Previous Job: Director HR, Governance and Regulatory, West Suffolk Council
Interesting fact: Jennifer began her career as a police officer. Having spent the past 20 years commuting back and forth across the Norfolk-Suffolk border, she is now looking forward to living and working in the same county
Sharron Mansell
Vice Principal (Quality of Education & Skills), Bishop Burton College
Start date: August 2024
Previous Job: Director of Land-based, Bishop Burton College
Interesting fact: Sharron is an author and has written educational books to support new teachers with teaching, learning, assessment and quality improvement. Each book contains 50 approaches to support teachers to be inclusive.
Ian Walsh
Non-Executive Chairperson, The Sutton Trust
Start date: November 2024
Concurrent Job: Managing Director and Senior Partner, The Boston Consulting Group
Interesting fact: Ian was a student activist in his university days, as President of UCD Students’ Union in Ireland, as a Finalist in the World University Debating Championships, and as a student actor whose enthusiasm out-performed his talent.
One in four specialist colleges will be snared by Labour’s VAT rules for private education due to changes to the legal definition of a private school.
A technical note published alongside last week’s Budget confirmed the definition change. And while affected colleges can reclaim the extra costs paid out, leaders warned they face cashflow problems and unnecessary bureaucracy.
Unlike FE colleges, specialist colleges do not enjoy a legal status of their own. Most are a mix of charities and private companies.
It means around 33 specialist colleges in England have until January 1 to register to add 20 per cent to the fees they charge local authorities, while another 28 are unsure whether the tax reforms apply to them.
Local authorities pay the college fees and VAT, then reclaim the VAT from HMRC.
The government’s policy to remove a VAT exemption on private school fees is strongly opposed by the Conservative Party and private school sector, but Labour says it is needed to raise up to £1.7 billion a year for public services.
Some stuck in limbo
Specialist colleges were braced for the possibility they would pay VAT.
Draft legislation published in the summer outlined an amendment to the legal definition of a private school to include institutions where most 16 to 19 year olds are funded through fees, such as local-authority funded students with an education, health and care plan.
According to this year’s high-needs place numbers, 33 colleges will be liable for charging 20 per cent VAT, while 94 Education and Skills Funding Agency-financed colleges are unaffected.
But Clare Howard, chief executive of Natspec, the representative body for specialist colleges, said 28 colleges are stuck in limbo as their 16-19 numbers fluctuate between 40 per cent and 60 per cent year-on-year. Neither the Treasury nor HMRC have provided clarification.
However, colleges affected by the policy change will also be able to reclaim input VAT, the tax paid by a business on its purchases.
Claire Quick, Deaf Academy director of finance and resources, said it was “positive” the charity was now in scope and could recover some of the VAT on its costs.
She added: “This is particularly welcome when we are facing significant increases in employer’s national insurance.”
But she revealed the VAT reform meant added complexity as the college would have to split costs between student age groups to calculate how much VAT could be recouped.
Quick said: “Each provider will be spending time to digest the changes and spending additional costs on VAT consultant fees to support with the changes and calculations.”
Going round in circles
Last week’s announcement that non-maintained special schools would also have to pay VAT came as a surprise to some – including head of Treloar College Ben Bastin.
Treloar has 178 physically disabled students from across the country who attend its college and non-maintained special school.
Bastin said staff received fees from more than 50 local authorities and any delays caused by the VAT reforms risked causing cashflow pressures.
He added: “We will be invoicing local authorities for that additional VAT, but then we likely need to be paying that VAT before those invoices have been paid. There’s no benefit to anyone.”
Howard had said previously: “The government will effectively be taxing itself and the money will go round in circles, likely causing headaches, confusion and an extra administrative burden along the way.”
Lynette Barrett, chief executive of National Star which provides education for people with disabilities, said: “Combined with the fact that some specialist colleges will have to charge local authorities VAT, these measures will cause extreme cashflow difficulties at local authority level and for providers.”
Quick’s main concern was whether local authorities would understand the change.
She said: “Cashflow and prompt payment of invoices at the start of each term is crucial for our charity. I have concerns that local authorities will reject invoices with VAT added.”
Howard added: “We are concerned that the administrative demands of implementing VAT on fees could significantly impact specialist colleges, and we will collaborate with the government to find ways to reduce this burden.”
A coroner has raised concerns about poor communication between a college and mental health services after an excluded student with ADHD killed himself.
Henry Grierson was 17 when he died a few days after he was permanently excluded by Huddersfield New College in April.
The inquest, which concluded late last month, found Henry’s death was contributed to by failings of communication between the college, local authority Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and drugs and alcohol support charity Recovery Steps when he withdrew himself from treatment.
In a prevention of future deaths report, published on Tuesday, assistant coroner Angela Brocklehurst concluded: “It is a matter of concern that communication between the college and CAMHS and Recovery Steps was not seemingly maintained to enable an awareness by the college of the current mental health of Mr Grierson and the decisions taken by himself and his family, to remove such external support.”
Henry’s mother Ruth Grierson claimed Huddersfield New College had made “woefully inadequate adjustments” since his death and lambasted leaders for a lack of “reassurance and guidance” and zero communication after he was initially suspended over a fight with another student.
The college has now called for clearer guidance on when education providers should be updated by mental health services on students’ treatment.
A Huddersfield New College spokesperson said: “We would welcome anything that would support enhanced communication between organisations such as CAMHS and schools and colleges and think that this is a conversation that needs to be had at a much higher level.
“Having clearer guidance about what triggers communications from such organisations would be very valuable clarity for the whole sector.”
Henry, who was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder aged 10, discharged himself from CAMHS last November with parental approval.
His family said he began to self-medicate as his prescribed medication caused “intolerable” side effects. A week before he died Henry also left Recovery Steps.
The inquest heard the safeguarding team at Huddersfield New College was unaware of Henry’s current mental health or that he had withdrawn from CAMHS. The most up-to-date communication they received from mental health services was in October 2023.
Shortly before his death the college had permanently excluded Henry over a violent incident with another student.
It told Henry of his exclusion in an email, which his mother Ruth said meant he received the “devastating news without the reassurance and guidance he needed at such a vulnerable time”.
The college has since apologised for how the news was delivered. A spokesperson said the college had reviewed how difficult news was shared with students but stood by the decision to exclude him.
They said: “We have strengthened our process to work with families to understand how we can share information with a student after an exclusion decision has been made. This includes understanding how we share information about topics such as the appeals process.”
Ruth Grierson, who told FE Week the college treated her son’s needs as “problems”, said: “Such minimal changes fail to address the core issues and seem unlikely to prevent similar situations in the future.
“We feel that Henry was let down by systems that didn’t fully understand or support him.
“Exclusion should have been a last resort; what Henry really needed was understanding and proactive support to help him thrive. Colleges need to do better with their understanding of neurodivergent vulnerable students.”
A fear of funding clawbacks is putting providers off accessing government support for apprentices with additional learning needs – raising the risk of a student giving up and saddling trainers with extra costs.
All education and training providers have a duty under the 2010 Equality Act to make reasonable adjustments for those with learning difficulties so they are not placed at a “substantial disadvantage”.
But experts blame complex funding rules and “constant fear” of clawbacks that means in four out of five cases providers avoid applying for help.
The main source of funding, the additional learning support (ALS) fund, is a fixed £150 per month intended to pay training providers for adjustments such as additional assessor visits and specialist equipment.
Government spend on support funding for apprenticeships rose from £32 million to £33 million from 2020-21 to 2021-22. But the spend from 2022-23 onwards does not appear in Education and Skills Funding Agency accounts after accountability for apprenticeships was transferred to the Department for Education.
Funding rule changes in August were intended to make the process of claiming ALS cash easier and provide new functional skills flexibilities for apprentices with SEND. But these tweaks may not have gone far enough.
Tim Chewter, Strategic Development Network’s director of business development, says providers “often lack confidence” in claiming support.
“The government has placed a greater emphasis on widening access to apprenticeships, and yet apprentices with additional learning support needs are more likely to drop out before completion,” he adds.
Unidentified learning difficulties
ALS was made harder to access in 2021 when the Tory government insisted providers perform a further assessment to claim the funding.
James Earl of FE TEch
But learning needs are not always identified. The share of apprenticeships starting with an “unknown” number of learners with learning difficulties and disabilities rose year on year from 2020-21 to the first three quarters of 2023-24, from 3 to 3.64 per cent.
Meanwhile, the percentage of apprentices with confirmed learning difficulties and disabilities rose from 11.8 to 15.6 per cent.
The true proportion is believed to be higher.
Government research suggests around 20 per cent of people aged 16-64 have a disability or learning difficulty, so around 5 per cent of those doing apprenticeships could have unidentified needs.
Technology resource FE Tech found around 35 per cent of all screened learners qualify for additional learning support. “Without the power of learning technology, we would never have identified them all,” says its chief executive, James Earl.
Recent government rule tightening means from August a learning support assessment must now be included within initial assessments, with funding at risk if this is not evidenced.
Easier to drop out
Chris Quickfall, chief executive of Cognissant
Chris Quickfall, chief executive of Cognassist, a digital platform which assesses learning needs, considers it a “disgrace” that whereas university students would almost inevitably get adjustments to support their learning needs, the same has not been true for apprentices.
Only half of apprentices with learning difficulties or disabilities (and the same proportion with ‘unknown’ difficulties) achieved their apprenticeship in 2022-23, compared to 55 per cent of those without identified needs.
Caroline Fillery, managing director of Support Connect, which helps apprentices with learning difficulties access support, believes the lack of help for those with learning needs is driving low completion rates. “It just creates mass anxiety, and the easiest option is to drop out,” she says.
Clawback concerns
To access ALS funding, providers must show evidence that reasonable adjustments resulted in a monetary cost, which is not always easy to prove.
Several large cases of funding clawbacks by the Education and Skills Funding Agency have spooked some providers from applying for it.
Caroline Fillery of Support Connect
Lifetime Training must repay at least £5 million, contributing to its after-tax losses climbing from £9.2 million to £21.1 million in the 18 months to July 2023. Lifetime’s chief executive David Smith says rules around what evidence is required are “not as obvious” as they should be, particularly when drawing from more than one fund.
“That is clearly leading to challenges within the market because I’m aware that some people don’t claim at all,” he says.
Activate Learning’s lead apprenticeship coach Suzanne Read wrote for the Education Training Foundation last year saying the group, which runs five colleges, had to repay £350,000 to the ESFA in 2022-23 for ALS support.
And although Activate had a “high number” of performance coaches providing ALS support “at a high level”, since then it has “not been claiming the available ALS funding to support us in this delivery”. That support was worth £450,000 a year.
A survey of the group’s apprenticeships team found “not only are we not claiming the funding to which we are entitled, but that overall, we are not confident the support we are giving to our learners with ALS needs is sufficient or consistent.”
The auditor RSM’s risk assurance directorLisa Smith says one of the most common clawback risks is that initial assessments do not “clearly demonstrate” the support need is linked to whether the learner can achieve their learning goal.
This is “generally” where needs are “related to mental health concerns”, and the reasons for it have “not been clearly articulated”.
Simon Ashworth, deputy chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), says: “Lots of providers have had audit issues around the interpretation of how ALS is applied [which has] always been a bit of a grey area.”
Instead, many providers offer additional learning support “for free”.
Quickfall says although providers’ quality teams are normally keen to access ALS funding to improve retention and attainment, “quite often their finance team have heard about clawbacks and effectively kibosh that”.
He believes part of the problem is the DfE’s “loose” rules around the issue were “interpreted very differently by some auditors”.
Support Connect chief executive Matthew Heathman claims it is “101 per cent compliant” with the rules, and all clients “pass their audits with clean bills of health”, but adds: “We’re still constantly having to persuade providers who have such a constant fear.”
Travel agent Hays Travel has done assessments through Cognassist for a year but is still yet to claim ALS funding. Instead, it has been “focusing efforts on upskilling our learning and development coaches and making sure we’ve got all the robust evidence in place first”, says apprenticeship delivery manager Natasha Heslop.
David Smith of Lifetime Training
Too busy to log evidence
Askham Bryan College, a specialist land-based college in York, only claims ALS for a handful of its 300 apprentices.
Its apprenticeship administration co-ordinator Julie Wilson admits there is “potential to put more on it” but staff have “shied away” from applying because “they’re busy teaching, and weren’t prepared to keep up with compiling the evidence regularly”.
Head of apprenticeships Ritchie Bywater says the college provides the extra support needed for at least 20 apprentices.
“We’re going above and beyond. We’re just not transferring that support into claims because of difficulties in gathering and recording the evidence.”
He attributes this partly to the fact his college only employs support staff in term time, resulting in a challenge in finding people who understand complexities of the apprenticeship system.
“It then falls on course managers [to evidence claims] and alongside the standards, enrolments and the end-point assessment, the recording of evidence falls down the priority list.”
He says the required evidence can be “hard to quantify” – for example, while a Teams call can be recorded and saved, a phone call has to later be “typed up” while support provided during a class has to be written up with “the impact that it’s had, and showing what is different for that learner compared to other learners”.
David Lockhart-Hawkins, a specialist on ALS for the Strategic Development Network, says the “barrier” to claiming funding for providers is “often a lack of confidence in their systems to generate evidence” but believes that evidence “should naturally follow” when a “really good support plan” is put in place.
Relaxing the rules
The government has not revealed how many apprentices with identified learning needs are being funded through ALS. But in recognition of prevailing challenges, this summer it reduced the frequency of the required learning support reviews from monthly to at least every three months.
Matthew Heathman of Support Connect
It also clarified that the further, detailed learning support assessment can take place at any time during the apprenticeship rather than just at the start, which Ashworth says helps when an apprentice’s needs are spotted after they’ve started their course.
Meanwhile, Association of Colleges senior policy manager Claire Barker says that some colleges may have to procure more specialised and detailed assessments externally, which comes at a cost that cannot be claimed back through ALS
The government is also now allowing apprentices with learning difficulties to work towards lower-level functional skills.
Whereas previously only those with a pre-existing education health and care plan (EHCP) or statement of learning difficulties assessment (LDA) could work towards a lower level of functional skills in English and maths at entry level three, now that flexibility is extended to anyone assessed as having a learning difficulty.
Quickfall believes this has “really big” consequences, as functional skills are a “key reason why apprentices don’t end up completing their course”.
That’s especially true since 2019, when functional skills were reformed in ways that many providers say made them harder. The achievement rate dropped between 2020-21 and 2022-23 for apprentices with learning difficulties and disabilities from 55 to 51 per cent.
Other funding sources
For monthly costs exceeding £150 there are two other funding streams: excess learning support, for when reasonable adjustments cost less than £19,000 a year (claimed through the earnings adjustment statement), and exceptional learning support for costs over that amount.
Barker says colleges are “reviewing what funding is available as there are now more apprentices that need more support”. There is some hesitancy, however, due to past audit concerns.
Support Connect was founded in 2000 by Fillery and Heathman to help providers tap into that funding, with the pair having previously specialised in helping university students access the disabled student allowance.
Fillery estimates that when they started, less than one per cent of providers were accessing government funding to support apprentices with learning needs; now, she believes around 20 per cent of providers claim what they’re entitled to.
“Heathman is critical of providers “trying to keep” support costs under the £150 monthly cap to target ALS funding when many apprentices with learning difficulties “naturally need” over that amount, often requiring around £4,000 a year of support”
“Everyone’s trying to squeeze it into that little block and wonder why it’s not working. It’s because it’s not enough money,” he says.
Aptem’s chief executive Richard Alberg
Needs are growing
Although government funding is underutilised, the support needs of apprentices appear to be growing along with increased awareness of neurodiversity. Cognassist’s research found the proportion of people who think they have a neuro-difference was less than 10 per cent of those aged between 50 and 55, but up to 40 per cent for those aged 20 to 25.
Aptem’s analysis of government data found that dyslexia was the most common need for apprentices, growing by one-sixth to 5.3 per cent from 2020-21 to 2022-23. Mental health difficulties only rose from 1.5 to 1.8 per cent in that time.
There was variation across apprenticeship standards with the highest levels of learning difficulty being for apprentices on early years practitioner and hairdressing professional standards (both 25 per cent).
Employer engagement
Quickfall is optimistic that learning support for apprentices is improving. He sees “a lot of employers”, particularly large public companies, now putting neurodiversity components into tender packs for training programmes. The training provider then has to ensure their employees are not discriminated against during their training.
But while creative and media companies are keen to embrace equality and diversity requirements, retail employers still “tend not to”.
And individual departments within a corporate entity may vary; a head office may “live and breathe” equality and diversity culture but not their warehousing team.
Hays Travel is keen to support all its apprentices with learning needs. Of just under 400 apprentices who started with the firm this summer, one in eight had a declared learning difficulty when they signed up. But after Cognassist assessments, another 100 (25 per cent) required a further needs assessment.
Heslop says often the assessments pick up learning needs the apprentice already suspected they had.
Apprentices are then “encouraged” to complete a module a month on Cognassist as part of a support plan drawn up with their learning and development coach.
But while some apprentices are “happy” to accept the “extra layer of support, others don’t want it”.
All three of Eton College’s proposed flagship “elite” sixth forms, run in partnership with Star Academies to “level up” left behind areas, are being reviewed by the new Labour government.
The government has so far refused to confirm which projects are affected.
The three sixth forms, proposed by a partnership between the £52,000-a-year Eton and multi-academy trust Star Academies, were given the green light last summer.
The “high-quality, academic-focused” 16 to 19 free schools were due to open in education investment areas (EIAs) as part of the former government’s levelling up white paper.
An Eton Star partnership spokesperson said the “review does not come as a huge surprise given the current fiscal situation, and we intend to fully engage with this process”.
It remained “completely committed” to the plans, which would “transform the lives of very many young people across the country”.
DfE to speak to affected trusts and councils
Department for Education officials will speak to affected academy trusts and councils as part of the review.
Assessments will be based on whether the proposed schools meet a need for places in the area, if they have “any impact on existing local providers”, and whether the schools would provide a “distinctive curriculum”.
Arooj Shah
Arooj Shah, the leader of Oldham council, said the plans would make a difference “to the lives of children and young people in Oldham and we’ll continue to make this case to the government”.
A Middlesborough Council spokesperson said its officers were continuing to meet with the DfE and Eton Star. Dudley Council did not comment.
Labour councillor Philippa Storey, Middlesborough’s education lead, said another sixth form “where we don’t necessarily need one” would drain existing services.
But Conservative councillor Mieka Smiles told Teesside Live she was “absolutely dismayed” by the pause, adding: “This pathetic decision by the education secretary is just another example of her war on aspiration.”
The review into Eton’s proposed schools comes as Labour refuses to back down over plans to introduce VAT on private school fees from January.
The proportion of non-white college principals has almost halved to 5 per cent this year, data suggests.
It means just 10 of the Association of Colleges’ 218 member colleges are from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background.
The membership body found the proportion of BAME chief executives and principals was down from 9 per cent in 2023-24.
AoC admitted the decline was “obviously disappointing” and chalked it down to colleagues leaving the sector.
Equality, diversity and inclusion experts said the fall could be due to non-white staff having poorer access to continued professional development (CPD) and “sketchy” data collection at a college level on BAME progression and participation.
The AoC has been collecting data on principals since 2018-19 when it recorded 7 per cent of principals were non-white at 257 colleges, rising to a high of 11 per cent from 244 colleges in 2019-20.
A partnership agreement between the AoC and Black Leadership Group was signed in 2022 which committed the organisations to “work to see a rise in the appointment of principals/CEOs and other senior leaders in closer correlation to the student profile”. Yet the proportion continues to fall.
Lack of ethnic diversity among top bosses is not unique to colleges.
In the higher education sector the number of non-white vice-chancellors also remains low. There are currently six non-white vice-chancellors at 165 UK universities.
Numbers of black, Asian or minority ethnic leaders of academy trusts is even lower – the proportion rose from two (1.7 per cent) in 2021 to four (2.3 per cent) in 2024.
Palvinder Singh, principal at Kirklees College, said taking up senior leadership positions isn’t “massively appealing” to everyone.
He said: “You can’t merge into the wallpaper, your name stands out.
“That is what a lot of our black principals have had to experience. The way that the system has treated them has just spat them out. And therefore, that has created an environment which makes people feel, why should I put myself forward?”
Jeff Greenidge, director for diversity and governance at the AoC, said: “It is obviously disappointing to see that the number of principals from black and ethnic minority groups has decreased over time as colleagues have left the sector.”
Data collection
Department for Education guidance states that FE colleges should publish an annual equality, diversity and inclusion review, including data on protected characteristics at the board, executive leadership, staff and student level.
However, Arvind Kaushal, equality, diversity and inclusion manager at Milton Keynes College Group, said not every college reports as they’ve been asked to.
“I think the data is quite sketchy,” he said. “The challenge is not all colleges collect data in the same robust way.”
Kaushal added that poor data means it’s difficult to see whether low numbers are a “symptom” of a lack of progression within the college or because people from minority backgrounds are not being attracted to a college.
He said: “There is a challenge, and the challenge seems to be greater now than it was three or four years ago. The numbers are still not great.”
Training opportunities
The AoC launched an equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) charter in April and 77 colleges have so far committed to “taking action on inequalities and build an environment of belonging”.
Greenidge said: “We take representation seriously and we are investing significant time and resource into supporting colleges to address inequalities and create an inclusive, open and diverse culture right across the sector that ensures that staff and students from underrepresented communities thrive in FE.”
To support middle and senior managers to embrace EDI, the AoC runs the inclusive leadership programme and coaching, commissioned by the Education and Training Foundation.
The ETF said it reserves 50 per cent of places for people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds for coaching. In 2023-24, 58 per cent of participants identified as black, Asian and minority ethnic.
For its Preparing for CEO programme delivered by Saïd Business School, just 38 per cent of the free places were taken up. The remainder of free places were occupied by people with other protected characteristics.
Kaushal said colleges must fund staff in frontline roles to give them the opportunity to develop.
He added: “Colleges are not able to release people as much as they’d want to because they’re in high-demand roles on the ground.”
Singh revealed his breakthrough into senior leadership came after white college leaders pushed him forward.
“You need CPD, the opportunity and the right people supporting, championing and recognising that some people do need a leg up,” he said.
“From my own lived experience, from people that I have spoken to, there is a very clear confidence issue, not a competence issue.”
Overall effectiveness grades will be ditched from FE and skills inspections in September, one year after the “low information, high stakes” Ofsted judgments were axed for schools.
A senior inspector told the Association of Employment and Learning Providers autumn conference this week the watchdog needed the extra time because “FE is a little more complicated”.
Paul Joyce, Ofsted’s deputy director for FE and skills, told delegates: “We are part of the accountability system, so our actions need to take account of the whole system.
“You will know, contract management and all sorts of other decisions DfE make are based on that grade. So we can’t lose the grade overnight. Our intention is it will go from September 2025.”
“[An inspection] matters to you, particularly to providers in this room, because it may well be your business and your livelihood, and the consequences of a poor inspection might be very, very significant,” Joyce said. “There isn’t an inspector that doesn’t know that.”
Joyce also alluded to a consultation in the new year taking forward Ofsted’s Big Listen reform proposals, such as new tailored inspection frameworks and report cards.
Longer notice periods for inspections could be part of those reforms, he hinted.
The deputy director said: “You wanted longer notice periods for providers, and we’ve listened. We’ve heard that, and we’ll respond in due course.”
The Big Listen was launched in March and sought feedback on inspection reform following the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
Joyce confirmed that Ofsted will be commencing a formal consultation with the sector early next year to examine its proposals “properly”.
A college group said its recovery plan will ensure an “even brighter future” despite it facing a £1.4 million funding clawback and the refinancing of a £4.7 million loan.
Warwickshire College Group (WCG) this week published its annual accounts 10 months late due to an audit by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).
Its financial statements reveal WCG is in “dispute” with the agency over a “significant clawback” of up to £1.4 million for 2022-23, with a risk of further clawbacks from claims made in earlier years.
It comes a month after the FE Commissioner placed WCG in financial intervention due to “serious cashflow problems”.
But the college remains optimistic about its “positive future”, thanks to a “strong recovery plan” and new leadership team led by chief executive officer and principal Sara-Jane Watkins.
Debt prompts intervention
Pressures that led to an ‘inadequate’ financial health rating for 2022-23 included a deficit of £1.3 million on an income of £51 million, an outstanding loan of £4.7 million from Lloyds Bank and the ESFA clawback.
The ESFA clawback means the college group has also breached the terms of its loan, which must be refinanced by the Department for Education ahead of its 2027 final repayment date.
Reason for clawback kept secret
The ESFA commissioned auditors from Mazars to investigate the college’s funding claims last year, with a final report issued in May.
FE Week understands £1.1 million of the £1.4 million clawback relates to apprenticeship provision but the college did not respond when asked for details.
An ESFA spokesperson confirmed it had no plans to publish the auditor’s findings as the probe was not classed as a formal investigation.
They declined to comment on WCG’s case as it relates to an individual college.
Proud of progress
Watkins said: “We are proud of the significant progress made in reducing our debt over the years, allowing us to continually invest in first-class facilities.
“Our recent student recruitment success and our exciting new initiatives demonstrate our commitment to evolving and meeting the needs of young people and the communities we serve.
“We are excited to continue working with the DfE on our financial recovery plan and look forward to an even brighter future.”
The college group is responsible for about 13,000 students, including more than 2,000 apprentices, and has 1,300 staff across six colleges in Warwickshire and Worcestershire.
It’s made up of Evesham New College, Warwick Trident College, Rugby College, Royal Leamington Spa College, Moreton Morrell College and Pershore College.
Selling assets
To reduce its liabilities WCG has sold sites since its commercial debt peaked at about £23 million in 2014.
These include its old Rugby College site for £7.6 million, the controversial sale of its Henley-in-Arden site to Wasps Rugby for £6.5 million, and the sale and leaseback of accommodation blocks in Leamington for £5.2 million.
WCG also hopes to make a further £8 million from future sales, including the former Malvern Hills College building which it won permission to sell following a court battle with Malvern Hills District Council.
According to the college group, a specialist education provider is planning to take over the site “which will ensure it continues to serve the community with valuable training and educational resources”.
For the past two academic years underspends hit £80 million and £43 million respectively.
Of an overall budget of £2.6 billion between 2020 and 2024, the underspend totalled £292 million.
Alex Ford, chief executive of CT Skills, one of 55 independent training providers that won a procured AEB contract in the government’s latest tender, said underspends were fuelled by learner behaviour and demand that had “changed dramatically” since the pandemic.
He added: “Employment levels surged and learners increasingly wanted to work and learn more flexibly.
“Colleges and training providers have had to adapt delivery models to meet the demand for more flexible, modularised learning which draws down less funding than long, intensive programmes in classrooms.”
The Department for Education declined to comment on reasons behind the underspend or reveal where the funding ended up going. FE Week understands underspends are usually returned to the Treasury.
A longstanding problem
Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive at the Association of Colleges, said “complexity and underfunding” of adult education budgets had been a longstanding problem that contributed to underspends in the 2010s.
Covid-related closures resulted in a shift to online learning, but also led to significant underspends in 2019-20 and 2020-21, he added.
No figures were released that broke down the underspend by colleges and independent training providers (ITPs).
In 2023-24 ITPs accounted for only £75 million of the adult skills fund, which was allocated to 55 providers across non-devolved areas of England. The rest is grant funded to colleges.
Complete figures are not available for devolved authorities such as the Greater London Authority or the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which have controlled their portion of the budget since 2019.
‘Hugely disappointed’
Brenda McLeish, chief executive officer of Learning Curve Group which is taking the DfE to court over rejected bids for the 2023-24 adult education budget contract, said she was “hugely disappointed” to see the “massive” underspend.
She told FE Week: “Trusted providers delivering outstanding provision have lost out to providers who aren’t delivering.”
McLeish added she was “puzzled” by the DfE’s decision to recontract procured allocations for a second year recently “at the same quantum with the same contractors that under-delivered in previous years”.
She said colleges had “historically struggled to spend their full allocation and worked with strategic partners through subcontracting to utilise this” but the government’s 25 per cent cap on subcontracting had “restricted this and exacerbated the underspend situation”.
Skills consultant Aidan Relf said: “I’ve always struggled to come to terms with the sector complaining about the halving of the adult budget over the last 14 years when it regularly hasn’t been able to spend what it has been allocated, and that goes for the devolved budgets as well.
“My understanding is that the Treasury struggles with it too.
“The way future funding is allocated across England requires fundamental reform and this includes a return for individual learning accounts as the Blunkett skills commission advocated two years ago.”
