Two Stoke studio schools will shut down

Two studio schools in Stoke-on-Trent will close by next summer amid dire problems with recruiting students.

Stoke-on-Trent Studio College for Construction and the Built Environment (CaBE) will close this August, while its sister college for Manufacturing and Design Excellence (MaDE) will close the following year.

These are the 25th and 26th of this type of vocational school to close or announce plans to do so since their inception.

It leaves just 29 studio schools, which offer a vocational curriculum for 14- to 19-year-olds, with no plans at present to close.

Ann Marie Lucy, the chief operating officer of Alpha Academies Trust, which runs both schools, said the decision to close had been made as they “have not been able to recruit sufficient students”.

“In particular the sixth form has struggled to attract prospective students,” she said. “It is a sad reality that such small schools cannot continue long-term,” she said.

A Department for Education spokesperson said it had “agreed, in principle” to the closure.

“A number of options have been explored but ministers have decided that the schools, which have not operated above 25-per-cent capacity, should close in August 2018 and August 2019 respectively,” a spokesperson said.

The CaBE studio school opened in September 2012, and is currently rated ‘good’ by Ofsted, while the MaDE school opened the following year and is rated ‘requires improvement’.

Both have a capacity of 300, but have struggled to recruit anywhere near that number – particularly post-16.

CaBE currently has 17 pupils in year 11, while MaDE has 17 in year 11 and 34 in year 10, but none in either sixth form.

“Despite all the efforts of its governing body and dedicated staff, who have all done an excellent job, the schools’ sixth form has never been fully utilised,” said David Miles, interim principal of both studio schools. 

“This is because our students have progressed at 16 to further study or apprenticeships elsewhere,” he said.

The provisional decision to close the two schools is subject to a four-week “listening period”, which will run until July 6.

If the closure goes ahead the sites will remain with Alpha Academies Trust, which plans to provide 120 alternative provision places through Reach Pupil Referral Unit, which will join the trust from September.

Just days ago, another studio school, Rye Studio School announced it too would close in the summer, after it failed to recruit even half the pupils it needed.

In addition to the 26 to close or face closure, four more of the schools were proposed but never got off the starting block.

The news will come as a blow to advocates of 14-to-19 technical education, including university technical colleges.

Persuading pupils to change schools at 14 has been a struggle for many, while others have received poor Ofsted ratings.

Alpha Academies Trust is run by Sarah Robinson, a former leader of Stoke-on-Trent College.

She took up her post as chief executive of the trust, which was run by the college at the time, immediately after leaving her job at the college.

Despite this, she still received a severance payment from the college – although it refused to explain why.

Queen’s birthday honours 2018: Who got what in FE and skills?

The FE and skills sector is well represented in the Queen’s birthday honours list this year, in which Ofsted’s chief operating officer has been made a Companion of the Order of the Bath.

Matthew Coffey, who joined Ofsted in 2007 and was appointed COO in 2014, has made a “huge contribution” to the education watchdog, according to chief inspector Amanda Spielman.

“He has seen us through many challenges and complexities, applying intelligence, energy, determination and integrity, while above all putting the interests of children and young people first,” she said.

Matthew Coffey

His recognition in the honours list is “thoroughly well deserved and everyone at Ofsted is delighted for him”, she added.

The leader of a college that boosted its Ofsted grade to ‘outstanding’ just a year ago is among four new FE sector OBEs honoured today.

Gill Alton, chief executive of the Grimsby Institute, was recognised for services to education. She joined the college in March 2016, having previously led Rotherham College for six years.

Ms Alton, who was also named to the FE commissioner’s principals’ reference group and national leaders of FE programme in January, said she was “completely overwhelmed and humbled”.

“I’d like to acknowledge and thank the people I’ve worked with, who are the very best in the sector and have achieved wonderful things for Rotherham, Grimsby and Scarborough – this award is really a result of their hard work,” she added. 

Richard Bridgman, founder and owner of mechanical engineering firm Warren Services Ltd, received an OBE for his services to apprenticeships.

The 70-year-old, who began his own career as an apprentice, has been dedicated to promoting apprenticeships and work experience opportunities for young people for many years. This includes employing many apprentices at his own firm over the past 28 years.

“Many people have helped me throughout my business life and without their support and understanding I don’t think this award would have been possible,” he said.

John Boyle, governor and lately chair at Blackpool Sixth-Form College, told FE Week he “couldn’t speak” after learning of his OBE for services to education.

Mr Boyle has been on the board at the grade one SFC for 15 years, and was appointed adviser to the FE commissioner earlier this year.

He said the honour is “very surprising and very humbling”.

Angela Williams, principal of grade one Huddersfield New College, also received an OBE.

Angela Williams

“It is an incredible privilege to work with young people on a daily basis, and it is a joy to be part of the wonderful staff team at Huddersfield New College, who work extremely hard to help the young people in our care to achieve their dreams,” she said.

Seven figures in the FE and skills sector have been recognised with MBEs in this year’s list.

These include Beverly Aitken, the former chair of governors at East Kent College, who said it was “an incredible feeling to receive this award”.

She joined the college’s board in 1990, and was appointed chair in 2012 – a position she held until the college merged with Canterbury College in February.

Adult and community learning was recognised with two MBEs – one for Rehana Mohammed, learning manager at the Workers’ Educational Association, for services to the education of marginalised women in Rochdale and Oldham, and the second for Helen Osborne, principal of the Friends Centre in Brighton, for services to adult education.

Rehana Mohammed

“I have so much pride for my community and for them to nominate me and to recognise my commitment to them is such a blessing,” Ms Mohammed said. 

Ms Osborne said her honour “represents all that we do here at Friends Centre”.

“I am very lucky to have a supportive team and set of trustees to ensure we are able to help over 1,100 learners each year through our courses,” she added.

Two training managers for WorldSkills UK also received MBEs following Team UK’s stellar performance at WorldSkills AbuDhabi in 2017.

Paul Dodds said it is “great to be rewarded for work which helps a lot of young people reach such high levels of skills”, while Sue Simpson is “honoured to be recognised for my years of work with young people, nurturing them to grow and progress”.

Sandra Clelland, estates security manager at Hugh Baird College, received an MBE for her services to the community and charity in Liverpool.

Hugh Baird principal Yana Williams said the honour is “a fitting recognition of her commitment and service to the local community and her contribution to fundraising for some of the most vulnerable and deprived in the Liverpool area”.

Alan Moss, a senior lecturer at the RAF Central Training School, also received an MBE for his services to apprentice training.

And finally, Peter Templeman, a curriculum technician in carpentry and joinery at Oaklands College, was named a medallist of the Order of the British Empire for his services to technical education.

He described the award as the “ultimate validation” that what he did everyday was “of value, is worthwhile” and “is making a difference to the lives of the students”.

Scrap the Institute for Apprenticeships, says Lords report

The Institute for Apprenticeships should be scrapped, according to an influential committee that sits in the House of Lords.

The Lords economic affairs committee has also poured scorn on the government’s target of three million apprenticeship starts by 2020.

“The IfA should be abolished,” it said in a new report. The role of the institute is “unclear” and it doesn’t seem to act as an effective policing body for apprenticeships standards, it was claimed.

The IfA has many responsibilities, including developing and maintaining quality criteria for apprenticeship standards and assessment plans, which it also publishes, and quality-assuring the delivery of end-point assessments.

It plays a dominant role as external quality-assurance provider of choice for many trailblazer groups – even though it’s supposed to be the “option of last resort”. Many in the sector feel this responsibility should solely lie with specialist regulator Ofqual.

And it will soon even be overseeing prestigious new T-levels that are being developed as a technical education equivalent to academic A-levels.

Today’s report wants a simplified regulatory system across further and higher education, and sees no place for the IfA.

“The quality and outcomes of level two and three apprenticeships should be the responsibility of the new further education regulator,” it said. “The quality and outcomes of level four and above apprenticeships should be the responsibility of the Office for Students.”

The OfS is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the higher education sector in England.

Authors also want the skills and apprenticeships minister Anne Milton to “provide oversight of both” the FE and HE regulators.

The IfA has come in for mounting criticism since its launch last year, and there are fears it has too many responsibilities and is struggling to cope.

There have been significant delays to the approval of new apprenticeship standards, which the IfA’s chief executive Sir Gerry Berragan is trying to address with his “faster and better” initiative.

The cross-party lords committee also pulled no punches with its criticism the government’s target of three million apprenticeships by 2020, warning it “has prioritised quantity over quality, and should be scrapped immediately”.

“Framing a target in terms of starts makes no sense when about 40 per cent of starts are not completed,” the lords said.

Recent progress towards the manifesto target has in fact been poor. Apprenticeship starts were down a massive 40 per cent in February on the same period in 2017.

This has largely been attributed to delays among employers adjusting to last spring’s apprenticeship reforms, especially the new apprenticeship levy.

“Despite the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, the UK is still a long way away from the effective apprenticeship system needed,” the report warned.

Forcing large employers to pay towards training through the levy has “encouraged the rebadging of training activity”, and more investment in higher-level apprenticeships for existing staff.

“It is also concerning that over half of training providers for apprenticeships were recently rated ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ in a recent Ofsted inspection,” the report continued.

Part-time study and adult learning have also “declined dramatically”

“This neglect of part-time and mature students is short-sighted: flexible learning is important for mature students looking to learn new skills to adapt to changes in the labour market and working practices,” authors claimed.

They also want more FE funding and better treatment of the sector compared to HE, and the committee’s chair Lord Forsyth has insisted the current system is  “deeply unfair”.

“The structure and distribution of funding in the post-school education sector is unfair and inefficient. Further education is the poor relation to higher education.”

“We ‎will consider the report and respond in full in due course,” a Department for Education spokesperson said.

“We agree that for too long young people have not had a genuine choice post 16 about where and what they wish to study.

“That is exactly why we have overhauled apprenticeships to focus on quality and why we are fundamentally transforming technical education, investing £500m a year in new T Levels that will provide a high quality, technical alternative to A levels and make sure we can keep up with the world’s best.

“On top of this, we are undertaking a major review of post-18 education and funding, to make sure students are getting value for money and genuine choice between technical, vocational and academic routes.”

The IfA declined to comment.

 

 

IfA extends T-levels consultation deadline AGAIN

The deadline on the latest T-levels consultation has been extended yet again, and the Institute for Apprenticeships will now give the sector until the end of the month to submit views.

The FE community was outraged last month when they were at first given just five working days to respond to the draft content of new pathways in digital (production, design and development), childcare and education, and construction (design, surveying and planning).

The deadline was extended by four working days to appease the sector, but the  new deadline date is June 29.

“To give all stakeholders the opportunity to comment, we are extending the consultation period for the three T-level outline content documents to 29 June 2018. http://ow.ly/Ozjj30kpcsD #TLevels,” the institute tweeted today.

The sector reacted with anger and confusion when FE Week revealed the original consultation deadline would span just five working days.

“An absolute joke… policymaking in technical, vocational, further and adult education one long narrative of disjointed incrementalism…” tweeted Bob Harrison.

Mark Dawe, the chief execuitve of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, branded the deadline “staggering”.

Readers can view the draft content here.

T-levels have been designed to increase the prestige of technical qualifications.

The first three will be rolled out in 2020 – a year later than originally planned – and the remaining subject routes will be rolled out in 2023 – another year later than planned.

There have been worrying signs of slippage in the timetable, and many leaders, including the IfA’s chief executive Sir Gerry Berragan (pictured above), have concerns.

Last month it was revealed that the education secretary Damian Hinds had in an unprecedented step refused a written request from his most senior civil servant to delay the initial roll-out another year until 2021.

Big five awarding giants compete for T-levels

The big guns of the awarding organisation world are drawing the battle lines in the imminent struggle for ownership of the first T-levels.

Despite numerous concerns from across the sector, the government is ploughing ahead with its controversial plan to deploy just one AO per qualification when the first three pathways are launched in 2020.

Leading figures in FE have warned that this procurement phase will be the biggest single test for making sure the first three T-levels are ready in time, and the pressure is on to get it right.

The pathways are: digital (production, design and development), childcare and education, and construction (design, surveying and planning).

FE Week understands that the most hotly contested of the three is digital.

We believe five AO giants – Pearson, City & Guilds, OCR, AQA, and BCS (the chartered institute for IT) – will be in contention for control of the pathway, which relates to the software development technician cluster.

There is already an apprenticeship standard for the cluster at level three, and BCS is its single end-point assessment organisation. Although it is much smaller than the other four, BCS hopes its specialist delivery will give it the edge when procurement kicks off.

City & Guilds is the end-point AO for the software developer standard at level four, and it delivers a level three advanced technical certificate in digital technologies.

Meanwhile, OCR develops computer science qualifications at A-level that include software development – such as the Cambridge technical diploma in IT – while AQA has a level three tech level in IT: programming.

Pearson has a BTEC level three national diploma in computer science, as well as level five qualifications in professional software development.

The tender process got underway in May, and will begin with two “market engagement” events on June 11 and 14, in which bidders will hear what an “exclusive license” will involve.

Successful AOs will be responsible for designing the content of the qualification, upskilling providers, providing learning and teaching materials, updating content and assessing qualifications.

Each of the five AOs were asked which of the pathways they are interested in, but they all kept their cards close to their chest, just confirming they would be taking part in the marketing events.

Rod Bristow, the president of Pearson in the UK, and Chris Jones, the chief executive of City & Guilds, have been more outspoken, and voice their concerns in a box-out below this story.

The Department for Education believes that “instead of competition between different AOs leading to better quality and innovation in their design, it can lead to a race to the bottom in which AOs compete to offer qualifications which are easier to pass and therefore of lower value”.

There will be three individual tenders launched in the autumn – one for each of the 2020 pathways.

They will be awarded a licence period of about five years, which the government believes is “appropriate in order to ensure consistency but prevent the risk of complacency”.

The DfE has a year to complete the whole procurement process, but if the history of ESFA tenders is anything to go by, delays can be expected. Procurements for the AEB and non-levy apprenticeships funding, held last year, were both plagued by interruption, leaving providers fuming.

A troubled launch: “Not in the best interests of the learners”

 

The awarding organisation procurement is the biggest “risk” to ensuring the first three T-levels are rolled out by 2020, the boss of the Association of Colleges has warned.

David Hughes said the proposed timetable is welcomed by colleges who will be “ready and able to deliver”.

However, the risk of delay “lies elsewhere in terms of some of the design of the qualifications and particularly the procurement of the awarding organisations”.

Mr Hughes is not alone in his fears. Two of the biggest AOs in the country believe the process will not be without its speedbumps, particularly because the government has decided to use a single-provider model for each qualification.

“We have raised concerns about plans for awarding organisations bidding for an exclusive licence, which we do not believe to be in the best interests of learners,” said Rod Bristow, president of Pearson in the UK.

“The proposal represents a fundamental shift in the model for delivery which may result in inherent risks and potential unintended, adverse consequences, including a lack of resilience with the significant reliance on the ‘bid winner’, the loss of innovation and expertise, and a lack of choice for providers.”

He was joined in his criticism by City & Guilds chief executive Chris Jones‏ last week, who tweeted: “So despite advice from their own economics advisor over risk of system failure and concerns expressed by the qualifications regulator, @educationgovuk press on with reforms.

“I hope the market engagement helps them see sense and adjust position but I fear it will not.”

Research conducted by Frontier Economics on behalf of the DfE last year concluded that limiting access to a single AO may create a “risk of system failure” both in the short- and long-term.

It warned that if a single AO fails, it may be that no alternative AO can step in.

Ofqual, the body that regulates qualifications in England, has since said it “advised on the risks related to the single-provider model”.

Editor Nick Linford believes that lawyers are the only guarenteed winners from the T-level tender. Read his editorial here.

Army recruits (again): IfA appoints deputy director to oversee T-levels

The Institute for Apprenticeships has appointed yet another military person to its leadership team – and they’ve been given the unenviable task of running T-levels.

Carmel Grant OBE, who had been the head of army reform at the Ministry of Defence since January 2016, has taken on the role of deputy director of technical education at the institute.

This makes her the second appointment with military ties under Sir Gerry Berragan, who is a former adjutant general in the army himself.

In April the IfA announced that Robert Nitsch CBE, the army’s director of personnel for the past three years, with whom Sir Gerry had worked with before, would take on the role of chief operating officer.

As deputy director of technical education, Ms Grant will be responsible for leading T-levels, the new post-16 technical qualifications, when the institute takes control from the Department for Education.

Although and exact transfer date has not yet been agreed, it is understood that it will happen before 2019.

Once they’re under her control, Ms Grant will steer the first three T-levels – in digital (production, design and development), childcare and education, and construction (design, surveying and planning) – to a roll-out in 2020.

This will include ensuring awarding organisations meet a tight deadline for designing the content, and working closely with the chosen 52 training providers who will pilot them.

“You will lead the team that will oversee the transition of the overall policy intent of the reforms as well as some of the operational strands,” the job advert for the role said.

“You will also lead the process of developing content for the new T-level programme through the T-level Panels.”

Ms Grant will report to Mr Nitsch and have direct responsibility for up to 20 staff.

“Leading the process for the development of T-level content through the T-level panels – experts from the relevant occupations and industries – as well as managing the process for approving the content; and overseeing the review of Tlevel content alongside the review of apprenticeships standards,” will be another of her main responsibilities.

Ms Grant, who was named OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2017, is one of several new senior appointees in the IfA’s leadership team.

Peter Schild, a former finance director at HM Revenue & Customs, is becoming its new chief financial officer, and James Matthews, a former strategic development manager at the London Stock Exchange Group and former private secretary to the Cabinet Secretary, is its new chief of staff.

Lucy Rigler has joined as the IfA’s acting deputy director for funding policy.

The team will work under the leadership of Sir Gerry, who was appointed chief executive in November last year, having previously served as a board member since that January.

He revealed in an interview with FE Week in January that he’d been selected without competing directly against any other candidates, and  had been appointed for a two-year period.

His army career included a period as director general personnel from February 2011 to August 2012, before his appointment as adjutant general.

Both roles were based in Andover, as were Mr Nitsch’s roles at the time.

Ofsted watch: Success for employer-provider but college falls two grades from ‘outstanding’

An employer-provider has boosted its grade to ‘good’ in a mixed week for the FE sector, as Highbury College dramatically dropped two ratings from ‘outstanding’.

Be Wiser Insurance Services was rated grade two across the board, up from its previous ‘requires improvement’ rating.

The main reason for its achievement was put down to a reduction in the scale of its apprenticeship provision since the last inspection – from 475 to just 31.

All current learners are on apprenticeships in financial services.

“Leaders have taken prompt and decisive action to improve the quality of apprenticeships and have successfully addressed the areas identified as requiring improvement at the previous inspection and through their self-assessment,” Ofsted said.

“Potential apprentices start as full-time employees and benefit from excellent information, advice and guidance during a five-week ‘take the first steps towards a career’ period, before they make the decision to enrol on the apprenticeship programmes.”

Inspectors added that during their off-the-job training, apprentices benefit from “good-quality teaching and learning supported by high-quality training resources”.

Continuing with the ‘good’ news, two adult and community learning providers retained their grade two ratings following short inspections this week.

These were achieved by Durham County Council and Medway Council.

Meanwhile, one private training provider based in Stockton-On-Tees – KT Associates – was found to be making “reasonable progress” in its first monitoring visit since its ‘inadequate’ rating in December.

Safeguarding at the small loans-only provider, which had 220 learners at the time of inspection in December, was the main focus of the monitoring visit after it was previously found to be “not effective”.

However, Ofsted inspectors found that “following the previous inspection, leaders swiftly revised their policies and procedures relating to safeguarding and these are now compliant with the most recent legislation”.

All current policies are now “fit for purpose”.

Leaders “quickly held a series of workshops” for staff and learners around “conflict resolution, staying safe at work, broader safeguarding issues and the ‘Prevent’ duty”.

Onto the not so good news: Highbury College dropped two grades from ‘outstanding’ in an Ofsted report that branded its teaching “uninspiring” and raised concern over low attendance.

It was deemed to be grade one when the watchdog last inspected in 2011.

“Leaders and governors have been slow to reverse the college’s decline in performance,” the new report warned.

Leaders’ and managers’ “evaluation of the quality of provision, particularly teaching, learning and assessment” is “overoptimistic”, though governors were recognised for having a “good oversight” of most areas of the college.

Inspectors warned that “overall performance has declined and they have not been effective in challenging and supporting senior leaders to stem this decline”.

“Too much teaching is uninspiring and attendance at most lessons is low.”

The verdict was a serious blow to a heavily criticised leadership team led by Stella Mbubaegbu, who insisted that the college has “already embarked on our journey back to ‘outstanding’”.

Lastly, one independent learning provider also achieved an overall ‘requires improvement’ rating.

Eurosource Solutions Limited, based in Staffordshire, was given the grade three in its first ever inspection.

It has 141 adult learners enrolled on certificate and diploma courses in health and social care, early years and supporting teaching and learning.

“Leaders have not implemented quickly enough the actions needed to improve the quality of adult learning programmes,” inspectors said.

They also criticised the provider for not having a governing body, which means leaders are “not challenged or held to account for improving the quality of adult learning programmes”.

“Training advisers set imprecise and vague targets with learners,” Ofsted found. “As a result, too many learners do not make the progress expected of them.”

 

GFE Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Highbury College 23/04/2018 07/06/3028 3 1

 

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Eurosource Solutions Limited 01/05/2018 08/06/2018 3 0
KT Associates 01/05/2018 07/06/2018 M M

 

Employer providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Be Wiser Insurance Services 15/05/2018 06/06/2018 2 3

 

Short inspections (remains grade 2) Inspected Published
Durham County Council 01/05/2018 08/06/2018
Medway Council 02/05/2018 08/06/2018

UCU college strike action continues to win concessions

The University and College Union is continuing to win concessions in the current round of college strikes, as it gears up for an autumn of discontent on pay.

Bosses at Capital City College Group reached a deal with staff to end a long-running pay dispute, just days after UCU members voted unanimously to escalate action nationwide if the Association of Colleges failed to meet 2018/19 pay claim demands.

Meanwhile, a strike at Havering College in east London went ahead as planned on June 7 and 8, the last concerning this year’s pay claim.

A spokesperson for the college said exams had been held as scheduled “with the support and hard work of both academic and business support staff”.

Strikes at the three colleges that make up the Capital City College Group – City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College and the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London – were called off on June 5.

Bosses offered staff a “modest, non-consolidated payment” and more secure contracts.

A payment of £500 per full-time member of staff came in addition to the one-per-cent increase recommended by the AoC last September.

CCCG’s group chief executive Andy Wilson said in a tweet that it was “good to reward colleagues for contribution to merger and long-standing substantive hourly-paid more secure contracts”.

Andrew Harden, UCU’s head of FE, said that the group has also committed to further pay talks when Mr Wilson leaves and a new chief executive is in post come the next academic year.

Members have “made it clear” they will ballot for strike action again if the “promised negotiations over a new local pay bargaining framework does not result in a meaningful pay award for 2018/19”.

There are now no further strikes over this year’s pay settlement planned at any college before the summer recess.

At the union’s Congress in Manchester on May 31, members voted unanimously to support a motion asking the AoC to “make an early offer that meets members’ expectations”.

They also threatened to “ballot members nationally for escalating strike action” if its demands weren’t met.

The joint FE unions, which include Unison, Unite, GMB and the National Education Union as well as UCU, have submitted a claim for a five-per-cent raise or £1,500, whichever is higher.

The AoC had refused to come to the table over next year’s claim while disputes over this year’s are ongoing, but soon backed down.

A third wave of action at 10 colleges or campuses over the one-per-cent offer the AoC made for 2017/18 was announced early in May.

Four have now reached agreements, with Sandwell College agreeing a “sector-leading” deal worth more than six per cent over three years.

A strike over job cuts at Bradford College was called off at the last minute, after it agreed to reopen its voluntary redundancy scheme.

Elsewhere, staff at Hull College are planning a seven-day walk out later this month over plans to slash jobs. They will strike for an initial five days from June 18, and then again on June 26 and 27.

The college announced in March it would have to cut the equivalent of 231 full-time posts in a bid to balance the books.

Staff have already staged a three-day walkout over the proposals, which the union says would result in a third of the workforce being cut.

UCU’s regional official Julie Kelley said the latest action is necessary as “the college is not responding to our concerns about the impact these cuts would have for staff, students and the local community”.

A college spokesperson said it would do “everything possible” to avoid disruptions to exams while the strike is on.

“It is disappointing and unclear why this decision has been taken, following recent positive meetings outlining the successful reduction of proposed compulsory redundancies,” they claimed.

 

Council accused of SEND transport discrimination

A local authority has been accused of breaking government guidelines on college transport charges, and parents of children with special educational needs or disabilities are worried about discrimination.

St Helens council provoked an angry response from local families, after it announced that 16- to 19-year-old SEND learners will have to pay over £1,700 every year for transport to their colleges or the special-needs sixth-form where many will study from September.

Natspec, which represents specialist further education providers, believes this contravenes a requirement on local authorities to ensure special-needs learners have reasonable choice over where they study.

“The DfE post-16 transport guidance is clear that LA policies must act reasonably and take into account the needs of different groups, particularly young people with SEND,” said its chief executive Clare Howard.

“While we accept budgets are stretched and councils may not be able to provide free transport, elements of the St Helens policy do not appear to follow the guidance, in particular the requirement to give young people reasonable choice of education provision.”

The DfE’s post-16 transport to education and training guidance calls on local authorities to “ensure” young people have “reasonable opportunities” to choose the most suitable education establishment, taking into account SEND requirements.

An investigation last year by FE Week found that two thirds of councils now charge post-16 SEND learners for transport. It is feared this is deterring many from travelling longer distances to attend courses that would better suited to their needs.

The annual charge by St Helens – a metropolitan borough council – is £300 higher than the costliest county council, Hertfordshire, and is among the highest charges in the country.

Liz Maudsley, a senior policy manager at the Association of Colleges, is unhappy at the figures involved.

“We are very concerned to see the exceptionally high travel costs for SEND learners being charged by some. In our view, this contravenes DfE guidance that SEN learners should have a choice in where they study,” she said.

“We will continue to raise this issue with DfE.”

Chris Valentine-Smith has a 16-year-old son Ethan with Down’s Syndrome and autism. He is supposed to be transferring from September to Mill Green Special Needs Sixth-Form College in St Helens.

“I can understand that the council needs to make a charge, but the amount they’re asking is totally unreasonable. There is no way we can afford to pay, so it’s going to jeopardise his future education. It really feels like SEN learners are being heavily discriminated against,” she said.

“Most neighbouring authorities charge nothing, including Wigan council, which has a far more humane approach. It seems like there’s a postcode lottery going on.”

Wigan council does not charge and FE Week understands it is currently funding transport for a post-16 SEND learner to attend Mill Green.

A letter sent to the council by parents of St Helens SEND learners, including Mr Valentine-Smith, claims they are being discriminated against.

It said the £1,700 charge they face “compares to public transport charges for a non-SEN student of approximately £250 for a bus pass for a year”.

“So a SEN student is being asked to pay approximately £1,450 more than a non-SEN student directly as a result of their disability in these cases.”

“Many students and families will not pay the full charge, as there is a 75-per-cent discount for families entitled to free school meals, who are in receipt of universal credit / income support, or the highest level of working tax credit,” a St Helens spokesperson said.

“The public consultation noted that the average cost of a place on authority provided post-16 transport is over £5,100 per student. As such, even following the introduction of charges, the authority will continue to provide a significant subsidy (on average £3,400 per place) towards the overall cost.”

The DfE has been approached for comment.