3aaa paid school fees for its managing director’s child

Defunct apprenticeship firm Aspire Achieve Advance paid for its former managing director’s child’s school fees as part of a “generous bonus”, FE Week can reveal.

Andy Palmer (pictured) worked at the provider, better known as 3aaa, from September 2013 to October 2015 before becoming managing director of another disgraced FE giant – Learndirect – in October 2016.

In an email to co-founder Peter Marples, seen by FE Week, Mr Palmer requests a payment is made to the school.

If you’re still happy to do this then would it be possible to pay £9,300 into the account

“When you and Di [McEvoy-Robinson] gave me the generous bonus a couple of months ago you kindly said that I could look to take it as ‘product’,” the email, sent December 31, 2014, says.

“We discussed the payment of school fees for the year and I have spoken to [the] school and they are happy to accept a year’s payment in advance.

“If you’re still happy to do this then would it be possible to pay £9,300 into the account below using the reference below?”

He added: “Hope this is ok and really appreciate both the bonus and the offer to work it in this way.

“With the remaining £700 I had hoped to buy a camera. Maybe this is something that we can discuss in the New Year?

“Again, thanks Pete.”

In reply and with 3aaa’s commercial director Lee Marples copied in, Peter Marples said: “I am happy for this to be processed but I didn’t get the original e-mail.

“Lee – please make the payment when the direct contract comes in and charge to payroll so it is lost.”

FE Week asked Mr Palmer if paying the fees direct to the school was away of avoiding paying tax, but he categorically denied this and said all tax was paid.

When asked why he requested the unusual payment arrangement he refused to comment any further.

Mr Palmer describes in the December email the request of “school fees as part of the generous bonus that you and Di gave me in November”, the same month Ofsted published a grade one report for 3aaa.

At the time of inspection, Mr Palmer was a non-executive board member for Ofsted, a role he held from August2011 to December 2014, which the inspectorate has confirmed.

The school-fees revelation follows last week’s FE Week front-page investigation which exposed the truth behind the government and police investigations into 3aaa.

The company, which had 4,500learners and 500 staff before it went bust last month when the ESFA pulled its £16.5 million skills contract,allegedly manipulated Individualised Learner Records, to artificially inflate achievement rates by a huge amount and misused employer-incentive grants.

Lee Marples, the nephew of Peter, is understood to be central to the data manipulation part of the investigations.

3aaa received nearly all of its income from the ESFA. Its most recent accounts show that the company recorded a £2.5 million post-tax loss in the 18 months to January 2018.

Despite this, Peter Marples and Ms McEvoy-Robinson took out huge directors’ loans totalling more than £4 million between them.

At the end of 2015, both owners purchased multi-million pound properties.

3aaa also splashed its cash on £1.6 million sport-club sponsorships, an Elton John concert and Tesla supercars.

Learndirect was England’s biggest FE provider before the ESFA pulled its skills contract earlier this year following a grade-four report from Ofsted.

Under Mr Palmer’s leadership the company tried to suppress the report by taking Ofsted to the High Court, unsuccessfully, and imposing an injunction on reporting the case, until FE Week overturned it in August 2017.

He was later the subject of scrutiny from the Public Accounts Committee and National Audit Office following an outcry that the government offered Learndirect special treatment by keeping its contracts running until the end of 2017/18 instead of terminating them within the usual three months.

College group gives staff a five per cent pay rise, despite a deficit

A huge London college group has defended awarding its staff up to a five per cent pay rise – even though it will result in its third annual operating deficit in a row.

The pay deal for Capital City College Group staff, announced on Wednesday, was described as a “landmark” by the University and College Union, and followed eight days of strike action by union members earlier this year.

But a spokesperson has confirmed to FE Week that it will cost the group more than £3 million – and will turn a projected break-even budget into a £2.3 million deficit.

“We are fortunate that, as a group, we have the financial strength to invest in improvements to our learners’ experience, as well as staff salaries – even if this investment may result in a short-term operating deficit,” he said.

CCCG had previously budgeted for a one per cent pay rise, which the spokesperson said would have cost £660,000, and had “forecast that the group would break even” this year as a result.

The pay award announced this week “will cost an additional £2,387,000 and we anticipate that this would result in a £2.3 million deficit for the group in the year 2018/19”.

To make up for this loss the group will look at “ways to develop new sources of income” and at reducing its costs, including the potential for “not replacing certain jobs as they become vacant”.

It comes just months after the group’s chief executive, Roy O’Shaughnessy, took over the reins from previous boss Andy Wilson, who retired over the summer.

Jeremy Benson, the Department for Education’s deputy director for FE resilience and sustainability, warned that “governors have responsibilities” – to their communities, to students and as charity trustees – when he was asked about the deal at this week’s Association of Colleges annual conference.

“They have to make sure that the decisions they make, financial and wider decisions they take, do what the college is intended to do but also allow that college to be sustainable,” he said.

“I assume that the governors will have concluded that this is affordable and it won’t increase the risk of the college running into financial difficulties.”

The projected deficit for the current year follows a £5 million shortfall in 2016/17, according to the group’s accounts – the first since CCCG was formed in August 2016.

According to its most recent board minutes, from July, the group was expecting a £6.2 million loss in 2017/18, although the spokesperson said this has now been revised to £5.5 million.

He said the college is currently rated ‘outstanding’ for financial health by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

However, minutes from a board meeting in May reveal that the “anticipated end-of-year assessment of the group’s financial health is ‘good’”, while the July minutes indicate that it is “unlikely to regain” its ‘outstanding’ status before 2018/19 – although they note that “the balance sheet and cash flow are healthy”.

CCCG is made up of three colleges – City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College and the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) – as well as an apprenticeship provider, Capital City College Training.

Its income in 2016/17, before CONEL joined the group, was £80.7 million, according to the accounts, which also revealed the group to have assets of more than £258 million – the vast majority of which were its buildings – and “no external debt”.

The pay deal announced this week will see the majority of staff receive the full five per cent increase, backdated to September, while senior managers will receive less or nothing, depending on their salary.

UCU members will also not have their pay deducted for two of the eight days of strike action between February and April.

The union claimed that Mr O’Shaughnessy, who took up his post in September, had waived his right to a bonus as part of the deal.

However, the CCCG spokesperson said he gave up this right – which would have been worth up to 15 per cent of his £220,000 salary – when he was appointed earlier this year.

“This landmark pay increase, agreed at one of the largest college groups in England, sets the bar for others when it comes to the pay and conditions of staff,” said Matt Waddup, the UCU’s head of policy and campaigns.

In a statement from the UCU, shadow chancellor John McDonnell offered his congratulations to its members at the college for securing a “brilliant victory”.

“Congratulations to the governing body in agreeing this bold and progressive step forward and I hope this signals a change in direction that the whole sector can follow.”

Staff at six colleges across the country will walk out for two days next week in the first wave of action over this year’s pay award.

At the same time ballots will open on possible future action over pay at a further 26 colleges.

Staff were left bitterly disappointed in July when the AoC – which represents colleges on pay discussions – said it was unable to recommend a salary increase of five per cent, and was instead only able to propose a “substantial pay package” over two years dependent on government funding.

 

AoC boss accepts Ofsted’s concern over courses with poor job prospects

The boss of the Association of Colleges has told his members Ofsted is “quite right”, after the inspectorate found some colleges risk giving students “false hope” by putting them on courses where there are slim job prospects.

Amanda Spielman, the chief inspector, drew gasps from delegates at the AoC conference this week when she questioned whether some colleges are chasing income over students’ best interests.

She was referring to the inspectorate’s new report on level-two qualifications which found some subjects, namely arts and media, “stand out” as areas where there is a “mismatch between the numbers of students taking courses and their future employment in the industry”.

David Hughes watches on as Amanda Spielman delivers her AoC speech

“Some students get a bit deflated and lose that momentum they built when they discover it is an impossible dream for most of them,” she said.

There was push back from the audience during a question-and-answer session, in which Grimsby Institute principal Debra Gray pointed out that the arts and creative industries contribute “£92 billion to the UK economy, two million people work directly in creative industries and three million work in allied professions where people are creative in non-creative businesses”.

“That doesn’t sound like an impossible dream to me, and it isn’t one that we sell to our students,” she told the chief inspector, before receiving a round of applause from the audience.

AoC chief executive David Hughes stepped in on the debate and said that colleges need to “face up to the fact”.

“I think the report is very helpful. I had the immediate defensive reaction to it and it’s very easy to get into that,” he said.

“I think the response from Ofsted is proportionate and quite right. We need to face up to the fact that sometimes we’re not challenging learners enough to make sure they are understanding the courses they go in because it does happen in some places, not everywhere.

“The problem whenever you say that is that two thirds of the room will say ‘well we don’t do that’ and that’s true, but it does happen and we just need to face up to it.”

He continued: “As a sector we need to face up to what I call the dispassionate evidence that gets presented to us and come back and show actually what we are doing and how we can up our game. It’s an interesting case study for us.”

We need to face up to the fact that sometimes we’re not challenging learners enough

Clarifying her point again during the question-and-answer session, Ms Spielman said: “This isn’t a report which says everyone should be marching towards a job that has been designated for the same sector, but the college sector does perform that role of creating some level of match between supply and demand, and where that goes a long way adrift we’re not necessarily doing the best thing for students.

“This is absolutely not to say these are bad courses in themselves, just that when so many people opt for them with little or no prospect there is a risk of setting up problems.”

Ms Gray wasn’t alone in feeling aggrieved by the chief inspector’s comments.

Tim Chaundy, curriculum leader in performing arts at City and Islington College, part of the Capital City College Group, told FE Week: “To assume that a level-two arts course must translate into a job in an arts field misses the fundamental reason why many learners opt for a level-two arts subject.

“In our experience, level-two arts subjects are seldom a direct route into work in their own right, but are a stepping stone into a level-three course for those who, for whatever reason, didn’t achieve the GCSE grades they needed. Indeed, almost all our learners who do a level-two arts course also do English and maths GCSE resits.”

He continued: “For many of our level-two students therefore, college represents a second chance at education. And doing an arts course alongside their GCSE resits develops students’ life skills and massively improves their confidence and prepares them for further study.”

 

Cash-strapped college finally appoints permanent principal

A financially troubled college that has been without a permanent principal for almost a year has appointed a new boss.

Chris Webb, who currently heads up grade one Barnsley College, will take over the top job at Bradford College in the spring, the college has announced today.

He will replace the college’s current interim principal Chris Malish, who himself took over from previous interim Chris Jones who stepped down due to ill-health, having been in post since January.

“Chris has a wealth of experience and expertise to offer and the Corporation is delighted to have secured the appointment of a successful leader who is held in high regard within the sector,” said Cath Orange, Bradford College’s chair of governors.

“We couldn’t be happier that he is coming to lead Bradford College at a crucial time as we continue on our journey to financial recovery,” she said.

Mr Webb said his new role “presented such an exciting opportunity that I just couldn’t turn it down”.

“I am delighted to have the opportunity to take on the challenge of driving Bradford College’s development and making sure it meets the needs of students, staff, stakeholders, business and the regional and national economy.”

Mr Malish, who will return to his previous role as director of finance and corporate services at the college when Mr Webb starts at a yet-to-be determined date in the spring, said he was “very much looking forward to working alongside” Mr Webb.

Bradford College’s last permanent boss, Andy Welsh, announced in November last year that he would be leaving at the end of the academic year, after the college received both a financial notice to improve and on Ofsted grade three in quick succession.

However, his actual departure came much sooner than that.

An FE commissioner report, published in March but based on a visit to the college in November, recommended that both Mr Welsh and the college’s chair step down with immediate effect and a replacement – either permanent or interim – be chosen by the board the following month.

Mr Jones took over in January, shortly after the college was bailed out twice in the space of a month – each time to the tune of £1.5 million.

The FE commissioner’s report – published in the same months the college was hit with a second financial notice to improve – revealed that the college’s dire financial position had come as a surprise to the governors.

It pointed out that it “was only at the meeting of June 22, 2017 (month 11 of the financial year) that the board were made aware of management concerns around the college finances”.

Minutes from a meeting of the college corporation in July that year revealed little sign of the trouble to come; the college had self-assessed its financial health as ‘satisfactory’.

The college’s 2016/17 accounts have yet to see the light of day.

But the college’s 2015/16 accounts revealed it had £43 million in bank loans taken out to fund a number of capital projects, and concerns were raised that it would be in breach of covenant on one of these by the end of 2017/18.

Mr Malish was appointed as finance director in August last year – after the concerns came to light.

 

Ofsted watch: Private provider rated grade four in first inspection

A private training provider has received a grade four in its first ever Ofsted report this week, as three other providers stayed grade at three – two for the third time.

Elsewhere, there was better news for a local authority provider which saw its grade go up from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’.

Training 4 U Services (UK) Ltd, a Luton-based independent training provider, was rated ‘inadequate’ across the board in a report published November 22 and based on an inspection in mid-September.

Leaders at the provider, which offers level three and four provision in a range of areas including health and social care, and beauty therapy, were criticised for failing to have “effective plans in place to improve the quality of their provision”.

They were found to have a “poor understanding of the strengths and weaknesses in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes for learners”.

“Too many” learners failed to achieve their qualifications, and “most” made slow progress, the report said.

Adult learning provider Kingston upon Hull City Council was one of three providers to remain at grade three following full inspection this week.

Leaders were found to have been “too slow to take effective action when teaching staff underperform” since the last inspection in 2016, in a report published November 20 and based on an inspection in early October.

“Not enough” learners achieved functional skills qualifications or got high grades in GCSE English or maths, while “too few” adult learners and those on 16 to 19 study programmes progress onto education, employment or training after their courses.

However, its apprenticeship provision was rated ‘good’, and inspectors noted that apprentices made “good progress” and “strong contributions to their employers’ businesses”.

As previously reported by FE Week, two other providers were rated grade three for the third time in a row this week: employer provider Boots Opticians Professional Services Limited, and Birmingham Metropolitan College.

Wakefield Metropolitan District Council boosted its grade from three to two in a report published November 21 and based on an inspection in mid-October.

“Good-quality teaching, learning and assessment” at the adult and community learning provider help learners “develop their vocational and technical skills and their knowledge well” with “most” making good progress.

They also made good progress in developing “social and employability skills” which “helps them contribute more fully to family life and society”.

“Governors, leaders and managers provide a curriculum that is well aligned to local economic regeneration needs and that helps vulnerable, socially isolated and disadvantaged local people to re-engage with learning,” the report said.

Just one other FE and skills report was published this week: an early monitoring visit to apprenticeship provider Proactive in Partnership Training Limited.

The provider, which offers apprenticeships in business improvement techniques, was found to be making reasonable progress in all three themes under review in a report published November 20 and based on a visit in late October.

GFE Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Birmingham Metropolitan College 16/10/2018 23/11/2018 3 3

 

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Training 4 U Services (UK) Ltd 19/09/2018 22/11/2018 4 –
Proactive in Partnership Training Limited 23/10/2018 20/11/2018 M M

 

Adult and Community Learning Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Kingston upon Hull City Council 09/10/2018 20/11/2018 3 3
Wakefield Metropolitan District Council 16/10/2018 21/11/2018 2 3

 

Employer providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Boots Opticians Professional Services Ltd 23/10/2018 19/11/2018 3 3

Third ‘requires improvement’ rating in a row for mega college in debt

A cash-strapped college whose highly-paid leader was the first in a spate of principals to step down has been rated ‘requires improvement’ for the third time in a row by Ofsted.

Birmingham Metropolitan College received a grade three overall and in five headlines fields in a report published this morning.

However, the inspection was carried out in mid-October – three weeks after Andrew Cleaves resigned with immediate effect.

Inspectors found that “significant weaknesses” remained from the previous inspection, in February 2017, particularly in relation to the “progress that all students studying on level three courses make from their starting points”.

Governors were criticised for failing to “hold leaders to account fully due to the lack of information they receive in relation to students’ progress”.

However, the report noted that the college had “significant financial difficulties” since the last inspection, and had “recently been subject to a series of interventions from the Education and Skills Funding Agency and the FE commissioner”.

Cliff Hall, who was appointed interim principal following Mr Cleaves’ departure, said the report “recognises that significant improvements have been made across the college since the last inspection”, which included “increased achievement rates on the large majority of courses”. 

He said the college was pleased to have been rated good in three headline fields: apprenticeships, adult learning, and personal development, behaviour and welfare.

“However, there is further work to be done,” he acknowledged.

“We are already getting on with a clear plan that reflects the high expectations and determination of our staff to achieve the best outcomes for our students.  New measures have recently been in place to continue improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment at BMet and we are confident they will be successful.”

BMet is one of the largest colleges in the country, with an income of £61.3 million in 2016/17 and over 16,000 learners.

But according to ESFA accounts for the year, it owed almost £14 million in exceptional financial support – more than any other college.

Despite this, Mr Cleaves, who led the college from 2014 until September this year, was the second most highly paid principal in the country, with a massive £266,000 salary.

Today’s inspection report is the third ‘requires improvement’ report in a row for the college – all three of which were handed down during or shortly after Mr Cleaves’ tenure at the college.

Until recently, these three grade threes in a row would automatically have qualified the college for an ‘inadequate’ grade.

Ofsted’s chief inspector Amanda Spielman told FE Week earlier this week that she had changed this rule when she took over the top job at the inspectorate in January 2017 “because I thought it was flawed in conception”.

“The job of inspection is to report on what we see when we inspect,” she said.

“To artificially say that something is ‘inadequate’ and trigger all the consequences that we know go with grade four judgments, because we want to heap up pressure, I don’t think that’s the right thing for us to do”.

BMet board minutes from earlier this year indicate that the college had self-assessed itself to be ‘good’ in all the main inspection themes except outcomes for learners.

“Although this was still graded as a three there was reasonable in year information to show to inspectors to support a grade two,” minutes from a meeting held in March said.

Mr Cleaves was one of eight high-profile college leaders to have stepped down with immediate effect in recent months.

Their departures are understood to be related to the introduction of the college insolvency regime, which will come into effect at the end of January.

 

Confusion surrounds Milton’s view on college and private provider collaboration

Confusion surrounds the skills minister’s view on college and private provider partnerships, after FE Week discovered that her published speech for the Association of Colleges conference contradicts what she actually said.

Anne Milton told over 1,000 delegates on Tuesday that she wants to see “more and more apprenticeship training being offered by colleges and where possible, possibly in collaboration with independent training providers”.

It made a change to former skills minister Nick Bole’s message to the conference three years ago in which he told the audience to stop letting private providers “nick your lunch”.

The new stance was met with fanfare from AELP boss Mark Dawe, who in his weekly members’ newsletter said: “The other great change in language was we didn’t hear any of the previous nonsense about ‘eating your lunch’ – instead there was a clear message about collaboration with ITPs – I nearly fell off my very comfy ICC seat!”

However, the Department for Education has since published the skills minister’s written speech, and it sends a completely different message.

Anne Milton’s published speech encourages competition between colleges and private providers

“There is the apprenticeship levy money out there in the market – you need to show what you can do on training and be real competition for the independent training provider market,” it says.

FE Week has listened back to the speech and found that the minister followed it nearly word for word, but missed out a couple of sentences, including this one about encouraging competition.

Her actual words at conference about encouraging collaboration were not included in the published speech.

It appears the minister had a last minute change of opinion, which will leave the sector wondering exactly what the Department for Education wants when it comes subcontracting.

Mr Dawe said: “Officials advise, ministers decide and it’s about time some officials moved on and recognise that there has been a change in line under this minister as has been clearly shown in her previous speeches and appearances before select committees.”

You can read Ms Milton’s full published speech here.

Petroc comes top in FE Week ’s college league table for 2018

Petroc has been crowned the best college in the country in FE Week’s exclusive league table for 2018.

This year’s NICDEX gave 186 colleges a score of up to 40, with 10 marks available in four categories: learner satisfaction, employer satisfaction, 16-to-18 positive progression and adults into employment.

The league table was first devised in 2016 by Nick Linford, FE Week’s editor and a former director of performance at Lewisham College, based on key and official criteria published by the Department for Education.

Petroc topped this year’s leader board and was celebrated at a drinks reception, hosted by FE Week in partnership with Pearson, at the Association of Colleges conference this week.

Exeter College was knocked off the top spot after winning the previous two league tables.

Petroc scored an impressive 36 points overall, scooping a perfect 10 for both employer satisfaction and 16-to-18 progressions. The college scored 8 points for learner satisfaction and 8 for adults into employment.

Second place was shared by Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group, and Weston College, which both scored 34 points.

In joint third with 33 points each were Barnsley College, Middlesbrough College and West Suffolk College.

“We’re absolutely delighted to be top of this highly regarded league table, improving on last year’s second place,” said Petroc principal Diane Dimond.

“My thanks go to all our amazing staff and hardworking students, as well as employers and partners in the area who work so closely with us.”

She continued: “At Petroc, success at every level is promoted as a positive driver for continuing in education and gaining employment, and every year our students go on to the best universities in the country, higher and degree apprenticeships as well as skilled careers.

“We pride ourselves on our strong links with employers, ensuring our learners have great work opportunities available to them, and I truly believe this is why we have such success with student progression into employment.

“We work closely with organisations across a wide range of sectors, and value their feedback to shape our curriculum and ensure we’re meeting the needs of our communities. The fact that over 93 per cent of employers would recommend us as a training provider is fantastic and makes me extremely proud.”

Click here to read the full NICDEX supplement.

Picture: From left: Lsect MD and FE Week publisher Shane Mann, Petroc principal Diane Dimond, Petroc vice principal Bill Blythe and FE Week editor Nick Linford