The cost of managing and administering the adult education budget for the Greater London Authority has shot up to almost £5 million – including £300,000 for a new learner survey.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was criticised by college principals last year after he took control of the £311 million AEB for the capital but announced plans to top-slice £3 million of it annually to hire and pay the wages of 50 new bureaucrats to dish out the fund. 

New agenda papers for an AEB mayoral board meeting that was set to take place on July 1 have now revealed that expenditure “of up to £4.93 million to cover management and administration of the AEB for the 2020-21 financial year” has been requested.

A spokesperson for the mayor of London told FE Week that the same cost for the 2019-20 financial year, which covered staffing, legal services and provider engagement, came to just £1.8 million – but this only covered the period August 2019 to March 2020. 

The £4.93 million for this full financial year will include £3 million for 53 administrative staff who form a skills and employment unit, with the rest being spent on contract management systems, research and evaluation, provider audits, legal services, provider engagement, and board and governance support. 

Asked to defend the costs, which are siphoned from frontline learning, the mayor of London’s spokesperson said: “We constantly monitor AEB funding to ensure it is allocated as effectively as possible. 

“The mayor has committed that any savings from the administration budget will be reallocated directly to learning provision.”  

A chunk of the £4.93 million – around £300,000 – has been earmarked for the development and pilots of the GLA’s “largescale” AEB learner survey. 

FE Week reported in January that the authority was planning to become the first devolved area to launch a regional survey to measure the impact of AEB provision across the capital.

A feasibility study has since been run and the GLA plans to pilot the survey in 2020-21, with “full-scale” delivery scheduled for autumn 2021.

It would likely be in addition to the three separate surveys already undertaken annually by colleges, contractors on behalf of the Department for Education and by Ofsted during inspection.

While the GLA told FE Week around £300,000 would be used this year to develop the survey, it is not clear whether this will be the total cost of the survey. 

The GLA was one of seven mayoral combined authorities with deals to handle AEB spending in their regions from 2019-20.

The six other areas were the West Midlands, Liverpool City region, Greater Manchester, the West of England, Tees Valley, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. 

A further combined authority will take control of their AEB from 2020-21: North of Tyne.

The Department for Education has revealed it is considering allowing adult learners to return to college before September ahead of the full re-opening of FE providers.

It comes after the Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said “it cannot be right adults can go to the pub with their mates” from July 4, but they “cannot undertake an assessment to complete their construction course”.

After FE Week put his complaints to the DfE, a spokesperson said each step to full college opening until September “needs to be taken carefully in line with the scientific advice, and we are continuing to look at whether some adults can return earlier”.

The government announced earlier today it was their intention for providers to welcome back all 16 to 19 and adult learners in the autumn.

But earlier guidance from the DfE outlining plans for a wider opening of colleges for year 12 and equivalent students from June 15 said 16 to 19-year-olds should be prioritised. The guidance was later updated to “clarify that we would not normally expect adults to be included in the cohort returning to on-site delivery from 15 June”.

2020-21 will be an exceptional and difficult year

Hughes protested the Department for Education “must look urgently into how they safely bring adults back into education and training”.

The AoC also today called on the Education and Skills Funding Agency to “clarify funding rules that will allow colleges to deliver all that is being asked” for their full opening.

Explaining this further, a spokesperson for the membership organisation told FE Week: “Our main concern is that ESFA needs to confirm that changes to planned teaching hours and work experience will not automatically result in a cut to 2021-22 or 2022-23 allocations via the normal operation of the funding formula.”

It may not be possible for colleges to deliver on their adult education budget allocations, the association also warned, as exemptions introduced in April, where the ESFA would not clawback unspent funds from their AEB-funded providers for 2019/20, will cease at the end of this month.

There are also concerns around the implications of any future lockdowns on attendance at some colleges, and around how current rules do not fully facilitate a blend of classroom and online learning.

“2020-21 will be an exceptional and difficult year,” the association spokesperson said. “If the ESFA does not fine-tune its funding or intervention approach then some colleges will need to accelerate redundancy plans in autumn when the real need will be for them to step up activity to support the recovery.”

Bradford College last week announced 107 jobs would be axed after their application for supplier relief support was turned down by the ESFA – a decision principal Chris Webb called “short-sighted”.

The Department for Education has this morning published guidance on what FE colleges and providers will “need to do” to fully reopen from September.

It confirms that the intention is to welcome back all learners, including adults as well as 16 to 19 year olds.

Critically, the DfE said there will be “no set requirement” to make cohorts “smaller than a normal class size”.

They added that remote education “may need to be an essential component of delivery” for some students, alongside classroom teaching.

Routine Ofsted visits will also not resume until 2021 under plans for the full reopening of schools and colleges set out by education secretary Gavin Williamson, who will lead a press conference at Downing Street later today.

It comes just two days after skills minister Gillian Keegan told Parliament that in order to limit the risk of increasing the rate of transmission, scientific advice “indicates that we need to take a phased approach that limits both the number of young people in attendance and how much they mix with other learners and staff”.

Today’s guidance states that a full return in September is now “possible” because “we are continuing to make significant progress in tackling the virus” and the “balance of risk is now overwhelmingly in favour of young people and adults being able to take part in a full education, including attending on site”.

The guidance for FE providers sets out six “prevention” steps that providers “must take”.

It includes advice on “minimising” contact with individuals who are unwell, ensuring that learners and staff clean their hands regularly, promoting the “catch it, bin it, kill it” approach, and creating separate “bubbles” to reduce the number of “contacts” between learners and staff.

Providers must also consider how to “limit use of public transport” for students, by “encouraging” walking, cycling and “other forms of active exercise where appropriate”.

Staggered start and finish times to should also be implemented.

By the autumn term, FE providers will be provided with a “small number” of home testing kits that they can give directly to staff or learners who have developed symptoms on-site.

The DfE is sticking with its advice that the “majority” of staff in education settings will not require personal protective equipment (PPE) beyond what they would normally need for their work.

PPE may only be needed in a “very small number of cases”, including hairdressing courses and where an individual becomes ill with coronavirus symptoms while on site, and only then if a distance of two metres cannot be maintained.

The guidance goes on to say that while “most” staff will have to come onto campus to teach from September, leaders should identify those who can work from home, such as in administrative roles, and allow them to do so if “feasible”.

In terms of education delivery, the DfE “expects” colleges and providers to “provide a full programme of study and training offer for learners of all ages from your normal term start date in September 2020, including those with special educational needs and disabilities”.

Leaders must also decide the “appropriate mix” of face to face and remote delivery, adding that post-16 learners are “more likely to undertake self-directed study but may still need additional support, you should make sure that planned hours meet the relevant funding guidance”.

They should also “assess” the gaps in learners’ knowledge and skills they may have missed as a result of lockdown early in the autumn term, focusing on the “most important content and prioritise this to help learners to catch up”.

Remote education may “need to be an essential component of delivery for some pupils, alongside classroom teaching, or in the case of a local lockdown,” the DfE continued.

“You are therefore expected to plan to ensure anyone who needs to stay at home for some of the time is given the support they need to make good progress.”

If young learners are unable to access remote digital education, such as if they do not own a laptop, the DfE urged colleges to make use of the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund that provides “financial support to help learners overcome the specific financial barriers to participation they face so they can remain in education”.

Risk and health and safety assessments must be reviewed and updated over the summer.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, welcomed the “flexibilities” in the guidance and said he was “pleased to see that colleges can continue to deliver a blend of online and face to face learning if that is what is best for students”.

“Some colleges will want all students to return in the autumn, but transport remains a major barrier to that.”

He added that the guidance on forming groups is “likely to be a lot harder to implement in colleges than schools, given there are often thousands of students in individual year groups, but again the flexibility in the guidance is welcome”.

Leading post-16 providers that teach students with special educational needs and disabilities have been recognised for excellence in the sector at the inaugural awards of specialist further education organisation Natspec.

There were over 50 entries to the six categories, which included partnership working and innovative use of technology – the winners of which were announced at a virtual ceremony held over Zoom this morning.

Natspec chair Bernie White said the organisation had seen throughout the Covid-19 crisis that staff have been adapting practice, refining expertise and learning new skills to support students.

“I’m sure all the work we’re celebrating today will continue to be relevant as more students return to college.”

Chair of the judging panel, former Her Majesty’s inspector for FE and skills Nigel Evans, said it was a “privilege” to judge the awards, as the standard of the submissions was “very high and demonstrates the innovation, expertise and creativity within the specialist further education sector”.

The innovative use of technology award was given to Derwen College in Shropshire for its ‘support work apps’, a series of unique apps for tablets and mobile phones which support students with special educational needs and disabilities into work.

Evans, who judged this category, said Derwen’s work “showed a strong use of partnerships resulting in products that are easy to use, professional in appearance and will be easy to transfer to other employment settings”.

The pathways to employment award went to Yorkshire provider Camphill Wakefield, for having an “aspirational” pathway into employment embedded into the curriculum, which included vocational profiling, job-matching, in-work support and careers guidance.

Former principal of specialist provider Foxes Academy, Tracey Clare-Grey, who judged this category, awarded it to Camphill because “expectations of employment are embedded into learning” so“students are supported into employment”.

Welsh provider Coleg Elidyr won the student voice award for its student forum, which was used to influence organisational quality improvement.

Natspec’s Sarah Lazlo, who judged this category, said she was “particularly impressed” with the provider’s commitment to engaging lower-level learners in decision-making.

“All learners have been placed firmly at the heart of decision making at the college,” she said.

The wellbeing and mental health award was won by Ambitious College in London for its work in occupational therapy. This included a dedicated TV channel, bespoke curriculum, and weekly yoga sessions.

The judge for this award Helen Brooks, who helped develop the SEND Code of Practice while working at the Department for Education, called it a “really innovative idea” which had an impact across the whole college.

In the inter-disciplinary working category, which recognises joint-working between different disciplines within an organisation, the award was given to National Star College in Gloucestershire for its “Right Time, Right Place” initiative, which introduced a personalised learning co-ordinated tutor role to improve consistency across the college, which judge Pete Vickers, who has spent 30 years working in FE and specialist provision, said had meant “great progress” for learners and staff.

Wargrave House LEAP College won the partnership working award for its ‘post-16 and friends of Lyme and Wood community’ project, a collaboration between college and community groups to provide a range of work experience opportunities, including setting up a community allotment and working in a pop-up café.

Judge Yolande Burgess, who leads on young people’s education and skills for London Councils, said the college’s students are “integral to the community benefit of maintenance and development of park land”, and skills development is “built into” opportunities linked to learning goals and outcomes.

The award ceremony was closed with a medley performed by Coleg Elidyr’s virtual choir (pictured), which included songs from Bob Marley, The Jungle Book and Mary Poppins.

The full list of winners:

• Innovative Use of Technology – Derwen College
• Pathways into Employment – Camphill Wakefield
• Student Voice – Coleg Elidyr
• Wellbeing and Mental Health – Ambitious College
• Inter-disciplinary Working – National Star College
• Partnership Working – Wargrave House LEAP College

Leicester College is to close from today as part of the country’s first localised lockdown following a flare-up of Covid-19 cases in the area.

On Monday evening health secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons that the seven day infection rate is 135 cases per 100,000 people in Leicester, which is three times higher than the next highest city.

He then announced the closure of non-essential retail and schools in the area from Thursday  to all but vulnerable children and children of key workers.

Leaders of Leicester College, the only general FE college in the area, met yesterday to discuss how they should proceed and have today confirmed they have closed all of their buildings.

Principal Verity Hancock said: “Leicester College has taken the difficult decision to close from July 1 due to the reimposed lockdown conditions. The situation will be reviewed in two weeks, in line with government advice.

“This is very disappointing news for staff, students and apprentices who have worked so hard to prepare for important assessments and exams, but we must play our part in keeping everyone safe and helping to beat this latest COVID-19 outbreak.”

She added the college will continue to prepare for what they “all hope” will be a full reopening in September.

All colleges closed to all but vulnerable students and children of key workers on March 23 but were allowed to begin reopening to more students from June 15 as national lockdown measures eased.

Leicester College started its wider reopening on June 24 by inviting students and apprentices “who are required to complete a practical or written assessment, under strict conditions”.

The college had carried out a deep clean of all buildings, installed screens at visitor/information desks and hand sanitisers around campuses, with one-way systems being created to allow for social distancing.

Classrooms had also been assessed and capacity in rooms was reduced to ensure appropriate social distancing measures.

Further information on the college’s website about the local lockdown states that all assessments are “now postponed” and “if you have previously been contacted to come into college you should not”.

Gateway Sixth Form College is also based in Leicester and has also decided to close following the spike in Covid-19 cases.

Principal James Bagley told FE Week: “We will continue to prioritise the health and wellbeing of our community and to do all we can to ensure that infection rates are brought back under control.

“It is with regret that this will probably mean the college will not now open to students prior to the start of next academic year.

“Pastoral and curriculum staff will continue to support learners remotely, as they have done since the college closed to students in March.”

Government guidance for educational and childcare settings affected by the Leicester lockdown can be found here.

Paul Eeles and Terry Fennell, the chair and vice-chair of the Federation of Awarding Bodies respectively, are to step down from the positions at the end of the year.

The pair have each served two terms – seven years – on the board and will officially leave the membership organisation at their next annual general meeting in December.

A statement from the FAB board said they will put in place a succession plan over the summer and a further announcement will be made in the autumn.

Eeles (pictured above left), who is also the chief executive of the Skills and Education Group, joined FAB as a board member in 2013 and became chair in 2016.

He said it has been an “honour and a privilege to serve on the FAB board for over seven years and to have been its chair for just over four years”.

“When I was elected chair my overriding goal was to ensure FAB was sat around the right tables with agencies and government on behalf of its members, representing the collective voice of the awarding sector on the issues which impact directly on members and the learners and stakeholders they serve,” he continued.

“Together as a board, staff and membership we have achieved that. I am proud of our achievements. This now feels the right time with a strong staff and board to step down.” 

Fennell (pictured above right), the chief executive of awarding body FDQ Ltd, also joined the FAB board seven years ago and was elected vice-chair in 2016.

“I have really enjoyed serving as vice chair at FAB and I have learnt so much from the various apprenticeship and technical interest groups that I was fortunate to oversee these past few years,” he said.

“It has also been a pleasure supporting Paul as chair and you could not find a more committed and passionate advocate to represent the interests of the awarding sector. I wish Tom, the hardworking federation team, the board and indeed all FAB members the very best in the future”

Tom Bewick, chief executive of FAB, said: “On behalf of the whole staff team, past and present, I would like to say how fortunate the organisation has been to have been led and supported at board level by Paul and Terry, who both care so much about the future of UK awarding, apprenticeships and assessment.

“When I came into post just over two years ago, they communicated a very clear vision of where FAB needed to develop. It is a great credit to them both and their leadership skills that they retire from the board having created a far more innovative and influential industry body.” 

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has confirmed it will apply a cap on the volume of subcontracting as it moves to “significantly” reduce the practice in further education.

A new externally assessed “standard”, which all providers will need to meet in order to subcontract ESFA funds, is also to be introduced to tackle “poor oversight and fraud”.

Other areas that will change include “acting on the use” of brokers to “sell on” provision to subcontractors, and placing “restrictions and limits” on types of subcontracting that have been identified as higher risk.

Providers will also need to gain “prior approval” for geographically distant 16 to 18 study programme provision from 2021/22.

The agency made the announcements today as part of their response to their subcontracting consultation that was run earlier this year.

ESFA chief executive Eileen Milner previously wrote to the sector highlighting concerns about the “continued rise” in cases of fraud linked to subcontracting arrangements managed by agency.

She said today: “I have been clear that the current arrangements in place for subcontracting were not going far enough from an agency, accounting officer and sector perspective.  

“We must all be satisfied that public money is being managed properly.

“The changes ESFA is introducing will strengthen oversight by lead providers and give confidence that the limited subcontracting that is necessary in the future evidentially and defensibly meets the needs of specific learners or employer, is of good quality and is managed responsibly by the lead provider.

“We will work with the sector to test and implement these changes gradually to ensure that the outcome for learners is central.”   

The cap value has not yet been decided. The ESFA will “take forward work” this academic year to establish the “right threshold for that cap and timescales for a staged reduction”.

The consultation had said it should be a cap of 25 per cent of a provider’s ESFA post-16 income in 2021/22, and further reducing that percentage to 17.5 per cent in 2022/23 and to 10 per cent in 2023/24. But most respondents disagreed with the proposal.

Going forward, all providers’ corporations and boards who choose to subcontract will also have to publish a “curriculum rationale for their limited subcontracted activity”.

FE Week analysis of ESFA data shows that subcontracting accounted for £650 million in government funding for adults in 2018/19, and the practice fully or partially funded 25,230 students aged 16 to 19 at 587 subcontractors.

The ESFA’s consultation received over 400 responses. The agency said the “majority” of its ten proposals were supported.

These included the “requirement for a clear curriculum rationale; control of the volume and value of provision delivered by subcontractors; simplifying third party arrangements with specialist providers such as sport; rationalising funding rules; requiring the publication of fees and charges across all funding streams; and the introduction of an externally validated standard”.

The implementation of these reforms will begin in time for the next academic year, but they will be phased in over the next three years until 2022/23 to “allow for a period of adjustment”. 

A single subcontracting “reference guide” that will contain the rules that apply across all provision types will be published by 2021/22.

The ESFA said it will be setting out the detail of these reforms “later this year”.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe said: “The foremost priority in the regulation of subcontracting should be maximising the amount of public money that reaches frontline delivery of learning and our initial response to today’s announcement is that the ESFA is taking a measured approach towards achieving this aim.

“It seems to largely mirror the changes we saw with apprenticeships when the levy was introduced.”

He added that the AELP “especially welcomes” the renewed commitment to crack down on brokerage, but “we remain perplexed as to why the agency doesn’t join the combined authorities in imposing an outright 20 per cent cap on management fees.

“We still hear too many cases of subcontractors being held to ransom over the level of fess in order to retain business.

“At least we will see a return to greater transparency with the requirement on providers to publish the details of their subcontracting arrangements.”

The prime minister has promised to offer an “opportunity guarantee” that will give “every young person the chance of an apprenticeship or an in-work placement” to boost the economy after Covid-19.

But details of how this policy would actually work or how much it would cost are not yet known.

Boris Johnson delivered a speech at Dudley College this morning to launch a “new deal” which accelerates £5 billion on infrastructure projects across the country to “build build build”.

He said that for a “century we have failed to invest enough in further education and give young people the practical training and further education they need” before reiterating that the government will invest £1.5 billion for refurbishments to “dilapidated” college buildings, starting this year.

The prime minister then said: “We will also offer an opportunity guarantee, so that every young person has the chance of an apprenticeship or an in-work placement so that they maintain the skills and confidence they need to find the job that is right for them.”

Johnson has previously said he thinks that every young person should be given an “apprenticeship guarantee”.

Responding to today’s speech, Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe said: “The fact that the prime minister sees work placements as a key part of a new opportunity guarantee for young people is an important step forward and we recently submitted at the government’s request what has been holding back the highly effective traineeship programme from taking off.

“We believe incentives for SME employers will be needed.”

It was reported by The Sun yesterday that chancellor Rishi Sunak could be about to announce handouts of £3,000 to employers  for each apprentice under the age of 25 they hire.

Dawe said the AELP “does not believe that the floated £3,000 employer incentive is going to cut it”.

“To meet a 50 per cent wage subsidy, the subsidy for a young apprentice in their first year should be around £4,000 and up to £7,500 in second year depending on their age,” he added.

Johnson said today that Sunak will provide an update on his economic recovery strategy next week.

Following today’s speech, the Department for Education said the “guarantee” involves several government departments, and the detail is still being finalised.

They added that the basic premise is that they recognise the substantial risk that some young people who would usually enter the labour market this year will find themselves unemployed.

Number 10 was also approached for comment.