A rapidly-expanding adult learning provider has been lauded by Ofsted, while one apprenticeship newcomer was censored for making ‘insufficient progress’ in all areas.

Best Practice Training & Development Limited made ‘significant progress’ in every area of its early monitoring visit.

After earning a funded adult learning contract in October 2017, 1,361 learners had attended courses in English, maths and ICT from entry level to level 2, in 2018/19.

Inspectors found these courses helped learners “to overcome personal and social barriers to employment by improving their self-confidence and by helping them to gain qualifications and skills”.

Tutors and managers plan courses to focus on skills their learners need to find employment, and link course content to everyday knowledge.

For example, tutors link developing digital skills and accessing Universal Credit.

They know their students “very well” and learners “enjoy their learning and feel valued by the supportive staff,” the report reads.

Learners gain confidence in their own abilities, improve their basic English, maths and digital skills and many move on to employment or further study.

Best Practice Training & Development also enrols learners on short work skills courses and on units in retail or warehousing. The inspectorate said managers need to develop a “clear programme of work experience” for these.

At the complete other end of the inspection spectrum this week was Kingswood Learning and Leisure Group, which earned three ‘insufficient progress’ ratings from its early monitoring visit.

This is partly because 100 apprentices are expected to be on unpaid leave for two months during a business shutdown while still on their training programme.

A spokesperson told FE Week: “We are clearly disappointed by Ofsted’s findings; we have been actively working on the issues highlighted.”

Having a better week is Encompass Consultancy, which has made ‘reasonable progress’ in all areas after a grade three inspection in August last year.

“Leaders have successfully reshaped the curriculum strategy for adult learning programmes since the previous inspection,” inspectors wrote.

Encompass has stopped providing business courses funded by advanced learner loans in the London area, after the previous inspection report said only half those learners completed the course as they found attendance requirements and written assignments “very challenging”.

Tutors work effectively with employers to co-ordinate the on and off-the-job training apprentices receive, however Ofsted found a small minority of apprentices do not receive the expected level of off-the-job training.

Encompass’ leaders and managers place a high priority on staff extending and updating their subject knowledge and expertise, so tutors recently undertook hot stone massage training, a popular treatment offered by many employers.

Folkestone and Hythe District Council was found to have made ‘significant progress’ in safeguarding, and ‘reasonable progress’ in the two other areas of its early monitoring visit.

Inspectors complimented “a keen awareness of safeguarding” which “permeates the culture” throughout the councils where its 40 apprentices work.

As a result, “consideration of safeguarding is well embedded into the apprentices’ daily activities”.

Accipio Limited, C & G Assessments and Training Limited, Encompass Consultancy Limited, Go Train Limited, Leadership in Action Limited, Real Skills Limited, Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, and University of Bedfordshire all received ‘reasonable progress’ ratings in every area of their early monitoring reports.

Newham College of Further Education has become the second college to be refused admission to the Office for Students’ register of higher education providers.

The universities regulator said the college had “failed to demonstrate it delivers successful outcomes”.

This finding was based on the college’s continuation data – the number of higher education students progressing from their first to their second year of study.

“This shows the college has failed to demonstrate that it delivers successful outcomes for all of its higher education students, which are recognised and valued by employers and/or enable further study for all of its higher education students,” the OfS’ decision notice reads.

One of the OfS’ conditions for initial registration is a provider must deliver well-designed courses that provide a high-quality academic experience for all students, and enable a student’s achievement to be reliably assessed.

The OfS said it is “working with the college in order for them to have the opportunity to apply to ‘teach out’ their current students”.

“Being granted designation for teach out would mean that continuing students would, subject to individual eligibility, be able to continue to access student support from the Student Loans Company.”

Newham College was approached for comment.

Refusal means Newham College will be denied access to HE public grant and student support funding, cannot recruit international students, nor apply for degree awarding powers.

It is not the first FE college to be refused admission to the OfS register: Waltham Forest College was denied admission in July for the same reason as Newham.

Colleges and sixth forms will need an extra £1.1 billion on top of the government’s recently announced spending boost to fully reverse cuts since 2010, new research has found.

This increases to £1.4 billion to “ensure that spending on T-levels is additional to an unchanged level of spending per student”, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ annual report on education spending in England.

Report co-author Luke Sibieta said chancellor Sajid Javid’s vaunted spending boost of £300 million (in 2019-20 prices) amounted to a “small rise” against the backdrop of cuts since 2010-11.

Between 2010-11 and 2018-19, spending per college learner fell by 12 per cent in real terms, after cuts during the 1990s and low growth in the 2000s.

In 2018-19, the IFS has calculated, spending per learner was £4,800 in sixth-form colleges and £5,900 in further education colleges.

The £1.1 billion that would be needed to reverse the cuts would include £320 million for 16–18 colleges and £730 million for school sixth forms.

The boost, meanwhile, will only lead to a real-terms per-learner increase of four per cent in 2020-21; seven per cent below the 2010-11 level for colleges, and 20 per cent for sixth forms.

Deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association James Kewin said the IFS findings highlight the “huge reductions in 16 to 18 funding that we have had to contend with since 2010”.

“But rolling back the funding cuts imposed since 2010 is the wrong target. The key issue to focus on is what level of funding is required to deliver a high-quality sixth form education now, and in the future?

“It is also important to shift the focus from T-levels onto the vast majority of 16 to 18-year-olds that pursue, and will continue to pursue, a non-technical course.”

Chief executive of the Association of Colleges David Hughes said the report shows “the reality of a decade of cuts to colleges”.

And while the chancellor’s spending announcement was “welcome”, “it must be followed by long-term investment to reverse ten years of continuous cuts and reform”.

The IFS also calculated spending on adult education has fallen by two-thirds since 2003-04, due to cuts of 32 per cent up to 2009-10 and 47 per cent since then; driven by a drop in learner numbers from 4.4 million in 2004-05 to 1.5 million in 2017-18.

What spending there is on adult education and training is increasingly focused on apprenticeships, with 54 per cent of the spend on adult education and training diverted to apprenticeships or work-based learning, compared to 21 per cent in 2003-04.

Policy director of adult education network HOLEX Sue Pember said the report “demonstrates adult education is under-resourced and the lack of government funding has led to a sharp decline in adult student numbers.

“HOLEX trusts the Treasury and DfE will now listen, take note and do something about it in the next spending review round.”

The IFS has also found over 60 per cent of apprenticeships are at A-level equivalent or higher, and FE Week has previously reported starts on higher-level courses, such as the level 6 chartered manager programme, have shot up since the levy was introduced and are soaking up available funds, leaving little for non-levy payers.

The CBI called on the government this week for a £100 million yearly top up to the levy to stop it becoming a “roadblock to the government’s wider and welcome efforts to modernise the skills system”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We recently announced a £14 billion investment in schools – the biggest cash boost for a decade.

“Alongside this, we announced a significant real terms increase in funding for 16 to 19 year olds in 2020-21 to make sure we can continue to develop world class education to rival countries on the continent. We also provided £700 million extra for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.

“Together this package will give all young people the same opportunities to succeed and access the education that’s right for them regardless of where they grow up. The Prime Minister is clear that education is one of his main priorities, and we want a system that boosts productivity, improves social mobility and equips children and adults with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.” 

Labour is “looking at all options” for an overhaul of the school and college accountability system, including replacing Ofsted, Angela Rayner has said.

In an exclusive eve-of-conference interview with FE Week’s sister paper FE Week, the shadow education secretary repeatedly refused to rule out scrapping the inspectorate and replacing it with a new system to hold education providers to account.

Rayner said the idea of replacing the watchdog, a move favoured by the influential National Education Union, had been discussed by Labour’s national policy forum and that “various different options” are being considered by the party as it prepares to flesh out its plans for a National Education Service.

Despite having been announced as a flagship policy by Jeremy Corbyn during his first leadership campaign in 2015, the National Education Service is still little more than just an umbrella term for a series of existing policies including free education “from cradle to grave” and scrapping the GCSE English and maths forced resits policy.

The second of two consultations held to feed into Labour’s plans focused on accountability, and it was common knowledge that party policy advisers had been looking at the future of Ofsted.

Rayner said the idea of abolishing Ofsted “is something that’s come out through the policy forum”.

“Obviously people have views across our party on that and we’re looking at all options at the moment,” she said.

“I think [the system] drives bad practice at the moment, and I don’t think it’s Ofsted that does that, I think it’s the politicisation through the DfE’s politicians who have done that.

“I do think there are issues with the current set-up – with Ofsted – and we are looking at that and in the near future I’ll say more on it.”

The National Education Union has long called for the scrapping of Ofsted. Its joint general secretary Mary Bousted has repeatedly warned that the inspectorate has become a “weapon of fear and terror”.

Asked what Labour might put in place instead, Rayner accepted some form of accountability system was needed.

“Parents need to feel confident and I will need to feel confident that our state system is performing to the best of its ability so we recognise we need a system in place, but we also recognise there are current weaknesses in the system.”

Rayner, who has now been in her job for more than three years and served opposite four secretaries of state, is unapologetic about the time taken to develop firm plans for the NES.

“I think the responsibility of creating something as radical as the National Education Service means you have to be evidence-based,” she said, pointing to the “huge amount of information” available “just on further education, tertiary education alone”.

“I could spend 10 years doing a PhD on it and not get through the literature, so I think it’s entirely responsible to do what we’ve done” she added, and pointed to Labour’s lifelong learning commission, “which will report shortly”.

Rayner continued: “There’s so much we’ve already done, and so much for us to achieve, but it’s right to do it in a way that’s based on evidence, so we don’t undermine the principles of what we’re trying to achieve before it even gets off the ground.

“It’s very simple. It’s a national education service, free at the point of use, from cradle to grave. I think most people understand that.

“The question is, when you get in the weeds, everybody wants to talk about every fine minutiae of what it means to them at that point, and I totally understand that, and I welcome the discussion and value people’s opinion on that, and we will continue to move towards that.”

The shadow education secretary confirmed Labour would come up with updated education spending plans for its next manifesto.

Colleges and training providers are being asked how prepared they are for Brexit by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The latest update from the agency, published today, asks FE providers to complete a survey on their level of “readiness and confidence” ahead of the UK’s planned departure from the EU.

“The results from these surveys will be used to determine what further advice sectors may need from government to support their preparations ahead of 31 October,” its introduction reads.

Questions cover whether providers have informed students and staff from the EU about the immigration arrangements after Brexit in the event of a deal or a no deal, and arrangements for all EU and non-EU migrants from 2021.

The ESFA also wants to know if FE providers have advised prospective and current students “how they can find more information about their eligibility for funding and places in relation to academic year 2019 to 2020 and 2020 to 2021”.

It also asks whether providers have contacted food suppliers to make sure they are planning for the potential impacts of a no deal Brexit by ensuring their secondary suppliers are prepared and plans are in place to adapt menus.

“As a priority, the department would be grateful if providers could arrange for an appropriate person to complete the short survey by Friday 27 September,” the ESFA said.

The Department for Education put out advice for FE and apprenticeship providers earlier this year which said EU, EEA, and Swiss citizens who qualify for the EU Settlement Scheme would remain eligible for funding for FE courses and apprenticeships in England after Brexit.

It also said the UK could only continue to participate in the European Social Fund programmes until their closure if the UK left with a deal.

Apprentices at an employer provider are expected to be on unpaid leave for two months during a business shutdown while still on their training programme, Ofsted has found.

Outdoor learning business Kingswood Learning and Leisure Group will likely be suspended from new starts after the early monitoring visit found it had made ‘insufficient progress’ in all areas of its provision to 100 apprentices on framework and standard apprenticeships in activity leadership level 2 and outdoor activity instructor level 3.

The core business of the employer, which has nine centres across the UK and one in France, is to provide outdoor learning experiences to school children.

While apprentices are sent home for two months during quiet periods, Ofsted found they do not get enough sufficient time to continue training when the business is busy, so most fall behind.

Leaders and managers were criticised by the education watchdog for not having up-to-date information on apprentices’ progress and assessors do not consider a learner’s prior knowledge.

Nor are training plans personalised for the learner, and as a result “many apprentices do not see why the training is relevant to them, and their subsequent progress is slow,” inspectors wrote.

Apprentices and their centre managers do not get detailed knowledge about the requirements of end-point assessment, so learners do not know how to achieve high grades.

Also holding learners back is a lack of high-quality English and maths support, meaning too few apprentices develop those skills to a sufficient standard for passing external tests.

The report reads: “Assessors do not always highlight to apprentices the areas of their skills that need further development.

“In the few instances where they do, apprentices do not re-submit their improved work.

“A significant number of apprentices are currently not on track to finish their apprenticeship.”

Kingswood, the website for which shows it provides activities like archery and zipwire for schoolchildren, was also found lacking in safeguarding: apprentices at some centre do not feel safe as leaders and managers do not identify and coordinate their safeguarding adequately.

For example, when apprentices return to work from injuries, they are not sufficiently risk assessed to determine whether they are fit to carry out certain activities.

Ofsted did find some positives at the provider: Kingswood apprentices do “benefit from good quality on-the-job learning from centre managers” and they develop knowledge and skills that enable them to facilitate a wide range of activities, like abseiling and team sports, safely and independently.

A spokesperson for Kingswood said: “We are clearly disappointed by Ofsted’s findings, we have been actively working on the issues highlighted.”

This includes investing in more people to support apprentices, ensuring the existing systems are more robust and are being properly implemented at every level, and going to the National Apprenticeship Service for guidance and support.

The spokesperson added: “Safeguarding is at the heart of what we do, whether that is supporting the young people who attend our centres or our colleagues.

“Our policy is that anyone who has been absent through injury or illness cannot return to work unless they have been confirmed as being able to work by a medical practitioner.

“Our apprenticeship programme is very much in its infancy and we believe the positive steps we have already taken will pay huge dividends in the future for the apprentices themselves, our customers and the business as a whole.”

The provider declined to comment on the rationale for not paying apprentices during the business shutdown period.

The Department for Education has surpassed the government’s public sector target for recruiting apprentices for the second year in a row, the education secretary has claimed.

Ever since the apprenticeship levy was launched in April 2017, public-sector bodies with 250 or more employees have been set a target of employing at least 2.3 per cent of their total staff as new apprentice every year until 2021.

The DfE said today that it has had 354 apprentices in training since the rule came into force, in areas such as cyber security, digital marketing, project delivery and software development at all levels.

A total of 116 of those apprentices were new starters at the department in 2017/18, which the DfE said equated to 2.5 per cent of its total workforce.

In 2018/19, this rose to 177 apprentice starts – 2.9 per cent of the DfE’s 6,080-strong workforce.

The department also claimed today that it is “on track” to exceed the target again in 2019/20.

Education secretary Gavin Williamson said: “It is fantastic news that we have exceeded our target for two years in a row – making us one of the top recruiters of apprentices across government.

“There are some brilliant apprenticeship opportunities within the department as well as across the public sector. Our apprentices are working in a range of exciting roles from cyber security, public relations and accountancy.”

Data released today via a freedom of information request showed that the DfE has drawn down £983,000 since the levy’s introduction in April 2017 up until 31 July 2019.

“This is the amount that we have spent on learning in that period and doesn’t include any other incentive payments,” the DfE said.

The public-sector apprenticeship target covers the period April 1 to March 31 each year.

It’s an average target across the years 2017/18 to 2020/21 to “give flexibility to organisations to manage peaks and troughs in recruitment”.

Overall progress towards the target stood at 1.4 per cent after 2017/18.

Public sector bodies have until the 30 September to submit their figures for 2018/19.