One college and one private provider lost their ‘outstanding’ grades in a mixed week for the FE sector.

Gateshead College dropped two grades to ‘requires improvement’ due to poor leadership and management and apprenticeship provision, as reported by this newspaper last week.

But its report, published today, shows it is still rated ‘outstanding’ in its adult and high needs provision. The college is rated ‘good’ in four other areas, including quality of education.

But the education watchdog warned the college that its current financial position creates a “significant risk to the future sustainability of the quality of education”.

Gateshead’s high-profile principal and chair have quit in recent weeks after discovering a shock £6 million shortfall in September.

Inspectors said the information leaders provided to governors about the college’s finances over recent months had “not been sufficiently accurate to enable governors to hold leaders to account for the management of resources and the college’s significant financial deficit”.

Leaders and governors have, however, “very recently” begun to identify actions to tackle the weaknesses.

Independent learning provider QA Limited also saw its rating slip from ‘outstanding’, but it dropped just one grade to ‘good’.

It has around 6,500 apprentices, of which 5,300 were in scope for this inspection, and provides commercial training and apprenticeships to the technology sector.

It was reported that apprentices make “good progress” on their apprenticeships and value the teaching from “credible subject experts”.

Ofsted also noted that leaders and managers have a clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of their provision, and have created a well-considered, ambitious curriculum.

Two other providers retained their ‘good’ ratings this week.

General FE college Shipley College, which had 2,725 learners and apprentices at the time of inspection, was praised for a “safe and friendly learning environment” and the provision of “meaningful support”.

In addition, the inspectorate found that apprentices make “effective contributions to their workplace and swiftly become valuable members of their employers’ teams”.

The University of Bolton was also awarded a grade two for its apprenticeship provision.

At the time of the inspection, there were 405 apprentices – most of which were on nursing associate apprenticeships.

Ofsted reported that they are “very proud” of how quickly they put into practice at work what they have learned at university and described lecturers as “highly qualified and experienced” in their specialist areas.

Moreover, there were five ‘requires improvement’ ratings handed out to providers this week.

Both Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust received the grade in their first full inspections.

The education watchdog criticised the trust in Birmingham due to “too few” healthcare apprentices completing the qualification by their planned end date.

It did note that, since September, senior managers have achieved greater consistency in staffing, and have made improvements to curriculum planning.

Most apprentices at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust remained in their roles, gained promotion or progressed to higher levels of study but healthcare support provision was critiqued for tutors failing to keep employers informed about what apprentices were learning and for not identifying gaps in apprentices’ knowledge.

Independent learning provider Ashley Community & Housing Ltd, which specialises in housing and training for refugees and migrants, was also granted a grade three.

It had eight apprentices during its first inspection. “Too few” on the management programme were said to complete their apprenticeship because “they do not value it”.

In addition, St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College, which has around 1,000 students, failed to improve from a grade three.

Despite Ofsted reporting that staff kept a close eye on students who may be struggling, it concluded that, in too many subjects, “students are not pushed hard enough to achieve”.

One independent learning provider, Environmental Excellence Training and Development Limited, received ‘insufficient progress’ across the board in an early monitoring visit.

It had nine apprentices over the age of 19 who are all employed as cleaning staff in Nottingham University Hospital.

The education watchdog said its safeguarding arrangements were incomplete, there was no effective scrutiny of the quality of education delivered, and the performance of the learning programmes was weak.

London Professional College received two out of four ‘insufficient progress’ grades in a monitoring report after being awarded a grade three. It was given ‘reasonable progress’ in the remaining two areas.

Leaders had “not ensured” improvements had been rapid and that teaching staff “do not help learners improve their skills in written English”.

Elsewhere, independent specialist college Chatsworth Futures Limited was found to be making ‘significant progress’ in two assessed themes regarding health and safety and the quality of education, and ‘reasonable progress’ in the other, following its second monitoring visit in a row after being declared ‘inadequate’.

Winnovation Limited was also found to have made ‘significant progress’ in one area and ‘reasonable progress’ in two others after an early monitoring visit.

The University of The West of England and the remaining independent learning providers to be assessed this week all received ‘reasonable progress’ across the board in their early monitoring reports.

These were: Benson-Smith Limited, Total Training Provision Limited, Melanie Martin t/a Watson Martin and Raise the Bar Limited.

 

Independent Learning Providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Ashley Community & Housing Limited	24/01/2020	12/02/2020	3	M
Benson-Smith Limited	23/01/2020	11/02/2020	M	N/A
Environmental Excellence Training and Development Limited	17/01/2020	10/02/2020	M	N/A
London Professional College	21/01/2020	12/02/2020	M	3
Total Training Provision Limited	30/01/2020	13/02/2020	M	N/A
Winnovation Limited	24/01/2020	10/02/2020	M	N/A
Melanie Martin t/a Watson Martin	23/01/2020	14/02/2020	M	N/A
QA Limited	31/01/2010	14/02/2020	2	1
Raise the Bar Limited	15/01/2020	14/02/2020	M	N/A

 

Sixth Form Colleges (inc 16-19 academies)	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College	17/01/2020	11/02/2020	3	3

 

Employer providers	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust	31/01/2010	10/02/2020	3	M
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust	17/01/2020	10/02/2020	3	M

 

Other (including UTCs)	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
University of Bolton	30/01/2020	11/02/2020	2	2
University of The West of England	29/01/2020	14/02/2020	M	N/A

 

Specialist colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Chatsworth Futures Limited	29/01/2020	12/02/2020	M	M (4)

 

General FE colleges	Inspected	Published	Grade	Previous grade
Shipley College	30/01/2020	10/02/2020	2	2
Gateshead College	31/01/2020	14/02/2020	3	1

Professor Alison Wolf is now working three days a week advising Number 10 on FE policy ahead of the Budget next month. In October she critised “target-led policy”, called for the introduction of adult education “lifetime allowances” and said the Department for Education should step aside because “you have to put far more of the power and decision-making in the hands of the individual”. FE Week’s editor, Nick Linford, looks at what it could mean for the adult education policy and the DfE if Wolf wins the argument.

Little did we know that when Baroness Alison Wolf gave evidence to the education select committee last October she would be appointed to advise the prime minister from within the Number 10 policy unit.

As FE Week reported last week, Wolf is on a sabbatical from Kings College London and is now working for the PM three days per week in the run up to the budget next month.

Perhaps the move should not have really come as a surprise given the help the government urgently needs to reform the apprenticeship levy, implement T-levels and invest in adult skills post-Brexit.

And Wolf is an obvious pick given she was appointed by Michael Gove in 2011 to undertake an independent review of vocational of education from which most recommendations were implemented. Then in 2015 she joined a group of select few on the Sainsbury Review that introduced the T-level plan and again, there she was on the panel writing the Augar Review in FE and HE funding last year.

“I hope I am going to be able to make a pitch for lifetime allowances”

Looking back at what she said when MPs asked how she would improve adult education policy, it seems obvious she has already played an important part in the manifesto that promised £1.8 billion for college capital.

She said in the month before the manifesto was published that “the main problem is that we have completely destroyed any sort of easy infrastructure of proper institutions in all towns where you can go to evening classes briefly, where you can go for a while, come out and go back. That used to exist in every town in this country. The ghosts of it are there, but it needs to be revived”, something exposed in our feature this week. 

“A vast amount of the money does not actually go on frontline provision to learners”

And when the Conservatives published the manifesto with a commitment to £600 million per year for a National Skills Fund, it was accompanied with a press release that said this would be the “first steps” towards a “Right to Retrain”.

Could this policy be what Wolf meant when she told MPs “adult citizens should have a right to a certain amount of education” and made “a pitch for lifetime allowances”?

She said: “You have to put far more of the power and decision -making in the hands of the individual and that you get better skills for the economy not by asking a government department to organise courses for people that they are sent on but by giving them far greater ability to learn skills when they think they want to.”

And when it comes to adult education, colleges need both the money and the freedoms according to Wolf: “I think you have to make the colleges a very central part of this. They have also been tremendously weakened and one of the things we said in our [Augar] review was that the government had to stop doing this and had to put money back in.”

She saved her strongest criticism for the government machine: “The simplest thing you could do would be to basically take a flamethrower to the way the whole adult and further education budget has all these pots.”

This will have been sweet music to the ears of Dominic Cummings, chief policy adviser to Boris Johnson and former adviser to Michael Gove when he was education secretary.

It is well known that Cummings has regular run-ins with civil servants and recently said he wanted to find advisers that are “weirdos and misfits with odd skills”.

Wolf also said an “obsession with targets, outcomes and making people do things in a way where you can tick things off, has been very harmful”.

“You have to put far more of the power and decision-making in the hands of the individual” and “I think you have to make the colleges a very central part of this”

“One of the problems with this target-led policy that we have had for a long time is that you find, yes, if you get a degree you earn more, if you get anything at what we call level 3, or skilled crafts, you definitely earn more, and if you get a good apprenticeship you definitely, definitely earn more, but just shelling out for lots of little courses does not automatically translate into productivity.”

So, with Wolf at Number 10 and the secretary of state, Gavin  Williamson returned to the DfE after the reshuffle and eager to develop policies to spend the manifesto pledges, civil servants at the Department for Education could be in for a shock.

“I think, alas, devolution does not help. It simply adds another layer of bureaucracy and arguing about who gets what”

Devolution

Wolf was in no doubt that the devolution of the Adult Education Budget has been a mistake.

Lucy Powell MP asked: “What other things do you think might help us to both increase the spending and spend it better?What about devolution and some of those issues?”

Wolf replied: “I think, alas, devolution does not help. I wish it did, but judging by what is happening in London it simply adds another layer of bureaucracy and arguing about who gets what.

“The simplest thing you could do would be to basically take a flamethrower to the way the whole adult and further education budget has all these pots. I do not know as much about the local authorities, so I will stick to the adult education budget going to the colleges. If you could get rid of all these silly little divisions and special programmes, and just hand them the money – and also allow them, as happens in other countries, to have a certain amount of carryover between years – I think overnight you would increase by 30 per cent the amount of money that went straight through to the classroom.”

National Retraining Service

Wolf made it clear she was not a fan of the little known National Retraining Scheme that already has its own department within the DfE.

Ian Mearns MP asked: “How effective do you think it will be in terms of helping adults to upskill or retrain—are we ready to go?”

Wolf replied: “You kind of know what I am going to say: do we need another specialised pot? It is one of these ideas where you think, how could you be against it— how could you be against giving adults help with retraining? Of course, you should not be.

“The trouble with having something that is specialised and specific and that goes through employers is that it is going to be another pot. It is going to have its own regulations. It will work fine if you have a large employer with a trade union that can see what is coming along the road. However, I cannot see how it can actually enable the population as a whole to access the flexible opportunities it needs.”

Online learning

Civil servants at the Department for Education have over many years been looking for ways to increase the access as well as reduce the cost of adult learning, but with little success when it comes to government funded online learning.

It is thought that they are having another go, through very limited National Retraining Scheme pilots, but Wolf appeared not to be a fan of delivering education over the internet.

Ian Mearns MP pointed out that “every town has a university—it is called the Open University.” At which Wolf shot back: “That is true, but it has been pulling back from having bricks and is more and more virtual. I personally think that was a big mistake.”

Mearns then asked if there is “a particular problem with the National Retraining Scheme about an overemphasis of online learning” to which Wolf simply said “Yes”.

Tenders

Wolf seems to be strongly of the opinion that having colleges apply for lots of “little pots” of funding is “extraordinarily wasteful.”

The University of Edinburgh’s Professor Lyn Tett was on the panel and told MPs: “Another problem, especially at the community level, is that most people are sustained by applying for grants—they could be from the local authority, from the big lottery or whatever—so they spend an awful lot of their time getting money in so they can provide a service, instead of providing the service.”

Wolf added: “I agree, really. Partly it is the level of funding, and to a considerable degree it is the way the funding is sent out. It is divided into little pots that mean that it is, amazingly, true that you have fantastic FE colleges that struggle to spend the adult part of their grant. It is hugely wasteful because, again as Lyn has said, a vast amount of the money does not actually go on frontline provision to learners; it goes on the administration, the collection of data and the grant applications. It is extraordinarily wasteful.”

Part-time evening courses were once a route that allowed tens of thousands of adults to retrain. But government funding cuts have seen this long tradition begin to fade away. As one champion of the provision enters Downing Street, Billy Camden delves into the current offer in colleges across England and questions whether this form of education could soon be resurrected

 

Night schools might be in for a revival following Baroness Alison Wolf’s appointment as a skills policy adviser to the prime minister.

The academic, who advises Boris Johnson three days a week, gave evidence to the education select committee just four months ago in which she raised the issue in the context of declining adult education numbers.

“The main problem is that we have completely destroyed any sort of easy infrastructure of proper institutions in all towns where you can go to evening classes briefly, where you can go for a while, come out and go back,” she told MPs.

“That used to exist in every town in this country. The ghosts of it are there, but it needs to be revived.”

In its 2019 report on education spending in England, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that adult learner numbers have fallen from 4.4 million in 2004-05 to about 1.5 million in 2017-18.

Funding for classroom-based and community learning peaked at around £4.1 billion in 2003-04, falling by nearly two thirds by 2018-19.

The IFS said there has been a “large and deliberate shift from classroom-based to apprenticeship training” in that time.

Evening courses, which are typically run between 6pm and 9pm, have reportedly borne the brunt of this.

It is an issue that has reached the House of Commons in recent years. Labour MP David Lammy held a parliamentary debate on the topic in 2017 in which he called for their return.

But there is little research that specifically shows the numbers of evening courses currently on offer, and how that compares to previous times.

FE Week spoke to colleges with large adult education budget allocations in the biggest cities in England to gain an insight into how their night school offer has changed over the years – including one in London that has bucked the trend of declining numbers.

But starting in the west, City of Bristol College said that it put on over 350 courses in the evening which had more than 3,730 enrolments in 2013/14, but this dropped by almost half to just over 1,900 enrolments in 2018/19 when 217 courses were offered.

A range of night classes continue to be offered this year including in sign language, biology, vehicle restoration, marketing, HR, law, welding, floristry and graphic design.

But the college’s principal, Andy Forbes, said the “frustrating thing is that we know we could run far more adult evening classes than we do now” and the biggest barrier is “that we now have to charge fees for courses”.

“Colleges that have experimented by running free courses have shown how big the demand is, but most FE colleges – like City of Bristol College – are not in a strong enough financial position to take the risk,” he added.

“We need funding to do this properly.”

Ann Marie Spry, vice principal for adult education at Leeds City College, said they are “proud” to offer over 100 adult evening courses currently, including in areas like start your own business, languages for beginners and Tai Chai.

While the college couldn’t give an estimate of numbers in previous years, “we did have to reduce the number we offer” owing to “cuts in funding”.

A spokesperson said: “Supporting low skilled workers and adults with mental health issues is an integral part of our work, and it’s important that we continue to be responsive to local community needs.

“We would welcome additional public funding to widen our scope and create a sustainable and robust adult offer.”

South and City College Birmingham said it reduced evening and weekend classes “substantially when the adult funding was cut and the rules on funding changed, as part of the austerity measures”.

A spokesperson said: “Adult funding rates are 60 per cent of 16 to 18 but young adults are provided with the same education and training in the same classes as 16 to 18 year olds.

“We would definitely re-introduce evening classes if there was funding to do so.”

Nottingham College said while it does still offer a range of courses in the evening, including in ceramics, photography, counselling and computing, there are “fewer than in previous years”.

“This could be attributed to less demand, changes in funding, the focus on employability and end-of-course outcome, and a decline in many of the courses that people would term hobbies or leisure.”

Liz Bromley, chief executive of NCG, said her college group still offers a range of evening courses in management and professional subjects, creative industries and education, as well as adult English and maths. 

But “yes, we have reduced the number,” she told FE Week, adding that a steep decline started at the time of the introduction of advanced learner loans – a policy which has struggled to get off the ground since its introduction in 2013.

“Changes to funding eligibility also added to this decline,” Bromley said.

“The reluctance to take up the adult learner loans seems to be linked to a lack of disposable income – i.e., once the course is complete, I will have to pay back my loan, and if I have not had a pay rise, then I’m financially worse off.”

She added: “We would like to see much more flexibility around the eligibility criteria for funding of course that have a direct link to the local skills agenda.”

There is one college group which is stemming the tide of declining evening courses: Capital City College Group (CCCG).

One of its divisions, The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL), ran fewer than 10 evening classes three years ago, but last year they ran 142 in areas including the trades, ESOL, sports massage and accounting.

What’s more, all of them up to level 2 are “free” of charge.

In June 2018 the Greater London Authority announced that adults in the capital who earn less than the London living wage will have their training fully funded from 2019/20 for courses up to level 2.

After experiencing what it calls “significant success” with the GLA’s policy – it saw in excess of one-third more adults enrolling – CCCG extended this offer to all adult learners.

Kurt Hintz, the principal of CONEL, said: “The appetite for learning in adults is huge, the barrier is cost. When it’s free, it’s full.”

But, he added, level 3 continues to be an issue: “Current funding stops at level 2. Many adults are discouraged from progressing to level 3 as they have to take out a loan.

“It is at level 3 and above that incomes start to increase significantly. By not funding courses at this level, members of our community are prevented from maximising their potential.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges (AoC), summed up by saying evening provision “still exists but is smaller in volume, adding that many of the ‘leisure’ courses, so popular for evening programmes, have significantly decreased in number”.

“AoC would welcome policy changes and funding to accompany it which allows for the most responsive and flexible provision.”

The Department for Education is to cut the budget for adult traineeships by more than half from August 2020.

In a letter seen by FE Week, dated 5 February and marked “sensitive”, it states that the 19 to 24 traineeship remains a national programme and the budget has been revised from £20 million to £8.55 million to “reflect current delivery levels”.

At the same time the DfE is planning to pump an extra £9 million of adult education budget funding into courses associated with National Retraining Scheme (NRS), for one year only.

Whilst traineeship funding is administered by the Education and Skills Funding Agency and does not form part of the mayoral combined authority budgets, the extra £9 million will be distributed across both devolved and non-devolved AEB budgets.

Chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, Mark Dawe, is concerned about the slash to the traineeships budget: “After four years of starts falling, we’ve only just removed the problems that were responsible for it, so we’ve got to give traineeships a chance to grow again rather than going for a knee-jerk reaction. NEET numbers still remain stubbornly high.

“Longer term though, perhaps the country’s record employment figures mean that the focus should become more on investment in work based skills programmes rather than on pre-employment support.”

Traineeships are designed to get people aged 16 to 24 ready for an apprenticeship or job. The courses include a work placement and can last between six weeks and six months.

Funding for 16 to 18 year-old traineeships comes from a separate budget at the ESFA.

The funding cut for the adults comes less than a year after former skills minister Anne Milton hailed the success of traineeships in light of research that revealed 75 per cent of learners move on to work or further study within a year of completing their programme.

Her comments were seen as a boon for the pre-employment course, which has been plagued by falling learner numbers and a lack of investment that has frustrated sector bodies.

Starts numbers have fallen from 24,100 to 17,700 (26 per cent) between 2015/16, before reforms to the apprenticeship system came into force, and 2017/18.

A DfE spokesperson said: “We want the traineeship programme to support more young people into apprenticeships and sustainable employment and that is why we are working with providers, employers and other stakeholders to develop detailed options for the future programme.

“The £8.55 million allocated to traineeships for young people aged 19 to 24 in 2020/21 includes capacity for growth over and above 2019/20 forecasted delivery levels.”

The DfE’s letter, which was sent by the department’s deputy director for FE funding Dominic Hastings, said the demand for adult training is “expected to increase following the national roll-out of the NRS Get Help to Retrain service”, which began to rollout in July 2019.

So as to ensure that this “potential increase in demand” can be met, “additional funding (£9 million) has been made available and added to the AEB for one year only (academic year 2020/21)”.

The letter adds that the NRS service will “continue to develop during 2020/21 based on engagement with service users” and “NRS colleagues want to collaborate further with you to understand how this additional funding can be used to develop a more localised training offer, to take account of local labour market and skills needs”.

Ofsted has been forced to revise a published inspection report after being made aware it was missing both apprenticeship and adult course grades and commentary.

Peter Symonds College teaches around 4,200 young people aged 16 to 19 and was rated ‘outstanding’ across the board in a report published by the education watchdog last week.

But the report failed to grade provision for 55 apprentices aged 19 or older and 61 adult learners on access to higher education courses.

After FE Week raised this with Ofsted, a spokesperson claimed that inspectors did assess this provision during the visit in January, and the omission of grades in the original report “was an oversight on our part.

“A revised report has been published that includes grades for adult learning programmes and apprenticeships. Peter Symonds College remains an outstanding provider and should be congratulated for this significant achievement.”

The updated report shows the college scored ‘outstanding’ for its adult learning programmes, but ‘good’ for apprenticeships.

Peter Symonds College confirmed that both adult education and apprenticeships were “inspected and were in receipt of focused ‘deep dives’ as part of the whole college inspection”.

“Peter Symonds College is extremely proud to have retained its outstanding grade in our recent inspection,” a spokesperson added.

“This reflects the hard work and commitment of all our staff and students as well as our unremitting focus on providing high quality education: something for which we have been renowned for several decades.”

The Hampshire-based college retained its top grade after more than a decade without inspection.

In its new Ofsted report, inspectors said they found that teachers plan flexible timetables which enable adult learners to combine their studies with busy lifestyles.

The students were said to “produce work of a very high standard” and consequently “nearly all move on to university to study their chosen subject”.

It was also reported that apprentices gain the knowledge and skills they need to work successfully in supporting teaching and learning in schools.

According to inspectors, since apprenticeship provision began in 2017, leaders and managers have ensured that apprentices receive good-quality off-the-job training that supports them well in their job roles.

In addition, most of its 4,200 young students achieve high grades in their A-levels and were “well-prepared for their aspirational next steps to prestigious universities”.

The inspectorate claimed that they also benefit from “excellent facilities and resources” and their participation in enrichment activities “develops their sense of social justice and their roles as active citizens”.

Furthermore, Ofsted found that college leaders and managers place a “very strong” emphasis on maintaining the wellbeing of their staff by allowing them to take part in activities like yoga and Pilates which balance out their working lives.

As a result, staff felt “very well supported and repay managers by promoting the college’s ambitious culture for all its students”.

A large London college group wrestling with an unexpected £10 million deficit is set to receive a grade three after its first-ever inspection took place last month.

FE Week understands Capital City College Group’s (CCCG) Ofsted report will be published imminently.

Chief executive Roy O’Shaughnessy previously told this newspaper in December that he was trying to “dim the expectations” by self-grading at ‘requires improvement’ and was expecting a visit from the education watchdog between January and July 2020.

The group is scheduled to deliver three T-level routes (in digital, education and childcare and health and science) from the 2021-22 academic year.

But this could now be at risk as Department for Education rules state that only providers rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ can deliver the new qualifications.

Kurt Hintz, principal of the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, part of CCCG, said he was unable to comment on Ofsted’s verdict until the group received and reviewed the report in full.

However, “the feedback that we received following the inspection from Ofsted’s team on our strengths and areas needing improvement was very similar to the conclusions we had reached during our own rigorous self-assessment,” he told FE Week.

Hintz added that CCCG will continue with its “robust” quality-improvement plan that had been in place “long before” Ofsted arrived and which is now showing signs of “significant improvement”.

He also confirmed the group’s approach to T-levels will continue as planned and they will “comply with any additional scrutiny that the ESFA require of us and feel confident we will be well prepared”.

CCCG was formed after a merger between WKCIC Group and the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London.

City and Islington College and Westminster Kingsway College first merged in August 2016. Both were considered ‘good’ by the inspectorate at the time – as was the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, which joined them in November 2017.

The group currently has a deficit of £9.7 million. It had originally budgeted for a £750,000 surplus for 2018-19.

This was revised downwards by July to a deficit of £5.1 million but it suddenly grew again by September.

O’Shaughnessy then launched an independent investigation and previously told FE Week that “genuine ineptness” had partly led to the surprise deficit.

It followed unplanned multi-million pound deficits of £5 million in 2016-17 and £6 million in 2017-18, which led to job cuts.

CCCG’s new finance director, Rachael White, previously said that internal controls were missing – which she put down to the three individual colleges coming together.

She said: “I think a lot of it has been where colleges have merged and there’s probably been no re-alignment or reassessment of what is an efficient or controlled environment to work within.”

CCCG isn’t the only T-levels college to be hit with a grade three.

Earlier this week, FE Week reported that Nottingham College, which is due to deliver the digital, education and health routes from next year, had raised the issue with the Education and Skills Funding Agency after their own ‘requires improvement’ rating.

A spokesperson confirmed it will “submit an application to continue to be a provider of T-levels”.

In addition, the DfE confirmed last month that it will also “make a decision in due course” on whether United Colleges Group, which was lined up to offer the digital and construction courses, should be kicked off the programme after receiving a grade three from Ofsted.

The department has promised to consider each case individually and reach a mutual decision with the providers before a decision is made; and the time invested by institutions and the work done to prepare students may impact on the decision.

Lord Agnew is to leave the Department for Education, FE Week’s sister paper FE Week understands.

The junior academies minister and Tory peer took on the responsibility for FE provider market in September.

He has been promoted to the role of minister of state at both the Cabinet Office and Treasury.

A training provider is offering a reward of just under £30,000 for simply adding their data on achieved learners to a government funding claim.

Taking up the emailed offer of a “cohort of achieved learners” from City Gateway, a charity that has trained disadvantaged young people in the London for eight years, would be a clear breach of the funding rules according to an auditor.

The email, sent to providers with direct access to funding, asks if they are “interested in the potential to increase your adult education budget (AEB) achievement rates by funding a cohort of achieved learners – available immediately for an AEB or traineeships subcontract?”

It states that the group has a “current 88 per cent achievement rate (due to exceed 92 per cent when outstanding results arrive)” in English as a second or foreign language (ESOL) and functional skills courses.

They are primarily made up of black, Asian and minority ethnic adult women based in east London “with the data ready to upload”. There are also traineeship cohorts aged 16 to 18 and 19 to 23.

The total value of the learners is £143,000 – but Education and Skills Funding data shows City Gateway only has £46,000 in allocations to use for 2019/20.

It also does not have any direct contracts to deliver courses with the Greater London Authority, which had the capital’s AEB devolved to it in September 2019.

The provider dropped from a grade two to a grade three in October 2017, with Ofsted claiming: “Trustees, leaders and managers have not taken sufficient action to remedy weaknesses identified at the previous inspection.”

City Gateway wants a different provider to take on the learners who have already completed their courses, act as the prime, and subcontract the provision to the charity in order to claim funding.

“We have exceeded our MCV (maximum contract value) and so are seeking to subcontract for further learners already on our system,” the email states.

It adds that the prime would receive a 20 per cent management fee, totalling £10,600 for the AEB provision, £13,000 for the 16 to 18 traineeships, and £5,000 for 19 to 23 traineeships.

ESFA funding rules state that it is “vital” that all directly funded organisations must “properly monitor and control all subcontracted delivery”.

And the GLA’s funding rules state: “You must manage and monitor all of your delivery subcontractors to ensure that high-quality delivery is taking place that meets our funding rules.”

An experienced individual learner record auditor, who did not wish to be named, told FE Week that they have “stripped all the money out for this sort of thing in the past at audit”.

The GLA said any subcontracting arrangement would have to meet their guidelines and be approved by the authority.

City Gateway did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The revelation comes amid a fresh crackdown on subcontracting by the government.

A consultation on radical rule changes was launched last week. It states that “entering into subcontracting arrangements for financial gain” are not acceptable.

ESFA chief executive Eileen Milner sent a sector-wide letter on October 3 which said: “I am asking that you review your current subcontracting activity and satisfy yourself that it is purposeful, appropriate, and provides added value to learners. We must be confident that you are managing and overseeing it in line with our requirements.”

It went on to warn: “I want to make it clear that where poor subcontracting practice is evident to us we will act decisively.”