A cookery school run by the Hadlow Group and celebrity chef Rosemary Shrager has closed, after the group’s two colleges went into administration.
A notice posted on the school’s website reveals it closed with effect from August.
It reads: “We regret to advise that owing to external financial pressures related to the well-publicised wider external issues at the Hadlow Group, the Rosemary Shrager Cookery School could not continue to operate in its present form, or in its existing location.
“The school has therefore closed.”
The Kent school ran cookery classes for members of the public, who will have to claim a refund for any courses they have paid for from their credit card company or wait for liquidators to send them a letter so they can make a claim as a creditor.
The school has been trading since 2016 and is the latest business to fall into trouble following the fallout from an FE Commissioner intervention at the two Hadlow Group colleges, Hadlow and West Kent and Ashford Colleges earlier this year.
The interim principal of the Hadlow Group, Graham Morley, said: “This has obviously been a difficult decision to take.
“However, the financial difficulties facing the cookery school have meant it could not continue to operate in its current form or in its existing location.
“We hope to continue to work with Rosemary and are currently in discussion with her, and other partners, to explore future initiatives.”
FE Commissioner Richard Atkins and his team found both colleges were running out of money and their boards had failed in their fiduciary duty.
When asked about the sale earlier this week, a college spokesperson said that conversations “are continuing with the interested party but the sale has not yet been finalised”.
College leaders are being asked for their views on the ESFA’s oversight of financial management – after the FE Commissioner found staff there had failed to accurately assess Hadlow College’s finances.
It was announced last week that Dame Mary Ney would lead a review into the way the government monitors college finances.
The review was promised in May by then skills minister Anne Milton after the FE Commissioner revealed that Hadlow College, now in education administration, had misled the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) over the health of its finances.
The report, published in May, said: “The college’s finance record for 2016/17 shows an automated financial health score of ‘good’. However, when this is compared to the annual accounts there are material differences, particularly in relation to loans. When the finance record is amended to reflect the annual accounts the automated health score is ‘inadequate’.”
So it would appear the ESFA had not thought to read the Hadlow College published accounts.
The findings from the review are expected to be published later this year, and Ney is now asking the sector for their own insights.
In an update published yesterday, the DfE said: “Dame Mary would welcome written comments from anyone with views on the functioning of financial oversight of the college sector. If you would like to contact the review please email FEOversight.REVIEW@education.gov.uk.”
The DfE told FE Week there is no fixed deadline for submissions, but they should come in by early October to give Ney enough time to review them.
Ney’s review will determine whether the government has “monitored and exercised” its oversight of those colleges’ finances and financial management, including the work of the ESFA and the FE Commissioner’s team.
It will recommend changes that would “reduce the risk of such problems recurring, taking account of colleges’ independence and the need to minimise regulatory burden”.
The launch of Ney’s review comes 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 Department for Education has announced that Michelle Donelan will take over Kemi Badenoch’s brief as she goes on maternity leave.
It is expected this means that Donelan (pictured), the MP for Chippenham, will hold the remit for supporting further education.
Badenoch was appointed a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in Boris Johnson’s recent reshuffle, in which the new prime minister didn’t name a dedicated skills minister to replace Anne Milton who resigned.
Donelan became an MP in May 2015 and has previously sat on the education select committee.
She appears to have a keen interest in education and her local college.
Her website’s ‘about’ page states: “From parking charges to education funding – I am on your side.”
In another post on her website from February 2018, Donelan says she “once again stressed in the Commons that there is not value for money in the UK further education system because it lacks transparency so students can’t make informed choices. I welcomed the prime minister’s recent announcement of a post 18 education review which will look at this.”
In March 2019 she visited Wiltshire College‘s Lackham Campus to meet with the principal Amanda Burnside.
“I supported the college LEP bid and was it excited to see the plans come to place,” she said.
“It really will be a state-of-the-art centre of excellence for agricultural engineering and robotics dairy farming. The college has invested heavily in engineering and science-based subjects and are planning a new Campus Hub for learning, a robotics dairy and an animal science building. This will be a great asset for our community from people going into further education, doing apprenticeships and upskilling – so watch this space!”
It is not known if Donelan will stay on as a junior minister in the DfE once Badenoch returns from maternity leave.
An additional £10 million will be released by the Treasury to teach English to those who speak it as a second language, the chancellor announced today.
In his spending review speech, Sajid Javid confirmed that the Integration Areas Programme he launched as communities secretary in 2018 will continue into a second wave.
Training providers will be able to use the funding to “meet the needs of pre-entry to entry level one English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) learners,” according to the programme’s prospectus.
Javid said: “We make available today an additional £10 million to continue the Integration Areas Programme that I first announced in 2018 as communities secretary.
“That fund will continue to support thousands of the estimated one million adults in the UK who do not speak English well or at all.”
“For too long, FE has been a forgotten sector. Further education transformed my life and today we start transforming further education with a £400 million increase in 16 to 19 funding next year,” Javid, who attended Filton Technical College, now known as South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, said.
The base rate of funding for all 16 to 17 students has been frozen at £4,000 per student, per year since 2013; while the rate for 18-year-olds was reduced to £3,300 in 2014.
Its increase will take up £190 million of the £400 million package. Meanwhile, £120 million of it will help deliver “expensive but crucial” subjects such as engineering; £35 million extra for students resitting GCSE maths and English who are on level 3 courses; an additional £25 million to deliver T-levels; and £10 million for the advanced maths premium.
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, which led the Raise the Rate campaign calling for the base rate to increase to £4,760, said the chancellor’s announcement “is a welcome first step to giving 16 to 19 education the investment it needs”.
“The Raise the Rate campaign will continue to press for a much bigger increase in core funding than the £188 per student announced today, but we now have a foundation on which to build,” he added.
University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady described today spending round as “rushed” and appeared “more like frantic electioneering than a long-term commitment to boosting further and higher education”.
“The funding promised to further education will do little to reverse the cuts of over £3 billion in real terms that have blighted the sector over the last decade,” she added.
The government’s effort to raise awareness of T-levels has been criticised after new research found three in five parents still haven’t heard of them, just 12 months before they’re due to be rolled out.
A survey of 824 parents with children aged 11 to 18 in England, commissioned by the Chartered Management Institute, also revealed that only 1 in 10 (11 per cent) feel they know a lot about the new post-16 technical qualifications.
Marketing drives to raise awareness have been lacking from the Department for Education, which only launched its official branding – NexT Level – in May.
Government will need to accelerate work to raise awareness with students, parents and employers
When challenged over the survey’s findings, the DfE said they would be launching a fresh “nationwide campaign” to raise awareness next month.
Public relations firm Havas Worldwide London Ltd won a contract to design the T-levels logo for £250,000 and has since been given access to £3 million for the implementation of the campaign in 2019/20.
The DfE has not said what this campaign will involve.
A YouTube video, which explains what T-levels are, was published by the DfE last year but has only had just over 11,000 views to date, while a similar video launched last month only has 970.
Rob Wall, head of policy at the Chartered Management Institute, said for T-levels to succeed, government will “need to accelerate work to raise awareness with students, parents and employers”.
“We know government is planning to launch an awareness campaign. And we support this. We just hope this isn’t too late,” he added.
While some individual colleges have launched, or are gearing up to launch their own T-level awareness raising campaigns, some say they themselves do not have enough information about the new qualifications.
Boston College has been piloting the controversial 315-hour minimum industry placements for T-levels, but due to various concerns, they’ve yet to market or even sign up to offer them.
Principal Jo Maher said: “There is not enough information on the content and assessment of T-levels to go to market at present, even for providers aiming to build initial interest for a 2021 start.
“In order to give the best information, advice and guidance to prospective students and parents, providers need access the program specifications and I have not yet seen any.”
Oldham College, which is set to deliver T-levels in wave two of their roll out in 2021/22, is attempting to get ahead of the curve.
Using grant funding they received as a provider in one of the DfE’s “opportunity areas”, the college bought a T-levels branded van, built with TVs inside to explain what the new qualifications are.
It cost them between £25,000 and £30,000 to “get it fully kitted out” and will be driven around the town over the next few years to raise awareness.
Principal Alun Francis said the college has only had it for one week, so “I can’t tell you if it’s had any effect.
“But we’ve done it because there’s a real job to do about making sure people understand properly what the alternative options [to academic qualifications such as A-levels] are.”
Oldham College’s T-levels van
He told FE Week he’s not aware of a “full-on marketing strategy” from the DfE or other colleges at this stage and his college is “very much at the beginning” of building its own strategy.
Asked if he thought the DfE was leaving it too late to launch its big awareness campaign, Francis said: “It’s difficult to strike the balance because if you have a huge campaign talking about them all the time that’s too far away, you kind of lose the impact. There is a little about managing the time so there is a build-up.”
Chichester College will deliver the first T-levels from 2020 and is now gearing up to launch its own marketing drive.
Its strategy includes deployment of its school liaison officer across the local area, a targeted T-levels open day for prospective students, and pushing out adverts over the radio.
Paul Rolfe, group director of commercial, sales, marketing & public affairs at the Chichester College Group, said: “The qualification landscape is complex for parents, so face-to-face marketing delivered by our expert staff, supported by online resources will be key to our marketing activity.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “Right from the start we have worked closely with both large and small businesses to make sure we get the delivery of T-levels right.
“We are implementing T-levels in a measured, phased rollout – and our communications campaign will ramp up as coverage grows across the country.
“We will be launching a nationwide campaign next month to help raise awareness of T-levels among young people, parents and employers.”
Plans for Ofsted to publish financial ratings as part of inspection reports have been announced – but full details are yet to be drawn up.
In November last year chief inspector Amanda Spielman told FE Week the watchdog could take a more proactive role in factoring in financial management when grading a provider, but said at the time it wasn’t within Ofsted’s remit.
In a surprising announcement yesterday, the Department for Education said it will, in future, work with Ofsted to “ensure all reports also include a rating for financial management and oversight within the school or college in order to ensure best practice is shared across the sector”.
The move will not be part of the watchdog’s new inspection framework, which launches this week. Ofsted told FE Week this is something for a “longer-term piece of work with the government”.
Currently, the Education and Skills Funding Agency uses a formula to annually apply financial health ratings to FE providers, which can either be ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ like Ofsted judgements, but they’re not published.
It is not clear at this stage whether the ESFA will, in the future, play a part in Ofsted inspections, or whether the watchdog will do its own financial health research and investigations to arrive at a rating.
The DfE could not provide any further details and Ofsted appeared to know little about the plans.
Reviewing financial management of FE providers used to be part of inspections some years ago, in conjunction with the Learning and Skills Council, before it was dropped.
This latest announcement comes after several college leaders and boards have come under heavy criticism from the FE commissioner for their management of the finances in recent years.
The most severe case was at Hadlow College, which was given a grade one by Ofsted, but has been subject to government investigations after financial irregularities were found. This included submitting partial information to the ESFA in order to secure a ‘good’ financial health. However, according to the FE Commissioner, had the ESFA looked at their published accounts they would have rated them as ‘inadequate’.
The scandal has led to the college becoming the first to go through the new insolvency regime and as reported by FE Week, the DfE last week announced that Dame Mary Ney would be leading a review into their own monitoring of college finances.
When quizzed about why Ofsted doesn’t currently factor in financial management into inspection reports, Spielman told FE Week in November: “We don’t have the remit to look at that side of colleges, and that’s something that’s down to the Department for Education to decide if it wants to shift the split. But it is important. They affect each other clearly. Neither we nor anyone else should say they’re completely independent of each other.”
Asked if Ofsted inspectors may take a closer look at college finances in future inspection frameworks, the chief inspector said: “There are a lot of different ways that you could cut this particular cake.
“If a conversation begins at some point about ways of taking that forward I’d be happy to have it.”
All FE and skills providers rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted will no longer be exempt from routine inspections, the Department for Education has confirmed.
The government announced the move yesterday, but only that it would apply to schools.
A spokesperson for the DfE has today told FE Week the change will also impact colleges, independent providers, local authorities and other FE providers.
The exemption from inspection for ‘outstanding’ providers was introduced by former education secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Those with the rating would only be reinspected if safeguarding issues or concerns over achievement rates came to light.
As revealed in an FE Week investigation three years ago and subsequent National Audit Office report in 2018, the exemption has led to many colleges and hundreds of schools being ignored by inspectors for over a decade.
In October last year, chief inspector Amanda Spielman warned the public accounts committee that the exemption leaves the inspectorate with “real blind spots as to the quality of education and safeguarding” in these schools and colleges.
FE Week analysis shows there are currently 30 ‘outstanding’ FE providers that have gone a decade or more without being reinspected.
There will be a consultation published “shortly” about the move to remove the ‘outstanding’ exemption and, subject to parliamentary approval, it will be removed by September next year.
The DfE said this will “ensure that parents have up to date information about the quality of education their children are receiving, and that standards remain high”.
What will be of concern, however, is Ofsted’s budget and capacity to inspect all grade 1 providers on a routine basis. It is not clear at this stage whether the DfE will give the watchdog extra cash to do more inspections.
The government has launched an additional European Social Fund tender, after finding there were a number of contracts in this year’s procurement where no bidding providers met the “required criteria”.
A bidding process for £4.2 million of the funding has gone live today in four local enterprise partnership areas: York North Yorkshire & East Riding, Greater Lincolnshire, North East, and The Marches (full details below).
These contracts started on 1 April 2019 and will run until 31 July 2021.
The ESFA said the four local enterprise partnership areas included in this additional procurement are for contracts where “none of the providers that bid for funding met the required criteria”.
This additional targeted procurement is being run “so that people living in these areas have the opportunity to benefit from the ESF by learning the skills they need to get on the path to a great career”, the agency said.
The European Social Fund is funding that the UK has received, as a member state of the EU, to increase job opportunities and to help people to improve their skill levels, particularly those individuals who find it difficult to get work.
This year’s procurement caused controversy among many bidders.
The ESFA delayed issuing contracts several times, after multiple providers claimed that the government broke tender rules, namely by excluding the “track record” section when marking bids, while the ESFA has admitted to “errors”, such as naming Serco Regional Services Limited as a winner instead of Serco Limited.
Providers were also aggrieved to find out that Learndirect’s new owner had secured contracts worth more than £20 million, in conjunction with his other company Dimensions Training Solutions.
One aggrieved provider even threatened legal action against the ESFA, but decided to drop this because of the likely cost and a fear of repercussions from the agency.
The deadline for bids to this additional tender is 2 October 2019 at 5pm. Once the procurement has closed, the ESFA will send award notifications to successful providers before entering a 10-day standstill period.
Any providers that want to bid can do so from here.
If you’ve been working in a increasingly arid financial desert for years, even a few splashes of liquid on the face will seem welcome.
Not a fertile oasis, but might get you to next water hole before you expire from thirst.
So I know why many of the people I and Angie Rayner stood alongside from the deck of a megaphoned double decker bus in Parliament Square in solidarity with the ‘Raise the Rate’ and ‘Love Our Colleges’ crowds below (which campaigns have finally forced a Tory Chancellor’s hand) should want to feel some relief from his Spending Review.
But it’s those campaigners who deserve nearly all the credit due – not Sajid Javid. And as the details of his spending get unpicked and scrutinised in his Wednesday statement to Parliament – unless that gets prorogued along with his Budget – the more the old phrase ‘the devil’s in the detail’ will come to mind.
Both AoC and UCU have already said £400 million is not adequate to reverse the Government cuts as Boris Johnson promised, or to restore stability to a sector battered by a £3 billion hole in funding from the last 9 years.
AoC’s initial assessment of a 4.7% increase on the base rate to fund 16-18 year olds is a start, but hardly the Holy Grail – remember that cohort is projected to rise rapidly from 2020 onwards.
The £25 million more to deliver ‘T Levels’ is a scattershot – and may simply be a rehash of part of the £500 million Government promised ages ago by 2022.
And as long as the baleful eye of Nick Gibb blocks off the potential for young FE learners, especially apprentices, to succeed with functional skills options and not be knocked out by endless resits, the £25m targeted at those getting below level 4 in GCSE English and Maths could just be money down the drain.
But the complete failure to do anything for FE for 19 year olds and beyond is extraordinary. It risks turning them into another lost generation.
A mixed economy of pre and post 19 learners isn’t just desirable for inclusion in the communities colleges serve, it’s vital for FE survival by sustaining a wide range of courses and sources of income.
We know how badly decisions after 2010 by Government to axe grants and offer loans for FE to those in their 20s and beyond have played in take up – with hundreds of millions of pounds scandalously returned to the Treasury unused year on year.
There is nothing for older adult learners either.
Dire warnings from the Augar review about urgently combatting the 45%. fall in numbers – all entirely ignored.
Yet all the projections about economic rapid obsolescence in the 2020s show retraining and skilling isn’t just an option it’s a necessity, alongside a growing gig economy of self employed for whom Levels 3 and above will be an essential.
Who better to lead that ‘second chance’ charge and bolster colleges’ financial precariousness – (as the NAO has warne) – if not FE.colleges? Yet this Chancellor puts nothing into their bowl.
That omission sits alongside others in this Review. The Chancellor’s ignored the training providers who provide 7 out of 10 of apprenticeships for whom AELP has consistently lobbied. No initiatives to enable FE to help hundreds of thousands of young people stagnanting in the NEETs category.
Fortunately there is an alternative
Very little either, as UCU has pointed out, to tackle the £7k income gap between teachers and staff colleges and those in schools.
No strategy for a staffing crisis with retirement depletions, lack of CPD opportunities, and too many younger staff worn down or leaving because of short term, low hours contracts.
Who will be left to teach the expansion of T levels in the sector? The £20m promised won’t even start to scratch the surface of these problems.
On top of this, Brexit and challenges of climate extinction will need a huge capacity charge for the sector.
Boris Johnson crashing our economy over a no deal cliff would make things even worse.
Fortunately there is an alternative.
It’s in the promises Labour made in our 2017 manifesto about properly funding and nurturing the FE sector , our commitment to a Green New Deal, Industrial Strategy and Transformation Fund which open up huge new Skills and training opportunities.
And our National Education Service’s Life Long Learning Commission, hard at work since the spring tackling with dynamism the challenge of refashioning our FE, skills and HE sectors into a 21st century model fit for learners, providers and our economy rather than just another lick of paint on an outmoded 20th century one.
Instead of which FE is being offered just a one year ‘manager’s special’ – a quick deal soufflé from Sajid Javid.
Designed for potential General Election consumption but full, when you bit into it, of the whipped but insubstantial cream Mrs Thatcher did research on in her early career.
If Johnson’s ministers want to win people over, it will take more than this to do it.
