UCU calls on FE Commissioner to consider de-merging London colleges from NCG

Union officials at two London colleges have written to the FE Commissioner requesting that he urgently investigates whether they should de-merge from the country’s largest college group.

Members of the University and College Union at Lewisham and Southwark colleges have been contesting their pay and conditions for years but claim matters have deteriorated even further since their controversial merger with NCG in August 2017. NCG’s headquarters are 300 miles away in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

After allegedly failing to reach amicable solutions with their paymasters in the north, staff in London are now seeking investigations by the government.

NCG’s managerial and financial problems will result in the two colleges being left devastated

In a letter to FE Commissioner Richard Atkins expressing their “grave concern”, seen by FE Week, the local UCU branch at Lewisham and Southwark colleges said NCG’s management has had a “deleterious effect on the colleges’ provision and thus on students, staff and the wider communities that they serve”.

The letter explains that staff at Lewisham and Southwark colleges have “had to endure years of constant change, restructure, reapplying for their jobs, merger and de-merger, whilst watching a procession of very well-paid principals and senior managers come and go”.

It adds: “It is our fear that NCG’s managerial and financial problems will result in the two colleges being left devastated and unable to serve the communities of Southwark and Lewisham boroughs.

“We are, therefore, formally requesting that the FE Commissioner urgently investigates NCG’s management of Southwark College and Lewisham College to determine its fitness to operate the two institutions and whether their future could lie elsewhere.”

It comes at a troublesome time for NCG, which is expecting a diagnostic visit from Atkins’ team next week following its grade three Ofsted rating last year.

The college group announced plans last month to slash up to 300 jobs across its two training providers – Intraining and Rathbone Training – which came off the back of a damming Ofsted inspection as well as an Education and Skills Funding Agency mystery audit that found major data manipulation, as revealed by FE Week.

The group ran itself into financial trouble in 2017/18, generating a deficit of £7 million, according to its latest accounts.

A spokesperson for NCG said it was “disappointed to see this letter from the local branch of UCU”, particularly as NCG has been “working collaboratively with them for more than 18 months to develop a positive working partnership and successfully resolve some long-term issues”.

READ MORE: The truth behind plans to cull 300 staff at England’s largest college group

Lewisham and Southwark colleges were one entity when they joined NCG. In 2015 NCG suffered the dubious honour of being the first FE and skills provider in the UK to receive two grade fours in a row from Ofsted.

NCG announced the college was to become two separate colleges in September 2018.

The letter from the local UCU branch at Lewisham and Southwark colleges told the FE Commissioner this move had been announced “with a complete lack of transparency and without consultation with staff”.

“As part of this separation of the two Colleges, NCG has put forward a new management structure that makes little sense when contrasted against the reality of the two colleges,” the letter claimed, adding that current managers “who have run the different departments very successfully for many years now find their jobs are at risk”.

The spokesperson for NCG said the claims are “wholly inaccurate and we have responded to these previously in full”.

Asfa Sohail, the new principal of Lewisham College, said: “I’m surprised to see the comments from UCU, particularly as we have been in positive talks regarding the management structure moving forward – the most recent of these being only last Tuesday. The letter suggests that this management structure has been imposed on the colleges by NCG, however I would like to confirm that this is not the case.”

Ofsted finds ‘prohibited’ subcontracting – again

A loans-only provider has been rated ‘inadequate’ after Ofsted found it was using banned subcontracting.

The watchdog gave Be A Better You Training Limited a grade four rating as its freelance teachers were found to teach much of the provision, who then “delegate this work to others”.

Ofsted said managers failed to recognise these arrangements were subcontractors and secondary subcontractors, which is “prohibited under funding rules”.

Inspectors said managers have “not established any processes for managing subcontracts effectively”.

The Education and Skills Funding Agency previously recognised that it had problems overseeing loans-funded provision, particularly where much of it was subcontracted.

In August 2016 it banned new subcontracting contracts for advanced learner loans, with a complete ban coming into force the following year.

Be A Better You Training Limited, however, claims to have spoken directly with the ESFA who said “those individuals who are working under the direction and control of a provider, in the same way as their own employees are unlikely to be considered to be subcontractors”.

General manager Damian Foster told FE Week: “All of our freelancers work under our direction in the same way as our own employees, therefore are not considered as subcontractors.”

This isn’t the first time a loans provider has been found using banned subcontracting by Ofsted. In January 2017, Tyne and Wear-based Expedient Training received an ‘inadequate’ rating after inspectors reported that the “vast majority” of the provider’s personal training learners were “provided by an associate partner”.

The provider subsequently had its ESFA contracts terminated.

Be A Better You Training Limited was training just over 100 learners funded by advanced learner loans in fitness and personal training, as well as business and management, at the time of Ofsted’s visit.

The inspectorate gave the provider a grade four in every category judged, except for personal development, behaviour and welfare, which was rated ‘requires improvement’.

Aside from using banned subcontracting, Ofsted found that managers have designed a curriculum that “does not meet the needs of learners and, as a result, learners do not develop the skills, knowledge and understanding that they require for their next steps”.

Leaders have “not made appropriate arrangements for governance, and leaders and managers have not had impartial support or challenge to be effective in their roles”.

“Many” personal training learners “find it very difficult to secure employment, because they lack fundamental skills”, but managers “are not aware of this”.

Moreover, the quality of learners’ written work often “barely meets the requirements” of programmes and “too few” learners complete their qualifications within the expected timescales.

Quality assurance processes are “insufficient” to secure improvements in provision, according to the report, and tutors’ assessment of learners’ work “lacks rigour and too many staff accept substandard work”.

Inspectors also found the arrangements for safeguarding to be “ineffective”, as managers “do not follow their own procedures for selecting and vetting staff” by, for example, carrying out Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

Foster said the provider was “very disappointed” with the report and disagreed with the outcome.

The ESFA typically gives providers a three month termination warning notice following a grade four.

Asked how this would impact the provider, Foster said: “We will not be ceasing operations.

“As always we are 100 per cent committed to offering our students the best possible service and believe that on the majority our customers are happy with our service.”

Ofsted did point out in the report that most learners at the provider enjoy the training they receive and speak positively about their experiences and learners on personal training programmes benefit from interactive lessons that take place in high-quality gyms. They also develop their oral communication skills well.

Apprenticeship levy usage rockets from 5 to 22% in second year but only 15% since launch

Employers used 22 per cent of their apprenticeship levy funds in the 12 months to the end of January 2019 – a huge fourfold increase from the 5 per cent drawn down in the first nine months of the policy.

The skills minister Anne Milton revealed in a parliamentary answer yesterday that between May 2017 and the end of January 2019, levy-paying employers “utilised £601 million of the funds available to them to pay for apprenticeship training in England”.

This amounts to 15 per cent of the £3.9 billion total funds entering employers’ accounts in the same period.

In a separate parliamentary answer from last week, Milton revealed that in the 12 months from February 2018 to January 2019, £523 million, or 22 per cent, of the £2.36 billion received into employers’ apprenticeship service accounts had been drawn down.

FE Week analysis of the figures used by the minister shows that in the first nine months of the levy, from May 2017 to January 2018, £78 million of the £1.54 billion (5 per cent) paid into employers’ accounts was used to cover training costs (see table below).

Levy funds usage has therefore increased fourfold, but apprenticeship starts have only increased by one fifth (21 per cent).

Funding is automatically drawn down every month for the duration of the apprenticeship so as new starts are taken on the monthly usage, percentage rises much faster than the starts as it is includes some of the cost of the starts in previous months.

This monthly funding and the fact that on average apprenticeships are now costing more than double the forecast, goes some way to explain why the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and the National Audit Office warned of a budget overspend in the future.

Milton explains in the parliamentary answers that the figures do not include other costs that the levy pays for, such as funding apprenticeships for small, non-levy paying employers, for English and maths qualifications and for extra support for apprentices who are care leavers or have special needs.

Large employers have been made to pay the apprenticeship levy since it was launched in April 2017. After a deduction for non-English employees and a 10 per cent top-up the monthly levy value appears in the employer apprenticeship system account, which they have two years to use.

In March, Keith Smith, the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s director of Apprenticeships, told the public accounts committee that employers are expected to lose around £12 million in May, or 9 per cent of what they paid in April 2017, when the first ‘sunset period’ arrives.

And in a webinar with FE Week during the Easter break, the government admitted for the first time the vast majority of the £400 million underspend from the Department for Education’s apprenticeship budget was taken back by the Treasury.

Asked how much cash the Treasury clawed back in the financial year to April 2018, Milton replied she “can’t give exact figures”, and referred the question to Smith, who said it was “just over £300 million”.

There’ve been many concerns raised that employers are not spending their funds quickly enough. The NHS, for example, told FE Week in March that it expects to lose a fortune when unspent apprenticeship levy funds begin to expire from May.

Recent policy changes have aimed to increase levy spending. From this month, levy-paying employers will be able to share more of their annual funds with smaller organisations, when the levy transfer facility rises from 10 to 25 per cent.

The 10 per cent fee small businesses have to pay when they take on apprentices has also been halved this month.

The government had hoped the apprenticeship levy would encourage more employers to invest in training and help it hit its manifesto target of three million apprenticeship starts by 2020. However, starts have fallen dramatically since its launch.

The latest figures, released on March 28, revealed that apprenticeship starts for January were down 21 per cent on the same month in 2017 before the levy was introduced.

FE Week analysis shows that an average of 85,246 starts are needed every month over the next 15 months to reach the three million starts target. Since May 2015, the average has been 38,251.

College to slash another 55 jobs in effort to save £2m

A college in financial crisis has announced plans to shed another 55 jobs in a move that is expected to save it £2.2 million annually.

West Nottinghamshire College has undergone a major restructure over recent years to try and find savings, with its staffing numbers falling from a high of 967 in 2013 to 744 last year – a 23 per cent drop.

At the end of February the college axed a further 75 jobs, and it told staff yesterday of a new consultation to make a further 55 redundant.

Crucially, it will ensure that we are sustainable moving forwards

“Unfortunately, 72 colleagues have been placed at risk of redundancy as part of proposals to lose 55 staff,” a spokesperson said.

“These are mainly in management and support roles, with very few direct teaching posts affected.

“This final phase has been informed by the curriculum-planning process for the 2019/20 academic year and will see the current breadth of provision retained at our campuses in Mansfield and Ashfield.”

However, the spokesperson added that the plans include the closure of the West Nottinghamshire College’s construction and employability training centre in Sheffield, which is “under-utilised and no longer viable”.

The college is in dire financial constraints. As FE Week revealed in March, the college’s government bailouts rocketed to more than £10 million in just six months.

Its main monetary issue was related to subcontracting rule changes that meant it had to drastically scale back on this provision and lose out on millions in management fees.

The financial strain surfaced in July 2018 when the college received an initial £2.1 million in exceptional financial support from the Education and Skills Funding Agency following the failed sale of its eLearning business bksb, which FE Week later revealed was requested just 48 hours before it was due to run out of cash.

West Notts’ 2017/18 accounts show that the college generated a £9.54 million deficit before gains and losses, up from £2.57 million the year before.

The turbulent year at West Notts has led to major leadership and governor changes. This included 14 new appointments to its board including a new chair, and a new interim principal after its former high-profile leader, Dame Asha Khemka, resigned in October.

We have worked hard to minimise the impact on students

The college ended the use of corporate credit cards for senior staff earlier this year, after FE Week revealed Asha had claimed more than £40,000 in expenses over five years.

The West Notts spokesperson said the proposed job losses are designed to bring “financial stability and ensure we are the right size to serve our communities”.

“In developing these proposals we have worked hard to minimise the impact on students, in particular on their teaching and learning, although some non-essential student-facing services will be delivered slightly differently,” he added.

“These changes are no reflection on our hard-working and dedicated staff, who have remained extremely professional during this difficult time. We are committed to supporting all those affected and will seek to place people into other roles wherever possible or help them find employment elsewhere.

“Although highly regrettable, the measures are expected to save £2.2m on our annual pay bill and are another crucial step towards our financial recovery.”

Seventh time unlucky: Training provider rated ‘inadequate’ after six consecutive grade threes

A private provider has been hit with the lowest possible Ofsted rating after receiving six consecutive ‘requires improvement’ ratings since opening its doors.

Nottinghamshire Training Network was rated ‘inadequate’ today after the education watchdog found the “principles” of apprenticeship provision were not being met, such as apprentices not receiving their entitlement to “well-planned” off-the-job training.

Inspectors said the provider’s management of subcontractors, who deliver most programmes, is “weak”, and leaders and managers have “not remedied many of the areas of weakness identified at the previous inspection”.

The provider, which at the time of inspection had 352 apprentices, told FE Week it will now stop taking on new starts and would like to transfer this its current apprentices to another provider to complete their training.

As it has been rated ‘inadequate’, NTN will be removed from the register of apprenticeship training providers and banned from delivering its own apprenticeships, in line with ESFA rules. The ESFA is also likely to terminate all of its other skills contracts with the provider.

Syed Jafery, managing director at NTN, said the provider is awaiting guidance and formal notification from the Education and Skills Funding Agency to advise on the next steps.

He added: “We are committed to assisting the ESFA in transitioning the remaining learners, to ensure no learner is displaced and let down by this inspection result.”

A DfE spokesperson said: “We will always take action to protect the interests of apprentices. We are currently assessing Ofsted’s findings and will be contacting Nottingham Training Network to set out the action we will be taking in due course.”

NTN was incorporated in 2002 and received its first Ofsted inspection in 2008, which resulted in a grade three rating.

Since then and prior to today’s report, the provider has had five other full inspections, all of which resulted in grade three verdicts.

FE Week asked chief inspector Amanda Spielman in November how many grade three reports in a row is too many before a provider should be hit with a grade four, but she could not give an exact number.

Until recently, three grade threes in a row would automatically have qualified a provider for an ‘inadequate’ grade.

Spielman said she had changed this rule when she took over the top job at the inspectorate in January 2017 “because I thought it was flawed in conception”.

“The job of inspection is to report on what we see when we inspect,” she explained.

“To artificially say that something is ‘inadequate’ and trigger all the consequences that we know go with grade four judgments, because we want to heap up pressure, I don’t think that’s the right thing for us to do”.

In 2017, Ofsted warned NTN that leaders’ and managers’ actions to improve the weaknesses identified at previous inspections were ineffective in driving improvements in the quality of training and outcomes for apprentices.

Two years later, inspectors said leaders and managers have not remedied many of the areas of and that apprentices continue to make “slow progress”.

Its management of subcontractors came in for the most criticism.

“The information that subcontractors provide about the progress of learners and apprentices is unhelpful,” Ofsted explained.

“Different subcontractors provide reports that contain different information presented in different ways. This makes it difficult for NTN managers to gain a clear picture of what is happening. Managers are unaware of the fact that many apprentices’ programmes do not meet the requirements of apprenticeship provision.”

NTN’s effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, outcome for leaners and apprenticeships provision were all rated ‘inadequate’, while its personal development, behaviour and welfare, as well as its traineeships ‘require improvement’. Its adult learning programmes were rated as ‘good’.

Jafery said he was “extremely disappointed with the outcome” and that the overall grade “does not reflect our typical delivery and experience”, but his provider was still accepting the decision.

“We are disappointed that the inspection feedback and report has relied so heavily on the judgements for apprenticeship delivery, as over the course of a year, trainees and adult learners will outweigh the number of learners on apprenticeships,” he added.

The Ofsted report did praise staff for providing “good pastoral and personal care for leaners and apprentices” and that “most trainees benefit from good work placements that help them to improve their readiness for employment”.

It also said leaders have a “strong and successful commitment” to making provision for adults in local communities who face barriers to taking part in training and development.

Ofqual issues first ever intention to fine end-point assessment organisation

An end-point assessment organisation is facing a potential fine of £50,000 after “technical issues” affected its delivery of apprenticeship assessments.

The notice of intention to impose a monetary penalty on the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx), published today, is the first such fine floated by Ofqual.

CILEx, an EPAO for two apprenticeship standards, admitted in March to a series of delivery failings in the end-point assessment for the level 3 paralegal apprenticeship in June 2018.

The failings “occurred during both the timed assessment and Interview components of the assessment and affected the entire cohort of 73 Learners,” today’s notice said.

Ofqual, which is CILEx’s external quality assurer, was informed at the time that “technical issues” were to blame.

This included apprentices receiving “error messages, experiencing delays and difficulties accessing the assessment, and being unable to upload their work onto the e-platform”. Some assessments were lost “entirely”.

In July 2018, CILEx reported that “further technical difficulties” had been encountered with the Skype connections for the interview component of the EPA, including difficulties establishing a connection between the assessor and the apprentice, poor connectivity and poor sound quality.

Only four of the interviews were fully conducted by Skype video, allowing the assessors to see the apprentice for the duration of the Interview, as required by CILEx’s assessment plan.

Complaints were received “regarding the disruption and anxiety”.

All 73 affected learners were given “special consideration” by offering them a free resit opportunity which would not cap the outcome at a pass.

CILEx wrote to Ofqual in January to explain that it “conducted a thorough investigation into both the technical and wider issues, submitting its findings to Ofqual voluntarily, together with an action plan”, which it has made “significant progress against”.

It said that CILEx is a “chartered body, not a commercial organisation, and as such has public interest duties, obligations and considerations as well as its responsibilities as an awarding body” while the absence of “key members of staff was a result of unprecedented and unpredictable circumstances”.

“CILEx genuinely believed that it could deliver the EPA in June 2018 to the required standard and in compliance with the Conditions, despite having to deliver under time pressure as a result of the late publication of the Assessment Plan,” it added.

“CILEx agreed to become the EPA Organisation for the Paralegal Apprenticeship in order to support the Government’s desire for legal apprenticeships despite it being a loss-making activity for CILEx. CILEx is the only body able to deliver the EPA.”

However, CILEx admitted to failing to comply with 17 conditions set by Ofqual.

The regulator formally issued the EPAO with a notice explaining its intention to fine it £50,000 on April 18, 2019.

However, the fine will be reduced to a nominal sum of £1,000 if the organisation submits a “Statement of Assurance” confirming that it has “successfully implemented all of the recommendations and actions set out in its Technical Action Plan” and “has successfully delivered the level 3 paralegal end-point assessment to the cohort of apprenticeship Learners sitting the EPA in June 2019, in full compliance with the Conditions” by September 30, 2019.

“Or, in the event that representations are received from interested parties or another relevant intervening factor occurs, such other amount between £1,000 and £50,000 as the Enforcement Committee considers appropriate,” today’s notice said.

“Ofqual has taken this approach to enforcement action in order to prioritise a focus on future improvements and to reflect the unusual circumstances of this case, including that CILEx operated the EPA at a financial loss in 2018 and expects to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.”

It added that CILEx has “agreed to pay a monetary penalty to Ofqual and to submit a Statement of Assurance in the terms specified above”.

Linda Ford, chief executive of CILEx, said: “We have apologised for the inconvenience caused to the students last year and provided free resits to a small number of students where needed.  

“I would like to personally reassure this year’s cohort that we are ready and fully confident in our ability to deliver the EPA successfully.”

A spokesperson added that CILEx “expects to pay the reduced fine amount of £1,000”.

 

Edexcel maths A-level paper leaks referred to prosecutors

Police investigating high-profile leaks of Edexcel A-level exam papers in 2017 and 2018 have passed their first case to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Pearson, the exam board’s parent company, has announced today that officers “have made progress in their investigation” from the first “limited” breach in 2017, and have referred their first case to prosecutors.

The 2017 case involved copies of the Edexcel maths A-level paper being offered for sale online, in a move branded “grossly unfair to all other students” by Pearson president Rod Bristow at the time.

However, Pearson said at the time the content “contained no precise details about specific questions and we do not believe any student has been advantaged”.

The following year, the police and regulator Ofqual were informed after commentators on social media alleged a maths exam paper had been widely leaked, with “hundreds” of college students potentially seeing questions a day in advance.

A second investigation into the 2018 leak is being finalised, and Pearson said it hopes they will send materials about that incident to the CPS “soon”.

At the time of the leaks, the tweets appeared to show a WhatsApp group sharing the first question of the paper.

The company said both incidents “were caused by individuals deliberately setting out to subvert our controls”.

Minutes from an Ofqual board meeting in September 2018 said: “We have evidence that a very small number of students had access to the A level Maths C4 paper (6666/01) ahead of the exam sat on Friday 22 June. Following the examination, we were alerted to the apparent sale of images of questions from the paper in the early hours of the day via two closed social media applications.

“There is no evidence to show that they were publicly available before the examination, but after the paper had been sat individuals posted images of the sharing of the secure content on publicly accessible platforms.”

The minutes added that as a result of their investigation, Ofqual had “identified one individual as the source of the breach, who has been debarred from any involvement with Pearson examinations for life”.

“We have disqualified five students and are currently investigating a further 30 with regards to their involvement,” it added.

In a letter to colleges today, Pearson said: “Whilst we are confident that the extent of the breach was limited to a very small number of candidates, we know these incidents impacted public confidence.

“We have continued to support the police in their investigations, but due to the complexity and unusual nature of these cases, it has taken time to investigate. The police informed us that in February, they referred the first case to the Crown Prosecution Service with the aim of bringing charges against those arrested.

“The individuals responsible for these incidents are therefore now being held to account for the disruption that they caused.”

Ofsted watch: New apprenticeship provider censured in otherwise strong showing by FE

A new apprenticeship provider has been heavily criticised for not monitoring its subcontracted provision in what was otherwise a strong show in this week’s run of Ofsted reports.

Piper Training Ltd, the training arm of the Building Engineering Services Association, received three ‘insufficient progress’ ratings from the watchdog in its first monitoring visit since it was formed in January 2018.

Inspectors criticised the provider as its leaders have not observed any teaching in the subcontracted colleges where most of its 123 apprentices learn, and for not checking whether subcontractors’ plans for learning are clear and logical.

Leaders, and those in the role of governance, were also criticised for “concentrating too much on contractual compliance and financial and business developments”.

Training director Tony Howard said they had had ongoing issues with subcontractors not submitting enough information so Piper Training could monitor progression.

“We are working with our sub-contractors to drastically improve on their capability to report at the frequency we are requiring,” Howard added.

Inspectors did report Piper Training’s leaders understand the needs of heating and ventilation labour market, and work closely with employers to develop apprenticeship standards that are specific to the needs of the profession.

Mitre Group Ltd, which previously received two ‘insufficient progress’ ratings in its early monitoring visit and was subsequently suspended from taking on new starters in August 2018, this week received a ‘good’ full inspection.

Ofsted found that achievement rates for adults in 2017/18 were well above the rate of similar providers and tutors are well-qualified and experienced in the sports-related industries for which Mitre provides apprenticeships.

“Apprentices develop a wide range of sports coaching and training skills that they apply proficiently in schools and community settings,” inspectors added.

As the provider has now scored a grade 2, it should soon be allowed to take on new apprentices.

Birmingham City Council also fared well: moving up from a grade 3 to a grade 2.

Leaders and managers have a “clear vision” for adult learning in Birmingham, the inspectors wrote.

They paid particular praise to the provision of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) courses, where learners make good progress and quickly learn the correct phrases to use with doctors and at their children’s school.

Nearly half of learners moved onto another course in the service to develop their skills and most of those who left the service continued into sustained employment or learning.

The Buckinghamshire College Group, which formed out of a merger between Aylesbury College and Amersham and Wycombe College in October 2017, scored three ‘significant’ and one ‘reasonable’ progress ratings in its first monitoring visit since its creation.

A new senior leadership team have implemented processes to monitor and improve progress and outcomes for students, meaning a greater proportion of students achieved their qualifications in 2017/18.

The college was found to deal effectively with poor staff performance. “If teachers are not able to improve, then they leave,” the report said.

Leaders and managers have a “very clear understanding of the quality of teaching and learning in all curriculum programmes”.

“They know where they need to target support and improvement initiatives when teaching practices are not in line with expectations,” the report added.

Dunbia, which offers a level 2 apprenticeship in butchery, earned three ‘reasonable progress’ ratings from its first monitoring visit since becoming an apprenticeship provider.

Apprentices, who were new to the butchery and meat processing environment, gain a “wide range of practical skills and understanding through the apprenticeship”.

Functional skills provision is subcontracted and the inspectors reported the majority of apprentices have achieved functional skills qualifications at level 1 in English and mathematics.

Technical Professionals Limited (TPL) achieved the same result as Dunbia from its early monitoring visit of its apprenticeship provision.

TPL was found to have prepared apprentices well for their end-point assessment, and their recruitment process is rigorous: leaders and managers ensure both apprentices and employers fully understand the apprenticeship programme.

TPL has no governing board however, and directors received insufficient information on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment.

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade  
Piper Training Limited 15/03/2019 16/04/2019 M N/A  
Technical Professionals Limited 14/03/2019 18/04/2019 M N/A  
Mitre Group Limited 19/03/2019 18/04/2019 2 M  

 

Adult and Community Learning Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Birmingham City Council 15/03/2019 15/04/2019 2 3

 

Employer providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade  
Dunbia 08/03/2019 15/03/2019 M M  

 

GFE Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade  
Buckinghamshire College Group 27/03/2019 18/04/2019 M 2  

Assessment organisation finally found for nursing apprentices

Thousands of nursing apprentices who have less than a year before they finish their training can breathe a sigh of relief as an organisation has finally been found to assess them.

However, there is likely to be concern over whether enough assessors will be recruited to meet demand seeing as there will be close to 4,500 of the apprentices taking their final exams throughout 2020 alone.

NOCN, an end-point assessment organisation (EPAO) approved to assess the second most standards in the country, was given the green light to assess level 5 nursing associate apprentices yesterday.

The objective is to achieve the demand levels required whilst ensuring quality of EPA results

As previously revealed by FE Week, there was concern that apprentices on the standard would finish their programme and then not be able to sit the EPA and graduate.

The apprenticeship has proven popular since its launch: it had 1,417 starts in 2017/18 and 820 in the first quarter of 2018/19.

The typical duration for the programme is 24 months. The first cohort due to go through EPA are expected to do so in January 2020.

“When we heard that apprentices might be in a position where they cannot complete the nursing associate standard we decided to discuss, with the NHS, what we might be able to do to support these apprenticeships,” said Graham Hasting-Evans, group managing director of NOCN, which is approved to assess 47 other standards.

“As a result of understanding their full requirements we decided that this was something we could carry out and applied for approval to undertake EPA. We are delighted that we have now been informed that we have been successful.”

Denise Baker, head of school allied health and social care at the University of Derby, which had 130 starts on the nursing associate standard in 2017, said she was “relieved” to hear an EPAO had been put in place as “this is an essential part of the apprenticeship”.

“We want to ensure that our nursing associates have the opportunity to finish their apprenticeship,” she added.

But there will be concerns regarding the capacity that one EPAO has to meet demand.

Hasting-Evans admitted that a “large” number of nursing associate apprentices will need to go through EPA, each of which requires discussion and observation by an assessor, over the next 12 months.

Graham Hasting-Evans

He said there’ll likely be around 200 doing their assessment in January, which will require up to 80 assessors. Around 4,300 EPAs on the standard are expected to take place throughout 2020, which will require up to 150 assessors “at peak”.

He added that if NOCN is the only EPAO for the standard then “we will obviously gear up to meet the challenge”.

“To ensure that these have a fair, robust, and consistent EPA experience we are working very closely with the NHS to identify sufficient EPA assessors,” Hasting-Evans explained.

“NOCN will then be training these people to meet the demands. It is early days, but clearly the objective of the NHS and ourselves is to achieve the demand levels required, whilst ensuring quality of EPA results.”

Asked if he knew of any other EPAOs in the pipeline to assess this standard, he said there “may be” but “at this stage we are only aware of our application being accepted”.

Assessment organisation finally found for nursing apprentices

A spokesperson for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education said it was “very welcome news” that an EPAO has been appointed on the nursing associate standard, which will “make a huge contribution to a skilled workforce in healthcare”.

She added that it would be for the Education and Skills Funding Agency to comment on whether there were any more EPAOs preparing to help with assessment of the standard.

The ESFA, which approves EPAOs for standards, confirmed that NOCN has been approved to assess the “first cohorts of nursing apprentices”, but would not comment on whether more organisations were in discussions to follow them.

There are sector wide concerns about end-point assessment capacity. By 2020, when the apprenticeship reforms will have taken full effect, there are likely to be around 500,000 EPAs carried out every year.