Moulton College is in a “perilous position” and its chair and new principal do not appear to “fully recognise” the impact of possible “imminent” insolvency.

That is according to one of three FE Commissioner intervention reports released today.

Moulton’s review found that “too many students have been failed” by the Northamptonshire college and it must swiftly demonstrate progress in student attendance, progress, retention and achievement.

It stated a “culture of accountability and responsibility and holding managers to account for the performance of their areas needs to be developed rapidly” and was critical of the governors for not holding previous managers to account.

The FEC team found that “under the previous management regime, reports to governors were overly optimistic and not fully transparent with problems hidden by the previous management team”.

There is a “general feeling of a lack of urgency in addressing both quality and financial matters and lack of recognition that the college could become insolvent in the next financial year, 2019/20”, the report warned.

It added: “It did not appear that the impact of possible insolvency which would include the college being placed in education administration and the perilous position the college finds itself in was fully recognised by the board or the incoming new principal.”

Moulton College has been in FEC intervention since February 2017 after being referred by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) due to a financial health score of inadequate for 2015/16.

The report described the college as being in “a very difficult and challenging position,” highlighting its second consecutive grade four Ofsted inspection report, huge debts and declining learner numbers.

The college’s financial recovery plan was declared “not fit for purpose.”

Moulton has been put into “supervised college status” with immediate effect and the ESFA will attend all future board meetings and finance and resources committee meetings.

Lord Agnew, the minister for financial oversight of colleges in the Department for Education, said: “As this is the college’s second consecutive inadequate assessment, I am particularly concerned about the quality of provision at the college. Urgent action is required to address these problems.

“It is clear from the Commissioner’s report that the college has entirely underestimated the seriousness of its financial weakness and the issues with quality of provision.”

The FEC concludes that if the planned cash receipts have not been received by December 2019, then “the college’s auditors will need to consider if the college is a going concern and it will need to be considered for education administration”.

While the May 2019 unconsolidated management accounts show a significant improvement to the budget to date and some savings, a significant deficit is expected next year and short-term liquidity could become a heightened risk. Consequently, the FEC team states “the underlying decline of financial performance needs to be resolved urgently.”

The reduction in enrolments in further education and adult education, making the 495 hectare estate with high quality teaching and practical areas expensive to run due to over-capacity, were also noted. 

Despite some progress in quality improvement, it was deemed insufficient and inconsistent, with some staff uncertain as to the agreed process, a lack of development of overall standards of delivery and low usage of tracking and monitoring systems to review student progress.

Additionally, it was reported that “learner achievement rates at Moulton College are unsatisfactory and require urgent improvement.”

Staff turnover was stabilised and students expressed an overall general satisfaction with their programmes despite highlighting “significant variations in approach and levels of support across curriculum areas.”

The FEC expressed concern over the capacity of the college’s senior leadership to deliver quality improvements and subsequently recommended that “the board of governors consider providing additional experienced leadership resources to ensure that the college can manage the challenges it faces”.

Corrie Harris, who was appointed as Moulton College’s chief executive in July, said: “We have moved quickly to address the balance of the recommendations the Commissioner included in his report as well as making changes we believe are necessary to vastly improve the offering here at Moulton College.

“We have made substantial progress to that end in the last three months with the objective of delivering the best possible learning experience for all our students and making a significant contribution to businesses and the community in Northamptonshire.”

There are “significant concerns” about Hartlepool College of Further Education’s financial sustainability, according to one of three FE Commissioner reports published today.

Richard Atkins’ team’s intervention into the college reveals “financial uncertainties put the student experience and opportunities for learners at risk”.

Hartlepool has generated an operating deficit for the past two financial years and its total borrowing costs as a percentage of income is 57 per cent.

It has also broken a loan covenant with a bank, that has not been resolved; the report says the college must push for the process to be finished so it can find out the future terms of the loan.

Hartlepool entered formal intervention in April, after it told the ESFA last October it would have inadequate financial health for the 2018 financial year; it was issued with a financial health notice to improve at that time.

As such, the commissioner will be consulting with local authorities about a Local Provision Review for the Tees Valley and Durham area.

A letter from minister for the FE market Lord Agnew to chair Aidan Mullan, which accompanied the report, said there was an “urgent need to take swift actions in order to address the significant financial challenges facing the college”.

“It is imperative,” Agnew wrote, that a future strategy is quickly developed to get the grade two college a grade one from Ofsted and “achieve financial recovery at pace”.

When the team intervened in June, they found that aside from the financial issues, there was “an urgent need” for the board to replace both its chair and multiple governors.

This is because most independent members have served longer than the five to 10 years that is considered good practice, and the chair has already served the 12 years which is considered proper.

The governor recruitment practice, the report reads, needs to address a lack of experience in the FE sector.

Problems were also found in how the college composes board minutes, which are long with up to 15 to 20 agenda items and extensive subheadings, so “it is not clear how so many items could be discussed with any value within the meeting duration,” said the commissioner’s team.

It is also “unclear” how much challenge there is between the chair and principal Darren Hankey, who have a “close working relationship”.

However, the report also records that staff speak very highly of Hankey and his team, and there have been positive changes: such as a new assistant principal who has worked “relentlessly” to understand the curriculum; and a reduction in the number of schools to enable more cross-curriculum activity.

The college is also on track to deliver a surplus this year based on management accounts, and the college’s financial health is predicted to be ‘good’ into next year.

The report continues: “Although cash has reduced in the last two years, there is no immediate risk as the college still have good cash balances.

“This has enabled them to withstand the impact of the operating deficits and the high levels of debt servicing.”

But it warns: “This is not sustainable in the longer term.”

Among the report’s recommendations, including the prospect of a local provision review, was advice to commission an independent review of governance practices and processes, supported by a National Leader of Governance; and the college and bank should work to resolve the covenant issue.

The commissioner will also be carrying out a stocktake visit of the college this month.

Hankey said: “Governors and leaders at all levels of the college remain focused on improving the college’s finances whilst maintaining high standards for all learners.

“Pleasingly, the financial performance of the college for 2018/19 is much improved and, subject to final ratification, will see the college achieve a ‘good’ ESFA rating.

“In addition, the college has increased its overall achievement rate by just over 4 percentage points.  Progress is also being made against all of the FE Commissioner team’s recommendations.”

AQA has been fined £350,000 – the largest ever handed out by Ofqual – and will compensate schools and colleges by £740,000 after “serious breaches” of rules over re-marks.

The exam board failed to ensure re-marks and moderation were not carried out by the original marker, or by someone with no personal interest in the outcome.

Ofqual said around 50,000 re-marks or moderations were affected, equating to around 7 per cent of all re-marks carried out by the exam board each year.

AQA said around 3,000 centres were affected and will receive between £110 and £440 in compensation. AQA could not provide a numbers breakdown by schools, sixth form colleges and general FE colleges.

Ofqual said the issue with the re-marks were a result of “failings in AQA’s online marking system, the limited availability of reviewers in low entry qualifications and the relatively small size of some marking and review panels”. It said AQA had not ensured its workforce was of “appropriate size and competence” to manage risks.

It added there was “no evidence” to show any learners or centres had received the wrong outcome, but said the issues were “serious breaches” of conditions that are “integral to the effectiveness and purpose of the system of reviewing marking and moderation”.

“The failures therefore have the potential to seriously undermine public confidence in the review of marking, moderation and appeals system, and the qualifications system more generally”.

Ofqual said the remark issues spanned across 2016, 2017 and 2018. Although the majority of the re-marks affected (93 per cent) involved individual, anonymised answers, seven per cent involved reviews of whole exam scripts.

Mark Bedlow, AQA’s interim chief executive, said the problem was a “past technical issue” that has now been resolved, and insisted in the “vast majority of cases” in involved “one isolated, anonymised answer from a paper being reviewed by the senior examiner who originally marked it”.

“But reviews should always be carried out by a fresh pair of eyes and we’re sorry that, for a small proportion in the past, this wasn’t the case.”

The £350,000 fine is the largest ever handed out by Ofqual. The second largest fine handed out is believed to be the £175,000 exam board OCR was ordered to pay last year for its Romeo and Juliet question gaffe.

Separately, AQA has also today been handed a £50,000 penalty because its marking scheme for A-level French exam in 2018 was “not fit for purpose”.

Ofqual said the French mark scheme did not take into account all evidence or allow for the level of attainment demonstrated by some students to be reflected in their marks.

This affected “a small number” of students’ university choices, but AQA did liaise with UCAS and universities to ensure no one missed out on a place as a result.                                                                        

It also said AQA missed opportunities to identify the problem and did not manage the incident appropriately at first.

Bedlow accepted the mark scheme was “too prescriptive”, and said affected learners received the “extra marks they deserved”.

At the start of September, AQA’s chief executive Toby Salt stepped down after two years in the role, citing health and family reasons.

AQA failed to spot re-mark issue

AQA’s response to the re-mark issue has also been criticised, after it emerged the exam board had been alerted to two incidents of this nature through appeals in 2016 and 2017.

Ofqual said the exam board had failed to notify them of the incidents despite having reason to believe they could result in an adverse effect.

Ofqual only discovered the problem in September 2018, when it undertook a review of AQA’s appeals process and discovered some re-marks and moderation had been carried out by the same person who conducted the initial marking or moderation, and asked AQA to investigate further. AQA formally notified it of a potential breach in November.

Rebuke for ‘nearly identical’ English question

The beleaguered exam board has also been rebuked today by Ofqual’s chief regulator, Sally Collier, for including a question in its 2018 English Literature GCSE exam that was “nearly identical” to a question it had used in practice papers.

Ofqual has not imposed a fine. The regulator said although the inclusion of the question “raised serious concerns around AQA’s systems of planning and internal controls”, the exam board had since made “significant improvements” and provided “comprehensive statistical analysis” showing there was no significant advantage or disadvantage to pupils.

Bedlow said AQA had told Ofqual they would be including the question the day before the exam, and said the question was used “because it’s important that no -one thinks a topic won’t come up if it’s already featured in a past paper.”

The HMRC has been criticised by Ofsted for keeping hundreds of apprentices on programme for the same duration.

The tax office began delivering its own apprenticeships in October 2017 and currently trains 434 apprentices on level 4 standards in professional accounting/taxation technician.

Ofsted conducted an early monitoring visit of this provision last month and found HMRC to have made ‘reasonable progress’ areas across the three themes judged.

However, it was reported that “managers and assessors do not use the outcomes of the assessment of apprentices’ starting points well enough to address gaps in knowledge, skills and behaviours”.

Inspectors found that all apprentices have the same length of stay on the programme. As a result, “a few apprentices are not challenged to achieve their potential”.

An HMRC spokesperson said it “always takes on board comments made by Ofsted with respect to our educational programmes so that we can continue to offer teaching of the highest quality”.

“We are very pleased that Ofsted has found that we have made progress in all areas of our professional Tax Apprenticeship course,” they added.

In the report the employer provider was praised for responding “to the demand for taxation professionals within HMRC by providing apprenticeships that develop the relevant skills and knowledge of staff who are recruited to programmes both internally and externally”.

It was also noted that managers check apprentices’ prior knowledge effectively “to ensure that apprentices are able to complete and benefit from a level 4 apprenticeship”.

The monitoring visit found leaders made sufficient progress in ensuring that the provider is meeting all the requirements of successful apprenticeship provision.

The report said apprentices “benefit from carefully planned off-the-job training that enables them to apply and practise their newly acquired skills in the workplace” and “they accurately identify weaknesses and take prompt actions to make improvements that benefit apprentices.”

Ofsted also found that English and math skills were developed by apprentices who consequently “produce accurate reports and carry out complex tax calculations confidently”.

Inspectors concluded they also know how to check tax returns, how to undertake investigations and how to ask the most effective questions when interviewing a client.

The report said a wide range of teaching strategies are used and the curriculum enables apprentices to build on their previous experience.

Additionally, apprentices have frequent meetings with their assessors to review their progress and help them to catch up if they fall behind. “As a result, most apprentices are on target to complete their programmes within the planned timescale.”

Safeguarding mechanisms are in place and the inspectors found that when issues arise “managers take quick and clear actions to keep apprentices safe”.

But the report also stated designated safeguarding officers are not consistently communicating local risks in different parts of the country to apprentices.

Despite this, “apprentices feel safe and know how to report issues should they arise.”

A college faces “multiple, difficult and high-risk” challenges after being rocked by a £20 million subcontracting scandal which has put its future in doubt, a minister and the FE Commissioner have said.

Richard Atkins’ team was sent into Brooklands College after FE Week revealed it had passed millions of pounds over to a mysterious private provider called SCL Security Ltd, which triggered an Education and Skills Funding Agency investigation.

The FE Commissioner’s review involved intervention visits in January and May, and the college has now been placed in to “Supervised College Status” – which means the ESFA will attend all future board and finance and resources committee meetings.

The college’s response to concerns around SCL Security Ltd have not been adequate

It found that the “most critical area of work – the detailed external audit of SCL Security Ltd sub-contracting”, has “not been progressed in a timely manner”.

Governors had placed “too much trust” on assurances provided by the former principal and chief executive, Gail Walker.

“The board believed that systems and audits of the college’s sub-contracting work were robust enough to identify issues relating to sub-contracting compliance,” the report said.

Worryingly, “no thought had been given by governors to the development of a mitigation plan should the SCL Security Ltd investigation place a financial liability on the college”.

The “possible contingent liability” of a £20 million clawback was named as the most “substantial” risk facing the college.

The ESFA investigation was “ongoing” at the time of this report.

Lord Agnew, the minister for financial oversight of colleges in the Department for Education, said: “It is clear from the commissioner’s report that despite the board putting in place measures to drive forward the recommendations from the January visit, the college’s response to concerns around SCL Security Ltd have not been adequate.”

Brooklands’ wider financial position also poses a threat to its future. The FE Commissioner found that the college’s Weybridge campus requires “major investment and re-sizing to meet future needs”.

“The cost of low space utilisation, high running costs and backlog of planned maintenance adds further financial pressure and risk,” his report said.

FE Week revealed last week that Brooklands was considering selling a historic mansion that sits on its Weybridge site. Today’s report confirmed that the college’s new estate strategy involves “potential land sales”.

Since the launch of the ESFA’s investigation, Brooklands’ principal and chair have resigned.

Walker stood down in March, and was replaced by an interim principal and interim chief executive.

However, the FE Commissioner reports that “unusually”, Walker “worked through her six months’ notice period on a part time basis”.

“At the May visit, the FEC team were not aware of this unusual arrangement until arriving at the college and did not meet with Gail Walker. These unusual senior post arrangements were agreed by the board.”

The report said the interim chief executive and interim principal “work well together and are knowledgeable and competent in their roles”.

However, “due to the number of complex issues and risks, the FEC team recommendation is that the college would benefit from an experienced principal appointed on an interim basis as soon as possible”.

The college has also seen a “rapid decrease” in its turnover during recent years, mainly due to a 25 per cent drop in 16 to 19 year-old enrolments coupled with the “recent impact of the introduction of the employer levy on apprenticeship enrolments”.

Leaders still face significant challenges that put the future of the college at risk

Whilst governors and leaders have been effective in driving through change since the January 2019 diagnostic assessment, the college “still faces many significant risks”.

Staff who were interviewed by the FE Commissioner felt that the college “needed to merge to survive” and to be able to reinvest in the campus at Brooklands.

The report noted that the SCL Security Ltd scandal “could be a potential block to a merger at least until the ESFA investigation is concluded”.

Lord Agnew said: “I welcome the efforts the college has made to reduce costs. The FEC team see evidence of the progress the college has made in managing the rapid decrease in the college turnover in recent years.

“In spite of this, the board and leaders still face significant challenges that put the future of the college at risk.”

Andrew Baird, who was appointed interim chair of Brooklands College earlier this month when Terry Lazenby resigned, said: “The report makes a number of important recommendations and the college is addressing these as a matter of urgency.

“The report rightly recognises the hard work of staff and their pride in its successes, including the results of the latest Ofsted inspection.

“The inspection team also highlighted how the students it interviewed were very positive about the supportive and helpful staff who are ‘always willing to help them’, the skills they are gaining at college and the friendly atmosphere here.”

 

 

How FE Week revealed the scandal:

9 November 2018: College refuses to explain spending millions on mysterious subcontractor

16 November 2018: Shadowy training provider given £16.5m remains tight-lipped as questions mount

1 February 2019: Starts suspended at mysterious apprenticeship provider after ESFA launches investigation

13 February 2019: Mysterious apprenticeship provider judged ‘insufficient’ by Ofsted following FE Week exposé

21 March 2019: Brooklands principal resigns amid investigation into mysterious £16m subcontractor

13 September 2019: Brooklands future in the balance in £20m apprenticeship subcontracting scandal

20 September 2019: ESFA ignored whistleblower nearly two years before FE Week exposé

3 October 2019: Subcontracting warning from government after £20m Brooklands College scandal

3 October 2019: Chair quits at college stung by £20m scandal and replaced by DfE consultant

11 October 2019: Brooklands College may be forced to sell historic building

As Gavin Williamson promises to match Germany in the delivery of vocational and technical education in ten years, JL Dutaut looks back at the mismatch between vision and reality over the past twenty years.

It was an education policy announcement that grabbed the headlines. Fifty per cent of young people would access higher education. A policy announced not by a secretary of state for education, but by Tony Blair, a prime minister two years into his first administration. A vision, attached to a target.

Yet, a third element was missing: strategy. It has taken 20 years, three education department rebrandings, six prime ministers and 11 secretaries of state, but finally this month, the target has been met. In the end, it passed with little fanfare and a strong chorus of criticism.

From Aimhigher to higher-level apprenticeships, and from widening participation to broadening curriculum, it is a target that has transformed not only universities but, perhaps just as profoundly, further education.

Was it worth it? It depends where you stand on the balance between student debt and incalculable economic benefit, or between grade inflation and unknowable social capital growth.

Would any politician wish to repeat it? Under one condition: if public support could be so fixed behind the objective that to abandon it would be unthinkable.

Last week the new education secretary Gavin Williamson announced a policy for “the other 50 per cent”.

It’s the policy equivalent of an iPhone, with obsolescence built in

Set against the backdrop of a Blair success finally delivered under Boris Johnson, and a public discourse shaped by the pernicious notion of “liberal elitism”, it has the virtue, from the outset, of expressing a vision, something none of Williamson’s predecessors have done with any impact since Michael Gove.

The vision is that by 2029 England will match or better Germany in the delivery of vocational and technical education (VTE).

For now, at least, there is little flesh on the bone. It’s a vision with a backstop, the policy equivalent of an iPhone with obsolescence built in, intended to fizzle out behind the pomp of another product launch.

How will it be delivered? Apart from eight new institutes of technology, some specialist maths colleges and the promise of a skills and productivity board, there is little strategy.

How will it be measured? The Department for Education can’t tell us.

The Learning Age

To understand what shape it might take, one has to look back again to the Blair years.

In a 1998 green paper, The Learning Age, David Blunkett, then-secretary of state, set out two priorities to make education more responsive to a changing economy: individual learning accounts (ILAs) to subsidise people to take responsibility for their own learning, and a University for Industry (UfI), a network of providers to support people to do just that.

That green paper became the Learning to Succeed white paper, and then the Learning and Skills Act (2000).

By 2002, the ILA scheme, run in partnership with Capita, was wound up amid a fraud scandal that left the public purse lighter by £268 million.

By 2004, UfI, which ran learndirect – an online learning scheme to attract young people and adults to upskill through education and training – had cost £1 billion and was subject to a value-for-money review by the National Audit Office (NAO).

Of the 1.4 million learners the initiative was said to have supported, only 65 per cent had completed their courses and it found itself hobbled by the collapse of ILAs, its main income source.

The ILA fraud left the public purse lighter by £268 million

Its journey after that has been eventful. It has eeked out an existence on Home Office contracts to run workfare programmes, faced financial collapse, was earmarked for a “bonfire of the quangos”, and was finally sold to Lloyds Bank’s private equity arm LDC in 2011. It has since undergone an Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) investigation, an Ofsted mauling and a public inquiry that left the provider, ESFA, government and Ofsted with egg on their faces.

The apprentices, in the end, were sold off to a private provider, a far cry from Blunkett’s vision of 20 years ago, and a testament to the fact that even with a vision, a strategy and targets, the best-laid plans of politicians often go awry.

The economic turn

The transformation of UfI from publicly funded quango to publicly funded for-profit provider shouldn’t mask another development in government policy, before even the NAO investigation. It started with education secretary Charles Clarke, continued under Ruth Kelly, and found support in Gordon Brown’s Treasury.

A 2003 policy paper by Charles Clarke entitled 21^st Century Skills, Realising Our Potential represented a subtle, yet major change in the political philosophy underpinning FE policy. It was a shift from Blunkett’s notion of lifelong learning – an individual entitlement and an end in itself, with associated economic and social benefits – to a strongly economic conception founded on international competitiveness.

Perhaps coincidentally, this was also the year of the second round of PISA tests, the dawn of the age of international comparison of education systems. As Gavin Williamson sets his sights on Germany and Singapore today, New Labour had set theirs on India and China.

Earlier in the year, Clarke had set out his vision in a paper called 14-19: opportunity and excellence, which included the notion of expanding the entitlement to literacy, numeracy and computer skills to level 2 standard to age 19.

Train to Gain was sacrificed to the demands of austerity

By the time Kelly took over, all that remained of substance to the FE sector was a commitment to “give employers greater choice and control over the publicly funded training they receive” and to “create a new guarantee of free tuition for any adult without […] a ‘level 2’ qualification”.

Translated into policy and announced at that year’s spending review, “choice” and “guarantees” became a public service agreement (PSA) target to “increase the proportion of 19-year-olds who achieve at least level 2 by three percentage points between 2004 and 2006”.

But it was another PSA target, aimed at over-25s, which took precedence in the funding decisions. It read: “reducing by at least 40 per cent the number of adults in the workforce who lack NVQ2 or equivalent qualifications by 2010”.

A year later, the government had made £1 billion of new money available through the Train to Gain scheme to meet that target. Under-25s were only eligible if an apprenticeship would not have been appropriate, and under-19s were not eligible under any circumstance.

In 2010, Train to Gain funding was cut by £200 million. It was then sacrificed altogether to the demands of austerity.

A third 2004 PSA target went barely noticed, because no baseline data was available against which to measure progress: to increase the proportion of young people who achieve level 3.

From PSA to PSB

If FE policy under the Conservative or Conservative-led governments since 2010 has been mostly characterised by reform of apprenticeships and compulsory GCSE resits, even this reduced ambition hasn’t been straightforward.

When it comes to apprenticeships, the DfE is investigating a 51 per cent drop in level 2 starts, and a drop of 23 per cent in uptake from 16- to 18-year-olds since May 2017, while apprenticeships for the over-25s continue to grow.

As to GCSE resits, evidence shows that the policy has contributed to a rise from 9 to 21 per cent (an extra 25,000 students) achieving a strong pass in English and maths, but even Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman is critical of the impact of repeated failure on the other 79 per cent.

Into this tableau of dysfunctional policy steps Williamson, committing himself to “the other 50 per cent” let down by Blair, rather than the ‘other 79 per cent’ let down by long-term failure to grab the bull by the horns.

As well as new institutes of technology and specialist maths colleges, the secretary of state has announced that he is setting up a new skills and productivity board (PSB) to advise him on “what the economy needs”. The DfE says Mr Williamson has yet to invite a “suitable leader from the business community” to chair the board, which will be “set up as a DfE expert committee” without “a specified timeframe at inception.” In time, an open competition will be used to recruit a panel of “expert labour market economists”.

Perhaps a comprehensive spending review is awaited to nail down the specifics. For all the talk of vision, it appears New Labour’s economic turn is yet to be undone. Perhaps that forgotten target from 2004 will be revived from inside the bowels of the Treasury – to increase the proportion of (young) people qualified to level 3.

Hindsight has the power to make any vision appear naive, yet without it policy is a firefight in which targets take the place of water buckets and strategy rises little above survival. Our college leaders know this, and they know too that vision without strategy or targets is worse.

For as long as government policy, hemmed in by international comparison, is determined primarily by Treasury memories of wasted billions, education will continue to vacillate between these two poles. The sector must surely hope Gavin Williamson has convinced them he is worth an investment of faith as well as pounds.

Funding for students progressing to college from Pupil Referral Units should more than double to £10,000, the Association of Colleges has said.

A new report, published by the organisation at the start of Colleges Week, has highlighted the barriers that colleges face when trying to re-integrate “marginalised” young people back into mainstream education.

The research, conducted via interviews with staff from four general FE colleges – Bridgwater and Taunton College, Leeds City College, Walsall College and Waltham Forest College – found that “insufficiency of funding” is the “single biggest challenge”.

It said current funding gaps between alternative provision (AP) settings – places that provide education for children who can’t go to a mainstream school, such as Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) – and college means there is a drop of on average of £6,000 per pupil.

This prevents colleges from “providing all of the necessary support and the smaller group sizes that would benefit the students”, who often have “complex” needs. It also restricts the amount of training provided to “help staff adopt the most effective practices and understand the issues the students face”.

AoC chief executive David Hughes said current funding is “simply lacking meaning that their needs cannot be fully met and causes colleges undue strain”.

The organisation has now called on the government to provide an additional £6,000 per year for every student attending college who has come from an AP setting, on top of the normal £4,188 base rate that all 16 to 18 learners will receive from 2020/21.

It is the latest call for more college funding by the AoC, which upped its base rate plea for 16 to 18-year-olds from £4,760 to £5,000 per year in February, which it says is needed to avoid a T-levels crisis.

Colleges are able to apply for high needs funding for a student over and above the extra £6,000 they receive in AP settings. However, the AoC’s research found just one out of the four colleges received this top-up funding from their local authority.

The remainder were “reliant on Element 1 funding plus additional learning support funding (ALS)”.

The AoC’s research attempted to uncover the scale of AP students in colleges, but found there is no precise data to calculate this.

Respondents said there is a lack of a specific Individual Learning Record (ILR) categories to support data collection.

They added that “poor quality” or “lack of transition information” also prevented them from building up an accurate picture of the scale of the issue. They described transition information provided by the pre-16 provider, local authority, or other referring agency (where students were NEET) as “inadequate or patchy”.

The AoC has also called on the government to create an ILR that identifies students who were out of school during key stage 4 to help track funding and progress.

Hughes said: “We know there are growing challenges for colleges supporting the rising number of young people who were not at school during their GCSE years due to off-rolling, home schooling or exclusion. Their needs can be complex and while colleges offer safe, positive and transformative educational experiences for these young people they need sufficient funding to keep up with the demand.

“There is real risk of colleges not being able to offer this bespoke support to all those who need it. 

“College leaders and staff providing this sort of provision are clear that lack of transition information also leads to difficulties. To allow colleges to have the best chance of meeting their needs, which are sometimes combined with mental health and behavioural issues there needs to be joined up sharing of data and for local authorities to undertake education, health and care plans when requested.

“With the right resources, colleges can help young people turn their lives around and prevent them from becoming NEET and / or taking the wrong path to crime or drugs.”

Colleges Week is calling for greater recognition and investment in colleges, and will see colleges across the country hosting local events and speaking to their local MPs. It is taking place from 14 to 18 October 2019.

Read the full AP report here.

Twenty one colleges in the West Midlands have joined forces to produce a region-wide approach to educating learners about the dangers of gang violence and knife crime.

Announced at the beginning of Colleges Week, the Further Education and Skills Productivity Group has designed a ‘Safer Student Charter’ with support from the West Midlands Combined Authority and West Midlands Police.

It aims to ensure young people who attend colleges throughout the region are taught about “modern dangers and safety risks” that affect them and teaches them how to avoid these.

The partnership will see all colleges “deliver key themed events” that will “ensure students are given the skills to be able to identify and avoid safety risks outside of their studies”.

According to reports of figures from the Office for National Statistics, police in the West Midlands recorded 3,428 offences involving knives or sharp instruments in the year to March 2019, the highest number since comparable records began in 2010-11.

Chair of the Safer Student Group and Halesowen College principal, David Williams, said: “Our collaborative approach means that regardless of which college a young person attends, they will receive a fantastic academic, technical or vocational education partnered with insights and learning on how to avoid dangers that are more prevalent amongst today’s young people.

“Our coordinated approach will allow us to share best practice and resources across the college network which will undoubtedly add significant benefit to students across the Midlands.”

Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “Thousands of young people attend our further education colleges and it is vital that our campuses not only offer safe spaces for people to learn but ensure learners are equipped to keep themselves safe.

“Every college in the FEPSG already does its utmost to keep its students safe, but by being part of the same conversation the colleges are able to share their experiences and best practice.”

Colleges Week is part of the #LoveOurColleges campaign and is taking place from 14  to 18 October 2019.

It is calling for greater recognition and investment in colleges, and will see colleges across the country hosting local events and speaking to their local MPs.

The 21 colleges signed the West Midlands Student Safety Charter are:

Birmingham Metropolitan College

Burton and South Derbyshire College

Coventry College

City of Wolverhampton College

Dudley College of Technology

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A college has been refused admission to the Office for Students’ register of higher education providers and had an application for an injunction to conceal the decision rejected by the High Court.

Barking and Dagenham College was refused access to the HE register because it “has failed to demonstrate that it delivers successful outcomes for all of its higher education students”, according to the universities regulator.

After being informed of this, the college appealed and also sought an injunction to prevent the OfS from publishing the decision.

The hearing was held this week.

Susan Lapworth, director of competition and registration at the OfS, said: “We welcome the court’s judgment which allows us to publish an important regulatory decision in the interests of current and prospective students.

“This means that all students will have the information necessary to make informed choices about their studies. The OfS is prepared to defend vigorously the interests of students through the courts and, as in this case, we will seek to recoup the costs of such litigation.”

Barking and Dagenham College principal, Yvonne Kelly, said the OfS “have failed to consider and appreciate the richness of the college’s offer and outcomes in their decision; further education colleges open up the opportunity to study at a higher level to people that otherwise wouldn’t be able to access higher education.

“Removal of our direct HE funding reduces the opportunities for our community and marginalises the people within it”.

She added: “Our priority, as ever, is our students and our staff and we will do everything we can to minimise any impact on them arising from the OfS’s decision and will continue to support them and our community in accessing opportunities.”

Refusal means the college will be denied access to HE public grant and student support funding, cannot recruit international students, nor apply for degree awarding powers.

Barking and Dagenham College has 12,500 students overall. Its HE cohort is around 300 students. A spokesperson said “only a small proportion” is affected by the OfS’ decision.

They added that the college will continue to offer higher education provision up to MBA level in partnership with its university partners.

Lapworth said the OfS is working with the college “in order for it to have the opportunity to apply to ‘teach out’ its current students”.

“Being granted designation for teach out would mean that continuing students, subject to individual eligibility, would be able to continue to access student support from the Student Loans Company,” she added.