The recommendation to uplift school teacher pay by 5.5 per cent, accepted by the government today, will not apply to colleges.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves today announced that the government has accepted in full the School Teachers’ Review Body’s (STRB) recommendation of a 5.5 per cent pay rise for teachers.
The announcement was part of a package of cost-cutting measures to save £3 billion from government budgets after the new Labour government found a “£22 billion hole in the public finances”.
The pay rise will hand out £1.2billion in additional funding to schools, starting from September 1, and is equivalent to an increase of over £2,500 for the average teacher.
But the Department for Education has said the recommendation will not be extended to college teachers.
“It is disappointing that funding was not found to allow colleges to match that award,” said Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes. “The result is a no-change position for college finances and pay in the short-term.”
‘We had come to expect such neglect from the Tories’
The University and College Union (UCU) said Labour’s decision not to match the pay award for schools was “at odds” with their mission for government.
Jo Grady, general secretary of UCU, said: “‘Failing to invest in further education is simply not good enough.
“Ultimately, this decision is at odds with Labour’s core missions for government. We had come to expect such neglect from the Tories but we expect more from a Labour government which aims to spread opportunities for working class people and kickstart a decade of national renewal.”
The government’s response to the STRB review was expected in May, but Reeves accused the former education secretary Gillian Keegan of having the pay review recommendations “sitting on her desk”.
The AoC said it deferred its recommendation to colleges until DfE confirmed its decision on schools.
Hughes said today’s announcement makes colleges’ positions more “difficult” as FE funding rates are not high enough to match the offer for schools.
“The next meeting between FE employers and unions is in September and that looks likely to be the start of a set of difficult negotiations – with a significant gap between the pay awards colleges want to be able to offer, and the funding available,” he said.
The £1.2 billion funding will provide £63 million to schools delivering post-16 provision.
ABS ditched
The chancellor also scrapped the former government’s proposal to replace T Levels with the Advanced British Standard, a new qualification estimated to cost £200 million next year.
She slammed former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s introduction of the Advanced British Standard at the conservative party conference last year for not putting “aside a single penny to pay for it”.
“If we cannot afford it, we cannot do it,” she told MPs.
DfE said a cumulative spending commitment of £3 billion by 2028/29 will be avoided as a result of cancelling the ABS.
The department added that the funding for retention payments for teachers and for GCSE maths and English resits, initially announced as part of the ABS, will be unaffected.
The next budget will take place on October 30, during which the chancellor will lay out final budget plans for this year and set the 2025/26 budget, concluding the multi-year Spending Review in spring 2025.
A jump in fraud detection, new loans to colleges and a £5.7m write-off from a training group provider insolvency have all been revealed in this year’s annual report and accounts of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).
Its accounts, for the year up to March 31, 2024, break down how the agency paid out £72 billion in more than half a million separate payments to colleges, independent training providers, academies and local authorities.
Here are a few key insights from the report:
Headline budget figures
The FE sector only accounts for a relatively small chunk of the agency’s total annual budget – it distributed £4.8 billion for 16-19 education.
This is slightly larger than the £4 billion spent on early years.
In comparison, pre-16 education funding paid to academies and local authority maintained schools totalled £62.8 billion.
It also oversees £500 million for adult education – although more than twice this budget is devolved to mayoral authorities such as the Greater London Authority.
Fraud increased, largest part is ITPs
The amount of fraud detected or prevented rose by a third to £91 million, with £19 million of this relating to apprenticeships.
In total, £28 million was recovered, including from previous years.
Suspected fraud is flagged through data analytics, in collaboration with other government departments, and by the ESFA’s counter fraud and investigations team.
About half of the 142 new allegations brought to the ESFA were about independent training providers, with 20 FE colleges and 47 academy trusts investigated.
The agency “successfully” petitioned for the closure of one unidentified independent training provider due a failure to repay its debt, and five other directors were disqualified, the report says.
Chief executive David Withey said he hopes the figures send a “very clear message” that the agency works tirelessly to “recognise and remedy” fraudulent activity.
College loans on the increase
The ESFA’s total loan balance to the FE sector was £170 million, a £109 million increase in one year alone through new lending to 19 colleges.
Much of this increased support for FE follows the reclassification of colleges as public sector bodies, which limited their ability to take out new commercial loans.
“The sector will pay considerably less interest for this debt than commercial market alternatives,” the report said.
Financial support from the ESFA, DfE and Further Education Commissioner also included ten colleges “at risk of insolvency,” although these are not identified.
Such loans and support often result in colleges agreeing to restructure by merging, closing or reducing their staff costs, according to FE Week reporting.
Losses
The funding agency’s overall losses rose to £12 million during the financial year.
Although its cash losses fell from £2.3 million to only £192,000, the ESFA was forced to write off £5.7 million due to the insolvency of independent training provider MiddletonMurray.
In March last year, the agency submitted a clawback claim of £10.1 million to liquidators following an investigation into how contracts were used across four skills training companies owned by Angela Middleton, including MiddletonMurray.
Other waived or abandoned claims included £1.2 million owed by City College Southampton, which is now part of South Hampshire College Group, and £327,000 owed by University Technical College Leeds.
The total number of cases increased almost six-fold to 169 during the year, but details are only reported about losses over £300,000.
The accounts also include one mysterious “special payment” of £18,000 to an unknown party.
Pay rise for the boss
The year marked the first full period under chief executive David Withey, whose total cost of salary and pension benefits is £390-395,000 per year.
Withey’s basic salary also rose by about 16 per cent, from £125-130,000 to £145-150,000.
Including benefits and bonus, the chief executive earned four times the median salary of an ESFA employee, which was about £40,000 per year.
Staff
Although staff turnover continues on an upward curve from 4 per cent in 2021/22 to 11 per cent in 2023/24, the ESFA’s average staff size fell by more than 100 to 714 during the year.
This follows a halving of the staff size since the agency was stripped of its policy role in 2022, following a review of its effectiveness by Sir David Bell.
However, spending on consultancy fees has increased from 345,000 to £1.5 million.
According to the report, £400,000 of this was related to FE loan “legal consultancy costs” and £1.2 million to the deployment of school resource management advisors.
Losses at England’s largest apprenticeship provider more than doubled to £21 million in the last financial year – partly due to a £5 million penalty to the government’s skills funding agency.
Lifetime Training reported the figures in the company’s accounts, published today, for the turbulent 18-month period to July 2023 which included two leadership changes.
The firm, which trains almost 20,000 apprentices a year for over 200 companies including Tesco and McDonalds, put the results down to a “historically challenging period including the legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on business operations and clients”.
Lifetime’s main economic sectors include hospitality, care, active leisure, retail, healthcare and leadership and management.
The company was sold by private equity parent Silverfleet Capital to the lenders Alcentra in 2022. Its turnover fell from £71.1 million to £68.4 million over the following accounting period, while after-tax losses increased from £9.2 million to £21.1 million. The company had made a profit of £6.9 million in the year ended July 2020.
The accounts state that the tough trading environment was made worse by the “lack of upward adjustment to the funding caps on apprenticeship standards, which had remained static for several years”.
Lifetime’s cost base had also “not been appropriately aligned to the volume of learners for much of the period under review”.
The company’s highest-paid director, which would have included former bosses Alex Khan and Jon Graham’s salaries, totalled £513,739. FE Week understands this figure includes the pair’s severance payments. Individual figures cannot be released due to confidentiality agreements.
ALS clawback significantly reduced
Lifetime’s losses were exacerbated by a £5 million clawback to the Education and Skills Funding Agency, staff restructuring costs of £1.2 million and software implementation costs of £500,000.
The clawback relates to a long-running dispute over the company’s claims of additional learning support (ALS) funding, which is available to meet the costs of putting in place reasonable adjustments for apprentices with a learning difficulty or disability.
Lifetime’s previous accounts had set aside a contingent liability of £13.7 million to settle the dispute following an audit.
While £5 million has been included in today’s accounts, a final repayment figure is still to be determined through further audit work. This could increase the total liability by around 20 per cent, or £1 million, according to the accounts.
The financial statements said the ESFA has agreed that any future liability will be subject to a mutually agreed repayment plan to protect the working capital of the company.
During the last accounting period, Lifetime said it transitioned back to a largely face-to-face delivery model and, “given the national reach of our business operations”, this resulted in “significant incremental costs associated with travel and learning coach numbers”.
The move did however pay off in terms of quality of delivery, as Ofsted upgraded the provider from ‘requires improvement’ to ‘good’ in a report published earlier this month.
‘The issues raised have now been largely addressed’
A Lifetime spokesperson told FE Week that under new leadership, with former Post Office managing director David Smith joining the firm in July 2023, the issues raised within the accounting period “have now been largely addressed”.
A “major” restructuring of the group’s balance sheet took place this month which reduces Lifetime’s group debt and “eliminates interest charges by over £100 million, thereby improving future cash flows”, the spokesperson said.
They claimed this will “enable us to bid for new contracts more easily and, potentially, take on debt so we can invest further in the business”, adding that the company is “now profitable”.
Funding caps on apprenticeship standards are being reviewed upwards and several standards offered by Lifetime in retail and care have already had pricing uplifts from August 2023, which will benefit the business by around £1.5 million in 2023/4, the accounts said.
Similarly, with effect from January 2024, the government boosted funding rates for functional skills by 53 per cent which will “positively impact group profits by £800,000” this year.
Lifetime’s spokesperson said the company’s financial position has been shared “extensively” with ESFA and the agency is “happy with the corporate results as reported in the full accounts up to July 2023”.
“There is no current intervention, and we’ve found common ground with ESFA around our historical learning support payments and are expecting to settle this in the coming months,” they added.
Low apprenticeship achievement rates have plagued Lifetime Training in recent years, which sat at 35 per cent in 2022/23.
This month’s Ofsted report said the proportion of the provider’s apprentices completing and achieving their programme has now increased to half – around the same level as 2018/19. However, the company’s spokesperson offered a different figure today.
They said: “We are forecasting a rise in qualification achievement rates of 10 per cent over the next reporting period and we retain positive ongoing relationships with our employer partners, who continue to put their trust in us to deliver quality skills and apprenticeship programmes for learners.”
A specialist SEND provider in the North West has been handed top marks by Ofsted for the first time.
Activate Community and Education Services (Activate CES) offers provision for its 62 learners three days a week. Its cohort of learners are aged over 19 with a range of learning difficulties and/or disabilities.
In an ‘outstanding’ Ofsted report today, inspectors found the Merseyside-based provider supports learners with either a vocational skills-based pathway or a communications pathway through an “expertly” tailored curriculum. The college received a ‘good’ rating in 2017 and a grade three in its first inspection in 2015.
This time, inspectors noted that all students have a bespoke timetable of vocational learning in areas such as horticulture, animal care, drama and music, and support such as personal development, therapy and work-related sessions.
They praised learners for achieving “extremely well” and often exceeding their education, health and care (EHC) plan targets.
During the inspection, the watchdog saw learners treated as adults and taking more ownership of their learning. As a result, they developed confidence “significantly” and became more resilient to make the transition into adulthood.
Learner attendance is also “excellent”, inspectors found. The report said leaders maximised attendance by sensory and social development sessions with therapy dogs or sensory equipment at the start of each day, when learners chose activities to help them to regulate their behaviours and increase their alertness.
The report also commended learners’ engagement with the local community through their management of a successful online clothes shop, on-site café and small animal centre.
The watchdog also said teachers have a detailed understanding of learners needs before they start college due to examining their prior experiences, learning, achievements and parents’ views.
As a result, learners benefit from appropriate teaching strategies to ensure they are learning as independently as possible.
Learners also have access to a multidisciplinary therapist team, on-site speech and language therapists, neurophysiotherapy and behavioural experts. They also use an on-site hydrotherapy pool and specially designed sensory area to learn to regulate their behaviour.
Principal of Activate CES Jane Young told FE Week that the college has also invested in the upskilling of staff to achieve the standards found by inspectors.
“Activate implemented a ‘grow your own’ policy after the previous inspection as the specialism needed for both support and teaching roles for such complex young adults was not readily available neither locally nor nationally,” she said.
Half of the teaching staff began as support workers and are now fully qualified teachers. Some are in training and one support staff member has started a degree apprenticeship in physiotherapy.
The college was also praised for implementing augmentative and alternative communication devices and eye gaze/eye movement technology, which allows learners to make choices and make their opinions heard. Inspectors noted that this method developed more autonomy amongst learners.
Furthermore, Ofsted lauded Activate CES for providing comprehensive, tailored careers information, advice and guidance and having governors with relevant experience to support and hold leaders to account.
The report said: “[Governors] also recognise that a positive culture and open and transparent ways of working are key to the college’s success. As a result, governors are highly effective in their roles.”
Young said: “This achievement reflects the collective efforts of the entire college community from our students, staff and management team, their hard work and dedication has created an exceptional learning environment.
“It is their innovative teaching methods, strong leadership and effective governance that ensures the college will continue to excel and we are committed to maintaining an ‘outstanding’ environment.”
“Our bespoke approach ensures that each learner’s needs are met, enabling them to thrive and succeed.”
ESFA funding rule changes coming into force next academic year have created a landmark opportunity for improvement, putting additional learner support (ALS) at the forefront of every apprenticeship provider’s agenda.
Their potential impact is huge. Far more than just another set of regulations, they are an acknowledgement of the crucial role of learning support and a vital step towards personalised learning.
The new rules mandate cognitive and learning assessments for apprentices, quarterly reviews instead of monthly assessments, and the ability to screen apprentices at any stage.
Additionally, they introduce exemptions for English and maths thresholds based on clinically sound cognitive assessments, acknowledging the diverse challenges learners encounter with special educational needs. Compliance is essential not only for meeting standards but also for securing the necessary funding to offer critical specialist support.
Yet too many colleges and providers are not currently adopting appropriate solutions, perhaps in part because of confined budgets. So how can they now ensure compliance?
Learning technology holds the key
Reliable learning technology can ensure compliance with Ofsted requirements and aid tutors in providing essential support and evidence to unlock ALS funding.
Screening technology can help identify learners with additional needs and track and monitor their progress. Personalised learning strategies also mean learners can access intuitive and accessible resources that meet their individual needs and course curriculum.
Many providers can already attest that learning technology drives engagement, increases attainment and supports learners from end to end, resulting in increased retention.
Facing the challenge
Many more recognise the urgent need to meet the challenge but feel they don’t have the budget to roll out new technologies. The reverse is true.
In the majority of cases, this isn’t an additional cost but a way of creating savings while innovating. It can even help providers identify new revenue opportunities if they can break with their normal processes and implement learning technologies where they haven’t before.
There will of course be occasions when staff push back, but the sector really does require a shift if it is to continue giving learners the best chance of success in their learning and beyond, not least those with additional needs.
We have found that around 35 per cent of all screened learners qualify for additional learning support. Without the power of learning technology, we would never have identified them all. This ensures every learner gets the support they need and providers save a shed load of paperwork and costs, allowing staff to focus on supporting learners.
The proof is in the pudding
One large apprenticeship provider in the Midlands was struggling to identify learners with additional needs, track and monitor their progress and find a mechanism to help fund the support they needed. Investing in learning technology and implementing a robust screening tool changed that.
They saw strong initial results and went on to fully embed the platform in their learner journey and learner support process. Every new learner now takes the assessment during their induction, and a comprehensive training program supports them to better understand how they learn and how to access support available.
More than that, learners now also have access to personalised resources that meet their individual needs and course curriculum.
The college has assessed over 1,600 learners to date and currently boasts a 93 per cent engagement rate.
There’s a lesson to be learnt for all
So it is not a question of budget; the ROI is clear. Effective screening tools and training can ensure all students have access to the support they need to excel.
The new ESFA funding rules coming into effect in August 2024 mean providers will be able to screen their learners at any part of their apprenticeship, not just at the start. This means providers will be able to access support for every apprentice, no matter what stage of their journey they are at.
The sector now has an opportunity to create a brighter and more inclusive future for apprenticeship education. Learning technology has a crucial role to play, and we must prepare now.
“It’s not the despair, Laura. I can take the despair. It’s the hope I can’t stand”.
These words from John Cleese (playing the role of headteacher Brian Stimson in the 1986 film, Clockwise) could very easily be applied to the ongoing saga of qualification reform.
There was no shortage of despair under the previous government, but at least you knew where you stood. Some qualifications were good (A Levels, T Levels) and others were bad (applied general qualifications such as BTECs). Evidence was routinely ignored and concerns addressed with a heavy dose of mindless optimism.
Qualification reform (at least before the end-of-administration fever dream that was the Advanced British Standard) was sharply focused on increasing the number of T Level enrolments.
AGQs had to go because they were regarded as a barrier to T Level growth. The former were regarded as an inferior version of the latter, rather than a different type of qualification that plays an invaluable role helping young people (particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds) to progress to higher education and/or skilled employment.
If scrapping AGQs meant students (at least 155,000 by our estimate) were left without a suitable qualification, they could always do another Level 2 qualification or enrol on the T Level foundation year (from which just 8 per cent of students actually progress to a T Level).
But in June last year, hope appeared on the horizon. Then-shadow secretary of state for education, Bridget Phillipson agreed to the Protect Student Choice campaign’s request to ‘pause and review’ the plan to defund AGQs if the Labour party formed the next government.
“Should the minister not now pause and review the defunding of alternative qualifications, as Labour would?” demanded then-shadow skills minister Seema Malhotra of Robert Halfon in December.
Labour would “pause and review the proposed removal of courses” parliament was told in February, a commitment repeated at the SFCA winter conference and other events across the country.
These are qualifications that one-third of students fail to complete
There was clear blue water between the two main parties on qualification reform. The sector dared to hope that the feared qualification gap that would appear in a world dominated by A Levels and T Levels might not materialise, and the inevitable increase in NEETs and students being forced onto inappropriate courses could be avoided.
Then Wednesday happened. It started so well: “I am pleased to announce that the department will undertake a short pause and review of post-16 qualification reform,” Bridget Phillipson told the House of Commons. Pandemonium, relief, hope. Then the kicker: “This means that the defunding scheduled for next week will be paused”.
Next week. The all-important pause would only apply to the small number of technical qualifications due to be defunded this year, but not the applied general qualifications due to be defunded in 2025 and 2026 (which are studied by eight times as many students).
Good news for the NVQ Diploma in Wood Occupations (0 enrolments in 23/24), which gets a one-year reprieve. Bad news for the Extended Certificate in Business (24,580 enrolments in 23/24), which gets none.
The proposed review will report by the end of the year. That means colleges and schools will not know what AGQs they can offer in September 2025 until December 2024 at the earliest. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this wildly unrealistic timescale is designed – you’ve guessed it – to encourage institutions to drop AGQs and pick up T Levels.
The written ministerial statement published yesterday was built around T Levels, which were described as “high-quality qualifications which provide young people with a firm foundation for their future”.
These are qualifications that one-third of students fail to complete and for which no comparable performance data is published. They need careful reform, not over-inflated praise.
The Conservatives became so focused on one output (increasing the number of T Level enrolments) that they lost sight of the much more important outcome (ensuring that all students are pursuing high quality qualifications that lead to positive destinations). The new government must not make the same mistake.
We are determined not to journey back from hope to despair. The Protect Student Choice campaign has written to Bridget Phillipson urging her to reconsider the decision not to pause the defunding of AGQs. We believe students should be able to enrol on all 134 AGQs up to and including the 2026/27 academic year.
It is hard to believe that a secretary of state committed to prioritising the education of working-class and disadvantaged students would abandon qualifications that are transformational for working-class and disadvantaged students (and many others besides).
A positive response to our letter would provide the sector with renewed hope and an assurance that no young person will be left behind as a result of the reforms set out this week. It’s time to review the pause.
Sir David Behan has been appointed interim chair of a “refocused” Office for Students (OfS), following publication of his review that found the regulator’s focus and priorities had become “diluted”.
His appointment comes shortly after the resignation of previous chair, Lord James Wharton, who faced criticism for a perceived lack of independence from the government.
Labour has also halted controversial new powers over freedom of speech in HE that the OfS was due to begin enforcing next week.
Behan’s review, launched in December 2023, has said the “overstretched” OfS needs to evolve as the higher education sector faces “unprecedented” financial challenges.
Four focused priorities
The arm’s length regulator’s four priorities for higher and further education sector should be quality, financial stability, student interest and management of public money, the review recommended.
Behan’s report said: “It can do so by focusing on a more transparent, dynamic approach, built on mature, trusting relationships with the sector.”
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson accepted the review’s “core analysis”, adding that the Labour government recognises the need for “strong regulation”.
Behan will work with the current executive team at the OfS to “implement” his recommendations until a permanent chair is appointed “next year”, Phillipson said.
Behan said it was a “privilege” to lead the review and that he looked forward to “delivering the changes the review recommends”.
The new OfS chair is a former social worker with extensive experience as a regulator, having worked as chief inspector for the former Commission for Social Care Inspection and later held the chief executive post at the Care Quality Commission (CQC) from 2012 to 2018.
His salary, set by the Department for Education, will be £29,500 a year, with one day each week devoted to the role. Lord Wharton’s salary was £59,000 for two days a week.
Free speech powers on hold
The education secretary also revealed the government has put the Conservatives’ freedom of speech legislation on hold, pending a review into whether it should be repealed.
Phillipson said: “For too long, universities have been a political battlefield and treated with contempt, rather than as a public good, distracting people from the core issues they face.
“The steps announced today will sharpen the focus of the Office for Students, with greater emphasis on ensuring the financial stability of the sector.
“We are absolutely committed to freedom of speech and academic freedom, but the Free Speech Act introduced last year is not fit for purpose and risked imposing serious burdens on our world class universities.
“This legislation could expose students to harm and appalling hate speech on campuses. That is why I have quickly ordered this legislation to be stopped so that we can take a view on next steps and protect everyone’s best interests, working closely with a refocused Office for Students.”
Doing the government’s bidding?
Behan’s review was launched in December 2023 following a House of Lords committee, that echoed widely-held concerns in the education sector that the OfS “simply does the government of the day’s bidding”.
However, Behan’s independent review ‘Fit for the Future: Higher Education Regulation Towards 2025′ found “no evidence” of the government exerting undue influence over the OfS’ operational decisions and judgements.
Despite rejecting these concerns – shared by 68 per cent of providers the review surveyed – as “perceptions only”, Behan recommends the regulator adopt a “more transparent style of communications” to show the sector it is not used “as a vehicle to manage the sector and deliver policy”.
A key contributor to these concerns was the fact that Lord James Wharton, who resigned as OfS chair earlier this month, continued to take the whip of the governing Conservative party in the House of Lords, while simultaneously claiming that the organisation, as a regulator, is independent of the government.
But Behan noted that other previously ennobled chairs of prominent regulators, such as Ofsted, had kept the whip “without reducing the perceived effectiveness of their respective public bodies”.
Behan’s review
The new interim chair found the OfS’ priorities have been “diluted” by a growth in responsibilities, despite the Department for Education recognising that it struggles to deliver.
He recommends that the government should “clearly articulate its strategy” for the future of higher education so the regulator can focus on four priorities: monitoring financial sustainability, ensuring quality, protecting public money, and regulating in the interests of students.
The government should consider handing it more powers to regulate against those priorities alongside consumer enforcement powers to protect the interests of students, he said.
Behan said the OfS should be more “proactive” in anticipating emerging risks, try to reduce regulatory burden, and seek to improve itself through independent evaluation of its work.
The arm’s length body’s sponsorship team the Department of Education, should be the “central point” of contact, with stronger information sharing protocols so the OfS can better assess the “financial health of the sector”.
On governance, the OfS should ensure it provides “strong leadership” at board level, including by letting the chief executive appoint their full executive team.
A black hole of communications
Alex Proudfoot, chief executive of Independent Higher Education (IHE), said: “[Behan’s] leadership as the new interim chair of OfS is a clear message from government that they expect the regulator to change, a mandate we wholeheartedly support.
“Many of Behan’s findings will chime with the experiences of IHE’s members, such as the ‘black hole’ of communications receiving no response and the seemingly endless delays in taking action on any number of issues. “We agree that the OfS of the future should be a more focused regulator which sets high expectations for the leadership and governance of providers, and sets a high bar for when it intervenes directly on an issue itself.”
The Department for Education has confirmed a “short review” of controversial plans to defund BTECs and other level 3 technical courses, but there will be no long-term pause of the reforms.
The review will begin “immediately” and decisions will be communicated “before the turn of the year”.
However, the Sixth Form Colleges Association (SFCA), whose Protect Student Choice campaign secured a pause and review pledge from Labour in opposition, accused Phillipson of “betrayal” because today’s announcement does not commit to a multi-year pause of the defunding plans.
It means colleges and schools will not know until December 2024 what qualifications they can offer in September 2025.
Here’s your FE Week roundup of everything you need to know…
What will be paused and reviewed?
The DfE was planning to defund 134 qualifications, which attract around 40,000 annual enrolments, whose content “overlaps” with the first 10 T Levels introduced in 2020 and 2021 from August 1, 2024.
This part of the reform has now been paused, meaning alternative courses in construction, digital, early years and health can be delivered in 2024/25.
However, most colleges would have already removed these qualifications from their offering as they plan their curriculums 12 to 24 months in advance.
A further 85 qualifications that compete with the six T Levels introduced in 2022 were then put in line for the chop in August 2025, while another 71 courses that clashed with five more T Levels introduced over the past two years were also going to be defunded from 2025.
More than half of the popular 134 applied general qualifications (AGQs) which are included in the DfE’s performance tables, in areas like health and social care, science and law, are also set to lose their funding through a separate process.
These courses attract around 300,000 starts a year and will be defunded in 2025 and 2026 under current plans.
DfE has refused to pause this part of the reform, but it will be reviewed by the end of December 2024.
Planning nightmare
Phillipson said the review will begin “immediately” because the DfE “understand that the sector needs certainty so that it can plan its future delivery”.
“We will conclude and communicate the outcomes of this review into qualification reforms at level 3 and below before the turn of the year.”
However, the SFCA said the decision to not pause the 2025 and 2026 defunding schedule puts schools and colleges “in an impossible position, as the hasty review proposed by the government means that institutions will not know what AGQs they can offer in September 2025 until December 2024 at the earliest”.
Who will conduct the review?
Good question. In short, it looks like the DfE officials who set out the reforms under the old government could lead this review.
Phillipson only said: “We will undertake a focused review of the post-16 qualification reforms at level 3 and below to assess how best to improve the quality of the overall qualifications landscape, support the growth of T Levels, and ensure that all young people and adults have high-quality options that meet their needs.”
FE Week has asked DfE for more details on which officials will conduct the review. The department has so far only provided background information to say that civil servants work for the government of the day and adhere to core values of impartiality, honesty and integrity.
Defunding decisions from this review will be reflected in the new government’s separate “curriculum and assessment review” being led by Professor Becky Francis.
Francis’s review does include 16 to 19 education and will recommend changes in this area, but it will have no say in the level 3 and below review.
A ‘betrayal’
Multiple sector leaders welcomed Phillipson’s announcement yesterday that the new government will review the level 3 and below reforms.
But after today’s written ministerial statement, the SFCA hit out at Labour’s refusal to pause all of the reforms for at least two years.
Chief executive Bill Watkin said the Protect Student Choice campaign “secured a commitment from the Labour party to ‘pause and review’ the defunding of applied general qualifications such as BTECs if they formed the next government”.
“The statement published today confirms the party has reneged on that commitment.”
He said the proposed pause “only applies to a small number of technical qualifications that were due to be scrapped next month”.
“It is now clear that there are no plans to pause the scrapping of applied general qualifications that the Conservative government had set in train.
“This is a betrayal of the commitment made in opposition, but much more importantly, it is a betrayal of the young people that rely on applied general qualifications to progress to higher education or skilled employment.”
The government must launch a national regulator and ban profits from state-funded private placements to fix the “broken” SEND system, a report commissioned by the country’s councils has said.
The findings come in a report, released today, funded by the County Councils Network and the Local Government Association.
CCN chairman Tim Oliver said the system “does not work for councils, schools and parents alike” and that the “case for reform is unquestionable”.
“Parents often feel they struggle to access schools’ services, lack the capacity to support pupils, and councils have seen a doubling in needs over the last ten years, and have amassed deficits that threaten their financial solvency.”
According to the research, led by the Isos Partnership, there are “more children and young people than ever” with SEND, with the number of students with education, health and care plans leaping 140 per cent between 2014-15 and 2023-24.
Despite this, there haven’t been “better outcomes for children and young people”, as results for key stages 2 and 4 have “flatlined” since 2019.
Plus, researchers say the extension of the age range of the SEND statutory system to 25 has put pressure on the volume and demand within the SEND system. The report said the feedback from young people and leaders implied the extension “merely postponed” rather than removed or smoothed the cliff edge between education and adulthood.
Meanwhile, half of councils told the researchers they would be insolvent within three years if high needs deficits were added to their overall balances.
Here are the report’s recommendations to fix the system…
1. A ‘National Institute for Inclusive Education‘
The report said a national framework should be drawn up describing “types and levels of needs”. It will also provide clarity about the levels of need to be met in mainstream education and expectations of ordinarily available provision.
Such a framework would have to be “accompanied by evidence-based best practice guidance” and be overseen by a new body dubbed the National Institute of Inclusive Education.
Its role would be to act as “independent custodian” of expectations and best practice.
2. Clarify what ‘additional needs’ means
At the same time, the government should set out a “national ambition” centred around the principles of inclusion.
It argued that all aspects of policy related to education, young people’s services and support for additional needs should be “recalibrated” to support this aim.
A “prerequisite” would be to clarify what the term “additional needs” means and how they should be met, while offering clear and consistent expectations of inclusive practice in mainstream education and specialist provision.
3. Prohibit profits from state placements
The document called for independent providers to be involved in strategic planning in local areas. They could be used for highly specialist provision and expertise that “complements, rather than replaces” local state-funded provision.
But there should also be “equivalence of regulatory standards and funding” between the state-funded and independent sectors and proposed a ban on independent providers on making profits for shareholders from state-funded placements of young people with SEND.
4. A ‘core offer’ and ‘wide reaching’ post-16 reform
To promote inclusion in mainstream settings, the study proposed the development of a new “core offer” of targeted, multi-disciplinary support, including therapists and educational psychologists.
All post-16 education providers would be able to access the provision without children requiring a statutory plan.
It also proposed funding reforms in post-16 education so that a “much higher” proportion of SEND funding comes from core budgets to allow “maximum flexibility” in how it’s used.
“This is not simply about asking schools, colleges and settings to do more, but fundamentally redesigning the systems of support, training, funding, curriculum and accountability to enable, support and incentivise inclusion,” the report said.
5. Reform SEND statutory framework
The report warned the SEND system is “more adversarial” than it was when the government implemented reforms 10 years ago.
The number of tribunal appeals rose by 334 per cent between 2014-15 and 2022-23, while the rate of appeal increased from 1.2 to 2.3 per cent.
The report proposed reforms to parts of the SEND statutory framework so that the state can set out “a clear, consistent, equitable and sustainable offer of support for young people” with additional needs.
It should “maintain a role for parental preference in admissions” so parents and carers can “exercise equivalent choices” to those of young people without additional needs.
But to remain equitable and sustainable, they said the state must clarify “where the limits of individual choice and entitlement lie”.
The framework should also include “independent, non-judicial mechanisms for dealing with disagreements” about access to provision. Instead of using tribunals, the report envisages “a role for the National Institute”.
To aid transition into other education settings, researchers suggested a new learner record for SEND learners that sets out what they can do and what support they need.
6. Track progress after school and college
The report argued for each local authority area to have a “destinations and progression service”.
This service would provide oversight of all children and young people “as they approached the transition from children’s to adult services and in the years after that age of transition”.
It would be charged with providing additional support to young people who needed it for two years after the age of transition and tracking their outcomes and destinations.
The proposed the age of transition should be standardised across education, health and care.
The report said the service should also co-ordinate work to help them achieve “their aspirations as they move into adulthood”.
7. Local inclusion partnerships
New local inclusion partnerships – which would include council, health service, education and parent carer forum representatives – could be formed to handle strategic planning.
Among other things, they would be able to “commission and open their own state-funded provision to reflect local needs”.
8. Revamped workforce strategy
The National Institute of Inclusive Education would lead on developing a cross-government, multi-disciplinary workforce strategy for inclusive education, additional needs and preparation for adulthood.
For example, it would outline the skills and practitioners needed to deliver “the core wraparound targeted offer”.
The body would also advise on the content of training and CPD across the SEND workforce.
The government must launch a national regulator and ban profits from state-funded private placements to fix the “broken” SEND system, a report commissioned by the country’s councils has said.
