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Ofsted annual report 2017/18: Nine key findings for FE

Amanda Spielman presented her second annual report as Ofsted’s chief inspector this morning.

She used it to highlight improvement in overall FE outcomes in the face of funding pressures, as well as concerns that the apprenticeship levy isn’t being used as intended.

FE Week has the nine key findings for FE and skills providers.

Full inspections are down but overall outcomes are up

Ofsted carried out 329 full and short inspections of FE and skills providers this year – down from 392 in 2016/17.

Of these, four per cent resulted in an ‘outstanding’ rating, 66 per cent ‘good’, 24 per cent ‘requires improvement’ and six per cent ‘inadequate’.

That means that 70 per cent of providers inspected this year were rated at least grade two – an increase of one per cent on last year’s outcomes.

FE Week revealed last month that full inspections carried out by Ofsted in 2017/18 plunged by a third.

Fewer, larger colleges are improving – and it’s not just because of mergers

A higher proportion of general FE colleges are now rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ than last year – from 67 per cent to 76 per cent, as revealed by FE Week last month.

But there are also fewer colleges than in previous years – 178 at the end of 2017/18, compared with 189 in 2016/17 and 207 the year before.

According to today’s report since September 2015 a total of 94 colleges, sixth form colleges and other providers have been involved in mergers.

While this may in part explain colleges’ overall improvement, today’s report notes the increase in the number of colleges boosting their grades from three to two – 18 out of 26 inspected in 2017/18, compared with eight out of 20 in 2016/17.

Many merged colleges have yet to be inspected

Of the 178 general FE colleges at the end of 2017/18, just 140 had been inspected.

The vast majority of those yet to be inspected – 37 out of 38 – were newly merged colleges.

Ofsted policy is to treat merged colleges as new providers, meaning they’re given up to three years before they receive a full inspection – a rule that has prompted criticism for allowing mergers to be an excuse for turning a blind eye to failure.

Concerns about the impact of funding on FE remain

Amanda Spielman’s commentary on today’s report continued her previously-raised concerns about the impact of funding pressures on FE, which she said “has borne the brunt of austerity when it comes to education”.

“We are concerned about the financial sustainability of the college sector, and the clear impact that real-term cuts to FE funding can have on provision,” she said.

Ofsted’s published reports, inspection evidence and insights indicated that colleges were having to make cutbacks in a number of areas including the “number of teachers, trainers and/ or support staff; teaching hours allocated to some courses; and the range of courses and enrichment activities offered to students”.

She reiterated concerns over colleges that were recruiting learners, particularly at level two, for courses without good employment prospects.

However, she noted: “It is understandable that colleges are trying to recruit as many students as possible.”

Standards are falling at private providers, but numbers are rising – fast

The proportion of independent training providers to be rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ at their most recent inspection fell – from 81 per cent in 2016/17, to 78 per cent in 2017/18.

Of the 115 inspections of ITPs – including employer providers – carried out during the year, 42 resulted in a grade three or four outcome.

Of those inspected for the first time, the proportion found to be ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ was almost two-thirds – a similar proportion to last year.

While standards are slipping, the number of ITPs in scope for inspection has risen sharply – from 490 at the end of 2016/17 to 990 at the end of 2017/18.

The increase, which today’s report says is due to the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017, means that 55 per cent of ITPS have yet to receive their first full inspection.

Most apprentices are at good or outstanding providers – despite concerns over quality

Two-thirds of apprentices were following courses at providers rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ at the time of inspection, today’s report has shown.

“This was because the good and outstanding providers were generally training larger numbers of apprentices,” it said.

Ofsted inspected 110 apprenticeship providers this year, of which 58 per cent were found to be grade one or two for this type of provision – an increase of nine percentage points from 2016/17.

Despite this, today’s report highlighted some concerns about poor apprenticeship quality.

The inspectorate’s new early monitoring visits to new apprenticeship providers, of which 88 were carried out in 2017/18, had revealed “common issues around poor governance, low-quality teaching and not enough time for off-the-job training”.

“The people who suffer as a result are the apprentices themselves, who finish their programme without the knowledge and skills to succeed in the workplace,” the report warned.

It also highlighted a number of “high profile” cases of poor apprenticeship provision among big, established providers, including one “that had swiftly recruited apprentices over the past year was not providing apprenticeships that were fit for purpose”.

Subcontractor quality is mostly good

Ofsted’s increased reporting on subcontracting, introduced from February this year, has found most subcontracted provision was good.

Out of a sample of 30 inspection report, inspections found two thirds of providers were managing their subcontractors effectively – and a similar proportion were “delivering good quality provision”.

A further 25 inspection reports commented on the progress of learners with subcontractors: in three-quarters of cases learners with the subcontractor were progressing at the same pace, and achieved their qualifications at the same time, as learners with the main provider.

Standards at sixth form colleges and adult and community learning providers are up

The proportion of adult and community learning providers to be rated at least good at their most recent inspection has gone up five percentage points – from 83 per cent in 2016/17, to 88 per cent in 2017/18.

A total of 81 per cent of sixth-form colleges were rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ at their most recent inspection by the end of 2017/18 – a one percentage point increase from the year before.

But there are now only 61 SFCs – down from 90 two years ago – as the remainder have either converted to become a 16 to 19 academy or merged with a college.

Apprenticeship levy is being spent on ‘rebadged’ graduate schemes

The chief inspector amplified Ofsted’s concern that too much apprenticeship levy funding is being spent on higher levels, and not enough on lower level programmes for young people.

Ofsted’s report shows community learning providers need more funding

The high quality of adult education provision highlighted in the inspectorate’s annual report is a strong argument for rebalancing funding in their favour, says Sue Pember

This year’s Ofsted chief inspector’s report highlights how successful our community learning and skills providers are. They are the hidden gems of the adult education system and are leading the FE sector, with 88% rated ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ – up from 83% last year.

Redbridge Adult Education Institute is a great example of high-quality provision. This year, it received one of the best outstanding reports possible, with inspectors commenting that there were no areas requiring development, along with something you don’t often see in an Ofsted report: “the students were having fun”!

The annual report highlighted high-quality training in mentoring and counselling for learners recovering from drug and alcohol misuse; ESOL courses to help refugees and nurses recruited from overseas to improve their spoken English; family learning courses for parents so that they can better support their children at school; programmes that focus on developing employment skills for learners with learning disabilities; and work with the police service to help learners remove themselves from gang culture.

It’s great to see Ofsted recognising the amazing work done by the 200-plus community education providers. Annually they educate over 650,000 learners, concentrating on working with those furthest away from the workplace and/or at risk of being isolated from society. Their learners are very satisfied with their courses – in the recent national learner choices survey, 93% of adult and community learners said they were “likely” or “very likely” to recommend their learning provider, compared to 78% for rest of the sector.

While concentrating on their core mission, they provide a wide range of learner-led programmes and utilise all the Adult Education Budget funding streams, plus the apprenticeship levy and non-levy funding, ESF and FE loans. They also provide financial support to learners with a co-funding and full-cost approach to collection of fees.

Of the 17 providers that improved to good this year, inspectors found that the most common areas of improvement were quality of teaching, learning and assessment; strengthened governance arrangements; more effective management of subcontractors; and raised expectations and aspirations for learners.

What is perhaps most remarkable is that adult learning providers have maintained and even improved quality, while responding to a 40% decrease in funding over the last 10 years. Even in this uncomfortable funding environment, which has led to a decrease in participation, with 1.5 million learning places lost over the last seven years, community education services have proved their worth, their ability to provide quality provision and to remain in budget.

This funding imbalance needs to change

Adult learning providers are keen to grow their offer, but they have been stifled by the present funding system, which does not include a mechanism for substantial growth. They want to support their local learners and are hoping the post-18 review of funding will recognise that a static funding system based on historical allocation is no longer appropriate – and that most learners with skill levels below level 2 want to go to local neighbourhood provision.

The most inexcusable figures to come out from our work on post-18 funding is that only 1% of all post-18 spend is used to support adult learners who want to learn in their community, and only 7% is spent on those who didn’t do well at school. This funding imbalance needs to change, and our excellent adult education services should be allowed to grow and meet future need.

What is needed is a responsive funding system that recognises providers who perform well and deliver what learners want. As the inspectorate has highlighted, most of these community services are in local authorities and therefore find it easy to work in partnership with other services like housing and health.

They are ready to take up the challenge of supporting the one in five of the population who have literacy or numeracy issues and the many who need ESOL to support their full integration into the community and work. They are also keen to support the national retraining scheme and the digital agenda and are well placed to do this.

Their students often have the greatest life challenges and require concentrated effort to help them back into learning. They also support wider government policies on stronger families, digital skills, social mobility and mental health. Learning often takes place in community settings, such as primary schools, church halls, libraries and community centres and, because many of the services are not concentrated around one site, they are very agile and can quickly respond to specific community needs.

The chief inspector’s report highlights the effectiveness and ability of community education services and the time is now right for the post-18 funding review to recommend a rebalancing of the post-18 spend, and to invest in those adults most in need of upskilling.

ESFA handed over £250,000 AFTER disgraced training provider went bust

The Education and Skills Funding Agency has paid a further quarter of a million pounds to a firm that had its training contracts terminated following an undercover FE Week investigation.

Talent Training, which was based in South Tyneside and claimed to have £130 million of apprenticeship levy business, was caught offering banned inducements in the summer of 2017.

Following this newspaper’s exposé, the ESFA cancelled the company’s skills contracts and it went into administration with around 100 staff being made redundant.

Members drawings by David Harper were in excess of the distributable reserves and he has agreed a six figure offer to pay in full by 30 June 2019

But it has since come to light that Talent Training’s administrators, David Rubin and Partners, claimed a huge chunk of public cash – £258,000 – following the demise of the provider, of which almost £30,000 was handed over to the private provider’s managing director, David Harper (pictured).

The company, which owes over £1 million to its creditors, has also launched a legal challenge against the ESFA in an effort to claim more cash.

An “administrator’s progress report”, published on Companies House on April 5, reveals that the £258,000 was paid for training that the company claims to have carried out, but was not paid for by the ESFA.

“The final apprenticeship and adult education data return was submitted in the sum of £195,214.53 and the ESFA approved the release of caps on the provider’s contract for period 2016/2017 amounting to £78,797. The total amount therefore due to the company was £273,011.53,” it said (click here to read full document).

“After the ESFA conducted their reconciliations of the account, the sum of £7,500 was deducted in respect of grants that had not been passed to employers and £8,368.38 was also deducted in respect of unpaid invoices as a result of independent audits completed in May 2017.

“In view of the above, the net payment received from the ESFA was £258,143.15.”

The administrators added that they will claim nearly £250,000 in fees.

“In accordance with these resolutions, we have drawn down fees of £205,236 plus VAT and I would confirm that my fees estimate for the administration remains unchanged,” the report said.

It added that Mr Harper, a millionaire businessman who has operated in the training market for years, was “instructed” to assist with the collection of the ESFA payment and other debtors monies outstanding to the company “on the basis that he had an in depth knowledge of the debts”.

The “agreed basis” of his fees was “10 per cent of debtor recoveries plus expenses capped at £4,000”, all of which were “incurred”.

READ MORE: Terminated: Government bans major levy provider after FE Week exposé

“Therefore the sum of £29,814.31 has been paid to DH,” the report stated.

Additionally, £6,081.22 was paid to “three former employees” who assisted Mr Harper in “collating records and submission of the return to the ESFA”. None of these employees were named.

The document does however also show that Mr Harper owes the company up to £1 million, after taking out a director’s loan.

“Members drawings by David Harper were in excess of the distributable reserves and he has agreed a six figure offer to pay in full by 30 June 2019,” it said.

The document also reveals that Talent has opened a legal case against the ESFA for terminating its contracts and its administrators are pursuing more compensation as the company moves into liquidation.

It said the legal action has “a high potential recovery value”, and while the “claims are being robustly defended”, David Harper is “continuing to assist the joint administrators and WH [solicitors Ward Hadaway], and will continue to do so in the forthcoming liquidation”.

Talent has large creditors’ debts totalling more than £1.44 million, including over £150,000 owed to the HMRC, according to a document published on Companies House in September 2018.

In accordance with these resolutions, we have drawn down fees of £205,236 plus VAT

FE Week attempted to contact Mr Harper and David Rubin and Partners multiple times but neither responded to requests for comment.

The undercover FE Week investigation carried out in June last year caught a Talent employee offering as much as 20 per cent of its government funding per apprenticeship to a firm that was considering its training services.

The company insisted at the time that no inducement payments had actually been paid, but went into administration two months later when the ESFA pulled its contracts.

David Rubin and Partners is no stranger to working with Mr Harper.

Companies House shows the firm has handled the administration for a number of other companies that he was a director for.

These include hco-consult and Driving Careers Limited, which both went into voluntary liquidation in November 2017.

David Harper’s description of himself on the website of another company he runs, HaperCo

Levy budget bust: Government agency warns of imminent apprenticeship over-spend

The apprenticeships budget for England is set to be overspent by £0.5 billion this year, rising to £1.5 billion during 2021/22, according to the government agency for apprenticeships.

The warning from the Institutes for Apprenticeships follows a refusal from the Department for Education last month to answer FE Week’s questions concerning the full levy costs.

The problem – which comes despite the volume of starts dipping – is understood to be the result of higher per-start funding than first predicted, largely driven by the sharp rise in management apprenticeships with high prices.

As more and more people start on these expensive apprenticeships, the monthly on-programme costs quickly accumulate – see below for FE Week’s analysis.

Mark Dawe, the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, has demanded an “open debate on how the levy operates” following this revelation.

We are now heading to a situation where there will be no money left for SME employers

“At last it slips out into the open what we have been anticipating for months and what we predicted from the start: that more higher level expensive apprenticeships are consuming the bulk of the levy,” he told FE Week.

“We are now heading to a situation where there will be no money left for SME employers when the government is launching a £5 million promotion campaign to the very same group.”

Mr Dawe reiterated AELP’s call for a “separate £1 billion a year budget for non-levy employers” and “access to the £10 billion annual funding to HE”.

Mr Dawe’s Association of Colleges counterpart, David Hughes, praised the IfA for being “open and transparent” in sharing the projected spend against current budget.

But he added: “It confirms what we believe, that at some point there will need to be rationing by either number or price or both.”

He urged both the IfA and the DfE “to come forward quickly with the range of proposals that will be needed in order to remain within budget”.

Robert Nitsch, the IfA’s chief operating officer, presented the IfA figures during an event for employers held at Exeter College on Friday.

According to IfA slide (above), the yearly cost of starts this year will be £500 million higher than the £2.2 billion budget in 2018/19.

By 2020/21 the shortfall is set to rise to £1.5 billion, with costs rising to £4.1 billion against a budget of £2.6 billion.

The IfA told FE Week that the slide highlighted that there’s currently no unspent levy, and that – if apprenticeship numbers continue to rise – there could be a situation in the future where levy contributions may be insufficient to cover the full cost of apprenticeships.

It also said that both Sir Gerry Berragan, the IfA’s chief executive, and skills minister Anne Milton had referred to this over-spend before – although it’s not clear when. FE Week has been unable to find any references to it, and has asked the IfA for examples.

The DfE has been approached for a comment.

This is the first warning sign that levy funds are set to be over-spent, rather than under-spent.

It’s particularly significant as the system was designed on the basis that levy-paying employers wouldn’t use all their funds, and that any surplus would be used to fund apprenticeships with non-levy paying employers.

FE Week reported in November that employers had used just under 14 per cent of their levy funds to date, with £370 million out of a total £2.7 billion drawn down.

But this draw-down by employers is just one of a number of costs that levy funds need to cover.

Other expenses include funding apprenticeships for small, non-levy paying employers, English and maths qualifications, incentive payments for 16- to 18-year-old apprentices, and extra support for apprentices who are care leavers or have special needs.

FE Week asked the DfE last month how much of the levy pot has so far been used on these different areas, but it refused to say.

Starts have been consistently down since the levy was introduced, with the most recently published figures showing a 43 per cent drop in July compared with pre-levy numbers.

The number of starts on costly management apprenticeships has sky-rocketed

But at the same time the number of starts on costly management apprenticeships has sky-rocketed.

FE Week was first to warn of the ‘unstoppable rise’ of management apprenticeships in 2016, and last month reported that just 10 management standards were responsible for a fifth of all apprenticeship starts on standards, according to provisional data for 2017/18.

The proportion has grown over the years, from nine per cent in 2015/16 and 15 per cent in 2016/17.

Robert Nitsch’s slide from Friday’s employer engagement event

The IfA is in the process of carrying out funding band reviews of a number of early-approved standards – many of which have resulted in the band being slashed.

According to the IfA’s 2018/19 business plan, the review is to ensure “they support high quality delivery, and maximise value for money for employers and the taxpayer”.

It also said the IfA is “working with DfE to develop the best approach for pricing apprenticeships in the long term.”

The outcome for three management standards, including the chartered manager degree apprenticeships, is still unknown as the employer group behind them appealed against the recommendation.

Meanwhile, the IfA is set to announce the second batch of standards for which they will begin consulting on funding rate changes on Tuesday.

How costs can quickly add up

FE Week analysis of figures published by the DfE for the management degree apprenticeship shows the number of starts rose from 576 (up to £15.5 million) in the year to July 2017 to 2,259 (up to £61 million) in the year to July 2018.

Initially, the Education and Skills Funding Agency would only be paying a fraction of this £76 million because the monthly payments are spread over the full duration – typically 48 months for the level six standard.

But the costs quickly accumulate as each month the ESFA is paying the on-programme costs of the starts in previous months, until the course finishes and the final 20 percent is paid for completion – see analysis below.

DfE wants Ofsted to inspect more ‘outstanding’ colleges – but won’t drop exemption

The Department for Education has told Ofsted to reinspect more ‘outstanding’ colleges and schools, but stopped short of dropping the controversial exemption.

Nick Gibb, the schools minister, has asked the watchdog to review its risk assessment arrangements and ensure it inspects 10 per cent of grade one schools and colleges over the coming year.

However, he said the exemption itself will remain in place, and has not indicated whether Ofsted will get more money to help it meet his demands.

The government has come under intense pressure from Ofsted and others to remove the exemption in recent months.

Under the exemption, previously ‘outstanding’-rated colleges are not inspected apart from in rare circumstances, for example, where concerns are raised about safeguarding or data suggests worsening student outcomes.

However, as revealed in an FE Week investigation two years ago and subsequent National Audit Office report earlier this year, the exemption has led to many colleges and hundreds of schools being ignored by inspectors for over a decade.

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

“The outstanding grade should be a symbol that a school is a beacon of excellence. If we are to maintain its reputation, the exemption from inspection for outstanding schools must be removed and Ofsted fully resourced to inspect those schools,” she wrote to the committee.

In a letter to Ms Spielman, published today, MrGibb said it was “right that we take stock of the policy and ensure that Ofsted is able to provide appropriate assurances about these providers”.

“This is a recognition that the current arrangements are identifying too few schools and colleges to give parents the assurances they need,” he wrote. “This is also in line with the expectation agreed in Parliament when the exemption was introduced.”

The letter said this 10 per cent should include schools and colleges where risk assessments have indicated possible “concerns”, but can also include a selection of institutions were “best practice is likely to be found”.

“I look forward to continuing our constructive discussions on this important topic, and reviewing the impact of the changes to your risk assessment process,” Mr Gibb added.

A spokesperson for Ofsted said: “We welcome the minister’s letter and the recognition that it is a good time to take stock of the government’s exemption policy.

“We will continue our discussions with the DfE about the fact that outstanding schools are exempt from routine inspection and that we believe this currently undermines the value for parents of the top inspection grade.”

FE Week reported last month that six of the highest-rated sixth-form colleges have not been inspected in over a decade. Hills Road Sixth Form College, Circencester College, Woodhouse College, Carmel College, Richard Huish College and Winstanley College are all still rated as ‘outstanding’, despite the fact they were all last inspected between the November 2006 and October 2007.

Our analysis also found that full inspections plunged by a third in just one year.

Another batch of apprenticeship standards up for funding band reviews

A second batch of apprenticeship standards will have their funding bands put up for review from tomorrow.

The Institute for Apprenticeships informed trailblazer groups of the plan on Friday, but it is not known at this stage how many standards will be included.

It follows the launch of the institute’s first funding band review in May where 31 apprenticeships, which included many of the most popular, were revised at the request of the Department for Education.

The process has so far proved controversial, with many employer groups opposing large cuts that would render the apprenticeships “financially non-viable”, while the institute claims to have only recommended changes where “there is evidence that justifies a change”.

In October the final bands for 12 of the standards in this review were signed off. Of these, seven had their funding cut, two saw an increase and three standards remained the same.

However, a decision has not yet been made about the fate of three of the most popular management standards after the employer group behind them launched an appeal against proposed cuts.

The level five operations/departmental manager standard, which made up two thirds of all level three standards last year, was set to drop from £9,000 to £7,000, while the level three team leader/supervisor standard, which accounted for a fifth of all level three starts, faced a cut from £5,000 to £4,500. The level six chartered manager degree apprenticeship could also see its funding cap cut from £27,000 to £22,000.

The outcome of the appeal is still pending.

Changes for the remaining standards in the review are expected to be published before the end of the year.

A spokesperson for the Institute for Apprenticeships said: “Our focus is to provide high-quality apprenticeships that are appropriately funded. We are already working with employers to ensure funding for each apprenticeship is appropriate, consistent and represent value-for-money.

“Details of any further reviews will be published shortly.”

Both reviews come at a time when the IfA is warning of imminent apprenticeship over-spend.

Rate reviews got underway after the institute moved to having 30 funding bands – the maximum rate paid for from the levy – to choose from, up from the previous 15.

The new structure gives the institute more choice regarding the rate it applies to each standard.

Under the 15 structure, if the institute wanted to reduce a £9,000 band it had to drop it to £6,000, for example. But for starts from August it will have the option of setting this to either £8,000 or £7,000.

Similarly, standards on £27,000 can now drop to £26,000 or £25,000 instead of falling all the way to the previous £24,000.

The DfE announced in February that it would review the funding-band structure, because employers did not “feel able” to negotiate with providers on price.

The IfA is currently recruiting a new deputy director of funding, who is likely to lead on rate reviews, to replace Jayne McCann who left around October this year. The salary for the role was advertised at £80,000 a year.

AOs investigate private provider to church groups following misuse of funding concerns

Multiple awarding organisations are investigating an apprenticeship provider to church community groups after Ofsted raised potential misuse of funding concerns in a damning ‘inadequate’ report this week.

Inspectors found that Touchstone Educational Solutions Ltd, which has Education and Skills Funding Agency contracts totalling more than £2 million, worked with employers who did not recognise the names of their apprentices.

They also found that the provider does not withdraw learners in a “timely manner” which leads to funding claims continuing after they have left their courses.

The Ofsted report said that Touchstone recruits the vast majority of its 450 learners and apprentices from church community groups at its sites in Woolwich, Greenwich and Leeds.

As well as apprenticeships in care management, Touchstone offers adult learning programmes paid for via advance learner loans in health and social care, access to higher education (nursing), business administration and childcare, and functional skills courses in maths and English.

We already set checking processes in place

It lists seven awarding organisations on its website, all of which told FE Week they were not aware of the funding concerns prior to the Ofsted report. However, a number of them have said they are now looking into the provider.

“Highfield is currently looking into the concerning information arising from the Ofsted report published on November 26, 2018,” said a spokesperson for Highfield Qualifications.

“We are unable to comment any further whilst our investigations continue.”

Awards for Training and Higher Education said that as an Ofqual regulated awarding organisation, it was “informed by Ofqual as to Ofsted’s findings on November 15, 2018 but at this time the report was not available”.

A spokesperson confirmed that the awarding organisation “accessed the report immediately” after it was available on the Ofsted website and has “already set checking processes in place”.

“ATHE undertakes Ofqual audited quality assurance procedures for all its recognised centres – including initial health checks and ongoing monitoring and development and external verification visits,” she added.

“ATHE procedures will continue to be applied accordingly.”

Touchstone’s other awarding organisations: NCFE, OCR, City & Guilds, Innovate Awarding, and Gateway Qualifications said they were not investigating the provider.

Ofsted said the delivery of all of Touchstone’s provision was insufficient, and leaders, governors and managers “do not have an accurate view of the quality of the programmes and do not have effective plans in place to make improvements”.

The biggest concern was around the provider’s management of data.

“File management is very weak and records about learners are very poor, with missing or inaccurate information,” inspectors found.

“Leaders are too slow to withdraw those learners and apprentices who have asked to be taken off their programme. Consequently, claims for funding continue to be made for apprentices who are no longer in learning.”

They added: “Too many employers do not know how much progress their apprentices make. Some employers did not recognise the names of the apprentices who, according to the apprenticeship files, are supposed to be with them.”

The inspectorate also found that plagiarism is an issue at the provider.

“Assessed and formally accredited work cannot be reliably attributed to individual learners, a few of whom have received qualification certificates.”

On top of this, arrangements for safeguarding adult learners and apprentices are “ineffective”.

“Learners and apprentices do not have a sufficient understanding of the dangers associated with extremism and radicalisation,” inspectors said.

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

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We will always take action to protect learners if a training provider is not fit for purpose. We are currently assessing Ofsted’s findings and will be contacting Touchstone Education Solutions to set out the action we will be taking in due course.”

Touchstone did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Ofsted finds no off-the-job training at care sector apprenticeship provider

A care sector apprenticeship provider has been heavily criticised by Ofsted for failing to give its apprentices any off-the-job training.

Premier Nursing Agency Limited was found to be making ‘insufficient progress’ in two out of three themes under review in an early monitoring report published today.

The damning report comes just two and a half weeks after a provider delivering apprenticeships to the civil service was slammed for exactly the same reason – leading to Premier People Solutions losing its contract.

Apprentices following care worker standards with Premier Nursing Agency Limited “complete the very large majority of the programme in their own time” and “receive no formal off-the-job training other than the mandatory training needed to work in the sector”, according to today’s report.

“Managers have suspended a significant proportion of apprenticeships as apprentices cannot find the time to undertake their studies,” the report said.

Inspectors found that “assessors meet with apprentices once a month to help them gather the evidence needed to complete their apprenticeship”.

These “arrangements impede care apprentices’ progress” and often “lead to postponements in training or extension to their programmes’ duration”.

Furthermore, many care apprentices “have already worked in the care sector for a significant time prior to programme enrolment” and therefore “the programme only consolidates existing vocational competence” rather than enabling apprentices to “developing new skills, knowledge and behaviours”.

Premier Nursing Agency Limited has been approached for a comment.

According to the Ofsted report the provider, which also offers at-home care services, was founded in 2016 and began delivering levy-funded apprenticeships in August 2017.

At the time of the visit it had 46 apprentices on level two and three care standards, and a further six on business administration frameworks.

According to Education and Skills Funding Agency guidance, it is now likely to be barred from taking on new apprentices.

Premier People Solutions Limited, which trades as Premier Partnerships and is unrelated to Premier Nursing Agency Limited, had its contract to deliver apprenticeship training to government departments terminated in mid-November.

Its Ofsted report, published November 15, found the government departments – including Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs and the UK Visas and Immigration service – were failing to release apprentices for the off-the-job training they are entitled to, and often refusing them permission to attend training.

It said: “Too many apprentices fail to attend training sessions. Apprentices are aware of their entitlement and they attempt to gain their line manager’s support to attend.

Halfon blasts Careers and Enterprise Company for their ‘magic money tree’

The chair of the education select committee has laid into the Careers and Enterprise Company for believing it has a “magic money tree” growing in its garden.

Robert Halfon (pictured) offered the heavy criticism during an event about the future of careers guidance in Parliament this morning.

It followed the organisation’s second hearing with MPs two weeks ago, in which it was the revealed the company spent more than £200,000 on two conferences using its own public money instead of private sponsorship.

This body can be ludicrously wasteful

The company had also told MPs earlier in the year that it has spent £900,000 on research, with another projected £200,000 a year to come.

Mr Halfon, who’s also a former skills minister, said today that this was an “obscene waste of money” and a “scandalous lack of oversight”.

“My colleagues and I in the education select committee are deeply concerned by what we have learned in two recent hearings,” he said.

“I don’t doubt for a second that the company is passionate about its work, and that there are good people working there. But I’m worried they are not providing us with value for money.

“This body can be ludicrously wasteful. Last year it spent £200,000 of taxpayers in a time austerity on two conferences – money which should have gone to the front-line. One cost around £150,000 and the other was about £50,000 and held at KidZania! Salaries are too high – its CEO earns almost as much as the Prime Minister.

“And it has spent £900,000 on research, with another projected £200,000 a year to come.

“There is a lack of convincing data on its impact. And a lack of data on hard outcomes: like education and training decisions, or employment outcomes.”

The CEC has so far received £40 million in public money to support careers guidance in schools and colleges.

Mr Halfon continued: “It [the CEC] does not always take its own advice. Take mentoring. Its latest accounts suggest it has spent £4 million on mentoring. In one of its own research reports, it says: ‘Few effects can be seen from mentoring relationships that last for less than six months… There is a widespread consensus that a year-long relationship constitutes a quality mentoring interaction.’ And yet several of the programmes it funds fall far short of this.

“There is a scandalous lack of oversight. The National Careers Service is heavily scrutinised. I’m talking the works: Ofsted inspection, mystery shoppers, quality standards, and payment by results linked to customer satisfaction and job/learning outcomes. But the CEC? Nothing evenly remotely comparable.

“Despite this, it has been lavished with new roles, without really demonstrating that it has mastered its initial brief. It is now broker; grant controller; research organisation; designer of careers toolkit; running a fund for disadvantaged pupils; supporting careers hubs. And I’m still not clear why grant-making decisions cannot be made by the DfE.”

Mr Halfon added that the careers offer in England must be “urgently” improved, and suggested doing this by building a “National Skills Service”.

“What do I mean by this? A one-stop-shop under the direction of a single rigorous backbone organisation,” he explained.

“It must devote extra focus to those who have fallen on hard times. It must serve all ages. Provide top-class independent, impartial support from qualified professional advisers, and a clear line of accountability. And, most of all, a better use of money with demonstrably and measurably improved outcomes.”

Responding to the criticism, Claudia Harris, the chief executive of the CEC, said: “Careers education has been underperforming for decades in England, so no one doubts the scale of the task. Our organisation has been in operation for just over three years. In that time Ofsted has found that careers support to young people has improved, noting ‘the current picture is much more encouraging than has been the case in the past… careers guidance within schools is improving’.

“We recently published the most comprehensive assessment of careers education to date, which showed that careers education in England is improving across all of the Gatsby Benchmarks. In particular, careers education is stronger in the most disadvantaged communities.

“Two thousands schools are now part of our network, we’ve provided training to nearly 1,400 Careers Leaders, established 20 Careers Hubs across the country and invested millions in front line providers.

“The improvements we have seen have been achieved through hard work and collaboration between schools, colleges and employers and by putting evidence at the heart of careers support. We are proud to have played a part in this improvement, and we welcome any external oversight of our work.”