Non-levy funding allocations sent to providers following tender pause

Colleges and training providers were last night sent a funding allocation for apprenticeship starts from next month to 31 December 2017 for non-levy employers.

Following a pause to the £440 million tender process announced on 12 April, the Education and Skills Funding Agency met their commitment to provide allocations to existing prime providers that successfully made it onto the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers.

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers said: “We are actively talking to members about their allocations and it is too early to get an overall picture. 

“I would encourage the ESFA to publish a list of all non-levy allocations. Greater transparency is needed, particularly around how much total funding has been allocated for apprentices at non-levy employers.”

Although only sent to providers, you can read the full ESFA allocation letter below, including how the allocation was calculated. FE Week has asked the ESFA what cash figures have been used for the ‘baseline’, and await an answer.

 

Highly unusual decision taken to extend principal’s notice period to full year

A large city college in “financial crisis” has taken the highly unusual step of extending the contract of employment notice period of its principal to 12 months, FE Week can reveal.

It is understood the extension was granted last year to City of Liverpool College principal Elaine Bowker – despite her overseeing a catastrophic slump in the college’s Ofsted rating and financial standing, since her appointment to the top job in 2011.

FE Week understands the decision was signed off by the former chair of governors, who left shortly after.

We have spoken to several experts, who said a notice period extension for a sitting principal is highly unusual, as is anything over six months.

The college has repeatedly refused to confirm, or explain reasons for, the alleged notice extension, since FE Week first enquired about this seven weeks ago.

Its initial response, having been questioned on March 6, was that: “The college can’t and would not comment on any employee’s contract.”

It has since refused to respond to half a dozen further email and telephone requests for more information.

FE Week also lodged a freedom of information request, asking if it is true or false that the notice period was extended to a full year.

We were told in response, by the college, that “we decline disclosure of any personal information sought”.

Ms Bowker caused controversy in 2012/13 when she was given a £40,000 pay rise, up from £139,000, in the same year that the college’s Ofsted rating tumbled from ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’.

It was given the grade four rating in February 2013, after Ms Bowker took over as principal in 2011.

The situation subsequently improved slightly, with the college rated grade three in November 2015. That’s the same rating it achieved following an inspection in April 2014.

The college also came in for fierce ministerial criticism for poor oversight of doomed apprenticeship provider First4Skills in March, as reported in FE Week.

The Liverpool-based company went bust earlier that month, affecting around 200 staff and around 6,500 learners, after the former Skills Funding Agency pulled its contract.

That was prompted by a grade four rating from Ofsted on First4Skills, which was 60 per cent owned by City of Liverpool College.

The college was also recently revisited by the FE Commissioner’s team, and the findings’ warning of “financial crisis” and the £15.349 million deficit, was also published last month – along with a letter reflecting on them from apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon.

In this, he said: “Of particular concern is the college’s oversight of its majority owned independent training provider – First4Skills, where achievement rates have been below national minimum standards, and Ofsted have judged the provision ‘Inadequate’.”

The college, which has five main campuses – all located in the Liverpool City Council Local Authority area – had an initial FE Commissioner intervention in December 2013 following an inadequate Ofsted inspection and an SFA assessment of 2012/13 financial health as ‘inadequate’.

It exited this in November 2014, following an improved Ofsted judgement, and more encouraging financial performance in 2013/14.

But it was referred back for another FE Commissioner intervention, after the college informed the SFA last January that it needed £2 million exceptional financial support to cover working capital requirements, prompting a further notice of concern in February.

Stocktake assessments were carried out by the FE Commissioner and two advisers in November 2016 and February 2017.

The latest FE Commissioner report summary said: “The group’s annual audited accounts for 2015/16 show a total deficit for the year of £15,349 million. The college budgeted for a group breakeven position before taxation.”

The Department for Education declined to comment on the notice extension.

Emily Chapman elected as new NUS VP for FE

The FE sector has a new student champion, with Emily Chapman winning today’s election to become the National Union of Students’ new vice-president for FE.

The Leeds City College student union president beat challenger Myriam Kane, who had served as union president at Lewisham Southwark College, at this year’s annual conference in Brighton.

It comes after the outgoing VP for FE, Shakira Martin, clinched a stunning victory to become the new NUS president.

Ms Chapman said: “I am thrilled that students have put their faith in me and elected me to be the next VP for FE.

“Over my term I am looking forward to representing students across the UK, starting to heal some of the damage done to the sector over the last few years.”

Ms Chapman’s manifesto called on students to “work in partnership” with the aim of “sharing best practice and building power for students’ unions” to “make education better”.

She said she wanted “to ensure NUS is somewhere for all FE learners, a place where they can feel both comfortable and supported”.

She promised to “lobby the UK government to ring fence ESOL [English for Speakers of Other Languages] funding”, “support the development and profile of the National Society of Apprentices across the UK”, and “create a students’ union visit plan” targeting “colleges that need the most development”.

Ms Chapman will also turn her attention to “fighting for consistency in learners, from all backgrounds and modes of study, being central to the decisions made about their education” and work to “ensure that learners are able to access the support they need” in “mental health, finance, careers and life skills”.
 
Her manifesto highlighted that “there are over 300 FE students’ unions in NUS” but “not even half attend our national conference”.
“NUS democracy isn’t accessible for FE students, and NUS events are too expensive”, she said. 
In light of this she planned to: “Work with the vice president for union development and lobby the UK government to fund FE students’ unions in England, by learning from the frameworks and development plans in the nations.”
 
 Ms Chapman was supported with lots of positive feedback on Twitter:

FE Week wishes her good luck in her new role. 

FE champion Shakira Martin elected NUS president

FE champion Shakira Martin [pictured above] has emerged victorious in the race to become the next president of the National Union of Students – and only the second to have attended an FE college.

The outgoing VP for FE beat incumbent Malia Bouattia and another challenger, Tom Harwood, in a stunning victory announced today at this year’s annual conference in Brighton.

Ms Martin won with 402 votes, and Ms Bouattia came second with 272 votes. Mr Harwood received 35 votes, while 8 people voted to reopen the nominations.

She said: “I am honoured and humbled to have been elected as NUS’ National President. I take this as a vote of trust that our members believe I can lead our national movement to be the fighting and campaigning organisation we need it to be, representing the breadth of our diverse membership.

She referred directly to the sector in her acceptance speech, saying: “FE made me who I am today and look forward to sharing stories of just how powerful all forms of education can be when we’re all given access to it. During my term in office, I want to spend my time listening, learning and leading.”

Ms Martin has been a strong advocate for the learner and apprentice voice since being elected VP for FE in April 2015, when she was president of the student union at Lewisham Southwark College. 

She beat her closest rival – Amy Smith from Sheffield College – by 141 votes to 55 votes at the national conference in Liverpool on April 22, 2015.

After taking over from former VP for FE Joe Vinson, Ms Martin was then re-elected for another term in April 2016.

She was uncontested for the post and won at stage one, with 152 votes compared to only 11 votes to re-open the nominations.

Speaking to the conference floor last year, Ms Martin said: “FE stands for free education, further education, for everyone.”

Results of the election to find Ms Martin’s successor will be announced later today.

 

Technical and FE bill passes: what does it mean for the sector?

The Technical and Further Education Bill received final clearance from the House of Lords this afternoon, and it is expected to be granted royal assent within the next few days.

A major consequence of this will be the introduction of an insolvency regime for colleges, which could for the first time allow them to go bust.

It will also extend the remit of the Institute for Apprenticeships – most notably to cover technical education – and enshrine into law the right of FE providers to go into schools to promote vocational courses through an amendment introduced by Lord Baker [pictured above] and Baroness Morris.

Widely known as the ‘Baker clause’, this means schools will now have to ensure that a “range of education and training providers” can access pupils aged 13 to 18.

He said during today’s debate: “I think it’s generally agreed by both side that this is an important bill, it’s a beneficial bill, it’s a major step forward in improving the state of education in our country.

“We should speed it to the statute book.”

A further clause, given final clearance today by peers, outlined a duty for Ofsted to “comment on the careers guidance provided to relevant students at the institution” when inspecting FE providers.

But an amendment previously passed by the upper house, that would have seen child benefit extended to apprentices, was voted down in the Commons last week because it would “involve a charge on public funds”.

Gordon Marsden, shadow skills minister, told FE Week today that he was “quite angry that, as in so many other areas of FE, the words haven’t been matched by actions [with implementation of the bill], particularly on the issue of child benefit which still means that apprentices are treated as second-class citizens”.

There was further disappointment over Liberal Democrats’ education spokesperson Lord Storey’s move to protect future learners from being left with huge debts but no qualifications – a key aim of FE Week’s #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign.

The attempt through the bill to require FE providers to maintain contingency funds, to protect students incase they fold, was voted down by peers.

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said it was “important to get this bill passed to give the IFA powers to sort out the standards and assessment issues as well as preparing to advise on the future funding bands”.

Stephen Evans, chief executive of the Learning and Work Institute, said the IfA now had “all the backing it needs to fulfil its important role in developing world class apprenticeships and technical education for learners and employers”.

The bill features provisions to apply an ‘education administration’ regime to insolvent FE and sixth form colleges, to put the interests of learners ahead of those of creditors.

When the proposals were first announced in March last year, the DfE said it would not provide financial support to failing colleges, following implementation of area review recommendations, and would instead allow them to go bust.

But its subsequent response to its consultation on developing an insolvency regime for colleges, published in October, indicated extra cash could be made available.

“The Secretary of State would of course want any special administration to be successful and will have wide powers to provide funding if necessary to achieve this,” it said.

The bill gives the IFA additional powers in its role of overseeing apprenticeships, and extends its remit to cover technical education.

The institute will be responsible for monitoring the 15 new ‘professional and technical’ routes with planned through the post-16 skills plan.

As reported by FE Week, the panel chairs for the 15 routes were announced by the IfA last week.

 

Meet the candidates for new NUS vice president for FE

In around 24 hours the FE sector will have a new representative, when the National Union of Students chooses its next vice president for FE at this year’s national conference in Brighton.

The election vote will take place at 12:15 tomorrow (April 26), with results announced soon after. Voters will choose between Emily Chapman, student union president at Leeds City College, and Myriam Kane, president of Lewisham Southwark College Students’ Union, to represent students in the FE sector.

Ms Chapman’s manifesto calls on students to “work in partnership” with the aim of “sharing best practice and building power for students’ unions” to “make education better”.

She says she wants “to ensure NUS is somewhere for all FE learners, a place where they can feel both comfortable and supported”.

If elected, she promises to “lobby the UK government to ring fence ESOL [English for Speakers of Other Languages] funding”, “support the development and profile of the National Society of Apprentices across the UK”, and “create a Students’ Union visit plan” targeting “colleges that need the most development”.

After experiencing racism in education, Ms Kane says being part of her students’ union inspired her by showing “how collective power can challenge the injustices we see”.

She has pledged to “lead a fighting NUS that puts defending FE centre stage – no fees, no cuts”, as well as challenging “Tories, racism, Brexit and Trump”.

Ms Kane’s proposals include bringing back “EMA [Education Maintenance Allowance] and grants for adult learners” – a key demand of FE Week’s #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign, supporting apprentices to get “more involved in NUS and campaign for better pay and working conditions”, and launching a “new campaign tackling racist harassment and campus bullying which are impacting on students mental health”.

She follows in the footsteps of current VP for FE Shakira Martin, who was president of the student union at Lewisham Southwark College when she ran for the VP post in April 2015.

Shakira Martin

Ms Martin has now held the NUS leadership position for two years, having beaten her closest rival – Amy Smith from Sheffield College – by 141 votes to 55 votes at the national conference in Liverpool on April 22, 2015.

After taking over from former VP for FE Joe Vinson, Ms Martin was then re-elected for another term in April 2016.

She was uncontested for the post and won at stage one, with 152 votes compared to only 11 votes to re-open the nominations.

Speaking to the conference floor last year, Ms Martin said: “FE stands for free education, further education, for everyone.”

Now Ms Martin is embarking on her next adventure, having confirmed on May 7 that the top job at the National Union of Students is in her sights.

She said: “It is now more than ever that we need to build a strong, fighting union that is campaigning to win for students.

“The government is slashing our education left right and centre, and you need a strong national union to fight on your behalf … We need to put NUS back in your hands.”

If she beats incumbent president Malia Bouattia, who was elected on April 20 last year, and another challenger Tom Harwood, who says in his manifesto he wants a “credible, includive NUS”, Ms Martin  would also be the second NUS leader to have attended an FE college instead of studying at university.

Ms Bouattia, who was previously the NUS’ black students’ officer, won the election last year in stage one of the count – by 372 votes to 328 for previous national president Megan Dunn.

 

The results of this year’s vote are expected to be announced tomorrow lunchtime.

Labour pledges to bring back education maintenance allowance

Labour will raise corporation tax to fund the re-introduction of the education maintenance allowance, the party has revealed today.

The payments, aimed at supporting pupils from lower-income households who stay in education between the ages of 16 and 19, were scrapped in England by the coalition government in 2010, although they carried on in Wales, Scotland and Norther Ireland.

Labour pledged to re-instate the payments last August, and Angela Rayner, the shadow education secretary, spoke passionately about the need for help for poorer pupils at the Labour Party conference last October.

Now the party has re-affirmed its commitment to the policy, including it in ‘talking points’ for campaigners on the doorstep, a move which indicates that it is likely to be included in its election manifesto ahead of the poll on June 8.

FE Week has asked Labour for clarification on if it thinks EMA should also be for 16-18 apprentices and part timers, with the response to be reported subsequently.

We have separately been calling for the introduction of FE maintenance grant loans for adult learners, through our #SaveOurAdultEducation campaign.

The hope is that this would make retraining possible for many more older people, by helping cover their living costs while studying, something that is already available to mature students in higher education.

Labour sources estimate that restoring EMA would cost £700 million in 2016/17, and plans to raise corporation tax by between 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent in order to fund that, and the £1.7 billion cost of university maintenance grants.

The party claims that HMRC data shows that a 1 per cent increase in corporation tax would raise £2 billion.

However, it is not known whether the new system will be the same as the one which was scrapped in 2010, which offered means-tested weekly payments of £10 to £30 to pupils from households with incomes below £30,810.

When the payments were stopped in 2010, pupils received £30 a week if their household income was less than £20,817, £20 if it was between £20,818, and £25,521 and £10 per week if it was between £25,522 and £30,810.

Speaking at the party’s conference in Liverpool last year, Rayner said that as someone who had “relied on further education after I left school”, she was “proud that we have pledged to bring back educational maintenance allowance for students in FE”.

The EMA announcement is the latest in a string of education policies announced by the party since an announcement last Tuesday that a snap election will be held on June 8.

The Conservatives, Greens and Liberal Democrats are yet to make any big education announcements, but are expected to publish their manifestos in due course.

Exclusive: Call for long-term AEB procurement pause after election delay

A long-term pause on the first ever procurement process for adult education budget contracts has been called for – after FE Week learned it’s now unlikely any tendering results will be published before the general election.

The former Skills Funding Agency first wrote to independent training providers last autumn and told them that their current AEB contracts would come to an end in July, rather than having them automatically renewed as before.

FE Week then reported in January that the resulting first ever procurement process for such contracts for ITPs, had finally been launched by the Skills Funding Agency – with original government guidance stating that notification of the tender results would be on May 19.

We asked DfE for confirmation of when these would be revealed when that deadline passed, and were told that at the present time they do not know if it will be delayed beyond the snap June 8 general election called last week by Prime Minister Theresa May, but think it “likely”.

After learning of this, Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ boss Mark Dawe told FE Week: “If there is a delay on the procurement outcome, it will put more pressure on ITPs when the colleges have already got their allocations.

“The ESFA have just set a precedent for placing a pause on the non-levy apprenticeship procurement, so why not set aside the AEB ITT for a year and give ITPs an allocation for the year 2017/18 essentially based on what they had before?”

The Education and Skills Funding Agency announced on April 12, that the decision over non-levy funding allocations had been be paused, to allow more time for the situation to be reviewed.

This was followed by more government guidance on this last week explaining how “to maintain stability through the transitional period, we will continue to apply current subcontracting rules to the delivery of new starts to non-levy-paying employers through to December 2017”.

The latest request for a pause, this time on the non-levy apprenticeship procurement after the procurement results delay caused by election purdah, comes after the Skills Funding Agency first wrote to ITPs on the issue in October.

It said that changes to contracting regulations, which came into force that February, meant that the SFA could no longer automatically renew contracts when they ended and instead would have to “procure future training provision”.

We subsequently exclusively revealed in early January that education secretary Justine Greening had given the ministerial green light for the first ever procurement process for AEB contracts to begin within days.

It is thought around 500 training providers will have applied for a share of the AEB, which totals around £1.5 billion.

But only around £250 million of the budget is up for grabs through the tendering process.

This is because colleges, local authorities and universities – which contract with the SFA through a grant funding agreement – have not been affected by the changes and will not have to tender.

Purdah refers, in the above case, to limitations set on civil service work in the build-up to general elections, due to the importance of it being seen to have no party affiliations.

DfE blasted for flip-flopping on GCSE maths and English resits

The government has been blasted for flip-flopping on its review into GCSE maths and English resits.

All 16 to 18-year-old students with a near-pass (previously grade D, now grade three) GCSE in the subjects have since August 2015 had to continue studying and resit them through the rule, alongside FE courses, rather than a level two functional skills qualification.

FE Week heard from multiple senior sources that the policy was going to be scrapped, with all such students being allowed to study functional skills instead, but 2017/18 funding guidance published on April 10 indicated that the government had decided to stick with GCSEs.

The situation has now been further confused, as when FE Week subsequently asked the Department for Education for more detail on its apparent decision, we were told that “nothing has changed” and it will “continue to examine” the policy “as stated in the Industrial Strategy Green Paper”.

It’s hugely irresponsible of the government to flounder on this issue

After learning of this, shadow skills minister Gordon Marsden told FE Week: “At a time when every report and research finding is detailing the damage to the life chances and morale that the resits policy is causing both apprentices and providers across the sector, it’s hugely irresponsible of the government to flounder on this issue.

“FE deserves a decision now, hopefully to replace automatic resits with alternatives relevant to functional skills and the real world in which apprentices need to operate and prosper.”

The Industrial Strategy Green Paper published in January, which contains a consultation question on this issue, said the government was “reviewing the effectiveness of current policy to help as many young people as possible leave compulsory education with a good standard of maths and English”.

That review appeared to have been scrapped earlier this month, judging by the key section from the 2017/18 funding guidance which caused the confusion.

It stated: “Full-time students starting their study programme who have a grade three or D GCSE, or equivalent qualification in maths and/or English, must be enrolled on a GCSE, rather than an approved stepping stone qualification.”

The 2016 annual Ofsted report had previously said that while the resit policy’s intention to improve literacy and numeracy levels was “well intentioned”, the “implementation is not having the desired impact in practice”.

Implementation is not having the desired impact in practice

It pointed out that many students – “just over a quarter” – were still not getting at least a grade C by the age of 19.

Further to that: “Inspection evidence shows that, for some students, having to retake their GCSE can be demotivating and that attendance at these lessons is lower.”

Just 34,486 – or 26.9 per cent – of the 128,201 learners aged 17+ who took GCSE English in 2015/.16, up to last August, got at least a C. And of the 173,628 learners aged 17 or above taking GCSE maths, only 51,220 – or 29.5 per cent – achieved a C or above.

In comparison, the previous year 35.1 per cent of the 97,163 learners aged 17+ achieved a C or above in English, while 35.8 per cent of the 130,979 GCSE maths learners aged 17+ got at least a C.

Education secretary Justine Greening previously strongly hinted, at November’s AoC conference, that a change of heart over GCSE resits was imminent.

She told delegates that students must not be spending “time running upwards against a brick wall that they’re not going to get over”.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon also told delegates: “It is clear that we need a credible, high-quality option for students for whom GCSEs are not appropriate or achievable.”