Anne Milton’s tenure as apprenticeships and skills minister came to an abrupt end on 23 July when she resigned just minutes after giving evidence to the Parliamentary education select committee.

She’s often described the role as “the best job in government”, but it was her “grave concerns” about leaving the EU without a Brexit deal that led to her decision to return to the backbenches.

Milton took on the skills brief at the Department for Education just over two years ago after Robert Halfon was sacked, and is now known as a strong champion of FE.

“It is without doubt the best job in government”

FE Week caught up with to discuss her time in office, and what she makes of prime minister Boris Johnson’s controversial decision to not appoint a skills minister successor.

“It is without doubt the best job in government,” she says.

“You get to meet young and older people who still may have not found what they want to do, never discovered what they were capable of doing at school, and you see people of all ages reborn, if you like, with training from a college or apprenticeship.

“It is very inspiring. It is often quite moving to hear those stories.”

Milton says it was therefore a “very tough decision” to resign from a post that she “really enjoyed”, and one that has “real meaning”.

She adds that she has “no regrets” from her two-year tenure, but very many highlights.

Asked for her top three highlights, she says the first is the development of T-levels, work that she is “really proud of”.

“It is not easy to develop a new qualification, even if it is a new qualification that has a very clear purpose.

“I think the DfE made immense progress and did a fantastic job. I look forward to those coming online.”

Her second highlight is “raising the profile of apprenticeships”.

“In 2017 the levy had just come in and there was a lot of anger from business,” Milton explains.

“As business has taken on board the fact that from now there will be no changes to the levy, the negative noise has decreased so the reputation of apprenticeships has gone up.

“You start to get organisations like Airbus and Google and Microsoft and Deloitte doing apprenticeships, and that has really raised the status of apprenticeships and made it a real option not only for people who can’t get into university but an active choice for those that can.”

Her third highlight was having the chance to visit various FE colleges.

“Much of the public do not know what goes on in colleges and they are all very different, but it is phenomenal what they are doing,” Milton says.

“I’m pleased that by the time I left both the Love Our Colleges and Raise the Rate campaign have really got some traction amongst members of parliament.”

Just weeks after Milton resigned, Johnson announced a £400 million funding boost for further education, which included raising the FE base rate for first time since 2013 to £4,188.

But considering Raise the Rate was asking for an increase to £4,760 per sixth former, is the increase enough?

“I would like to see it be more,” Milton says.

“Government has to balance the books, there isn’t a never-ending pot of money and it is maybe about rebalancing some of the funding. I think if we really believe in FE being a real option then the money has to follow the words.”

Moving onto Johnson’s decision not to appoint a dedicated skills minister as her replacement, and instead having the education secretary lead on the brief with support from other ministers, Milton says she believes it is a good idea.

“There isn’t a never-ending pot of money and it is maybe about rebalancing some of the funding”

“For Gavin Williamson I think FE is a passion, him taking on the brief I am very happy with that.”

However, she warned the role requires “a lot of work” and fears that site visits to colleges and providers could be squeezed as a result.

The DfE appears to have recognised the workload pressures of the role, and now has three ministers splitting the FE brief, led by Williamson.

Milton uses her final words on FE to thank the “hundreds of people I have met in my two years as skills minister”.

“I have never met a more inspiring bunch of teachers, young people and older people. Carry on doing what you do very well.”

Milton was one of 21 Conservatives who voted against Johnson in last week’s key Brexit vote.

Currently sitting as an independent after losing the Tory whip, she says she’s mulling over whether to stand as an MP at the next election.

“My father told me that time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted, so that’s what I am doing.”

The Education and Skills Funding Agency is bolstering its compliance and prevention teams amid high-profile cases of provider failure and alleged fraud in the FE sector.

A recruitment drive for almost 30 individuals to work in the agency’s provider market oversight division, led by Matthew Atkinson, got underway at the beginning of this month.

The various roles include multiple enforcement officers, investigators, team leaders, funding assurance managers and a head of counter fraud and investigations for colleges and private providers.

It comes shortly after a move to short-notice audits, and is part of the ESFA’s crackdown on funding compliance in FE – an issue which is top of the agency’s chief executive’s list of priorities.

Eileen Milner used her first speech as head of the ESFA, at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers conference in June 2018, to tell providers that the government’s audit and intervention teams were being strengthened to ensure its cash is used “appropriately”.

She warned providers they will be investigated and removed from the sector if any misuse of government funds is found.

The advert for “apprenticeship compliance officers” states that the agency is looking for candidates to “help develop a strategy to identify and manage delivery risks; detect, challenge and remedy any non-compliance; provide assurance that agreements are being complied with; and protect apprentices and public investment in the programme”.

And the head of counter fraud responsibilities will include “direct reviews into complex cases, analyse and dissect evidence, adding value to the proposed options and make recommendations to resolve cases, including appropriate sanctions and recovery of public funds”.

The ESFA launched its provider market oversight team shortly after Milner joined in November 2017, and it now has around 160 workers.

It came in response, in part, to considerable numbers of untried and untested providers that have hit the market in recent years, for example through the register of apprenticeship training providers.

There have also been a number of high-profile cases of alleged fraud.

3aaa, one of the country’s biggest apprenticeship providers, went bust in October after it was alleged employees had manipulated data to artificially inflate achievement rates by a huge amount, which in turn earned them millions in government funding.

The collapsed provider is currently being investigated by the police.

Hadlow College became the first to fall under the new college insolvency regime in May. Investigations into financial irregularities at the college are ongoing.

Other FE providers have accidently fallen foul of the complex data rules they need to abide by.

In March, the principal of Dudley College, Lowell Williams, apologised after it was found the college had been late in recording the withdrawal of numerous apprentices, which also inflated the achievement rate.

An ESFA investigation also found some learners’ end dates were inaccurate. The college had to give the government back over £500,000 as a result.

In July it was revealed that colleges and training providers will be given as little as two weeks’ notice of a financial assurance audit and only three days to present sample files.

The visits can take place at any time of year. Previously providers were notified in June or July if they were to be visited in September.

And where before, providers had between five and ten days to prepare a selected sample of individual learner files, the ESFA will now give them between three and five days.

FE Week also understands that while the auditing only used to cover last year’s data and clawback from last year, this has been extended to include data from three years previously.

Elements of this new regime chime with the controversial mystery audits the ESFA carried out on a number of providers earlier this year, where hundreds of documents from as far back as 2015/16 had to be handed over within two days.

When asked about the roles in its provider market oversight team, the ESFA said it would provide more information in “due course”.

Five hundred and thirty finalists will be battling it out to see who will be crowned their skill’s national champion at WorldSkills UK LIVE this year, it has been announced.

Many of the champions in the past have gone on to compete in Team UK internationally, either at EuroSkills or WorldSkills, which was held most recently this summer in Russia.

Of the 194 organisations – including colleges, employers and military – which are sending competitors, the five sending the most are: New College Lanarkshire, City of Glasgow College, North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, Pembrokeshire College, and Southern Regional College.

To find out why, FE Week asked each of these colleges to finish this sentence: ‘We invest in skills competitions because…’

New College Lanarkshire is sending the most competitors with 24, and interim principal Annette Bruton answered: “Developing skills is at the heart of everything we do and showcasing this in competition enhances confidence while improving future prospects.”

The college has a strong track record in the competitions, finishing in the top three institutions in the last five years – including being named best in UK twice.

City of Glasgow College principal Paul Little, whose college is sending 21 competitors, answered: “I firmly believe these competitions help to improve skills levels and deliver economic growth.”

He added: “I am delighted City of Glasgow College is fielding its strongest team yet and we hope, of course, to repeat our past successes.”

This is a reference to WorldSkills LIVE 2018, where the college came back home with four gold, four silver and six bronze medals.

North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College, which is sending 20 competitors, answered the question by saying: “They stretch and motivate staff and learners towards securing higher levels of achievement and progress.

“Participation in competitions not only develops high levels of technical skills, but more importantly develops the core employability skills, which machines will never replace. “These skills ultimately help our learners to secure great jobs and exciting career opportunities.”

The Inclusive Skills competitions at WorldSkills UK LIVE, where competitors with disabilities and learning difficulties can demonstrate their skills, have their roots in North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire, which they are “proud” of.

Barry Walters, principal of Pembrokeshire College, which is sending 19 competitors, said they invest in the competitions because: “We recognise the value that they bring to the learning experience and the positive impact they have on raising standards.

“Through competing in local, regional and national competitions learners not only get the opportunity to perfect their skills against the best of the best but they also gain so many other skills that will set them apart as they progress into employment or to further their education.”

Southern Regional College, which is sending 18 competitors from Northern Ireland, said it invested in skills competitions as they “raise standards, promote excellence in skills, inject ambition and aspiration, build confidence and self-esteem, and provide meaningful and enjoyable learning experiences to learners.”

The college runs inter-campus competitions, which lead into selections for regional and national competitions.

WorldSkills UK LIVE is the country’s biggest careers event and features national skills competitions in areas like automotive body repair, fine jewellery making, and carpentry.

WorldSkills UK deputy chief executive Ben Blackledge said: “Not only do WorldSkills UK competitions offer the chance to really recognise and celebrate the excellence at all levels of the skills system, it is also proven way to help young people develop and go further, faster in their training and careers.”

The show for 2019 will run from 21 to 23 November.

To read our jam-packed supplement, sponsored by Pearson, click here.

Controversial minister Lord Agnew has been given responsibility for a new college financial warning system, as well as oversight of FE Commissioner’s office.

The unpaid minister for the school system has from today taken on the FE “provider market, including quality and improvement” and this afternoon the Department for Education confirmed this includes a new financial modelling programme as well as the college intervention regime.

He will also lead on EU exit preparation, delivery of the careers strategy, and safeguarding in schools and post-16 providers.

Agnew is a venture capitalist who made much of his fortune outsourcing jobs to India. He is a former Department for Education non-executive board member who founded the Inspiration Trust chain of academies.

He’s become controversial in the schools sector owing to his cost-cutting ideas, and criticised for his insistence that schools can continue to save money on back office spending, when many headteachers warn their budgets are already cut to the bone.

In November 2018 he told a conference he would bet any headteacher “a bottle of champagne and a letter of commendation” that he can identify more potential savings in their schools.

At the same conference he reportedly claimed that school resource management advisers, who were parachuted into schools under a trial scheme in 2017 to help them to cut costs, found £35 million of “essentially misdirected resources” at 72 schools and academy trusts, which amounted to a “colossal sum of money”.

He has since extended the trial with £2.3 million extra funding to provide at least 160 advisers.

In March this year, FE Week’s sister paper FE Week revealed how Agnew’s cost-cutting consultants told a school to replace experienced teachers with support staff on term-time contracts, while another was urged to limit lunch portions for pupils.

One FE job that has already fallen on Agnew’s lap is a new early warning system for college finances.

Announced on Thursday, the Education and Skills Funding Agency said college financial returns will be consolidated into a single annual return from January 2020.

Providers have historically submitted their financial returns at least twice a year.

The ESFA claimed this will help college governors, and the agency, “spot signs of declining financial health and ensure preventative action can be taken at an earlier stage”, but is yet to specify exactly how this will be the case.

Principals are unconvinced (read the full story here).

The move comes just weeks after the ESFA announced that Dame Mary Ney would lead a review into the way the government monitors college finances, including the role of the FE Commissioner, and less than a month after the National Audit Office said they were also preparing to launch a value for money review on the management of colleges’ financial sustainability.

Agnew is the third minister to take on an FE brief in Boris Johnson’s new government, after the prime minister failed to appoint a dedicated skills minister in his reshuffle when Anne Milton resigned.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson is taking the lead, while children and families minister Kemi Badenoch is offering support.

Badenoch has, however, now gone on maternity leave and had her responsibilities taken over by Michelle Donelan in the interim.

Donelan will support Williamson, including in areas such as the delivery of T-levels, apprenticeships and adult education.

A top director in the Education and Skills Funding Agency has warned that colleges are “still running out of money”, as officials launch a new early warning system for college finances.

It was announced this morning that college financial returns will be consolidated into a single annual return from January 2020.

Providers have historically submitted their financial returns at least twice a year.

The ESFA claimed this will help college governors, and the agency, “spot signs of declining financial health and ensure preventative action can be taken at an earlier stage”.

But college leaders aren’t convinced.

In reaction to the announcement, Ian Pryce, chief executive of Bedford College, tweeted: “You don’t wait until you hear the football results and learn your team lost 10-0 as a basis for preventing problems and poor performance. You spot things early by developing strong human relationships.

“I find this very disappointing especially if this is what college finance directors think.”

And Chris Todd, principal at Derwentside College, said: “Cash flow is often the issue and an annual return won’t help identify cash flow deterioration quickly enough.”

Responding to Pryce’s concern, the ESFA’s director of provider market oversight, Matthew Atkinson, tweeted: “This is the forecast return we have discussed Ian I think it does address those concerns. It’s a forward look forecast on a monthly basis aimed at cash allowing us to work with colleges sooner not later. Colleges are still running out of money.”

He later deleted the tweet.

Atkinson was first recruited by the ESFA to lead the Transaction Unit, responsible for the £700 million college Restructuring Fund.

His biography on the DfE’s website states: “Prior to joining the ESFA Matthew spent 20 years working with distressed and stressed corporates and their stakeholders. He joined from PwC where he worked in the Deals Team for over 10 years, working in insolvency and restructuring.”

FE Week has asked the ESFA to further explain how moving to a once a year financial returns model will help spot signs of poor financial health earlier.

The agency has also been asked to confirm that Lord Agnew will lead on the new early warning system, considering he was named yesterday as the Department for Education minister responsible for the “further education provider market”.

The move comes just weeks after the ESFA announced that Dame Mary Ney would lead a review into the way the government monitors college finances, and less than a month after the National Audit Office said they were also preparing to launch a value for money review on the management of colleges’ financial sustainability.

The agency labelled today’s announcement as a new “funding model”, which was described by the deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges as a “major upgrade”.

The ESFA is, however, yet to say how it will be an improvement on the old model.

Colleges will need to submit their finance record for the last time in December with the new “simpler” model coming into force in the new year.

As is the case already, colleges in early intervention or formal intervention; or otherwise in receipt of ESFA loans, will need to submit returns on a more frequent basis.

Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive at the Association of Colleges said: “Colleges work with a robust set of financial rules developed by ESFA and its predecessors over the last 25 years.

“The new financial model is a major upgrade”

“The new financial model is a major upgrade and we’re pleased at the Association of Colleges that the agency is working closely with college finance directors to put it in place.”

ESFA chief executive Eileen Milner said: “We are committed to ensuring that we balance the risks of protecting public funds, and preventing colleges going into financial decline with a commitment to ask from the sector for things which are reasonable.

“We are recruiting a qualified team to implement the model, which our process of testing with colleagues in the sector, suggests will save colleges a significant amount of time and resources so they can focus their efforts on delivering high quality education.”

Nearly 50 colleges, involving their financial directors, were said to have engaged with user research sessions and contributed to the design and build phase of the new model, with the Association of Colleges and Sixth Form College Association supporting the ESFA on its intent and scope.

Describing the new financial model, the ESFA said: “The new financial model has been developed to replace the longstanding biannual returns of the finance record in December and the financial plan in July, as well as the Cash Flow Against Debt Servicing and the cash flow template.

“The introduction of the new financial model follows on from recent changes to the way colleges submit their financial information with the development of an online submission portal that was first used by colleges in July.”

The Association of Employment and Learning Providers is lobbying government to U-turn on its proposal to introduce yet another data field for logging apprentices’ off-the-job training hours.

Last week the Education and Skills Funding Agency said a mandatory “off-the-Job training – actual hours” data field would added to individual learner records (ILR) from 2020/21, subject to consultation.

It comes after officials announced in May that from the 2019/20 academic year, a new mandatory field in the ILR would be added that requires providers to record “planned” off-the-job hours.

“It is another bureaucratic rule that focuses on administration not quality”

The requirements follow high-profile concern from the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee about non-compliance with the unpopular rule going unchallenged.

But providers have reacted angrily.

After FE Week reported the latest announcement on Friday, Jill Whittaker, the managing director of HIT Training, tweeted: “As an employer I am disappointed that the ESFA don’t trust my award winning organisation to give my #apprentices the right amount of training, as a #training #provider I’m irritated that the @ESFAgov see timesheets as a proxy for #quality.”

Tony Holloway, the operations director at Qube Learning, said it is another “bureaucratic rule that focuses on administration not quality”.

“The reason the industry is so split is because across the board rules aren’t suitable,” he added. “Some qualifications require more and some less. Where is the funding for the extra administration burden?”

The AELP is now urging the ESFA to reconsider.

“Data fields for 2020/21 were published this week – and surprise surprise the ESFA now want actual off the job hours,” the association’s chief executive Mark Dawe will tell his members today.

“We warned this would happen when it was optional recording of hours – and here we now are. Total waste of time, probably allows one stat to be provided showing actual hours delivered in apprenticeships and totally misses the point of apprenticeships.

“We will not let this one drop – all it does is introduce bureaucracy and cost for the provider and more importantly the employer – another nail in the employer led coffin.”

The extra data field for 2020/21 would “enable visibility of actual training delivered”, the ESFA said.

It is unclear whether the “actual hours” field would need to be updated by providers every month, or whether the figure would need to be inputted at the end of each apprenticeship programme.

Further details will soon be posted to the feconnect forum and open for comments until 20 September, the ESFA said.

The ESFA previously said the mandatory field for logging planned hours will “help demonstrate compliance with the funding rules”.

In March the National Audit Office said in its apprenticeships progress report that the ESFA, in summer 2018, had just one “red risk” associated with delivery of the programme – that apprentices do not spend at least 20 per cent of their time doing off-the-job training.

The government’s spending watchdog warned that the agency has “limited assurance” in knowing whether the policy is being abided by, as even though audits may identify problems, there is “scope for providers to under-deliver for some time without this being picked up”.

“We will not let this one drop”

“This is an important gap in oversight, because the provider continues to be paid as long as the apprentice remains on the programme,” its report said.

Meg Hillier, the chair of the influential Public Accounts Committee, added that it was “concerning that the ESFA can’t be sure that apprentices are spending enough time on off-the-job training”.

The new mandatory ILR fields have therefore been introduced to mitigate the problem.

Deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, Julian Gravatt, said: “We understand the concerns of MPs about monitoring but we’re not convinced that loading more bureaucracy on colleges and training providers is the right reaction.

“The ILR specification is already 50 per cent longer than it was ten years ago and money spent on data collection isn’t available for anything else.”