Scrap UTC 14-19 model, says former schools minister in latest damning report

A former schools minister has called for the admission age at university technical colleges to change to 16, after damning new research faulted their academic progress and ability to recruit and retain learners.

The latest report from the Education Policy Institute has laid bare the major issues at the 14-19 providers, including high drop-out rates and severely low Ofsted grades.

It follows years of FE Week investigations into the troubled UTCs, including  dramatic drops in learners, providers dropping the brand and being  forced to hand back money because of low pupil numbers, plans to switch to recruiting from age 13 and even UTC architect Michael Gove admitting the programme had failed. 

David Laws, who was schools minister when the institutions began rolling out under both Mr Gove and Nicky Morgan between 2012 and 2015, is now executive chairman of the EPI and said the government should stop funding new UTCs until a review is undertaken into how best to deliver a “sustainable and effective” programme.

However, Lord Baker, head of the Baker Dearing Trust which supports the small, technical-focused institutions, said UTCs should not be compared to a “normal” school and insisted many were “oversubscribed”.

Since 2011, the Department for Education has allocated almost £330 million of capital spending to the UTC programme. In this time, 59 UTCs have been established, although eight of these have since closed and one converted to an academy. Another, UTC@Harbourside, will close in August 2019.

UTCs have struggled with falling student numbers, with the Institute for Public Policy Research reporting that 13 failed to fill half or more of their Year 10 places in 2015-16, with 39 per cent of all Year 10 places at UTCs remaining vacant that year. In 2018, 20 open UTCs had fewer students than in the previous year.

“The reality is England has a pre- and post-16 system,” the report said. “This means that admission at age 14 is not the norm and has failed to convince enough students, parents, carers and schools of its benefits, and there is no evidence that participation in UTCs at age 14 is likely to rise significantly without more fundamental changes to the education system.”

It noted that over half of UTC students do not continue from key stage four into key stage five in the same institution, and criticised the “overall poor performance” in academic qualifications at the institutions.

Although 40 per cent of students in secondary schools enter all the components for the English baccalaureate (English, maths, sciences, geography or history and a language), just under 15 per cent of learners in UTCs do. Twenty-four per cent of secondary school pupils will achieve all components including a grade four in English and maths, but just 3.8 per cent in UTCs will.

On average, students at UTCs leave with a whole grade lower in academic qualifications than those in other institutions, according to the report.

However, UTCs do well in technical and vocational qualifications. Those studying level three technical qualifications achieve higher grades than learners elsewhere, but they are also more likely to drop out with a retention rate of 79 per cent rather than over 90 per cent.

Learners at UTCs also do “substantially better than average” at progress in maths and English GCSE retakes.

Twenty per cent of UTC learners take up apprenticeships, compared to just seven per cent of all level three students. This suggests that the close links with employers “benefit” both students and employers, according to the report.

Over half of UTCs inspected by Ofsted are rated ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’, compared to less than a quarter of all institutions. Four per cent are ‘outstanding’, compared to 22 per cent of all institutions.

Mr Laws said the “poor performance” of UTCs is “about the quality of learning and the engagement of students.

“The government should not fund further UTC expansion until a review is undertaken and steps are put in place to deliver a sustainable and effective programme.”

However, Lord Baker said UTCs have a “challenging” intake, and “Baker Dearing is proud that UTCs transform their students’ life chances.”

Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, urged caution at the EPI’s recommendations, describing the 16-to-18 sector as “already a chaotic and underfunded market”.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said it was “worth examining” changing the admissions age.

“But it might have been a lot easier at the outset simply to have provided additional funding and places in further education colleges which already run very successful technical education programmes,” he added.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have a diverse education system and University Technical Colleges are an important part of that, with the best providers teaching people the skills and knowledge that will help them secure good jobs in specialist technical sectors.”

The global skills race will be won by the country that can colonise skills systems

With the Germans exporting their entire skills model to countries in their global value chain, the UK needs to make sure it’s preparing equally well for the global skills race, says Rob May

Damian Hinds’ recent recce to Germany in search of inspiration and the accompanying hand-wringing over Britain’s place on the PIAAC league table has reignited talk of a global skills race.

As with any race, there must be an objective, so let’s assume that it’s the dual goal of economic superiority and global prosperity. If so, much depends on having a strong global supply chain that harnesses human capital. Post-Brexit, the UK will have to chart a new course in the world and create stronger trade and immigration arrangements with developing countries. We know that 90 per cent of global growth will come from outside of Europe over the next two decades, and that 60 per cent of GDP growth will come from emerging economies.

The prospect of a hard Brexit and subsequently a more outward-looking Britain is why there has been a fundamental shift in UK trade and aid policy to focus heavily on tackling the deep economic challenges in developing countries – one of which is skills.

I’ve just returned from southeast Asia, and countries which could be strong trading partners for a newly-defined global Britain are embracing this outstretched hand and are desperate to improve their human capital. Many are emerging from decades of isolation from the international community and under-investment in skills development. But these countries, often characterised by relatively young populations, are now spending heavily on education to stimulate economic growth and attract foreign investors.

The Germans are exporting their entire skills model

At the same time, UK businesses need to be able to trust in the quality and predictability of the technical skills base and management practices of countries in their value chain – outside Europe. Businesses need to have confidence in the quality regimes that ensure those skills and credentials are valid. This sounds like a hot lead for UK education companies.

But whilst Damian Hinds spent his tour looking at the wires and boxes of the German dual VET model, he may have missed a more fiendishly clever move by the Germans; that they are exporting their entire skills model to countries in their global value chain. Austria, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Mexico and around 10 other countries already use a version of the dual VET system, inspired by Germany. They are emulating not just the credentials, but the legislative framework, quality assurance mechanisms and stakeholder map.

Instantly, the machinery of skills and talent creation in Mexico look recognisable to a business in Berlin. Germany can do this because its skills system has “shape”. It is very focused.

The UK is good at exporting educational products, contributing around £19 billion to the economy each year. This is because throughout the developing world, UK education is still largely seen as the “gold standard”. Trying to export the UK skills “system” however, which would facilitate even greater exports of educational products and services – would be like trying to carry a balloon-full of water… down an icy slope… in a rainstorm.

A common international currency of credentials, as a proxy for skills reserves, is helpful in smoothing international trade and co-operation, but many of the countries that offer the most potential for UK colleges and awarding bodies are starting at a more basic level.

They are building national skills plans that have defined outcomes (not arbitrary targets!); they are implementing localised quality assurance at all levels of the system; developing legislation that mandates industry’s responsibility and accountability in achieving the national economic plan; bringing forward government regulations that shape companies’ in-house training programmes, but which also offer meaningful engagement in system design through a network of supporting intermediaries. They seem to be preparing carefully and planning for longer horizons. Should these countries look to Britain for inspiration?

It concerns me that ministerial stakeholders in some of the countries with which I do business notice the incessant tinkering with UK skills policy at a time when it would be in both the national and global interest to export a UK-centric skills model far and wide. I don’t believe that our system wasn’t in need of reform, but stability, clarity and credibility must be returned if Britain is to go the distance in the global skills race.

UCU follows Scottish government in paying for sanitary products for learners

A local University and College Union branch has become the first in the country to offer college learners free sanitary products, as union leaders call on the government to do more to tackle period poverty.

The campaign at Newcastle College is the first at an English college, and follows a successful fight in Scotland – backed by the UCU – to make tampons and other such products available for free in schools, colleges and universities there.

The Scottish government has committed £5.2 million to the initiative, it announced in August, making it the “first in the world” to offer free tampons and sanitary towels to all pupils and students.

However, the Department for Education has indicated it has no plans to introduce a similar scheme in England.

A spokesperson said it would instead be providing £1.5 million through the Tampon Tax Fund “to help distribute sanitary products to young women and girls in need in England”.

The fund, worth £15 million and managed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, is paid for with the VAT charged on sanitary products.

The ‘Let’s Talk. Period’ project was allocated £1.5 million from the fund in March to distribute sanitary products to girls and young women in need in seven areas of England.

However, it has yet to launch, and FE Week has been unable to speak to the organisation behind it to find out when it will be running.

Anya Cook, UCU branch secretary at Newcastle College, told FE Week that its campaign had been prompted by an “increase in students requesting support with sanitary products from the pastoral support team”.

Furthermore, “we have teachers bringing them in and keeping them in their drawers in case they need them for their students”, she said.

The branch’s campaign is “filling a gap that the government should be filling,” she said.

“It’s a disgrace that we have a woman prime minister and yet we have young women and girls who are unable to provide even the most basic sanitary protection for themselves.”

“Tampons and sanitary pads are not luxury items, they are essential for women,” said Helen Carr, the UCU’s head of equality.

“The government should be following the example set in Scotland and dealing with period poverty in all schools, colleges and universities,” she said.

Ms Cook said the Newcastle College branch has committed to funding sanitary products for those students in the most need from its own “really quite limited” funds for at least the rest of the academic year.

It has also enlisted the support of the college leadership, which has committed a small amount of cash towards the initiative and has encouraged staff to donate to the campaign.

“It’s about being comfortable and being clean, and being able to attend so that you can succeed in your qualification,” Ms Cook said of the campaign.

A story in FE Week’s sister paper FE Week in June cited analysis by the DfE which found that period poverty did not have a significant national impact on school attendance.

It found that although absence rates for girls increase after the age of 13 and exceed those of boys, this is true both for girls who are eligible for free school meals – and therefore more likely to experience period poverty – and those who are not eligible.

NCG boss Joe Docherty quits following turbulent year

The boss of the largest college group in the country has quit, FE Week can reveal.

Joe Docherty (pictured) has left NCG with immediate effect. He becomes the third high-profile and highly paid college boss to resign in recent weeks.

His decision follows a turbulent year for the college group which has been rated poorly by Ofsted, seen its achievement rates fall, made mass redundancies, and suffered with staff strikes.

“After five years in post, Joe Docherty has decided to resign from his post as chief executive with immediate effect,” a spokesperson for NCG said.

“The board has accepted his resignation and will immediately begin the search for a successor.

“Chris Payne, executive director partnerships and assurance, will temporarily take over responsibilities of the chief executive as recruitment of a new chief executive starts immediately.”

In June Ofsted downgraded NCG from a grade two to a three in the face of poor achievement rates, which sit at around 10 points lower than the national average of 67.7 per cent, and lower than the minimum threshold of 62 per cent.

Redundancies at the group’s private training providers Intraining and Rathbone Training followed, where staff numbers were cut by up to a fifth at in an effort to save £3 million.

The group was further shaken when staff at the recently decoupled Lewisham Southwark College, a long-distance merger partner, went on strike over pay.

On top of this, a free school that NCG sponsors, the Discovery School, was forced to close down by the government.

FE Week also understands that the group will be dropped from the government’s final bidding round for Institutes of Technology after Ofsted hit it with a grade three.

Mr Docherty was paid a £227,000 salary in 2016/17, along with £33,000 in pension contributions and £21,000 from benefits in kind.

He is the third boss of a mega college to resign in recent weeks. He’s followed Andrew Cleaves leaving Birmingham Metropolitan College, and Dame Asha Khemka quitting her role at West Nottinghamshire College.

In June NCG chair and former ESFA boss Peter Lauener told FE Week he has “full confidence” in Mr Docherty, despite heavy criticism of leadership and management from Ofsted.

“I think Joe is a first-rate chief executive,” he said. “I am absolutely confident he is the right person to realise the potential of the organisation.”

NCG comprises Newcastle College, Newcastle Sixth Form College, Lewisham College, Southwark College, Carlisle College, Kidderminster College, West Lancashire College, Rathbone Training and InTraining.

We need more core funding not ‘initiative mania’, sector leaders tell MPs

Sector leaders have made an impassioned plea to MPs for the government to “stop the initiative mania” and focus on core funding ahead of the Budget day later this month.

Representatives from the Sixth Form Colleges Association, the Association of Colleges and the National Union of Students were giving evidence to the education select committee’s hearing on college funding this morning.

Dr Alison Birkinshaw, principal of York College and last year’s AoC president, told MPs that any new funding being offered to the sector was being “channelled into the revolutionary aspects of FE” while “core funding is being kept at an all-time low, and that means we can’t do our job”.

“We’re in permanent change but the core, the sustainability of the funding is just not there,” she said.

James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the SFCA, urged the government to “stop the initiative mania”.

“We see all kinds of eye-catching initiatives like uplifts for maths, or particular qualifications, but the much more mundane reality is we just need higher core funding,” he said.

Furthermore, he said, these initiatives can “do more harm than good” because “when we say there’s not enough money in 16 to 18” the Department for Education and the Treasury “will say, we’ve just given you some money to increase maths, we’ve given you money for T-levels”.

The comments come ahead of action during next week’s Colleges Week, from October 15 to 19, calling on the government for better investment for colleges and fair pay for staff.

FE Week reported on Monday that the SFCA is set to launch a campaign to call for the base funding rate for all 16- to 18-year-old learners to be increased to £4,760 in the next spending review.

Mr Kewin described this as a “modest ask” at today’s hearing, and said it was “actually half of what we’ve lost since 2010”.

When asked by committee member William Wragg where the money would come from to pay for this increase, both Mr Kewin and Dr Birkinshaw said it could come – at least in part – from the current underspend, which Mr Kewin said was around £100 million a year.

“We’re not talking about the need to cut, we’re talking about the need to use the funding properly,” Dr Birkinshaw said.

Other issues raised during the hearing included English and maths GCSE resits, staff pay and teacher pensions, which Mr Kewin described as a “timebomb waiting for us” that “needs to be addressed”.

“What the government can’t do is what it’s indefensibly done on the teacher pay grant and say we’ll pick up the tab for schools or academies, but not for colleges. It has to be the same for everyone,” he said.

Parliamentary petition launched calling for sustainable college funding

A new parliamentary petition calling for college funding to be increased to “sustainable levels” has been launched today.

Its creation comes ahead of Colleges Week, a week of action and events across the country demanding greater government investment in colleges.

“We call on the government to urgently increase college funding to sustainable levels, including immediate parity with recently announced increases to schools funding,” the petition, which is understood to have have been started by learners at Brockenhurst College, said.

“This will give all students a fair chance, give college staff fair pay and provide the high-quality skills the country needs.”

It claimed that college funding has been cut by almost 30 per cent in the last 10 years.

“A decade of almost continuous cuts and constant reforms have led to a significant reduction in the resources available for teaching and support for sixth formers in schools and colleges; potentially restricted course choice; fewer adults in learning; pressures on staff pay and workload, a growing population that is not able to acquire the skills the UK needs to secure prosperity post-Brexit,” it said.

The petition follows a hearing of the education select committee this morning, at which sector leaders made an impassioned plea for more core funding rather than “initiative mania”.

If the petition hits 10,000 signatures the government must respond to it.

At 100,000 signatures it will be considered for debate in parliament. 

To sign the petition click here.

SFCA to launch campaign calling for huge 16 to 18 funding rate increase

The Sixth Form Colleges Association is preparing to launch a campaign calling for a huge increase in the 16 to 18 base rate, just a week after the Association of Colleges will demand an initially smaller rise in their own campaign.

The Raise the Rate campaign will call for the funding base rate for all 16-18-year-old learners to be increased to £4,760 in the next spending review. If successful, it would mark the first increase in the base rate since 2013-14.

For 16 and 17-year-olds, this is an increase of 14 per cent on the current £4,000 base rate. For 18-year-olds – taking a third year of sixth form – it is a jump of 44 per cent.

The campaign is expected to launch during the week beginning October 22: just before the Budget and a week after AoC’s Colleges Week campaign, which is calling for a five per cent annual increase in the 16 to 19 funding rate for each of the next five years, amounting to around £1,000 in total.

Despite the difference in aims and timescales, the AoC will be supporting the Raise the Rate campaign, which is expected to involve lobbying politicians, alongside other partners including the Association of School and College Leaders. The SFCA is not an official partner of Colleges Week, but has told FE Week it will be supporting it through social media and encouraging its members to write to MPs.

A report published today by London Economics on behalf of the SFCA, found that, in order for sixth form colleges to be able to increase student support services such as mental health, protect subjects at a risk of being dropped such as modern foreign languages and increase non-qualification time, including work experience and extra-curricular activities, a funding increase of at least £760 per learner is needed by 2020/21.

A further £140 per learner will be required if the proposed increase in employer contributions to the teacher pension scheme is not funded by the government, the report found. The contributions are expected to rise from 16.48 per cent to 23.6 per cent next September.

In real terms, funding for 16-19 education in sixth form colleges has declined by 22 per cent since 2010/11, falling from £6,230 per learner to £4,850 in 2016-17.

This reduction of £1,380 per learner has led to reduction in staff, with 15 per cent fewer teachers over the same period, while learner numbers have grown by 6.5 per cent. The combination of the two means the average learner-to-teacher ratio across the sector has risen by 28 per cent, from 18 learners to a teacher to 23.

However, this has not been enough to outweigh the decline in income. While in 2010/11, sixth form colleges had an average surplus of £190 per learner, by 2016-17 they faced an average deficit of £110 per learner.

Last month, a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies found that FE has been the victim of the sharpest cuts in the education sector over the last 25 years, with school sixth forms facing the lowest funding per learner than at any point since at least 2002-03.

Bill Watkin, chief executive of the SFCA, said: “It is now well understood that sixth form education has experienced deeper funding cuts since 2010 than any other phase of education. But until the publication of today’s report, the impact of cost increases has been less well understood.

“The debate about sixth form funding now needs to move from how much funding has been cut, to how much funding is actually needed to provide the sort of high-quality, internationally competitive education that our young people deserve.”

He added: “We will launch the Raise the Rate campaign later this month in partnership with a range of other school and college associations to help secure a significant increase in the funding rate for sixth form students in next year’s spending review.”

Maike Halterbeck, an associate director at London Economics and primary author of the report said: “The ongoing cuts to sixth form education have caused a significant reduction in the resources available for front-line teaching activity. This has resulted in a narrowing of the curriculum on offer – and a narrowing of the opportunities available to more than 150,000 young people.

“Significant additional financial resources should be provided to properly fund young people’s education and provide them with an internationally competitive sixth form curriculum.”

Anne Milton, the apprenticeships and skills minister, said: “We have protected the base rate of funding for 16-19-year-olds until 2020. However, I am very aware of the funding pressures.

“We will continue to look carefully at funding for the sector in preparation for the next spending review.”

‘Colleges have a grander ambition for their students’

Colleges have a unique role to play in the new industrial revolution, ensuring that every citizen is able to thrive, says David Hughes

I’m down under for the bi-annual World Congress of the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics, being held in Melbourne, and it’s clear that so many of the challenges and opportunities facing the further education sector in Australia resonate with those in England, and the other nations of the UK.

My keynote presentation today, Scripting the future – exploring potential strategic leadership responses to the marketisation and privatisation of English FE provision, is based on the research carried out by Oxford University’s Professor Ewart Keep, in conjunction with AoC and supported by the Further Education Trust for Leadership.

That research, which involved interviews with key policymakers at a senior level and college leaders and commentators, looked at the impact marketisation has had on our post-16 landscape and how it might pan out in the coming years. It’s well worth a read, for both the background and context as well as the stimulating and insightful scenarios.

We need colleges to be the anchor organisations helping to ensure that every citizen thrives

Of course, my keynote will not simply present Professor Keep’s research; he can do that better than I can. Instead, I will use his findings to propose actions colleges can and need to take to make sure that we can script our own future, rather than wait for someone else to script it for us. It will also draw on the 20 years’ experience of working in this sector, on both ‘sides’, for the funding agency and now for colleges, as well as time leading a thinktank and research organisation.

So, my keynote will start by trying to describe some of the manifestations of marketisation in England. I’ll set out the mix of quasi-market measures and managed systems approaches in the sector. I describe this as a mix of “customer is king” and “minister is queen” in FE. More than anything else, I will propose that there is a confusion at the heart of our policy about what success looks like and about the purpose and role of colleges.

Our quasi-marketised system (for want of a better term) has multiple funding streams with different priorities, rules, regulations, eligibility, qualifications, competition and a strong thread of contestability. The loose thinking behind this is that somehow contestability and competition will lead to more efficiency, better quality and customers getting what they want.

For colleges, though, not only do they have to respond to multiple funding streams, they also must respond to multiple regulators and rule-makers (ESFA, DfE, Ofsted, banks, pension funds, OfS and others) as well as many customers (the government, elected mayors, employers and students). I put students at the end of that list – because in our system it often feels as if they are mere vessels to be filled with knowledge and skills appropriate for the labour market. Colleges don’t think like that – they have a grander ambition for their students, as agents, with lives to enrich.

I want us to help colleges set out a new vision of their role

At present, this confusion of quasi-markets and government-led system combines badly with the 30 per cent funding cut colleges have had to cope with over the last decade. This has created a nightmarish environment in which colleges all too often have to focus on short term, financially dominated decisions of survival and maintaining position within the market. A sector with an aggregate surplus of only 0.1 per cent must do that – it won’t exist otherwise. What’s so impressive is how so many colleges can cope with the stresses they are under, all while helping 2.2 million people realise their ambitions, talents and abilities.

My keynote will end with an attempt to galvanise college leaders from around the world to seize this moment. All the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution, the new technologies, need colleges to develop and offer a new grand vision of colleges helping our citizens, communities and economies to thrive. We need colleges to be the anchor organisations helping to ensure that every citizen thrives in this exciting but daunting fourth industrial revolution.

In the mid-nineteenth century the state of Victoria (where I am now) established over 1200 mechanics’ institutes to help people and communities cope with the changes then happening. Many of those institutes morphed into colleges, polytechnics and universities. I want us to help colleges set out a new vision of their role in this new industrial revolution.

I’ll end with a pitch for colleagues from around the world to support our #LoveOurColleges campaign next week. And invite them to do the same in their countries. I’ll let you know how it goes down and the response I get.

3aaa buyer will need to pay £500k in ‘deal fees’

The buyer of apprenticeship giant Aspire Achieve Advance will have to pay £500,000 in “deal fees” by the end of 2018.

FE Week revealed last week that the crisis-hit training provider, commonly known as 3aaa, has put itself up for sale in the midst of a government investigation into the company.

A sales document, seen by this newspaper, shows that the purchaser will however receive a bill of £100,000 in October, £300,000 in November, and £100,000 in December.

It is unclear at this stage what the hefty “deal fees” will cover or who they will be paid to, but it is likely to go to 3aaa’s lenders, Beechbrook Capital, who gave company a cash loan of £5.5 million in April.

According to a 3aaa cash statement, the training provider paid its lender £516,837 in deal fees as of July 31.

FE Week understands that one of the reasons the sale is going ahead is because the terms of the Beechbrook loan have been broken and the lender wants to claim back their money.

It is also understood that the government is supportive of the 3aaa sale on the basis that its co-founders, Peter Marples and Di McEvoy-Robinson, will not benefit from it financially.

A condition of the sale is that it must be an apprenticeship provider that buys the business – meaning the £500,000 will be yet more public funds going into the hands of a private company if it is claimed by Beechbrook.

Beechbrook declined to comment on the transaction fees.

FE Week also asked Beechbrook and the Department for Education what assurances have been made that the business will not be wound up as soon as the training provider is paid its standard monthly funding of more than £2 million on October 12.

A DfE spokesperson would only say: “We do not comment on ongoing investigations.”

Beechbrook again declined to comment.

The deadline for indicative offers for 3aaa was October 4. BDO is the accountancy firm heading up the sale. When asked about the transaction fees, a spokesperson said: “It is BDO policy not to comment on specific companies, engagements or market speculation.”

In an “overview information” document about the sale, 3aaa claims the training provider achieved an ‘outstanding’ rating in all areas from Ofsted in May 2018.

This is despite the education watchdog declaring its inspection of the company “incomplete” in July following the launch of an ESFA investigation into its achievement rates.

3aaa is currently suspended from recruiting apprentices while the probe is being carried out.

This is the second time 3aaa has been investigated by the government. In 2016, auditing firm KPMG was called in to investigate claims by a whistleblower and found dozens of funding and success rate “overclaims”.

BDO’s investment opportunity document states: “The ESFA has placed a temporary block on new learners whilst an investigation is undertaken in to achievement rates, prompting the shareholders to seek an exit.

“Alphabet [3aaa] is in pro-active dialogue with the ESFA with a view to lifting the learner block in the shortest period possible.”

Since the launch of the investigation, 3aaa’s co-founders have resigned.

Following its suspension on recruiting apprentices, the training provider “instructed” senior employees to tell its staff to not date any paperwork for “planned enrolments”.

3aaa had the largest allocation for non-levy apprenticeships last year at nearly £22 million. Its overall ESFA allocations totalled more than £31 million.