All schools in England are to be closed to most students from Friday in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

They will stay open for “key workers” and vulnerable children only.

This year’s summer exam series and SATs tests will also not go ahead, with ministers pledging to work with the exams regulator “to ensure children get the qualifications that they need”.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson made the announcement in the House of Commons this afternoon.

“The spike of the virus is progressing at a faster pace than anticipated,” he said.

“After schools shut their gates on Friday afternoon they will remain closed until further notice.

“This will be for all children except to those of key workers and children who are most vulnerable. The scientific advice shows that these settings are safe for this small number of children to continue attending, but asking others to stay away will go towards helping us the slow the spread of this virus.

“Examples of key workers include NHS staff, police and delivery drivers who need to be able to go to work.

“Vulnerable children include those who have a social worker and those with an educational health and care plan.

“We are expecting early years providers, sixth forms and further education colleges to do the same.”

On free school and colleges meals, Williamson said his department will give providers the “flexibility” to continue this offer by allowing them to purchase meals or vouchers for supermarkets or local shops.

He noted that some schools are already doing this and committed to reimbursing those costs.

 

The first college in England to close campuses and move to online learning in response to the Coronavirus outbreak has been revealed.

The Sheffield College said today that all students and the “majority” of staff will study and work remotely by this Friday, March 20, at the latest.

A statement from the college said its leadership team has taken this decision following Public Health England’s latest guidance on social distancing announced yesterday.

Schools and colleges have so far been ordered to stay open by Boris Johnson and his health advisers, despite their recommendation to stop mass gatherings and millions of other employees should work from home.

The Sheffield College’s statement says: “Staff and student safety is our number one priority. Given that we have around 13,000 learners a year, based across six sites, it is important that we look at how we are working to ensure we keep everyone safe.

“As a result of this phased plan, face-to-face meetings, events and trips are being cancelled. The college is doing everything it can to plan for future scenarios including examinations.”

The second planned college closure was also announced this afternoon.

Kendal College, which teaches around 4,000 learners in the Lake District, will close all of its campuses to both staff and students from 23 March until 14 April.

While Kendal College said it has no confirmed cases of Coronavirus, the decision is due to the “current restrictions on social contact, mobility and self-isolation”.

Principal Kelvin Nash said: “Student and staff welfare is our top priority. We are not going against government advice in closing the college, but rather we are upholding its advice in terms of limiting social mobility, and self-isolation.

“The college have no confirmed cases of Coronavirus, however, a number of staff and students are now in isolation due to the more stringent rules announced on Monday evening.

“The increased isolation of our staff has now meant that as a college we can no longer provide sufficient cover for some of our provision, or offer our learners the quality of delivery, service, and standards that they should expect from their education provider.”

During the closure, college lecturers will advise students of the work they are expected to complete, a spokesperson said.

Staff across the college will “continue to support students using blended learning technology, which will enable students to have access to their peers and staff during the college closure period, as well as the potential for workshops via video conferencing, group phone discussions and email”.

The college expects to reopen on 14 April following the Easter break.

Middlesbrough College has also said it will phase out face-to-face learning from tomorrow until at least 19 April.

Principal Zoe Lewis said: “This is a hugely unsettling time for everyone, and we want to reassure our students, staff and the wider college community that we are well prepared and this move to online learning is a sensible precaution in the context of yesterday’s government briefing.”

Earlier today, Association of Colleges boss David Hughes wrote to education secretary Gavin Williamson demanding emergency financial support be made available to keep them afloat during the Coronavirus pandemic.

He estimates that an average college could lose up to £1 million per month of temporary closure and “very few, if any, will be able to cope”.

College leaders are demanding emergency financial support be made available to keep them afloat during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Association of Colleges boss David Hughes has written to education secretary Gavin Williamson today to call for “simple, rapid and clear routes” for his members to secure cashflow support.

He estimates that an average college might lose between £500,000 and £1 million per month of temporary closure or reduced capacity and “very few, if any, will be able to cope without government support”.

Colleges with low cash balances, large student fee income or employer-funded training will be at “particular risk”.

He claims that a “small number” of colleges had to partially close last week or on Monday on Public Health England instructions following positive test cases of Covid-19.

Hughes’ letter states that colleges seek assurance that adult education budget, study programme, apprenticeship and “other DfE/ESFA income, wherever possible, can be guaranteed for the coming months”.

It adds that in the absence of an instruction from the government for all colleges to close, principals “seek assurance that they will be supported in any local decisions to close a college or a campus which are taken in the light of the circumstances”.

“These will include high numbers of staff in social isolation or in vulnerable categories who require social distancing; or outbreaks of the virus amongst staff and/or students; advice from Public Health England and so on,” the letter continues.

“Given the nature of colleges, any temporary closures are likely to be time-limited and partial.”

Hughes also said the decision by Ofsted to suspend all inspections is “welcome”, but it should be “followed swiftly by assurances that data, performance tables, targets and the like will also be suspended for the next few months.

“As many colleges face up to tough decisions about closing their colleges, it may be sensible to discuss a longer Easter shutdown, starting early and/or carrying on for longer to allow for colleges to protect core services and to ready themselves for what looks likely to be a long haul.”

His letter concludes: “At times like this we need to provide as much assurance as we can to people at the sharp end to be able to make decisions quickly, often with limited information, safe in the knowledge that they will be judged for their best intentions, not for any mistakes they might make.”

The Department for Education has been approached for comment.

One of the ‘big four’ accounting firms that trains nearly 1,000 civil service apprentices has been slammed as ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted.

KPMG Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) has now been banned from the apprenticeships market as a result of a damning grade four report published today.

A catalogues of issues, including a lack of unbiased careers advice and poor support for high needs learners with dyslexia, were found for 933 apprentices who all work in government departments such as the Cabinet Office and Treasury.

They study a range of apprenticeship standards like the level 4 policy officer, cyber security technologist and professional accounting / taxation technician.

“Too few” of them “complete the programme, and many leave early”, inspectors said.

“Many” report that they feel “demotivated by the lack of support and very slow response to their requests for information and guidance”.

Apprentices’ curriculum is “not well structured” and “does not support them to develop quickly the knowledge and skills they require”, resulting in the “vast majority” being left behind.

Ofsted found that trainers are “not sure how well apprentices are doing, when they are going to achieve their apprenticeship, and what they need to do to achieve it”.

KPMG works with two subcontractors, QA Limited and Bridgwater & Taunton College, which account for 58 per cent and 8 per cent of apprentices respectively.

Ofsted criticised these partners as they “do not develop consistently well the necessary knowledge and skills”. Leaders at KPMG have now taken over nearly all recruitment directly from the subcontractors as a result.

The watchdog’s report continues: “Apprentices do not consistently receive the hours away from work that they need to study or attend classes.”

Nor do they receive unbiased careers advice. When it does take place, it focuses on the career route within the civil service and does not guide apprentices to understand what is available to them outside of their current employer.

Ofsted also found that facilitators at KPMG mostly fail to order and organise learning “logically” to make sure apprentices build on their skills incrementally.

For example, apprentices who needed to complete the risk element of project management, to be able to complete work activities, had to wait six months until this subject was being taught as part of the group session.

Leaders have “not responded quickly enough to support apprentices who have fallen behind or who have difficulties with their learning”.

For example, an apprentice with dyslexia “did not receive the relevant level of support to help them overcome their difficulties with writing and sentence construction”.

Leaders were praised for working “closely” with managers of civil service departments to create “an appropriate apprenticeship” curriculum to match their specific needs, for example to help apprentices to acquire the skills to contribute to the development of new policy and build up their financial literacy in the Treasury”.

But while governors know well the areas for improvement, they have “not acted quickly enough to ensure leaders put in place the necessary remedial action so that apprentices make the progress that they should”.

KPMG also had a further 134 apprentices who were on degree apprenticeships but were not in scope for this inspection as the higher levels are the responsibility of the Office for Students.

All training providers that are judged ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted typically have their funding contracts with the Education and Skills Funding Agency terminated.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are aware that KPMG’s apprenticeship provision has been judged inadequate by Ofsted and in line with our usual policy, they will be removed from the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers.

“Our priority now is to minimise disruption to apprentices, government departments and employers. We are working closely with employers, to ensure all existing apprentices can continue to access high quality training and complete their apprenticeship.”

They added that it will be each government department’s responsibility to decide whether apprentices will complete their apprenticeships at KPMG or move to a different provider.

A KPMG UK spokesperson said: “We take both the quality and experience of the apprentices on this scheme very seriously and have a robust quality improvement plan in place to rapidly address the issues identified in this report.”

A spokesperson for Bridgwater & Taunton College, which is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted itself, added: “We have reviewed the Ofsted report on KPMG apprenticeship delivery and, while disappointed in Ofsted’s findings, we welcome the identification of specific improvements that will benefit apprentices and employers.

“We are committed to ensuring that learner outcomes meet and exceed expectations and we are working closely with KPMG to implement plans that respond to points raised in this report.”

QA Limited has been approached for comment.

The Department for Education said tonight that college staff who are pregnant should be talking with their line manager about working from home.

Government guidance, published this afternoon, says pregnant women should be particularly stringent to new measures aimed at protecting the most vulnerable groups, including working from home where possible.

However pregnant staff have contacted FE Week to raise concerns over the guidance – which they say conflicts with today’s confirmation that colleges will remain open.

When asked for clarification, the DfE said that pregnant college staff are no different from all other employees and should be speaking to their employer and work from home, if possible.

It appears the final decision has been left to the employer.

Mary Bousted, Joint General-Secretary of the National Education Union, has called for greater clarity from the DfE with advice that applies specifically to schools and college.

Speaking tonight to FE Week, she said: “78 percent of the teaching and lecturing profession are female so the DfE should be alert to this and needs guidance on precautions pregnant staff should take in the context of working, or not, in schools and colleges.”

Bousted was critical of the DfE for “having no answers”, and added: “What the DfE should be doing is thinking about a duty of care to teachers and lectures and education professional and I don’t see that at the moment.”

One school leader, who did not wish to be named, told FE Week: “We’ve taken the view that pregnant staff shouldn’t attend work from tomorrow. The lack of help from the DfE is deafening.”

And a principal running a large college said: “We are recommending our pregnant staff to stay at home. All my focus is on supporting my staff and students but I understand that there’s a balance between medical decisions and staffing ones.

“We are in exceptional times and I’ve not doubt DfE are trying their best but they can’t leave us open much longer and a bigger issue for me is our international students being supported as many can’t return home.”

All routine Ofsted inspections will now be put on hold, sister paper FE Week has revealed.

The watchdog has halted inspections following prime minister Boris Johnson’s announcement earlier today to scale up coronavirus prevention measures.

An Ofsted spokesperson told FE Week they are “putting a hold on all this week’s routine inspections of schools, social care, early years and further education providers.

“We are in discussions with the DfE about the longer-term picture.”

Chief inspector Amanda Spielman said: “I’m grateful for the Secretary of State’s permission to suspend routine inspections.

“It’s clearly the right thing to do when teachers and social workers are under pressure as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. We all need to support them in their work.”

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said he recognises that teachers are “on the frontline of our national effort” and given the pressures on education leaders and their staff, “it is only right that Ofsted temporarily suspends its routine inspection timetable”.

He added that current medical and scientific guidance “indicates that at this stage, schools and other educational settings should remain open”.

However, he said that “if there comes a point when the chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser tell us that closing schools [and colleges] would be in the best interests of children and teachers, we will take this step”.

We are committed to supporting schools to stay open at this difficult time. As part of our measures to help them, we are temporarily suspending routine Ofsted inspections. https://t.co/690QHNKDCi

— Gavin Williamson (@GavinWilliamson) March 17, 2020

The only exception to Ofsted’s inspection pause is if its team “has identified concerns about safeguarding arrangements at the provider”.

If this occurs, inspectors have been “asked to seek advice from Ofsted senior managers to inform the decision to progress, or not, with the inspection”.

A statement from Ofsted added: “For absolute clarity, all monitoring visits and inspections that have started (i.e. those that commenced yesterday), have been stopped and inspectors will not return to provider premises today.

“Providers that have been notified that inspection will commence today or later this week will not now happen. Providers are being contacted to inform them of these decisions.

“Ofsted will be discussing with the DfE as a priority what this new guidance means to our planned inspection activity over the coming weeks and months, and it will update providers as soon as it has clarity.”

 

Oldham Sixth Form College is the first education provider to successfully defer an inspection due to the Coronavirus outbreak, Ofsted has confirmed.

Inspectors were due into the college this week but the visit has now been postponed to an unknown date.

Principal Jayne Clarke said: “We are pleased that Ofsted has agreed to defer our inspection.

“In common with colleges and schools across the country, we are focused on dealing with the threat posed by coronavirus and it would not be appropriate to conduct an inspection in such unprecedented circumstances.”

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, told FE Week that Ofsted “has made the right call”.

“Although colleges remain open, this is not business as usual,” he said.

“Our members are more than usually pre-occupied with ensuring young people are safe and are dealing with a number of unknowns due to coronavirus.

“The deferment policy is welcome, but we believe that all inspections should be suspended during this extraordinary period.”

A spokesperson for the University and College Union also said this was the “right decision” and added that all inspections “should be delayed”.

The news comes as leadership unions prepare to meet ministers for coronavirus crunch talks today, which will decide next steps for education providers.

On Friday, Ofsted released new guidance stating that it will talk to principals and chief executives before inspections to work out if the impact of coronavirus warrants a deferral.

The advice said the impact of the disease could be considered an “exceptional circumstance” warranting a postponement.

On Saturday, the watchdog’s national director of education, Sean Harford, told the Association of School and Colleges Leaders’ conference that the chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, will personally sign off any decision not to defer inspections of providers affected by coronavirus.

The leader of the ASCL, Geoff Barton, has since joined calls for the government to immediately suspend Ofsted inspections.

Ofsted’s guidance explained that the spread of the virus “presents serious challenges for providers that are affected”.

“In line with the potential for this to be an ‘exceptional circumstance’, we will carry out a risk-assessment with the providers when we announce the inspection. This will give the leaders/managers of providers the opportunity to inform Ofsted about any current coronavirus impact on their provision.

“Using this information, we will make an assessment and a deferral decision, as appropriate. When inspections go ahead, inspectors will be sensitive to increases in user absence or absence of key staff, and will reflect this in the inspection report.”

Ofsted has also issued new guidance to its inspectors, stating that the “first point” of discussion for lead inspectors when they phone education providers about future visits will be the “current and potential impact of coronavirus on the operations of the provider”.

The Department for Education’s top civil servant has been quizzed before an influential Commons committee on £680 million university technical college building costs, equivalent to £50,000 per pupil.

Jonathan Slater, the department’s permanent secretary, was taken to task at a hearing of the Public Accounts Committee held after the National Audit Office released a report into the UTC programme last October, which found ten of the 58 UTCs which opened between 2014/15 and 2018/19 had closed.

MP Richard Holden, who up until his election in December was a colleague of Slater’s as he was a special advisor to education secretary Gavin Williamson, highlighted that the DfE spent £742 million opening new UTCs, which at the time of the report had around 13,500 places occupied.

As around 86 per cent of that was for capital funding, Holden put to Slater that meant “capital for each of these new schools is over £50,000 per pupil for these new schools”.

Slater countered: “Well it would be if we hadn’t made alternative use of the capital of UTCs that have since closed,” adding that one of the DfE’s tasks whenever a UTC closes is to make sure the capital is spent.

“We want to make sure that all of that capital – land, buildings, equipment – is reused.”

And as eight of the UTCs were being reused, Slater argued that while the capital is not being spent on the UTC pupils, it is being spent on other children.

But although that had been the case with eight of the UTCs to have closed, they were still in negotiations over two which closed last summer – UTC@Harbourside and South Wiltshire UTC.

Slater also revealed the DfE had relied on a controversial group of cost-cutters to manage UTC spending as there had been questions about whether they could be using their resources “more efficiently”.

“School resource management advisers” had been into most of the UTCs, 33 in total, and identified £10 million-worth of savings – £4.3 million of which has been achieved.

The advisers were the brainchildren of former DfE minister Lord Agnew and are contentious due to recommendations seen by FE Week’s sister newspaper FE Week, which showed the advisers telling schools to save money by limiting lunch portions and by using spare staff to cover lessons, instead of supply teachers.

The committee also quizzed Slater on the £28 million in transitional funding which had been pumped into UTCs since 2016. Committee chair Meg Hillier MP asked him if he was happy with the funding to keep the schools afloat.

He answered yes, as although it is impossible to imagine a world where government would decide against “innovating with a new set of schools designed to take children halfway through their secondary career for non-academic curriculum.

“You could decide not to do that, then my task is easier, but I did not take this job because it was easy.”

Transitional funding, the NAO report said, was used to keep UTCs running following a DfE review in 2015. It is normally paid in annual instalments of £200,000, and is often given to the colleges who join multi-academy trusts.

The NAO’s report also found that the 48 open colleges were operating at 45 per cent of capacity by the end of January 2019.

Slater said if you do find a significant number of schools which are not full then “my job is to make sure I am not throwing good money after bad”.

Instead, he said he is putting funding into a system which he thinks “can be sustained”.

“Ten have closed. We have only agreed to open one UTC since 2015 and it hasn’t opened yet. Three have applied for funding but that doesn’t mean they are going to get it.”

Ofsted this morning published their contested grade four report into Shrewsbury Colleges Group, expressing concerns that “not all students feel safe”.

The college will be “appealing against the safeguarding grade” and appear to be accusing the Ofsted national team of “overruling” their regional colleagues. See their full statement below.

Shortly before 9am the report was removed from the inspectorate’s website but it has since been published, here.

While ‘behaviours and attitudes’ and ‘leadership and management’ have led to an overall ‘inadequate’ judgement, the rest of Shrewsbury’s provision has been rated as ‘good’.

Inspectors first identified safeguarding concerns during a visit to the college in November, but following a complaint they declared the inspection “incomplete“.

Ofsted revisited Shrewsbury last week, but found that the same safety concerns persist.

Today’s report said a “small number of vulnerable students described not feeling safe and feeling intimidated around the college”.

And “some staff” reported that they “did not feel equipped to deal with challenges they may face when interacting with students and learners”.

The college’s response in full:

“Shrewsbury Colleges Group has today 16 March 2020 responded to the publication of a report of its recent Ofsted inspection.

Principal James Staniforth said: “We are bitterly disappointed and extremely surprised that Ofsted have concluded that safeguarding processes at the college are not effective despite the wealth of evidence to the contrary.

“We particularly cannot understand how Ofsted can disregard the judgement of the police when it comes to the safety of the college and the effectiveness of our practices.

“Furthermore, the safeguarding grade makes little sense in the context of:

1. The broader report, in which Ofsted rate all other provision as Good
2. Recent expert opinion. Since Ofsted’s visit:

• An independent review of safeguarding at the college, undertaken at the request of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), concluded that ‘campuses are safe places to learn, work and to visit’, ‘there is a strong culture of safeguarding’, ‘every effort has been made to ensure safe sites and safe students and staff’ and the college is ‘one of the safest in country’.
• West Mercia Police have confirmed that they have ‘no concerns’ regarding any of the college’s three campuses and that the college works ‘in close partnership’ with West Mercia Police ‘to safeguard young people who may be vulnerable to being exploited’
• The Shropshire Safeguarding Partnership have said that they ‘felt assured of the effectiveness of their safeguarding arrangements’ at the college.
• An Education and Skills Funding Agency audit of college safeguarding training for all staff concluded that they were ‘completely assured’ by the work of the college.

“We seek to continually improve our processes and our excellent staff work very hard to ensure students are kept safe. The college has taken this area of its responsibilities very seriously indeed and we do not understand why evidence has not impacted on the judgement.

regional office had to be overruled by the national office

“We have strategic, clear and consistent expectations and procedures to mitigate and reduce risks in relation to campus sites and the potential for students to be exploited. The vast majority of our students and staff feel safe. Health and safety practices are consistent, and we provide a significant programme of training to help students keep themselves safe online and in their local communities.

“We will be appealing against the safeguarding grade of the report on the grounds that Ofsted’s processes in relation to this particular inspection were gravely flawed and unlike any that we have faced as an experienced senior team.

“During the inspection process, important decisions relating to the evidence to be considered, findings and publication made by the regional office had to be overruled by the national office. The inspection was reopened on the grounds that the findings of the original inspection lacked credibility and reliability.  When the inspection team returned, it became very clear that a pre-conceived result was required and evidence to the contrary was to be ignored.

 “Moreover, the report appears to have significant and worrying implications for the broader further education sector.

“The safeguarding grade is informed by ‘a small number of students not feeling safe’ and ‘some staff’ reporting that they do not feel equipped to deal with challenges. This raises serious questions as to whether Ofsted requires 100% of students and staff to feel safe and confident respectively – a completely unrealistic expectation.

“The report raises the issue of ‘access to campus sites’ and ‘potential’ threats to students, not actual threats, the inference being that colleges like ours need to put up fences around all our sites. This in turn has major implications for FE estate management.”