Damian Hinds casts doubt on Anne Milton’s FE funding review

The review into FE funding announced just two days ago by the skills minister might not actually go ahead – at least if remarks made by her boss are to be understood.

Anne Milton announced the review in the House of Commons on March 19, but the education secretary Damian Hinds, whom she reports to, refused to acknowledge it at a committee meeting this morning – casting considerable doubt on whether or not it’s a going concern.

Anne Milton

Emma Hardy, the MP for Hull West and Hessle, asked for more information on the review at a meeting of the education select committee, after warning that successive funding cuts had had a grave effect on FE provision.

“Clearly there is a problem with funding for FE. On Monday your department announced a review of FE funding,” she said. “What are the timescales for this and how will it feed into the ongoing post-18 review?”

His response baffled the MPs who were present.

“I didn’t announce a review on Monday,” he said.

He spoke generally about the importance of maintaining a “resilient” FE sector.

“We said quite rightly that we always need to be looking at the resilience of the sector – different parts of the education system including FE colleges,” he said. “The comprehensive spending review will come when it comes and that will be in 2019, but we do know already that with the growth of apprenticeships funding, colleges will get a big slice of that, T-levels will also provide funding.”

Ms Hardy then cut in, saying: “Thank you, so it appears there isn’t a plan to review FE funding.”

Emma Hardy

Mr Hinds did not correct her, and FE Week asked the the Department for Education for urgent clarification.

They said the review would be going ahead – but it would only be “internal” rather than “external” of the department.

Ms Milton announced the review during education questions on Monday, after she was asked what the DfE had made of “recent trends” in education funding for 16- to 19-year-olds.

Alongside the post-18 review of education funding, she said “we are also looking at the efficiency and resilience of the FE sector”.

“We need to make sure that existing and forecast funding and regulatory structures meet the costs of high-quality, first-class provision,” she continued.

“I’ve asked my officials to assess how far the current funding system meets the costs of high-quality provision in the further education sector and will update the House shortly.”

Consultation launches on post-18 education and funding review

The government’s consultation on its review of Post-18 education and funding has launched today, to close on May 2.

It is expected to focus on funding around levels four and above, and look seriously at how colleges can run more at these levels.

The aim is to create “a joined-up system that works for everyone”, according to the supporting online consultation document.

An independent panel, chaired by Philip Augar alongside five other experts, is therefore seeking evidence on “how to support young people in making effective choices between academic, technical and vocational routes after 18”.

It also wants to work out how best to “promote a more dynamic market in education and training provision”, “ensure the post-18 education system is accessible to all”, and “encourage the development of the skills that we need as a country”.

It will be looking at how students and graduates contribute to the cost of their studies, to “ensure funding arrangements across post-18 education in the future are transparent and do not stop people from accessing higher education or training”.

An interim stage will be published this year before the government concludes the overall review in early 2019.

“This is an ambitious and wide-ranging review. We begin with no preconceptions. Our priority is to undertake a thorough examination of the evidence and to hear from a broad range of stakeholders who like us are committed to ensuring the system works for everyone,” Mr Augar said.

Significantly for FE, the prime minister announced the launch of the review at Derby College rather than a university.

Association of Colleges boss David Hughes celebrated the decision.

“The review is significant because it is the first proper review of higher education, post-18, level four-plus provision I have ever seen,” said Mr Hughes, who was provider services director for the Skills Funding Agency until 2011.

He believes that the government is open to presenting colleges with potential opportunities to expand in to the higher education market.

“That includes opening up fair funding to incentivise people to consider level four, five and six part-time flexible learning as well,” he continued.

Why are apprenticeship drop-out rates so high?

Jisc’s Paul Feldman argues that to boost completion rates, we first need to understand why apprentices are dropping out

The government’s desire to have three million people start apprenticeships by 2020, and its moves to widen access through last year’s careers strategy, are both steps in the right direction. These measures will feed into the government’s industrial strategy and its drive for social justice.

But the Skills Commission’s recent report into ‘Apprenticeships and social mobility’ have highlighted a few problems. More than 30 per cent of people who start apprenticeships in Britain do not complete them and, more worryingly, that situation is getting worse every year. The question is: why is this the case?

The commission noted that there is some evidence that young people from more affluent backgrounds, who have the social capital and credentials to navigate the skills system, are most likely to start higher-yield apprenticeships.

But the commission also recognises that more evidence is needed. One of the largest gaps in our knowledge is the lack of comprehensive data on the social backgrounds of people who are enrolling and then dropping out.

Improving employability and social mobility are two policies in which FE is expected to take a leading role

The commission recommends that data collection on social background and progression for apprenticeships should mirror that which already exists for – and benefits – HE and FE institutions, taking for example the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s outcome-based success measures data.

Learning analytics is another form of data that could be useful. Jisc’s work to develop access to learning analytics for higher and further education has shown that such data analysis can help improve retention rates.

For example, should a learner stop engaging with their virtual learning environment, a red flag is raised. Timely and appropriate interventions can then be made to support at-risk students to stay engaged with studying, which improves their experiences, their retention rates and their chances of a successful outcome.

In higher education, data has also been used predictively to identify any students who might be at risk of dropping out or not meeting their full academic potential.

We are looking at what we can do to adapt our system for apprenticeships. Indeed, it is our aim to enable data to be gathered from all stages of the apprenticeship journey, including attendance at training, progress, topic coverage, as well as data from systems such as student records, the VLE and e-portfolios.

We are already working with the Department for Education to use apprenticeships data, which has helped to confirm our belief that college providers need better information on which to base decision-making – especially if they are to help meet the government’s goals in the skills arena.

Indeed, improving employability and social mobility are two policies in which FE is expected to take a leading role.

At the moment, the government’s three million target, despite its ambition, doesn’t provide enough incentive to address the high non-continuation figures because it only measures starts.

In recent years, the HE sector has been encouraged to adopt a “student lifecycle” approach to access. In practice, this means that institutions must ensure that students from non-traditional backgrounds are successful following enrolment.

In HE, underrepresented groups are more likely to drop out of their studies than the general student population. If the data for apprenticeships shows the same trend, then we must consider adopting an “apprentice lifecycle” approach to improve progression.

But the first step is to get the data, which is why we support the commission’s call for the government to improve data collection for apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships benefit a range of individuals including those who find accessing the labour market difficult, from care-leavers to the long-term unemployed. If we can understand the needs of these learners we can help them to fulfil their ambitions and potential, creating millions of talented workers ready to plug the skills gap.

Paul Feldman is chief executive of Jisc

DfE announces which providers will be protected from AEB devolution

The providers that will be protected from adult education budget devolution have been announced.

Certain providers will continue to be funded nationally by the Education and Skills Funding Agency for two years between 2019/20 and 2020/21 after devolution goes ahead, the skills minister confirmed in Parliament last week.

They have now been named, and feature providers which qualify for a “residential uplift” for their learning provision, which receive more than two thirds of their income from the AEB, and which “predominantly target their provision at the most disadvantaged in society”.

They are Fircroft College in Birmingham, Hillcroft College, which now part of Richmond and Hillcroft Adult and Community College in London, Northern College in Barnsley, and Ruskin College in Oxfordshire.

A government spokesperson said that this will be “to aid their transition to devolution/delegation given their specialist nature and reliance on AEB”. 

Traineeships for 19- to 24-year-olds will meanwhile “remain a nationally funded programme” with allocations provided by ESFA, regardless of where trainees live.

But providers were advised to prepare for widespread handover of responsibility from local to central government.

“Providers who wish to deliver AEB provision, post devolution/delegation, in one or more of the mayoral combined authorities and Greater London Authority areas should start to build, if they have not already done so, effective working relationships with the relevant authority,” the spokesperson said.

The “final AEB to be devolved” to the mayoral combined authorities and delegate the AEB to Greater London Authority for the 2019/20 funding year “is expected in early 2019”, once “the functions necessary for the delivery of adult education have been transferred” and the AEB budget for that year has been finalised.

There has been widespread dismay at the lack of information on how AEB devolution will work in practice.

FE Week reported in February that the regional mayors tasked with overseeing devolution had met the Department for Education to “voice concerns” over the process.

High among their issues was a lack of influence over the budgets, and not enough funding funding during the transition year, as well as what were described as “challenging” timescales for the handing over of power.

“As part of the preparations for devolution/delegation the DfE has issued illustrative AEB allocations for 2018 to 2019 to MCAs and the GLA,” the spokesperson added.

FE Week has asked to see the illustrative allocations.

“These illustrative budgets give MCAs and the GLA an indication of the AEB they can expect to receive in the funding year 2019 to 2020,” they said.

“The budgets are based on 2016 to 2017 actual grant delivery and assumed 2017 to 2018 independent learning providers’ delivery to learners resident in MCAs/GLA areas.”

Anne Milton announces FE funding review

The government is launching a review into how the current system of funding for FE meets the costs of “high-quality” provision, Anne Milton has revealed.

The skills minister announced the plans in the House of Commons today during educations questions, after she was asked what the Department for Education had made of “recent trends” in education funding for 16- to 19-year-olds.

Alongside the post-18 review of education funding, she said “we are also looking at the efficiency and resilience of the FE sector”.

“We need to make sure that existing and forecast funding and regulatory structures meet the costs of high-quality, first-class provision,” she continued.

“I’ve asked my officials to assess how far the current funding system meets the costs of high-quality provision in the further education sector and will update the House shortly.”

The Sixth-Form Colleges Association has claimed this is a “significant win” for its ‘Support Our Sixth-Formers’ campaign, which was backed by FE Week.

One of its main objectives has been to secure a review of sixth-form funding to ensure it is linked to the “realistic costs of delivering a rounded, high-quality curriculum”.

James Kewin

James Kewin, the association’s deputy chief executive, described the announcement as an “important step on the road to ensuring that 16-to-19 providers are fairly and sufficiently funded”.

“We look forward to working with ministers and officials on the detail of this project and have already shared some of our existing evidence base with colleagues in the DfE,” he added.

A DfE spokesperson said: “We are looking at resilience, funding, regulation and the institutional structures within the sector to make sure that we can deliver high quality provision.

“This is not an external review, but it will draw on the views of providers across the sector.”

The Support Our Sixth-Formers campaign was dealt a blow in January when the DfE ruled out an increase in funding for 16- to 18-year-olds next year.

In a letter to providers, the department said the national base rates of £4,000 per full-time student aged 16 to 17 and £3,300 for 18-year-olds were to be “maintained for academic year 2018 to 2019 as are the part time funding rates”.

The Support our Sixth-Formers campaign, also backed by the Association of Colleges, has been calling for a £200 “SOS uplift” in 16-to-18 per-pupil funding rates.

The SFCA claimed in November that sixth-form colleges were at “tipping point” after their overall Ofsted ratings fell for a third year running, largely as a result of funding pressures.

And Amanda Spielman, Ofsted chief inspector, said during her speech at the launch of the Ofsted annual report in December that the “sector will continue to struggle” without an increase in the base rate funding for this age group.

This is the sixth year that the funding rate for 16- to 18-year-olds has remained unchanged – meaning that providers have faced a real-terms funding cut over that time.

Lambeth College and LSBU merger is back on

A merger between a cash-strapped London college and a nearby university will be going ahead after all – even though the college has been searching for other potential partners.  

Lambeth College originally said it would join London South Bank University in December 2016. But it emerged in January that those plans had hit the buffers, and that it was in the market for a new partner.

The college has reverted to its original plan, and is set to join the LSBU “family” of institutions at a yet-to-be confirmed date in the future.

“Joining the LSBU family heralds the beginning of an exciting new era for Lambeth College,” said Monica Box, the college’s principal.

“We look forward to working with the team at LSBU to improve further education provision in Lambeth and to build on our position as the careers college of choice for the local community.”

Professor David Phoenix, vice-chancellor of London South Bank University, said the two institutions had been “working closely” for two years and described today’s announcement as “an exciting development”.

“The unique ‘family’ approach creates a coordinated group of specialist institutions, each sharing a common educational framework that focuses on the learner,” he added.

The exact arrangements of the partnership still need to be finalised between the Department for Education, the college and the university.

Earlier this month FE Week reported on a new merger model being pioneered by Bolton College and the University of Bolton.

That model, proposed by the DfE, would see the college retain its own principal and governing board, giving it greater protection than it would through a traditional merger model.

Lambeth’s troubles began in 2016, when a “significant deterioration” in its cashflow prompted an intervention by the former FE commissioner Sir David Collins.

His report, based on a visit that September, found problems with the college’s finances that were so severe it was “no longer sustainable” unless it merged.

Lambeth emerged from the central London area review, which ended two months after Sir David’s visit, with a recommendation to pursue one of three options: a merger with LSBU, one with Lewisham Southwark College, or joining the new grouping of City of Westminster College and the College of North West London.

The following month, the college announced that it would “join the LSBU family in principle”.

FE Week reported in June last year that the college was preparing to hand over wide-ranging control of how it was run to the university, via controversial changes to its governance.

It consulted on changes to its instruments and articles of governance that would have seen its principal stripped of many of their duties, and at least half of the college’s governors appointed by the university.

Those changes were due to take effect by mid-June – but in September FE Week reported that implementation had been delayed.

The merger with LSBU, which had been due to complete in July, had been delayed “with submissions of further financial and strategic plans to the Education and Skills Funding Agency and the minister of state”, according to the college’s accounts, dated December 2017.

“At the date of the signing of these financial statements these plans are to be tested against other proposals through an FE commissioner-led structure and prospects appraisal that will conclude by February 2018,” it continued.

The same document also revealed that the college was depending on government bailouts to keep it afloat.

It had received £8 million in exceptional financial support, and was expecting to receive funding from the “restructuring facility of around £25 million in early 2018”.

Movers and Shakers: Edition 238

Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving

Sandra Wakefield, Quality manager, PHX Training

Start date: January 2018
Previous job: Quality and training manager, Learndirect
Interesting fact: Sandra went to stage school.

____________________________________________

Samantha Rutter, CEO, Open Study College

Start date: March 2018
Previous job: Chief operating officer, Open Study College
Interesting fact: Samantha will be on the judging panel at the Education Awards 2018.

____________________________________________

Liz Austin, Vice-chair, the Essex Employment and Skills Board

Start date: March 2018
Previous job: HR director, London Stansted Airport (ongoing)
Interesting fact: Liz began her career in occupational psychology, and spent time working in mental health.

____________________________________________

Fabienne Bailey, Managing director, One Awards

Start date: February 2018
Previous job: Learning and skills manager, Stockton Borough Council
Interesting fact: Fabienne was born in Germany and lived there for nine years as her father was in the armed forces. Through his work and her own interest in travel, she has visited 28 different countries.

____________________________________________

Dr Anne Murdoch OBE, General secretary, Principals’ Professional Council

Start date: February 2018
Previous job: Principal and CEO, Newbury College
Interesting fact: Anne rode pillion to Italy on her husband’s motorbike four years ago, touring through France, Germany and Austria, to northern Italy and the Dolomites, and they have another trip planned this year.

 

If you want to let us know of any new faces at the top of your college, training provider or awarding organisation please let us know by emailing news@feweek.co.uk

What the government needs to do to promote T-levels

All the polling suggests that not enough people know about the new T-levels, and those who do value them less than A-levels. This must change, writes Julie Hyde

CACHE recently commissioned a poll of parents and of young people aged 11 to 16, to get a sense of how ready the country is for T-levels and where the pitfalls might lie in the implementation. The results were revealing.

Firstly, there is a startling lack of awareness of the reforms underway – 53 per cent of parents and 56 per cent of young people polled had not even heard of T-levels.

While this could be expected, given that T-levels are still in the early stages of development, it is worrying that the very people who will need to navigate the new post-16 education landscape have no awareness of what’s coming.

The prime minister was right when she noted recently that people still view technical education as “something for other people’s children”

Perhaps more alarming is that 63 per cent of parents with children and 68 per cent of children aged 11 to 16 could not name an existing technical qualification. There is a lot of work to do to make technical education a widely recognised alternative to A-levels.

Parity of esteem remains a long way off: it’s encouraging that three quarters of parents believe technical qualifications are “just as valuable” as A-levels and 82 per cent think technical qualifications can “lead into good future careers”. In spite of this, twice as many parents would advise their children to pick A-Levels (53 per cent) rather than technical qualifications (26 per cent).

The prime minister was right when she noted recently that people still view technical education as “something for other people’s children”.

The government has the right idea: creating robust technical qualifications respected by employers that give learners strong prospects. But simply introducing new qualifications is not enough to deliver a real change in how technical education is viewed.

The government should acknowledge this challenge and set out in its consultation response how it plans to actively change perceptions and promote the benefits of technical education.

We need to find ways to educate parents and children about their post-16 choices so they can make informed decisions, and we need to start now.

The Baker Clause was designed to address this by ensuring that young people hear about all their options in school, but it has no teeth. The skills minister did recently call on FE providers to report schools which fail to cooperate, but this risks feeding the adversarial dynamic that created the problem in the first place.

We need a more direct approach. During the implementation period for T-levels, the government should actively work with the FE sector to harness our expertise and develop an impactful marketing and information campaign about the reforms, targeting parents and young people. We know what attracts people to our sector and what they want from a qualification, and we can help.

It is also crucial that people from the sector have a visible presence in the policymaking landscape.

We need politicians and other high-profile people with experience of technical education front and centre, who can serve as role models and make a strong case for the benefits. The recent decision not to appoint anyone from FE to the Office for Students’ board was particularly telling. If the government does not lead by example, then how will parity of esteem ever become a reality?

Ultimately, the best thing to ensure that technical education becomes the norm would be a period of stability. By my calculation, the sector has seen more than 20 different major reforms since 1980 – which explains why the public are struggling to keep up and can’t name a technical qualification.

That’s not to say that the academic sector has not faced its fair share of changes – it has – but while the content and assessment of qualifications may have changed, the core principles and components of the academic route have remained broadly similar and easy to follow.

Giving these reforms adequate time to take root is vitally important, as creating parity of esteem requires a significant generational shift in attitudes that clearly can’t be achieved overnight.

Julie Hyde is director of CACHE

Terrorist attack survivor gives students a talk on radicalisation

A 16-year-old survivor of a terrorist attack has shared his experiences with Walsall College’s supported learning students to raise awareness of radicalisation and extremism.

Ahmad Nawaz was shot in the arm by Taliban terrorists while at school in Peshawar in Pakistan in 2014, losing his younger brother and numerous school friends in the attack.

He spoke at the college’s Wisemore campus during Prevent Week, where West Midlands Police also ran an interactive session on the Prevent duty, and raised awareness of the dangers of getting involved in far-right extremism.

“We make it our mission to ensure that staff and students can study and work in a safe and welcoming environment, and that involves ensuring that everyone is aware of their rights and responsibilities,” said Carol Egan, director of student journey at the college.

“Prevent Week is a good opportunity to raise awareness of radicalisation and extremism, and for our students to develop the knowledge to empower themselves to keep themselves and others safe.”