The Department for Education has published a “checklist” to assist colleges with their wider reopening from 1 June.

Government guidance was updated this evening to help leaders decide “what to consider and steps to take when planning increased attendance”.

It says that given the “varied nature” of colleges it is “not possible for the government to be prescriptive and provide a blueprint that could apply to every college”.

“A tailored approach, within these guiding principles, will be required to ensure an approach that is practicable, safe and which meets, as far as is possible, the needs of the learners, staff and wider community,” the guidance adds.

The DfE warns that implementation of the checklist “may well have financial implications” so “care must be exercised to ensure these are taken into account with due regard for the impact on the college’s overall budget and financial position”.

It also states that the week commencing 1 June is the “earliest” that colleges should start to reopen for face to face contact with 16 to 19 learners on the first year of two-year programmes, alongside the provision they are offering to priority groups.

The department says that they “understand” there may need to be some flexibility in place due to the variety of learners and courses offered in FE settings, so although the main face to face contact is for 16 to 19 learners from 1 June, there “may be some courses that include learners within a class that are over 19”.

“Some 16 to 19-year-olds will have been due to finish this academic year, but not been able to because their assessments have been deferred (typically where they involve a license to practice). These learners can be included in on-site delivery if they would benefit from face to face contact,” the guidance adds.

“We will be expecting colleges and providers to treat 16 to 19-year-old apprentices consistently with other learners for their off the job training where possible and appropriate, so that they can be offered some face to face contact.”

Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said the guidance “makes clear that 1 June is not set as a rigid date for re-opening”.

“We are advising every college to make their own decisions on their assessment of priorities, needs, the context in which they operate and individual risk assessments and we are confident that is what the government wants,” he added.

Among the recommendations, colleges have been urged to consider establishing a “coronavirus governance and leadership group which meets regularly to monitor the board approved plan and consider any required adjustments and/or circumstances that may have arisen that require an immediate policy response”.

“The group’s membership, role and relationship to the full board should be agreed by the board, along with regular reporting protocols,” the DfE said.

In addition to colleges, the guidance also applies to the “smaller proportion of 16 to 19 learners in other further education settings – including local authority delivery, special post-16 designated institutions and independent providers”. 

The checklist and guidance can be read in full here.

 

Colleges and training providers will have a three week “window” to provide calculated grades for vocational and technical qualifications from 1 June, Ofqual has revealed.

The exams regulator has today published further guidance for grading the courses this summer owing to the cancellation of exams.

It follows an announcement at the end of April that schools and colleges can either grade the qualifications by calculating results, adapting assessments, or, as a last resort, delay assessments until they reopen.

Ofqual reiterated today that the “majority” of learners should receive a calculated result before revealing that colleges and training providers should “expect awarding organisations to ask you to provide centres assessment grades and other information about learners in a window of up to three weeks, starting 1 June”.

This will only be a week after the regulator publishes its response to the current vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) consultation on 22 May.

Ofqual intends to publish an “app” that will allow colleges, training providers and learners to see what qualifications are in scope for calculated grades or need adapted assessment “when we publish the outcomes of our consultation”.

The new guidance states that in “exceptional circumstances” where awarding organisations need to extend the window beyond three weeks, “they will be in touch with you”.

“The window will allow them time for awarding organisations to quality assure the data, check the overall profile of outcomes and if necessary raise any queries with centres before results are issued,” Ofqual said.

“If you feel your awarding organisation’s deadline is unachievable, you should speak to them urgently.”

Results day for level three VTQs will be held on 13 August alongside A-levels, while level two results will be given to students on 20 August alongside GCSEs.

Ofqual’s new guidance can be found here.

Unions representing tens of thousands of college staff have set out five “tests” they believe should be met before students return on 1 June.

In a joint statement, the University and College Union, GMB, National Education Union, UNISON and Unite said staff and student “safety” must be “guaranteed” before colleges open more widely.

They called for “stringent hygiene measures, protection for vulnerable people and isolation for all suspected cases” to avoid colleges becoming Covid-19 “hotspots”.

The unions are advising staff and students who can work from home to “continue to do so”.

It comes after the government announced on Monday that for learners in year 10 and 12 due to take “key exams” next year, “we are asking schools and colleges to supplement remote education with some face to face support for these year groups from 1 June”.

The Department for Education later confirmed to FE Week that this applied to first year students on all two-year 16 to 19 vocational study programmes, such as BTECs, as well as GCSE and A-level learners.

Guidance published alongside Monday’s announcement included a range of “protective measures” to ensure education settings remain safe places, including reducing class sizes, staggered break times, as well as increasing the frequency of cleaning and reducing the use of shared items.

The unions’ five tests for government and colleges in full are :

1. Much lower numbers of Covid-19 cases

The new case count must be much lower than it is now, with a sustained downward trend and confidence that new cases are known and counted promptly. And the government must have extensive, open and transparent arrangements in place for testing, contact tracing and isolating those with Covid-19 symptoms.

2. A national plan for social distancing

The government must have a national plan in place which includes parameters for both appropriate physical distancing and safe levels of social mixing in all further education settings. To help ensure physical distancing during travel and at colleges, all staff and students who can work and study from home must continue to do so.

3. Comprehensive testing

Comprehensive access to regular testing for students and staff, with isolation for all suspected cases, to ensure colleges don’t become hotspots for Covid-19. In addition to routine testing, protocols to be in place to ensure testing across whole college sites and other non-college work-based learning sites whenever a confirmed case of Covid-19 occurs. 

4. A whole college strategy for health and safety

Risk assessments and safe ways of working for all tasks and spaces within a college should be established with relevant staff and unions in advance. This should include regular deep cleaning and stringent hygiene measures. Where PPE is identified as required by risk assessments, supplies of these are secured before re-opening of affected areas. Strategy to be clearly communicated to all stakeholders.

5. Protection for the vulnerable

Vulnerable staff, and staff who live with vulnerable people, must work from home, fulfilling their professional duties to the extent that is possible. Plans must specifically address the protection of all staff, students and members of their households who are vulnerable to Covid-19.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Staff and student health is the number one priority and nobody should be going back to college until it is safe to do so. The government needs to work with us to address the national challenges, while individual colleges should work with their local union reps to address the unique challenges they will face.”

National Education Union joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted added: “Safety has to be the overriding concern. Planning for wider reopening should focus on ensuring safety is assured if and when the college reopens, not on meeting government deadlines which may well prove unrealistic.”

FE Week has asked the unions to define what “safe” would look like and how that could be “guaranteed”.

Two weeks after the Education and Skills Funding Agency announced they would intervene at apprenticeship providers that failed to meet the minimum standards in 2018/19 they have pushed back the plans by more than four months.

Officials originally said on 29 April they would send out letters to those in scope, understood to be several hundred training firms, stating how they would be challenged “next week”.

However, FE Week understands that only a handful were sent out and only to those where it was decided there was no need for action.

The remaining and vast majority of letters were finally sent this week, but state that any challenge has been delayed due to Covid-19.

In letters seen by FE Week, the ESFA said: “We have decided not to issue you with additional contractual obligations, which we use to manage the quality and quantity of the delivery of your apprenticeship provision, at this point, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are aware of the continuing challenges surrounding the delivery of apprenticeships under the present circumstances and will monitor the situation closely.

“We will make a final decision on the need for intervention, as a result of failure of minimum standards, later in the year. We expect this to happen as soon as it is possible, but no later than October 2020, when we will write to you again on this subject.”

A  spokesperson for the ESFA confirmed that all providers will receive the same message “where we are deferring our decision on intervention action”.

They could not say how many providers could require challenge as the agency has not yet completed the process of contacting all those in scope.

The spokesperson added that the approach on minimum standards, including the deferral of final decisions on intervention, was agreed “prior” to the notice being published on 29 April, and they have “taken account of the impact of Covid-19 on the provider base (e.g. their need to prioritise work to manage through the immediate challenges) in our decision making”.

Providers have to have more than 40 per cent of their cohort on frameworks and standards above a 62 per cent achievement rate to achieve the minimum standard.

As previously reported, overall achievement rates for apprenticeships dropped 2.2 percent points last year to just 64.7 per cent.

The achievement rate for the new apprenticeship standards were particularly low, averaging just 46.6 per cent compared to 68.7 per cent for frameworks.

The DfE cited apprentice drop-out as the problem, with overall retention rate being 65.7 per cent, meaning more than a third of funded apprentices were leaving before the course had finished.

The agency’s minimum standards document reminds providers that “poor or declining education performance data can lead to escalating intervention action and we will act early in the best interests of students, apprentices and the public purse”.

And action for failing to meet the minimum standard can be as severe as contract termination, according to the agency’s “oversight of independent training providers” operational guidance.

In an FE Week webcast last month, apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan expressed concern at historic “low quality” apprenticeships delivery.

She said: “I was quite shocked at some of the lower quality delivery that happened in the first stages of the levy being introduced and I never want to go back to those days…I’ve met people on the doorstep who’ve actually said to me this is a load of old rubbish. We have to make sure that every apprenticeship is quality.

Only around a quarter of eligible training providers applied for the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s Covid-19 supplier relief scheme, FE Week analysis suggests.

The agency told this newspaper today that they have received 162 applications for the extra financial support, which opened on 24 April and closed on 3 May.

The figure is 22 per cent of the 734 providers with a procured adult education budget allocation and/or non-levy apprenticeship contract with the government – nearly all of which would have been entitled to bid for the scheme.

It comes as the ESFA delays releasing the outcomes of provider applications.

The agency had expected to notify providers of the outcome of their applications by yesterday, 12 May, but this “unfortunately has not been possible in all cases”, they said in an update today.

FE Week understands that some providers have already heard back, and all applicants should now receive their outcome by the end of this week.

“We are sorry for the delay and inconvenience, but assure you that it will not affect the date that payments will be made,” the ESFA added.

The agency has come in for a lot of criticism over its handling of the relief scheme.

They took more than a month to launch the support after Cabinet Office gave contracting authorities the green light to pay their suppliers in advance of delivery on 20 March, and when it was released, it excluded the majority of apprenticeship providers.

All apprenticeships recorded on the government’s digital system, mostly with levy-paying employers, have been made ineligible as the ESFA believes the contractual relationship is between the employer and the provider, rather than the government.

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers is challenging this legally. James Goudie QC, a senior silk at 11KBW, as well as a deputy High Court judge and a master of the bench of the Inner Temple, has been instructed by the law firm VWV to help present the case in a letter on behalf of the membership organisation.

The letter was sent at the end of April and the government is yet to respond.

 

Chichester College Group has become the second general further education college to be rated ‘outstanding’ under Ofsted’s new inspection framework.

The group, which formed in 2017 following mergers between Brinsbury College, Chichester College, Crawley College and then Worthing College in 2019, received grade ones across the board in a report published today following a visit in early March.

Chief executive Shelagh Legrave said that to achieve the rating after such a short period of forming was a “phenomenal achievement” and a “true testament to the hard work, dedication and talent of all of our staff and students”.

Ofsted’s glowing report lauded leaders and managers for successfully developing a strong “collaborative culture between the campuses, particularly within teaching, training and learning”.

Chichester College Group has more than 12,000 students who are all “rightly very proud of their college”, according to inspectors.

They found that learners and apprentices of different abilities and backgrounds work “harmoniously together and in so doing support and inspire one another” and they are “ambitious to achieve”.

The report continues: “They [students] cherish the passion and subject expertise of their teachers which inspire them to extend their learning.

“They develop new interests and pursuits, such as involving themselves in wider community, national and international interests, with enthusiasm. For example, learners work with Crawley Open House, a centre for homeless people, the Alzheimer’s Society or with overseas education charities [such as building schools in Kenya].”

Leaders and managers were praised for working “closely” with employers and other external stakeholders to “research and design appropriate courses for learners” and ensure that these courses meet “fully the demands of their local and regional communities”.

They are also “highly ambitious” for disadvantaged learners and those with additional needs, who “rapidly develop the skills needed to participate within society and gain employment”.

The leadership team was commended for having “robust” measures in place to make sure that subcontracted provision to eight providers is of a “high standard”.

“They hold subcontractors to account and frequently check on the progress that learners and apprentices are making in this area of provision. As a result, learners and apprentices within subcontracted provision achieve as well as their peers, and occasionally better.”

Prior to the merger, Crawley College was judged as ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted, while Worthing College was rated as ‘good’.

Chichester College Group chair James Sarmecanic said: “This report places CCG’s standing at the forefront of the further education sector, particularly among college groups.

“I am proud of the entire team of CCG staff across all colleges. They work extremely hard and demonstrate great dedication to give our students the best opportunities possible.”

The first and only other general FE college to be rated ‘outstanding’ under Ofsted’s new inspection framework, which was rolled out in September, was Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group.

Ofsted has paused the publication of further education and skills reports during the Covid-19 pandemic, but they will release them sooner if requested by individual providers.

First year students on all two-year 16 to 19 vocational study programmes, such as BTECs, should start returning to college from 1 June alongside GCSE and A-level learners, the government has confirmed.

Last night, the Department for Education released guidance on its phased approach for the wider opening of schools and colleges in the face of Covid-19.

It said that for learners in year 10 and 12 due to take “key exams” next year, “we are asking schools and colleges to supplement remote education with some face to face support for these year groups from 1 June”.

There was no mention of whether this applied to students studying for vocational qualifications, which left some in the sector wondering whether this only covered GCSEs and A-levels.

FE Week has now had it confirmed by the Department for Education that the guidance does apply to a wider pool of year 12 students.

They said that further Education settings should offer “some” face to face delivery for 16 to 19 learners in the first year of two year programmes, and this covers “all 16 to 19 vocational study programmes, along with the first year of A-level programmes”.

The DfE added that colleges will be given the “flexibility to offer a blend of face to face and online delivery – recognising that in many areas online delivery is very successful, while some learners have a greater need of face to face contact”.

Further government guidance on the “application” of the phased reopening of FE providers is expected to be published later this week.

Colleges have been asked to continue the full time provision they are offering to vulnerable young people and children of critical workers, who have been the only “priority groups” able to attend since 18 March.

The guidance for beginning the phased reopening from 1 June states that learners are not expected to return on a full-time basis at this stage, and schools and colleges should “look to minimise the number of pupils in each day”.

They have also been asked to “ensure” that the use of public transport for travel to and from school and college is “minimised, especially at peak times”.

The DfE has set out a range of “protective measures” to ensure education settings remain safe places, including reducing class sizes, staggered break times, as well as increasing the frequency of cleaning and reducing the use of shared items.

The DfE’s guidance can be found here:

Actions for education providers

Guidance on implementing protective measures

Information for parents and carers

The third webcast in FE Week’s series – further education sector’s response and requirements to the coronavirus pandemic – was broadcast yesterday.

It featured Shane Mann, managing director of FE Week’s publisher Lsect, in conversation about the phased reopening of colleges with two principals, Luke Rake from Kingston Maurward College and Mike Hopkins from South and City College Birmingham.

Plus, Gabriella Braun talked us through her work with FETL and FE Week editor Nick Linford gave an overview of the latest guidance from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

You can watch it back for free by clicking here.

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

Colleges have been asked to begin face to face teaching with students currently in their first year of sixth form from 1 June.

The Department for Education tonight announced the first steps to its phased approach for the wider opening of schools, colleges and nurseries after the government published its full Covid-19 “recovery strategy” this afternoon.

The DfE said that for learners in year 10 and 12, “we are asking schools and colleges to supplement remote education with some face to face support for these year groups from 1 June”.

They do not, however, expect the learners to return on a full-time basis at this stage, “so we do not expect a full timetable to be offered as schools and colleges look to minimise the number of pupils in school or college each day”.

Schools and colleges should “consider how to best use additional year 10 and 12 time to support those pupils who are starting their final year of study for GCSEs, A-levels and other qualifications next academic year”.

They have also been asked to “ensure” that the use of public transport for travel to and from school and college is “minimised, especially at peak times”.

Government will consult with sector representatives over the coming week to develop “some suggested models to demonstrate how this could operate”.

For colleges specifically, the DfE said they should also offer some face to face support to students who are in the equivalent of year 10 and year 12, who are studying for “key examinations next academic year, along with those in priority groups”.

“We will work with the sector to provide additional guidance for FE colleges on provision for these and other disproportionately affected learners,” they added.

The DfE’s guidance also said that special post-16 institutions should “work towards a phased return of more children and young people without a focus on specific year groups and informed by risk assessments”.

Their approach aims to limit numbers within schools and further education settings while “ensuring that the children and young people who can benefit from attending most are able to do so”.

According to the guidance, the latest scientific advice says that limiting the numbers of children going back to school and college “initially then gradually increasing numbers reduces risk of increasing the rate of transmission”.

It includes a range of “protective measures” to ensure education settings remain safe places, including reducing class sizes, staggered break times, as well as increasing the frequency of cleaning and reducing the use of shared items.

Colleges and other education settings have only stayed open to vulnerable young people and children of critical workers since 18 March.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “I know how hard schools, colleges, early years settings and parents are working to make sure children and young people can continue to learn at home, and I cannot thank them enough for that. 

“But nothing can replace being in the classroom, which is why I want to get children back to school as soon as it is safe to do so.

“This marks the first step towards having all young people back where they belong – in nurseries, schools and colleges – but we will continue to be led by the scientific evidence and will only take further steps when the time is right.”

The guidance states that classes should “normally be split in half”, with no more than 15 pupils per small group and one teacher.

For secondary schools and colleges specifically, it is also “sensible” to rearrange classrooms and workshops with sitting positions two metres apart.

“Where very small classes might result from halving, it would be acceptable to have more than half in a class, provided the space has been rearranged,” the guidance adds.

“Again, support staff may be drawn on in the event there are teacher shortages, working under the direction of other teachers in the setting.”

Other tips include considering one-way systems, or dividers down the middle of corridors to keep groups apart, as well a ensuring toilets don’t become crowded by limiting the number of students using them at one time.

Halls, dining areas and sports facilities used for lunch and exercise should be at “half capacity”.

The DfE also said that from 1 June, all students returning to school and colleges will have “access” to coronavirus testing.

“All children and young people eligible to return to their settings will have access to testing, if they display symptoms, as will any symptomatic member(s) of their household.”

Officials said this would enable students and staff to get back to their education provider “if they test negative, and if they test positive a test and trace approach can be taken”.

“Where a setting has a positive case, Public Health England will advise on the appropriate course of action, and the relevant group of people with whom the individual has mixed closely, should be sent home and advised to self-isolate for 14 days.”

The DfE has said that wearing a face covering or face mask in schools or other education settings is “not recommended” and the “majority of staff will not require PPE beyond what they would normally need for their work”.

Bill Watkin, the chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said the government is “right” to identify year 12 students as a priority group, but the “safety of students and staff will be the main factor in determining if face to face contact is feasible by 1 June”.

“College leaders will be monitoring the situation closely over the next few weeks to see if the excellent online package they are providing students can be supplemented by time in the classroom.”

The DfE’s guidance can be found here:

Actions for education providers

Guidance on implementing protective measures

Information for parents and carers