The Association of Employment and Learning Providers will seek formal legal advice to challenge the government’s decision to exclude over 1,000 apprenticeship providers from the Covid-19 supplier relief scheme.

Earlier today, FE Week revealed that a letter to MPs from minister Gillian Keegan said that their upcoming financial support will “not apply in relation to apprenticeships funded from employer digital accounts where the contractual relationship is between the employer and the provider”.

The AELP’s board met this afternoon agreed the letter “made it clear that the proposed support would only be available to providers in respect of apprenticeships offered by non-levy paying employers where providers hold ‘a direct contract’ with the Education and Skills Funding Agency”.

They unanimously agreed that the statement “ignores the fact that the levy is a tax as defined by the Finance Act 2016” and that levy-funded apprenticeships “also have a direct contract with the ESFA and so the DfE’s grounds for excluding relief for them were not justified”.

“Therefore the board has instructed AELP’s secretariat to immediately seek formal legal advice on whether the department is still failing to comply with the Cabinet Office guidance to which the minister’s letter refers,” a statement from the membership organisation said.

The DfE told FE Week that the Cabinet Office’s Procurement Policy Notice 02/20, which underpins their supplier relief scheme, applies only to circumstances where the service was procured under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 and is being delivered under a contract for services.

As reported by this newspaper earlier, there are currently more than 1,000 apprenticeship providers that only train apprentices from levy-paying employers and will therefore not be eligible for supplier relief support from the DfE.

A total of 593 providers currently have non-levy allocations amounting to £690 million, the contracts for which have recently been extended to cover the financial year 2020-21.

The DfE is expected to set out further detail on their supplier relief measures and the criteria for accessing it at the end of this week.

More than 1,000 apprenticeship providers that only train levy-paying employers will not be eligible for supplier relief support from the Department for Education, minister Gillian Keegan has said.

In a letter to MPs dated 17 April, seen by FE Week, she confirmed the DfE will be introducing targeted financial relief measures “for those providers that need it”, but only where they “hold direct contracts with the Education and Skills Funding Agency”.

This includes adult education and non-levy apprenticeships, but not levy contracts held between providers and employers.

“This does not apply in relation to apprenticeships funded from employer digital accounts where the contractual relationship is between the employer and the provider,” Keegan wrote.

FE Week analysis shows there are 1,624 main and employer providers on the register of apprenticeship training providers currently, of which 593 have non-levy allocations this year amounting to £690 million.

That means there are 1,031 providers that only have access to levy funding, and are therefore not eligible for the supplier relief.

Keegan told MPs that the extra targeted support, being offered due to the coronavirus crisis, is to “enable high-quality providers to remain active where that is still possible and safe”.

She will set out further detail on these measures and the criteria for accessing the financial relief this week.

“In doing so we will ensure that this support is targeted at those providers who need it, with proven track records for delivering quality training, and that it takes account of any wider support providers have accessed from HM Treasury or elsewhere,” Keegan said.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe said that in the absence of published criteria so far, “we are concerned that the proposed ‘targeted support’ will involve some form of arbitrary selection of providers that may not be fair or justifiable”.

“The letter refers to enabling ‘high quality providers’ remaining active as a result of the promised support but how will the DfE define ‘high quality’?” he added.

“Full transparency is required.”

An independent panel for FE pay should be formed to help fix the disparity between technical lecturer salaries and what they can earn in the field, according to a new report.

The Edge Foundation says that ingrained funding challenges have left college principals “strapped, unable to recruit the staff they need”, particularly from industries like manufacturing and digital where “they simply cannot match pay in the sector”.

Its report, Our Plan for FE, published today has called for the launch of an independent panel to establish “transparency, fairness and impartiality” when it comes to lecturer wages.

Olly Newton, Edge’s executive director, told FE Week the “outline idea” would be to “bring together a range of external perspectives and expertise to look at the level of FE pay and make recommendations to government and the sector”.

“They would need to take into account the pay and conditions in the wider sectors from which FE staff would be drawn,” he added.

“We think a degree of independent analysis in this space could be very valuable to all parties”, but further details would need to be worked up in consultation with the sector.

While there appears to be little research in the way of comparing lecturer salaries with wages in the field, Edge’s report said that recruitment of “high quality” lecturers and leaders is made “challenging by direct competition from schools, higher education institutions and businesses, all of which typically offer more attractive rates of pay for comparable roles”.

The Department for Education’s first ever and latest college staff survey, published in 2018, showed that “competition from higher salaries in industry” was the most common recruitment challenge facing principals.

Areas such as engineering and manufacturing, construction, maths and digital/IT were found to be the most difficult to lure workers from industry into the classroom.

The survey also showed that 42 per cent of lecturers and 33 per cent of leaders indicated they were likely to leave the sector over the next 12 months.

The 2019 Augur Review highlighted staff recruitment as a significant issue for FE, and found an average national vacancy rate of 3 per cent in colleges, with higher levels of 5 per cent in engineering and manufacturing; construction; and legal, finance and accounting, compared to 1.1 per cent in secondary schools.

Analysis of the Education and Training Foundation’s (ETF) staff individualised record (SIR) data from England for 2017-2018, published in Edge’s report, shows that lecturers make up 50 per cent of the average total workforce of a college and their average pay is £31,600 compared to an average of £37,400 for school teachers.

It adds that reduced funding “translates directly into staff numbers and salaries, with about 68 per cent of all college spending on staff costs, resulting in a recruitment and retention crisis across colleges”.

The ETF collates data for the FE sector including wages but would not comment as it doesn’t compare them to other sectors.

Edge explained that rather than addressing the funding and pay issue, the government’s policy response to FE staffing has been to revoke regulations relating to lecturers’ qualifications.

Since 2012/13, there have been no prescribed levels of educational or professional status required to teach in FE.

While the reform hoped to increase recruitment of industry professionals with relevant teaching skills but without specific qualifications, the charity said in actuality, the result is a “lack of clarity over what skills lecturers should have and how these might be demonstrated”.

Edge’s report concludes that principals have been “trapped, by the wider system, in a position where they are unable to pay anything near what an individual would earn in many growth industries”.

Neil Bates, chair of the Edge Foundation, said: “We need a clear and ambitious workforce strategy to attract a new and inspiring generation of technical lecturers and offer the continuing development and connection to industry they need to remain at the forefront of their fields.”

The monthly data return to claim FE funding, known as the individualised learner record (ILR), need only be returned if providers “have the resources available to do so”, the Department for Education has said.

A list of data collections and services which will be cancelled or paused owing to the coronavirus pandemic was published this afternoon by the department.

It said that the collection of the ILR remains “open”, and providers are “asked to submit the return if they have the resources available to do so”.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency said for the previous return, due 6 April, that providers are working through “exceptional circumstances due to Covid-19” and this “might make it difficult to meet the deadline”.

Any providers that could not meet the deadline were asked to contact the agency by emailing sde.servicedesk@education.gov.uk.

The next ILR submission deadline, which is the ninth nine of the 2019/20 academic year, is 6 May.

FE Week has asked the DfE what happens to payments if providers cannot submit their ILR.

Thousands of disadvantaged students across the country are being offered free laptops and tablets to continue learning at home during the coronavirus lockdown.

From next week, schools and colleges will be allowed to put business cases forward via an online portal to the Department for Education for individual students.

Those eligible include children with a social worker, care leavers, pupils in year 10 and 16 to 19s that do not already have access to the devices and whose family can’t afford the costs.

Apprentices are not eligible as they’re on waged training, the DfE said.

Laptops can already be bought for sixth form and college students through the 16 to 19 bursary fund, which typically grants eligible learners £1,200 to use for educational equipment and costs of travel.

The DfE said they will provide millions in extra funding in addition to the bursary fund for this scheme, but could not put an exact figure on it.

A spokesperson added that schools and colleges will be able to keep their laptops and tablets once they have reopened.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said schools and colleges will remain closed “until the scientific advice changes”, which is “why we need to support the incredible work teachers are already doing to ensure children continue to receive the education they deserve and need”.

“By providing young people with these laptops and tablets and enabling schools to access high quality support, we will enable all children to continue learning now and in the years to come,” he added.

As well as the devices, the government has promised to provide 4G routers where those families do not already have mobile or broadband internet in the household.

Major telecommunications providers have also promised to temporarily exempt websites with “selected educational resources” from data charges.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the support.

He said education providers have already been doing a “fantastic job” in supporting children who do not have access to these devices by providing resources such as learning packs which they can use at home.

“But these young people are currently unable to access the wealth of resources which are accessible online and the provision of laptops and tablets is crucial in supporting them through this difficult period.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of NAHT, which represents school leaders, said that a project of this scale will require “careful planning and there are significant logistical challenges to be overcome, not least the speed at which these devices can be sourced and delivered”.

“If successful, the scheme could make a real difference to many disadvantaged young people in the coming months,” he added.

The DfE said they do not have a fixed launch date for the portal, which is being set up on gov.uk, but they expect it to go live in the coming days.

They could not say at this stage how long the laptops will take to deliver from the point of application.

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

Here they are in full:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The service can only be used on an appointment basis.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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