A firm set up by Learndirect as a separate entity to run its apprenticeships division has begun a significant rebrand as it looks to distance itself from the tarnished company that created it.

Since its inception in March 2016, Learndirect Apprenticeships (LDA) – a company owned and operated by the owners of Learndirect Ltd – has used the same branding and shared the website of the nation’s biggest FE provider.

But after months of troubles which have damaged Learndirect’s reputation stemming from a damning Ofsted grade four, LDA has begun to distance itself.

It registered a new website at www.mylda.co.uk on September 15, and has established a new Twitter handle: @my_lda.

In perhaps the most obvious departure from the Learndirect look, LDA has created its own logo.

LDA and Learndirect – which share a spokesperson – have both declined to comment on the rebrand.

News of the rebrand comes on the same day that Learndirect’s chairman made his first comments on the saga of his provider, which has fascinated the sector since August, when it was finally slapped with an ‘inadequate’ rating after it failed to quash it at a judicial review.

Ken Hills explained that it is the “board’s belief” that much of the press coverage by FE Week and the Financial Times “fails to understand the complexities of the situation and as a result the company’s position has been misreported”.

He added that he was “incensed” at the claims the provider is “too big to fail” and the board feels Learndirect has been “unfairly treated” (you can read a full Q&A with him here).

Despite receiving the watchdog’s lowest possible grade, Learndirect has had none of its contracts terminated by the government – a decision which has sparked outrage across the sector.

Its own apprenticeship provision had already received an Education and Skills Funding Agency notice of breach before that fateful inspection in March, because 70 per cent of its apprentices were below the minimum standard – but this will continue to be funded until July 2018.

And it was even awarded £45 million from the adult education budget for 2017/18 despite withdrawing from the recent procurement process.

Other providers who were successful in their tender were meanwhile left with a fraction of their previous allocations – one had its budget slashed by 97 per cent.

The scandal was subsequently referred to the National Audit Office by the Public Accounts Committee, after its chair Meg Hillier hit out at the “special treatment”.

Of most concern to any inquiry is the alleged misuse of public funding that occurred at Learndirect and which came to light during its judicial review hearing against Ofsted.

It failed to ensure apprentices received their entitlement to off-the-job training, which chief inspector Amanda Spielman said was the “most shocking” finding in an interview with FE Week which was on BBC News earlier this month.

During the court hearing, Ofsted outlined how managers at Learndirect were not able to provide evidence of what training was completed and there was total confusion on how data was recorded.

LDA has itself come into a spot of trouble recently.

It could find itself kicked off the purchasing system used by London hospitals after a joint investigation by FE Week and The Financial Times found multiple irregularities in a tender application.

In one recent bid to deliver apprenticeships at a London hospital, LDA took credit for activities that happened several years before it was even set up, which are understood to have been undertaken by Learndirect Ltd.

After being presented with our findings the London Procurement Partnership, which the NHS uses to manage the capital’s dynamic purchasing system, launched a review of LDA’s position as a provider.

This investigation is “ongoing”, it said, but LPP aims “to have a conclusion in the shortest time possible”.

The relationship between Learndirect and LDA has also been the subject of a public spat between the skills minister Anne Milton and Labour MP Wes Streeting.

Mr Streeting accused the minister of misleading Parliament when she told an education questions session that Learndirect was no longer offering apprenticeships, without adding that they were being offered by LDA.

Ms Milton did not correct the record, and even though a DfE spokesperson told FE Week that a statement would be made two weeks ago, it had not appeared by the time we went to press.

Mr Streeting has since told FE Week he is applying for a debate in parliament on the Learndirect “debacle”.

Two FE principals are up in arms over a planned new academy-chain small school sixth form, which they claim will dangerously increase competition for local students.

The Trafalgar College opened last September as a free school run by the Inspiration Trust academy chain, which also runs the nearby Great Yarmouth Charter Academy for 11- to 16-year-olds.

The chain is now consulting on a potential merger, and on plans to bring forward the potential opening of a new joint sixth form to 2019 from 2021.

The consultation has infuriated the principals of two local sixth-form colleges, East Norfolk SFC and Lowestoft SFC, who claim the area reviews demonstrated there was no demand for more provision in the area before 2021.

A consultation statement on GYCA’s website spells out the plans, saying: “Our approved plans for Trafalgar College include a sixth form from September 2021 to match pupils’ progression through the school.

“As the new merged school will have year 11 students from day one, we are also consulting on whether to apply to bring forward the sixth form start date to 2019.”

If the opening date is moved forward to September 2019, it expects to have 70 16- and 17-year-olds in year 12.

Yolanda Botham, the principal of 740-learner Lowestoft, described Trafalgar College as “a costly mistake”.

“It was set up as an 11-to-18 school and this was, in my view, a very serious costly mistake, made for ideological reasons in support of the free-school movement rather than student need,” she said.

It was set up as an 11-to-18 school and this was, in my view, a very serious costly mistake

“Evidence was provided at the time by Sixth Form Colleges Association, the Association of Colleges and others to show there was no demographic need for more places post-16, as the subsequent area review process made crystal clear. The quality of local provision post-16 is also not an issue. Both the local SFCs have ‘good’ Ofsted ratings and our outcomes this year are brilliant, with a 100-per-cent pass rate.”

Both East Norfolk and Lowestoft took part in a pilot area review of post-16 provision in north-east Norfolk and north Suffolk in 2015, which was followed in late 2016 by the extended Norfolk and Suffolk review.

Neither review involved school sixth forms.

A spokesperson for East Norfolk, which has 1,640 learners, pointed out that the resulting report “clearly identified a demographic downturn in the population of- 16 to 18-year-olds until 2021”.

“Trafalgar College opened as a free school in 2016 with its sixth form originally being planned to open in 2021,” he said.

East Norfolk’s principal, Dr Catherine Richards, told FE Week that she “will seek to work with the ESFA and RSC to fully evaluate the impact of the merger”, in order “to avoid duplication of provision in the local area and make best use of government funding”.

The Association of Colleges and Havering Sixth Form College challenged the Department for Education last year, over its decision to fund a new sixth form at Abbs Cross Academy and Arts College in Hornchurch, Essex.

The DfE backed down within days of a judicial review hearing and Loxford School Trust did not to go ahead with the project.

“When we opened Sir Isaac Newton Sixth Form in Norwich we were told by existing local providers that there was no need for it,” a spokesperson for Inspiration Trust told FE Week.

“Today Sir Isaac has more than 400 students and is returning some of the best A-level results in the country, so we think it is right to look with an open mind at what could best help students in Great Yarmouth.

“These new proposals reflect the changing circumstances since Trafalgar College was first put forward, and we welcome feedback from our fellow schools and colleges in the area.”

Pictured: Dame Rachel DeSouza, Chief exectuive, Inspiration Trust