in supporting NHS staff who are isolating at home to return safely to work if the test is negative.”

Central Bedfordshire College’s principal, Ali Hadawi, told FE Week that his college had agreed three weeks ago for two of its car parks to be converted into testing centres for NHS staff, but they are still waiting to hear back about when it will go ahead.

It is not just testing centres that college car parks are being used for during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sam Parrett, principal of London South East Colleges, said that her group is currently supporting the London Ambulance Service by commissioning its Bromley campus car park to be used for both NHS and military ambulances.

The vehicles are being used to support the extra fleet capacity that is being required during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She told FE Week that there are between 40 and 80 vehicles currently stationed at the college and “we have issued them all with 24/7 access passes”.

“We are delighted to be able to support frontline services in this small but important way,” Parrett added.

Revealed: Training providers supporting new Nightingale hospital

Two midlands-based independent training providers have rushed to the aid of the region’s new coronavirus hospital.

Performance Through People (PTP) and GB Training ran classes for over 300 nursing, care and cleaning staff now working at the Nightingale Hospital at Birmingham’s NEC.

Their teams were called in by the NHS last week to deliver what is now a rare instance of face-to-face training.

“We were giving them training on the basics of everything,” PTP’s managing director Rob Colbourne told FE Week, “so when they started caring for patients, they were multi-skilled”.

The Nightingale hospital was officially opened yesterday by Prince William, and is expected to take coronavirus patients from 23 midlands hospitals.

The trainers adhered to government guidance around personal protective equipment and using sanitisers.

The providers expect to be delivering further training on an “as and when” basis, rather than to a regular schedule, as the hospital staff are “so busy”, Colbourne said.

GB Training managing director Lawrence Barton said he was “immensely proud of our team, for putting themselves forward for this role without hesitation”.

One of his staff members who went to Nightingale, health and social care tutor Tommy Silvester, said he had “an instinctive feeling to try and help people in any way that I can,” so he was “thankful I can do my bit by training excellent frontline staff”.

“It’s a great compliment to be asked to do that,” Rob Colbourne added. “It’s a great feeling at times when there is a lot of bad news, it’s great to feel the company is going to be contributing to something that’s going to be very, very important for the midlands.”

Yet, as happy as they are to support the government’s efforts to fight the virus, PTP has been less than impressed by the support it has received from Whitehall to continue operating.

The provider is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted and turned a £170,000 profit before tax last year, but is now facing “immediate and very serious” cashflow challenges as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak.

Colbourne told FE Week that PTP’s income has fallen in recent weeks after apprentice numbers dropped by a quarter from 1,500 to 1,100 through redundancy and breaks in learning.

Despite constraints, flexibility means assessment of apprentices can go on

Assessing apprentices in lockdown conditions presents unique challenges but collaboration and flexibility will ensure disruption is kept to a minimum, writes Rob Nitsch

End point assessment is no exception to the disruption being felt across the whole apprenticeship sector.

It is inevitable that an activity involving close interaction between apprentices and assessors, and in some cases observation of apprentices at work, is heavily affected by travel restrictions and physical distancing.

There are difficult trade-offs to be made and balances to be struck

The institute is committed to supporting the apprenticeship sector and end-point assessment organisations through this challenge. First and foremost our priority is the health and wellbeing of apprentices and all those involved. A close second is helping as many apprentices to complete their apprenticeship where this is safe, practical and there is the demand from employers and apprentices to do so.

In this, I recognise that it is critical that we balance the desire to keep assessment going with the maintenance of the quality and integrity of the whole apprenticeship system.

So where quality can be sustained, we are committed to supporting end-point assessment organisations to deliver.

Our guidance provides considerable flexibility that enables end-point assessment organisations, working in partnership with external quality assessment (EQA) providers, to deliver end-point assessment more innovatively – for example, using technology to conduct observations or professional discussions remotely; and increasingly using remote proctoring technology to invigilate tests remotely.

Over the last two weeks EQA providers have agreed flexibilities which apply to over 60 standards from actuarial technician to senior equine groom to adult care worker. It is also possible to reorder assessment methods so that written tests or professional discussions can be taken now and the observation delivered later. This is, for example, the approach that has been agreed for the motor vehicle service and maintenance technician standard.

These flexibilities have the potential to allow thousands of apprentices to undertake end-point assessment, despite the current operating constraints.

I would like to thank all those in EQA providers and end-point assessment organisations who have worked quickly and pragmatically to come to agreements about how assessments can be delivered and agree appropriate safeguards which can be put in place.

There are also likely to be a small number of other instances where it may be possible to implement an alternative assessment method without endangering the integrity of the EPA itself. We are taking the views of end point assessment organisations and have established a number of route taskforces to look at specific standards where it might be possible to go further to permit assessment without compromising quality or the outcome.

These task forces will bring together trailblazers, end-point assessment organisations, EQA providers and institute staff to work through the issues and suggest a way forward, if appropriate. These will then be scrutinised and signed off by route panel members prior to implementation.  Of course, if these employers don’t feel that a professional discussion or portfolio can demonstrate competence sufficiently, and that assessment must include seeing the apprentice doing the job, then an alternative method can’t be adopted at this time.

We are, like everyone in the UK, working in ways and taking decisions that we would not have imagined taking even a couple of months ago. In all this there are difficult trade-offs to be made and balances to be struck. I hope that we are broadly getting these right and taking decisions that will allow apprentices to continue to take high-quality assessment and complete their apprenticeships at this time.

DfE becomes only AEB contractor unwilling to introduce coronavirus supplier relief for training providers

The Department for Education now stands alone in failing to introduce a coronavirus supplier support package for training providers funded from the adult education budget.

All seven mayoral combined authorities, which took direct control of £600 million of AEB last August, have scrambled to put together new arrangements for procured providers after the outbreak threw training into disarray.

But the majority of the funding remains contracted by the DfE, from which a spokesperson today simply said they are “continuing to monitor the situation closely”.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), which has a £92 million annual AEB, has today become the last to announce it will make profiled payments to its 17 procured independent providers until the end of June.

Mayor Andy Burnham said providing that financial security to providers will “help them to address the challenges we’re facing”, which will be “vital” for supporting residents in the weeks and months to come.

GMCA’s support is in line with Cabinet Office guidance, released last month, which said public bodies were allowed to pay their suppliers until the end of June, regardless of disruptions or suspensions in service.

The authority, which tendered out £25 million of its budget for procured providers, also said it intends to “provide a level of financial certainty for the remainder of this academic year, subject to any further government guidance”.

David Marsh, chief executive of Babington, a private provider that holds an AEB contract with GMCA,  said he was “really pleased by the support shown by the GMCA to their provider base during this difficult time”.

“This is a really proactive and pragmatic approach and we look forward to hopefully hearing soon about a similar approach towards our national AEB and other contracts to ensure we can support those who really need our support during this difficult time,” he added.

GMCA’s actions are in sharp contrast to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), which said in guidance released last month that private providers would only be paid retrospectively for training they have delivered and can evidence, despite committing to continue to pay colleges for the remainder of the academic year.

An ESFA spokesperson confirmed today that they are continuing to fund independent providers only for training they are delivering.

The government has taken “unprecedented” steps to support individuals and businesses affected by coronavirus, the spokesperson said, including the introduction of the furlough scheme and deferring £30 billion in taxes until the end of the financial year.

They added that the ESFA is “continuing to monitor the situation closely and considering any further action which may be required”.

Another combined authority, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which has an annual AEB of £12 million, has also revealed this week how it is supporting its five procured providers, which hold contracts totalling £2 million.

The authority will be supporting them on a case-by-case basis, but has promised they will all receive their funding allocations as expected in the coming months.

A spokesperson said two of the five providers need extra support to meet delivery targets, so they can access their allocations, but would not quantify this support. Its three other providers have assured the authority they are still able to deliver training.

This approach varies from that taken by a number of other combined authorities, such as the Greater London Authority, which holds the largest AEB of any combined authority with £306 million and promised advance payments to its private providers, which hold contracts worth £32.5 million, until the end of June.

The West Midlands Combined Authority, which has a £125.6 million AEB and tendered out around £28 million, has also promised to make profiled payments until the end of June, regardless of delivery.

Liverpool City Region, which also pledged to pay contracted providers 100 per cent of their funding, has said it will be looking to extend the payments to the end of the academic year in July if the government allows it. It holds a £51.3 million adult education budget, of which around £15 million went out to tender.

West of England Combined Authority told FE Week it would pay providers out of its £14.7 million AEB in advance of delivery until the end of the academic year, but did not say how they could commit to this, bearing in mind the Cabinet Office guidelines only goes up to the end of June currently.

Tees Valley Combined Authority pays all of its providers through grants, so they will all be paid their full allocations until the end of 2019/20.

AoC launches national esports football tournament

A national tournament that will see college students face-off against their peers in FIFA games for the first time has been launched by AoC Sport.

The FIFA 2020 College Lockdown Championship will see learners in teams of three using their Xbox One and PlayStation 4 console to compete against others from across the country weekly from May.

The two best teams will compete to be crowned the ultimate winners in a final on 1 July 2020.

Players from AoC Sport member colleges will go up against each other as well as English Colleges Football Association national team footballers.

It will be run in partnership with the British Esports Association.

Dean Hardman, AoC director of sport and student experience, said many colleges have participated in esports over the past two years and this FIFA lockdown tournament “presents a further opportunity for even more colleges and students to get involved, playing one of the most popular video game titles among students”.

A spokesperson added that with students across the country learning from home as well as potentially caring for family members, self-isolating, volunteering and wanting to socialise over the summer, this competition is an “ideal activity for students to get involved in”. 

Gamers will form teams of three, each playing a 12-minute match in the Ultimate Team mode against opposing teams. There will be nine matches per round to determine the final score with tournaments running concurrently on PS4 and Xbox.

Rounds will take place every week from 13 May 2020, with teams being drawn against other colleges.

AoC Sport is encouraging colleges to appoint a student as captain to take charge of their team, arrange match times with other teams and enter their scores online.

Colleges have until 7 May 2020 to enter their team and submit their top player’s’ names/gaming IDs.

British Esports chair Andy Payne said: “We’re excited to be launching this new competition in partnership with our friends at AoC Sport. In these strange and uncertain times, it’s great to bring the community together virtually and allow students to get involved in something stimulating and inspiring.”

More information can be found here.

New practices don’t add up a new normal for colleges… yet

The rapid transformation of our colleges is a testament to their strengths and any ‘new normal’ must reflect FE’s true value, writes one principal

Nothing that follows is unique to our college so, with the editor’s permission, I anonymise it and hope it goes some way to describing what our remarkable FE sector as a whole is doing in these extraordinary times.

Like all colleges we put together, at great speed, a strategic, coordinated and unprecedented response to COVID-19. Daily (at times it has seemed hourly) we review it, measuring its operational effectiveness, and making necessary adjustments. Like every FE provider, we then adapt what we do further on the basis of emerging advice from government departments and funding agencies.

There will be huge challenges beyond the present ones

More important still, however, has been the practical advice from fellow colleges based on their real frontline experience and with that collaborative networking ethos of the sector at its best. The Association of Colleges has proved its value both as the means of collecting and distributing core information and advice from the national agencies and as an exchange forum for ensuring that no one across 250 FE providers wastes time reinventing wheels or making a case as a lone voice.

College teaching and support staff across the UK will all have been part of setting up IT infrastructure and communications, within a week, to enable online delivery of teaching, learning and support. In our case this was to 6,500 full-time students alone and meant ensuring there was effective remote working for 1,500 members of staff. Teaching teams produced outstanding online learning materials to deliver digital lessons over the same timescale.

In our first full week of operation in this new normal, more than 7,000 online lessons and meetings were successfully delivered. Student levels of ‘attendance’ and participation have been remarkable. Students and staff are being supported through an online information hub with support for remote learning, resources to help manage mental and physical health during social distancing, and advice about what the latest government information on exams and qualifications means in practical terms for students anxious to know how their futures are going to be affected . The scale and complexity of bespoke support provided for SEN and EHCP students is something every college could write volumes on – and perhaps will when time allows, so that this crucial and under-recognised area of our work is celebrated.

Like all colleges who offer prospective students a half hour interview, we have switched entirely to phone or video interviews. Like so many in FE we are supporting the local frontline NHS workers with meals, accommodation, parking and PPE provision, including digital printing of essential kit. We know we are just one of many colleges not waiting for central support to provide what the most disadvantaged students need – including food – but getting on with providing it. The unreasonably technophobic have become acquiescent as Teams, Skype and Zoom come into their undeniable own. The bullishly technophile have, by and large, resisted the temptation to say ‘I told you so’ as we all just crack on with things. The sight of one technophobe colleague managing to appear on screen as if hanging upside down, bat-like, through a three-hour video meeting is an enduring image. No one said anything.

There is a risk that this highlighting of FE’s collective endeavours in the crisis appears to make light of the great anxieties and tensions that so many of its stakeholders are experiencing – whether about future and present finances, their own safety and that of their families, the wellbeing of learners including some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, the national and local economic and employment prospects after the immediate restrictions have been lifted. That is not the intention at all. There will be huge challenges beyond the present ones, challenges in which the need for collaboration and a collective approach across FE colleges will be just as important as it is now, arguably more so. The biggest challenge will perhaps be to forge another, post-crisis, long-term new normal for colleges. We cannot go back to that ‘normal’ of the last decade; we have to ensure that chronic disinvestment in FE – and therefore in skills, in productivity, in our collective and in individual life chances – is never again thought socially or economically or morally acceptable.

But that’s all stuff for another day and another article. For now, as everyone reading this knows, for FE there is more immediate and vital work to be done.

DfE appoints Nick Timothy as non-executive director

Nick Timothy, the controversial former chief of staff to prime minister Theresa May, has joined the Department for Education.

It was announced today that the author and former director of free schools charity New Schools Network, has taken up a non-executive board member role as of last month.

A DfE spokesperson said he would “bring a range of experience that will support our work as we continue to develop our world-leading education system”.

Timothy takes on the position alongside being a member of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee – which he joined following his resignation from May’s team in June 2017 after a disappointing general election for the Conservative Party that saw her lose her majority.

Timothy was largely attributed for the controversial so-called dementia tax in their manifesto. He had formerly worked with May in the Home Office where they launched the hostile environment policy that led to the Windrush scandal.

GCSE and A-level exam results days revealed

Students will receive their GCSE and A-level results on the normal days of August 20 and 13 respectively this year, the Department for Education has confirmed.

The summer exams series has been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis and grades will instead be awarded via teacher calculations, as previously announced by Ofqual.

The government previously said its aim was to provide these calculated grades to students “before the end of July”. 

But school standards minister Nick Gibb said today: “I am pleased to confirm that GCSE and A-level students will still receive their exam results as planned this summer, on Thursday 20 August and Thursday 13 August respectively.

“I want to thank all those who are helping to make this happen despite the challenges we are facing.

“We know that this is an important milestone for students, parents and teachers and so I hope this news will provide them with some reassurance and clarity.”