Ofsted has slammed an ‘inadequate’ private provider for its “misleading” careers advice, in a damning report published today.

Chic Beauty Academy, which offers advanced learner loans-funded provision and level two adult education courses, was rated grade four overall and in four headlines fields – although the provider has disputed many of the education watchdog’s findings, and said it will be challenging the verdict.

Today’s report comes just a week after Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman criticised colleges for giving learners “false hope” by recruiting them onto courses with low chances of employment.

It found that learners at Chic Beauty Academy  “receive insufficiently comprehensive and sometimes misleading advice and guidance about how the choices they make about courses will help them to achieve their career goals”.

The provider, which offers courses in beauty therapy massage, nail technology and make-up to around 400 learners in the last year, according to the Ofsted report, has an AEB allocation of £455,501 and £996,140 for advanced learner loans in 2018/19, according to ESFA figures.

“Learners do not have access to impartial careers advice before they enrol on courses through the academy’s call centre,” the Ofsted report said.

Inspectors found that leaders had failed to “collect sufficient information about learners’ next steps into further training or employment in the beauty therapy industry” to ensure that the “programmes that they offer meet learners’ career aspirations”.

Nor had they “consulted sufficiently” with employers to ensure that the courses provided learners with the “skills and qualifications to gain employment where they live” or to “meet local needs”.

The provider was also criticised for having “advised inappropriately” a few learners who were “entitled to receive free or subsidised training” to take out loans instead.

Among their recommendations, inspectors urged the provider to “improve the quality of pre-course information, advice and guidance so that learners can make well-informed choices about the appropriateness of the programmes they are considering before they take out an advanced learner loan or enrol with the academy”.

However, Safeen Ali, Chic Beauty Academy’s director, said there were a number of “incorrect, untrue points” in the report and that she was challenging it.

She said the provider has Matrix accreditation, meaning it has met recognised standards in information, advice and guidance – which it would not have got “if our IAG was poor”.

She said learners were given advice at enrolment stage, and again at induction, which included information “about their course, and where they wish to go with their course and their career”.

Chic Beauty also runs “a session in the course on careers advice” but Ms Ali claimed “that wasn’t factored in” by inspectors.

She also denied that it had ill-advised learners to take out loans.

Learners aged 19 to 23 who were eligible for free training, through the first level three entitlement, but had taken out loans instead were on courses that were “not on the eligibility list for the AEB”, and Chic Beauty had agreed with the ESFA that those affected learners were “going to waive their right for free training”.

Ms Ali said she had yet to be told by the funding agency if it was going to terminate Chic Beauty’s contract.

Ms Spielman’s comments last week followed the publication of Ofsted’s thematic review into level two study programmes at colleges.

It found some subjects, namely arts and media, “stand out” as areas where there is a “mismatch between the numbers of students taking courses and their future employment in the industry”.

“Some students get a bit deflated and lose that momentum they built when they discover it is an impossible dream for most of them,” Ms Spielman said.

Although her comments prompted some pushback from members of the audience, the AoC boss David Hughes said she was “quite right”.

“I think the response from Ofsted is proportionate and quite right,” he said.

“We need to face up to the fact that sometimes we’re not challenging learners enough to make sure they are understanding the courses they go in because it does happen in some places, not everywhere.”

The Department for Education is seeking views on how funding should be distributed to providers for the delivery of T-levels from 2020, including plans for four new funding bands.

A consultation, launched today, includes the indicative per student funding rates based on hours of study over the two-year programmes, which range from £4,170 to £5,835 per year (see table).

It also reveals that each industry placement within a T-level will be covered with an additional £550 per student – which is £50 more than was recommended in the Sainsbury Review.

The consultation points out that these initial funding bands are based on “the information currently available about T-levels, and may be subject to some change” as the pathways are developed.

The rate of £550 per substantial industry placement, which will each be a minimum of 45 days, is “based on the amount we made available for the previous work experience trials, and more recently for the industry placement pilot we ran in the 2017/18 academic year,” the consultation document says.

“The funding has been used effectively in both cases and has enabled providers to put in place adequate resource to deliver successful placements.”

The DfE proposes paying half the industry placement funding in the first year and half in the second – so £275 a year.

Funding for 18-year-olds will stay at the same rate as for 16- and 17-year-olds because “the hours required for the Technical Qualifications will be fixed, and 18-year-olds will need the same amount of funded time to achieve threshold competence as other students”, the consultation says.

It also confirms that additional funding will be provided to support T-level students who have not yet met the minimum English and maths requirement.

“We propose providing a one-off payment (during the first year of T-level programmes) of £750 per subject per student to cover these maths and/or English needs over the two years,” it says.

Now is the opportunity for the FE providers who will be on the ground delivering these courses to have their say

“Students who need both maths and English would attract this payment for each subject (i.e. £1,500) in total but as T-levels are level 3 programmes, we expect the numbers needing both subjects to be low.”

The consultation, which closes on February 19, 2019, includes “recognition that T-levels will be larger, more stretching programmes and will therefore attract more funding than existing study programmes,” according to the DfE.

Skills minster Anne Milton said: “Our A-level qualifications are recognised as some of the best in the world, it is now time to deliver the same for technical education. T-levels are central to that.

“Now is the opportunity for the further education providers who will be on the ground delivering these courses to have their say. I want them to help us shape this system. Their view is critical so that we make sure T-levels give young people the technical skills they need and our economy the workforce it needs.”

Overall, the new technical qualifications will be backed by £500 million of investment every year when they are rolled out.

The first T-level courses in education and childcare, construction and digital will be taught in over 50 FE providers from September 2020. The DfE is proposing to set these courses at funding band 7 – £4,845 per year.

A college that fell two Ofsted grades from ‘outstanding’ last year has put 155 jobs at risk of redundancy and is planning to cut 41 of them.

Blackburn College, which went 10 years without being inspected following a grade one in 2007, is consulting on the job losses after finding itself “under increasing financial pressure to operate in a more efficient manner”.

“We will do all we can to prevent any compulsory redundancies and as part of the consultation process will be introducing a voluntary severance scheme, available to staff affected,” said interim principal Graham Towse.

“The college is committed to working collaboratively and constructively with trade union representatives and staff to build a more sustainable future, whilst dealing with these immediate challenges.

“We are confident that with the right measures we will create a sustainable platform for the future to focus on improving our quality and standards.”

The consultation was launched yesterday (November 26) and will run until January 10, 2019.

Around 3 per cent of Blackburn College’s full-time equivalent staffing levels are expected to be cut, Mr Towse said.

The UCU said the proposed job losses would be a “disaster for staff and students”.

“At a time when staff and students should be focused on teaching and learning, the college is again looking to squeeze its overworked teaching staff to cover up a lack of leadership from a changing management team,” said UCU regional official Martyn Moss.

“Blackburn College needs to recognise that staff are already at breaking point. Further cuts would be a disaster for staff and students, and only serve to increase already unmanageable workloads. UCU will oppose compulsory redundancies and calls on the college to urgently rethink these damaging plans.”

Blackburn College dropped to ‘requires improvement’ in an Ofsted report published in May 2017.

At the time, leaders and managers at the college were found to not have “a sufficient oversight of the progress that students make on their courses” and “too few” students achieve the grades and “develop the skills to their full potential”.

Senior leaders have also “failed to evaluate accurately” the quality of the provision through the colleges annual self-assessment process.

The report added that managers are “overly positive” about the quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and “insufficient attention” is given to how the quality of course delivery is having an impact on students’ progress.

 

The government’s new “tougher” apprenticeships register will reopen indefinitely from December 12, and will require all subcontractors delivering the programmes to be listed on it.

This will include, for the first time, those subcontractors delivering less than the current threshold of £100,000 a year.

The new requirement was revealed in an announcement about the refreshed Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers, published this afternoon by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

It confirms many of the rule changes that the agency’s director of apprenticeships, Keith Smith, told the AELP conference last month.

It was already known that every training organisation on the existing register would need to reapply, but today’s publication reveals that only two applications in a 12 month period will be allowed from any provider.

To earn a place on the new register, providers and employers must now “prove they have actively traded for 12 months, are financially stable (evidenced by their financial information), skilled and are able to deliver quality apprenticeship training, before they apply, rather than when they begin delivery”.

The three-month trading history requirement for supporting providers has been retained to “enable new providers to build a delivery track record”.

Until now, subcontractors did not need to be on the register if they delivered less than £100,000 of apprenticeships provision a year. But new RoATP rules will put an end to this.

“All organisations delivering apprenticeship training must be on the RoATP,” today’s announcement said.

“By August 2019, it will be a funding rule requirement for all subcontractors delivering apprenticeship training to be listed on the RoATP including those delivering less than £100,000 a year as a subcontractor.”

It added that subcontractors can only receive funding of up to a maximum of £500,000 per year, and this is limited to £100,000 in their first year if they have “no recent history of apprenticeship delivery”.

The ESFA reiterated today that it is also considering the introduction of “provider earnings limits and in the coming months, will be seeking views from the sector on these”.

The limits will “ensure control, not just for quality reasons but the potential size and expansion of providers”. This rule is expected to be controversial among proven training providers, as previously reported by FE Week.

Commenting on today’s announcements, skills minister Anne Milton said: “It is vital that the training apprentices are receiving continues to be of the highest quality. Our new tougher approach builds on the robust checks already in place to provide even greater assurance that public money for apprenticeships is being used effectively .

“I would like to thank all those who took the time to respond to our review. Your feedback has been invaluable and has helped us to shape this new process.”

Eileen Milner, the ESFA’s chief executive, added: “Our new RoATP application process ensures that only those that can stand up to our tough quality assurance entry requirements can access government funds to deliver apprenticeship training.

“We are also being tougher on subcontractors entering the market, to ensure a focus on quality training and mitigate risk to government funds.”

The changes come after FE Week has reported extensively on the problems with the application process, and discovered, for example, one-man bands with no delivery experience being given access to millions of pounds of apprenticeships funding.

The register has been closed ever since the government shut it for review in October 2017, even though it was originally meant to open every quarter, leaving many providers wanting to get on there to deliver apprenticeships frustrated.

A London-based training provider worked with employers who did not recognise the names of their apprentices, according to a damning Ofsted report which rated it ‘inadequate’ in every category.

Inspectors found that Touchstone Education Solutions Ltd, which has Education and Skills funding Agency contracts totalling more than £2 million, also does not withdraw learners in a “timely manner” which leads to funding claims continuing after they’ve left their courses.

The Ofsted report said the provider 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.

Ofsted said the delivery of all of this 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 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.

“Leaders do not ensure that the programmes meet the apprenticeship requirements or that apprentices receive their entitlement to off-the-job training.”

Touchstone has “very weak systems” for tracking learner progress. “Leaders do not have an accurate view of how well learners and apprentices progress towards the achievement of their qualifications,” Ofsted said.

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

“The quality of learners’ and apprentices’ work is not consistently of a good standard and too often there are discrepancies in submitted work,” inspectors said.

“These include work that was completed a year before the learner started the course, work that did not show how assessment criteria were met, and work from learners that contained almost identical answers.

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

The report noted that in 2017/18, the provider’s data shows that the majority of adult learners who took level 3 qualifications in health and social care achieved them, but the proportion who achieved within the planned time was very low.

However, the “concerns about the reliability of assessed and accredited work in learners’ portfolios raises questions about the validity of the provider’s achievement data for 2017/18”.

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

Leaders “fail to carry out risk assessments to identify vulnerable adults or make sufficient checks on the suitability of the staff that they employ,” inspectors said.

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

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.

Touchstone was approached for comment.

During a hot-topic panel session at the Association of Colleges conference, several new college governors asked about how to avoid “serial offender” college principals.

Nazir Afzal OBE became chair of Hopwood Hall College on September 1, 2018, after stepping down as pro-chancellor at Brunel University the previous month, before which he was chief crown prosecutor with the Crown Prosecution Service.

Mr Afzal, addressing new West London College principal Karen Redhead on the panel, said: “I heard your story about your college and the failings that the senior team were involved in.

“If they were running a company they would be disqualified.

“If they were running a police force they would never run a police force ever again.

“Is there any mechanism to ensure those individuals are held accountable for what you have to deal with?”

Richard Atkins, the FE commissioner, responded that he was “really pleased that the question came from a chair because chairs are a really crucial part of the accountability structure”.

This sector has always had a very small number of serial offenders who have driven one college into the ground and then got a job somewhere else and done the same thing, he said.

“At the moment, I have powers of intervention and beyond that everything is essentially kind of persuasion and so on. People do move on.” He added that he thinks it is right that we have a free press “and that the press report on these situations because how else are people going to know not to employ them?”

“If we intervene and publish that means my team thinks something very serious went wrong, probably involving a number of people, and I think that should be put in the public domain. I don’t think that should be swept under the carpet and if you put that in the public domain then we have a free press that does that.”

He said that “personally I don’t comment individually on cases, people will know that, the press who are in the room know that, but I think that when we publish intervention reports in that way when things have gone seriously wrong, one of the reasons for doing that is to disclose serial offenders and make them known to the sector.”

Picture: From left: FE Commissioner Richard Atkins, EHWLC new principal Karen Redhead, Association of Colleges boss David Hughes, Ofsted deputy director for FE Paul Joyce, and the ESFA’s director for FE Peter Mucklow

A high-profile college in financial crisis is expected to make another 75 redundancies over the next four months as it continues its efforts to find savings, FE Week understands.

The move at West Nottinghamshire College, which was headed up by Dame Asha Khemka until she resigned last month, follows the loss of about 100 jobs earlier this year.

The college is in dire financial constraints. It received a £2.1 million emergency government bailout in July, just 48 hours before it would have run out of cash and is currently in FE Commissioner intervention.

“The college is continuing to work on its recovery plan to resolve the significant financial issues that it faces,” a West Notts spokesperson said.

“Unfortunately, this is likely to lead to a need to further reduce our staffing base. However, the detailed plans are still being finalised.

“Whatever staffing reductions the college makes, it is absolutely committed to protecting the excellent experience and high-quality teaching and learning that our students receive.”

It is understood that around 75 redundancies will be made by the end of February, as the college looks to reduce total staffing by 10 per cent. The college spokesperson did not deny this when asked by FE Week.

In March, West Notts blamed changes to subcontracting rules for the fact it was having to cut more than 100 jobs in an effort to make £2.7 million in savings.

The FE commissioner criticised “serious corporate failure”, lack of oversight and a “financial crisis” at the college in a damning report published earlier this month.

It warned the college’s board and then-principal Dame Asha had “overseen a serious business failure which will impact on the whole college.

“There needs to be an urgent review that ensures that those with ultimate responsibilities are held to account,” it added.

The college has now been placed in “administered status”.

One of the highest paid principals in FE, Dame Asha received a £262,000 remuneration package in 2016/17.

In 2014 she received a damehood, and was named woman of the year at the GG2 Leadership Awards.

When she left the college she refused to accept any financial payout, walking away from at least £130,000.

Martin Sim has been appointed interim principal ahead of a search for a permanent successor to Dame Asha.