A college that was subject to an FE Week investigation has blocked this newspaper’s website from its internet servers – an action which has “absolutely shocked” the skills minister and “astonished” Ofsted’s chief inspector.

FE Week revealed on Friday that Highbury College was locked in a £1.4 million legal battle with the Nigerian state. The story was fact-checked against the college’s own board minutes, accounts and evidence from whistleblowers.

Highbury was provided with five working days to respond to our enquiries, but chose not to respond and provide their side of the story.

That is terrible, absolutely shocking

It has since claimed to its staff through internal emails, seen by FE Week, that “much of” the story is “untrue” and “paints a picture of Highbury that we simply do not recognise”.

The college has however been unable to tell FE Week specifically how the content of the story was inaccurate, even though they’ve had ample opportunity to do so.

But in an unprecedented move, the college has attempted to suppress the investigation from its staff and students by blocking FE Week on its internal computer servers.

“That is terrible, absolutely shocking,” said skills minister Anne Milton when she learnt about the action.

“In an organisation that is dealing with young people specifically, restricting access to staff or students or anybody is terrible.

“I am shocked. The press has to be very careful because they leave themselves open to challenge so there are rules around ensuring the report is accurate.

“The DfE doesn’t like what FE Week writes sometimes but we do not block information.”

Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, added that the move by Highbury “sounds astonishing and concerning”.

Dominic Ponsford, the editor-in-chief at the Press Gazette, said he has “never heard of any organisation reacting in this way to negative press coverage, it may be a first”.

“It seems like a staggeringly incompetent way to deal with negative press,” he added.

“Highbury College has obviously never heard of the ‘Streisand effect’ whereby attempting to hide or censor a piece of information you have the unintended consequence of publicising it far more widely than it would have been anyway.”

 

A spokesperson for Highbury defended the decision.

“It is college policy to block access to inappropriate websites,” she said.

“In view of this we have blocked FE Week from the college’s internet servers because we do not think students and staff while in college, should be distracted by inaccurate and untrue stories about Highbury which may cause them concern or distress.

“We have a duty of care.”

This comes at the same time as FE Week continues to press the college to respond to a Freedom of Information request submitted last year.

This newspaper requested the college’s corporate expense claims for the past five years 62 working days ago, but Highbury has chosen not to provide the information.

This is despite FOI law stating responses should take no longer than 20 working days, or 40 working days if the organisation needs to apply the public interest test.

FE Week has now taken the decision to report the college to the Information Commissioner’s Office for their failure to comply with the Freedom of Information Act.

The spokesperson for Highbury said: “We look forward to having a positive conversation with the Information Commissioners’ Office about the vexatious nature of your FOI request.”

From a previous FOI, it was revealed that Highbury’s principal, Stella Mbubaegbu, used college cash to pay for a first-class return flight from London to Dallas at a cost of £4,132. The college has refused to say whether or not this flight was work related.

The Institute for Apprenticeships has finally released a presentation given to employers that warned of an imminent apprenticeship overspend, following pressure from the shadow skills minister.

On November 30 during an employer engagement event at Exeter College the IfA’s chief operating officer Robert Nitsch included a forecast of a £500 million overspend on the apprenticeship budget in 2018/19 – rising to £1.5 billion by 2020/21.

The figures, exclusively reported by FE Week three days later, prompted wide-spread concerns and demands for an open debate on how the levy operates, and for the IfA to share the full presentation.

The institute finally released it last night but only to Gordon Marsden, the shadow skills minister, after he wrote to the IfA’s chief executive Sir Gerry Berragan about the issue in early December.

The presentation has, however, had a couple of slides redacted while more information has been added to them since their original appearance.

Speaking to FE week about the situation, Sir Gerry (pictured) said: “It [the presentation] was about apprenticeships, what’s going on with apprenticeships, and it was designed to bring them up to date as to how the reforms are going.

“The particular slide in question was based on some speculative planning, scenarios, what if planning. It was there to really make two points.

“One is that the levy isn’t massively underspent – it’s being used. And secondly that it’s a finite resource and therefore when people say why are you being tight about funding and funding bands you’ve got to see it in the context that there’s a finite resource and therefore we need to make sure we get every bit of value for money out of every apprenticeship.”

He added the reason why it wasn’t released to the wider public was because from “misinterpretation, it would generate all sorts of concerns over whether the levy was being overspent”.

Keith Smith, the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s director of apprenticeships, told FE Week in December that he was “not expecting any pressures” on the budget this year.

This point was then reiterated by skills minister Anne Milton last week.

“I think the department is being pretty clear the levy isn’t overspent, but the point is that particular model took in certain assumptions and therefore showed how it could be,” Sir Gerry said.

When quizzed on why it took so long for the IfA to release the slides, despite multiple requests from FE week and parliamentary questions including from chair of the education select committee Robert Halfon, the institute’s boss claimed that the only request he knew about was from Mr Marsden.

He confirmed that the Department for Education had not told the IfA to not release the slides.

“It [the delay] was us looking at the slides and making sure that everything in those slides was on the official statistical release. That’s what we were doing,” Sir Gerry said.

“They were not going to be released until I released them today to Gordon, because at that stage we were clear on what the information underpinning them…in fact, what we’ve done is redacted two of the slides and produced slides that do reflect official statistics, the starts and the training slides.”

You can view the full slide pack here.

A private provider is appealing an ‘inadequate’ report after Ofsted criticised it for not moving enough of its arts and media students onto jobs at the end of their training.

The judgement comes after the chief inspector caused a media storm when she told the Association of Colleges conference in November that there is a “mismatch” between the numbers of students taking such courses and their “future employment in the industry”.

Amanda Spielman said that Ofsted’s research on level two qualifications found that these courses were giving learners “false hope” and questioned whether some providers are chasing income over students’ best interests.

Her controversial comments made headlines in The Guardian, The Times and the Daily Mail.

Dv8 Training (Brighton) Limited, which received two consecutive ‘requires improvement’ grades prior to a fresh inspection in November, received the worst possible rating from the education watchdog in a report published today.

Ofsted found that the study programmes on offer to nearly 200 young people, mostly aged 16 to 19, in art and design, media, fashion, events management and games development are “not well managed” and learners “do not have access to impartial careers guidance early enough in their programmes to help them make informed choices”.

Ofsted said that while most learners move on to further education at the end of their courses, “only a few learners enter employment, an apprenticeship or higher education”.

However, Dv8 Training has disputed Ofsted’s findings.

Its managing director, Dan Wallman, said his provider is “obviously hugely disappointed”, especially as it has “just achieved our best ever year of qualification achievement and outcomes”.

“We have a longstanding track record, recognised by local authorities, of working positively with a vulnerable client group and succeeding with young people who often have not achieved previously,” he added.

“We have appealed the overall grading and this is in process, however we have to focus on moving forward positively.”

Mr Wallman also said that progression at Dv8 Training is not high into employment, apprenticeships or FE currently as “many learners choose to remain in learning to further develop skills and work readiness”.

A total of 86 per cent of learners progressed “positively overall” with 67 per cent into further learning, he claimed.

The Ofsted report did recognise Dv8 Training’s improvement in achievement rates.

“Managers took effective action that raised the proportion of learners who achieved vocational and functional skills qualifications in 2017/18; achievement is now high in many subjects,” it said.

But there are numerous other issues at the provider, according to Ofsted.

We have appealed the overall grading and this is in process

“Managers did not identify what tutors need to improve until very recently. As a result, the quality of teaching and learning has not improved sufficiently,” inspectors said.

“Tutors do not have high enough expectations for their learners. As a result, learners do not develop independent learning skills or behaviours for employment, or improve their attendance and punctuality.”

Mr Wallman said “immediate action” has been taken to “address key areas identified in the report such as poor attendance and punctuality and forming a high level advisory board to provide support and challenge”.

Ofsted recognised the provider has some strengths.

“Staff focus relentlessly on eliminating barriers to participation for young people who have previously not succeeded in education,” inspectors said.

“Tutors draw on their good industry experience to set vocationally relevant activities that enable learners to acquire good practical skills.”

Following Dv8 Training’s grade four Ofsted report, the Education and Skills Funding Agency will decide if it will axe the providers training contracts.

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

Mr Wallman said: “We are in discussion with local authorities and the ESFA around ensuring that our specialist provision can move forward positively and continue support young people to be successful in work and life.”

Training providers can now bid to deliver T-levels in the second year of their rollout, the Education and Skills Funding Agency has announced.

Guidance, published today, invites expressions of interest from providers who want to deliver the new technical qualifications in 2021/22, and sets out the criteria they will need to meet.

The ESFA has continued with its desire to select a “relatively small number” of providers for year two of T-levels “so we can continue providing the right level of support in the early stages of rollout” but it’s not clear how many it wants.

The agency has, however, slightly “developed” the criteria to select providers for delivery in 2021 compared to 2020 to “recognise providers delivering technical education to a large number of students”.

Providers can be colleges, independent training providers, university technical colleges or schools that currently deliver relevant ESFA-funded 16-to-19 education to at least 10 qualifying students per T-level subject area level they are applying to deliver.

They must also have at least 100 qualifying students across all pathways they are applying to deliver.

But for those providers in the Department for Education’s “opportunity areas”, they are only required to currently deliver to a minimum of 50 students across all T-level pathways they are applying to deliver.

All providers must be rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted and must have at least ‘satisfactory’ financial health.

Skills minster Anne Milton said: “This is a truly exciting time. I’m absolutely thrilled at the progress we have made to deliver new T-levels.

“I would absolutely urge further education providers that meet the criteria to consider applying to be the first to teach the next wave of T-levels from 2021. It is a fantastic opportunity to be part of education history and help change lives for the better.”

The ESFA said in the event that there is “significant interest” from providers, it will “increase the minimum student number set out in the criteria to help us establish a manageable number of selected providers”.

The guidance includes a list of commitments that the chosen providers will need to make, including “comment on the content developed for the T-level routes for delivery in 2021 to 2022”, and work “collaboratively with employers to offer a substantial industry placement with an employer, away from the students’ learning environment”.

They must also act as “champions of T-levels by positively promoting them, to build momentum and maximise student take-up on roll out”.

Today’s guidance states that the ESFA reserves the right to “exclude any provider where a Financial Notice to Improve is in place, where a provider is at risk of financial difficulty or where there are any other known issues that could prevent or affect quality delivery”.

The T-level qualifications to be taught from 2021 include health, healthcare science, science, onsite construction, building services engineering, digital support and services and digital business services.

The closing date for applications is midnight on 28 February 2019.

The skills minister Anne Milton delivered a keynote speech to the Sixth Form Colleges Association winter conference this morning, in which she spoke about the Raise the Rate campaign among other hot topics in FE.

Here’s her planned speech in full.

 

Thank you Bill for that kind introduction and for inviting me back this year to speak to you all.

This is a chance for me to thank you for all you do, to celebrate your successes and reaffirm the key role you all play in transforming the lives of so many.

I know for many of you it might seem strange that Sixth Form Colleges come under my remit as  ‘Minister for Apprenticeships and Skills’, but I truly believe that there is much that links the work of all Further Education institutions. Whilst you are the leaders in providing a strong academic education, all further educational institutions are linked by their key role in providing direction to young people; helping them grow in maturity through their crucial years; allowing them to develop outside of a school environment; and giving them the aspiration to achieve in whatever field, job or career they go in to. 

That focus means you have some different challenges from the General FE colleges. But what unites the college sector is more important than what divides it: the best colleges – whatever sign they have above the door, and whatever curriculum they offer – are focused on the needs of their communities, they have expert and committed leaders and governors, and they have educational excellence at their core.

Sixth Form Colleges and 16-19 Academies are truly some of the brightest beacons in our education system. You are key to our work to tackle social mobility, taking in a higher proportion of disadvantaged students than school sixth forms – indeed, these are one fifth of all of your students. Almost 90% of these disadvantaged students go on to achieve higher results and progress to sustained education, apprenticeships or employment than students in secondary school sixth forms.

Over a third of sixth form colleges and almost half of 16-19 academies are rated by Ofsted as outstanding – this compares to 15% for all FE and skills providers. And this is in spite of what I know have become increasingly challenging financial circumstances. This is down to your hard work, and I applaud you for what you do.

I know that a number of you act as quality improvement partners through Strategic College Improvement Fund. The SCIF supports colleges to improve the quality of provision and helps to mobilise and strengthen improvement capacity within the FE sector. The fund is a catalyst for collaboration. If you have not done so already, use this opportunity.

I want to congratulate you on the successful implementation of the reforms to A-levels over the last few years, with the first wave of exams in 13 new subjects in 2017 and a further 12 last year. The reforms will continue to roll out over the next two years, with the first exams in a further 20 new A-levels in summer 2019 and another 13 in 2020.  Exam reform is never easy in the last 30 years we have had four significant reforms to A-levels – the introduction of the Advanced Supplementaries, Curriculum 2000 which introduced the AS/A2 structure, the introduction of the A* grade a decade ago and the demodularisation this time.

Getting out visiting colleges is always the best part of my job. I get up early, work on a train, feel a bit weary as it’s often at the end of the week. However, what greets me at the door is an amazing and infectious enthusiasm – a dedication to the job, an overriding desire to do good, to stand by students and to mould them into young people who will have great opportunities ahead. Any weariness I might have felt melts away.

When I visited Oldham Sixth Form College last year, I was impressed by the breadth of their offer – encompassing both A-levels and Applied General Qualifications – and by the support offered to students to help them progress to either university or apprenticeships. And I particularly enjoyed hearing from a teacher describing how fundamental to their life choices the College was for them – so much so that they returned there to teach! You do an amazing job.

Last year when I spoke to you I was particularly moved by some of the experiences you shared with me about caring for those under your care who were experiencing mental health issues.

£1.4 billion has been made available across the education sector for mental health. to transform services and increase access to specialist mental health services by 2020-21.

Every school and college will get free training for a Designated Senior Lead for Mental Health. New mental health support teams will provide a trained workforce which will be linked to schools and colleges, with oversight from NHS staff to meet the needs of children and young people with mild to moderate mental health issues. We believe that these teams have the potential to reduce the significant burden that you have been facing.

You also told me last year of the concerns you had over the creation of new 16-19 Free Schools and the approvals process for academies to create new sixth form provision along with representations from a few MPs, I have taken this seriously. There is no point in helping out colleges who have financial difficulties due to falling learner numbers with one hand whilst opening additional post 16 places with the other.

We have strengthened the criteria we use to assess new school sixth form proposals. We have set a clear requirement to all schools that apply to open a school sixth form for all local sixth form colleges and FE colleges to be consulted prior to a business case being submitted. Furthermore, during the last free school application wave, we were explicit that all applications for new 16-19 provision must provide evidence of need for additional places in the area and that any request is likely to be approved by exception only. Lord Agnew, the Minister responsible for free schools and academies, and I have been working very closely together on this. I am confident you will see the impact in future waves of free schools.

I know that Lord Agnew has also held a roundtable with a number of you about your concerns surrounding becoming an academy and working with your local RSCs. I hope you have seen or will see a difference and are working in partnership with your local Headteacher Boards. If there is more that either he or I can do please don’t hesitate to ask, either by contacting me directly or indeed by speaking to the Association.

I know, and you know, that there are significant challenges being faced by the sector. I have made it a personal priority to understand the constraints and the impact of these over the last year. I want to thank you all for being so open and forthcoming to me and my officials on a number of visits and roundtables we have undertaken this year.

Of course you’ll expect me to point out that we have at least protected the base rate for funding for 16-19 year olds to 2020. But, I understand that this is against the backdrop of previous reductions and the impact of inflation.

So congratulations to you on your campaign ‘Raise the Rate’ and the wealth of stakeholder support you have managed to get behind the campaign. The level of correspondence sent to the department has resulted in Further Education funding being a top subject for 8 weeks at the end of 2018.

Please continue to highlight the challenges you are facing, as well as the outstanding work you are doing, and remember to please, please reach out to your local MP to invite them to visit once a year.

I applaud you for the great things you are all doing even within the backdrop of increased funding constraints and I understand your frustration about what you can – and cannot – do with the money currently available. I hope you know I will continue to be your advocate both within and outside of the department, and will make the case for your students in the forthcoming spending review. I know you will carry on doing the good work you do which only strengthens the case for additional investment. 

[You will also know that a new insolvency regime for the FE sector comes into force shortly.  We expect that it will only need to be used rarely but it does provide important protection for existing students of the FE body as a whole if the worst should happen. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is for you to get in touch early with the ESFA if there are any signs of financial difficulty so they can support you to resolve issues at the earliest opportunity.]

We are currently focusing on the introduction of T levels, I am pleased to see that there are nine sixth form colleges and 16-19 academies among the adopters starting in 2020 (that’s next year!). As you will know, we are putting in additional funding to support the roll-out of T levels – an important recognition of their importance and costs they will introduce, but of course we know this is not the answer to the wider challenges you face.

Our focus on these reforms does not eclipse how crucial the academic curriculum also is.

You will shortly hear from Amanda Spielman, who I know has spoken on your behalf to the Select Committee regarding the base rate for 16-19 students.

It is a testament to you that you have maintained your standards and the offer to your students. As we move into a potential spending review, your ability to do this is key evidence for me and Lord Agnew to together be your champions, showing just how much more you could be doing with more resources.

Amanda will be talking about Ofsted’s proposals for the new Education Inspection Framework. I am pleased that this event was chosen to launch it. It helps in rebalancing the scales to give greater weight to the FE sector. My department has worked closely with Ofsted as it has developed its proposals – I encourage you all to respond to the consultation, and take this opportunity to shape the final framework.

In conclusion, I want to return to where I started, talking about many of the things that tie us together. I want us to keep working together. Our young people deserve a choice about how and what they go on to study post-16, and you are key in delivering that. An opportunity to learn, mature, develop new skills outside school and find potential that might not have otherwise emerged.

Sixth Form Colleges and 16-19 Academies are known for their outstanding commitment to their students and wider communities, and you are known for your continued dedication to raising standards. I’d also like to recognise how vital your establishments are to the continued prosperity of the country. Through you, your students acquire the independence and the skills they need to go on to do great things: in the workplace, at university and in society as a whole. Keep up that good work, and thank you.

Ofsted is looking to put “less emphasis” on achievement rate data in its proposed new inspection framework.

The education watchdog will today launch its consultation on a refreshed inspection framework for further education and skills providers, as well as schools and early years settings.

Scrapping the current “outcomes” grade and introducing a new “quality of education” rating will be one of the key areas of change.

It is part of a move away from the over-reliance on data such as achievement rates, to a greater focus on progress and destinations.

Speaking to FE week ahead of the consultation’s release, Ofsted’s deputy director for further education and skills Paul Joyce said: “Data remains an important part of the inspection process and it is vital that providers continue to use it effectively.

“However, as part of the new ‘quality of education’ grade, less emphasis will be placed on achievement rates alone.

“Having said that, as part of looking at the impact of the curriculum, we will place greater emphasis on progress and destination data.”

Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman summed it up as: “The curriculum occupies a far more central place in all remits, and in data a lesser place.”

She continued: “The new quality of education judgement will look at how providers are deciding what to teach and why, how well they are doing it and whether it is leading to strong outcomes for young people.

“This will reward those who are ambitious and make sure that young people accumulate rich, well-connected knowledge and develop strong skills using this knowledge.

“This is all about raising true standards. Nothing is more pernicious to these than a culture of curriculum narrowing and teaching to the test.”

Ofsted is seeking to move away from an accountability system which is over-dependent on performance data, as inspectors believe this is a barrier to further improvement.

Far too much time, work and energy are being spent defending and managing outcomes, in the watchdog’s view, and the culture has been extended to providers defending against and trying to manage Ofsted inspections and expectations.

AELP’s chief executive Mark Dawe said his association “strongly supports the emphasis” on curriculum, education and training.

“Data is important for day to day monitoring but shouldn’t be the only thing that Ofsted look at and so we approve of the new approach being adopted,” he added.

“But we all must be mindful of the risks of relying  on inspectors’ opinion and qualitative judgement rather purely quantitative evidence. Ofsted are very aware of this and they need to ensure they have the appropriate expertise for each type of inspection.”

One practice Ofsted is seeking to curb with the move to a “quality of education” judgement is where colleges offer courses that are popular, like arts and media, rather than those likely to lead the learner into a job.

Ms Spielman attacked colleges which did this at the Association of Colleges conference in November, saying there is a “mismatch between the numbers of students taking courses and their future employment in the industry”.

Under the new framework, there will be a reduction in the types of FE provision that will be inspected.

Instead of the six that are inspected currently, Ofsted would only look at education programmes for young people; apprenticeships; and adult learning programmes.

Education and training for people with special educational needs and disabilities and high needs will be inspected under the relevant type of provision, rather than separately.

Ofsted is also proposing to split the current judgement of personal development, behaviour and welfare into two separate judgements: one for behaviour and attitudes, and the other for personal development.

Meanwhile, colleges given a grade three in their Ofsted report will be given longer to improve after the last inspection before their next one: from 12 to 24 months to 12 to 30 months.

Two things that will not be in the inspection framework are T-Levels, which are due to be introduced in September 2020, and campus-level inspections.

In an interview with FE Week in November, Ms Spielman ruled out introducing campus-level inspections in the new framework.

Its exclusion can be blamed on a lack of performance data for individual campuses from the Department for Education.

In her interview, the chief inspector said: “It’s still very much on the list of things we’d like to do, but looking at the logistics, looking at when the data, the campus-level data that’s needed to do it is going to become fully available, it just doesn’t fit with the timing of this framework.”

The consultation is open until April 4 and the consultation document, online survey, and draft handbooks can be accessed from 10.30am on January 16 at www.gov.uk/ofsted.

Education secretary Damian Hinds said: “I welcome this consultation as Ofsted reaches out to teachers, lecturers, early years providers, parents and leaders though the most comprehensive framework development in Ofsted’s history.”

The new framework will be rolled out from September this year.

The Department for Education is consulting on plans to provide extra funding to cover the estimated £80 million rise in pension contributions for FE colleges in 2019-20.

It was announced last year that the amount colleges and other public-funded FE training providers must contribute to staff pensions is to rise from the current rate of 16.48 per cent to 23.6 per cent from September.

The DfE has now launched its promised consultation on plans to fully fund the increase in its first year – which it estimates will cost £1.1 billion across the whole education sector.

The pledge will cover the 2019-20 year, after which any further funding would rely on the government’s spending review.

The DfE is proposing to cover the initial £80 million cost to FE providers, which covers FE colleges, sixth form colleges, specialist post-16 institutions and adult and community learning providers.

Its consultation says: “The department know colleges are in a financially challenging environment.

“Although by 2019-20 the funding available for apprenticeships in England will have risen to over £2.5 billion and the adult education budget protected in cash terms since the last Spending Review.

“We want a financially sustainable sector, which is why we have already invested in restructuring of colleges.

“The government recognises that not funding the increased employer contributions would increase financial pressures that could undermine investment already made and influence, for example, colleges’ ability to recruit and retain the teachers they need.”

The DfE has confirmed in its proposals that it won’t cover the rise for private schools or the higher education sector. It said while it “values” these sectors and is “committed to seeing them thrive”, schools and colleges are in “high levels of need for additional support”.

FE providers have until February 12 to give their feedback.

The DfE has previously said changes to the teachers’ pension scheme will cost colleges an extra £142 million a year in employer contributions after 2019-20.

Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, previously said the figure amounts to approximately two per cent of college income.

As colleges already spend an average of five per cent of their income (£350 million) on contributions to the teacher pension scheme, this will take costs up to approximately £500 million, or seven per cent of total income, by 2020/21.

The outcome of a valuation of teachers’ pensions was released in August, which the Treasury undertakes every four years, and said public sector workers would get improved benefits from 2019.