The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s director of apprenticeships, Keith Smith, is leaving the role later this month.
He will move to the Department for Education as its new director of post-16 strategy.
Smith will be replaced by Peter Mucklow, who is currently the ESFA’s director of further education.
Eileen Milner, chief executive of the ESFA, said Smith will “lead on strategic issues across post-16 provision to deliver the secretary of state’s priorities” and will be working alongside Gillian Hillier, DfE director of careers and further education.
Smith is a civil service veteran with over 20 years’ experience in the education and skills sector.
From 2012 to 2018 he was the ESFA’s director of funding, leading on the apprenticeship funding reforms and the introduction of the levy.
He was then named director of apprenticeships, leading on policy and implementation of the whole system.
Mucklow has over 25 years’ experience working in the education and skills system and is currently responsible for oversight of FE providers.
Milner said she will shortly appoint someone to cover this role and added: “I wish Keith and Peter all the very best as they step into their new roles.”
The Association of Colleges has called on Ofsted to suspend all inspections until at least January 2021 owing to the disruptions caused by coronavirus.
The membership organisation says scheduled inspections should only go ahead where specific concerns have been raised about safeguarding or an inspection is requested by a provider.
Last month Ofsted announced it had temporarily suspended all inspection activity, including publishing reports, until further notice.
The AoC said today that education providers are likely to be closed to the majority of students until September, and will then be focussed on supporting students to “catch up” from an extended period at home and without face to face teaching.
The capacity of colleges and other training providers will be “stretched, and we expect that to affect the whole academic year 2020-21”.
Inspecting during the autumn term would “therefore be unfair”, according to AoC chief executive David Hughes.
He said: “Delaying inspections until early next year is the right thing to do in the current circumstances. Our leaders and staff are working tirelessly to support their students and communities.
“Colleges will be doing everything they can in the autumn term, presuming they can open, to support students to ‘catch up’ and get back into the rhythm and habit of learning.”
He added: “Work will need to be undertaken in collaboration with the sector to consult on the changes required to the methodology once inspections resume.
“When inspections resume the priority needs to be supporting the changes colleges will have made and learning from this unprecedented period of closures and online learning.
“No college should be at a disadvantage due to the fallout of the implications of coronavirus. We will continue to work with Ofsted to ensure that routine inspections work in the best interest of students and staff.”
A spokesperson for Ofsted said: “This is a challenging and uncertain time and all routine inspections are suspended until further notice.
“Restarting routine inspections is a decision government and Ofsted will take in due course.”
College staff do not require personal protective equipment, new government guidance has stated.
The guidance also warns cleaning items such as soap “may be rationed” as the supply chain dries up, and rules out any future coronavirus testing for all educational staff.
“This is needed by medical and care professionals providing specific close contact care, or procedures that create airborne risk, such as suctioning and physiotherapy, for anyone who has coronavirus (COVID-19), and is displaying symptoms.”
If you are “not providing this care to someone with the virus, and displaying symptoms, PPE is not needed”, the guidance adds.
This is because, the guidance states, the virus that causes Covid-19 is “mainly transmitted through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. These droplets are too heavy to hang in the air. They quickly fall on floors or surfaces.”
However the guidance states some children, and those with special educational needs, “may be unable to follow social distancing guidelines, or require personal care support”.
“In these circumstances, staff need to increase their level of self-protection, such as minimising close contact (where appropriate), cleaning frequently touched surfaces, and carrying out more frequent handwashing.”
The Department for Education said it will “shortly publish additional advice for settings caring for children and young people with complex needs”.
Some cleaning items ‘may be rationed’
The guidance states the Department for Education has been working with public sector buying organisations to “understand and address supply chain issues relating to hygiene and cleaning products for state-funded provision”.
It adds: “At this time, the supply chain has flagged that for some products there are reduced volume deliveries, and less frequent deliveries, which means some items may be rationed.
“They are seeking to find alternatives to any products which are out of stock.”
Testing for all staff WON’T be rolled-out
The guidance states that testing has been prioritised for those most at risk of severe illness from the virus, those in hospital care for pneumonia or acute respiratory illness “will be the priority”.
It states is a “member of staff becomes unwell with a new, continuous cough, or a high temperature, in an education setting, they should be sent home and advised to follow the staying at home guidance”.
The guidance states that “wider testing is being rolled out, and priority lists will be set for this”.
It adds: “If critical workers, including education and childcare staff, are tested, this will not be for all staff, but rather for staff with symptoms, in order to enable them to go back to work if they test negative.”
Last month, schools and colleges were told they must keep campuses open to vulnerable children and those of “key workers” indefinitely, including during the holidays where possible, while most people go on an unprecedented nationwide shutdown.
Jess Staufenberg finds herself spellbound by the new principal of Bradford College’s skill for telling an engaging story
It’s a rare interviewee who can narrate their life in so compelling and entertaining a waythat questions become essentially unnecessary, but Chris Webb, the new principal of Bradford College, can do just that. If this Essex boy and experienced sector leader can re-write the story of that struggling institution in as humane a way as he can tell a tale, the staff are in good hands.
Like all natural teachers, he has a habit of turning his past experiences into lessons for the present, and the story of his lorry driver father going bankrupt three times during his childhood is no different. It was an observation in risk that may just explain why Webb has been brave enough to take on Bradford last year, with its humiliating government bailouts, strikes and grade 3 Ofsted rating.
It’s not about success. It’s about what you do in failure to turn it around
“Today my dad would be described as an entrepreneur but I’m not sure they described them like that in the old days in the East End,” he chuckles. “He had three businesses that went broke. Every time he was bankrupt, we had to move out. My mum always said, ‘I lost three houses.’” His father, who suffered from pneumonia and flu, “always dusted himself off and began again”.
The experience made an impression on Webb. “The bit my dad gave me is that it’s not about success. It’s about what you do in failure to turn it around. I’m where I am because I’ve been willing to take risks.” The instability of his father’s work, however, also drove another point home – get an education. It sounds as though his mother deserves serious credit for endlessly bugging Webb about this.
“My mum was always saying, you need to get an education, because my dad dropped out of school so when he went bankrupt, he couldn’t get a job.” It was his mother who spelt it out straight when he failed English O level – “you won’t get a job without it” – and who, when Webb failed his A levels and was working in a betting shop, looked at his friends graduating from university and said “that could have been you, son”. He eventually got the English O level, headed to Havering College of Further and Higher Education to get A levels, and took himself off to university. Faced with moments of failure, Webb appears never to have taken it too personally and set out to prove everyone wrong instead.
Aged 5
Webb also has a great eye for spotting a learning moment in unglamorous places. One of my favourite stories is from behind the desk at a William Hill shop, aged 20. “Being a betting manager is about working out the bets,” he explains knowledgeably. “When people have multiple bets on horses or football results, it’s called ‘crashing the block’ and it’s complicated maths. I used to work it out with a calculator, but these people would know if you’d miscalculated by a penny. These people who had spelt the name of the horse wrong and played truant at school, they were whizzes at math. It instilled in me that anyone can learn anything if you’re interested enough.”
Webb took the hint himself and signed up to study human biology A level at night school in 1991. The deep satisfaction he gleaned from passing is, even all these years later, infectious. “I had an A level! I looked at the brochure and I thought, I’ll do geography this year. So I did another year at night school, and blow me down I passed it! I thought, ‘brilliant, now I’ve got two A levels”. I’ve rarely heard anyone speak with such joy about obtaining their education, qualification by hard-won qualification.
The story of his final A level is more moving. Webb had a sister, smart enough to have studied law before leaving to get married, with whom he was in good-humoured competition about who was cleverest. Together, they studied economics A level, giving Webb his third – and the same grade as his sister. “It ended in a draw!” Webb doesn’t dwell on the sadnesses in his life. His sibling died of cancer in her 30s. Their father followed her five years ago.
Chris competing in the Great North Run
Instead, he focuses on the people who gave him his great chances, many of them women. The first was the lecturer who picked up the phone when he applied through clearing for sport science and IT at Canterbury Christ Church university. It was full, but “she spent about 20 minutes on the line trying to help me find the right course. I thought, if she cares about me now, imagine how much she’ll care if I go there.” Webb held out so he could apply the following year, there also meeting his deeply supportive wife, Belinda.
The next person to give him a chance was Teresa Frith, now senior skills policy manager at the Association of Colleges, who interviewed Webb for his first FE job at Bedford College. “I always say, whatever goes wrong in FE that I’m responsible for, it’s Teresa’s fault,” he chuckles. Stints at the City of Westminster college, which supported him through teacher training, as well as Braintree College under Debbie Lavin (“she taught me loads about management”) followed. Then he saw it – the TES article about Jackie Fisher, fearsome principal of Newcastle College, entitled “I don’t do cuddling”. Fisher is quoted as saying “I don’t suffer fools”.
“I thought, I want to go and work for her,” says Webb. “It was one of the first jobs I’ve ever gone for, where I really wanted it. I remember driving back past the Angel of the North thinking, I do hope I see you again.” He did. “Jackie was one of the most inspirational people I ever worked for. It was tough, of course. I remember one year I had to read my numbers out at the senior leaders’ meeting and we were £0.5 million off target. I thought, ‘this is it then! Well, it’s been good fun.’” But Jackie was understanding. Webb laughs at his surprise at not losing his job, praising Fisher again for all she taught him.
At graduation with family
But an even greater learning opportunity, Webb says, was when he was a “rubbish deputy principal” at South Thames College for two years. He quit. “It was my failure. I can look back now and see why she was frustrated with me.” Sue Rimmer, principal of South Thames, was a strong contrast to Fisher. “Sue was very emotionally intelligent about how people felt. She’d come from a union background – students were important, but so were the staff. It was important to look after employees and I struggled with that after Newcastle.” But, as ever able to pick up a lesson during failure, Webb credits Rimmer with inspiring one of his strategies at Bradford. “Many of the decisions I’ve made at Bradford have been lessons I’ve learned from Sue. Our first strategy is a curriculum for learners; our second is outstanding student experience.” So far, so Fisher. “The third is to be an employer of choice. That wouldn’t have made my top 10 before.”
Whatever goes wrong in FE that I’m responsible for, it’s Teresa’s fault
Throughout our conversation, it becomes clear why Webb has now set himself the toughest challenge of all. Easy routes are not his style – and it may be that the success of Barnsley College, where he was from 2011 until March 2019, did not feel fully earned. Its ‘outstanding’ grade was in place before he joined. By contrast, nobody wanted Bradford College, which in 2018 needed two £1.5 million bailouts in one month – an unheard-of scenario.
“I was the only external candidate. But I wanted a challenge. By 2024, I want Bradford to be recognised as one of the best colleges in the country.”
Webb closes with a final story. “I was with my dad on his last day. He said ‘here son, you know what, your mum and I, we’ve had a laugh, it’s never been dull, and I don’t regret a thing.’
“I could have stayed at Barnsley. I’ve been at Bradford for a year now, and you know what, there’s not been a single dull day. I don’t regret it at all.”
Twenty four apprenticeship providers have been suspended from taking on new starts after receiving poor Ofsted ratings so far in 2020.
In accordance with Education and Skills Funding Agency rules, any new provider found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one area of an early monitoring visit from the inspectorate will be temporarily stopped from recruiting unless there are “extenuating circumstances”.
The register of apprenticeship training providers was updated today and shows that a further 24 providers have been hit with the penalty since FE Week’s last stock take of banned providers in November.
They are among a list of 46 providers (see in full below) that are currently suspended from taking on new apprentices, which is a reduction on the 49 bans reported by the ESFA in November.
Since then, 18 of the 49 have left the apprenticeships register altogether and can no longer deliver the programmes in any capacity.
These are: Biffa Waste Services Limited, Care-Ex Services Limited, Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, E.Q.V. (UK) Limited, Fresh Training Services (UK) Limited, Goodman Masson Limited, Havilah Prospects Limited, Hertfordshire Catering Limited, Mears Learning Limited, Piper Training Limited, Premier Nursing Agency Limited, Right Track Social Enterprise Limited, Securitas Security Services (UK) Limited, HL Training Solutions Ltd, The Sandwell Community Caring Trust, Total Training Company (UK) Limited, WDR Limited, and YMCA George Williams Company.
And nine of the 49 have had their suspensions lifted after achieving at least a grade three in a full Ofsted inspection, or found to be making ‘reasonable progress’ in safeguarding if that was the only area that failed during their first monitoring visit.
These are: Agincare Group Limited, Azilo Training Limited, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, Kingswood Learning and Leisure Group Limited, Prospect Training (Yorkshire) Limited, SSG Services (Est 2003) Limited, The Development Fund Limited, Took Us A Long Time Limited and University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.
The full list of the 46 apprenticeship providers which have current recruitment suspensions as of 7 April (those in bold are new to the banned list since November):
2 SISTERS FOOD GROUP LIMITED
AAA TRAINING SOLUTIONS LIMITED
ACTIVE LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT LIMITED
ALDRIDGE EDUCATION
AMDAS CONSULTANCY LTD
ARRIVA LONDON NORTH LIMITED
ASHLEY COMMUNITY & HOUSING LTD
ASHLEY HUNTER LTD
ASHORNE HILL MANAGEMENT COLLEGE
ASPECTS CARE LIMITED
AZESTA LIMITED
BIOR BUSINESS SCHOOL LIMITED
BRITISH AIRWAYS PLC
CATALYST LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT LIMITED
COGENT SKILLS TRAINING LIMITED
COMPLETE TRAINING & ASSESSMENT LIMITED
CS TRAINING UK LIMITED
DIANTHAS LTD
DIVAD TRAINING LIMITED
E G S NATIONWIDE LIMITED
EMPOWERMENT CENTRE, TRAINING AND CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD
FAIRWAY TRAINING (HEALTHCARE) LIMITED
GENIUS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS LIMITED
GENIUS SOLUTIONS LIMITED
GLOUCESTERSHIRE ENTERPRISE LIMITED
GOWER COLLEGE SWANSEA
HOME GROUP LIMITED
JD ACADEMY LIMITED
KEYSTONE TRAINING LTD
LONDON DESIGN AND ENGINEERING UTC
MANATEC LIMITED
MATRIX SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
NEW MODEL BUSINESS ACADEMY LIMITED
PHOENIX4TRAINING LLP
PRINCIPAL SKILLS LIMITED
PROSPECTS TRAINING INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
RAPID IMPROVEMENT LIMITED
RITA’S TRAINING SERVICES
SOUTH EAST COAST AMBULANCE SERVICE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
Rebecca Long-Bailey has been appointed as the shadow education secretary following a Labour Party reshuffle by new leader Keir Starmer.
Long-Bailey, the MP for Salford and Eccles, takes over the position from Angela Rayner, who was elected deputy leader and appointed chair of the party over the weekend.
Long-Bailey joined parliament in 2015, was previously the shadow business secretary, and came second in the Labour leadership contest.
Following her appointment today, she tweeted to say: “Delighted to be appointed as shadow education secretary by Keir Starmer and thanks to the brilliant Anglea Rayner for her work in this role.
“In this time of crisis I will do my utmost to ensure that our teaching staff, students and their families receive the support they deserve.”
She added: “Never has there been a more important time to fight for a properly funded, accountable, public education service, free at the point of use, from cradle to grave so that all our aspirations can be realised.
“Social mobility is meaningless if we don’t all rise together.”
1.Delighted to be appointed as Shadow Education Secretary by @Keir_Starmer & thanks to the brilliant @AngelaRayner for her work in this role. In this time of crisis I will do my utmost to ensure that our teaching staff, students and their families receive the support they deserve https://t.co/esQ9Z88c1K
According to Long-Bailey’s website, she began her working life serving at the shop counter of a pawn shop, before moving on to call centres, a furniture factory, and as a postwoman.
She later studied to become a solicitor, “where, for many years I acted on behalf of NHS Bodies on a range of governance and contractual issues”.
Since joining Parliament, Long-Bailey has taken part in various debates in the House of Commons that concern apprenticeships and further education.
In June 2016, during a bill hearing on the apprenticeship levy, she said she was “happy to support” the introduction of the policy, but had “some concerns” including the three million starts target.
In November 2015 she took part in a debate on further education and told MPs that “Salford City College and other further education institutions in my constituency have had to battle savage cuts over the past five years”.
She added: “Colleges in my constituency cannot cope with further cuts to their budgets.
“The city college has already had to lose teachers and support staff, make cuts in pastoral care and extracurricular activities, and drop a number of courses just to survive.”
On Saturday, FE Week hosted its second webinar looking at the latest legislation and guidance from the government regarding the response to the coronavirus pandemic, for the FE and skills sector.
Sponsored by Learning Curve Group and presented by Shane Mann, publisher of FE Week, the session included chief executive of the Association of Colleges David Hughes and chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers Mark Dawe.
We also heard from director of Holex Susan Pember, Ofsted’s Paul Joyce, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies Tom Bewick, and Ben Sutherland, a partner at law firm Eversheds Sutherland.
The government has finally confirmed that apprentices can continue with funded training when employers use the job retention scheme, subject to being paid the apprenticeship minimum wage “for all the time they spend training”.
HMRC guidance published today (click here), says: “Apprentices can be furloughed in the same way as other employees and they can continue to train whilst furloughed.
“However, you must pay your Apprentices at least the Apprenticeship Minimum Wage, National Living Wage or National Minimum Wage (AMW/NLW/NMW) as appropriate for all the time they spend training. This means you must cover any shortfall between the amount you can claim for their wages through this scheme and their appropriate minimum wage.
“Guidance is available for changes in apprenticeship learning arrangements because of COVID-19.” Click here
Colleges across the country have volunteered their services to help local communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
FE Week shares some examples, including care home, hospital and food bank donations, crowdfunding and the opening of residential accommodation to NHS staff and rough sleepers.
Care home, hospital and homeless charity helped by donations
A college has donated 40 litres of hand sanitiser, 350 face masks and 1,100 pairs of disposable gloves to a local care home which had a “critical” shortage of equipment in its battle against coronavirus.
Northampton College has also donated food stocks to multiple groups and helped to feed around 100 homeless people a day.
Care home Balmoral Place, which received the personal protective equipment, said the reserves would help keep staff “safe” during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The college’s ICT services manager Andy Seymour, who delivered the goods, said: “We were only too happy to step in and help. We’re all in this together at the minute and anything we can do to ease the situation for others is obviously a good thing to do.
“We are very much the college in the community and we will continue to do all we can to offer our support to those who need it the most.”
Kingsthorpe-based Balmoral Place is a development of 80 homes for elderly people.
Housing scheme manager Jo Robey thanked Northampton College for its donation.
She said: “It is much appreciated and will go towards keeping the staff safe.”
In addition, the college has handed out a number of food parcels to vulnerable families while deliveries of essential supplies were also made to Northampton General Hospital and The Hope Centre.
A spokesperson for The Hope Centre said: “The stock we have received from Northampton College is fantastic.
“With it, we are feeding 100 or so homeless people a day plus people in the wider community who are in need.”
PICTURED ABOVE: Andy Seymour (right) donated face masks, gloves and hand sanitiser to Balmoral Place care home on behalf of Northampton College
More colleges sign up to Food Bank Friday
Ten colleges have now signed up to an initiative that aims to tackle food shortages for the most vulnerable in their communities during the coronavirus pandemic.
London and South East Colleges Group launched Food Bank Friday two weeks ago and have now been joined by Boston College, Central Bedfordshire College, Chichester College, Dudley College, East Coast College, Kingston Maurward College, Loughborough College, Trafford College Group and York College.
Each have pledged to set up their own virtual giving page to raise funds for their local food bank.
LSEC has crowdfunded more than £4,500 and donated three trolley-loads of provisions from its own BR6 Restaurant as well as a chest freezer to a local food bank.
Hospitality and catering student David Harris helping to sort donations from the BR6 Restaurant
The college’s student union has chosen the project as its charity of the year and pledged almost £3,000, which was collected from students throughout the year.
Its president, 18-year-old level 3 health and social care student Daniella Oni-Okeke, said: “Life is not easy for anyone at the moment, but by coming together we can all do our bit to help one another and make a positive difference.”
Lesley Davies, principal of Trafford College Group, said she was “delighted to be part of the FE Food Bank Friday campaign, which is not only bringing colleges together, but represents the important part that the FE sector is playing through this crisis and beyond”.
LSEC chief executive Sam Parrett said it has been “heart-warming” to see colleges coming together to support their local communities amid the “many challenges the last few weeks have thrown at us all”.
“We are living in extraordinary and difficult times and never before has it been more important to help one another. Good can come out of every crisis and that is certainly what we are seeing across the entire FE sector as we pull together in time of need.
“We are calling on all colleges to sign up and get involved in FE Food Bank Friday.”
Kingston Maurward offers free beds to local NHS staff
A college in Dorset is offering free beds to NHS workers during the Covid-19 crisis.
Kingston Maurward College will be hosting around 35 staff members from the Dorset County Hospital in its residential accommodation.
It is understood recipients will primarily be senior doctors and consultants who are isolating from their own families for the coming months. They are set to move in this weekend.
Principal Luke Rake said: “In the midst of World War II, Kingston Maurward was used as a base to support the troops on D Day.
“Today, we may face a different battle but the needs of our community for safety and support are the same. We are determined to provide whatever assistance our front line troops need and are willing, able and proud to help the NHS.”
Principal Luke Rake
He added cleaning and catering volunteers from the college will ensure the staff are cared for.
Nick Johnson, acting chief executive at Dorset County Hospital, told local newspaper the Dorset Echo: “We have been absolutely blown away by the amount of support we have received from the community.
“We really appreciate all they are doing to support our wonderful staff who are working on the frontline to keep everyone safe. We cannot thank everyone enough.”
Residential staff at the specialist land-based college, which has a 750- acre estate, have been looking after animals at the farm, animal park and equine area while students isolate at home during the pandemic.
Kingston Maurward is also operating remote learning for students.
For example, last week foundation studies students took part in an online baking lesson on video conferencing platform Zoom.
Rough sleepers given sanctuary at Somerset college
A college in Somerset is converting part of its residential accommodation into shelter for rough sleepers during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Bridgwater & Taunton College will also offer three meals a day for vulnerable people within the community at its Canonsgrove Hall site.
The college said it is offering the use for as long as it is needed to those who are currently homeless and for whom it is difficult or impossible to shield from Covid-19 exposure.
The initiative is due to start next week. Another part of the site is already housing NHS staff.
Principal Andy Berry said: “We are working to support the most vulnerable in our community during this unprecedented period.
Bridgwater & Taunton College
“While teaching staff have shifted rapidly to supporting their learners online, support staff have risen to the challenge of making the accommodation site safe, comfortable and ideal to protect some of the most vulnerable in our local community and we will continue to explore the ways in which we can best optimise the resources and facilities to support our community moving forward.”
Mark Nettle, director of student services, thanked YMCA Dulverton Group, which will manage the site on behalf of Somerset West and Taunton Council.
He added: “The project has relied on the commitment and collaboration of various organisations, including Raft, the Salvation Army, Open Door, Turning Point and Arc.”
In addition, Bridgwater & Taunton College is supplying the NHS with personal protective equipment from various departments, including the National College for Nuclear.
It is also providing free car parking for all NHS staff and the engineering team is using 3D printers to create spare parts for the local hospital.
