Tributes have been paid to former FE Commissioner Sir David Collins who died after losing his fight against cancer.

Sir David (pictured), whose career in FE spanned over 40 years, which included becoming the first elected president of the Association of Colleges, passed away last Thursday.

He held the role of FE Commissioner from 2013 until 2016, responsible for intervening in colleges that ran into financial or Ofsted trouble. In this post he had a leading role in the post-16 area review process.

His longest leadership role was at South Cheshire College where he spent 16 years as principal, taking the college to an ‘outstanding’ rating.

Sir David received a CBE in 2005 and then a knighthood in the Queens New Year Honours in 2016.

Martin Doel, a professor of leadership in FE and Skills at FETL and a former AoC chief executive, said: “David was an inspiration to me and to many others. His commitment and contribution to further education and its students was immense.

“We will miss his sharp intellect, his honesty, his infectious sense of humour and his absolute determination to do the best for students, for colleges and FE providers of all kinds and for the communities that they support.”

Current FE Commissioner Richard Atkins said: “Very sad news indeed today. Sir David Collins was a true champion of FE colleges and an inspirational sector leader.

“He will be greatly missed. I won’t forget the inspiring leadership development days he led at both colleges where I was principal.”

Prior to South Cheshire College Sir David held roles at Redditch College, Sandwell College, and Bolton College.

He served as AoC president from 2008 to 2009 before becoming chief executive of the Learning and Skills Improvement Service, and then interim principal at Guildford College Group.

Before his death Sir David produced a CV to show his achievements, in which he wrote: “In essence, my career has been devoted to improving quality in further education.”

The Education and Skills Funding Agency will reduce the £27,000 digital and technology solutions professional apprenticeship standard by £2,000.

In an update published today, the agency announced the band cap for the level six standard, with a typical duration of 36 months, would be reducing from the £27,000 maximum to £25,000, from May 19.

The standard, which was developed by top employers including BT, Fujitsu, HMRC, IBM, and John Lewis, was part of the first wave of funding band reviews conducted by the Institute for Apprentices and Technical Education, which got underway last March.

All but two of the funding band changes from this review were revealed in December, which included the infamous chartered manager degree apprenticeship being reduced by £5,000, from £27,000 to £22,000.

The other standard that the government needed more time to decide whether to change its funding band, aside from the digital and technology solutions professional programme, was the level three motor vehicle service and maintenance technician standard, which has a current funding band of £18,000.

The ESFA still hasn’t made a decision on this yet.

Discontentment with the funding band reviews has led to a recent uptick in the number of appeals against the reviews, according to the minutes from a November meeting of IfATE’s approval and funding committee.

There were eight appeals from trailblazer groups, which are responsible for apprenticeship standards, in 2017; in January 2018, there were more than five times that many with 42.

Out of the 50 reviews from 2017 and January 2018, 13 were upheld.

However, trailblazer opposition to the reviews is far wider than the number of appeals would suggest.

Many groups, such as the National Hairdressers Federation wanted to appeal against the cut to their funding band, but could not as IfATE only allows appeals if it is believed procedure was not followed correctly, or there was impropriety.

The IfATE launched its second funding band review in December, which involves another 30 standards. The outcome of this is expected to be published in the summer.

A new apprenticeship provider has been judged to be making ‘insufficient progress’ after Ofsted found it did not take into account learners’ previous qualifications when putting them on programme.

Inspectors reported that many of Agincare Group Limited’s 173 apprentices already had a high depth of knowledge and experience prior to starting their apprenticeship and the provider does not know whether they “require adjustments to their planned learning activities and timescales”.

The watchdog’s monitoring visit to the Dorset company, which has an apprenticeship arm called Training Now that delivers the training, found it had made ‘insufficient progress’ in meeting all the requirements of successful apprenticeship provision and in ensuring apprentices benefit from high-quality training that leads to positive outcomes.

By not accounting for its apprentices’ prior learning, Agincare could be in breach of Education and Skills Funding Agency funding rules, which requires the provider to calculate the appropriated funding reduction. And if the revised course fell below the one year minimum with 20 percent off-the-job training it would be ineligible for funding.

“We may take action to recover apprenticeship funding where this happens,” the ESFA rules for 2018/19 warn.

The report comes on the tails of the Department for Education tendering a contract to research whether employers are adapting training and the associated costs to take into account the prior learning of apprentices, as revealed by FE Week earlier this month.

Agincare is not the first provider to be found failing to take prior learning into account: in her annual report for 2018, Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman highlighted how apprentices were “not learning anything new”, but were just getting accreditation for knowledge and skills they already had.

Agincare has around 2,800 staff delivering care services to 2,400 people in over 50 locations across the south west and nine regions.

It became an apprenticeship provider in 2017, when it established Training Now. Their apprentices are on programmes in health and social care at levels two, three and five, as well as business administration programmes at levels three and five.

Inspectors found “they do not know whether apprentices who have previously achieved a qualification, at the same level as the apprenticeship, require adjustments to their planned learning activities and timescales” and assessors “do not identify their skills, knowledge and experiences at the start of the apprenticeship programme well enough.”

In addition, some apprentices are not given a review of their training that clearly identifies the progress they are making, or checks their understanding of the learning. Inspectors also said some apprentices do not understand the requirements of their course, including both assessments and off-the-job training.

However, despite the failure to account for prior learning, inspectors found most of the apprentices on Agincare’s care and business courses improve their existing practical skills and theoretical knowledge during the apprenticeship.

Assessors make frequent visits to apprentices at the workplace and provide them with effective support between visits, so apprentices can raise queries or concerns.

The inspectors observed that apprentices value the support and guidance they receive from their assessors, particularly in one-to-one sessions, when assessors check apprentices’ understanding of their subject knowledge with a “skilful” use of questions.

This helps apprentices studying health and social care improve their knowledge of caring for those with dementia, and of stroke care.

Furthermore, the provider’s leadership are developing partnerships with two nearby FE colleges to improve their apprentice’s progression and career opportunities.

Aside from the two ‘insufficient progress’ reports, Agincare was found to be making reasonable progress in ensuring effective safeguarding measures are in place.

But owing to the ‘insufficient’ ratings, the provider is likely to be suspended from taking on new apprentices until it improves the grade, in accordance with ESFA rules.

An Agincare spokesperson said: “We are disappointed with the outcome of our recent first monitoring inspection.

“We were aware of the elements picked up in the Ofsted report and were already delivering a plan to address the shortcomings but it was too early to make a judgement on the impact of improvements to learners at the time of the inspection.

“We are committed to achieving our action plan as soon as possible.”

The Association of Colleges has revisited its funding rate plea for 16 to 18-year-olds and upped it from £4,760 to £5,000 at a cost of over £1.2 billion per year, which it says is needed to avoid a T-levels crisis.

In its latest call for an increase to the £4,000 unweighted base rate, the AoC states that the government’s flagship skills policy is at “risk” as the providers tasked with delivering it are “not adequately funded”.

The association said colleges “will not be able to afford to offer the range of specialisms required, because they cannot afford to attract and retain staff”.

It adds that as it stands, “even if every place is filled (reaching 100 per cent efficiency) on specialist courses such as engineering, construction and science, they will be operating at a significant loss”.

On top of T-levels, the government has plans to build a “new generation” of higher technical qualifications at levels 4 and 5 for T-level students to progress onto, which will put further strain on college resources.

The base rate funding per 16 to 18-year-old student has been stuck at £4,000 per year for the last five years. Campaigns including Raise the Rate, which is led by the Sixth Form Colleges Association and the AoC is part of, are calling for this to be increased to £4,760 in the upcoming spending review.

The AoC is now be saying that even this increase would not be enough, and has told FE Week colleges need an unweighted base rate rise of 25 per cent (from £4,000 to £5,000) for all full time 16 to 18-year-olds on all study programmes at all levels.

AoC boss David Hughes (pictured) told FE Week that since the government’s T-level funding consultation was launched in November, and closed yesterday, the association has carried out more analysis based on the detail of the proposals and found an increase of at least £1,000 per student is a “real figure”.

Programme funding for 2018/19 sits at just over £5 billion, so a 25 per cent increase would equate to an annual additional cost of around £1.284 billion every year.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the SFCA, said the £4,760 figure from the Raise the Rate campaign is a “specific sum of money for a specific purpose” and admitted he was “not aware that the AoC would be making this separate call to increase the funding rate for 16 to 18 year olds by a different amount”.

He added: “All pressure on the government to recognise the needs of 16 to 18 year olds is welcome, but in our view, the key to securing a commitment to raise the rate in this year’s spending review is a single, simple, message that is relentlessly and effectively conveyed.

“Working in partnership as part of a coalition to deliver that message and apply focussed pressure is vital – the more we all speak with one voice, the better.”

This isn’t the first time the SFCA and AoC have bumped heads over campaigns for more FE funding.

The SFCA launched Raise the Rate in October, just a week after the AoC called for an initially smaller rise in their own Love Our Colleges campaign, which asked for a five per cent annual increase in the 16 to 19 funding rate for each of the next five years, amounting to around £1,000 in total.

Nevertheless, Mr Hughes said today: “If we are serious about securing the UK’s economic long-term success, we need to focus on improving skills and productivity. These new qualifications have the potential to do just that, but only if we invest properly in them.

“Adequate funding is needed for colleges to be able to attract and retain the right staff and have the right equipment; current funding levels do not support that so they cannot be delivered.”

He added that there was “no question at this stage” of any colleges pulling out of delivering T-levels from 2020.

The Association of Colleges has rejected six out of 14 proposals put forward by the government in its consultation on T-level funding from 2020.

The consultation, which closes tonight after running for 12 weeks, sought opinions on four new funding bands and subsidy for the industry placement element of the new technical qualifications, among other plans.

In contrast, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers agreed with all 14 proposals (you can read their full consultation submission here).

The AoC took particular issue with the DfE’s proposed funding bands, which would range from £4,170 to £5,835 per year, depending on the size of the T-level.

“We cannot support the proposals because they do not offer enough funding to deliver the quality and experience that colleges want to offer students,” its response said.

The DfE also recommends that each industry placement within a T-level should be covered with an additional £550 per student.

However, the AoC said it was not clear what the amount should cover.

“A detailed cost model needs to be developed with pilot organisations and then shared transparently,” its consultation submission response said.

“Industry placements require sourcing of appropriate placements, confirming roles and responsibilities, monitoring (including dealing with breakdowns) and evaluation.”

It added: “The funding consultation does not outline proposals for bursary funding to help cover the vital travel and appropriate work wear costs of students which will be higher for those in rural areas and from disadvantaged communities. Such funding will be crucial to ensure the smooth running of placements and allow for fair access.”

Another of the DfE’s proposals is to give providers a one-off payment of £750 per subject per student who has not yet achieved a GCSE grade 4 (or above) or a level two functional skills qualification in maths and or English, so they can continue studying these subjects as part of their T-level programme in order to meet the “minimum exit requirement”.

The AoC said English and maths should be “appropriately funded for as long as necessary for a student to achieve passes at grade 4 or above; in a relatively small number of cases that will be two years of funding” and “£750 will not be sufficient to fund two years of English and or maths where needed”.

“To suggest that funding allocated in the first year of the programme will mean that providers are ‘encouraged to help student gain their level two qualifications as soon as they are ready’ indicates a lack of understanding of the current approach of providers,” the association said.

“If all it took was ‘encouragement’ every student would pass their first resit. Colleges want as many students to pass first time as possible, but student skills gaps and self-confidence often mitigate against this.”

You can read the AoC’s full submission to the T-levels funding consultation here.

The other organisation that has members who will deliver the first T-levels is the Sixth Form Colleges Association, but it did not enter a submission to this consultation.

Its deputy chief executive, James Kewin, said: “We sit on a series of government groups about T-levels where we share the views of our members. On this occasion we chose not to submit a formal response to the consultation.”

In the build up to consultation deadline the Department for Education held an hour-long webinar on February 5 where officials explained the proposals, and took part in a lengthy Q&A session. You can watch the webinar below.

The government is developing a tool to risk assess independent training providers, as part of “strengthening” oversight.

The plan, which was revealed in the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s management board minutes from January, comes as the agency ploughs more resources into its capacity to audit and intervene in training firms.

In September FE Week revealed the agency was recruiting assurance managers for a market oversight unit, who would have a specific focus on independent training providers.

It follows the collapse of a number of big providers, such as 3aaa in October and First4Skills in March 2017.

The move also follows the downfall of the nation’s biggest FE provider LearnDirect, which was bought up by Dimensions Training Solution last year after it lost its ESFA funding contract due to a grade four Ofsted report in 2017 and struggled to find new business.

Furthermore, the ESFA has also been looking into introducing contract caps for private providers, or recommended funding limits as it calls them, to limit the size of providers by regulating how much money a provider can earn from the government.

Last December, in response to an education select committee report recommending caps, the DfE said: “The ESFA is considering the introduction of provider earnings limits to ensure control, not just for quality reasons, but also to control the potential size and expansion of providers. We will be seeking views from the sector on this in the coming months.”

FE Week understands that part of the reason for developing an “ITP Risk Assessment Tool” would be to determine different contract cap levels (were the cap level policy to be implemented).

In October, the ESFA director of apprenticeships, Keith Smith said all providers on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers would have a financial cap and the agency would determine how much a provider could earn.

A proposal branded “absurd” by the chair of one of the country’s largest providers, HIT Training’s John Hyde.

Undeterred, the ESFA is also introducing contract managers for the largest firms.

In a letter from December, ESFA FE director Peter Mucklow wrote: “Our contract managers will work closely with ITPs to ensure that public funds are safeguarded, increasing our scrutiny in order to protect learners participating in apprenticeships and other ESFA funded programmes.”

A team of 16 education experts have joined Labour’s lifelong learning commission.

Among the new commissioners are former education secretary Estelle Morries, former Association of Colleges chair Carole Stott, managing director of City and Guilds Kirstie Donnelly, and FE Week contributor professor Ewart Keep.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will officially launch the commission, which will develop his party’s policy of free education “from cradle to grave” in its proposed National Education Service, today at the Manufacturers’ Conference in London.

“Its task is to devise an inclusive system of adult education to be implemented by the next Labour government that will transform the lives of millions and reskill our economy,” he will say.

“The commission will make detailed proposals on how to integrate qualifications, introduce a credits system to make qualifications transferable and make it as easy as possible for people to pick up or pause their studies at times that work for them.”

The commission will carry out work on funding models that would “ensure that education is free at the point of use for all those who need it”.

It will operate independently, but with regular input from shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, and shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden.

Mr Marsden told FE Week that for “too long” England’s education system has had “silos in different areas, particularly if we’re talking about older learners”.

“They need to have certainty they can get on and off the skills escalator as and when they need it,” he said.

“We don’t know what jobs we’re going to have in the next ten years, but we know a lot more generic skills will be required.

“We are looking at plans for an eco-system that will last ten, 15 years. Government are doing short term policies such as the three million apprenticeships target by 2020. Our approach is much more holistic.”

Mr Marsden said the lifelong learning commission will formally meet every three to four weeks and sub-groups will be set up to tackle more specific issues.

The commission’s work will not “drag on” for two to three years like a Royal Commission, he added.

Membership of Labour’s lifelong learning commission:

Co-Chair – Estelle Morris, former education secretary

Co-chair – Dave Ward, general secretary, Communication Workers Union

Graeme Atherton – Director of the National Education Opportunities Network

Joyce Black – Assistant Director, R&D, Learning and Work Institute

Amatey Doku – Vice President Higher Education, National Union of Students

Kirstie Donnelly – Managing Director, City and Guilds

Vicky Duckworth – Professor in Education, Edge Hill University

Alison Fuller – Professor – Vocational Education and Work, UCL

Ewart Keep – Director of Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance, Oxford University

Mary Kellett – Vice Chancellor, Open University

David Latchman – Master of Birkbeck

Seamus Nevin – Chief Economist, EEF

Dave Phoenix – Vice Chancellor, London South Bank University

Carole Stott – Former Chair of the Board and Trust, Association of Colleges

Matt Waddup – National Head Of Policy & Campaigns – University and College Union

Tom Wilson – Chair of UFI, Former Head of Unionlearn

 

The principal and deputy principal of the Hadlow Group have been suspended as multiple investigations are launched into their financial dealings.

A spokesperson for the group told FE Week today that principal Paul Hannan, who went on sick leave last week, and his deputy Mark Lumsdon-Taylor, who resigned in January to take effect from March 1, have both been suspended.

Meanwhile Paul Dubrow, the chair of one of the group’s college boards – for West Kent and Ashford – stood down today after four years in the role.

Vice-chair Theresa Bruton, who is the chair of Hadlow College’s board, has stepped into Mr Dubrow’s role on an interim basis.

Ms Bruton has been a Hadlow College governor for over seven years.

There are now three separate investigations into the Hadlow Group underway: one by the FE Commissioner, one by the Education and Skills Funding Agency and one by the board of one of the group’s colleges, Hadlow College, which it runs alongside West Kent and Ashford College.

The board investigation relates to whether Mr Hannan and Mr Lumsdon-Taylor kept the board properly informed about financial transactions, namely land sales and purchases between Hadlow College and WKAC, which FE Week reported on last week.

The FE Commissioner investigation was triggered after The Hadlow Group made a request for restructuring funds from the Department for Education’s Transactions Unit and the unit began questioning the series of land purchases between Hadlow College and WKAC.

Meanwhile, the ESFA is said to be looking to reclaim significant sums of funding from the Hadlow Group.

It is understood the group was claiming funding they were not permitted to, but which Mr Lumsdon-Taylor said they had permission to claim from when it adopted the West Kent and Ashford campuses of the collapsed K College – something the ESFA disputes.

Following Mr Hannan’s suspension, Graham Morley was appointed interim principal of The Hadlow Group on Friday.