Twenty four apprenticeship providers have been suspended from taking on new starts after receiving poor Ofsted ratings so far in 2020.
In accordance with Education and Skills Funding Agency rules, any new provider found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in at least one area of an early monitoring visit from the inspectorate will be temporarily stopped from recruiting unless there are “extenuating circumstances”.
The register of apprenticeship training providers was updated today and shows that a further 24 providers have been hit with the penalty since FE Week’s last stock take of banned providers in November.
They are among a list of 46 providers (see in full below) that are currently suspended from taking on new apprentices, which is a reduction on the 49 bans reported by the ESFA in November.
Since then, 18 of the 49 have left the apprenticeships register altogether and can no longer deliver the programmes in any capacity.
These are: Biffa Waste Services Limited, Care-Ex Services Limited, Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust, E.Q.V. (UK) Limited, Fresh Training Services (UK) Limited, Goodman Masson Limited, Havilah Prospects Limited, Hertfordshire Catering Limited, Mears Learning Limited, Piper Training Limited, Premier Nursing Agency Limited, Right Track Social Enterprise Limited, Securitas Security Services (UK) Limited, HL Training Solutions Ltd, The Sandwell Community Caring Trust, Total Training Company (UK) Limited, WDR Limited, and YMCA George Williams Company.
And nine of the 49 have had their suspensions lifted after achieving at least a grade three in a full Ofsted inspection, or found to be making ‘reasonable progress’ in safeguarding if that was the only area that failed during their first monitoring visit.
These are: Agincare Group Limited, Azilo Training Limited, Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust, Kingswood Learning and Leisure Group Limited, Prospect Training (Yorkshire) Limited, SSG Services (Est 2003) Limited, The Development Fund Limited, Took Us A Long Time Limited and University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust.
The full list of the 46 apprenticeship providers which have current recruitment suspensions as of 7 April (those in bold are new to the banned list since November):
2 SISTERS FOOD GROUP LIMITED
AAA TRAINING SOLUTIONS LIMITED
ACTIVE LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT LIMITED
ALDRIDGE EDUCATION
AMDAS CONSULTANCY LTD
ARRIVA LONDON NORTH LIMITED
ASHLEY COMMUNITY & HOUSING LTD
ASHLEY HUNTER LTD
ASHORNE HILL MANAGEMENT COLLEGE
ASPECTS CARE LIMITED
AZESTA LIMITED
BIOR BUSINESS SCHOOL LIMITED
BRITISH AIRWAYS PLC
CATALYST LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT LIMITED
COGENT SKILLS TRAINING LIMITED
COMPLETE TRAINING & ASSESSMENT LIMITED
CS TRAINING UK LIMITED
DIANTHAS LTD
DIVAD TRAINING LIMITED
E G S NATIONWIDE LIMITED
EMPOWERMENT CENTRE, TRAINING AND CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD
FAIRWAY TRAINING (HEALTHCARE) LIMITED
GENIUS SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS LIMITED
GENIUS SOLUTIONS LIMITED
GLOUCESTERSHIRE ENTERPRISE LIMITED
GOWER COLLEGE SWANSEA
HOME GROUP LIMITED
JD ACADEMY LIMITED
KEYSTONE TRAINING LTD
LONDON DESIGN AND ENGINEERING UTC
MANATEC LIMITED
MATRIX SOLUTIONS INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
NEW MODEL BUSINESS ACADEMY LIMITED
PHOENIX4TRAINING LLP
PRINCIPAL SKILLS LIMITED
PROSPECTS TRAINING INTERNATIONAL LIMITED
RAPID IMPROVEMENT LIMITED
RITA’S TRAINING SERVICES
SOUTH EAST COAST AMBULANCE SERVICE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
Rebecca Long-Bailey has been appointed as the shadow education secretary following a Labour Party reshuffle by new leader Keir Starmer.
Long-Bailey, the MP for Salford and Eccles, takes over the position from Angela Rayner, who was elected deputy leader and appointed chair of the party over the weekend.
Long-Bailey joined parliament in 2015, was previously the shadow business secretary, and came second in the Labour leadership contest.
Following her appointment today, she tweeted to say: “Delighted to be appointed as shadow education secretary by Keir Starmer and thanks to the brilliant Anglea Rayner for her work in this role.
“In this time of crisis I will do my utmost to ensure that our teaching staff, students and their families receive the support they deserve.”
She added: “Never has there been a more important time to fight for a properly funded, accountable, public education service, free at the point of use, from cradle to grave so that all our aspirations can be realised.
“Social mobility is meaningless if we don’t all rise together.”
1.Delighted to be appointed as Shadow Education Secretary by @Keir_Starmer & thanks to the brilliant @AngelaRayner for her work in this role. In this time of crisis I will do my utmost to ensure that our teaching staff, students and their families receive the support they deserve https://t.co/esQ9Z88c1K
According to Long-Bailey’s website, she began her working life serving at the shop counter of a pawn shop, before moving on to call centres, a furniture factory, and as a postwoman.
She later studied to become a solicitor, “where, for many years I acted on behalf of NHS Bodies on a range of governance and contractual issues”.
Since joining Parliament, Long-Bailey has taken part in various debates in the House of Commons that concern apprenticeships and further education.
In June 2016, during a bill hearing on the apprenticeship levy, she said she was “happy to support” the introduction of the policy, but had “some concerns” including the three million starts target.
In November 2015 she took part in a debate on further education and told MPs that “Salford City College and other further education institutions in my constituency have had to battle savage cuts over the past five years”.
She added: “Colleges in my constituency cannot cope with further cuts to their budgets.
“The city college has already had to lose teachers and support staff, make cuts in pastoral care and extracurricular activities, and drop a number of courses just to survive.”
On Saturday, FE Week hosted its second webinar looking at the latest legislation and guidance from the government regarding the response to the coronavirus pandemic, for the FE and skills sector.
Sponsored by Learning Curve Group and presented by Shane Mann, publisher of FE Week, the session included chief executive of the Association of Colleges David Hughes and chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers Mark Dawe.
We also heard from director of Holex Susan Pember, Ofsted’s Paul Joyce, chief executive of the Federation of Awarding Bodies Tom Bewick, and Ben Sutherland, a partner at law firm Eversheds Sutherland.
The government has finally confirmed that apprentices can continue with funded training when employers use the job retention scheme, subject to being paid the apprenticeship minimum wage “for all the time they spend training”.
HMRC guidance published today (click here), says: “Apprentices can be furloughed in the same way as other employees and they can continue to train whilst furloughed.
“However, you must pay your Apprentices at least the Apprenticeship Minimum Wage, National Living Wage or National Minimum Wage (AMW/NLW/NMW) as appropriate for all the time they spend training. This means you must cover any shortfall between the amount you can claim for their wages through this scheme and their appropriate minimum wage.
“Guidance is available for changes in apprenticeship learning arrangements because of COVID-19.” Click here
Colleges across the country have volunteered their services to help local communities during the Covid-19 pandemic.
FE Week shares some examples, including care home, hospital and food bank donations, crowdfunding and the opening of residential accommodation to NHS staff and rough sleepers.
Care home, hospital and homeless charity helped by donations
A college has donated 40 litres of hand sanitiser, 350 face masks and 1,100 pairs of disposable gloves to a local care home which had a “critical” shortage of equipment in its battle against coronavirus.
Northampton College has also donated food stocks to multiple groups and helped to feed around 100 homeless people a day.
Care home Balmoral Place, which received the personal protective equipment, said the reserves would help keep staff “safe” during the Covid-19 outbreak.
The college’s ICT services manager Andy Seymour, who delivered the goods, said: “We were only too happy to step in and help. We’re all in this together at the minute and anything we can do to ease the situation for others is obviously a good thing to do.
“We are very much the college in the community and we will continue to do all we can to offer our support to those who need it the most.”
Kingsthorpe-based Balmoral Place is a development of 80 homes for elderly people.
Housing scheme manager Jo Robey thanked Northampton College for its donation.
She said: “It is much appreciated and will go towards keeping the staff safe.”
In addition, the college has handed out a number of food parcels to vulnerable families while deliveries of essential supplies were also made to Northampton General Hospital and The Hope Centre.
A spokesperson for The Hope Centre said: “The stock we have received from Northampton College is fantastic.
“With it, we are feeding 100 or so homeless people a day plus people in the wider community who are in need.”
PICTURED ABOVE: Andy Seymour (right) donated face masks, gloves and hand sanitiser to Balmoral Place care home on behalf of Northampton College
More colleges sign up to Food Bank Friday
Ten colleges have now signed up to an initiative that aims to tackle food shortages for the most vulnerable in their communities during the coronavirus pandemic.
London and South East Colleges Group launched Food Bank Friday two weeks ago and have now been joined by Boston College, Central Bedfordshire College, Chichester College, Dudley College, East Coast College, Kingston Maurward College, Loughborough College, Trafford College Group and York College.
Each have pledged to set up their own virtual giving page to raise funds for their local food bank.
LSEC has crowdfunded more than £4,500 and donated three trolley-loads of provisions from its own BR6 Restaurant as well as a chest freezer to a local food bank.
Hospitality and catering student David Harris helping to sort donations from the BR6 Restaurant
The college’s student union has chosen the project as its charity of the year and pledged almost £3,000, which was collected from students throughout the year.
Its president, 18-year-old level 3 health and social care student Daniella Oni-Okeke, said: “Life is not easy for anyone at the moment, but by coming together we can all do our bit to help one another and make a positive difference.”
Lesley Davies, principal of Trafford College Group, said she was “delighted to be part of the FE Food Bank Friday campaign, which is not only bringing colleges together, but represents the important part that the FE sector is playing through this crisis and beyond”.
LSEC chief executive Sam Parrett said it has been “heart-warming” to see colleges coming together to support their local communities amid the “many challenges the last few weeks have thrown at us all”.
“We are living in extraordinary and difficult times and never before has it been more important to help one another. Good can come out of every crisis and that is certainly what we are seeing across the entire FE sector as we pull together in time of need.
“We are calling on all colleges to sign up and get involved in FE Food Bank Friday.”
Kingston Maurward offers free beds to local NHS staff
A college in Dorset is offering free beds to NHS workers during the Covid-19 crisis.
Kingston Maurward College will be hosting around 35 staff members from the Dorset County Hospital in its residential accommodation.
It is understood recipients will primarily be senior doctors and consultants who are isolating from their own families for the coming months. They are set to move in this weekend.
Principal Luke Rake said: “In the midst of World War II, Kingston Maurward was used as a base to support the troops on D Day.
“Today, we may face a different battle but the needs of our community for safety and support are the same. We are determined to provide whatever assistance our front line troops need and are willing, able and proud to help the NHS.”
Principal Luke Rake
He added cleaning and catering volunteers from the college will ensure the staff are cared for.
Nick Johnson, acting chief executive at Dorset County Hospital, told local newspaper the Dorset Echo: “We have been absolutely blown away by the amount of support we have received from the community.
“We really appreciate all they are doing to support our wonderful staff who are working on the frontline to keep everyone safe. We cannot thank everyone enough.”
Residential staff at the specialist land-based college, which has a 750- acre estate, have been looking after animals at the farm, animal park and equine area while students isolate at home during the pandemic.
Kingston Maurward is also operating remote learning for students.
For example, last week foundation studies students took part in an online baking lesson on video conferencing platform Zoom.
Rough sleepers given sanctuary at Somerset college
A college in Somerset is converting part of its residential accommodation into shelter for rough sleepers during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Bridgwater & Taunton College will also offer three meals a day for vulnerable people within the community at its Canonsgrove Hall site.
The college said it is offering the use for as long as it is needed to those who are currently homeless and for whom it is difficult or impossible to shield from Covid-19 exposure.
The initiative is due to start next week. Another part of the site is already housing NHS staff.
Principal Andy Berry said: “We are working to support the most vulnerable in our community during this unprecedented period.
Bridgwater & Taunton College
“While teaching staff have shifted rapidly to supporting their learners online, support staff have risen to the challenge of making the accommodation site safe, comfortable and ideal to protect some of the most vulnerable in our local community and we will continue to explore the ways in which we can best optimise the resources and facilities to support our community moving forward.”
Mark Nettle, director of student services, thanked YMCA Dulverton Group, which will manage the site on behalf of Somerset West and Taunton Council.
He added: “The project has relied on the commitment and collaboration of various organisations, including Raft, the Salvation Army, Open Door, Turning Point and Arc.”
In addition, Bridgwater & Taunton College is supplying the NHS with personal protective equipment from various departments, including the National College for Nuclear.
It is also providing free car parking for all NHS staff and the engineering team is using 3D printers to create spare parts for the local hospital.
FE Week has spoken to a number of specialist colleges to uncover the impact the Covid-19 crisis is having on the country’s most vulnerable learners, many of whom are residential and have “complex needs”, and found the extraordinary efforts staff are putting in to keep provision going…
“Try to envisage not being able to easily verbally communicate, having significant physical disabilities, profound and multiple learning disabilities, struggling with sensory overload or not being able to manage changes in your world.
“Add in Covid-19, mixed guidance, public panic and the potential removal of one of the safest environments you know… and you are a little closer to understanding how many of our students must be feeling.”
That’s how Adrian Sugden, principal of Henshaws College in Harrogate, sums it up for his day and residential learners, aged 16 to 25 and with a variety of complex needs.
Specialist colleges were initially asked to stay open for all students with education, health and care plans, which would apply to their entire cohort, says Clare Howard, chief executive of specialist post-16 provider organisation Natspec.
As that “seemed inconsistent” with the social distancing guidance, Natspec worked with the Department for Education and now only those learners who cannot safely be provided for at home should still attend college.
“We are a very small cog in a great national effort and we will keep turning.”
Sugden says his staff now agree specialist settings should stay open as: “It was about supporting the NHS and providing the safest environment we could for our learners.
“We have done everything we can, in these challenging times, to maintain that.”
However, it is becoming increasingly difficult, as they are losing staff to self-isolation, childcare, family care and illness.
Henshaws, along with the other specialist providers FE Week spoke with, are not furloughing or laying off any staff – the college has even re-employed ex-staff.
The college will remain open over Easter, and expects around ten per cent of the total cohort of 97 to attend – the students who are full time residents or whose families are key workers.
“The challenge,” Sugden says, “will be maintaining a strong staff cohort when Covid-19 fully hits our region”.
Portland College near Mansfield, meanwhile, is taking on even more young people, as it is set to run a “holiday club” for a small number of them, at the request of the local authority, over Easter.
It is currently supporting up to 20 learners and five day-service users, about ten per cent of its usual cohort, as well as 25 in residential provision, around 80 per cent of that cohort.
It’s all “part of the national effort,” says principal Mark Dale. But it does not hurt that the college sits on 32 acres of Sherwood Forest and includes a fully wheelchair-accessible Woodland Adventure Zone.
He said they are treating the whole campus as an isolation “household unit”, so “we have strict policies in place regarding who can access the site during the lockdown period,” he said.
Learners who attend on a daily basis are supported in separate areas with separate staff to residential learners.
Portland college learner Chloe Dolby
Yet Portland too is not without troubles: delays in delivering supplies have led to staff making face shields for their colleagues.
Another problem is funding: as a charity, the crisis is taking a bite out of their fundraising abilities and commercial operations. It was reported earlier this week the Covid-19 pandemic will mean charities will lose around £4 billion in the next financial quarter.
Funding is an “ongoing concern” for the sector, said Howard, as is securing food, cleaning products and personal protective equipment.
For many specialist colleges, a “significant proportion” of income comes from non-education budgets, and Howard says there is “question mark” over whether these sources will be guaranteed.
What adds extra impetus was the fact, she said, “for a small number of students, college is their home for 52 weeks a year; there is no other to send them back to”.
Dale said this was “uncharted territory” and it was “difficult to know” what their long-term future held.
“For now our focus is the health and wellbeing of our learners, residents and staff.”
This can-do spirit exhibited by Sugden and Dale can also be seen at National Star College in Gloucestershire, where chief executive David Ellis says staff “have gone above and beyond at this very challenging and difficult time” by keeping in touch with students at home and providing education and therapy resources for their families.
While there are currently about 33 residential and day students and 29 long-term residents in attendance, National Star will still provide respite care for an additional 17 students over Easter.
And out of a total cohort of 142 at Linkage College in Lincolnshire, around 20 of its 16 to 25-year-old learners have continued to attend. One of its campuses will remain open over Easter for three learners whose parents are key workers.
“We are fortunate to have a relationship manager at the Education and Skills Funding Agency, who has kept in regular contact and confirmed we will receive normal funding, in line with our payment schedule,” a spokesperson said.
But specialist providers also rely on funding from local authorities, and that is proving more troublesome for Linkage.
Its location means it is commissioned by seven authorities and there is no consistency in the paperwork being sent to providers, while the councils are expecting Linkage to complete all the administration of this – which is hard when you have over 30 per cent of staff off work.
For learners who are staying home, Linkage is “working hard” to ensure they can engage in learning through hard-copy and electronic work packs, telephone tutorials and online academic and pastoral support.
Specialist learning is not easily moved online, Howard says, as much of it is based on experience and observation. But her members have been “creative” in devising ways to get around that, including using adaptive technology and online classes.
Perhaps their commitment is best summed up by Mark Dale: “We are a very small cog in a great national effort and we will keep turning.”
The government is driving forward with plans to launch the first three T-levels from September 2020 despite the disruption being caused by the Covid-19 outbreak.
Last month, FE Week revealed that the awarding bodies designing the qualifications had called on ministers to delay their rollout by a year.
At the time the Department for Education said they were keeping the rollout date “under review”.
But in a sector-wide email sent to training providers and colleges this afternoon, seen by FE Week, apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan said: “We are aware that the coronavirus will impact those providers due to start delivering the first T-levels from September.
“We are working closely with providers as the situation develops. However, we are continuing to work with all involved to ensure we can continue to roll out the first three T-levels from this September as planned.”
She added that if providers have specific questions or concerns about this “please do flag these with your regional ESFA contact”.
In a letter to education secretary Gavin Williamson sent on 19 March, Federation of Awarding Bodies chief executive Tom Bewick warned that colleges, and therefore the “delivery network”, will be in “crisis management and recovery mode up until the autumn term”.
Similarly, asking employers to provide high-quality industry placements at this time “looks very challenging when you consider that the deep economic shock we are experiencing will pre-occupy company survival plans for at least the next 12 months”.
He added: “Following consultation with our members and, specifically, those awarding organisations that have to date successfully secured licences from you to design these new technical qualifications, I am requesting that you postpone the wave one commencement of three T-Levels in September.”
Fifty providers are signed up to deliver the first three routes – in digital, construction and education – from September 2020.
T-levels were originally meant to commence from September 2019, but former apprenticeships and skills minister Anne Milton announced in July 2017 that she would delay delivery of the first qualifications by 12 months.
Then, in a ministerial direction in May 2018, the then-education secretary Damian Hinds refused a request by the Department for Education’s permanent secretary Jonathan Slater to delay their start from 2020 to 2021.
The latest calls for a delay follows numerous concerns over the rushed timescales for T-levels.
A study in 2019 by the National Foundation for Educational Research, which conducted interviews with half of the 50 providers that will deliver the first T-levels, found that “extremely tight” delivery timescales, a lack of viable industry placements and limited public transport all threaten a successful rollout.
Detailed information on T-level content, assessment and the industry placement was not scheduled to be available until March – less than six months before teaching commences.
And just last month, this newspaper reported on how the government has embarked on a very last-minute mission to find out if students could fail to secure the mandatory T-level industry placement.
Colleges that deliberatley under deliver their adult education budget allocations this year will have their funding clawed back, the government has warned.
This will apply to either direct delivery or through subcontractors.
It said: “We reserve the right to clawback funds where it can be demonstrated that a grant funded provider has not sought to continue delivery wherever possible online or otherwise, either directly or for ESFA funded AEB through their existing subcontractors.”
Training Providers have shared instances with FE Week, in recent weeks, of colleges no longer wanting to undertake subcontracting of potential AEB underspend.
Providers cited examples of colleges saying there was potentially no requirement for them to spend their allocation and therefore they would rather retain all monies and not subcontract.
Today’s ESFA guidance update said that for 2019 to 2020 only, the agency will “not carry out the final reconciliation for grant funded providers in receipt of AEB and the advanced learner loans bursary fund”.
These providers will be “funded in line with the current agreement schedule with no clawback”, but they must “continue to deliver learning online wherever possible including for ESFA funded AEB via existing subcontracting arrangements to support existing learners to successfully complete their courses/qualifications or retain evidence where this is not possible”.
They must also “support furloughed workers to enhance existing or develop new skills”.
Where it is not possible to deliver online, for example where learning requires physical access to specialist equipment or materials, colleges should “keep and provide records of where this applies and keep evidence of efforts made to remain in contact with learners and prepare them for a return to learning in the future”.
However, there will be “exceptions for grant funded providers who had already forecast significant under-delivery in their mid-year returns for ESFA funded AEB and/or Advanced Learner Loans Bursary Fund, in advance of the impact of COVID-19”.
ESFA will contact affected providers to “discuss their forecasts and potential clawback”.
The agency added: “When planning ESFA funded AEB allocations for 2021 to 2022, we will consider how we set a fair baseline given our default position would have been to use funded delivery in 2019 to 2020.”
