Londoners on less than the living wage of £19,890 can access free training next year

Adults in the capital who earn less than the London living wage will have their training fully funded from 2019/20.

The commitment was revealed this morning at the launch of the mayor’s new Skills for Londoners plan.

It follows an announcement made by Education and Skills Funding Agency last week that low-paid workers across the country would be eligible for free courses in 2018/19, through a one-year pilot.

However, London mayor Sadiq Khan has set the funding threshold significantly higher.

The ESFA’s policy will apply to adults aged 19 and above earning under £15,736.50 per year, based on the Social Mobility Commission’s low-pay threshold of £8.07 and the assumption of a 37.5-hour contract with paid statutory holiday entitlement.

Jules Pipe, Mr Khan’s deputy for planning, regeneration and skills, promised to increase this threshold to the London living wage – which is currently £19,890 a year.

Speaking to FE Week after the launch event, Mr Pipe said the GLA made the choice “because of the disparity of living costs in London”. 

Jules Pipe, London’s deputy mayor for skills

“For it to have the same effect here in the capital the benchmark would have to be the London living wage rather than the national benchmark that the government has chosen,” he said.

The change will come into effect when the capital’s adult education budget is devolved next year.

Mr Pipe said he had been looking into offering other free training for low-paid workers, particularly English courses for speakers of other languages before the ESFA’s announcement.

“We want to be able to widen participation and potential access to people, specifically in low-paid work, to upskill and then advance in their careers instead of getting stuck,” he said.

The ESFA’s policy will see tens of thousands of adults on low wages become eligible for free training courses in 2018/19.

Adult learners currently have to be on benefits to receive full funding for education courses.

The living wage is calculated annually by the Resolution Foundation and the Living Wage Commission, and is based on the actual cost of living.

It’s currently set at £10.20 an hour in London and £8.75 an hour in the rest of the UK.

This translates as an annual salary of £19,890 in London, and £17,062.50 outside London.

The GLA is set to take control of its £311 million AEB from 2019/20, as one of eight regions with devolution deals in place.

FE Week revealed last month that Mr Khan was planning to top-slice around one per cent of this to fund over 50 new bureaucrats, who will form a skills and employment unit to dish the money out when devolution kicks in.

And it emerged this week that the same unit is also gearing up to use even more of the cash to lobby for control of 16-to-18 funding.

 

ESFA to consult on ‘new’ register of apprenticeship training providers

The government is preparing to launch its consultation on the design and development of the revamped register of apprenticeship training providers.

Employers and providers have been denied the opportunity to win a place on to RoATP ever since the third and most recent application window shut at the end of October.

The application process has since been put under review and will not officially reopen until September, but hardly any news about how this is going has been forthcoming.

However, according to a new job advert, the Education and Skills Funding Agency will launch a consultation on the refreshed register soon.

“The design and development of a new register of apprenticeship training providers that acts as market entry gateway and delivers and maintains a healthy delivery marketplace for employers and learners alike; and is fit for purpose in terms of providing assurance to the accounting officer and employers,” the advert stated.

“This will be through consultation and is planned to launch in September 2018.”

The Department for Education has been approached for more detail.

It is now eight months since the government paused applications, though some bodies have enjoyed special treatment during this period.

FE Week revealed in April that 36 teacher-training organisations joined the register during a secret application window.

The ESFA allowed for an “extenuating circumstance” following a “disastrous” previous round which saw most of these applicants get rejected.

A spokesperson claimed that the special window was to ensure there are enough accredited ITT providers in place to deliver the postgraduate teacher apprenticeship from September 2018.

Other employers and providers wanting to join the register have to wait until September to apply, as confirmed by Rory Kennedy, the Department for Education’s director of apprenticeships, at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference in March.

He said the review of RoATP was not expected to be completed until the summer, even though it started in November.

He was hesitant to give a “flavour” of some of the outcomes of the review, though the DfE would “welcome views on” whether the window approach is the “right one” or “should we be talking about a rolling approval basis”.

London mayor to use AEB top-slice to lobby for more powers

A £3 million department created by the Greater London Authority using part of the capital’s adult education budget will also be used to lobby for control of 16-to-18 funding.

The plans were revealed in a job description for one of the top roles in the new AEB team, seen by FE Week, and have attracted more criticism for London mayor Sadiq Khan.

The unit will “act as the GLA’s in-house skills funding policy expert to inform any future cases to government for devolved budgets and responsibilities related to e.g. 16-to-18 technical education and skills activity, or other aspects of the skills system,” it says.

FE Week revealed last month that Mr Khan was planning to top-slice around one per cent of the capital’s £311 million AEB to fund over 50 new bureaucrats. They will form a skills and employment unit which will dish money out when devolution kicks in next year.

A funding policy and systems team is also being set up using AEB money – bringing the whole department up to over 60 staff members.

Sadiq is motivated by his belief that no Londoner should be left behind

Principals at a couple of the capital’s largest colleges have blasted the prospect of diverting adult education cash away from frontline learning to administrators – although the GLA insists the blame lies with the government’s unwillingness to pay for what it sees as necessary oversight.

The news that it will now also pay for creating policy for learners who are supported by other funding streams has led to even more condemnation.

“There are some 457,000 Londoners without qualifications and thousands more with health issues and older learners,” said Naina Kent, the equality representative for the University and Colleges Union’s London regional committee.

“That is what the budget is there for, and not on creating policy for those learners who are supported by other funding streams.

“The plan to take money away from the devolved AEB in London by the GLA to fund highly paid administrators will directly impact on those who most need the funding.”

It has been no secret that Mr Khan wants the GLA to take control of more than just the AEB.

In his mayoral election manifesto in 2016, he said he wanted to “call for the devolution of further education funding for 16- to 19-year-olds”.

He also wanted the apprenticeship levy paid by London’s employers to be “ring-fenced to the capital to make sure this benefits young people and businesses in London”.

“Sadiq is motivated by his belief that no Londoner should be left behind and to emphasise his commitment to the skills agenda is setting up a new team to ensure he can deliver for learners of all ages,” a spokesperson for the mayor said.

The GLA is currently publically rowing with the government over Mr Khan’s plan.

“Presently the mayor is funding all of the posts out of his own budget,” the GLA spokesperson added.

“Unless he receives an administration budget for future years, he will be forced to fund those elements of the posts which are focused on AEB from the AEB.”

The Department for Education insists it had awarded the GLA “sufficient funds to prepare”, providing £235,139 in “implementation funding” between September 2017 and the end of March – more than any other local authority.

However, this was a third of what the GLA requested. In its business case for implementation costs, it said it needed £629,512.65 for the transition.

There will be no further cash to cover ongoing administrative costs after the London authority and seven other mayoral combined authorities take over responsibility of the AEB from next year, the government has admitted.

Mr Khan is launching London’s first-ever standalone skills strategy, Skills for Londoners, tomorrow. Follow @FEWeek on Twitter for live updates from 10am.

Baker clause: providers asked for their experiences

Providers are being asked for their experiences of the controversial Baker clause, amid signs that schools are failing in their legal duty to open their doors to the FE sector.

The survey, conducted by the AELP at the request of the Department for Education, asks providers about the impact of the legislation, which came into effect in January.

AELP boss Mark Dawe described “reports from around the country” that  “some schools aren’t aware of the new statutory requirements or are just choosing to ignore them”. 

“Just as concerning are reports of cases where even if providers are allowed access, they can only talk to the lower-ability pupils about apprenticeships,” he added. “This survey will ascertain how big the issue is, and in the meantime, Ofsted inspectors have an important role to play in checking that compliance is in place.”

The Baker clause, so called because it was proposed by the former education secretary Lord Kenneth Baker (pictured above), was introduced as part of the Technical and FE Act 2017.

It requires schools to allow training providers and colleges the chance to speak to every pupil between the ages of 13 and 18 about technical qualifications and apprenticeships.

The clause, which also requires schools to publish a policy statement on their websites, came into effect on January 2.

However, there are warning signs that schools are failing in their legal duty.

An FE Week investigation in late January found that just two of the 10 largest multi-academy trusts in England were fully compliant with the clause.

Writing for FE Week in March, the skills minister Anne Milton urged providers to “let me know” if they faced problems with schools not giving them access.

“As a result of the new duty, I expect to see schools setting up careers events, assemblies and options evenings so that providers can talk to pupils about what they offer and what it is like to learn in a different environment,” she wrote.

When Lord Baker proposed the changes in February last year, he acknowledged they were likely to be “met with great hostility in every school in the country”.

Providers have until 5pm on June 12 to complete the survey. Click here to complete the survey.

Urgent levy reform demanded for nursing degree apprenticeships

Nursing degree apprenticeship start targets will be missed without urgent reform to how the apprenticeship levy can be spent, MPs have been warned.

There has been an extremely slow take-up so far, with only 30 starts up to the end of January this year, the Commons education committee was told in a specially convened hearing.

“Without the flexibility in the levy, to be blunt, we are not going to get there,” said Danny Mortimer, the chief executive of NHS Employers, referring to Public Health England’s desire to get 2,400 people enrolled on the programme. 

Overall, PHE wants “17,000 nursing associates having completed additional training” via degree apprenticeships “to become registered nurses”.

NHS Employers represents employers in the health service, and told the education committee through written submission in March that the NHS needs longer than the standard two years to use up the £200 million apprenticeship levy payments it is shelling out annually.

“A particular frustration among my members is that we see an inflexibility with the apprenticeship levy as a matter of policy which means that it is a very expensive way of training a nurse,” Mr Mortimer added today.

“The current policy and the Department for Education do not at present accept the difference between a nursing degree apprenticeship and other degree apprenticeships.

“They will not allow the flexibility in terms of the release of time for the students to train properly and meet the standards set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

“They will not allow us to fund the time to put in place the additional on the job supervision and mentoring and practice development that students need, and they will not extend the timescale for us to be able to access the levy to spend it on nursing degree apprenticeships.”

He said that nursing degree apprenticeships generate an additional £35,000 or £40,000 of cost per student every year for training every year over their four year duration.

Janet Davies and Dr Katerina Kolyva

Much of that cost comes from the cost of paying the wages of the supervisor or mentor overseeing the work on wards of apprentices.

“We have just disclosed this week that the provider section of the NHS was £900 million overspent last year, so that £140,000 to £150,000 per student over four years isn’t readily available other than through the levy.”

Janet Davies, the chief executive of the Royal College of Nurses, was also outspoken this morning.

“There are some real challenges around ensuring that we have a proper learning environment where students can be students and also patients are kept safe,” she told MPs. “The number one challenge is probably cost. To be a true apprentice, you need consistent supervision. Within an apprenticeship you have the cost of the salary and that cost of the supervisor.”

Jeremy Hunt (PA)

Nursing degree apprenticeships were announced by health secretary Jeremy Hunt in November 2016, involving new nursing associate and full, registered nurse apprenticeships, lasting two and four years respectively.

A nursing associate role was also introduced, with people who complete nursing associate apprenticeships able to count it as training towards a nursing degree.

Nursing associates work alongside healthcare support workers to deliver care, in order to free existing nurses up to focus on clinical duties.

However, there had been only 20 starts on the registered nursing standard and 10 for nursing associates by the end of January.

A Department for Education spokesperson said:  “The government is committed to increasing the number of nursing apprenticeships – we fund up to £27,000 per nursing apprentice. We have also created a new programme for nursing associate apprentices to broaden the routes into the profession.

“Quality remains at the heart of our reforms to apprenticeships – the apprenticeship levy is an important part of that, creating sustainable investment in skills training.”

She added the department is  working closely with employers and Health Education England to make sure the NHS is “fully supported” to recruit apprentices, both in nursing and “a range of other occupations”.

Demands for fairness after ESFA sets aside £2.6m in Somerset tender

The launch of a £2.6 million tender by the Education and Skills Funding Agency to deliver community learning services in Somerset has prompted demands for fairness and reform to the procurement process over the apparent special treatment.

The invitation to tender, published May 31, follows a campaign by community learning provider Somerset Skills and Learning for more funding, after it faced losing 97 per cent of its adult education budget following last year’s procurement debacle.

This included rallying four local Conservative MPs (pictured above), who held an emergency meeting last September with the skills minister, Anne Milton, to urgently review the massive cuts to SS&L’s funding.

Robert Halfon, chair of the influential education select committee, congratulated the MPs for their “brilliant campaign for their provider”.

“However, this does open a potential Pandora’s Box in procurement in that there are other procurement injustices in other parts of the country,” he said.

It was “another example of why the procurement process needs fundamental reform”, he said.

Mark Dawe, boss of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said that “whatever has been done for Somerset should be available to all AEB providers”. 

“We need to see fairness and transparency,” he demanded.

However, Susie Simon-Norris, chief executive of SS&L, said she was pleased the government had “recognised the importance of community learning in Somerset and that funds are being made available to support this vital provision in our county”.

“We have spent nearly a year working towards this position and fighting the case for Somerset,” she said.

SS&L has battled for more cash following last year’s AEB tender fiasco, which saw independent training providers bid for a share of just £110 million for adult education.

Its initial allocation of £111,000 represented just three per cent of the £3.4 million it received in 2016/17.

Following a campaign to lobby MPs and ministers, the ESFA made a partial U-turn on funding for providers which saw SS&L receive 75 per cent of its previous allocation on a “transitional basis”.

Nonetheless it was still forced to close centres and make redundancies.

FE Week reported in January that representatives from the provider were set to meet with ESFA officials to argue the case for more cash, claiming that Somerset was the only county in England not to get a major grant in the tender process.

However, it wasn’t the only provider to have faced massive cuts following the AEB tender process.

FE Week reported in September that a group of training providers was gearing up for collective action against the government’s process.

Community learning, which the ESFA’s ITT document defines as courses that are typically “unaccredited and can be undertaken for their own sake or as a step towards other learning / training”, is usually funded through the AEB.

It’s believed to be the first time the ESFA has run a procurement process specifically for this type of provision.

The contract on offer is to deliver community learning services in Somerset for an 11-month period from September, with the possibility of an extension.

The ITT is for a single provider to deliver community learning services within the geographical county of Somerset for an initial period from September 1 until July 31 next year with the possibility of extending for a further 12 months.

The “overall anticipated value” of the contract is £5,297,000, of which £2,597,000 is for the initial 11 month period.

It’s only on offer to a provider with a turnover of at least £2 million per year for the last three years “in order to ensure the provider is able to deliver the required volume of services”.

This is likely to limit the number of providers eligible to bid for the contract.

FE Week has asked the ESFA why it has launched the tender now, but has yet to receive a response.

Photo caption: From left: David Warburton, MP for Somerton and Frome, James Heappey, MP for Wells, Anne Milton, apprenticeships and skills minister, Rebecca Pow, MP for Taunton Deane, and Marcus Fysh, MP for Yeovil

London’s largest college group ends UCU strike

Industrial action at the largest college group in London has come to an end after Capital City College Group offered staff a “modest, non-consolidated payment” and more secure contracts.

University and College Union members at the group’s three campuses – City and Islington College, Westminster Kingsway College, and the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London – have walked out twice this year after a pay offer of just one per cent.

But Andy Wilson (pictured above), the group chief executive, said today that UCU members at each college have “voted to end the dispute” after they “reached an agreement”.

He explained that in addition to the one-per-cent pay increase recommended by the Association of Colleges, CCCG will be making a “modest, non-consolidated payment to all our staff”.

This will be £500 per full-time member of staff, paid on a pro-rata basis to fractional and part-time staff, a spokesperson confirmed.

It has also “committed to consolidate the contracts of hourly-paid staff who have taught half timetables for three years or more into fractional posts,” Mr Wilson said.

“This is something we have wanted to do for a number of years and it is great that the security the large college group now provides allows us to improve the conditions for this important group of staff.”

UCU head of FE, Andrew Harden, said that CCCG has also committed to further pay talks when Mr Wilson leaves and a new chief executive is in post come the next academic year.

He added that members have “made it clear” they will ballot for strike action again if the “promised negotiations over a new local pay bargaining framework does not result in a meaningful pay award for 2018/19”.

London was a hotbed of industrial unrest in March and May as staff at numerous colleges reacted with anger to the AoC’s “disappointing” pay increase recommendation. They claim that because they work and live in the capital, which has higher costs of living than the rest of the UK, they should get a better wage offer.

“CCCG recognises that salaries across the FE sector have not kept up with the costs that our staff have in order to work in London,” Mr Wilson said. “As in other colleges, our income has not increased while staff costs, including pensions, national insurance, the apprenticeship levy as well as salaries, increase every year.

“The corporation aspires to be the best FE employer in the capital and is committed to work with staff and the trade unions to explore a pay policy that will achieve this. In the meantime I am pleased our students will be able to complete their courses without further disruption.”

Mr Harden added: “UCU members took action after being told that there was no extra money available for pay and the issue of fractional contracts was not a priority for the college.

“Members have secured a deal on pay and a decent agreement on fractional contracts. These are a result of the action UCU members took.”

Nursing apprenticeships ‘too expensive’, warning for MPs

Nursing degree apprenticeships are too expensive and fraught with difficulties for widespread roll-out, senior figures from the NHS are expected to warn MPs.

The Education Committee is dedicating a special session at 10.15am this morning – which can be viewed here – to what more can be done to get more people signing up for nursing degree apprenticeships.

Panellists include Danny Mortimer, the chief executive of NHS Employers, and Janet Davies, who leads the Royal College of Nursing, who are expected to explain why take-up has been extremely slow.

 

The RCN was critical of apprenticeships in its written submission on the issue to the committee back in March.

“The apprenticeship route will take a minimum of four years to complete, whereas a traditional university programme is three years duration; it is thus both costly and less efficient to the healthcare system in growing local workforce,” it said.

“If employers are struggling to cover backfill costs for academic time and practice placements, the length of time to train a nurse via an apprenticeship route may well take longer that the minimum four years and the route is unlikely to become a serious workforce contributor.

“In the context of government plans of up to 1,000 apprentice nurses joining the NHS each year, this is concerning.”

NHS Employers, which represents employers in the health service, told the education committee through its written submission that the NHS needs longer than the standard two years to use up the £200 million apprenticeship levy payments it is shelling out annually.

“As one of the largest contributors to the levy, and a sector already under considerable financial strain, NHS organisations need to be given the best possible opportunity to use the levy to fill skills gaps in the workforce,” the submission stated.

“Therefore, we strongly recommend that the deadline for the use of the levy should be extended from 24 months to 36 months during the establishment period.”

It wants any unspent funds to expire 24 months after they enter a digital account.

“Delaying removal of levy funds from the digital account for a further 12 months, in addition to the already agreed 24 months, would have a significant impact on the NHS’ ability to increase its apprenticeship offer using newly developed healthcare apprenticeship standards,” it added.

The government hopes that degree apprenticeships will solve nursing shortages across the country.

More trainees will be encouraged into nursing, and will be paid as they learn rather than having to pay towards the traditional degree route.

FE Week reported earlier this year that the majority of NHS trusts in England plan to spend their apprenticeship levy cash within the allotted timeframe – even though most were frustrated by the policy’s “inflexibility”.

However, one significant sticking point appears to be the 2.3-per-cent apprenticeship target for the public sector by 2020, which most trusts do not feel confident in meeting.

The findings came from a survey of 175 trusts, conducted by BPP University, which found that 95 per cent plan to use their levy money rather than lose it, and half (52 per cent) will spend the cash in the first year.

Large employers across the public and private sectors have been forced to pay the levy since April last year. Their payments go into a pot which they then spend on apprenticeship training.

Today’s session will focus on the reasons behind the low take-up since the scheme was announced in 2016. It will also look at how to ensure people unable to study full-time undergraduate degrees can become nurse apprentices.

Other panellists set to face questions from chair Robert Halfon and his committee of MPs are Dr Katerina Kolyva, the executive director of the Council of Deans of Health, and Theresa Britt, a product development project manager for apprenticeships at the Open University.

A second session will be held with skills minister Anne Milton before the summer recess.

Get ‘faster and better’ at approving apprenticeship standards, skills minister tells IfA

The skills minister has told the Institute for Apprenticeships to get “faster and better” at approving apprenticeship standards.

Anne Milton’s request appeared in a document called “strategic guidance to the Institute for Apprenticeships”, published today.

FE Week revealed two weeks ago that the institute approved just four standards throughout April and 10 in March, down from 21 in February.

It appeared to pick up the pace this month by approving 19.

Acknowledging the issue, Ms Milton said she wants the institute to make accelerating standard approvals a top priority.

“I would like to see further improvements following the implementation of your faster and better programme, particularly in reducing the time it takes to approve apprenticeship standards,” she said.

Apprenticeship standards, which are developed by groups of employers, are gradually replacing the old frameworks. Each contains a list of the skills, knowledge and behaviours an apprentice will need to have learned by the end of their apprenticeship.

The institute’s chief executive Sir Gerry Berragan only launched the “faster and better” initiative in December to “streamline the approvals process”, after receiving complaints from employers and providers that the process was far too slow and bureaucratic.

A spokesperson had claimed the figures for March and April were not surprising, as the IfA expected recent reforms to slow things down temporarily ahead of an anticipated upturn.

Ms Milton’s other priorities for the IfA include continuing to “improve the quality of apprenticeships, through upholding robust approvals criteria, assuring the quality of end-point assessments, and reviewing standards and assessment plans”.

Reviews should make use of occupational maps and “demonstrate how standards maintain their relevance to employers, are occupationally specific, and reflect the changing needs of skills, knowledge and behaviours in an occupation over time”.

She also wants the institute to provide a “positive and timely response” to employers and apprentices, “mindful of their needs, and responsive employer and apprentice experience”.

The institute is due to take over the running of T-levels later this, although an actual date has not been agreed yet.

“You will therefore need to work in partnership with the department and other agencies to agree and clearly define the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved, throughout the implementation phase and once T-levels are fully operational,” Ms Milton said.

“You will work closely with the department on the recruitment of the T-level panels for those routes to be delivered from 2022, with a view to T-level panels for 2022 outline content (and their relationship managers) ultimately operating out of the Institute.

“We have agreed that your 15 route panels, established as expert employer groups, will oversee both apprenticeships and T-levels. These panels will approve all outline content produced by T-level panels, due for delivery from 2020 onwards.”