Unions have fired off a Covid-19 “liability” warning shot to school and college leaders – quoting the health and safety laws “you are exposing yourself to by following the current deeply flawed guidance”.

A joint letter, seen by FE Week, from the National Education Union, Unite, Unison and GMB was sent last night to headteachers and principals of college groups with schools to make clear that the Department for Education has placed the wider reopening from June “on the shoulder of the employer and on you”.

It reminds them that the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, as well as four other pieces of legislation, “places a duty on employers to ensure the health, safety and welfare” of their staff and students before stating the unions will be advising members of their “legal rights should any member contract Covid-19 upon returning to school”.

“We believe it is important you fully understand the potential liability you are exposing yourself to by following the current deeply flawed guidance,” the letter added.

Multiple education unions have warned against the government’s plans for schools and colleges to start their wider reopening from 1 June, citing safety as their biggest concern.

The joint letter claims that the scientific evidence is “yet to be released that establishes that the measures contained within the DfE guidance are capable of ensuring the risk to pupils, staff and the wider community is reduced to an acceptable level”.

Andrew Banks, a partner and health and safety expert at law firm Stone King, told FE Week that it is “difficult to see” how prosecution would follow in the event of someone associated with the school or college contracting coronavirus if they “ensure that their [health and safety] guidance is followed and their risk assessments are suitable and sufficient”.

But if a school or college has not followed the guidance or there are “other shortcomings” it is more likely that the Health and Safety Executive would “engage to ensure they tighten their processes rather than move straight towards an investigation with a view to prosecution,” he said.

“It is important to emphasise that the priority and primary purpose in all of this is the safety of all children and staff.”

Banks added: “In spite of the recent rider added to the government guidance, on balance our view remains that by following the guidance they will have undertaken all that is reasonably practicable and, in legal terms, covered themselves in terms of their liability.”

Education unions’ resistance to the current plan for the wider reopening of schools and colleges has been questioned. Speaking in parliament last week, Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, accused them of “scaremongering”.

The unions used last night’s letter so say that they “trust” schools and colleges will “understand that we are not acting without good reason, but from the position that we all share responsibility for ensuring there is no second spike of Covid-19 in the UK”.

“We recommend that you remain alert to these duties when you are assessing whether your school is safe to be opened more widely,” it states.

“We appreciate that a decision of this magnitude, with its serious implications, is not an easy one to make.”

The unions said their reps are “there to assist and support you in making that decision” and they believe that schools and colleges should seek support from their local authority, “although any decision does ultimately rest with an individual school”.

“We are clear the current situation is not the fault of the school, or its leadership, and that the school has to plan for all eventualities,” the letter added.

FE Week has asked the unions if a letter similar to this is being worked on for colleges specifically.

You can read the letter in full here.

The government has today launched a Covid-19 supplier relief scheme for training providers with European Social Fund (ESF) contracts.

There are 50 eligible providers, according to the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which will have just over one week to bid for the extra financial support as a closing date has been set for 28 May.

The ESFA said the scheme will provide payments to ESF contractors in the form of “repayable advances ahead of actual delivery to support the cash flow of providers with a demonstrated financial need”.

Decisions on applications are planned to be released by 4 June.

According to the ESFA’s guidance, providers will only be eligible if they hold an ESF contract with the agency that was procured as a service under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 and commenced on or after the 1 April 2019.

Providers must have also delivered under their ESF contract during the “six-month period ending 31 March 2020 and submitted individualised learner record or supplementary data in respect of this delivery”.

Another requirement is that they plan to deliver education, training, and support under the contract in April, May and June 2020 – which is when the supplier relief is currently scheduled to end.

If an ESF contractor has furloughed staff to deliver the contract, they must unfurlough them to receive the supplier relief to prevent “double funding”.

Providers’ “contract for services” with the ESFA must not be under “notice of termination” and where the contractor uses subcontractors to deliver, “you must agree to continue to pay them in line with your subcontractor agreement”.

ESF contractors should only apply where they have a “demonstrated need” for advance funding to “maintain capacity within their contract to support learners and/or employers and respond to the economic recovery”.

The supplier relief is in line with the Cabinet Office Procurement Policy Note 02/20 (PPN 02/20) and follows a similar ESFA scheme for apprenticeship and adult education budget funding.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We are pleased to announce the launch of the ESFA European Social Fund provider relief scheme in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

“The scheme will ensure these providers are able to continue to support learners and employers and aid our economic recovery.”

Explaining how the supplier relief will be calculated for successful ESF provider applicants, the agency said: “We will calculate a total relief cap for each ESF contract where support is requested from the scheme. Where ESF contractors hold more than one ESF contract, the relief cap will be calculated and applied to each contract supported.

“The relief cap will be determined at contract level based on the lower of the following: your monthly average earnings based on actual earnings data from October 2019 to March 2020, multiplied by three; or the contract level costs ESF contractors submit as part of stage two in the application process. This is the known as the total relief cap.  The monthly relief cap payment will be the total relief cap divided by three.”

The agency added that payments under this scheme cannot total more than 25 per cent of a provider’s annualised contract value over the three-month period.

In addition, a cap of 90 per cent of the current total contract value will be applied, “taking account of actual reported delivery on the contract and relief payments being sought”.

“This is due to the contracts running until 2021, and an expectation that new starts will continue until December 2020,” the ESFA added.

ESF provider can apply for the scheme via the email address: queries.esf@education.gov.uk. Full guidance can be found here.

Fed up of lockdown? Fancy getting that brain back into gear? Want to nerd out with some other FE folk?

We’re excited to announce that the first ever FE Week Big FE & Skills Quiz will take place next month  (Wed June 10 19:00-20:30).

Hosted by FE Week’s publisher Shane Mann, the quiz is all about bringing the sector together for a bit of a laugh, and to raise money for charity.

Quizmaster Shane Mann will be joined by a line-up of special guests on the night, to help read a round of questions. Guests include apprenticeships and skills minister, Gillian Keegan, Ofsted Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman, FE Commissioner Richard Atkins and education select committee chairman, Robert Halfon.

Not only that, the winner will get a fancy Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 (worth £1,000!), thanks to our event partner Pearson.

There’s no entry fee, we simply request all participants make a donation to our chosen fundraiser, FE Foodbank Friday Campaign (suggested donation £5). Only those that have donated will be eligible for prizes.

Can we play in teams?

You can enter as a solo entry or organise a team of great minds!

On the night you will be able to let us know your team name. You will need to arrange your own team and method of communication for the evening and select one person from your team to submit answers.

We suggest you create a WhatsApp group or Zoom chat or similar. Please note that each member of your team will need to register to view the broadcast on the night.

We suggest that teams should be four people max (there will be countdowns on answering the questions so communicating in larger teams will be difficult).

Places are limited, so you’ll need to sign up here to take part.

And here’s our Just Giving page where you can donate.

The Association of Colleges has warned that reducing interaction and mixing in colleges is “going to be a real challenge” should they choose to begin their wider reopening from June, following a government scientific briefing.

Colleges have been advised to form “small consistent grouping or ‘bubbles’” – a task that the AoC admits will prove “very difficult”.

Eddie Playfair, the association’s senior policy manager, blogged about the issues today after he attended a government scientific briefing last Friday. It was held to address concerns about the government’s aim to have young people start returning to face-to-face education from 1 June.

The AoC, along with other education unions, heard from Chris Whitty, the government’s chief medical officer, Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, and Russell Viner, the president of the Royal College of Pediatrics & Child Health.

Playfair said they explained that in the UK, the number of new Covid-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths are all on a “downward trajectory” and while there is currently a 0.27 per cent prevalence of the disease in the population, there should be “half as many cases” in two weeks’ time.

Children and young people are the “least clinically affected” but it is not fully understood how infectious they can be.

Playfair relayed the scientists’ message that the current “very low” level of attendance in schools and colleges “hasn’t had a significant impact on the R (Reproduction factor) value, but there isn’t yet enough modelling of the impact of larger numbers returning”.

There is a “suggestion” that the return of younger children might have “less impact” than the return of older children.

He said more interaction and mixing between people “clearly increases the risk of transmission” and “reducing interaction and mixing in college settings is going to be a real challenge and the creation of small consistent grouping or ‘bubbles’ is very difficult”.

He continued: “In colleges, students generally need to move between different groupings and spaces. They also exercise more discretion in their use of time outside timetabled sessions, with significant use of social and independent learning spaces. Colleges also often include adult students as well as young people.

“As they plan for any increased attendance on site, whether before or after the summer break, colleges will want to prioritise the safety of their students and staff, as well as that of their wider communities. The guidance gives colleges the flexibility they need to find the right balance between on-line and on-site learning and to establish new arrangements to be able to operate safely. All of this will need to be communicated clearly to students, staff, and parents/carers in a way which builds confidence and trust at a time of uncertainty and fear.”

Playfair said colleges will need to understand the “various levels” of risk of different settings and activities before reopening their campuses to more students.

“Even with adequate social distancing, are there issues associated with large numbers of people sharing spaces such as canteens, libraries, learning centres, gyms, changing rooms, circulation and social spaces, entrances, buses and bus stops? Are there issues associated with spending extended periods of time with the same people in one classroom or exam room and how do these compare to moving between spaces shared with different combinations of people?”

He concluded: “Looking ahead, colleges will also need to know what kind of testing regime would ensure that a college campus can continue to be safe for all those who attend on site.

“Given the incremental way our understanding grows, there is unlikely to be a single breakthrough moment when everything becomes clear. So, it’s important to have a continuing dialogue on these key questions with the experts and with students and staff as this will help to inform college decisions over the next weeks and months.”

Earlier this week during an FE Week webcast, skills minister Gillian Keegan urged colleges to take the “opportunity” to reopen from June.

Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are “losing out” on degree level apprenticeships as they soar in popularity without “fair access”, new research has found.

Analysis published today by the Sutton Trust, a social mobility foundation, found that young apprentices from deprived areas have been “crowded out” since the introduction of the levy as they made up 6 per cent of degree level apprentices in 2018/19, falling from 9 per cent in 2016/17.

At the same time the number of older apprentices from “well-off” areas starting these courses has more than doubled – from 5 per cent to 11 per cent – leading to a “growing access” gap for those under 25.

More than half of degree apprenticeships have been taken up by people over 30, with just 20 per cent aged 20 or under.

The findings, which concern the likes of education select committee chair Robert Halfon, come two years on from then skills minister Anne Milton admitting that fear of a “middle-class grab” on apprenticeships was “valid”.

Speaking to FE Week about the Sutton Trust’s research today, Milton said the results were “hardly surprising” as employers wanting to use their levy funds were “always going to take the easier options, which is upskilling existing employees”.

However, she added that upskilling anybody is a “positive thing” and not “bad”, except if it is “to the exclusion of young people from more deprived communities who are quite capable of doing a degree apprenticeship”.

Halfon, a champion of degree apprenticeships and former skills minister himself, said it is “deeply worrying” that despite the growth in degree apprenticeships, “too many people from disadvantaged backgrounds are still being locked out of one of the best routes to a prosperous future”.

He added that “now more than ever” the government and higher education providers “must do everything possible to tear down the barriers to degree apprenticeships, sweep away the cobwebs of bureaucracy and to move both quickly and decisively to support our more disadvantaged learners”.

A spokesperson for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education admitted they “would like to see more younger people from disadvantaged backgrounds taking degree apprenticeships and will be working with the government on this”.

Degree apprenticeships were first introduced in 2015. The number has grown rapidly since then, from 756 to 13,587 in 2018/19, according to the Sutton Trust’s report.

Last year, just over 2,000 apprentices starting one of the courses at an English university was 20 years old or younger, which is about one fifth of all such apprentices.

The analysis shows 12 per cent of those aged 19 to 24 on degree apprenticeships at universities are from the most deprived areas, and 7 per cent of those under 19.

Among under 19s, degree apprentices are more than five times more likely to come from the most advantaged neighbourhoods.

The Sutton Trust said Russell Group universities “in particular” are “highly selective” after finding the average young degree apprentice who studies at one and has A-levels achieved AAB, which is “effectively the same as those doing other undergraduate courses”.

Since the levy’s launch, there has also been an explosive rise in other degree-level apprenticeships, from just 19 four years ago, to 8,892 last year.

At the same time, senior leadership courses – equivalent to an MBA – have expanded significantly, growing six-fold from 552 to 3,410 in 2018/19.

The controversial level 7 senior leader standard, which currently has an MBA attached to it but which is set for the chop later this year, has grown by 517 per cent since the levy was introduced, with 99 per cent of apprentices over 25.

Business management apprenticeships such as this are the “biggest growers”, but have the lowest proportions of young apprentices, and those from disadvantaged areas, the Sutton Trust found.

Senior leadership and chartered management courses alone now make up almost half (46 per cent) of the entire degree apprentice cohort as employers “look to put their senior staff through these courses rather than train younger, less affluent employees,” today’s report said.

It added that while such skills are “clearly in need”, such a “skew is unlikely to reflect the overall balance of skills gaps in the economy and will do little to benefit younger people looking for new opportunities”.

The Sutton Trust said that in order to widen access, universities and employers “must make widening participation a mission of the degree apprenticeship programme, by using contextual admissions and collecting information on the socio-economic backgrounds of their applicants”.

Sir Peter Lampl, the founder and chair of The Sutton Trust, said: “The popularity of degree apprenticeships is impressive, but it has come with problems for fair access. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are losing out on these opportunities.”

The Department for Education was approached for comment.

A new college for students with special educational needs and disabilities has been suspended from recruiting learners after receiving stinging criticism from Ofsted.

Fir Tree Fishery, an independent specialist college (ISC) in Wigan, received a visit from the watchdog in February which found ‘insufficient’ delivery across the board, including safeguarding.

Inspectors said learning focuses “too much on random activities” that fit around what students want to do and “not what will benefit them and help them to succeed”, while tutors’ feedback was “overly positive”.

Some learners had also been placed on “unachievable” qualifications which negatively impacts their self-esteem.

Ofsted began carrying out monitoring visits to ISCs that are newly Education and Skills Funding Agency-funded from December 2019.

Similarly to early monitoring reports of new apprenticeship providers, if they are found making ‘insufficient progress’ in one category, they receive a temporary ban on starting students, in line with ESFA rules.

Fir Tree Fishery CIC was the fifth early monitoring visit of a newly ESFA-funded ISC, but the first to result in an ‘insufficient progress’ judgement.

The college provides young people aged 16 to 25 who have learning difficulties and/or disabilities with a “unique environment to learn”, including its own accessible angling lake, polytunnel and allotment area, according to Ofsted’s report published today.

It has 27 learners, seven of which have moderate learning disabilities while the remainder required support for social, emotional and/or mental health needs.

A spokesperson for the college confirmed to FE Week they have been barred by the ESFA from recruiting new learners until they have a follow-up monitoring visit which results in a better judgement.

They said Ofsted’s visit was “not the most negative experience ever because it helped us highlight where we were not working as well as we thought” and the college is now “desperate for a follow-up visit that allows us to demonstrate what we have done to improve so we can get that recruitment restriction lifted”.

Staff at Fir Tree Fishery were praised by the watchdog for their “effective and supportive” relationship with the college’s “respectful and communicative” students who develop “effective personal and social skills”.

However, leaders and managers were criticised for lacking a “coherent, well-designed curriculum that meets the needs and interests of learners”.

“For example, for one pathway, the first week related to building a shed, the next was around radicalisation and the following week about food hygiene,” today’s report said.

It found that managers did not know which learners have achieved their English and math qualifications and they did not focus “sufficiently” on quality improvement.

Ofsted also found that leaders did not target the funding that they receive for high-needs learners “specifically enough” to support the individual learners for whom it was intended.

The work in learners’ files was of a “poor quality” and there was “no logical correlation between previous qualifications and the level of qualifications that the provider has recommended”.

Ofsted gave the example that a few learners were placed on an entry level 3 English qualification and a level 1 mathematics qualification when they cannot read or write.

And although the Fir Tree Fishery was praised for making learners feel “safe and know what to do if they have any concerns”, inspectors failed the college on safeguarding as their risk assessments were “not sufficiently rigorous to demonstrate that learners are always safe around hazards on and off the site”.

The college’s spokesperson said the report has given them “direction and clarity that has enabled us to put new good practice and systems in place”.

While Ofsted has suspended inspections and publishing reports during the coronavirus outbreak, it does release those where permission is given by the provider.

Colleges that refuse to begin face-to-face teaching with students before the next academic year will “lose an opportunity to start a journey that we need to go through” to recover from Covid-19, Gillian Keegan has warned.

The apprenticeships and skills minister believes the safety issues currently presented by the pandemic will still be there beyond September, and today urged college bosses to “show leadership” by taking these “painful steps” sooner rather than later.

She was addressing an FE Week webcast following guidance published last week by the Department for Education which said colleges and training providers could start their wider reopening from 1 June.

It came on the same day that a survey from this newspaper found a huge 94 per cent (32 out of 35) of college leaders said the DfE should leave it to them to decide who should come in for face-to-face contact when they reopen, and 71 per cent believe a significant number of students will refuse to attend next month.

Unions representing tens of thousands of college staff have also set out five “tests” they believe should be met before students return, and are advising them to continue working and studying from home if they can.

Asked during today’s webcast what she would say to a college principal who decides that all provision will be online-only until the 2020/21 academic year, the minister said: “I think they’d be losing an opportunity to start a journey that we need to go through.

“They need to do risk assessments, they need to look at the provision, the mix of cohort, the facilities, their buildings – all of those questions do not go away in September, so start now.

“Unless you start to assess the risks, you can’t come up with a plan to mitigate them. These are painful steps, the sooner you take the first one, the easier it is take the second one. We are having to show leadership and that is what is required in these cases.

“Leadership, by the way, that many others have done already. Think of our health service, think of our transport workers, the people who keep the lights on, the people who keep keeping us fed. They have all done this already. What we’re saying is, could we have some of the education sector join them as well in trying to get back to normal.”

Keegan added: “There is a counterfactual for everything and the counterfactual here is we stay at home. How long are we going to stay at home because all of those challenges will be there in July, they’ll be there in September and will probably be there a while after that.”

She described the reopening guidance from the of DfE as “baby steps” and reiterated that the department is giving the sector’s “brilliant” college leaders “flexibility” to decide exactly what face-to-face contact they supplement with online learning from June.

The minister pressed that “we have to start this journey” and cannot wait until the country has other safety measures such as a coronavirus vaccine, antibody test, or a track and trace system.

Keegan concluded that the FE sector has “exceeded expectations so far” in response to Covid-19 and the “fantastic” online delivery “will probably change aspects of how we deliver FE going forward”.

FE Week was joined by apprenticeships minister Gillian Keegan this afternoon for our latest webinar on the response to the coronavirus pandemic for the FE and skills sector.

Editor Nick Linford quizzed her on the Department for Education’s guidance on the wider reopening of colleges and training providers.

Roger Coates, the DfE’s deputy director for FE Covid-19 response and Karen Woodward, the deputy director for apprenticeships leading on employer relations, also joined the webcast.

To kick off the session we heard from Denise Brown, the principal of Stoke-on-Trent College.

You can watch it back for free by clicking here.

These webcasts will take place every Monday at 14:00-15:30. Register for them here.