An additional £10 million will be released by the Treasury to teach English to those who speak it as a second language, the chancellor announced today.

In his spending review speech, Sajid Javid confirmed that the Integration Areas Programme he launched as communities secretary in 2018 will continue into a second wave.

Training providers will be able to use the funding to “meet the needs of pre-entry to entry level one English for Speakers of other Languages (ESOL) learners,” according to the programme’s prospectus.

Javid said: “We make available today an additional £10 million to continue the Integration Areas Programme that I first announced in 2018 as communities secretary.

“That fund will continue to support thousands of the estimated one million adults in the UK who do not speak English well or at all.”

The chancellor also confirmed the funding boost for 16 to 19 education announced by the government over the weekend.

“For too long, FE has been a forgotten sector. Further education transformed my life and today we start transforming further education with a £400 million increase in 16 to 19 funding next year,” Javid, who attended Filton Technical College, now known as South Gloucestershire and Stroud College, said.

“The base rate will increase to £4,188 – a faster rate of growth than in core school funding.”

The base rate of funding for all 16 to 17 students has been frozen at £4,000 per student, per year since 2013; while the rate for 18-year-olds was reduced to £3,300 in 2014.

Its increase will take up £190 million of the £400 million package. Meanwhile, £120 million of it will help deliver “expensive but crucial” subjects such as engineering; £35 million extra for students resitting GCSE maths and English who are on level 3 courses; an additional £25 million to deliver T-levels; and £10 million for the advanced maths premium.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, which led the Raise the Rate campaign calling for the base rate to increase to £4,760, said the chancellor’s announcement “is a welcome first step to giving 16 to 19 education the investment it needs”.

“The Raise the Rate campaign will continue to press for a much bigger increase in core funding than the £188 per student announced today, but we now have a foundation on which to build,” he added.

University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady described today spending round as “rushed” and appeared “more like frantic electioneering than a long-term commitment to boosting further and higher education”.

“The funding promised to further education will do little to reverse the cuts of over £3 billion in real terms that have blighted the sector over the last decade,” she added.

The government’s effort to raise awareness of T-levels has been criticised after new research found three in five parents still haven’t heard of them, just 12 months before they’re due to be rolled out.

A survey of 824 parents with children aged 11 to 18 in England, commissioned by the Chartered Management Institute, also revealed that only 1 in 10 (11 per cent) feel they know a lot about the new post-16 technical qualifications.

Marketing drives to raise awareness have been lacking from the Department for Education, which only launched its official branding – NexT Level – in May.

Government will need to accelerate work to raise awareness with students, parents and employers

When challenged over the survey’s findings, the DfE said they would be launching a fresh “nationwide campaign” to raise awareness next month.

Public relations firm Havas Worldwide London Ltd won a contract to design the T-levels logo for £250,000 and has since been given access to £3 million for the implementation of the campaign in 2019/20.

The DfE has not said what this campaign will involve.

A YouTube video, which explains what T-levels are, was published by the DfE last year but has only had just over 11,000 views to date, while a similar video launched last month only has 970.

Rob Wall, head of policy at the Chartered Management Institute, said for T-levels to succeed, government will “need to accelerate work to raise awareness with students, parents and employers”.

“We know government is planning to launch an awareness campaign. And we support this. We just hope this isn’t too late,” he added.

While some individual colleges have launched, or are gearing up to launch their own T-level awareness raising campaigns, some say they themselves do not have enough information about the new qualifications.

Boston College has been piloting the controversial 315-hour minimum industry placements for T-levels, but due to various concerns, they’ve yet to market or even sign up to offer them.

Principal Jo Maher said: “There is not enough information on the content and assessment of T-levels to go to market at present, even for providers aiming to build initial interest for a 2021 start.

“In order to give the best information, advice and guidance to prospective students and parents, providers need access the program specifications and I have not yet seen any.”

Oldham College, which is set to deliver T-levels in wave two of their roll out in 2021/22, is attempting to get ahead of the curve.

Using grant funding they received as a provider in one of the DfE’s “opportunity areas”, the college bought a T-levels branded van, built with TVs inside to explain what the new qualifications are.

It cost them between £25,000 and £30,000 to “get it fully kitted out” and will be driven around the town over the next few years to raise awareness.

Principal Alun Francis said the college has only had it for one week, so “I can’t tell you if it’s had any effect.

“But we’ve done it because there’s a real job to do about making sure people understand properly what the alternative options [to academic qualifications such as A-levels] are.”

He told FE Week he’s not aware of a “full-on marketing strategy” from the DfE or other colleges at this stage and his college is “very much at the beginning” of building its own strategy.

Asked if he thought the DfE was leaving it too late to launch its big awareness campaign, Francis said: “It’s difficult to strike the balance because if you have a huge campaign talking about them all the time that’s too far away, you kind of lose the impact. There is a little about managing the time so there is a build-up.”

Chichester College will deliver the first T-levels from 2020 and is now gearing up to launch its own marketing drive.

Its strategy includes deployment of its school liaison officer across the local area, a targeted T-levels open day for prospective students, and pushing out adverts over the radio.

Paul Rolfe, group director of commercial, sales, marketing & public affairs at the Chichester College Group, said: “The qualification landscape is complex for parents, so face-to-face marketing delivered by our expert staff, supported by online resources will be key to our marketing activity.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “Right from the start we have worked closely with both large and small businesses to make sure we get the delivery of T-levels right.

“We are implementing T-levels in a measured, phased rollout – and our communications campaign will ramp up as coverage grows across the country.

“We will be launching a nationwide campaign next month to help raise awareness of T-levels among young people, parents and employers.”

Plans for Ofsted to publish financial ratings as part of inspection reports have been announced – but full details are yet to be drawn up.

In November last year chief inspector Amanda Spielman told FE Week the watchdog could take a more proactive role in factoring in financial management when grading a provider, but said at the time it wasn’t within Ofsted’s remit.

In a surprising announcement yesterday, the Department for Education said it will, in future, work with Ofsted to “ensure all reports also include a rating for financial management and oversight within the school or college in order to ensure best practice is shared across the sector”.

The move will not be part of the watchdog’s new inspection framework, which launches this week. Ofsted told FE Week this is something for a “longer-term piece of work with the government”.

Currently, the Education and Skills Funding Agency uses a formula to annually apply financial health ratings to FE providers, which can either be ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ like Ofsted judgements, but they’re not published.

It is not clear at this stage whether the ESFA will, in the future, play a part in Ofsted inspections, or whether the watchdog will do its own financial health research and investigations to arrive at a rating.

The DfE could not provide any further details and Ofsted appeared to know little about the plans.

Reviewing financial management of FE providers used to be part of inspections some years ago, in conjunction with the Learning and Skills Council, before it was dropped.

This latest announcement comes after several college leaders and boards have come under heavy criticism from the FE commissioner for their management of the finances in recent years.

The most severe case was at Hadlow College, which was given a grade one by Ofsted, but has been subject to government investigations after financial irregularities were found. This included submitting partial information to the ESFA in order to secure a ‘good’ financial health. However, according to the FE Commissioner, had the ESFA looked at their published accounts they would have rated them as ‘inadequate’.

The scandal has led to the college becoming the first to go through the new insolvency regime and as reported by FE Week, the DfE last week announced that Dame Mary Ney would be leading a review into their own monitoring of college finances.

When quizzed about why Ofsted doesn’t currently factor in financial management into inspection reports, Spielman told FE Week in November: “We don’t have the remit to look at that side of colleges, and that’s something that’s down to the Department for Education to decide if it wants to shift the split. But it is important. They affect each other clearly. Neither we nor anyone else should say they’re completely independent of each other.”

Asked if Ofsted inspectors may take a closer look at college finances in future inspection frameworks, the chief inspector said: “There are a lot of different ways that you could cut this particular cake.

“If a conversation begins at some point about ways of taking that forward I’d be happy to have it.”

All FE and skills providers rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted will no longer be exempt from routine inspections, the Department for Education has confirmed.

The government announced the move yesterday, but only that it would apply to schools.

A spokesperson for the DfE has today told FE Week the change will also impact colleges, independent providers, local authorities and other FE providers.

The exemption from inspection for ‘outstanding’ providers was introduced by former education secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Those with the rating would only be reinspected if safeguarding issues or concerns over achievement rates came to light.

As revealed in an FE Week investigation three years ago and subsequent National Audit Office report in 2018, the exemption has led to many colleges and hundreds of schools being ignored by inspectors for over a decade.

In October last year, chief inspector Amanda Spielman warned the public accounts committee that the exemption leaves the inspectorate with “real blind spots as to the quality of education and safeguarding” in these schools and colleges.

FE Week analysis shows there are currently 30 ‘outstanding’ FE providers that have gone a decade or more without being reinspected.

There will be a consultation published “shortly” about the move to remove the ‘outstanding’ exemption and, subject to parliamentary approval, it will be removed by September next year.

The DfE said this will “ensure that parents have up to date information about the quality of education their children are receiving, and that standards remain high”.

What will be of concern, however, is Ofsted’s budget and capacity to inspect all grade 1 providers on a routine basis. It is not clear at this stage whether the DfE will give the watchdog extra cash to do more inspections.

Ofsted has been approached for comment.

 

 

The government has launched an additional European Social Fund tender, after finding there were a number of contracts in this year’s procurement where no bidding providers met the “required criteria”.

A bidding process for £4.2 million of the funding has gone live today in four local enterprise partnership areas: York North Yorkshire & East Riding, Greater Lincolnshire, North East, and The Marches (full details below).

It comes after the Education and Skills Funding Agency ran a controversial European Social Fund procurement earlier this year, where 47 providers secured a total of £309 million.

These contracts started on 1 April 2019 and will run until 31 July 2021.

The ESFA said the four local enterprise partnership areas included in this additional procurement are for contracts where “none of the providers that bid for funding met the required criteria”.

This additional targeted procurement is being run “so that people living in these areas have the opportunity to benefit from the ESF by learning the skills they need to get on the path to a great career”, the agency said.

The European Social Fund is funding that the UK has received, as a member state of the EU, to increase job opportunities and to help people to improve their skill levels, particularly those individuals who find it difficult to get work.

This year’s procurement caused controversy among many bidders.

The ESFA delayed issuing contracts several times, after multiple providers claimed that the government broke tender rules, namely by excluding the “track record” section when marking bids, while the ESFA has admitted to “errors”, such as naming Serco Regional Services Limited as a winner instead of Serco Limited.

Providers were also aggrieved to find out that Learndirect’s new owner had secured contracts worth more than £20 million, in conjunction with his other company Dimensions Training Solutions.

Further questions were asked about the tender in March, after FE Week discovered an “unprecedented” amount of tie-breaks in the procurement.

One aggrieved provider even threatened legal action against the ESFA, but decided to drop this because of the likely cost and a fear of repercussions from the agency.

The deadline for bids to this additional tender is 2 October 2019 at 5pm. Once the procurement has closed, the ESFA will send award notifications to successful providers before entering a 10-day standstill period.

Any providers that want to bid can do so from here.

The LEP areas are:

Skills Support for the Unemployed

    York North Yorkshire & East Riding LEP

Community Grants programmes

    Greater Lincolnshire LEP (Transition Area)

    North East LEP (More Developed Area)

    The Marches LEP (More Developed Area)

    The Marches LEP (Transition Developed Area)

Colleges will see a 4.7 per cent increase in the unweighted base rate for full time students aged 16 and 17 as part of the chancellor’s £400 million boost to FE, it has been revealed.

After having been introduced at £4,000 per year, per student since 2013, and £3,300 for 18-year-olds since 2014,, the Treasury has today told FE Week the rate will rise to £4,188 from August next year.

The £400 million funding boost will will come into effect in 2020/21 and cover the 257 colleges in England, as well as other FE providers delivering classroom courses like school sixth forms and independent training providers.

Despite the increase, this new base rate is likely to disappoint sector bodies which have campaigned for much larger rises.

The Sixth Form Colleges Association’s Raise the Rate campaign has fought for the rate to go up to £4,760; while the Association of Colleges has campaigned for as much as £5,000.

“Meaningful” but not enough to stabilise FE for the future: that is the Association of Colleges’ response to chancellor Sajid Javid’s announcement of £400 million extra investment for colleges this morning.

The association’s chief executive David Hughes said he was “delighted” the government had started to listen to college leaders, MPs, businesses, students and stakeholders.

But, he added: “It’s not enough to reverse the decade of cuts, nor to properly stabilise the sector for the future, but it is a good start.

“Colleges have been overlooked and underfunded for far too long. Today’s announcement of an additional £400 million marks the first meaningful investment in further education for 16-to-19-year-olds for more than ten years. 

“The announcement today will start to invest more in our young people with a long overdue increase in the base funding rate for 16 and 17-year-olds. 

“This will help support the world-class education and training which colleges provide to help our young people to succeed.

“We believe that an announcement about funding to cover higher Teacher’s Pension Scheme costs will come separately and look forward to seeing the detail of that. 

“Recent changes to pensions means colleges are locked into schemes which take a rising share of their budgets with no additional support in funding currently.”

It was announced last year that the amount colleges and other public-funded FE training providers must contribute to staff pensions was set to rise from the current rate of 16.48 per cent to 23.6 per cent – an extra £142 million a year – from September 2019.

However, the DfE announced in April it would cover the cost of the increase – but not how long it would cover it for.

Hughes continued: “Both the chancellor and the prime minister have spoken regularly about the importance of our colleges, and the need to properly invest in them and today they have started to honour that commitment. 

“However adult education was notably absent, with the number of adults in further education almost halving in the last decade, funding is urgently needed to boost opportunities to retrain and tackle skills shortages.

“I am optimistic more investment will follow next year when the spending review will be able to set out a longer term settlement to support thriving and vibrant colleges for the long term. 

“We will continue to work with government, and campaign with partners to make sure that colleges continue to be a serious political, economic and social priority. 

“That means long-term, sustainable funding, and a robust lifelong learning system.

“Schools received a three-year commitment that allows them the chance to plan and deliver – we’ll be pushing government to do the same for colleges in next year’s spending review.”

The chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association, Bill Watkin, called the announcement “good news”, as “sixth form education has been starved of resources over the past decade and today’s announcement provides a much needed boost to the 1.1 million 16 to 18 year-olds in colleges and schools across England.

“Around half of this investment will be used to Raise the Rate – the government has obviously listened to the coalition of organisations and MPs behind the campaign to increase the base rate for sixth formers – and we regard this as a step in the right direction.

“We need to see more detail on all of today’s announcements, but it is clear that this is the first meaningful investment in mainstream sixth form education for a decade”.

The UCU has also welcomed the increase, after what general secretary Jo Grady called “tireless campaigning by trade unions and the further education sector”; the union said colleges’ first priority for the money should be to close the £7,000 pay gap between school and college teachers.

Not everyone is on board with the chancellor’s announcement though: Lawrence Barton, managing director of independent training provider GB Training said: “FE funding in England and Wales is so skewed in colleges favour — to the detriment of independent providers — that they’ve been overcome by complacency. 

“Only by encouraging effective competition and weaning colleges off guaranteed funding grants will the government get a handle on the financial mismanagement plaguing our country’s colleges and driving up teaching standards.”