Coronavirus: Some mayoral combined authorities guarantee AEB payments to ALL provider types

Multiple mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) have promised to honour adult education budget payments to all types of providers during the coronavirus pandemic, including those with procured contracts.

It comes after the Department for Education announced yesterday it would only continue to pay grant-funded colleges during the crisis.

MCAs had millions in adult education budget funding devolved to them in August 2019 and now have the power to differ from Whitehall and make their own rules about administering payments.

Liverpool City Region, which has an annual £51.3 million AEB – around £15 million of which was awarded to private and community providers via a tender last year, told FE Week it has “written to all adult education providers to make clear that they will continue to receive funding on a monthly basis”.

The exact conditions and process for making payment is not yet known, but a spokesperson said they are “hopeful that we will be in a position to clarify the level of funding for each individual organisation by the end of this week”.

Tees Valley Combined Authority, which holds an annual £29.5 million budget, also told FE Week today it has committed to pay all its approved AEB providers, regardless of type as per their agreed future payment profile schedule, their agreed funding allocation for the academic year 2019/20.

They confirmed this meant that 100 per cent of the future funding profile within the AEB for 2019/20 will be paid to all providers regardless of recruitment.

Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen said: “We are continuing to work closely with all of our commissioned adult education providers across the Tees Valley to make sure they have the funding and support they need, especially at such a difficult time.

“We have been speaking directly to each of them to understand their specific challenges and are focused on immediate responses to keep them operational.”

However, he added that any decisions on “productivity or reclaiming funding will be made in the future, when we have a clearer view on how the coronavirus situation has impacted the sector”.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers has said that other MCAs have contacted them to say that they will also “guarantee” AEB funding to all types of providers.

A letter to providers from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, seen by FE Week, said the funding decision for them is “incredibly complex, with multiple funding streams and provider supply chains in play”.

They are working on “how best” to support provider financial stability, for the next quarter in particular.

Each provider will get a one-on-one discussion with their contact at the combined authority “so that the immediate destabilising impact of any restrictions is mitigated as far as is within our gift”.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority, which had £12 million devolved, said their first intention was to offer their five procured providers “support and as much flexibility as possible during this difficult time”.

The authority has spoken to them all and are “developing proposals on how we will be able to fund them for the rest of the academic year”.

Not all MCAs are treating private providers and colleges the same. A spokesperson for the West Midlands Combined Authority told FE Week it will “continue to make scheduled AEB payments to all colleges and local authorities funded under a grant agreement”.

Private training providers will be paid “for this month, and the WMCA will be working with the providers to develop proposals for funding for the rest of this academic year and into 2020/21”.

The guarantees from the likes of Tees Valley will pile pressure on the DfE to take further steps to protect the income of independent providers, after skills minister Gillian Keegan confirmed in a letter last night the Education and Skills Funding Agency would guarantee 16 to 19 and AEB funding until the end of this academic year, but only for grant-funded providers.

“I hope this provides you with the funding certainty you require as you seek to address the impact of responding to Covid-19,” she wrote.

For private providers, the DfE said government policy “does not allow payment for services in advance of delivery”, so their funding won via procurement will not be paid until training is completed.

Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe was left “furious” and said the government’s goal “seems to be for the sector to collapse and remove any delivery to apprentices, other learners and their hundreds of thousands of employers”.

“As things stand,” he added, “there is only one word – disgraceful.

“We are left to conclude that the government is not serious about apprenticeship training or any other forms of skills training continuing while the pandemic goes on or that it is very happy to preside over many independent training providers going out of business over the next three months.”

Coronavirus: 9 key points from the government’s apprenticeships guidance

The government has this evening released a package of measures that it hopes will help apprenticeship training providers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

It also applies to apprentices, employers, end-point assessment organisations and external quality assurance providers.

Here are the key points from the guidance:

 

1. No funding support

The government appears to offer no funding support for apprenticeship training providers during the crisis.

Its guidance says providers will only continue to be paid “retrospectively for the training they have delivered and can evidence”.

Government policy “does not allow payment for services in advance of delivery,” it claimed.

The ESFA added that it “reserves the right to recover funding which was claimed for and paid to the training provider, but for which the training provider was found not to be eligible”.

 

2. Face-to-face end-point assessments can be rescheduled or ‘modified’

End-point assessment organisations and external quality assurance providers are encouraged to engage and agree where remote assessment can replace face-to-face assessment, or where a simulated environment is to be used.

Apprentices who are deemed ready for assessment, and cannot be assessed due to COVID-19 related issues, will be able to have their EPA rescheduled. Where there is a “specified time limit for EPA post gateway”, a further pause of 12 weeks is allowable.

Apprentices whose gateway is being delayed are allowed a break in learning, with an extension to the assessment timeframe.

 

3. Breaks in learning rule softened – but providers still won’t be paid

Funding rules currently state that a break in learning must be initiated by the apprentice.

The government will now allow employers and training providers, temporarily, to also report and initiate a break in learning where the interruption is greater than four weeks.

Training providers will not receive payments for learners who are on breaks in learning.

 

4. Go to Treasury if you’re struggling financially

The guidance states that where the COVID-19 outbreak results in loss of income due to ceased or reduced delivery of training, training providers “should consider their eligibility and apply for the wide range of financial support that HM Treasury has already announced for businesses”.

 

5. Apprentices made redundant to find a new employer within 12 weeks

Where apprentices are furloughed (granted a leave of absence) or placed on unpaid leave, employers and training providers have been urged to consider whether a break in learning would be appropriate.

Where apprentices are made redundant, it is the DfE’s ambition that they will be supported to find alternative employment, and continue their apprenticeship within 12 weeks.

The training provider “must support the apprentice to find another employer” where redundancies take place.

In instances where a significant number of apprentices are made redundant, the ESFA said it will attempt to provide “exceptional practical support to the apprentices and training providers to secure alternative employers for the individuals”.

 

6. ‘Distance learning’ encouraged

The government is “encouraging and supporting employers, and training and assessment providers, to make use of distance-learning tools wherever possible and practicable to do so”.

 

7. Arrangements for disrupted training delivery in March

Where training has been delivered this month, but a break in learning has begun, or is expected to start before the end of March, to ensure payment for these apprentices, training providers have been told to:

    include these learners in their March ILR submission as on programme

    record, retain and submit evidence in the usual way

    record a break in learning in their April ILR submission

    ensure that these learners are not recorded as permanently withdrawn from their apprenticeship, by entering the ‘Completion status’ field of the ILR as ‘6’, denoting that the learner has temporarily withdrawn from learning due to an agreed break in learning

The DfE makes clear that training, which cannot be delivered in March, but for which the training provider receives payment, should be delivered within the “remainder of the apprenticeship, and the previously agreed total cost of the apprenticeship, before the planned end-date”.

Where the training is not completed, the ESFA “reserves the right to recover payment”.

 

8. Employers urged not to pause or stop payments to providers for March

During March, levy-paying employers “should not use the apprenticeship service to ‘pause’ or ‘stop’ payments to the training provider, where some training has been delivered in March”, the DfE says.

Doing so will result in the training provider not receiving any payment for these apprentices.

 

9. Arrangements for April and beyond

For a break in learning greater than four weeks that begins on or after 1 April, the apprenticeship should be ‘paused’ by the employer through the apprenticeship service at the point the break in learning begins.

The employer should “not ‘stop’ the apprenticeship through the apprenticeship service as this will prevent it resuming subsequently”.

Coronavirus: ‘Furious’ AELP boss says government wants skills sector to collapse

The government’s goal seems to be for the skills sector to “collapse”, a “furious” Mark Dawe has told FE Week after officials failed to provide apprenticeship funding support during the Covid-19 crisis.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive tonight lambasted the “disgraceful” decision and demanded an urgent meeting with skills minister Gillian Keegan.

New guidance released by the Department for Education stated that policy “does not allow payment for services in advance of delivery”, so funding for apprenticeships cannot be made until the training has taken place.

The situation has left providers in a “battle to survive”.

Dawe told FE Week: “I am furious that after weeks of discussions the government has made no attempt to provide any assurance to independent providers and end-point assessment organisations as to any future funding relating to any of their delivery.

“It seems their goal is for the sector to collapse and remove any delivery to apprentices, other learners and their hundreds of thousands of employers.  As things stand tonight, there is only one word – disgraceful.”

Here is his reaction in full: “The omission of any DfE funding support for apprenticeships and other skills training goes completely against the assurance offered by the Secretary of State to the House of Commons last week.

“We are left to conclude that the government is not serious about apprenticeship training or any other forms of skills training continuing while the pandemic goes on or that it is very happy to preside over many independent training providers (ITPs) going out of business over the next three months.

“How are providers expected to implement the proposed flexibilities in today’s statement if they have vastly reduced income coming in? It is now a battle for survival. The majority of provider staff will be furloughed which means they will not be available to support the training of apprentices and other learners.

“Coming after Friday’s guaranteed funding support for mainstream FE provision, the DfE statement adds insult to injury. For example, it says that “government policy does not allow payment for services in advance of delivery” and yet this is precisely what it announced for colleges on Friday.  ITPs delivering adult education, traineeships and other forms of training have similarly been offered zero assurance by today’s statement.

“Then on apprenticeships, the statement goes further and lays down terms for clawback of funding from independent training providers if the crisis means that apprenticeships can’t be completed.  Given that it is not their fault that they cannot gain access to apprentices or assess them, this is beyond the pale.

“Unless the government urgently rethinks its stance that it has had two weeks to think about, we are likely to see the start of the collapse of the training and assessment sector over the next week unless action is taken on funding, and those employers who want training and assessment to continue will have no place to go when this is over.

“Colleges only deliver 2 per cent of apprenticeship training.  This means that they are no position to rush in and fill the gaps that will appear in key sectors and in many towns and rural areas across the country, including the Red Wall areas, if ITPs, who deliver nearly seven out of 10 apprenticeships, start going bust.  Niche provision in sectors like textiles will also suffer very badly.

“Another important point on the quality of provision is that nearly all ITPs have made the transition across to the new apprenticeship standards whereas less than six months away from the switch-off of frameworks, many colleges are lagging in making the change.

“So employers looking to get back on their feet after the end of the pandemic will find that the apprenticeships that they want won’t be available to them.  And soon that other oven-ready solution of EU migrant labour won’t be there either to fill the gaps.

“What about this year’s school-leavers aged 16 or 18?  Where are the opportunities going to be for them if lots of apprenticeship training providers are no longer around?

“This is why any further delay on a funding support package for apprenticeships and ITPs is totally unacceptable.

“AELP has this evening demanded an urgent meeting with the apprenticeships and skills minister.  We also hope that MPs on the Commons Education Committee will be raising these issues with the minister when she appears before them on Wednesday.”

FE minister writes to apprenticeship providers about COVID-19 response

Apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan has today written to independent providers and other non-college stakeholders in an effort to address their concerns following the coronavirus outbreak.

Read the letter in full below.

 

Dear Colleagues,

I wanted to write to you and thank you for all of your hard work and continued commitment during what I know is a very difficult time.

We are facing an unprecedented challenge and I recognise that as teachers and leaders working to provide education, training, and assessment and to support your learners, you are on the frontline of our national effort.

UK COVID-19 response 

I appreciate that the changes announced by the Secretary of State last Wednesday, to education and training delivery from 23 March, will have a huge impact on you as leaders, as well as your staff members and learners.

Education, training and assessment providers who operate as businesses or charities are able to access the Government’s package of measures to support businesses to withstand the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak. Details of this support are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses. We are working closely with HM Treasury to monitor how the support packages are benefitting organisations and to consider any further action which may be required.

I have already heard hugely impressive stories on how providers across the country are reacting – including using online resources to continue to deliver education for your learners, offering support for the community in your areas and establishing crucial communications channels with learners, parents and employers. These illustrate how you are pulling together with ingenuity at this time and typify the spirit that runs through our brilliant further education sector. I’d like to thank you for all the work you have put in so far and for all that is surely to come in the coming weeks.

Funding

I understand that, alongside your priority to deliver learning and care for your students, the situation we are in carries financial implications for many institutions. I am aware of some of the issues you are facing, including those raised by sector representative organisations including the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and HOLEX, and we are working hard to mitigate this impact as much as we can. The Chancellor has announced a series of wider measures to support employers and employees, recognising the significant impacts caused by Covid-19.

For grant funded providers, I can confirm that the ESFA will continue to make scheduled 16-19 and AEB monthly payments for the remainder of the year. Your allocations for 2020/21 will have been confirmed by the end of March, and payments will be made as scheduled. I hope this provides you with the funding certainty you require as you seek to address the impact of responding to Covid-19.  For other funding streams, we will be making decisions on where existing rules and models may need to be modified in relation to any planned reconciliation and future year allocations.

We have today published more detailed operational guidance for FE providers here www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-maintaining-further-education-provision and will continue to add to this to make sure providers have the latest information.

Apprenticeships

In this difficult time, I know that providers and employers are doing their best for their workforce. I want to support that by ensuring that wherever possible apprentices can continue and complete their apprenticeship, despite any break they need to take as a result of COVID-19. I, through the ESFA, am committed to working with training providers, end-point assessment organisations and external quality assurance organisations to mitigate the impacts of this disruption and maintain the integrity of apprenticeships.  I am hoping that together, with the expertise, support and commitment that you continually demonstrate, we can support apprentices and their employers through these extraordinary and difficult times.

Today we are publishing our apprenticeship response to COVID-19 – www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-apprenticeship-programme-response. This document sets out how we are responding to the impact of COVID-19, as part of our cross-Government efforts.  We are implementing new measures to make it easier for apprenticeships to continue and complete in a different way if they need to or to break and resume an apprenticeship later when that becomes possible. The document explains the temporary flexibilities that we are introducing to the programme during the pandemic and provides answers to questions related to these changes and other common questions. We will continue updating this guidance in line with new queries and/ or further support measures being introduced.

Alternatives arrangements for exams

You will also be aware that we have taken the difficult decision to cancel all exams this summer. This is not a decision we have taken lightly, and we know that this will be disappointing for students who have been working hard towards these exams. We have been working closely with the exam boards and qualifications regulator Ofqual to put in place alternative arrangements.

There are a very wide range of different vocational and technical qualifications as well as other academic qualifications for which students were expecting to sit exams this summer. These are offered by a large number of awarding organisations and have differing assessment approaches – in many cases, students will already have completed modules or non-exam assessment which could provide evidence to award a grade. We are encouraging these organisations to show the maximum possible flexibility and pragmatism to ensure students are not disadvantaged.

Ofqual is working urgently with the exam boards to set out proposals for how this process will work and will be talking to teachers’ representatives before finalising an approach, to ensure that the approach taken is as fair as possible. For more details please see our guidance here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-cancellation-of-gcses-as-and-a-levels-in-2020. More information will be provided as soon as possible. 

Communication with the sector 

I recognise that the current situation is throwing up queries and concerns that many of you are working through and my officials are already speaking regularly with provider bodies and unions to make sure we are alive to the issues that you are all facing and the questions that you have. I am also in contact with representatives of the sector on the impact of Covid-19 and will continue to engage over the coming weeks.     

Accurate information is clearly vital at a time like this, and the latest government guidance is available on GOV.UK, including advice for all education settings and critical worker classifications.

To help maintain the flow of information and ensure we are alive to the issues affecting you all, I would encourage you to keep in touch and raise any queries via your ESFA territorial team or for apprenticeships, via the Apprenticeship Service helpline by telephone on 08000 150 600 or email at helpdesk@manage-apprenticeships.service.gov.uk

We are certainly in an extraordinary situation and I am extremely grateful for the huge amount of work being done across the sector to mitigate the impacts of Covid-19 on our staff, students, and institutions.

Yours sincerely,  

Gillian Keegan MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Apprenticeships and Skills

 

 

 

 

College funding support confirmed, and 4 other key points from latest DfE Covid-19 guidance

The government confirmed it will honour all payments to grant funded providers for the remainder of the 2019/20 funding year, in new guidance published today.

The operational guidance for general FE colleges, sixth form colleges and other post-16 FE providers listed a number of measures enacted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

FE Week pulled out the following five key points:

 

1) Colleges to be financially supported

The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) allocations for 2020/21 will be confirmed by the end of the month and payments to grant funded providers will continue to be made.

The Department for Education said it recognises that the coronavirus situation carries “financial implications for many institutions, and we are working to mitigate the impact as much as we can”.

The guidance confirmed existing support arrangements will remain in place for colleges in significant financial difficulties, including short term solvency support through emergency funding.

Furthermore, the Student Loans Company will continue to make scheduled fee payment to providers for Advanced Learner Loans.

 

2) ID ‘critical worker’ parents

Until further notice, colleges have been told to only stay open for vulnerable children and those of “key workers” (list here).

The DfE has recommended that colleges ask for “simple evidence” that the parent in question is a key worker, such as their “work ID badge or pay slip”.

It would be “overly burdensome on key sectors at this critical time to ask employers to write a letter on behalf of their employees”.

 

3) Train staff in distance learning

Some colleges, according to the guidance, have already indicated they aim to run a regular timetabled offer of online learning, which is “excellent practice if it can be reasonably maintained”.

Where possible, colleges have been urged to prepare staff on distance learning practice through bitesize/refresher training sessions focused on how to use college virtual learning environments.

They should also use tools already available at the college including physical and digital resources, and how to make use of cloud storage systems, ensuring staff and students have log-in details and know how to access online content.

Accessible guides on distance learning should also be given to students, and colleges should consider “lesson capture” to allow students to “dip in and out of lessons at their own pace”.

Leaders should also “consider how you will deploy your staff to ensure safeguarding and security policies are maintained”.

FE Commissioner Richard Atkins and his team have offered their services to college leaders, and National Leaders of Governance are also ready to offer any support they can. They can be contacted via email on FEC.OPERATIONS@education.gov.uk.

 

4) No exams will be taking place in colleges this summer

The guidance outlines how exam boards will be asking teachers who know their students “well” to submit a set of evidence, including performance in mock results and their judgement about the grade that they believe the student would have received if exams had gone ahead.

In regards to vocational and technical qualifications, the DfE added that it is working with Ofqual to “see what flexibility and pragmatism can be applied to ensure students are not disadvantaged”.

 

5) No Ofsted or FE Commissioner inspections either

The guidance confirms Ofsted inspections and FE Commissioner intervention visits and non-critical ESFA intervention have been suspended until further notice.

Coronavirus: Ofsted pauses publication of inspection reports

Ofsted has paused the publication of inspection reports during the coronavirus crisis and promised that it will have “do the right thing” as its mantra going forward.

Deputy director for FE and skills Paul Joyce (pictured) told an FE Week webinar on Saturday they had taken the decision because they are “well aware providers have enough to deal with”.

“There are a number of providers that will be expecting a report to be published imminently,” he said.

“We will continue to send the report to providers but they won’t be published until further notice and we’ll obviously let providers know when that will be at some point in the future.”

Pressed on whether this meant providers ought to ignore the watchdog, Joyce said that was “very good advice”.

This decision was part of the inspectorate’s mantra to “do the right thing” going forward, he added.

Ofsted said there are 50 FE and skills inspection reports being held over until the providers reopen as normal.

The watchdog announced last week that it would suspend routine inspections until further notice. It had come under fire for not halting inspections sooner.

Joyce told the webinar a visit could now only be triggered if the inspectorate learns of safeguarding concerns or incidents which need “really urgent action”. The threshold to trigger an inspection would be “really high”, he stressed.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said last week that education providers should close from today, except for the children of key workers and the most vulnerable students.

Joyce said that Ofsted is working “very closely” with the Department for Education about “potential redeployment of our staff if that’s required”, which might “include to support providers to deal with that situation”.

It has also been decided Ofsted will pause all its work around handling complaints related to inspection reports, Joyce revealed.

The watchdog will not be contacting providers in relation to new or existing complaints and they will not be sending out complaint outcomes until further notice as well.

One provider asked if they have had a report approved, can they share it with students and stakeholders. Joyce said the watchdog would not step in the way and be “stopping good news getting out” if it is a positive result.

The inspectorate will also be working with the Department for Education and the Education and Skills Funding Agency, as well as sector bodies, to help independent training providers which have been suspended from new starts after a poor early monitoring visit.

“It will be focused on doing the right thing but it is a bit early to say what the right thing is. That’s on my agenda,” Joyce said.

When business does return to normal, he said they will put out some guidance about any changes to policy or practice they need to inspect the intervening period of provision.

He did give five pieces of advice to providers, which is to “try and do the right thing”, provide “whatever help and support you can”, “follow the advice and guidance being provided”, “keep talking with agencies” like Ofsted, and “stay well”.

 

Coronavirus: Universities warned over rush to unconditional offers

The universities regulator has said it will use “any powers available” to prevent institutions from switching students’ offers to unconditional in the wake of the government’s cancellation of this summer’s exam series.

Following the announcement last week that GCSE and A-level grades will be based on teacher assessment this year, the Department for Education warned that a small number of universities have changed “a significant proportion” of their offers to undergraduate students from ‘conditional’ to ‘unconditional’.

Nicola Dandridge, the chief executive of the Office for Students, said it would be “quite wrong” for any university to respond to the coronavirus crisis by making offers “that may undermine the sustainability of the university system and increase the financial pressure on other providers”.

Michelle Donelan (pictured), the universities minister, has demanded a two-week moratorium on unconditional offers, warning that changing offers at this stage “risks destabilising the entire admissions systems”.

“I am asking for a two week pause while we work with the sector over this period on admissions arrangements,” she said.

It follows moves by the government to clamp down on the use of unconditional offers, which has increased substantially in recent years. School and college leaders are concerned the offers discourage students from working hard during their final year.

Donelan said the country faced “unprecedented circumstances”, but that it was “essential that we create a period of stability for both students and universities”.

“As universities seek to secure attendance for the next academic year, I would ask them to refrain from changing existing offers to unconditional offers as it risks destabilising the entire admissions systems,” she said.

Dandridge, who has been vocal in her opposition to the inappropriate use of unconditional offers, said many universities and colleges were responding to coronavirus “with innovation and ingenuity”.

“But it is critical that every university and college puts the student’s interest first in these difficult times,” she added.

“So, I want to make it very clear to any university or college – and its leaders and governors – that if any university or college adjusts any offer to students, or make any unconditional offers, during this two week moratorium we will use any powers available to us to prevent such offer making on the grounds that it is damaging to students and not in their interests.”

Alistair Jarvis, the chief executive of universities industry body Universities UK, said the institutions were “doing all that they can to support students with great examples across the country. It is important that these efforts are not undermined by inappropriate admissions practices increasing worry and pressure for applicants.”

The DfE said students who accept an unconditional offer will be able to release themselves as part of the UCAS self-release process to explore other options during clearing. The process was introduced last year and almost 30,000 students used it.

Admissions service UCAS has also announced that it will extend the deadline for pupils to make decisions on their offers by two weeks. The deadline is usually early May.

DfE reveals how it will provide grades for A-level and GCSE students this summer

The government has confirmed it will use teacher assessments to provide calculated grades for students this year.

The aim is to provide grades to learners before the end of July. They will be “indistinguishable from those provided in other years”, and students will have a chance to resit an exam if they don’t think the grade is fair.

On Friday, officials published further details of how it will replace GCSEs and A-levels this summer after exams were scrapped amid the coronavirus outbreak.

It states exam boards will “ask teachers to submit their judgement about the grade that they believe the student would have received if exams had gone ahead”.

This is an opportunity to at least point the way to a less brutal system.

Teachers should consider evidence including performance on mock exams and non-exam assessment.

Ofqual said “clear guidance on how to do this fairly and robustly this will be provided to schools and colleges”.

“The exam boards will then combine this information with other relevant data, including prior attainment, and use this information to produce a calculated grade for each student, which will be a best assessment of the work they have put in.”

Ofqual and exam boards “will be discussing with teachers’ representatives before finalising an approach, to ensure that it is as fair as possible. More information will be provided as soon as possible.”

Ofqual said it will also “aim to ensure that the distribution of grades follows a similar pattern to that in other years, so that this year’s students do not face a systematic disadvantage as a consequence of these extraordinary circumstances.”

If pupils “do not believe the correct process has been followed” then they can appeal.

If they don’t feel their calculated grade reflects their performance pupils can also resit an exam “at the earliest reasonable opportunity, once schools are open again. Students will also have the option to sit their exams in summer 2021.”

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “Cancelling exams is something no education secretary would ever want to do, however these are extraordinary times and this measure is a vital but unprecedented step in the country’s efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus.

“My priority now is to ensure no young person faces a barrier when it comes to moving onto the next stage of their lives – whether that’s further or higher education, an apprenticeship or a job.

“I have asked exam boards to work closely with the teachers who know their pupils best to ensure their hard work and dedication is rewarded and fairly recognised.”

However Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the details leave “many questions unanswered”.

But he said teachers are the “experts in their subjects, they know these qualifications inside out, they know their students, and they have the professional skills to assess them accurately.

“We do not subscribe to the notion that exams are the only credible way of assessing qualifications, and this is an opportunity to at least point the way to a less brutal system.”

An Ofqual spokesperson said: “We are working tirelessly to support students affected by these unprecedented and difficult circumstances and to develop, quickly, a fair and consistent process. We know that schools and colleges urgently need to know what they will need to do, and when.”

DfE suspends process for defunding qualifications with low enrolments

The Department for Education has suspended the process for defunding thousands of legacy qualifications at level three and below with low enrolments amid the coronavirus crisis.

But for qualifications with no enrolments, officials will continue with that process under an “expanded timeframe”.

A consultation on plans to remove funding for more than 5,000 qualifications at level three and below was launched by the government in February.

Those at risk are courses that are currently not being studied by any learners or have cohorts of fewer than 100, and are coming to the end of their three-year operation.

The plan was to stop their funding by August 2021, and the deadline for organisations to submit appeals for keeping individual qualifications under review was 27 March.

But following a plea to delay the process from the Federation of Awarding Bodies owing to colleges and other education settings being ordered to close, Education and Skills Funding Agency chief executive Eileen Milner has agreed to alter the arrangements.

“Recognising the rapidly changing nature of the current situation, and taking account of recent announcements, we are proposing to run the no enrolment process only this year, offering, on top of the four week extension for evidence you suggested, a further window to submit evidence during September,” she told FAB boss Tom Bewick in an email, seen by FE Week, today.

“We will not run the low enrolment process this year, but re-launch that in the autumn, as part of the second cycle of review of funding approval decisions, with qualifications in scope potentially having funding approval withdrawn from August 2022.”

An email outlining the changes will be sent to all awarding organisations today.

It will inform them that the deadline to submit the “relevant accompanying evidence” for qualifications with no enrolments is now extended to 30 April 2020.

“Qualifications with low enrolments which are included on the published list will retain funding approvals for 2021 to 2022,” it will add.

“These qualifications will be in scope to have funding approval removed from August 2022.”

Exact timescales for the revised arrangements will be revealed “in the autumn”.

Bewick said his federation was “pleased that the ESFA is responding so flexibly to our members at this incredibly challenging time”.

“These postponements will free up some of the time of awarding body staff to focus on the immediate crisis of dealing with Covid-19, including ensuring that various assessments continue for apprentices and vocational technical qualification students.”