Somerset MPs held an emergency meeting on Wednesday with the skills minister to reverse the massive £3.3 million funding cut imposed on a 10,000-learner community-based provider.

Four of the county’s five Conservative MPs, Marcus Fysh, James Heappey, Rebecca Pow and David Warburton, met with Anne Milton to “urgently review” the 97 per cent cut to Somerset Skills & Learning’s adult education budget.

And in a move that will be watched closely by other training providers facing cuts, the MPs have been promised a return meeting on Monday which, with other interested parties, will include representatives from the funding agency.

The adult community learning provider, which is rated ‘good’ by Ofsted and has around 200 staff, won a new AEB contract during the ESFA’s recent tender, but was awarded a mere £111,000 – a shadow of the £3.4 million it was allocated last year.

Courses have now been put on hold at the provider, which has run in various forms for over 100 years, as it faces a catastrophic reduction in provision at 10 centres across the county.

Ms Milton said that due to the “urgency” of the situation, the MPs will meet her and Department for Education representatives on Monday, “to see what steps can be taken to safeguard the needs of local people”.

Even while SS&L saw its funding slashed, the nation’s biggest FE provider, Learndirect, has been handed an AEB contract worth £45 million – even though it recently received Ofsted’s worst possible grade – something that usually prompts the DfE to terminate a provider’s funding.

It’s imperative that the government immediately reviews this drastic reduction

The DfE finally admitted this week that Learndirect had at first applied for funds during the recent AEB tender, but later withdrew its bid.

As a result, it has been given 75 per cent of the value of its previous contract, after the ESFA changed tender rules at the eleventh hour.

Originally funded through Somerset county council, in 2015 SS&L was encouraged by the government to transition to a private provider. Had SS&L stayed part of the council, it would not have been forced to take part in this bidding round, as local authorities are outside the public procurement regulations.

“Literally hundreds of thousands of people have gained essential skills and qualifications through SS&L, benefiting from the huge range of educational opportunities they offer,” said Mr Warburton, the MP for Somerton and Frome.

“It’s imperative that the government immediately reviews this drastic reduction. My Somerset MP colleagues and I have been in touch directly with Susie Simon-Norris, SS&L’s chief executive, and Councillor David Fothergill, leader of Somerset County Council,” he continued.

“We have written to the ESFA to express our outrage at this hugely damaging withdrawal of funding, which will have catastrophic consequences for both the people of Somerset and our local economy.”

Yeovil MP Mr Fysh added: “The apparent short notice of the funding change is also causing problems for people signed up for courses, so our thanks go to the minister for such a prompt response.”

Ms Pow, MP for Taunton Deane, said it was “vital” that the group finds a “solution to support the services provided by SS&L”, adding: “My colleagues and I have been making the strongest possible case to the minister”.

Wells MP Mr Heappey added: “To lose the services of SS&L would be a huge blow to our plans for Somerset’s economy. I’m glad the minister has engaged so promptly and hope this can be resolved as quickly as possible.”

At an initial meeting on Wednesday, the MPs impress upon Ms Milton the “vital significance” of SS&L.

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, and will be attended by Ms Milton, the four MPs, and representatives of SS&L, Somerset county council and the DfE.

Ian Liddell-Grainger, the MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, was the only Somerset MP not to participate in Wednesday’s meeting.

Mr Liddell-Grainger told FE Week that despite being in Parliament at the time he had not been invited to the meeting, an oversight from his colleagues, which he described several times as “utter incompetence”.

He went on to say that the way SS&L was being treated was “blatantly unfair, wrong and the DfE need to come up with the money”.  

“I’ve know Anne Milton for years. She is practical and will want to find solutions. I will also be writing to her,” he added.

Photo caption: From left: David Warburton, MP for Somerton and Frome, James Heappey, MP for Wells, Anne Milton, apprenticeships and skills minister, Rebecca Pow, MP for Taunton Deane, and Marcus Fysh, MP for Yeovil

A university’s controversial plans to take a college over by the back door have been delayed, FE Week can reveal.

Lambeth College consulted in June on proposed changes to its governance structure, which would have handed significant control over how it is run to London South Bank University, ahead of a formal merger.

The changes had been due to take effect from mid-June – but the college has confirmed that they are yet to be implemented.

Monica Box, Lambeth’s interim principal, told FE Week that the college’s board had “considered the responses to the consultation on changes to governance” and had “reaffirmed its commitment to make changes to the governance profile” but admitted that “the timescale has been altered”.

This is to allow the board to take into consideration “feedback from the college application for the designation criteria pilot” which is expected “early in the autumn term”.

The changes would see the college’s principal stripped of many of her responsibilities, while at least half of the college’s governors would be appointed by LSBU.

Amendments would be made under the college’s instruments and articles of governance, which don’t need to be signed off by the government.

Among the powers that Ms Box would therefore pass over to the university include annual budgets, staffing arrangements and the college’s “strategic direction”, according to the consultation document on Lambeth’s website.

“Up to five” governors would be chosen from among LSBU governors and senior staff, sitting alongside the university’s vice-chancellor “unless he or she chooses not to be a governor”.

The college would be represented by an employee and a learner, along with two or three independents, who would be selected from among its current governors.

“All other governors of Lambeth College will resign,” the document explains.

These proposals came months ahead of a consultation on a potential merger between the college and university.

This amalgamation was one of three options proposed for the college, which was rated as ‘requires improvement’ at its most recent Ofsted inspection in December, in the central London area review.

A report published by the former FE commissioner Sir David Collins in March, based on a visit to the college in September 2016, concluded that it was “no longer sustainable” unless it merged.

His visit had been precipitated by a “significant deterioration” in the college’s finances, caused by poor financial management.

The college was bailed out by Education and Skills Funding Agency last year after its projected deficit for 2015/16 ballooned from £500,000 to more than £5 million.

An apprenticeship provider exposed in June by FE Week offering inducements to an employer has called in the administrators.

After around 100 staff were made redundant on 17 August, Talent Training’s chairman David Harper informed them that he had “reluctantly chosen to agree to appoint administrators today for the company” in an email sent last night.

The decision was apparently made after he failed to reach a deal to transfer the South Tyneside-based firms’ contracts to another provider.

Mr Harper said he had had “detailed discussions” with other providers, “one of which had been in discussions with the ESFA to ensure a smooth transition as far as possible”.

But despite being “reasonably optimistic” that this would lead to a “quick agreement” he had been told that no deal could be reached until “the end of September at the earliest”.

“Having spoken to my advisors, it was obvious to me that the company could not continue in limbo under this timetable,” he said.

Earlier this week, FE Week asked Mr Harper to comment on reports that Talent had made most of its staff redundant without pay in August.

In a response sent just hours before the all-staff email, he told us it had been “necessary to make ALL staff redundant without exception” – but made no comment on whether they had been paid.

However, in his email to staff, Mr Harper said that the administrators, David Rubin and Partners, would be “in touch with you to assist with your unpaid wages claim”.

A spokesperson for Gateshead College recently revealed that Talent had been in talks to sell it its remaining learners, in order to “ensure their learners can complete their training”.

Mr Harper said he had “spent the last two weeks speaking to several organisations with a view to safeguarding as many jobs and learners’ programmes as possible and am unable to comment further in this regard at this stage to ensure I do not prejudice any sensitive arrangements”.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education confirmed that it was “continuing to work closely with Talent Training to ensure the continuity of training for learners and minimise any disruption to employers”.

She added: “Where a provider is looking to remove itself from the market place or where the Education and Skills Funding Agency takes action to remove a provider from the market place, it is the responsibility of the ESFA, or the employer, to determine where learners are transferred to in order to complete their learning.”

FE Week also asked the department to confirm whether Talent had its adult funding budget, loan funding and pre-May apprenticeship funding contracts terminated, not only for apprenticeships funded from May via the levy, but are yet to receive a response.

We understand that Talent intends to apply for a judicial review against the ESFA’s decision to pull its contracts.

This saga follows an undercover investigation FE Week carried out in June, in which we exposed a Talent employee offering as much as 20 per cent of its government funding per apprenticeship to a firm that was considering its training services.

Talent at the time insisted that no inducement payments had actually been paid to any employers.

The ESFA initially said it would terminate its “levy agreement” with the provider, but not its non-levy apprenticeships contract.

Nevertheless, the ESFA appears to have stopped making payments – although this was never confirmed.

A former Wales international footballer and three other men conspired to scam colleges and the government out of around £5 million of apprenticeship funding, in some cases faking “ghost learners”, a court has heard.

Mark Aizlewood, aged 57, from Aberdare, who played for Wales 39 times in the 1980s and 1990s, appeared today before Southwark Crown Court alongside his former colleagues Keith Williams, 45, from Anglesey, Paul Sugrue, 56, from Cardiff, and Jack Harper, 30, from Southport.

The four, who formerly worked for a provider called Luis Michael Training, face charges ranging from conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, to fraud and using a false instrument, dating from between 2009 and 2011.

Alexandra Healy QC, prosecuting for the Serious Fraud Office, opened for the prosecution this morning where FE Week was in attendance.

“The case concerns fraud involving in the region of £5 million of public money,” she told the court. “That money was intended to be used to fund the training of apprentices.

“LMT persuaded colleges to enter agreements and that involved them enrolling learners. But a number of the learners were ‘ghost’ learners and did not exist. Others were real people but did not know their name was being used.”

The court heard that LMT did not only deal with “ghost learners”.

“Learners who were real were meant to have over 450 guided learning hours to achieve their qualifications,” Ms Healy said.

“LMT said they would deliver 20 hours of guided learning per week, but these real learners actually received much less, just two to three hours per week.”

To persuade colleges to join agreements, the court heard that LMT submitted false accounts purporting to show the provider had a history of trading profitably.

A number of young people on work experience from a school in Wales were also said to have worked at the now-defunct provider’s offices, where it was alleged that they completed fake tests learners had been supposed to complete, and filled in false learner comment reviews.

Mr Aizlewood, Mr Sugrue and Mr Williams helped set up LMT in 2009, and were directors and equal shareholders of the firm, the court heard.

It worked as a subcontractor for eight FE colleges, including Sparsholt College and South Thames College.

The court also heard that both Mr Sugrue and Mr Aizlewood were able, through other businesses that they operated (Luis Michael Trading and Aizlewood Consultancy), to “claim certificates for the learners’ completion of the component aspects of the apprenticeship framework as a result of the Direct Claim Status those businesses had with the various awarding bodies”.

Mr Harper got involved with LMT in 2009 and was supposed to provide level one and two coaching qualifications.

He is accused of allegedly committing a separate but linked attempt to defraud Liverpool Community College, through his company FootballQualifications.com.

“Mr Harper entered an agreement with LCC,” Ms Healy told the court. “Inquiries into the 39 learners that he had submitted to the college for enrolment revealed that many were not employed, a number were in full time education and so ineligible for apprenticeship funding, others were only attending very short training sessions.”

The college asked for evidence that the learners existed, but Mr Harper was alleged to have produced false bank statements purporting to show payments to the learners.

The four defendants deny all charges.

Two more men pleaded guilty before the trial began.

These are Christopher Martin, 53, from Newbury, who pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation, and Steven Gooding, 53, from Bridgwater, admitted one count of the same charge, both in relation to the case.

The trial continues and is expected to last 12 weeks.