Three financial health notices and two breaches of minimum standard college reports have been published by the Department for Education.

It was double-trouble for Easton and Otley College, rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted’, which received one of each and has been told to stop recruitment of learners in some areas.

The other financial health notice was given to Havering College of Further and Higher Education, while the minimum standards notices to improve were for Morley College and Prospects College of Advanced Technology.

The proportion of leavers below the minimum standard threshold for Easton and Otley’s adult education is 49.2 per cent,

The ESFA now requires the college to “suspend the recruitment of learners on the learning aims listed in red text in Schedule B, with the exception of Access to HE; and Functional Skills and GCSE maths and English”, and “withdraw from all 19+ education and training subcontracting arrangements that have reported provision below the ESFA minimum standard”.

The funding agency also requires the college to “not enter into any new subcontracting arrangements until such time that you have demonstrated, to the ESFA’s satisfaction, that the quality of subcontracted provision has improved and you have improved the monitoring of delivery by sub-contractors”.

The college must also work with the ESFA and the FE commissioner to make the “required changes and improvements, as they deem appropriate” regarding its finances.

“The college must prepare and share with the ESFA the revised financial recovery plan within four weeks of the receipt of this letter.”

Havering College’s notice brings it into scope of FE commissioner intervention, meanwhile.

It must prepare a financial recovery plan “that will give the ESFA sufficient confidence that the actions planned will bring about sufficient and sustained improvements”, on the basis of being a standalone entity.

The recovery plan should aim to secure the college’s financial position by demonstrating a financial health grade of at least ‘satisfactory’ for two successive years.

It was announced last month that Havering College and the neighbouring Havering Sixth Form College are in talks about merging with New City College – a move which would create one of the largest college groups in the country.

PROCAT, which found a merger partner this week after it was told it would struggle to survive as a standalone institution by the FE commissioner, has shockingly bad achievement rates.

The ESFA said the proportion of leavers below the minimum standard threshold for its adult education is 83.6 per cent.

The funding agency now requires it to “suspend/withdraw from all 19+ education and training subcontracting arrangements that have reported provision below the ESFA minimum standard”.

“We also recommend that you inform learners funded through advanced learner loans and bursary that you have failed the ESFA’s minimum standard for 19+ education and training,” it added.

PROCAT, which already has a financial notice to improve, must also “produce an improvement plan that demonstrates immediate action will be taken to bring about significant and sustained improvement to the 19+ education and training provision that failed minimum standards”.

Morley College is required to also produce an improvement plan, after the ESFA found the proportion of leavers below the minimum standard threshold to be 47 per cent.

Its action plan should be “sufficient to improve provision to meet minimum standards in 19+ education and training provision that failed in 2016/2017 when the QAR data for 2017/2018 is published”.

The metro mayors overseeing skills budget devolution have joined forces to demand control of apprenticeship levy cash that employers fail to spend.

The devolved adult education budget will come into effect from 2019/20.

In a joint statement, they insisted that with Brexit approaching it is more important than ever to ensure local workers have the right skills.

“We recognise the government’s efforts to reform the skills system and applaud its ambition to see three million apprenticeships by 2020,” they wrote. “However, the reality is that the number of apprenticeship starts has dropped sharply.

We call on the government to give us the flexibility we need to address these issues, specifically by granting city regions control of the apprenticeship levy funding which levy-payers do not spend

“With that in mind, we call on the government to give us the flexibility we need to address these issues, specifically by granting city regions control of the apprenticeship levy funding which levy-payers do not spend, and by further devolving control of 16-to-19 skills policy.

“We also call on the government to provide additional funding for us to ensure that there are enough quality providers in our city regions, and to drive the quality of apprenticeships.”

Large employers have been forced to pay the levy since it was launched last year.

The money goes into a pot which they have two years to claim back to spend on apprenticeship training, but concern is growing that many will not be able to spend this in time.

London’s mayor wants even more powers over apprenticeships funding and devolution powers.

“In London, I want to go even further, and for London’s whole contribution to the apprenticeship levy to be ringfenced and devolved to spend on meeting the capital’s complex skills needs,” said Sadiq Khan.

It emerged last week that employers have used just 10 per cent of their levy funds in 12 months after it was introduced.

In London, I want to go even further, and for London’s whole contribution to the apprenticeship levy to be ringfenced and devolved to spend on meeting the capital’s complex skills needs

The education minister Lord Agnew admitted to Parliament that between May last year and the end of this April, levy-paying employers “drew down £207 million from their apprenticeship service accounts for new starts”.

This amounts to just a tenth of the ring-fenced budget set by the government “regardless of how much levy receipts are each year”.

The government had hoped the levy would force more employers to invest in training, and help it hit its manifesto target of three million apprenticeship starts by 2020.

But starts have actually fallen since its launch: it emerged today that apprenticeship starts for March are down 52 per cent compared with the same period in 2017.

The directly-elected regional mayors met in Liverpool to back the joint statement and discuss their devolution plans.

It is understood that taking part were Andy Street representing the West Midlands, Tim Bowles for the west of England, Andy Burnham for Greater Manchester, Sadiq Khan of London, Ben Houchen for Tees Valley, and Steve Rotheram for Liverpool.

James Palmer of Peterborough and Cambridgeshire, and Dan Jarvis for Sheffield were unable to attend but signed the statement.

Mr Burnham wants more powers over apprenticeships and the incoming T-levels.

“With the Whitehall machine creaking under the strain of Brexit, it’s time that ministers gave devolved regions the chance to get on,” he said.

“Further devolution to allow a less fragmented post-16 skills system with clear and attractive choices for young people, including apprenticeships and T-levels, would go a long way to connecting residents and businesses with the growth of Greater Manchester.”

Apprenticeships and Skills Minister Anne Milton said: “Our reforms to the apprenticeship system are about increasing the number of quality apprenticeships in this country to give people and businesses the skills they need to thrive. To do this we have put employers at the heart of designing the new apprenticeship standards and we have seen a big increase in people starting on our new, higher-quality apprenticeships.

“Levy funding is already, quite rightly, fully devolved to employers – giving  them direct control so they can invest in high quality training, to suit the needs of their business.”

 

Pic from left: Ben Houchen, Andy Street, unknown, Sadiq Khan, Steve Rotheram, unknown, Tim Bowles, and Andy Burnham

Staff at one of London’s larger college groups will earn a one-off payment and a minor annual salary increase in a new pay deal following strikes.

The offer, which has been agreed between the University and College Union and New City College, puts an end to a dispute which involved three days of walkouts last month.

Staff at Hackney College and Tower Hamlets College, both part of the group, will receive £800 as a part of the deal. This amounts to a one-off payment of £400, with £400 added on to their pay each year.

Hourly-paid staff at the group’s campus in Hackney will also be moved onto the “teachers’ pay spine”, bolstering their terms and conditions.

However, Gerry McDonald, chief executive of NCC, said it was “important to note” that this is “not a pay deal, and is not linked to any national UCU campaign or any organised union action”.

“This is a productivity agreement made as a result of internal discussions and negotiations around out-of-date teaching contracts,” he claimed. “The agreement was reached due to teachers on legacy contracts agreeing to increase their contact hours and adapt working practices in line with the needs of the organisation.”

The new pay offer comes after UCU reached an agreement with Capital City College Group – London’s largest college group – last week, also over staff pay and contracts.

This put an end to industrial action after staff were offered a “modest, non-consolidated payment” of £500 and more secure contracts.

Despite Mr McDonald’s claim that NCC’s offer has nothing to do with union action, the UCU believes members at the colleges “should be proud of their action, which led to pay increases after management told them there was no extra money available”.

The union wants the deals to now prompt the Association of Colleges to bring a “decent national pay offer for all college staff to negotiating table”.

The AoC recently made a “U-turn” on college pay and said it would accept a pay claim from the trade unions for 2018/19, having previously said it wouldn’t while strikes were happening.

“UCU members took action because they were fed up of being told once again that the cupboard was bare,” said UCU general secretary Sally Hunt.

“In both these college groups, members have secured deals on pay and contracts as a result of the action they took. 

“The Association of Colleges should take note. Staff will not put up with their pay being held down any longer and the AoC must bring a fair national deal to the negotiating table.”

New City College is made up on Hackney Community College, Tower Hamlets College, and Redbridge College. Redbridge has not been involved in the strikes.

Mr McDonald said it was “not relevant” to compare its agreement to a “percentage increase, nor to any national negotiation”.

He added that NCC awarded its staff the agreed AoC pay award for 17/18 of one per cent.

Apprenticeship starts for March are down 52 per cent compared with the same period in 2017.

There have been 23,900 starts recorded so far in March 2018, compared with 50,000 in March 2017 according to the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s monthly apprenticeship statistics update, published this morning.

Overall starts for the year to date stand at 261,200, compared with 362,400 for the same period in 2016/17 – a fall of 28 per cent. 

That means the government is now 230,300 or 17 per cent off the 3m trajectory.

Today’s figures come the day after the government went on the defensive over the apprenticeship levy.

An open letter signed by skills minister Anne Milton, Institute for Apprenticeships boss Sir Gerry Berragan and dozens of senior figures from business schools, businesses and other organisations urged the sector to “support employers in making use of the levy”.

“We believe that the apprenticeship levy gives employers a real opportunity to invest in training, bringing the well-recognised enthusiasm and new ideas of apprentices to their business,” the letter said.

Other signatories to the letter include Euan Blair, the son of former prime minister Tony Blair and co-founder of apprenticeship agency WhiteHat, and leaders from businesses including Airbus, Barclays, Siemens and Aston Martin.

Mark Dawe, boss of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said he understood why the skills minister had gone on the defensive – and that the AELP also “strongly supports” the levy.

“But we hope that when she addresses the AELP conference in a few days’ time, she will signal a suspension of charging SMEs for apprenticeships for 16-24 year olds at levels two and three,” he said. 

“With the government showing no intention of abandoning its 3 million target, start numbers are now so far behind the curve, action has to be take now to reverse the falls. 

“They are damaging to productivity, social mobility and the labour market response to Brexit.”

Gordon Marsden, shadow skills minister, said the figures were “further damning evidence of the deep concerns” from many across the sector.

“Government must get a grip on the starts fiasco and the concerns about the levy rapidly. Otherwise they will jeopardise the huge life chances apprenticeships offer young people and also the long term prosperity of our economy,” he said.

“The government will claim quality is rising, but we think it’s far too early to say that. Critics will say the levy isn’t working, but we’re clear it was the right move,” said Stephen Evans, chief executive of the Learning and Work Institute.

“Changes are needed to make apprenticeships work better. But this should be about reforming the current system, not ripping it up,” he said. 

According to the commentary that went alongside today’s figures, “care should be taken when comparing individual months with previous years as they are unlikely to provide a meaningful year on year trend” as the “profile of apprenticeship starts changed significantly in the run up to the introduction of the levy and beyond”.

“This is especially the case when trying to compare starts in March 2018 to starts in March 2017, as there was an unusually large increase in starts in March (and April) 2017 ahead of the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, and then an unusually large decrease in starts in May 2017 when compared to previous years,” it said.

 

 

An apprenticeship provider has hit out at how Ofsted conducted an early monitoring visit, and said the ensuing report is based on “factual inaccuracies” and “questionable judgements”.

Watertrain Limited, a private provider in Warrington which has delivered apprenticeships as a subcontractor for 10 years, has been making “insufficient progress” in two of the three headline fields the inspectorate is investigating at “new” apprenticeship providers.

But the company claims inspectors had made up their mind within the first morning and then looked for issues to support that position.

Watertrain’s owner, Neil Davies, told FE Week that he had appealed the grade and wording of the first draft. There have since been two more versions, and “factual inaccuracies” have been introduced each time.

He is now filing a formal complaint. While Ofsted did not deny his claims, a spokesperson said the inspectorate had “not received a complaint”.

She insisted that all inspection reports go through “robust quality-assurance checks before they are published”. These are “carried out by inspectors who were not involved with the inspection itself”.

The ramifications of a bad report can be severe. If inspectors turn in an ‘insufficient progress’ verdict, a provider could be taken off the ESFA’s register of apprenticeship training providers.

Watertrain teaches nearly 200 learners for a large water company funded through the apprenticeship levy. More than three quarters are on water process technician standards and the rest are enrolled on apprenticeship frameworks for the water industry.

Mr Davies said Ofsted’s lead inspector had “no understanding” of the new standard, and the team “arrived to undertake the inspection with predetermined views as to the appropriate use of apprenticeships and an employer’s use of the levy”.

As a result, they “failed to recognise the key importance of the new standard in the highly regulated water sector that is employer led as part of the government’s strategy and agenda”.

He is particularly aggrieved at Ofsted’s “refusal” to revisit its judgment despite “having evidenced that they were based on numerous factual inaccuracies”.

The final report states that “for too many employees, the employer is using the apprenticeship programme to enable employees to gain qualifications in existing skills and knowledge”, for example. Mr Davies said there are no such qualifications in the standard.

He was “appalled” to be told that Watertrain’s historical pedigree was “irrelevant” to the visit. This includes average sector completion rates of over 82 per cent in each of the last ten years.

In one employer visited, 86 per cent of learners rated their training as “good or excellent” in feedback forms that were available but ignored by Ofsted, according to the owner.

He believes that Ofsted has no “scoring criteria” behind its three themes, “so it is entirely down to the lead inspectors’ own interpretation”.

There was also “no effort to understand our delivery model” with judgments made “after a very short observation on the first morning from a two day scheduled delivery session”.

Mr Davies is complaining further as the report could cause “huge damage to reputation and potentially to the very business itself”.

Watertrain was found to be making “reasonable progress” in its safeguarding procedures.

The Ofsted spokesperson said all inspectors have “relevant expertise in the sector they inspect and they receive regular training to make sure they are up to date with any new schemes that have been introduced”.