Latest news from FE Week

A financially challenged college is being forced into a merger as it becomes only the second institution to be subject to FE commissioner intervention for a second time.

Richard Atkins’ report into Guildford College, published this morning, recommended that it undertake a structure and prospects appraisal to identify a potential partner to address its ongoing financial difficulties.

It’s the second time the college has been visited by the FE commissioner, having previously been in intervention between March 2014 and September 2015.

Only one other college, City of Liverpool College, has so far shared this dubious honour.

Guildford College “has faced difficulties for a number of years”, Mr Atkins’ report said.

“Its financial position has been weak and is likely to continue to be so for the medium term as it seeks to improve enrolments (and hence increase income) and make significant cost savings,” he wrote.

He noted that “progress has stalled” towards implementation of the Surrey area review recommendation that the college pursue a federation or merger.

“Fresh impetus is now required,” he said.

The main recommendation was that the college “fully engages with and supports” an FE commissioner-led SPA to “identify a merger partner for the college, with a merger to be completed by the end of calendar year 2018 at the latest”.

Mr Atkins’ visit to the college was “a result of the college’s uncertain financial position”.

It is currently subject to two notices of concern from the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

The first, for financial health, was issued in March 2014, while a second, for minimum standards in apprenticeships, was issued the following March.

A notice of concern for financial control, issued in June 2015, was lifted in March last year, according to the report.

The college’s 2016/17 accounts, dated December 21, indicated that its financial health would remain at ‘satisfactory’ before moderation by the ESFA.

However, the report suggested that matters may be less rosy: another of his recommendations is that the college “determines as a matter of urgency whether it needs to seek exceptional financial support in 2018”.

He also urged the college to complete a “review of its 2017/18 financial forecast which is currently underway” and develop “reforecasts” for both 2017/18 and 2018/19.

“Given the importance of establishing a credible financial baseline, the college should engage its internal auditors to undertake a review of the reforecasts when they are complete,” he recommended.

Other recommendations related to quality improvement at the college, rated grade three at its most recent inspection in June.

“Ahead of the merger being achieved, it is essential that you rapidly improve the quality of delivery for current learners, through strengthening the college’s post inspection action plan,” Justine Greening, former education secretary, wrote in a letter to the college’s chair accompanying the commissioner’s report.

A college spokesperson said it was “actively working with the FE Commissioner’s Office to seek a merger partner who will support the growth and development of the Guildford College Group.”

Apprenticeship funding bands might be about to change – because employers “do not feel able” to negotiate with providers on price.

The Department for Education has announced that it would review the “effectiveness of the current funding band structure” which “includes considering funding band structures” – and any changes will apply to new starts from August 2018.

“When we moved to 15 funding bands, we expected to see employers and providers negotiating on price below the funding band upper limit,” it said.

“However, this hasn’t materialised across all of the market, with many employers telling us that they do not feel able to negotiate with providers. We are therefore considering changes to incentivise negotiation and drive better value for money.”

Every apprenticeship standard and framework are allocated a funding band of between £3,000 and £27,000.

That band represents the maximum government or levy funding an apprenticeship can attract and employers are expected to negotiate with providers on the price.

Employers can agree to pay more than the funding band maximum, and pay the difference from their own cash.

The current 15 funding bands for apprenticeship were introduced in May 2017, an increase from the previous six funding caps for apprenticeship standards.

According to today’s announcement the maximum funding band will stay the same, but other bands could change. Any changes would be confirmed in the spring.

“If we do change the funding band structure, we will work with the IfA to ensure that any new standards that are approved for delivery are allocated to both one of the 15 current funding bands and to a new, post-August funding band.”

The skills minister identified September as the month by which she expects to see a surge in apprenticeship starts, in an exclusive webinar with FE Week.

Anne Milton revealed that she is looking to the start of the next academic year, during her chat this afternoon with FE Week’s editor Nick Linford.

“I will be told by my officials that I shouldn’t say this, but I’m going to say it anyway,” she said. “I would hope that by September to see some real numbers.”

Figures released by the Department for Education in January revealed apprenticeship starts have fallen 41 per cent since the introduction of the levy in May, compared with the same period in the previous year.

Provisional starts for the first quarter of 2017, covering August, September and October, showed a fall of 26 per cent on the previous year.

For the government to hit its target of three million apprenticeship starts by 2020 there would need to be an average of at least 50,000 starts a month.

But the monthly average over the first 28 months stands at just 41,470.

However, Ms Milton believes there has been “quite a dramatic shift with employers” recently, and said many are “planning to rapidly increase numbers” of apprentices, particularly in the retail and hospitality sectors.

“We’ve done some proper investigation,” she said. “These things take time, and it’s only been a year. But the providers are waiting in the wings and ready to go.”

During the webinar, sponsored by the Northern Council for Further Education (NCFE) and featuring the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s director of funding and programmes, Keith Smith, Ms Milton said local MPs have a role to play in encouraging small businesses to take on more apprentices.

“We are doing some teaching sessions for MPs,” she said. “I’ve got 650 disciples in the Houses of Parliament. They know their local areas, they know a lot of small businesses.

“I think they can do a great deal of work with them. I think that’s a great opportunity.”

Mr Smith shared the ESFA’s plans for the development of apprenticeship policy over the next year, including the option for employers to transfer 10 per cent of the levy to another employer from April. 

He said the new policy should be seen as an “employer-led opportunity” and means “levy-paying employers taking control of where they want to invest their funds”.

At the end of the session, Ms Milton said FE Week’s webinar had been a “great opportunity” and she was looking forward to “doing again soon”.

Many thanks to @AnneMilton @educationgovuk @ESFAdigital @ESFAgov for taking part in the apprenticeship reform webinar, sponsored by @NCFE. Here’s a post event video message from the Skills Minister. #FEparty #loveFE pic.twitter.com/XoqmuOWHKu

— Nick Linford (@NickLinford) February 20, 2018

Others also took to social media to respond to the minister’s answers during the session.

.@AnneMilton tells @NickLinford webinar going off message from her officials’ brief that it will be September 2018 when she expects @Apprenticeships start numbers to pick up pic.twitter.com/7d4M1VhdB6

— AELP (@AELPUK) February 20, 2018

Good to join the @FEWeek webinar with Skills Minister @AnneMilton this afternoon. Minister acknowledged standards readiness a huge issue for biz and needs to be addressed quickly 1/3

— CBI Education and Skills (@CBI_ES) February 20, 2018

Thank you to @AnneMilton @ESFAgov‘s Keith Smith & @NickLinford for your time spent organising and taking part in the #Webinar this afternoon regarding #Apprenticeships #Funding & #Levy #FundTransfers. Here’s hoping it’s the first of many! #TakePart #Communicate #ShareKnowledge

— Totton College Apprenticeships (@TCApprentices_) February 20, 2018

FE providers failed to spend £63 million of the adult education budget during the last academic year alone, the skills minister has admitted.

Not everyone agrees with Anne Milton, however: the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, has insisted that the true figure is likely to be much higher.

Ms Milton’s admission came in answer to John Mann, the chair of the Commons treasury sub-committee, who asked what estimate had been “made of the underspend against the AEB in the academic year 2016/17”.

“The underspend against the mainstream participation element of the AEB for the 2016 to 2017 academic year was £63 million,” the minister replied. This is “less than five per cent of the total contracted value”, she claimed.

The underspend against the mainstream participation element of the AEB for the 2016 to 2017 academic year was £63 million

“A portion of the underspend was reallocated within the further education sector, providing the opportunity for providers to expand provision through growth bids, funding over delivery in providers who exceeded their delivery aims, and support other provision.”

This excludes “growth deals and other funding support” because these programmes are “managed on a financial-year basis”.

The AELP boss Mark Dawe believes the announcement was misleading, however, as not all elements of the AEB have been accounted for.

It is “really disappointing” that the written answer only referred to “the mainstream participation element of the budget”, he said.

“The bottom line is that revenue budget was wasted on bailing out failed institutions not supporting learners.

“Any underspend should be reallocated to support the participation of learners by effective providers,” Mr Dawe added. “The AEB procurement demonstrated the unmet demand.”

Private providers were forced last year to tender for a slice of just £110 million in a much-cricitised AEB procurement exercise.

Their competitors, notably colleges and councils, were exempt.

The total sum of tender applications is understood to have been six times larger than £110 million.

FE Week reported last September that a total of £200 million was unspent in 2016/17, a figure which angered many private providers who missed out in the AEB tender.

Multiple sources confirmed at the time that around 13 per cent of the total £1.5 billion AEB budget had not been used.

Shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden said this was part of a “systemic set of problems that we are seeing all the way through to the dispersing of adult funding” and insisted that the government needs to “urgently review the whole process”.

Three new colleges have joined the Chartered Institution for Further Education, bring the total membership into double figures for the first time.

The three are WMC – The Camden College, Trafford College, and Burton and South Derbyshire College.

They are all rated either ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ by Ofsted.

CIFE was first conceived back in 2012 to get high-achieving FE providers the royal seal of approval.

Almost six years later – and more than two years after it first started accepting paying members – 11 providers have achieved chartered status.

It’s a degree of progress for chief executive Dan Wright, who told FE Week in January that his goal was to make CIFE self-sufficient by 2019.

He said that Trafford College had “clearly demonstrated the maintenance of high-quality standards over a sustained period of time”.

WMC had impressed with “the quality of [its] strategic plan and its strong links with the community it serves”.

Burton and South Derbyshire College was had meanwhile “forged strong relationships across the sector”, and was “highly regarded by students and employers as a model training provider”.

“I am delighted that WMC – The Camden College has achieved the distinction of being the first adult college in London to join the CIFE membership,” said its principal Helen Hammond.

“This supports our ‘outstanding’ grade and recognises our continued efforts to ensure we are a learner-centred college dedicated to widening access to education for all adults across London.

“This supports our ‘outstanding’ grade and recognises our continued efforts to ensure we are a learner-centred college

We look forward to being part of this membership that recognises our commitment for providing high standards and opportunities for lifelong learning.”

Ms Hammond said she hoped to encourage other colleges to join the CIFE “to show their level of excellence in education”.

“We are delighted to have been awarded chartered status,” added the principal of Trafford College, Lesley Davies.

“This accolade distinguishes us as a leading education provider and is a testament to our vision of becoming a career college.

“At the heart of this vision is the dedication of our staff who work tirelessly to provide high-quality teaching and learning for our students so that they achieve their career goals as well as meeting the training needs of local employers.”

Dawn Ward, the principal of Burton and South Derbyshire College, also spoke of her excitement.

“I am delighted that we are now a member of the chartered institution,” she said. “It recognises the broad reach and scope within colleges such as ours and the impact we have on the local economy, how we help individuals develop the skills needed for successful careers and the wide-ranging work we undertake with employers helping them improve productivity by developing the skills of their workforce.

It recognises the broad reach and scope within colleges such as ours and the impact we have on the local economy

“Chartered institutions are also part of the landscape that employers understand, so having one that represents and celebrates further education really emphasises and communicates the valuable and important work done by so many in our sector.”

A Freedom of Information request revealed last month that the CIFE had received more than £1 million in public subsidy, and was still being propped up to the tune of £210,000 a year.

Mr Wright responded to this by saying that his goal was to have 80 members, which would make it “completely free” of government subsidy.

Each prospective member pays a £3,000 fee to have their application assessed – a process that involves a financial assessment as well as evaluation against the institution’s quality criteria – and a further £5,000 a year in membership fees.

All four providers that joined a year or more ago confirmed they had renewed membership. These are Hawk Training, Blackpool and The Fylde College, Bridgwater & Taunton College, and Furness College, Cumbria.

East Riding College, Dudley College, Steadfast Training Ltd, and Skills Group all joined within the last 12 months, so do not need to renew membership.

The chair of a London college has vowed to stay on after the FE commissioner cancelled a merger she had tried to force through against huge local opposition.

Mary Curnock Cook (pictured above) has endured a torrid time since taking over as chair of the board at Kensington and Chelsea College last May, which culminated last month in Richard Atkins calling off the merger with Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College.

But the former boss of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service has announced she will be staying “to a secure and successful future” for KCC, amid calls from campaigners for her to quit.

She started as chair around the time a huge scandal broke surrounding the £28 million sale to the local council of its Wornington Road campus, in north Kensington, without public consultation.

There was huge public outrage as it emerged the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea planned to build housing over most of the site, leaving a much smaller space at best for learning.

Ms Curnock Cook reached an agreement with RBKC to pause the redevelopment, but she repeatedly refused to cancel the merger, which campaigners opposed due to fears the resulting super-college would not retain the contentious Wornington campus in the long term.

She claimed at the time that merger was needed to address grave financial problems resulting from years of decline exposed in the commissioner’s diagnostic assessment report, which agreed that KCC was no longer “financially sustainable as a standalone institution”.

But the board conceded in a meeting this month that “there was more we could have done to secure local community support for last year’s merger plans”.

“Ultimately, it would not have been in the best interests of the college’s students and staff to proceed,” said Ms Curnock Cook. “I don’t pretend that this was an easy decision.”

The college will now cooperate with a new commissioner-led structure and prospects appraisal seeking a different merger partner.

The board has also agreed to form a new advisory group to “represent our communities in Kensington and Chelsea and engage them in the process of considering options for the future”.

It will also commission an independent review of “the process surrounding” the Wornington sell-off, and aim to sign a long-term lease on the site with the council.

Ms Curnock Cook insisted she retains full backing from the board.

“I have always seen my role to steer KCC to a secure and successful future,” she said. “This continues to be my priority.”

The FE commissioner said in his report, also made public this week, that the scrapped merger process had been “objective and thorough”.

However, it “was limited in the range of future options considered, and did not include sufficient focus on the future of FE provision in north Kensington in the selection of a partner”.

“While the commissioner recognises the ongoing work of KCC to implement an effective communications strategy, the perceived lack of student communication appears to have resulted in some suspicion and misinterpretation regarding the direction the college is moving in,” he wrote.

“The college has an underlying operating deficit of around £3 million in cash terms each year. This is clearly not sustainable.”

It forecast an operating deficit for the college of £3,771,000 for 2017/18, and money generated by the Wornington sale is clearly diminishing.

It emerged that £3.2 million from the proceeds was used to pay off bank debts, and “approximately £2.7 million of the cash proceeds were used in 2016/17 to support the ongoing operations of the college”.

Save Wornington College campaigners, led by Grenfell survivor Ed Daffarn, want the skills minister Anne Milton, who has personally intervened in the case, to force RBKC to give the campus back to the college.

This would avoid the long-term financial burden of yearly rent.

They are confident they will be heard, not least because the site stands in the shadow of Grenfell Tower, the block of flats ravaged by fire last summer killing 71 people. They claim retaining further education in the locality for the sort of poorer residents who lived there is now viewed as “reparations”.

The panel undertaking a year-long review into higher education and funding, announced today by the prime minister, will include one college principal.

Blackpool and the Fylde College boss Bev Robinson is one of five members of the panel, which will be chaired by finance expert and author Philip Augar.

Ms Robinson is no stranger to government review panels, having taken part in the Sainsbury review of technical education, which concluded in 2016 and led to the government’s plans to introduce T-levels from 2020. She was also named to the board of the Institute for Apprenticeships in January last year.

Other panel members announced today include Professor Alison Wolf, who led the influential Wolf review of vocational education in 2011.

“I am delighted to chair this crucial review and to work alongside an excellent panel experienced in many different parts of the tertiary education sector. A world-class post-18 education system has never been more important to business, society and the economy. We will be focused on ensuring that the system meets those needs by driving up access, quality, choice and value for money for students of all kinds and taxpayers,” Mr Augar said.

“I look forward to engaging widely with students, business, and providers across the post-18 education landscape. This is a wide, open and far-reaching review. We begin with no preconceptions and our first priority will be a serious examination of the evidence and hearing from a broad range of stakeholders who like us are committed to ensuring the system works for everyone.”

Full list of panel members:

• Bev Robinson – Principal of Blackpool and The Fylde College. She has over 20 years’ experience in further and higher education colleges in England and has been awarded an OBE for her services to FE.
• Edward Peck – Vice-chancellor of Nottingham Trent University since August 2014. Previously, Professor Peck worked at the University of Birmingham as director of the health services management centre and subsequently became head of the school of public policy in 2006.
• Alison Wolf – a cross-bench peer in the House of Lords, and author of the influential Wolf Review of Vocational Education, published in 2011. She has advised the Commons select committee on education and skills as well as the OECD, the ministries of education in New Zealand, France and South Africa, and the European Commission, among others.
• Sir Ivor Martin Crewe – Master of University College, Oxford and president of the Academy of Social Sciences. He is the former chair of the 1994 Group and president of Universities UK.
• Jacqueline De Rojas – President of techUK and the chair of the digital leaders board. She also serves on the government’s Digital Economy Council and was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours list this year.