Neglecting over-50s in the training world must change – here’s how we do it

At 50, workers still have 15 years until state pension age. So why do so many of the nine million over-50 workers feel that their days of learning and development are behind them?

Employers, training providers and society all have a part to play in the perception that learning is for the young. Is it any surprise that just 21 per cent of workers aged 50-59 say their employer encourages them to upskill, compared to 56 per cent of workers aged 18-29?

While some training providers focus primarily on younger learners, aiming to attract those who might return for training over the coming decades, this overlooks the immense value older learners bring to the workplace and their industry.

In fact, their experience and institutional knowledge are crucial to futureproofing industries, especially in sectors facing skills shortages.

That’s why training providers must focus on long-term growth and progression, not just for individual employees but for employers and the training sector as a whole. If training programmes don’t help safeguard the industry against skills shortages and workforce attrition, they are falling short.

Changing perceptions around who should be trained is key to this.

Post-pandemic, businesses are evolving rapidly. Many workers who have spent years in office environments now find themselves working remotely, often with little investment in their development.

Without the opportunity to upskill, their careers can feel stagnant. Career development is directly linked to job satisfaction, and for older workers, continued learning is vital for retaining talent. Investing in their growth fosters motivation and workforce diversity.

Tailored and inclusive courses

Offering courses tailored to individual learners and inclusive of all is a surefire way to attract more older generations to your training programmes.

Some workers may not have been in formal education for decades, so it’s important to avoid school-like environments and offer alternatives to traditional essay-based assessments. In addition, providing refresher sessions on study skills, time management and exam preparation can be helpful.

Start with short courses to build confidence and gradually show the impact of training on the learner so they feel empowered to progress their training.

Flexible and responsive provision

Flexibility in both learning styles and technology is essential. If your course is solely delivered via Zoom, but a learner prefers in-person mentorship, you run the risk of learners losing interest before they’ve even enrolled.

Everyone has their own preferred way of engaging with learning, and it’s important to cater to everyone. Some learners may need extra guidance to navigate online learning platforms, so providing tech support from the outset is crucial.

Many older workers also have family or caregiving responsibilities, so it’s key to recognise that training must fit around their lives rather than the other way around. Offering flexibility in course timings and duration ensures that learners can get the rest they need while still finding the course accessible.

In this context, a blended approach—combining in-person and online learning—can enhance both accessibility and flexibility.

Motivated and supported learners

Older workers seek training for a variety of reasons: career changes, staying competitive in the job market or personal fulfilment.

Training providers will likely see success when they take the time to truly understand each learner’s motivation. An introductory meeting focused on this allows the provider to tailor the course and set clear, achievable goals. A taster session will also spark interest in learning and allow the learner to reflect on their goals.

Additionally, training providers should position themselves as trusted advisers, both to the learner and the employer.

Older workers bring a wealth of knowledge, experience and previous education – and a finite amount of time to learn more. Providers should guide these learners to prioritise training that aligns with their interests, meets their career goals, remains relevant to their current roles and can be practically applied or passed on to others.

As a training provider, we are embracing learners of any age. The economy demands that our whole sector does too. Celebrating and leveraging their extensive experience is key to growth and so much more.

Streamlined skills and jobseeker support to cut ‘ballooning’ benefits bill

The government is hoping to cut its “ballooning” benefits bill by targeting disabled and unemployed people with better skills, work and health support.

Mayoral combined authorities and several unidentified English ‘trailblazer’ areas will receive a share of a £240 million “Get Britain Working package”, aimed at the 2.8 million who are out of work due to long-term sickness.

The funding will “streamline” local services and fund the testing of “early interventions” that target specific barriers to work faced by the long-term unemployed.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Due to years of economic neglect, the benefits bill is ballooning.

“We will build a Britain where people who can work, will work, turning the page on the recent rise in economic inactivity and decline and towards a future where people have good jobs and our benefits bill is under control.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer first announced the move this morning ahead of Wednesday’s budget, alongside a new £3 cap on bus fares until 2025, up from £2, which is likely to impact on college students.

The £240 million package will focus on encouraging the unemployed to use existing local skills courses and employability support rather than fund new provision, FE Week understands.

Locations of ‘trailblazers’ will be announced in “due course,” according to the Treasury announcement.

Labour has pledged to raise the country’s unemployment rate from 75 to 80 per cent through several new measures including a board of labour market expert advisors, merging careers advice with job centres and devolved employment support.

Further details of government’s plans – such as localised work, health, and skills plans – are expected in a “groundbreaking” Plan to Get Britain Working white paper this autumn.

Been here before?

Language such as ‘trailblazer’ is not the only echo of Conservative policies in today’s announcement.

The Restart Scheme, one of several Plan for Jobs measures announced in 2020, also offers the long-term unemployed careers advice, coaching, training and wellbeing support.

The Work and Health Programme, launched in 2017, specifically targets long-term unemployed people with a disability, health condition or disadvantage circumstances with up to 15 months support including health and wellbeing support, work coaching, and training.

The £238 million Job Entry Targeted Support scheme, which ran from 2020 to 2023, also targeted people who had been out of work for three months with support including “specialist advice” on building skills.

‘Get Britain Working’ was also an initiative launched in 2011 under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition that included benefit reforms, work programmes and pushing local support services to work together.

Boris Johnson’s government also revived sector-based work academy programmes in 2020, a scheme first attempted under the 2011 Get Britain Working, that offers unemployed people a short-term combination of training and work placement, followed by a guaranteed job interview.

The Plan for Jobs also included free training for people without a level 3 qualification through the Free Courses for Jobs scheme and short, flexible Skills Bootcamps that are free for the unemployed.

Education spending ‘protected’?

On Sunday, Reeves vowed to “protect” education priorities at this week’s budget, including by committing £1.4 billion to funding the existing school rebuilding programme next year.

She said this as she repeated the new Labour government’s line that the party is having to make “tough decisions” in the face of a £22 billion blackhole in public finances inherited from the Conservatives.

But there is a lack of detail from the government about exactly what it means by “protected”. There have been no other announcements regarding FE and skills spending decisions so far.

Global education investors snap up Corndel

One of the country’s largest apprenticeship training providers “partnered” with a French education empire in a private equity deal announced today.

Galileo Global Education has bought private equity firm THI Investments’ share in Corndel, a provider that trains 4-5,000 higher level business and IT apprentices each year.

The company’s co-founder and chief executive officer James Kelly said the purchase follows months of negotiations with Galileo.

He added: “It’s about higher education and workplace education coming increasingly together as things go forward.

“That’s partly why the fit works for us. It’s about organisations that equip people for the world of work and careers.”

‘Network of excellence’

The London-based training provider will join Galileo’s roster of more than 60 institutions in 18 countries, including Regent’s University London, Italian fashion school Instituto Marangoni and Paris School of Business.

Kelly said Corndel will “focus on growth” within Galileo’s network of education providers.

He has told staff Corndel will remain “organisationally independent” while benefitting from being in a “network of educational excellence”.

Higher ambitions

According to the training provider’s accounts for the year up to December 2023, its turnover increased 25 per cent to £37.4 million while its profits increased 66 per cent to £5.6 million.

In 2021-22, Corndel received £25 million in apprenticeship levy funding, the seventh highest sum in the country.

The company, set up in 2016, specialises in training apprentices in management, senior leadership, data analysis and project management at advanced or higher levels.

Kelly has said he hopes Corndel College London, a division of the main company, will become a new higher education organisation that is “free from the constraints and burdens of traditional structures”.

Equity deals

Galileo was bought in 2020 by its current owners – a consortium including the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board, Montagu Private Equity and Tethys Invest, the main shareholder of L’Oreal. The French group was reportedly on the market for £2.1 billion.

Corndel’s Stuttgart-based seller THI Investments, owned by the Hagenmeyer family, reportedly manages assets worth £1.7 billion.

Marc-Francois Mignot Mahon, chief executive officer of Galileo said: “We are very pleased to welcome Corndel to the Galileo group and are looking forward to supporting Corndel to build on its exceptional reputation for delivering the highest quality professional training programmes to the UK’s leading business.”

Mihir Kotecha, chief executive officer of THI Investments, said:  “THI has greatly valued the opportunity to have been part of Corndel’s tremendous growth story over the last four years during which time learner numbers have tripled. We wish both Corndel and Galileo every success for the future.”

Cambridge drops senior leader apprenticeship despite ‘outstanding’ inspection

The University of Cambridge’s apprenticeship training has been rated ‘outstanding’ in its first full inspection, although its programme for senior leaders has now been axed.

Last month’s full inspection was the university’s first since its Institute of Continuing Education launched its apprenticeship programme in 2019 and resulted in ‘outstanding’ grades across the board.

At the time of the inspection, the university had 76 senior leader apprentices and 88 architect apprentices, both level 7 standards.

However, the university now only delivers the architect course after closing enrolments for its senior leader master’s apprenticeship in criminology and police management, which is taken by small groups of high-ranking police officers.

Ofsted praised the university’s “considerable academic rigour” and expert assessment that help its 164 apprentices “thrive”.

Apprentices “swiftly” improve their work thanks to “extensive, incisive feedback” from academics and employers that challenges them to deliver work “of a consistently high standard”, inspectors said.

Architects are “very well prepared for their next steps” while many police senior leaders are promoted either during or after their course.

A university spokesperson confirmed the senior leader apprenticeship, which attracts £14,000 in funding per apprentice and must last a minimum of two years, was no longer viable and declined to comment further.

According to the latest DfE data, the university started its last senior leader apprentice in November 2023.

Cambridge appears to be the second prestigious training provider this year to drop an apprenticeship programme despite gaining Ofsted’s highest grade.

Earlier this year, Dyson announced it would pay at least £250,000 per employee for training rather than bear the “heavy (and costly) administrative burden” of degree apprenticeships.

The Institute of Continuing Education is based in Madingley Hall, a 16th-century country house boasting “tasteful en-suite accommodation” for up to 100 delegates, meeting rooms, a bar, and seven acres of “spectacular” gardens.

‘Outstanding’ for Dyson’s axed degree apprenticeships

Apprentices and other students at the institute study in three in-person ‘blocks’ per year, where they “relish” formal dinners and benefit from “high-profile guest speakers”.

Although it will no longer offer apprenticeships for senior police officers, Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education is still accepting applications for its two-year criminology and police management master’s, also known as its ‘police executive programme’, costing £31,000.

The institute – which increased its enrolments by a quarter to 8,369 in 2022-23 – also dropped an apprentice-postgraduate certificate in research and innovation management for academics in 2022.

It appears to have scaled back its previously reported plans to deliver “a range of new programmes” in apprenticeships.

Writing in the institute’s annual report, director Dr James Gazzard said 2022-23 placed “punishing” levels of demand on staff.

“The sector is increasingly competitive and regulated,” he added.

“Rightly, particularly given increasing tuition fees, learners are increasingly demanding. 

“The University’s offer of continuing, professional, and executive education is distributed across more than twenty providers, strategic frameworks are absent, meaning coordination and economies of scale are difficult to achieve, and internal competition a concerning distraction.”

Level 3 qualifications reform poses a risk to digital skills

Through my work with digital employers and FE colleges across the UK, it’s clear that the recent decision to pause and review the cancellation of the Level 3 Digital BTEC (and indeed other subjects) has come as welcome relief for many.

The slight shift in tone from DfE ministers is also positive, with Jacqui Smith indicating that the cull of qualifications won’t be as drastic as the last administration had planned.

However, there is still much uncertainty about how the new Level 3 qualification landscape will look, which is proving a challenge for colleges in terms of curriculum planning and recruitment for 2024/25.

Having worked in education for over 25 years and in FE for a decade, I am unequivocal in my view that BTECs must be preserved. They have long been an essential pathway for young people to develop practical skills, particularly in the digital space.

For many students, especially boys aged 16-19, the two-year BTEC programme provides flexibility and time needed to mature, not just academically but personally.

I see remarkable growth in students’ abilities and attitudes between their first and second years. The opportunity to learn at their own pace, adapt to new technologies, and develop critical business skills is invaluable.

This continuity and growth is what worries me about the push to phase out BTECs in favour of newer qualifications like T Levels. While T Levels are an excellent addition to the educational landscape, the reality is that they aren’t suitable for every 16-year-old.

The requirement for students to have already passed their Level 2 English and Maths before they can begin a T Level creates a barrier for those who may need more time or support to achieve these qualifications.

Some colleges are creating transition courses to prepare students for T Level courses, but even these don’t guarantee that they will all be able to handle the more academically rigorous and exam-driven structure of T Levels.

Another significant hurdle is the mandatory 45-day industry placement required to complete a T Level. Finding relevant placements is difficult, and the strict rules—such as limiting students to a maximum of two employers—make it even harder.

Without incentives, recruitment problems will continue

Add to this the difficulty of scheduling placements around college timetables, and the whole process becomes burdensome for students and institutions alike.

Many of the colleges I work with are also struggling with a lack of qualified teachers to deliver the Digital T Level.

The curriculum is more complex and demands more teaching hours than BTEC, yet colleges struggle to recruit digital experts, who can earn significantly more in the private sector. Without incentives such as additional payments for teaching in high-demand subjects, this problem will continue.

Some solutions may lie in increased collaboration with businesses, but building these partnerships takes time and resources, both of which are in short supply.

In my own work with colleges, we collaborate with companies by arranging visits, running skills projects and setting up placements for students, but a co-ordinated policy solution is needed. For example, the government could consider offering tax incentives for companies that allow staff to contribute to college teaching or mentorship programs.

Apprenticeships offer another valuable route for young people, and skills-based hiring is becoming more prevalent across many industries. Companies like Wavemaker, Hays, and Lloyds Bank are establishing their own academies to train young people post-Level 3, offering opportunities to ‘earn while you learn’. Degree apprenticeships are also gaining traction and becoming very much in demand.

But to ensure that every student can access such opportunities and reach their career goals, the Level 3 qualification landscape must provide choice and flexibility.

Level 3 BTEC courses are a lifeline for many students who, for various reasons including personal challenges and disrupted education need an accessible, flexible option. Without it, many students may leave full-time education with only a Level 2 qualification, potentially cutting off further progression into higher education or skilled employment.

This isn’t about complicating the system with too many qualifications; it’s about ensuring that there is a pathway available for everyone, no matter what their ability, interest, career goals or preferred way of learning.

If we want to close the skills gap, particularly in the digital industries, we must ensure that Level 3 qualifications remain responsive to the needs of all learners, as well as the needs of employers.

BTECs are central to this ambition. They will help ensure that every young person can pursue a digital career and take advantage of the endless opportunities available in this exciting sector.

Budget: Our expectations must be realistic and long-term

The first budget by a female chancellor, and the first for the new government would be big news at any time. But with the long lead-in time, speculation really has been running rife.

Some commentators have been criticising the government for not having detailed plans in place for after they took power supporting an early budget. I’m more in the camp of being careful what you wish for, because there are so many complex areas of policy, and of course funding, that need attention.

To expect an incoming government to be ready with solutions for them all is probably unrealistic, but certainly undesirable.

I’ve seen too many policy ideas presented like classic a Blue Peter craft project: “here’s one we prepared earlier”. Rarely do those policies work well unless there is engagement with the people implementing them, and even better with the people who are meant to benefit.

What looks neat, clear-cut and simple in Whitehall often makes a lot less sense on the ground.

But to engage, listen, learn and co-create takes time. And after a long period in which college leaders have felt they weren’t being listened to, there is an expectation of change. That engagement is happening, and at pace, but it will still take some time to reach conclusions – and so it should.

In post-16 and skills policy we have plenty going on: a review of curriculum and assessment, the establishment of Skills England, reforms to the apprenticeship levy, the new youth guarantee, devolution, the industrial strategy, a skills strategy, local growth plans and probably others too.

On all of these, it feels to me as if we are being engaged and our views and proposals being carefully considered.

As for the budget itself, we’ve all been hearing the chancellor’s warning of the parlous state of the finances they have inherited, something forewarned before the election by Paul Johnson from the Institute of Fiscal Studies and many others.

The only thing for certain is that expectations are low

The only thing for certain is that expectations are low of any new or significant investment. That could be the tactic, or it could be the reality; I’m expecting a few voter-friendly rabbits to emerge from the chancellor’s red box, but not too many, and not with big price tags.

Our asks for the budget were modest and realistic: help with pay to at least match the school teacher pay award of 5.5 per cent (costing about £250m), VAT reimbursement like schools (returning about £210m to college coffers) and full funding for the rising numbers of 16- to 18-year-olds.

Even achieving one of those feels like it might be a win, but in reality all three are hard to argue against. The trouble is that there are very strong arguments like ours across so many public services and nowhere near enough tax to pay for them all.We all know that there are lots of tough choices to be made.

Next week, the chancellor sets out government spending for 2025-26 only. By March, she will have plans for the next few years, and for that our asks will be much more ambitious.

In March, we need the chancellor to show that she views our sector as offering a strong and vital return on investment, not a cost. We need to have shown her and other cabinet ministers that their missions of economic growth, net zero, safer streets, wider opportunities and the NHS cannot be delivered without investing in people.

Colleges and further education are vital drivers across all of those missions. The sector helps young people and adults develop themselves as citizens and skilled workers, supports employers to innovate and improve productivity and helps develop stronger, more tolerant and cohesive communities.

That’s the vision I want the chancellor to believe in. Because if she does, then the investment will have to follow – if not this month, then in March and beyond.

Pay deal ends two-year dispute at north east college group

A Teesside college group has settled a staff pay dispute after two years of “holding firm” by Universities and College Union (UCU) members.

The agreement between the Education Training Collective (ETC) and its staff covers three academic years between 2022 and 2024.

UCU said its members at ETC have carried out 13 days of strike action in the last 17 months.

But they have now voted to accept a pay offer that amounts to at least a 13.5 per cent increase for staff across the last three years, FE Week understands.

Some lecturers, course leaders and support staff will also see increases of about three per cent after the removal of the lowest pay scale and an increased top pay scale.

Staff parking charges will also be removed from all college campuses and additional wellbeing days will be introduced.

The group has more than 11,000 students at Bede Sixth Form College, NETA Training Group, Stockton Riverside College, The Skills Academy and Redcar and Cleveland College.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady congratulated ETC members for “holding firm” for the pay deal.

She added: “This award should now serve as a warning to other college bosses, pay our members fairly or face sustained strike action until we win.”

An ETC spokesperson said the college group is “delighted” with the agreement.

They added: “Etc. is committed to remunerating colleagues as fairly as possible without risking the financial health of the group.”

Learning of additional strikes in March this year, bosses said the group’s financial position meant it was “unable” to agree further pay increases.

From August this year, staff will receive a three per cent pay rise, half a percentage point higher than the Association of College’s recommendation last month.

But many of the pay increases announced by UCU today have been previously rejected, according to previous statements.

This includes a 3 per cent pay rise from August 2022, one per cent from May 2023, and a 6.5 per cent across-the-board pay rise implemented from November 2023.

According to its most recent available accounts, for 2022-23, the college had a ‘good’ financial health rating, with the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s main allocations amounting to about £23 million in 2023-24.

In 2022-23 the college finished the year with a surplus of £621,000, reserves of £23 million and long-term bank debt of £2.4 million.

This comes as the National Education Union (NEU) ballots teachers in 40 non-academised sixth form colleges for strike action over the decision to fund a 5.5 per cent pay award for schools and academised sixth form colleges. Balloting closes on November 7.

Give employers tax relief on training, say Lords

A House of Lords select committee has thrown its weight behind calls for a skills tax credit to encourage employers to spend more on training.

The industry and regulators committee, which ran an inquiry into skills and apprenticeships earlier this year, said the UK has “lost the advantage” of employer-led workforce training, which could be reversed by tax incentives.

UK employers spend less than half the EU average on training per year, down from £2,139 per employee in 2005 to £1,530 in 2019, according to Learning and Work Institute (L&W).

This idea had “support in principle” from several committee witnesses including sector bodies and former skills minister Robert Halfon.

Youth guarantee

Following its inquiry launched in April this year, the committee concluded that the skills system is complex, lacks strategic direction and operates in a “fitful, short-term fashion”.

Labour’s promised post-16 education strategy should simplify the system with longer term funding and “a smaller number of priorities and programmes”.

Other areas of concern include the exact role of Skills England, proposed reforms to the apprenticeship levy “pulling in different directions” and barriers to Labour’s youth guarantee.

The committee wrote: “For providers to be able to guarantee opportunities for young people, the funding necessary for this will have to track demand more closely, as it does in the higher education system.

“Otherwise, funding restrictions will mean that there will always be a cap on how many people can be taught, and there will be no guarantee.

Labour’s skills minister Jacqui Smith is expected to formally respond to the report in a public committee session on November 26.

Early policy decisions such as restricting level 7 apprenticeships and introducing “foundation” apprenticeships suggest that the new government is willing to refocus funding towards younger people.

The tax credits idea

Modelling for a “skills tax credit” and an enhanced “super tax credit” by Learning and Work Institute suggests the idea could unlock over £1 billion in employer investment in training, reversing much of the cuts to adult education since 2010.

The credits would allow businesses to deduct training costs from their corporation tax liabilities, similar to the research and development tax credit.

Skills tax credits were first recommended to the government in 2012 by Dragon’s Den star Doug Richard, who was appointed to review the apprenticeship system.

The suggestion had the support of former skills advisor Baroness Alison Wolf in 2019, although she told the education select committee protection would need to be built into the system to avoid “massive fraud”. The Treasury at the time it would need a “clear economic case.”

Barriers to employer-funded training

Some employers fear investing in staff who may leave to work in other companies, the committee heard.

To combat this, the government and Skills England should “take a lead” in communicating that investing in staff actually helps employees “retain staff for longer”.

Simplifying the skills system could also help tackle “low levels of employer awareness” of what training is available.

Right skills for industry – and people

“We know that the government has got a new industrial strategy, but for that to be a success, we have got to have the right skills in place,” committee chair Baroness Ann Taylor told FE Week.

“There are significant gaps in a whole range of industries such as construction and nuclear as well as smaller industries.

“The evidence suggests that the system isn’t meeting the needs of industries, or young people who leave school without the intention of going to university and don’t have the opportunity to gain the skills they need, want or deserve.”

‘Taking skills seriously’

A DfE spokesperson said: “It is high time we took apprenticeships and skills training seriously as a country and this government is mission-driven to do so.

“We will unlock opportunities for our young people to harness their talents and grow our economy. 

“Through Skills England and our new growth and skills levy, we are working with businesses, unions, mayors and training providers to find and fill skills gaps across our country.”

SEND: ‘Whole-system reform needed’, says NAO

The new government should “explicitly” consider “whole-system” SEND reforms, the spending watchdog has urged in a devastating report that reveals the full scale of impending financial meltdown.

The National Audit Office (NAO) has warned the special needs system is “financially unsustainable”, with two-fifths of councils at risk of declaring bankruptcy by March 2026 over spiralling costs on special needs education.

Government interventions to tackle financial pressures, such as the controversial “safety valve” bailout scheme, are not achieving savings quickly and won’t provide a sustainable system, the NAO said.

Urgent action required

Government predicts high needs budget pressures will rise by £3.9 billion in just a few years, while councils’ deficits could hit nearly £5 billion. Meanwhile, outcomes for young people are not improving.

Only 69 per cent of young people with SEND needs progress to further education, employment or apprenticeship after leaving 16-18 study, compared to 85 per cent of those without.

The NAO points out that disparity in destinations has not changed since 2018/19.

However, 43 per cent of young people with SEND achieved English and maths GCSEs by age 19 in 2022/23, up from 34 per cent in 2018/19.

Yet, despite spending years formulating the SEND improvement plan, the watchdog found the Conservative government did not have a “fully developed implementation plan”.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: “Given that the current system costs over £10 billion a year, and that demand for SEN provision is forecast to increase further, government needs to think urgently about how its current investment can be better spent, including through more inclusive education, and developing a cohesive whole system approach.”

The NAO made nine recommendations. They include whole-system reform to improve outcomes and put the system “on a financially sustainable footing” and work with Treasury to come up with a plan for councils when the accounting immunity – which keeps deficits off the books – runs out in 2026.

It also wants government to work to “understand the root causes behind increases” in SEND and EHCP numbers, and develop a “vision and long-term plan for inclusivity across mainstream education”.

DfE should make better use of its data, which is weak for 16-25 learners, to understand demand for spaces across different settings in local areas and the knock-on requirements for other services, such as home-to-college transport.

16+ spending

Bridget Phillipson, education secretary, said the report “exposes a system that has been neglected to the point of crisis” with children and families “simply being failed on every measure”. 

She vowed there will be no more “sticking plaster politics and short-termism”, but warned reform “will take time”. 

Clare Howard, chief executive of Natspec, the representative body for specialist colleges, welcomed the NAO’s call for reform but said their analysis failed to address “disproportionately low levels of spending in further education.”

Clare Howard

“There is an urgent need to address the issues faced by colleges which are being asked to work with increasing numbers of students with complex needs, at a lower rate per student.

“The report references a 35 per cent real-terms drop in funding per EHCP, and its analysis of local authority spending shows that those aged 16+ who are not in school sixth forms are allocated only 13 per cent of the mainstream budget and less than 10 per cent of the high needs budget.”

Incentives and accountabilities

Next to funding, “misaligned incentives, accountabilities and priorities across the system” are preventing young people with SEND from accessing the right support at the right time, which is driving up costs.

Local authorities told the NAO that some young people with severe needs are being kept in education to age 25 because adult social care services were not available.

Shortages in local health provision had “led to responsibilities and costs for healthcare being shifted onto schools, colleges and local authorities,” the NAO said.

Progress towards DfE’s own 136 “aspirations and actions” for the SEND system was not being consistently monitored, the NAO found. “As such, DfE cannot say how much progress it has made in implementing specific published commitments,” it said.

For example, as at May 2024, the NAO found 15 of the 32 local authorities developing local inclusion plans had drafted them and local and national data dashboards have not yet been published.

David Holloway, senior policy manager for SEND at the Association of Colleges, said the government should be across “better transitions to adult social care” and “a clearer status for specialist colleges” as part of its longer term reforms.

He added: “In the short term, the government must also reform disadvantage funding to support long term capacity and growth, including a specific block for students who have SEND but do not have high needs.

“In the medium term, the government should introduce accountabilities to improve local authority place commissioning for students with EHCPs, ensuring timely and informed decisions leading to better transitions.”