Don’t shy away from campus grades

The ongoing decline in the number of colleges with outstanding inspection results risks seriously undermining confidence in the sector.

This comes at a time when our minister Robert Halfon keeps stressing the importance of boosting the public image of FE.

Surely colleges can’t be solely to blame for this.

They clearly have a problem with securing the top score under the current common inspection framework.

I suspect this is due, in part at least, to problems with assessing increasingly large and diverse institutions, often spread over multiple towns and cities.

To her credit, the new chief inspector Amanda Spielman sympathised with colleges’ plight when I interviewed her in March, and looked ahead to possible changes in how they are inspected following an imminent review.

We haven’t seen the results of this yet, but let’s hope long-mooted plans to introduce “campus level” inspections, which would involve different reports for separate local college campuses that exist within a large merger, are a key change to emerge.

 

Sixteenth studio school confirms it will close

An ‘inadequate’ studio school in Essex has announced it will close in August following dwindling student numbers, making it the 16th of its kind to shut its doors.

The closure of New Campus Basildon Studio School means just 34 will be left open, after 14 others have already closed and another, Future Tech Studio School in Warrington, revealed in March it would shut up shop by the end of this academic year.

New Campus Basildon Studio School had just 158 students on roll last September, as confirmed through a freedom of information request lodged by FE Week, despite having a capacity of 340.

The poor pupil numbers coupled with a damning ‘inadequate’-overall Ofsted report, published in April last year, led to the final demise of the technical school.

Inspectors said there was low achievement and poor standards of teaching, while governors “failed to provide sufficient challenge” to senior leaders.

Paul Griffiths, the college’s chief executive, said the decision to close was “incredibly difficult but necessary to ensure pupils were given the best possible educational chances”.

Admissions to year 10 were suspended in September 2016, when St Clere’s Co-operative Academy Trust took over as the studio school’s sponsor, pending investigations into its long term viability.

The school announced that year 11 and 13 students will now be able to finish their courses, while those in year 12 have received support to complete studies or obtain places with other colleges.

Headteacher Ashlie Hughes said: “Everyone has worked hard to improve the educational provision for the students, who have made significant progress over the last two terms.

“The decision to close the studio school was a very difficult one to make.”

New Campus Basildon offers vocational courses for youngsters aged 14 to 19 in subjects including health and social care, sport, art, media and music.

It is understood the school opened in September 2013, with Essex-based Seevic College as its main sponsor, but the Essex-based college later withdrew its sponsorship.

New Campus Basildon Studio School was reportedly placed under financial restrictions by the Education and Skills Funding Agency in June 2015, following concerns about a “significant deficit”.

News of the latest closure comes just over a year after the Shared Learning Trust in Luton, formerly known as the Barnfield Academy Trust, announced that it would be closing its studio school.

As reported by our sister paper FE Week, the Studio School, Luton, opened in 2010 but only had just 66 pupils and 12 staff, with no new students signed up to start in September 2016.

That announcement came a day after two Da Vinci studio schools in Hertfordshire said they too were closing due to the “real challenges” they have faced.

They were part of a string of closures for the programme which has struggled with recruitment since its conception in 2010.

It comes after FE Week revealed the studio school model’s big brother, University Technical Colleges, had around two thirds of its institutions experience a drop in student numbers this academic year.

It has led to calls for the technical institutions to be abandoned.

Michael Gove, the key ministerial architect of the government’s policy on UTCs – which also recruit at age 14 – has even admitted the experiment has failed.

Commissioner concerned over ‘strain’ on leaders running two colleges

Concerns about the “strain” on a leadership team running two colleges simultaneously – one of which is deeply troubled – have been raised by the FE Commissioner, in one of three reports.

Richard Atkins and his team visited Huntingdonshire Regional College in January, following an inadequate Ofsted grade in October – with the report now published.

The college is currently being run by senior leaders from Cambridge Regional College ahead of a merger between the two, planned for August.

Mr Atkins’ report noted that “the strain on the capacity of the senior leadership team to undertake the triple challenge of sustaining quality AND financial improvement at Huntingdonshire Regional College at the same time as progressing a merger cannot be overstated”.

Cambridge Regional College’s senior leadership team took over at Huntingdonshire in November to lead on the merger between the two colleges, Mr Atkins’ report said.

“Accelerating the formal merger process” was his key recommendation for the college, despite his concerns over the dual leadership.

The report noted that, in addition to the damning Ofsted verdict, the college was also facing significant financial challenges.

It said the college’s current financial plans “do not provide a reliable basis on which to sustain an independent college”, and it was also found to have been propping up a “rapid decline in income” with “substantial sub-contracted activity”.

A spokesperson for the college insisted that “the current arrangements are working well” and that “quality is already improving” with “clear plans in place to improve the financial performance of the college”.

This included a move away from “subcontracting arrangements to increased levels of direct delivery”, he added.

Meanwhile, a report into the FE Commissioner’s intervention Stratford-upon-Avon College noted the urgent need for a merger – and that the entire board could step down.

That visit, which took place in March, was prompted by the college being hit with a financial notice of concern from the Skills Funding Agency at the end of February.

As previously reported by FE Week, Stratford upon Avon College had been forced to turn to the SFA for a bail out after Lloyds Bank refused to provide it temporary financial support.

Its precarious financial position meant the college’s only option was to pursue a merger – a view backed up by Mr Atkins in his report.

“A recovery plan on its own is unlikely to restore the college to a financially sustainable position,” the report said.

Stratford chair Lord Digby Jones has previously said he would step down once a partner had been found for the troubled college, but Mr Atkins’ report indicated the resignations could be more widespread.

“They [governors] stated to us they would all be prepared to stand down” once a “merger solution” had been found, it said.

A spokesperson said the college “fully accepted” the recommendations, and it had “formally commenced the process of securing a merger partner” with the aim of a “chosen partner being identified before the end of May”.

He added: “Whilst individual governors are willing to stand down, including the chairman, we believe it important that the governing body of the merged college understands and embraces the unique character of Stratford-upon-Avon”.

Leaders at Essex County Council’s Adult and Community Learning Service were also commended for taking “immediate action” after a grade four Ofsted rating in December, in a report based on a visit in February.

A council spokesperson said: “A great deal of work is underway following the findings of the Ofsted report and we are pleased to see that the FE Commissioner has noted the improvements that have already been achieved.

“We will continue to work to improve the service and welcome this report and its recommendations.”

Large London college leaps two grades from inadequate

A large London College that was rated inadequate less than two years ago, has pulled back from the brink to register a ‘good’ overall Ofsted rating in a report out today.

The report out today was full of praise for the leadership team at Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College.

The good-overall verdict, with only apprenticeships provision rated below this at grade three, represented a huge improvement from its previous inadequate report in October 2015.

Inspectors noted: “Through a persistent determination to ensure long-term sustainability, leaders, managers and governors have markedly improved the quality of provision, learners’ achievements and the financial position of the college.”

The report added they are “highly ambitious” for the college, with a clear vision and mission, that is well-communicated and understood by staff throughout the college.

The college, which has just over 13,000 over the last academic year, experienced tough times in the immediate aftermath of the previous inadequate rating.

It underwent an intervention from the FE Commissioner in December 2015, prompted by that damning Ofsted report.

Former Skills Minister Nick Boles, wrote in his letter reflecting on this: “Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College faces a challenging future.

“I shall be looking to you, the other members of the board and the college’s senior leadership team to provide the appropriate leadership in these difficult times.”

But the latest report recognised how they had risen to the challenge, with excellent results for learners.

It recognised that “extensive investment in improving teachers’ teaching and learning skills” has directly led to improved teaching and learning, and better outcomes, including for English and mathematics.

Governors, it recognised, also provide “good levels of support for the senior leaders”, while also holding them to account with “robust scrutiny”.

“Managers and staff create an inclusive, safe and welcoming environment for learners, where they behave well, and in which they and staff treat one another with care and respect,” the report added.

“In sharp contrast to the previous inspection, the large majority of learners now successfully complete their courses and make good progress.

“The large majority of learners attend their lessons well and punctually. Learners’ overall attendance has improved significantly since the previous inspection, and managers and all staff are committed to its further improvement.

Garry Phillips, the college’s chief executive, said: “I am incredibly proud of what the team and the students have achieved.

“We knew that the only way to transform the college quickly would be to have an unwavering focus on improving outcomes for students.”

In order to do this, the college “focused on providing courses which lead directly to employment or progression into further learning” and “created a strong working culture for staff at the college, training and incentivising staff and providing them with an environment where they can develop engaging learning materials”, Mr Phillips explained.

He added: “This inspection result is a testament to the staff’s dedication, professionalism, passion and ambition.”

Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, which was allocated £1.2 million for adult apprenticeships, £11.8 million from the adult education budget, and £545,000 for 16 to 18 apprenticeships and traineeships for 2016/17, has four main sites at Ealing, Hammersmith, Acton and Southall.

The report said that 90 per cent of all enrolments are for courses up to, and including, level two. Around 75 per cent of all enrolments are for adult learners, mostly attending the college part-time.

Learners attending full-time are largely on 16 to 19 study programmes, mainly in vocational areas.

The report said: “In sharp contrast to the previous inspection, the large majority of learners now successfully complete their courses and make good progress.

“Learners’ achievement of a grade C or better in GCSE English and mathematics, although improving, remains too low.”

Levy launch overshadowed by horror story

On the eve of the apprenticeship reforms being implemented the government might have expected the sector to be apprehensive, but excited.

Yet the ESFA clearly bit off more than it could chew when tendering for non-levy allocations.

The tender pause and subcontracting rule extension presented a welcome offer of stability until December.

Any pretence of stability is now in tatters, as providers receive allocations, which they claim force them to dump their subcontractors.

Nobody predicted this horror story about cuts to allocations, nor a failed 11th hour attempt at stability.

The government can choose to ignore providers going bust, as their MPs seek re-election.

But after 8 June the new government will have to cope with a lot of angry small employers being turned away by apprenticeship providers.

It’s one thing to put employers in the driving seat, but without fuel nobody is going anywhere.

 

Ofsted accused of hiding huge gaps between inspections

Ofsted has been forced to deny that it removed inspection dates from its new promotional logos due to the length of gaps between inspections.

The inspection watchdog recently released new logos that schools, colleges and providers are entitled to use in their own promotional materials if they receive ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ ratings.

The decision to omit dates did not go unnoticed, however.

“The question why Ofsted has taken the dates off must be asked,” said Mary Bousted, the general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, who pointed out increasing that schools and colleges deemed ‘outstanding’ can wait for more than a decade for another inspection.

“It could be because the date between inspections is an embarrassment. If I were Ofsted I wouldn’t want to be advertising the length of time between inspections.

“I don’t think is an effective way to run an accountability system.”

The inspectorate unveiled two new logos for providers during the Easter break. Its decision to design one for those rated ‘good’ amounts to an embarrassing U-turn following sector anger last September, when Ofsted threatened legal action against providers using its logo to promote their grade two ratings.

This wasn’t officially allowed at the time, but many providers had used unofficial logos in their materials without repercussion for years.

Ofsted also redesigned its logo for ‘outstanding’ providers – which the best institutions have long been allowed to use.

However, inspection dates, which had appeared on previous ‘outstanding’ logos, have conspicuously disappeared.

A spokesperson for Ofsted wouldn’t comment on whether the introduction of a ‘good’ logo amounted to a U-turn, but did acknowledge that FE Week’s reporting had played a part.

“We decided the time was right for a review of our logo policy, taking into account all the feedback we have received from providers, which in some cases was brought to our attention by the press,” they said.

We revealed last summer that in one letter received by an unnamed training provider, Ofsted said it would bring legal action to bear if its logo was not removed from all promotional materials within 14 days.

Although obscure policy guidance which has been in place since the year 2000 clearly states that “we do not issue a ‘good’ logo”, many providers graded ‘good’ over the years had used modified versions of the logo in their materials.

The move was welcomed by Mark Dawe, the chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, who described it as a “very positive step”.

Ofsted was recently also criticised for allowing huge time gaps between inspections, as we reported last November, when we found that two colleges in England had gone more than a decade without a full inspection – after they had received ‘outstanding’ ratings.

More providers have since passed the 10-year mark – as you can see in table below – bringing the total to seven, with more imminent.

When two formerly ‘outstanding’ colleges, Bury College and Holy Cross College in Manchester, were revisited earlier this year after 10 years without inspection, both crashed two grades, and were rated ‘requires improvement’.

 

National College for Onshore Oil and Gas opening delayed

Plans to launch a National College for Onshore Oil and Gas later this year have stalled while the industry “develops further”, FE Week can reveal.

Last May, the government committed nearly £80 million to the creation of five new national colleges across the country, each focusing on a different type of “high-tech training” in “industries crucial to economic growth”, with oil and gas identified as one of the sectors.

The NCOOG was set to receive £5.6 million, but FE Week has now learned it is struggling to get off the ground and will not open for training in September as planned.

Alarm bells first sounded when the college failed to appear on the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers in March, and representatives have admitted in response that “with the industry still developing and its requirements for skills becoming clearer, NCOOG has not yet been launched”.

“The NCOOG will make a formal announcement ahead of its official opening, at this stage it is not expected to be in September,” said a spokesman.

“When the industry develops further the national college will establish a website.”

Commenting directly on the NCOOG’s absence from RoATP, the college’s spokesman told FE Week that while it did not take part in the initial round of applications, it would “make a submission” once it is “fully established”.

NCOOG’s administrative headquarters are at Blackpool and the Fylde College, and principal Bev Robinson has been a director of the national college since 2014. She receives no remuneration for this additional role.

A spokesperson for Blackpool and the Fylde told FE Week: “The national college has yet to be launched. However, the capability already exists to support the current training needs of the sector as required.”

Graeme Wood, project and development manager at Redcar and Cleveland, added NCOOG was busy developing training courses and standards “to support the growing market need in collaboration with recognised industry specialists”.

Highbury College was unable to respond by the time of going to press.

Corin Taylor, a senior adviser for United Kingdom Onshore Oil and Gas, a national representative body for the industry which has also been overseeing development of NCOOG, claimed the delay was not entirely unexpected. “It has always been our intention to cement the foundations of the NCOOG ahead of offering training,” he said.

The hold-up was welcomed by Hannah Walters, a representative of the anti-fracking organisation Frack Off.

“It comes as no surprise that NCOOG has been delayed. Fracking is highly speculative in the UK and even at production, it will destroy more jobs than it creates,” she said.

“This delay in the opening of the NCOOG is symptomatic of the industries failure to gain a social licence to operate in the UK.”

Only two national colleges have made it onto the RoATP so far: Ada, the National College for Digital Skills, which launched last September, and the National College for High Speed Rail, which is making strong progress ahead of its launch in September.

A spokesperson for the National College for Nuclear told FE Week that it was “on schedule” to open “during the last quarter of 2017”, but that it wouldn’t apply to the register as it intends to contract out apprenticeship training to other providers rather than delivering it directly.

The National College for the Creative Industries, which also opened in September 2016, applied to RoATP in March, but was rejected on what it claimed was a “technicality” in its application.

 

‘Golden hello’ maths teacher recruitment drive flops

A major government scheme that aimed to recruit more than 500 specialist maths teachers at colleges has accepted just 13 participants in its first year, FE Week can reveal.

Former skills minister Matthew Hancock announced in February 2014 that up to £20 million would be made available to encourage the “brightest and the best” to teach maths in FE.

This involved two key recruitment schemes, including a golden hello – which would award a bonus of £7,500 to graduates who taught maths in FE, provided they had been working at a college for two years.

The government said at the time that this bonus could even rise to £10,000 if the teacher trained and supported learners with special educational needs.

Officials expected this incentive would draw hundreds of new specialist maths teachers into FE by September 2015.

However, just 13 teachers were recruited in its first year, with payments totalling £97,500 in 2016/17, a Freedom of Information request by FE Week has revealed.

The campaign’s measly results have been lambasted by experts, who are urging the government to stop with “short-term” monetary fixes and create long-term quality strategies to boost teacher recruitment numbers.

Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the initiative had two lessons for the government.

“First, it is a reminder of how few maths teachers are actually out there,” he told FE Week. “Secondly, it shows once again that short-term monetary fixes do little to help a burgeoning recruitment crisis.

“What college leaders are entitled to is a government recruitment and retention strategy that brings high-quality graduates into all parts of the sectors and then encourages them to stay.”

Anne Haworth, chair of the Association of Teachers of Mathematics, said it was good that the government had tried to act on the shortage of maths teachers in FE, but was disappointed that the scheme has had such little take-up.

She also questioned how well the scheme was publicised, and admitted that she had never heard of it even though she has worked closely with many FE providers for years.

David Miles of the Mathematical Association added that his organisation was “worried” by the small-scale response to the scheme since it “suggests thousands of young people still lack access to the most knowledgeable and effective teachers of mathematics”.

The other part of the drive was a recruitment incentive scheme open both to colleges and private training providers.

Participating providers would receive a bonus payment of £20,000 if they recruited a specialist graduate maths teacher, or £30,000 for those who shared their “teaching expertise” with nearby institutions.

Run by the Education and Training Foundation, this scheme proved more popular and a total of 220 financial awards were made from February 2014 to February 2016.

Of these 220, 165 were sums of £20,000, with 55 awards of £30,000.

A total of 280 teachers were recruited through this programme.

Added to the 13 from the golden hello, the government recruited 293 specialist maths teachers as a result of the two schemes – 207 short of its expected total of 500.

Ms Haworth said: “This is not the first such scheme to fail. Maybe what we need to be looking for, rather than incentives which tend to have a short life, is to make teaching more attractive generally to graduates and others.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We want to encourage the best and brightest into teaching, and we are continuing to offer generous financial incentives to the best graduates who want to teach maths and English in the FE sector.”

Crisis deepens as learners drop at two thirds of UTCs

Learner numbers have dropped at around two thirds of established university technical colleges this academic year, an FE Week investigation has found.

We submitted freedom of information requests to the 26 UTCs that opened in 2014 or before, asking for their 2016/17 student numbers.

FE Week analysis of their responses (see the full breakdown in the table below) showed student numbers had fallen this academic year at 13 of the 20 UTCs that provided data. Further to this, 11 (55 per cent) revealed they are still at less than half capacity.

The findings will heap pressure on ministers to scrap the controversial project, driven by Lord Baker (pictured above), just two years after the Conservative Party pledged to establish a UTC “within reach of every English city” in its 2015 general election manifesto.

Lincoln UTC experienced the biggest drop in student numbers, falling from 302 in 2015/16 to 214 this year, a drop of 29 per cent.

Its principal Paul Batterbury said the decline was a result of the local council cutting free transport for students who attended the college – many of whom live outside the catchment area – this year.

Sir Charles Kao UTC, in Essex, experienced the second largest drop in students, from 177 to 142, a fall of 20 per cent.

In third was Leigh UTC, which saw numbers dip from 230 to 191, while Elstree UTC in Borehamwood fell from 413 to 341. Both experienced a decrease of 17 per cent.

Sir Charles Kao, Leigh, and Elstree UTC were unable to comment before FE Week went to press.

Energy Coast UTC, which received a financial notice to improve last month for outsourcing its teaching at a cost not deemed “value for money”, had a 15 per cent drop from 306 students last year to 260.

Its principal Cherry Tingle said reasons for the fall included concerns from parents that the UTC had three interim principals last year, until she joined permanently last September.

UTC Plymouth was found to be the emptiest of the colleges, operating at just 24 per cent of capacity.

Next was Buckinghamshire UTC, which has just 148 students on roll despite a capacity of 600 (25 per cent).

Neither college would comment.

Malcolm Trobe, the deputy general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said the UTC project needed more strategic thinking.

“UTCs and the curriculum they offer need to be part of an overarching area wide strategic plan for student places,” he told FE Week.

“This would involve secondary schools, sixth form colleges, and FE colleges. The whole provision needs to be thought out strategically to ensure that youngsters within a region have access to the full range of curriculum possibilities.”

Even Michael Gove, the former education secretary and a key architect of the UTC programme, admitted earlier this year that “evidence has accumulated” that the experiment with 14-to-19 technical institutions had failed.

Seven UTCS have closed, or announced plans for closure, amid dwindling pupil numbers.

Around £10 million was spent on establishing each of them.

Sixty per cent of UTCs visited by Ofsted have meanwhile been given ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’ ratings.

A spokesperson for the Baker Dearing Educational Trust, which holds responsibility for overseeing UTCs, admitted it is “taking longer to fill UTCs than we would like”.

“Recruitment for most schools is improving steadily each year as the programme becomes more established,” she said. “It is indeed challenging for UTCs to recruit at 14, as the concept of transfer at this age is not what parents are used to.”

The six UTCs that were unable to respond to our FOIs before publication were Daventry, Liverpool Life Sciences, The Greater Manchester Sustainable Engineering, Tottenham, Lancashire, and Bolton.