Panel debates end-point assessment and RoATP

Concerns about quality and the impact of reforms on social mobility dominated the panel debate of FE and skills sector leaders at the Annual Apprenticeship Conference.

Dame Asha Khemka DBE, principal of West Nottinghamshire College and a member of the board of the Institute for Apprenticeship, called for the sector to “work together to find solutions”, admitting that “we all know implementation is going to be rocky”.

However, she said the fact that so many standards’ end-point assessments were not yet in place was “not acceptable”.

Her fellow panel member Dr Sue Pember, the director of policy at HOLEX, described the lack of EPAs for approved standards as “diabolical”. “In my mind”, she said, “you shouldn’t put a standard on the books unless it’s got an EPA”, a position that was met with warm applause from delegates.

Replying to a question about whether the levy would lead to an increase in deadweight provision, which would use levy funds to pay for training that would already have taken place, Dr Pember said “deadweight is a word I don’t like to hear very often; it reminds me of Train to Gain”.

We all know implementation is going to be rocky

John Hyde, the executive chairman of HIT Training, warned that an increase in the use of levy funds to pay for “existing management training and degree sandwich courses may skew it too far”.

He insisted that entry-level apprenticeships and those for 16- to 18-year-olds “are still needed” and urged the government to “keep a close eye on it”.

There were stark warnings from the chief executives of both the Association of Colleges and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers.

David Hughes, the chief executive of AoC, said “we should go into this open-eyed; sometimes there will be scams and scandals”, but was careful to insist this wouldn’t apply to the majority. He also warned that the levy might “amplify” the behaviour of “unscrupulous” employers, noting that “the labour market is just grossly unfair and unjust, and the levy won’t solve that”.

Mark Dawe, the boss of AELP, asked whether the system could truly be considered employer-led when employers weren’t free to select the provider that they wanted to work with, as not all providers were on the register of apprenticeship training providers.

“Don’t distort the market through a procurement process that doesn’t recognise quality,” he insisted.

MPs queue up to blast apprenticeships register omissions

Fierce criticism has flooded in from MPs concerned at the large number of colleges that have missed out on the new register of apprenticeship training providers.

The list of providers that will be eligible to deliver apprenticeships from May was published on March 14 by the Skills Funding Agency – however, a large number of major providers of apprenticeships somehow missed out, including at least 19 colleges with a combined current allocation of £44 million.

Britain’s second city was left without any colleges able to deliver apprenticeships from May at all, as all four Birmingham colleges failed to get on the register.

The shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden wrote to his ministerial counterpart Robert Halfon on Wednesday demanding answers about the process, which he said left providers with “excellent track records of delivering apprenticeships” off the list.

Gordon Marsden

“A number of decisions on exclusions and indeed inclusions have aroused great concern,” he said, adding that the colleges that missed out had been “left without the ability to deliver new apprenticeships from May with very few answers as to why”.

This situation “raises key questions which need urgent answers to restore confidence” in the register and the application process, he said. He demanded to know the number of people at the SFA who had been involved in compiling the register, and the process for reconsidering applications by providers that had been turned down.

Speaking exclusively to FE Week, Mr Marsden said he understood many of the colleges had been “knocked back because of technical errors” in the applications. “All of this points to a very rushed and inadequately policed production of the register,” he insisted.

Last week, Keith Smith, the director of funding and programmes at the SFA, wrote on behalf of Mr Halfon to all the MPs with colleges in their constituency that had applied unsuccessfully to get on the register.

His letter, which was sent by email the day after the colleges learned their fate, is likely to raise eyebrows given the subsequent outcry over the register.

The absence of the four Birmingham colleges prompted two of the city’s MPs – Gisela Stuart (pictured above) and Jack Dromey – to raise questions in parliament during education questions on Monday. Ms Stuart, the MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, said their absence from the register was “destroying technical education for 16-year-olds in the West Midlands”.

Jack Dromey

And Mr Dromey, the MP for Birmingham Erdington, asked the minister to meet with the 10 MPs representing Britain’s second city to discuss the issue. Mr Dromey told FE Week that the decision to exclude the colleges “on the basis of the answer to one question is inexplicable”.

“The process is fundamentally flawed and it is essential that the SFA thinks again,” he said. Roger Godsiff, the MP for Birmingham Hall Green, said the process for applying to the register “smacked of a box-ticking exercise”.

He told FE Week that the Birmingham colleges had been “given to understand that the SFA would engage with them if their application was deficient in some form” but “all of them say that the SFA didn’t”.

Meanwhile, Richard Burden, the MP for Birmingham Northfield, said the omission was “shocking and out of order” – but added that it “can be nothing other than a mistake”. Sion Simon, the Labour candidate for mayor of the West Midlands, has launched a campaign to overturn the decision, after just three of the county’s 16 colleges made it onto the register.

“This decision will all but end technical education for young people in the West Midlands as we know it,” he said.

And Wakefield MP Mary Creagh has tabled an early-day motion calling on ministers to reconsider the application process, after Wakefield College failed to get on the register despite having an apprenticeship allocation of £2 million and a ‘good’ Ofsted rating.

“It’s clear that the government’s attempt to improve quality of providers has been a complete shambles,” she said. Meanwhile, Mark Dawe, AELP’s chief executive, insisted that a lot of “good quality” independent providers had also been left off the register.

“Why doesn’t the government trust its own regulator and inspectorate to determine what good quality is?” he asked. Mr Dawe said that providers had been told what sections they had failed on, but not the reasons why they had failed – which meant some were “at a bit of a loss to see what they have to change to get on”.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “All those that applied to be on the register of training providers were given a clear set of criteria in order to receive funds for apprenticeship training, ensuring they are high quality and capable of delivering the training that young people deserve.

“We have also now reopened the register to give new organisations, and those who were not successful the first time, the chance to reapply.

“By regularly giving new providers a chance to get on the register, we are supporting diversity, quality and employer choice.”

 

No growth projections for Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers

There has been no modelling done by the Skills Funding Agency to predict how many providers will eventually end up on the new register of apprenticeship training providers, its boss has admitted.

Peter Lauener’s stunning revelation will be of concern to many in the sector, not least the new Ofsted boss Amanda Spielman, who admits in an exclusive interview on page 6 that she’s “worried” about the impact the register will have on her resources, given that it has already nearly doubled the number of providers that are now in line for inspection.

We don’t have a view of how many will be on there and it is something we’ll have a better fix on over time

Speaking to FE Week following a question and answer session on the forthcoming apprenticeship reforms at this year’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference, Mr Lauener said “we do not have a modelled view” on how many providers he expects will be on the register in a few years’ time.

“We don’t have a view of how many will be on there and it is something we’ll have a better fix on over time,” he admitted. “I think it would be unhelpful to have a view at this stage, not least because we have the levy coming.”

Before the register came into force, there were 793 apprenticeship providers in scope for inspection.

Now however, the RoATP has nearly double that many providers listed, with 1,473 organisations in the frame for inspection when it goes live in May.

To heap problems on Ofsted, the RoATP application process is due to take place four times every year, and sector figures expect this number will rise quickly, perhaps to well over 2,000.

“It is a huge challenge and we are only at the start of the conversations because there is nothing yet to inspect,” Ms Spielman has previously said. “This is about setting up for the future.”

Despite this, Mr Lauener insisted that there is no need for the SFA to project how many providers will eventually make it onto the register.

“We don’t have a view of how many,” he told FE Week. “Why would we have a view about a desired number?”

Ofsted watch: Another UTC hit with poor grade

A university technical college in Middlesex received a grade three in its first ever Ofsted inspection, spelling even more problems for the 14 to 19 institutions, in a week that saw a sixth form college rated ‘outstanding’.

Inspectors cited “historically low attendance” at Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC as well as “poor” student attitudes towards being at the UTC, in an inspection report published March 22.

The report said parents and pupils reported to inspectors that they feel “let down by promises made by this UTC not being fulfilled”.

It added: “A legacy of challenges, including in staff recruitment and financial constraints, has been a significant challenge to overcome.”

Heathrow UTC has just 205 students on roll, with a capacity of 600.

The ‘requires improvement’ outcome adds to troubles for the UTC model.

FE Week revealed earlier this month that less than half of the university technical colleges visited by Ofsted have received ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ grades.

The education watchdog has now visited a total of 21 UTCs, but only nine of these, or 42 per cent, were judged to be good enough for higher grades.

St John Rigby RC Sixth Form College in Wigan on the other hand received an ‘outstanding’ grade from Ofsted, in an inspection report published March 21.

The previously grade two 1,300-learner SFC’s principal and leadership team have “worked relentlessly to ensure transformational change since the last inspection”, inspectors said.

They added: “Excellent teaching results in a high proportion of students making exceptional progress from their starting points. Consequently, most students achieve, and often exceed, their aspirational target grades.”

The damning Ofsted report that caused the downfall of huge apprenticeship training provider First4Skills was also published this week.

The Liverpool-based provider went bust earlier this month, affecting around 200 staff and around 6,500 learners, after the Skills Funding Agency pulled its contract following a grade four rating from the education watchdog.

Inspectors blasted leaders at the provider for failing to “tackle the significant weaknesses identified at the previous inspection”, with the result that “outcomes for learners and the quality of teaching, learning and assessment have declined further and are now inadequate”.

“Strategic priorities focus disproportionately on maximising the company’s income at the expense of providing high standards of education and training for learners,” it said.

Meanwhile another private provider, System Group Limited who delivers training nationally, went up from a grade three to a grade two.

The 2,100-learner provider was graded ‘good’ across the board, with inspectors highlighting the provider’s apprenticeship delivery.

“All apprentices benefit from the very regular contact, one-to-one coaching and support they receive from their trainer/assessors,” inspectors said. “Apprentices and learners have extremely good knowledge of safe working practices which they apply correctly.”

Vision West Nottinghamshire College kept its grade two in a report published March 21.

Inspectors said senior leaders have put the college “at the heart of the local community, enabling it to raise aspirations and support the area’s cultural and economic regeneration.”

But they added too few learners on classroom-based programmes achieve their qualifications in English and mathematics or “improve their skills sufficiently”.

Tameside College kept its grade three in a report published March 21.

To improve inspectors said the colleges needs to “increase significantly the proportion of apprentices who achieve their apprenticeship and who complete within the planned timescale”.

Epping Forest College had its first monitoring visit since being rated ‘inadequate’ on January 6.

Ofsted said the college was making good progress since the grade four.

Two short inspection reports were also published this week.

South West Regional Assessment Centre Limited, an employer provider, was found to continue as ‘good’ since a grade two in June 2013.

Staffordshire County Council also continues to be ‘good’ since a grade two November 2012.

 

GFE Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Tameside College 14/02/2017 21/03/2017 3 3
Vision West Nottinghamshire College 07/02/2017 21/03/2017 2 2
Epping Forest College 26/01/2017 17/03/2017 M M

 

Sixth Form Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
St John Rigby RC Sixth Form College 14/02/2017 21/03/2017 1 2

 

Independent Learning Providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
System Group Limited 20/02/2017 24/03/2017 2 3
FIRST4SKILLS Limited 07/02/2017 20/03/2017 4 3

 

Other (including UTCs) Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC 21/02/2017 22/03/2017 3 –

 

Short inspections (remains grade 2) Inspected Published
South West Regional Assessment Centre Ltd 23/02/2017 20/03/2017
Staffordshire County Council 27/02/2017 20/03/2017

Gordon Marsden lays out Labour’s FE policy objectives

Labour would establish an official pre-apprenticeship programme, and support apprenticeships for care leavers, veterans and people with disabilities, according to the shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden.

During his speech at the Annual Apprenticeships Conference, Mr Marsden made clear his support for technical education, and hit out at “the lack of adequate resources” the government is putting into the new Institute for Apprenticeships.

In all, he made new five policy objectives from the state, committing his party to:

 

1.Targets to increase apprenticeships for people with disabilities, care leavers and for veterans.

 

2. A system of traineeships to work as “an official pre-apprenticeship programme”.

 

3. “Specific support” to cover apprentices’ travel costs, which he said currently run to an average of £24 a week – a quarter of their earnings if they’re on the minimum wage.

 

4. Devolving apprenticeship funding to local combined authorities or metro mayor regions provided they have a strategy to achieve it

 

5. Incentives for large employers to “overtrain apprentices to fill skills gaps in the supply chain and the wider sector”, perhaps including subsidising the administrative costs of that training.

 
He said that the Local Government Authority is afraid the levy would cost them up to £207 million every year, and wants the money it will raise to pool it locally so councils can “create apprenticeships to fill local skills gaps and meet local employers’ needed”.

Mr Marsden also talked about the impending threat posed by Brexit to technical workers, pointing to a skills shortage in the construction industry, which he says is at risk of losing 200,000 jobs.

“We need not only to scale up areas of traditional apprenticeships in manufacturing and industry, but also grasp the potential for great expansion, including for high-quality apprenticeships in the service sector,” he said.

“There are growing demands in social care, leisure, and visitor services, as well as digital and creative industries, and we must do everything we can to meet these. Increased automation is changing the world of work and jobs. That is why the service sector will be so crucial.”

He also took a moment to pay tribute from the stage to the victims of the attack in London on Wednesday in which four people died. He only made the decision to travel to Birmingham at the last minute, and extended apologies from his ministerial counterpart Robert Halfon, whom he said had been disappointed not to come.

Apprenticeship providers warned not to sacrifice quality

The “new apprenticeship system is the eBay of education” and “will drive down quality”,  the boss of the Association of Employment and Learning providers told delegates at FE Week’s third Annual Apprenticeships Conference.

There were further strong words from the Department for Education’s director of apprenticeships David Hill, who told providers not to “do a deal at a price you can’t deliver quality for”, setting the tone for a conference at which no punches were pulled.

FE Week’s third AAC kicked off on March 22, with a warm welcome from the BBC’s Kirsty Wark to a packed exhibition hall at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham.

Ms Wark, host for the full three days of the conference, set the scene for delegates and looked back on the first ever FE Week ACC in 2015, which she also presented.

FE Week editor Nick Linford followed her onto the stage to walk the audience through the results of a pre-conference questionnaire, designed to gauge delegates’ feelings about the government’s reforms just over a month before the long-awaited launch of the apprenticeship levy.

It’s up to you to work together to ensure high quality is maintained

Mr Linford raised the issue of quality – which would become a particular theme of the conference – showing the audience the slide pictured.
Delegates were most concerned that the quality of apprenticeships would suffer in the government’s effort to increase quantity.

The results revealed that major concerns about apprenticeship quality persist in the sector, with 87 per cent saying they were very or a little concerned at last year’s conference, and 86 per cent saying the same before the event this year.

“It’s up to you to work together to ensure high quality is maintained,” Mr Linford advised the delegates.

Next up was the DfE’s Mr Hill, who updated everyone on the apprenticeship reforms, which he labeled “the most significant change in the funding of FE in a generation”.

He thanked the sector for its work in boosting both the number of apprenticeships and their successful outcomes.

“This is a period of great change for apprenticeships,” he said.

“We have an absolutely pressing need to improve technical skills in this country to contribute to productivity and competitiveness, and improving skills is right at the heart of the government’s emerging industrial strategy.”

Importantly, during questions after his speech, Mr Hill was asked about the risk of employers driving down the price of apprenticeships in the new system. He told providers not to “do a deal at a price you can’t deliver quality for”.

“By 2020, spending on apprenticeships in England will have doubled compared to what was spent in 2010/11,” he said.

“That is a huge opportunity to raise both the number and the quality of apprenticeships.”

He also attempted to reassure delegates in the audience on a common point of concern for many, saying that the delayed results of the non-levied allocations for small and medium-sized employers are “imminent” rather than “civil-service imminent”.

“I am absolutely sure we will make those allocations well before the first of May,” he said.

In discussing the new register of approved training providers, launched last week, he acknowledged that dozens of eligible colleges had unexpectedly not made the cut, but declined to answer a question from the host on whether keeping them off was a mistake.

He also said that the RoATP would bring more “quality and rigour” to the apprenticeships market.

Mr Hill also highlighted the need to “widen participation”, adding that the government would be publishing further guidance “for employers who are keen to create a more diverse and inclusive apprenticeship programme”.

 

Editor Asks: Amanda Spielman, chief inspector, Ofsted

With ‘inadequate’ verdicts fatally undermining many FE providers, the stakes have never been higher on Ofsted inspections.

The new boss, Amanda Spielman, admits this places huge pressure on her inspectors, and didn’t rule out reintroducing a capacity-to-improve caveat for certain providers.

The new register of apprenticeship training providers has brought the dire consequences of a grade four verdict from Ofsted into sharp focus.

The Skills Funding Agency has a long-established policy of cancelling contracts with independent training providers that are rated ‘inadequate’ overall, and in many cases it effectively forces them to  close.

A new rule that bars any provider with a grade four rating for apprenticeships provision from being listed on the RoATP has further heightened anxieties around inspections.

We are absolutely confident that we have inspectors with relevant experience and expertise

FE Week understands that Ofsted is looking at whether these fears could be eased with the reintroduction of a distinction between grade fours with “capacity to improve” and terminal cases.

Ms Spielman didn’t rule the idea out, and told me that she is “looking at how our judgements work in the context of the consequences”.

Reflecting on the pressures, she added: “There is no question it puts very considerable responsibility on inspectors to know such high consequences hang on their judgements.”

She also conceded that “it puts a lot of pressure on the system” for the government to be using Ofsted’s judgements in this way.

She insisted she understands the fine lines, which are often due to the nature of human judgements, between a grade three and a four.

“At the end of the day, it is about that irreducible level of imprecision that must always be associated with any human decision,” she confessed.

“Our inspection judgements are designed in ways that constrain and minimise that as far as we can, but you always have that incredibly difficult grey area around any dividing line, and a lead inspector has to make a judgement,” she said.

And where one finds “something that is really close to a borderline, there may be places where a competent inspector might absolutely properly come one side or the other of a dividing line, and neither would be wrong”.

 

Inspection capacity concerns
 
There are currently 793 apprenticeship providers in scope for inspection, but RoATP is already nearly doubling that, with 1,473 organisations given the green light from May. That number is furthermore likely to rise to over 2,000 as more applications are invited.

I asked Ms Spielman what her gut feeling was on the impact all the extra providers would have on Ofsted.

She was bullish in reply: “I’ve said I’m going to do evidence, not gut feel. It’s clear there are a lot of would-be new entrants, a lot of people with very limited experience, and potentially quite a lot of fragmentation.

“What that will actually translate into in terms of gets contracts and actually starts providing apprenticeships isn’t entirely clear. I suspect a lot of those registrations will be optimistic things that may never translate into actual learners on the ground.”

After I speculated that the inspectorate must be pushing back very hard for more resources, Paul Joyce, its deputy director for FE and skills, interjected, saying: “The negotiations we have with DfE are very much along the lines that you say, so clearly I am worried about the number of providers that we may have to inspect”.

Ms Spielman agreed.

Many apprenticeship providers have meanwhile complained to me about inspectors who have lacked sufficient empathy or experience to form sound judgements, but she insisted she was “absolutely confident that we have inspectors with relevant experience and expertise”.

Pressed over whether Ofsted is the right organisation to assess an employer-led apprenticeship system, she said: “I don’t think we’ve got any pushes about shifting responsibilities.”

 
Higher-level apprenticeships
 
Mr Joyce exclusively revealed to FE Week in December that talks had begun between Ofsted and the government over extending the inspectorate’s remit to cover degree apprenticeships.

These are currently only inspected by the Quality Assurance Agency, which oversees all university-level provision, and he told me that the DfE would soon be producing an accountability statement for apprenticeships “that will clearly define who does what and where”.

 
Challenges with post-merger inspections
 
Increasing numbers of colleges are merging following the area reviews. These resulting goliaths are often based miles apart, and offer a bewildering variety of provision, prompting the obvious question of how Ofsted arrives at an overall judgement for such a complicated beast.

“The most useful way of reporting on a large, diversified, multi-site college is not necessarily the same as a smaller one,” insisted Ms Spielman.

Mr Joyce tackled the matter of adding variety to inspection timescales, and varying the numbers of inspectors involved – for example when dealing with institutions that go from tiny ITPs to huge merged bodies like NCG.

“It does vary between size,” he said. “We have different sizes, moving from a team of four inspectors to a team of perhaps 13.”

His boss interjected, saying it was too early to say whether wider reform was needed, but she conceded that “we are doing a piece of strategy work looking across all our remits”.

He also pointed out that plans to introduce “campus level” inspections, which would involve different reports for separate local college campuses that exist within a large merger, are under “active” consideration with the DfE.

Broker fees are back again

The government needs to look carefully at the NHS’ plans to hit providers with brokerage fees.

No-one is suggesting the health service is breaking the Skills Funding Agency’s rules, but we must prevent money meant for frontline training from going astray.

The issue of brokerage is one that I’ve followed closely since my investigation a year ago exposed brokers were charging up to five per cent of every deal they made to match subcontractors with primes.

The SFA deserved full credit for announcing in February that public funds would not be used to pay such fees through its final apprenticeship funding rules.

But it’s alarming to discover that the nation’s largest and most treasured public body is indulging in another form of brokerage to recoup the cost of seeking providers.

It also seems that the decision by these NHS bodies to create their own “frameworks”, which will effectively limit access for contracts to providers they deem fit for purpose, casts further doubt on the robustness of the government’s own new register of apprenticeship training providers.

Exclusive: Non-levy allocations no longer ruled out for unsuccessful colleges

Non-levy allocations will no longer be ruled out for the dozens of colleges that weren’t listed on the new register of apprenticeship training providers at the first attempt following political pressure, FE Week has learned.

However, there should be no behind-closed doors special treatment offered to colleges that would work against the private sector, the AELP boss Mark Dawe has warned.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon revealed, during parliamentary education questions, that providers who did not make it onto RoATP would be able to reapply from today – with it subsequently emerging applications need to be in by April 7.

This prompted FE Week to ask DfE if providers who didn’t get on RoATP first time round, had missed their chance to get an SFA allocation for non-levied employers.

The DfE has now indicated a softening of its previous position, with a spokesperson responding today that it’s something the department “will decide on once the new system becomes established”.

It comes as news of the results of up to £440 million of non-levy allocations (funding for apprentices with employers who do not pay the levy) for those that are on RoATP continues to be delayed.

The results of the tendering process should have been published on March 14, according to the Skills Funding Agency’s own timetable. FE Week reported on the delay to the allocations on that date – after it was confirmed on the government’s Bravo e-tendering portal.

The DfE’s director of apprenticeships David Hill then tried to reassure delegates at FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeships Conference in Birmingham, that the delayed results were “imminent” but not “civil-service imminent”.

FE Week understands the Association of Colleges has been lobbying the SFA to find additional non-levy allocation funding – on top of the £440 million – for those colleges that will get on the RoATP at the second time of trying.

Otherwise, the AoC has suggested holding back some of the £440 million for providers successful in the second round as a “contingency”.

David Hughes, AoC chief executive, said: “Ideally SFA would have had time to get the register right and then to confirm tender decisions for small company training.

“However, they had to run the two processes at the same time so AoC has suggested that they process the latest register applications quickly while making sure there is funding available for the highly quality training that the excluded colleges offer.”

His counterpart at AELP, Mr Dawe, insisted that it would be wrong if any special dispensation were given to colleges that missed out on RoATP first time round.

He said: “If there is a private deal done with the colleges that didn’t get on the register first time that is unacceptable. Every provider type needs to be treated fairly. The same approach should be applied to everyone.”

FE Week also asked the DfE what date providers would be able to start apprenticeships from, if they are successful in the RoATP re-application process.

While the DfE spokesperson said he had been unable to pin down a precise date for this, he added “those who are successful in the RoATP process when it reopens, can start in May”.

The questions reflected anxiety among the sector, with Chris Hayden, employer engagement manager for apprenticeship and workforce development in life sciences with South and City College, tweeting: “Great to see applications available again, but, will we have decision before May? Our clients want to know!!”

The new April 7 deadline for the new round of RoATP applications, means the new window is less than three weeks.

This is shorter than that for the first round of applications that opened on October 24 and closed on November 25.

The SFA warned on November 25, just hours before the register deadline, that some providers were failing to follow instructions and were applying via more than one route.

As then reported by FE Week, the Skills Funding Agency published the new RoATP last Tuesday.

Only those providers on the list will be able to deliver apprenticeships from May.

The absence of a number of major providers of apprenticeships, including at least 21 colleges with a combined current allocation of £44 million, caused shock and disbelief across the sector.