A community learning provider in Somerset that found itself at the sharp end of the adult education budget debacle has been handed a lifeline, with a vital funding meeting with the ESFA.
Somerset Skills & Learning, which teaches around 10,000 students but had its funding cut by £1 million last year, will meet officials on January 30, according to the West Somerset Free Press.
The provider, which has had to close centres and make vast redundancies as a result of the loss, claims that Somerset is the only county in England not to get a major grant in the tender and believes this was done because of an administrative error.
SS&L was at first faced with a 97-per-cent cut in September but following a campaign to lobby MPs and ministers, the ESFA made a partial U-turn on funding to providers, and the organisation was given 75 per cent of its required allocation on a “transitional” basis.
It is now hoping that the ESFA can find a way of upping its funding even more.
“We’re not sure why the SFA made those cuts,” Susie Simon-Norris, chief executive of SS&L, told the Free Press.
“We think there may have been an error in terms of the criteria they used, because we are the only county where community learning is with a community interest company.
“Somerset Skills & Learning provided opportunities for over 10,000 people in Somerset and the ESFA does appreciate this.
“Somerset is the only county in England not to get a major grant but we think there is the will there – it’s just finding a way of getting the funding back.”
UPDATE: The PAC has confirmed this hearing will start from 4pm on Monday January 15, and confirmed the witnesses will include Amanda Spielman, Andy Palmer, Peter Lauener, and Jonathan Slater
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has today said they want to hear the views of people that “had a problem with Learndirect” or those concerned about the provision they received.
The plea from the influential group of MPs follows a National Audit Office (NAO) investigation into the circumstances surrounding the monitoring, inspection and funding of the nation’s biggest FE provider.
Written evidence will need to be submitted online to the PAC here, by midday on Tuesday 9 January 2018.
Evidence is needed quickly because, as revealed exclusively by FE Week last month, the PAC will hold an inquiry hearing on Monday 15 January to “examine the funding of Learndirect Ltd”.
The PAC says: “On 13 March 2017, after a failed attempt by Learndirect to sell its apprenticeships business, ESFA issued the company with a Notice of Serious Breach, citing falling standards in apprenticeship provision. Ofsted performed a full inspection on 20–23 March 2017 and concluded that the company’s provision was inadequate.
“Learndirect attempted to challenge the decision legally, but failed. It will receive no further ESFA funding from July 2018 onwards, but is due to make £95 million from ESFA during the 2017–18 financial year.
“As well as the cost implications, there are concerns about the number of learners affected by inadequate provision and by the possible gap following the removal of funding of Learndirect.
“We will ask representatives from the Department for Education, ESFA, Ofsted and Learndirect how provision was allowed to slip, whether the Government could have done more to save money and better monitor their contracts with Learndirect, and what will be done to ensure that the removal of funding from Learndirect does not leave apprentices and others without courses.”
As previously reported by FE Week, it is understood that witnesses to be called to the hearing will include Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman, Learndirect boss Andy Palmer, former ESFA chief Peter Lauener, and the Department for Education’s permanent secretary, Jonathan Slater.
Government bans major levy provider after FE Week exposé
A major training provider claiming to have £130m of apprenticeship levy business has had its contract with the ESFA terminated, after an FE Week investigation found that one of its employees had been offering banned inducement payments to an employer.
National provider enters redundancy consultation with staff
Staff at the nation’s largest FE provider are on tenterhooks, as they wait to find out whether they will still have a job at the end of a 30 day consultancy period enforced this week.
Why the delay for Learndirect inspection report?
Ofsted’s eagerly awaited inspection report on the nation’s largest FE provider has been delayed by six weeks, with the “silence period” before the election given as the reason.
Major provider chaired by ex-SFA boss calls in administrators
A major training provider whose chair was the first chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency has gone into administration after failing to make it onto the new Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers.
Happy New Year to all our readers, contributors and commercial partners. Thank you for all your support in 2017 and playing a part in our continued growth.
Two large colleges in the south-east, which teach a combined total of nearly 30,000 FE students every year, have announced plans to merge.
Bracknell and Wokingham College will join the Activate Learning group – which currently encompasses Reading College, City of Oxford College and Banbury and Bicester College – from August 2018, subject to a “programme of public consultation and due diligence”.
The group, which spent £93,000 on a rebrand in 2013, also includes three university technical colleges in Didcot, Reading and Swindon, a studio school in Bicester, its own apprenticeships arm in the form of Activate Apprenticeships and ATG Training, and an HE business school, along with colleges in Saudi Arabia.
Both colleges are rated ‘good’ by Ofsted and already hold hefty government skills contracts: B&W’s totals nearly £3 million, and Activate’s is over £9 million.
David Cook, chair of governors at B&W, said the new partnership will see “great benefit delivered to the communities”.
Chris Jones
He explained the “target date” is August 1, 2018, which marks the start of the new academic and funding year for colleges.
“There is much to be done before the benefits of the merged institution can start to be delivered, including public consultation and due diligence,” he added.
Chris Jones, chair of governors at Activate Learning, said it was “great news” for the learners, staff, businesses and local communities in Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
“Working together we will give our learners a wider range of career pathways, give local businesses greater access to talent, provide greater opportunities for our staff and build a group of colleges that are stronger together and even greater assets to our communities,” he added.
The colleges will be publishing a joint public consultation document later this month to “outline the benefits that a merger will bring to individuals, businesses and local communities and ask the public to have their say”.
The bosses of two colleges located just 10 miles apart have been awarded CBEs in the Queen’s new year’s honours list.
Judith Doyle, the principal of Gateshead College, and Dr Lindsey Whiterod, the chief executive of Tyne Coast College (formerly South Tyneside College), were recognised with one of the highest accolades awarded in the list published today.
Alan Tuckett, a long running champion of further education who headed the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education for over 20 years, was also given a knighthood, which you can read about by clicking here.
Judith Doyle
Ms Doyle became the first female principal of Gateshead College when she joined in 2013, and quickly turned it around by boosting its Ofsted grade from a three in 2014, to a one the following year.
She has more than 25 years’ experience in FE in the north east. “To be acknowledged in this way is a truly humbling experience,” Ms Doyle said.
“I am passionately committed to doing what I can to support our great region and to be recognised for the difference I have been able to make is wonderful.”
Ms Whiterod, who was awarded an OBE in 2013, joined South Tyneside College in 2009 and upped its Ofsted grade from a three to a two in 2012.
This summer the college merged with Tyne Met College to become Tyne Coast College – of which she is chief executive.
Dr Lindsey Whiterod
Ms Whiterod’s achievements, according to her college’s website, include overseeing capital refurbishment and estate rationalisation programmes of over £21 million, and the creation of the multi-academy trust model which is now encompassed by Tyne Coast College.
“It is a great honour, albeit a surprise, to be awarded a CBE,” she said. “I am thrilled that my work has been recognised in this way,” she said.
Another FE figure to get a CBE was David Meller, chair of the National Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network, and co-chair of the Apprenticeship Delivery Board tasked by the government with increasing the number of apprenticeship places that employers offer.
Mr Meller joined the Department for Education as a non-executive board member in June 2013 and is joint chair of his family business, the Meller Group, one of the largest luxury home and beauty suppliers in the UK. He also established the Meller Educational Trust.
David Meller
Two other FE leaders picked up OBEs.
These went to Stephen Criddle, principal of South Devon College, and Barbara Holm, principal of Westminster Adult Education Service and founder of the National Adult Community Learning Support and Development Network.
Dr Sue Pember, a former top skills civil servant who is now director of policy at membership organisation for adult education providers Holex, was “delighted” that Ms Holm’s “excellent work” for adult learning had been recognised.
“Her OBE is richly deserved,” she told FE Week. “As well as her work leading an excellent adult education centre, she was the chair of Holex and as such been a fantastic advocate and ambassador for adult education.”
Three bosses of independent training providers were awarded MBEs.
These included Christine Jeffery, the chair and non-executive director of Skills Group UK Ltd, who is also on the board of the Education and Training Foundation. She told FE Week she was “delighted and over the moon” to be given the prestigious award.
Deborah Gardiner, chief executive of Qube Learning, added that for her to be awarded an MBE is a “great honour and one which I’m so delighted to receive”.
Deborah Gardiner
Alexander Khan, chief executive of Lifetime Training, also got an MBE for his services to apprenticeships.
“It is fantastic to see leaders from the independent provider sector gain recognition for the passion and commitment that they show in driving forward the skills and social mobility agendas,” said Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ boss, Mark Dawe.
Anthony Impey, the founder and chief executive of Optimity, was given an MBE for services to apprenticeships, small businesses and broadband connectivity.
Five other FE related individuals got MBEs. These include Kathryn Podmore, lately the principal of Birkenhead Sixth Form College, Jacqueline Gerrard, chair of Strode’s College in Egham, and Richard Carter, a governor at West Suffolk College.
Michael Finney, director of advice, admissions and marketing at South Cheshire College, and Gillian Lane, lately vice-chair of governors at Central College Nottingham also picked up MBEs.
A British Empire medal was awarded to Hayley Ryan, teaching innovation manager at Southampton City College.
The architect of the apprenticeship levy gives his own account of how this landmark policy was brought to fruition, and explains just how much of a “big and risky” move it was.
In an interview with the Institute for Government think-tank, the former skills minister Nick Boles revealed that his boss at the time, the then-business secretary Sajid Javid, was opposed to the idea until he realised it would actually save his department money.
His tell-all details how Mr Boles came up with the policy during the Conservative Party’s manifesto process in the build-up to the 2015 general election.
“We had delivered two million apprenticeships in the 2010–15 parliament,” he said. “So in the manifesto process, there was a classic exercise in ‘well, okay, what are we going to promise for the next parliament?’
When I presented the idea of the levy to George [Osborne] first, I could see, immediately, his eyes lit up
“There was this feeling that you can’t say two-and-a-half million – that sounds a bit tame, nobody would be excited by that – so we’re going to say three million. Then three million is really a lot of apprenticeships, it’s big growth.”
Following the Conservatives’ win, Mr Boles was reappointed as skills minister, a job which he admits he hadn’t “expected or wanted”, and realised he faced a “challenge” to find enough money to deliver on the promise.
He read a paper by the crossbench peer and economist Alison Wolf about the idea of a levy, at which point he claims he thought “ah-ha, this is my moment”.
“I’ve always been quite interested about the idea of hypothecated taxation and whether you can get greater acceptance on the part of people paying the tax if they know what it’s going towards,” he said. “Politically, it fell on very fertile ground because the chancellor and the PM felt that, in a sense, this was the time to cash in our chips with business.
“So when I presented the idea of the levy to George [Osborne] first, I could see, immediately, his eyes lit up. He thought, ‘now that’s great’, because it solves how we get the three million and how we pay for it.”
Former business secretary Said Javid
Before he presented the idea to the chancellor, Mr Boles wrote a two-page paper on the idea and shared it with Michael Gove, who was then lord chancellor, while the pair visited a friend on the late May bank holiday weekend of 2015. “He liked it,” the former skills minister recalls.
He then took the idea to Mr Javid for consideration, who wasn’t immediately sold.
“His response was, ‘I’m grateful you bring new ideas; I don’t actually like this idea that much, I’m not initially persuaded, but I’m happy for you to push it forward’, obviously totally privately,” Mr Boles said.
“So he allowed me to put it up to the two of them as did Nicky [Morgan]. And it went from there.”
Mr Boles explained that the political timing was “crucial, the position in terms of the revenues and the spending review”, and Mr Javid swung behind the idea when he “realised it was actually a big contribution towards his spending review total.
“Having been through all of the other options of what to cut, if he didn’t have this it was just totally impossible,” he added.
After he was given the go-ahead by all parties, the levy’s development “happened quite quickly” because Mr Osborne announced it in the autumn statement.
“It then became a pretty intense process with the Treasury about levels, the size of business that would be covered,” which was revealed in the Budget, he said.
I think it will work but it was big and risky
“That involved a huge amount of work with the Skills Funding Agency, key Treasury officials, and also the Cabinet Office. As soon as it became clear it was going to happen, I said ‘I want as many people in this, their hands in the fire’. But I was also trying to make sure that we devised something that worked.”
In terms of involvement with businesses, they consulted with in the run-up to the budget, and although the “normal hiccups” of implementing a policy are currently being felt, “it’s quite hard for business to attack”, he claimed.
He denies that in hindsight he would have done anything differently in establishing the levy: “It’s not because I think it’s perfect, at all, but I think it was such a bloody miracle that we got it away that I wouldn’t want to second-guess whether one could have got an even better version away. Everybody jumped on board for their own reasons and it all happened and that’s so rare. I suspect it will never happen to me again in my political career.”
Children’s charity Barnardo’s has been left stranded without an apprenticeship training contract through the controversial non-levy tender.
The huge charitable organisation has a proud history of placing young people with barriers to work, who often come from vulnerable backgrounds, with smaller employers, and training them as apprentices.
But its chief executive Javed Khan spoke of his disappointment over the procurement outcome, which it is claimed goes against the government’s repeatedly expressed aim of increasing social mobility.
“Barnardo’s has been delivering apprenticeships for more than 30 years,” he said. “However, we have been penalised for bidding for funding to deliver an apprenticeship training contract that we felt we could realistically provide, rather than overbidding for something that we could not deliver.”
He claimed they had been denied a contract “due to pro-rata rules, rather than the quality of the tender”, which means the Education and Skills Funding Agency will be “losing a great opportunity to deliver high-quality and successful apprenticeships to more young people in need”.
“We urge the agency to reconsider and award a £200,000 allocation so we can continue to provide apprenticeships next year,” he added.
It is understood that the ESFA’s lawyers would not budge on its £200,000 minimum rule for contracts through this much-delayed procurement.
Barnardo’s thinks this is unreasonable considering its long record of supporting disadvantaged youngsters, and applied for a figure it felt it could realistically deliver.
Barnardo’s Employment, Training, and Skills was rated ‘good’ by Ofsted in 2016. At the time of the inspection, 63 learners were on apprenticeship programmes and 93 were on a study programme.
Last year Barnardo’s support helped secure an 82-per-cent progression success rate for young people on its study programmes, while 74 per cent of its apprentices successfully completed their programmes.
The positive impact of this training was felt in places such as Bradford, North Tyneside and Birmingham.
The only option available now to providers like Barnardo’s, if they want to stay in apprenticeships, is to seek to become a subcontractor of another large provider.
But they could potentially lose 20 to 40 per cent of their funding in the management fees often demanded by a prime contractor.
The controversial procurement exercise is the second of 2017 after incoming skills minister Anne Milton scrapped the first.
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers complained that several good and outstanding providers stand to have missed out on contracts through the non-levy tender, putting them at risk of going into administration.
It has called for an urgent review of the non-levy procurement outcome which requires new contracts to be issued for the start of January, and written a letter to the Department for Education saying that all providers that passed the scoring criteria and bid for over £200k should get a minimum contract of £200k.
This, AELP claims, is “possible and appropriate” because “the wording of the tender documentation would allow this approach as it doesn’t define available budget and determine precisely the pro-rata approach”.
“If this additional allocation was made, it is very unlikely anyone will complain”, a spokesperson added, as “government procurement rules set out clearly that they should encourage more SME engagement, not put hundreds of them out of business”.
AELP boss Mark Dawe said: “It is great there are new providers involved, great that employers are more involved, and the investment in apprenticeships is amazing. However the current implementation is damaging so many providers and it will set back progress in improving productivity and social mobility. Ministers have to think again.”
The Department for Education has been approached for comment.
Ofsted has delivered an early Christmas present to FE, with six providers climbing up the rankings including one college moving from grade four to grade two in the space of a year.
Hereward College of Further Education was deemed to be ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted in October 2016, with particular concerns raised over the safeguarding of pupils. But the special education provider has now been officially rated ‘good’ across the board in a report published on December 20.
The regulator praised the work of leaders at the Coventry-based college, saying “swift and effective action” has been taken to improve safeguarding and remedy weaknesses including better teaching and lesson planning, successful internships and a range of support for the complex needs of learners.
Hereward’s principal and chief executive Paul Cook, who joined the college in August, praised the “huge efforts” of staff to improve both the experience and future prospects of learners and said the college was “proud” of its work.
He added: “We will continue to focus on preparing our learners for the next stage of their lives and provide them with outstanding employability skills and greater control over their own future.”
Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form College in Birmingham also has an extra reason to celebrate this festive season after moving from ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’ in its latest Ofsted report.
The college received praise for the behaviour and enthusiasm of students, high quality teaching and lesson planning and support for students with special educational needs in the report published on December 21.
It added: “Leaders, managers and staff have successfully generated a culture of high aspiration, harmonious relationships and mutual respect that is highly evident throughout all aspects of the college.”
Four other providers made the step from grade three to grade two, with praise heaped on Macclesfield College, independent learning providers IPS International and Asphaleia and adult learning provider Appris.
Leaders at Macclesfield College were commended for creating a “culture of high expectation” and addressing areas for improvement, including forging “extensive links” with stakeholders and employers, impartial careers guidance and high quality work experience placements.
The report, published on December 21, warned that adult learning and 16-to-19 programmes could do with better teaching and attendance, but praised the behaviour of learners and the support given to them, particularly those with high needs or mental health difficulties.
Ofsted also found that “significant improvements” had been made at Asphaleia, which works in Worthing and Uxbridge with learners who have complex needs and have had disrupted educations, many of them being newly arrived unaccompanied asylum seekers.
The report praised staff for creating a “safe and supportive environment for learners, some of whom are particularly vulnerable” and for supporting learners to “realise their aspirations” with most progressing to FE colleges.
The findings, published on December 21, said more could be done to improve lesson planning and attendance, but praised leaders, managers and staff for having “high expectations” of learners and being “determined to support them to develop the skills needed to study further or gain employment.”
In another inspection report published on December 20, Ofsted congratulated leaders at IPS International for working with staff, employers and subcontractors to “bring about improvement”, with better outcomes for both developing skills and English and maths qualifications.
The Kent-based provider, with a training centres in Rochester and Dover, offers apprenticeships and adult learning programmes in a range of subjects including engineering, manufacturing, health and social care, accounts and information and digital technology.
Ofsted found its programmes “reflect employers’ and learners’ needs well” with learners and apprentices developing “very good vocational, technical and personal skills”.
The provider Appris also received praise for the high level of support and advice given to learners, and for helping them to develop practice skills “beyond those required for their qualification”.
Based in Bradford, the majority of Appris’ learners are apprentices studying engineering and manufacturing programmes, with a high proportion of those achieving within the planned timescales.
The report, published on December 19, said more could be done to improve English skills and learner understanding, but also commended the behaviour and attitudes of learners and their access to extra enrichment activities and qualifications to help them develop their careers.
In a full inspection published on December 21, City of Wolverhampton College retained its grade two rating, although was marked down as grade three for apprenticeship provision. In a report published the next day, Merton Adult Education in south London retained its ‘requires improvement’ rating, but was praised for “bold and effective steps” to restructure the service through a subcontracting arrangement with South Thames College which has “secured the long-term future of adult education for local residents”.
A man who spent decades spearheading the fight to raise the profile of adult learning has been knighted in the Queen’s New Year honours list.
Alan Tuckett, who led the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education for 23 years and became known as FE’s “campaigner-in-chief” for lifelong learning, has been recognised with the prestigious accolade today.
The 69-year-old told FE Week he was “honoured and humbled” by the knighthood, and “really pleased” that adult learning was being recognised in such a high-profile way.
“If you look at public policy over the last 15 years it has been getting tougher and tougher for adults and learning, so anything which draws attention to the importance of this area is good,” he said.
Mr Tuckett was involved in starting the British adult literacy campaign in the 1970s and successfully campaigned during that decade to defend adult learning public spending in west Sussex, after the council’s leader attempted to abolish it.
He became the principal of Clapham Battersea Adult Education Institute in London, aged just 32, before taking over at NIACE in 1988.
Anything which draws attention to the importance of adult learning is good
It was in this role as chief executive that Mr Tuckett made his biggest mark on education.
He stayed at the institute until 2011, raising its turnover from less than £1 million to £45 million and increasing the staff from less than 20 to 300.
In 1991 he said he achieved a feat of which he is most proud of out of his whole career – launching Adult Learners’ Week.
This annual event puts the spotlight on adult learners, teachers and providers to “showcase and celebrate the life changing power adult education can wield”. It has been adopted by Unesco and is now held across over 50 countries.
Under his stewardship, NIACE which merged in 2016 into the Learning and Work Institute, was widely credited with becoming the “authoritative voice” in Parliament on adult education.
Mr Tuckett said his highlight years at NIACE were during the late 1990s, when David Blunkett was education secretary and adult learning had its “day in the sun”.
But, he says resentfully, it has been “clobbered” since then.
“Since 2003, we have seen an increasing focus on education for Labour market entry and more and more of the money going to 16 to 19 and 19 to 24,” he told FE Week.
“Secondly we’ve seen a narrowing of what people are prepared to support. There are processes thinking in education which is primarily about schools and universities and that has scuppered the role of FE in offering people proper second chances in their lives.”
I do think ‘why me’ but thank you very much
He added that the Treasury has been an “unhelpful influence” because they want “short term returns but for adult learning, it transforms people’s lives but it doesn’t necessarily do that in a straight line and by tomorrow evening”.
After retiring from NIACE in 2011 Mr Tuckett was elected President for the International Council for Adult Education, a role which he carried out until 2015.
In 2014 he was appointed as a part-time professor at Wolverhampton University, a job which he has been doing ever since.
He was recently involved in the Government Office for Science’s recent foresight project, exploring the future of skills and lifelong learning “in a changing world”.
Mr Tuckett said he will be “cutting back” his workload come Easter when he turns 70, but said he has been “privileged” to have had such an illustrious career.
“Nobody does this sort of thing without the support of their colleagues and loving family so this knighthood is a testament to all of them,” he told FE Week. “I do think ‘why me’ but thank you very much.”
Fifteen other individuals related to FE were given various other awards in this year’s honours list. You can read about them here.
