Movers and Shakers: Edition 236

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

Michael Finn, Joint headteacher, Sir Simon Milton Westminster UTC

Start date: February 2018
Previous job: Vice-principal, Sir Simon Milton Westminster UTC
Interesting fact: Michael is a keen singer, and in his youth performed in choirs at both the Albert and Festival Halls.

____________________________________________

Aaron Jeffries, Apprenticeship levy lead, Covéa Insurance

Start date: January 2018
Previous job: Learning and development partner, Covéa Insurance
Interesting fact: Aaron’s a keen artist and has painted a number of canvasses for friends and family.

____________________________________________

Andy Cole, Principal, Kensington and Chelsea College

Start date: February 2018
Previous job: Principal, College of North West London
Interesting fact: Andy used to curate art exhibitions and, in the 1980s and 1990s, ran a gallery around the corner from Kensington and Chelsea College’s Chelsea Centre.

____________________________________________

Nazir Afzal OBE, Chairman of the corporation board, Hopwood Hall College

Start date: September 2018
Previous job: Pro-chancellor, University of West London
Interesting fact: Nazir is known in greater Manchester for his role in prosecuting the “Rochdale grooming gangs”, as chief crown prosecutor of the Crown Prosecution Service for north-west England.

____________________________________________

Colin Peaks, Principal, Wilberforce College

Start date: September 2018
Previous job: Vice-principal, Wilberforce College
Interesting fact: Colin was a pupil himself at Wilberforce College between 1991 and 1993.

 

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

Low-paid sixth-form college teachers get 2% payrise

Teachers in sixth-form colleges in England will get a pay rise of up to two per cent, backdated to September 2017.

The rise follows negotiations between the National Education Union and the Sixth-Form Colleges Association.

This week the SFCA agreed to increase its pay offer to match the September 2017 increase won by teachers working in schools.

The agreement will give sixth-form teachers on points one to six of the national pay scale an extra two per cent, while those above point six will get one per cent from the same date.

Dr Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Sixth-form college teachers will be pleased that their pay will increase in line with school teachers for another year. The National Education Union worked hard to achieve this deal for its members, who showed their resolution to get a fair deal by rejecting the previous offer.

“The increase is, however, still below inflation and the NEU will continue to lobby to secure fully funded higher pay for teachers in schools and colleges alike.”

Graham Baird, SFCA’s director of HR services who led the negotiations on the employers side, said: “We are pleased to have reached agreement with the recognised trade unions for an across the board increase of 1 per cent on teachers’ pay, with higher targeted increases of 2 per cent on the lowest pay points.

“This agreement is at the edge of affordability for most colleges given the ongoing funding pressures facing the sector, but teachers in sixth form colleges work hard to support their students and it is important that they are rewarded for that.”

General FE colleges across the country were meanwhile facing strike action today over a one-per-cent pay offer made by the Association of Colleges to staff nationwide.

“The below inflation pay offer won’t address the real hardship caused to staff by years of pay suppression in further education,” said Sally Hunt, University and College Union general secretary. “Staff are 24 per cent worse off in real terms than they were a decade ago.”

“We have seen great support on the picket lines today with more to come tomorrow – employers need to address members’ concerns as a matter of urgency,” she added.

AoC boss David Hughes previously spoke out against the industrial action. “I appreciate that the decision to strike is never a decision taken lightly, but it is disappointing that this action is being taken so soon after we agreed to work together with unions to campaign on fair funding for colleges.”

 

Stockport College earns its third Ofsted ‘inadequate’ in five years

A college has been hit with its third ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating in the space of just five years.

The latest report on Stockport College was published this morning.

It was found to be grade four overall and received the worst possible rating for effectiveness of leadership and management; quality of teaching, learning and assessment; outcomes for learners, and 16-to-19 study programmes.

The report repeatedly warned that lessons had not been learned from the previous ‘inadequate’ inspection findings in November 2016.

“Leaders and governors have not reversed the decline in standards since the previous inspection,” it said.

They had also “not responded quickly enough to address all weaknesses identified at the previous inspection”.

Stockport College was said in the report to provide education and training for around 1,056 learners aged 16 to 18, as well as 1,776 adult learners, the large majority of whom are studying part time.

It was actually rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted back in 2008.

But the next inspection verdict was a devastating drop to ‘inadequate’, before an improvement to grade three in 2014, and the subsequent further two grade fours.

The latest report warned that “the financial status of the college is weak and the college remains in administered status”. 

It did recognise that “partnerships with local employers and key stakeholders are good”, and accepted that the board had been strengthened since the last report  and “governors have been recruited with a good range of skills and expertise to support the senior leadership team”.

But it warned: “The quality of teaching, learning and assessment remains inadequate. Achievement rates for learners on 16 to 19 study programmes declined further in 2016/17 and are inadequate. Leaders and managers have failed to ensure that the principles of study programmes are met.”

It added that although the new leadership team “has implemented changes, the rate of improvement in teaching, learning and assessment is too slow”.

“Although improved since the previous inspection, learners’ attendance remains too low,” it added. “Too few learners attend their lessons and too many are late, particularly to English and
mathematics lessons.”

It said that while leaders had been working to “secure a sustainable future for the college, the college finances remain inadequate”.

Stockport College announced plans last summer to merge with ‘good’ Ofsted rated Trafford College.

FE Week had previously revealed in February last year that plans to merge Tameside, Oldham and Stockport colleges had been called off after intervention from FE commissioner Richard Atkins.

That proposal had been made at the end of a troubled nine-month process riven by deep tensions between the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and the colleges involved.

Dr Mike Potter CBE, transition principal for the college, preferred to reflect on the positives from the latest report.

“Whilst naturally disappointed at the latest Ofsted inspection result after all the hard work that staff and governors have put in over the past sixteen months, and that the two previous Ofsted re-Inspection monitoring visit reports have noted that there has been reasonable progress in most areas identified for improvement, we recognise that there is still further work to be done,” he said.

“That said, we take some comfort from the positives in the detailed text of the report, and that more strengths, particularly around skills’ development, partnerships, and support for learners were evident to the Inspection team this time.”

Ofsted confirms new stricter rules for grade 3 providers

Ofsted has confirmed it will apply stricter rules to FE providers judged ‘requires improvement’, and will now carry out monitoring visits to them and publish the results.

The education watchdog confirmed the crackdown this morning in its response to the consultation it ran in November on the rule change.

Under previous rules, providers that were given a grade three were given subsequent support and challenge visits that result in unpublished letters until they are re-inspected within 12 to 24 months of the inspection.

Ofsted has now changed this and will carry out monitoring visits which will then be made public, applying it to visits since Novemebr 10, 2017.

A total of 251 responses were gathered in the consultation, of which 65 per cent agreed with the proposal.

“In light of the responses to the consultation, we will be taking forward the proposal,” Ofsted said.

“For providers that are judged to require improvement, we will conduct a single monitoring visit, normally around 7 to 13 months after the inspection at which the provider was judged to require improvement.

“The re-inspection of requires improvement providers will still normally occur 12 to 24 months after the previous inspection. We will keep the re-inspection timing under review to ensure that the provider has enough time to improve on issues identified at the monitoring visit.”

The inspectorate said the monitoring visit will result in a published report that has progress judgements.

“Published monitoring visit reports will explain what the provider has achieved since the previous inspection and what improvement they still need to make.

“Inspectors will use the progress judgements set out in Part 1 of the Further education and skills inspection handbook.”

Ofsted added that this rule will apply to any provider found to require improvement since 10 November 2017 (i.e. those notified of inspection on or after 10 November).

It will write individually to providers directly affected and will make “necessary revisions” to the ‘Further education and skills inspection handbook’.

DfE doubles ‘advanced maths premium’ funding incentive

The government has doubled the amount of money on offer to encourage more schools and colleges to offer maths at A-level.

The new “advanced maths premium” announced in last year’s autumn budget was originally going to be worth £600 for every additional student studying an ‘advanced maths’ qualification, such as an AS or A level.

But the Department for Education has today announced that schools and colleges will get an additional £600 per year for 16 to 18-year-olds also studing AS or A-level Further Mathematics, taking the funding incentive to £1,200 per year. And where students study an advanced maths qualification and A-level Further Mathematics over two years the funding incentive would be worth £2,400.

The government has now named the incentive as the ‘advanced maths premium’, which is backed by £80 million in funding and has no cap on numbers. FE Week understands the first tranche of funding will be based on recruitment in early 2018/19 compared to a baseline, with schools and colleges actually receiving the money in their 2019/20 allocations and payments.

The DfE has published technical guidance for schools and colleges today, to include: how the baseline is calculated; a list of eligible qualifications and restate as per their letter to sixth-forms last November that “the payment will only apply to students who already have prior attainment equivalent to GCSE grade 9 to 4 or A* to C in maths”.

The advanced maths premium formed part of a £177 million investment in maths education at the autumn budget.

The Sixth-Form Colleges Association, which represents around 90 sixth forms and other post-16 providers, said although it welcomed “any new investment” in 16-to-18 education, the extra funding would have “little impact on the vast majority” of pupils.

“The government should focus on ensuring schools and colleges receive the funding they need to provide all young people with a rounded, high-quality education, irrespective of the subjects they choose to study,” it said.

“The best way of doing this is to conduct a fundamental review of 16-to-18 funding to restore a link between funding levels and the cost of providing a high-quality sixth-form education.”

The Association of College’s senior policy manager for curriculum and funding at 14 to 19, Catherine Sezen, said that “any additional investment” is welcome at “chronically underfunded” colleges, but warned that “this is not the right level of funding and it is not focused on the right area”.

“We would urge DfE to look at the difficulties and demands colleges face before even getting to level three,” she added. “Without changes to the condition of funding, and additional money allocated for level two and below, it will be a real challenge for colleges to properly staff and successfully deliver any additional level three maths.”

Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said: “Although maths remains the most popular subject at A-level, this premium will open up the opportunity for even more young people to study advanced maths qualifications, providing them with the knowledge and skills for future success.”

Although the maths premium is now calculated on a per-qualification basis, rather than per pupil, there are restrictions to stop schools being “double-funded”.

Only pupils studying both a maths and further maths qualification in the same academic year will attract double funding, up to £2,400 over two years, but this is the “only combination of qualifications that will attract funding twice in one year”, the government said.

‘Ghost learner’ football scammers jailed for over 25 years combined

Two former professional footballers and four of their colleagues have been sentenced to a total of over 25 years in prison for defrauding colleges out of £5 million in apprenticeship funding.

Mark Aizlewood (pictured right), who played for Wales 39 times in the 1980s and 1990s, and Paul Sugrue (pictured left), who played for clubs including Manchester City, Middlesbrough and Cardiff City, were both sentenced this afternoon at Southwark Crown Court for their part in a scam which involved “ghost learners”.

Two of their former colleagues at the now-defunct provider Luis Michael Training, Keith Williams, 45, from Anglesey, and Jack Harper, 30, from Southport, were also sentenced after being found guilty earlier this month.

Two more men who were also involved in the con, Christopher Martin, 53, from Newbury, and Steven Gooding, 53, from Bridgwater, had pleaded guilty before the trial began in September and were also sentenced today.

This marks the end of a five month trial that was brought to court by the Serious Fraud Office.

This was a shameful exploitation of taxpayers and colleges

Luis Michael Training used its well-known footballing names to defraud the taxpayer between 2009 and 2011 by persuading nine colleges to use it as a subcontractor, using cash they got from the government to deliver apprenticeships.

The provider hoodwinked over 3,000 learners over this period, all aged between 16 and 19. Some were “ghost learners” – where the personal information of real people was used to claim apprenticeship funding. The use of their data was unbeknown to these ghosts.

Those actually enrolled were under the illusion that they were doing an apprenticeship in NVQ activity leadership, which would lead them to a career in football coaching.

Sentencing the men, Judge Tomlinson said this was a “shameful exploitation” of taxpayers and colleges.

“You misappropriated eye-watering sums of government money on the pretence of helping disadvantaged young people,” he added. “You all exploited this sad state of affairs and your involvement was dishonest from the outset.”

Using this lure of a career in football coaching, LMT even employed other high-profile former players, such as Welsh international Neville Southall, the Republic of Ireland’s Alan McLoughlin and Manchester United player Russell Beardsmore, as tutors to deliver some of the training, albeit unaware of the con.

The provider also used almost 150 professional and semi-professional football clubs as part of the scam, roping in big teams like Manchester City, Leeds United and Nottingham Forest.

“These men stole public money intended to give young people a start in life – these were cynical crimes for which they have been held to account today,” said the Serious Fraud Office’s general counsel Alun Milford.

Mark Aizlewood was sentenced to six years.

Christopher Martin was sentenced to two years and three months, and five years and three months, to be served concurrently.

Keith Williams was sentenced to three and four years’ imprisonment, to be served concurrently.

Paul Sugrue was sentenced to three and seven years’ imprisonment, to be served concurrently.

Steven Gooding received a 20-month prison sentence.

Jack Harper received two 18-month sentences, to be served concurrently.

Jack Harper and Steven Gooding were also disqualified as directors for seven years each.

IfA boss hits back at ‘vested interests’ against apprentice reforms

The Institute for Apprenticeships’ new boss has hit back at “vested interests” who he claims want to see the reform process fail.

Sir Gerry Berragan was speaking today at an Ofqual conference for vocational education awarding organisations in Birmingham.

He admitted that some criticism levelled at the IfA, which launched last April, was “fair”, but he stressed there were important mitigating circumstances relating to the much-criticised slow approval for employer-developed new apprenticeship standards.

He insisted that “the institute was trying to perform this while still building its own capability”, by “using processes inherited from when the DfE previously performed the function”.

This process meant waiting for officials to check standards criteria, and then for ministers to sign them off.

“You should also understand some of this criticism is a convenient proxy, used by those who resent paying the levy, but wouldn’t want to be seen as reluctant taxpayers, and also by some delivery organisations who will lose out with the reforms and have no interest in branching into standards,” he said.

“There’s no shortage of vested interests here, so when you hear such criticism be just a little bit sceptical.”

There’s no shortage of vested interests here, so when you hear such criticism be just a little bit sceptical.

The IfA launched its Faster Better initiative before Christmas specifically to “streamline the approvals process”, he said

The initiative that kicked off Sir Gerry’s reign was billed as an assault on government red tape, with a promise for “faster standards development”.

Sir Gerry also accepted that there had been a “wobble” with apprenticeship starts since the levy was launched last April, but he predicted this would redress itself as increasing numbers of large levy-paying employers start recruiting .

He added the slowdown could be partly attributed to the adjustment process, as significant numbers of employers and providers shift from old apprenticeship frameworks to new employer-developed standards.

“Given that this was always the aim to transition from frameworks to standards, we shouldn’t be surprised or disappointed by this outcome,” he said. “This is actually a manifestation of a plan working.”

He did acknowledge a “sense of frustration among some employers”, and accepted that some employer groups had criticised the IfA “for being slow and bureaucratic with approving new standards”.

“The period between now and the summer is critical,” he went on. “The service improvement Better Faster work is being rolled out and trailblazers I’m sure will see a higher quality and more consistent service enabling new standards to be approved much more quickly.”

As much as we can do to improve our processes, the real gains were to be made are in helping trailblazers get it right first time

He said research had shown that “about 70 per cent of the time involved in developing new standards was spent with the trailblazer groups and about 30 per cent with the institute”.

“So as much as we can do to improve our processes, the real gains were to be made are in helping trailblazers get it right first time,” he added.

“A lot of the Better Faster work is in helping employers do that.”

DfE hands out £2m for more levy research

An FE-focused research centre has been given the ministerial nod to continue its work until 2020, and the apprenticeship levy will be particularly in focus.

The Centre for Vocational Educational Research had its mid-term review at the beginning of this year.

After an initial £3 million grant from the Department for Education in May 2015, and there had been speculation about its long term prospects.

It has now been given an extra £2 million to continue until the end of the decade, and has some stirring projects up its sleeve. These include evaluations on FE’s role in increasing social mobility, and the impact of university technical colleges.

Its work on the apprenticeship levy, however, is likely to bring the most interest.

After gaining recent approval from its steering group, CVER has started planning a major evaluation of the policy, which came into effect last April.

“The focus of the work on the apprenticeship levy will be on its effect on training outcomes, overall and by sector,” said Dr Sandra McNally, who leads the centre.

“Questions will include: ‘to what extent has the training been additional to what would have taken place otherwise?’ ‘How has the volume and composition of apprenticeship training been affected?’ and ‘Has there been any change on the characteristics of those being trained by firms?’”

CVERs work will continue but with increased emphasis on social mobility, the apprenticeship levy and standards, and drivers of quality in FE

The evaluation will be conducted using a quantitative analysis, involving the use of “various data sets including the Individual Learner Record, the Employers Skills Survey, the Employers

Perspective Survey, the Inter-Departmental Business Register and the Annual Business Survey”.

There is no set publication date, as the research will involve “complex” data construction and analysis, and the policy needs to run for long enough to have its true effect judged.

In the three years it has been running, CVER has focused on collating “huge administrative data”, such as individual learner records, the national pupil database and longitudinal education outcomes data, in an attempt to process, code and apply it to research.

It currently has about 30 projects on three main themes: the impact of vocational and technical education on individuals, firms and growth; the drivers of the quality of provision in FE; and the factors affecting individuals’ participation in vocational education.

The centre is currently, for example, evaluating how the opening of UTCs affects the “enrolment and attainment” of the students living in the approximate catchment area of the college.

The Department for Education said that since its conception, CVER has “created accessible information and data on the vocational education sector and built high-quality, policy-oriented research on the topic”.

It added that the overall themes of CVERs work “will continue but with increased emphasis on social mobility, the apprenticeship levy and standards, and drivers of quality in FE”.

CVER’s work around social mobility will explore to what extent participation in vocational education is related to family background, how FE routes influence social mobility, and what the role is of training providers for influencing progression.

“I am delighted with the decision to fund CVER for the full five years to mid-2020,” Dr McNally said.

“We have an exciting programme of research which I hope and expect to make a useful contribution to policy.”

While CVER has been given the green light to continue its work, one “pioneering” FE research centre had its funding come to an end last year.

The Behavioural Research Centre for Adult Skills and Knowledge (ASK) was given £2.9 million by the now-defunct Department for Business Innovation and Skills back in 2014, to carry out randomised control trails to apply behavioural science to adult learning.

Its grant ended in April 2017 and it is due to release its final reports in the coming months.

College group giant welcomes move to campus level inspection

The nation’s largest college group has welcomed a change in how it collects data on learners and it is expected to pave the way for campus-level Ofsted inspections.

NCG will introduce a new college “campus identifier” field into individualised learner records from 2018/19.

The data will identify a “campus within a college group” that is “no longer a separate legal entity”, according to Education and Skills Funding Agency guidance. The intention is to “allow identification of provision delivered across the various sites of merged institutions”.

Ofsted may use this information to launch new campus-level inspections from as early as next year. These would allow for reports on colleges that were previously independent, but which now sit within merged groups.

Moving to inspections of individual campuses was a logical next step

Neither Ofsted nor the Department for Education would say for certain that the new field was being introduced for this reason.

However a spokesperson for the inspectorate admitted to being in discussion with the DfE about campus-level inspections.

“We will consider it as part of the inspection of the whole college as we review the education inspection framework,” he said.

Joe Docherty, chief executive of Newcastle-based NCG, the country’s largest college group, said moving to inspections of individual campuses was a “logical next step” that the group would “strongly welcome”.

He said NCG – which counts six FE and sixth-form colleges, and two independent providers, as members – had been “asking Ofsted to consider” grading each campus individually for two years.

“It’s vital for the communities we serve to ensure true transparency on performance – which in a group means campus-level inspection grades for the quality of provision,” he said.

He explained that NCG had been working on a pilot with the government to report data for each of its members separately.

“NCG data is due to be published at campus level for the first time in March 2018,” he added.

IT glitches related to the pilot have however meant that data from the group was missing from the 2015/16 achievement rate tables.

There was a long delay in the publication of NCG’s most recent Ofsted report, which finally appeared last September, a fact blamed on a dispute over the group’s achievement rate data.

The published data – described by the group as “misleading” – was for all the group’s members, when the inspection just covered the colleges, of which there were four at the time.

Amanda Spielman

The new data field will mean colleges will have a year’s worth of campus-level data in time for the new Ofsted common inspection framework, expected from September 2019.

The prospect of campus-level inspections was raised last March, during an FE Week interview with Ofsted boss Amanda Spielman and her deputy director for FE Paul Joyce.

They were asked if it was realistic to expect inspection teams to reach consistent verdicts on huge groups, which often encompass multiple learning bases across the country and have different priorities.

Ms Spielman conceded that “the most useful way of reporting on a large, diversified, multisite college is not necessarily the same as a smaller one”. Mr Joyce added that campus level inspections were being investigated with the DfE.

Frank Coffield, emeritus professor of education at UCL’s Institute of Education, also argued that “applying one summary term” to these huge colleges was “unjust”.

But David Corke, the director of policy at the Association of Colleges, was more cautious this week about campus-level inspections.

“Much more analysis needs to be done into what constitutes a campus, and there also needs to be more research conducted into what the complex practical implications will be during an inspection,” he said.

A DfE spokesperson would not say how the new ILR field relates to future inspections, but admitted it could “allow a granular level view of data for audit, funding and success rates”.