National charity opens London’s first-ever autism college

A national autism charity has celebrated the official launch of London’s first-ever FE college for learners with complex autism. Samantha King reports

Operating across two campuses in Tottenham and Isleworth, Ambitious College is the first specialist day college solely for young people with autism, catering for those between the ages of 16 to 25.

After operating out of temporary accommodation for more than two years, charity Ambitious About Autism raised enough money to take Ambitious College to a more permanent home, with two campuses colocated within mainstream colleges, the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London (CONEL) and West Thames College.

The new college’s Pears campus (colocated with CONEL) first opened its doors to a small number of learners in September 2016, and has already received an award for its impact on the local community.

Now the college has celebrated its official launch with an event on March 30, attended by the vulnerable children minister Edward Timpson MP, local MP David Lammy, Catherine West MP and the deputy mayor of London, Joanne McCartney.

Edward Timpson MP cut the ribbon

Also in attendance was Trevor Pears from the Pears Foundation, the lead partner of Ambitious College.

Ambitious About Autism hopes to raise a total of £4.4 million to fully establish the college and continue its work, and is £1 million away from its target. The appeal has already garnered support from broadcaster Jon Snow, John Bercow MP and author Nick Hornby, and has received donations from Sir Harvey McGrath and Baroness Dido Harding, the chief executive of TalkTalk.

“Through the model we have, we can support our colocated partners – West Thames and CONEL – to become more autism confident. In doing that, it makes it easier for young people with autism to enrol on courses there so it’s a win-win. That was important for us,” said the college’s principal Vivienne Berkeley.

“It’s a real symbiotic relationship. The more autism-confident mainstream providers get, it opens the world of learning opens up much easier for young people with autism.”

Principal Viv Berkeley

Across its two campuses, Ambitious College currently has around 44 learners, with plans to expand its student numbers over the coming years.

“Complex autism means our learners have a diagnosis of autism and a further diagnosis of a learning disability,” said Ms Berkeley.

“Having a day provision rather than a residential one means we can keep young people in their local communities and develop opportunities for them here.”

The charity has released figures showing that only one in four young people with complex autism progress to further education.

The college day starts at half-past nine and finishes at four, with a total academic year of 48 weeks; the majority of learners come to the college five days a week.

Edward Timpson cut the ribbon to officially open the college.

“Ambitious about Autism should be congratulated for leading the way in providing this type of education provision for young people with autism in London,” he said. “I hope that there are many more colleges like this in the coming years.”

 

Do you want to be in campus round-up? If you have a story you’d like to see featured, get in touch by emailing samantha.king@feweek.co.uk

Movers and Shakers: Edition 205

Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving

Clare Marchant has been named the new chief executive of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, which operates the application process for all British universities and offering advice to college staff on how to help college leavers complete the application process.

Ms Marchant will take up the new role from her current position as chief executive of Worcestershire County Council. She first joined the council in 2010 and became its chief executive in 2014.

Before this, she worked for Deloitte, and lead delivery and deployment of IT services across the NHS for seven years.

Speaking of her appointment, Ms Marchant said she was “thrilled”, adding “UCAS is a unique organisation which fulfils a critical national role connecting people with education opportunities.

“I look forward to working with customers, staff, and stakeholders to enable UCAS to realise its goal of delivering outstanding digital services to students, advisers and universities and colleges.”

Ms Marchant will take up the role in July this year, succeeding Mary Curnock Cook who has been at the helm of UCAS for more than seven years.

Andrew Hargreaves, UCAS’ director of customer experience and marketing, will act as interim CEO following Cook’s departure at the end of April.

________________________________________________________

Marc Doyle has started as principal of Humber University Technical College, which opened in September 2015, and specialises in engineering and renewable energy.

Mr Doyle has been teaching for 21 years, beginning his career as a maths teacher at Horbury School in Wakefield in 1995, before becoming head of maths at Thornhill School, which recently featured in the Channel 4 programme Educating Yorkshire.

Most recently, he was core team principal at the Delta Academies trust.

One of his key responsibilities will be working closely with local employers to get them involved with the UTC, allowing students to actively interact with their potential future employers.

Mr Doyle said: “I firmly believe that wherever there are industry links in education, there is always greater success.

“As such, Humber UTC fits everything that I consider to be important in education. It has huge potential and is unique in its approach, turning students into the skilled professionals that local industry needs.”

He began the role on April 1.

________________________________________________________

Katy Quinn has been appointed principal and CEO of Strode College in Somerset.

Ms Quinn is currently the deputy chief executive of Eastleigh College in Hampshire, and will take up her new role in June this year, replacing James Staniforth.

Prior to her position at Eastleigh, she held roles including vice principal of curriculum and quality at Canterbury College, vice principal of Seevic College as well as a variety of positions in South Essex College at the start of her career.

At Strode, Ms Quinn will oversee leadership and management, business development, quality improvement and broadening learning opportunities.

Speaking of her appointment, she said: “I’m looking forward to working with such a dedicated team of staff and governors. My key priorities will be to ensure that all students continue to receive an outstanding experience and that the college remains at the heart of the local community. “

 

If you want to let us know of any new faces at the top of your college, training provider or awarding organisation please let us know by emailing news@feweek.co.uk

RoATP provider now selling for tens of thousands

A company with no apparent track record or trading history is being put up for sale because it managed to win a place on the new register of approved training providers, FE Week has learned.

What’s more, multiple companies that do change hands may even be allowed to remain on the register, according to a government spokesperson, who told FE Week that such decisions would be made on a case-by-case basis.

The register, which lists providers that will be eligible to deliver apprenticeships from May, was published in March – and at least 19 colleges with a combined current allocation of £44 million initially missed out, even though many other providers were accepted despite a complete lack of experience of running such training.

FE Week has now seen a post on the LinkedIn page of a consultancy group called The Leadership Team, which provides services to colleges, training providers and employers, offering one such RoATP newcomer for sale, along with another listed on the old register of training organisations.

“We have an RoATP and a ROTO company for sale currently,” it said.

“Both have conducted no transactions and their owners have decided not to pursue funded training.

“If you would like to purchase please email your interest.”

FE Week understands the usual rate for this type of sale is around £50,000.

We invited The Leadership Team to respond to criticism that the RoATP was being used as a selling point.

Tracy Myles, the firm’s financial director, told FE Week that the practice was “normal”.

“It is normal for owners of companies, whether they are on ROTO, RoATP or not, to buy or sell businesses with a view to making a profit,” she said.

“With the amount of change in this sector we believe that there will be many more mergers and acquisitions, large and small, within the next 12 to 18 months.”

But Anne-marie Morris, a team leader and assessor at Acacia Training, a provider which did not get a place on the RoATP despite its ‘good’ rating from Ofsted, disagreed, claiming the sale was “a typical example of how inadequate the whole process was for the RoATP”.

“The Education and Skills Funding Agency have enabled companies to use their acceptance on to the register as a selling point to exacerbate asking prices,” she added.

FE Week asked the Department for Education for clarification around rules for selling providers on the register.

A spokesperson said providers must notify the ESFA if there were a change their name and/or ownership.

Under the Apprenticeship Agreement for Training Providers, the ESFA then has the right to terminate the agreement if they think the sale could affect the organisation’s ability to deliver the contract.

The Leadership Team’s LinkedIn page also shows that it apparently also works in a brokerage capacity to match employers with providers for apprenticeship delivery, and offers bid-writing services for applications to RoATP.

The firm has launched a “gold” members-only “community of RoATP providers”, again promoted on LinkedIn, which it
says providers can apply to join to gain access to “employers, funding and partnerships”.

In February, the former Skills Funding Agency – which has now been merged into the new ESFA – banned the use of public funds to pay brokers’ fees.

But Ms Myles insisted The Leadership Team’s gold membership service was not in breach of this regulation.

“We are fully aware that prime providers cannot utilise the funds in their digital account to pay ‘brokers’ – we are not brokers and this is not our business model,” she said.

“We have a very experienced team of people with significant sector experience including people who have worked previously at the SFA.”

Staff anger at cash-strapped college’s new carpark charge

Staff and students at a Liverpool college facing “financial crisis” are fuming that they must now pay £600 per year to use a car park on campus that was previously free, after it was sold-off to a secret buyer.

City of Liverpool College has repeatedly refused to name the new owner of its Vauxhall Road campus’ car park, understood to be a private party which swiftly introduced the charges.

The move is so unpopular that angry staff contacted FE Week to complain anonymously, while the University and College Union has also spoken out on their behalf.

“The college needs to explain to staff and students why it sold a facility that was previously free for staff and students to park at,” a UCU spokesperson told FE Week.

“We expect the college to publish the full details of the sale.”

FE Week was also shown a copy of a letter sent to staff, which provided a “final reminder for car parking permits” for the site.

It said: “As previously confirmed, the daily charge will be £3 a day.”

It also explained permit parking rates, which have come into force this month – with the rate set at £54 per month, and £310 for six months.

The annual £600 permit charge, the letter said, can be paid-off “£50 monthly through salary over 12 months”.

However, only one registered car is allowed on site per permit holder at any given time.

The car park at City of Liverpool College

FE Week also visited the car park, where we witnessed permanent signage confirming the prices and installed by Britannia Parking, a private firm which manages the site for the new landowner but which also refused to reveal its identity. 

There was also a temporary sign attached to railings [pictured above], apparently on behalf of the college.

The college, which declined to comment on the sale, posted a 2015/16 group deficit of over £15 million, and is understood to have sold the site to help pay off its debts.

It was recently revisited by the FE commissioner’s team, and a report warning of “financial crisis” was published in March – along with a letter from apprenticeships and skills minister Robert Halfon.

“The college was re-referred for FE commissioner intervention because of failures of financial management,” he wrote.

“Last year, the college’s budget outturn was £8 million worse than planned, and it required £2 million exceptional funding from the SFA to continue operations.”

He also raised “particular concern” about the college’s oversight of its majority owned independent training provider – First4Skills.

This Liverpool-based company went bust in March, affecting around 200 staff and 6,500 learners, after the former Skills Funding Agency pulled its contract following a grade four Ofsted rating.

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 its 2012/13 financial health, which was also graded ‘inadequate’.

It was on surer ground by November 2014, following an improved Ofsted rating (‘requires improvement’) in April 2014, and improved financial performance (‘satisfactory’) in 2013/14.

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

The latest FE commissioner report summary said: “During the November stocktake the team were concerned about some of the college board’s responses to the 2015/16 financial crisis.”

ESFA pause will destroy good specialist providers

It was announced during the Easter break that the government’s decision over funding allocations for apprenticeship provision for non-levy-paying employers had been paused, to allow time a careful review. Noel Dunne explains why he thinks this was a bad move.

As the director of an award-winning training provider in charge of four subcontracts with different primes, I had made meticulous plans, and invested time and resources to be ready to deliver a direct contract from May 1. Now the government has pulled the rug from under our feet.

As a specialist provider in creative, digital and marketing apprenticeships, Creative Alliance has been effective at enabling 16- to 18-year-olds to secure apprenticeships – no mean feat for a graduate-rich sector with no history of, and little initial interest in, vocational entry routes into work.

This naturally meant we were particularly hard hit by the reduction in fees for frameworks for 16- to 18-year-olds. Last summer I had to explain to our board that from May 2017 we’d earn 100k less delivering the same frameworks.

Despite this, we soldiered on, budgeting carefully, being reasonable about carry-ins and planning for new starts. We counterbalanced the reduction in funding we’d receive for the qualifications we deliver with the fact that from May 1 we’d be no longer paying 15 per cent in management fees.

Currently we pay our prime contract holders around 15 per cent of everything we earn to ‘manage’ the contract with the ESFA.

I prepared for a variety of scenarios to ensure we can meet the potential obligations with our employers. As a social enterprise, we have done everything that it is apparent the government and ESFA have not.

Last week we had no idea how much contract we were going to have to deliver but at least we knew where it was coming from.

This week we are not only clueless on how much contract value we will have, we also have no idea where it will come from.

And, of course, we already have new starts lined up, because you can’t turn the employer engagement tap on and off when providing a client-facing business service.

No one in their right mind would run a business under these conditions

The ESFA says existing contracts will be extended, but that doesn’t mean subcontractors will get value under those existing contracts: we are being capped NOW.

Our company needs a minimum contract for 2017-18 of £600k. If we do manage to find contract from somewhere, at that volume, then that’s £7,500 per month in management that I hadn’t planned to pay. That’s £60k that we will lose this year alone paying for learners in contract management fees.

At an average of £3,000 per apprenticeship, that’s 20 people unable to start apprenticeship qualifications with us.

The tragedy is that the £60k of public money will be paid for services we don’t need because we’re ready to go. We’ve invested time and resources into ensuring we’re ready. Like many other subcontracting providers, Creative Alliance is ready to start delivery immediately and directly manage contracts from the ESFA; we don’t need to pay a prime to manage contracts on our behalf.

READ MORE: ESFA pause was the right thing to do

So, here’s a simple request to the minister, the IfA and the ESFA. Please amend this decision and immediately issue direct contracts to training providers who:

Have a three-year track record of effective apprenticeship delivery under sub-contracting arrangements.

Have a Qualification Success Rate 5% above national average.

Can assure their ESFA contract managers that they have all the Information management, monitoring and reporting systems for the ESFA in place.

If not then we, and many other specialist providers, will find ourselves in jeopardy.

At a time when we should have been developing business opportunities, we have been focusing on how we going to manage this! No one in their right mind would attempt to run a business under these conditions.

As my last shreds of sanity slip away, it helps to remember that we did all tell the minister and civil servants that their process and timetable would not work.

The first rule of leadership is listening. The government didn’t. Now I, the team, our clients and our learners will see what we can salvage from this fiasco of their making.

 

Noel Dunne is director of Creative Alliance

Institute for Apprenticeships announces route panel chairs and apprentice panel

The Institute for Apprenticeships has appointed the chairs for 15 route panels, and a panel of apprentices to advise the board.

The route panels are made up of industry experts and will be responsible for setting the standards of knowledge, skills and behaviours needed by employers for every occupation in England.

The chairs will lead their groups in reviewing and recommending apprenticeship standards and assessment plans and advising on funding levels on behalf of the institute.

The panel of apprentices is made up of current or recent apprentices from a wide range of occupations and experiences from up and down the country. Holly Broadhurst and Adam Sharp, two of the winners at the National Apprenticeship Awards 2016, are among those chosen to sit on the panel. 

The panel will decide what issues to focus on and ensure the apprentice voice is heard within the decision making structure of the institute.

Chair of the Institute for Apprenticeships Antony Jenkins said: “I’m delighted to be able to formally announce these appointments.

“For our panel chairs we’ve got individuals of superb calibre – a dynamic mix of experts in their field from a broad range of occupations.

“Their expertise will ensure the panels are run smoothly and that quality will be maintained across the system.”

He added: “Our panel of apprentices is something I am particularly proud of – a deeply impressive group of individuals who will ensure the needs of apprentices are truly reflected in the development of the apprenticeship programme.”

The panel chairs are:

  • Agriculture, environment and animal care – Richard Self, project manager, Edge Careers and Agricultural Manager, Co-operatives UK
  • Business and administrative – Andrew Ground, chief executive and co-founder of Tutorfair
  • Catering and hospitality – Alison Gilbert, human resources and board director, CH&Co
  • Childcare and education – Sir Nick Weller, executive principal, Dixons City Academy, Bradford
  • Construction – Tanja Smith, technical director, Gradon Architecture
  • Creative and design – Iain Smith OBE, film producer, Applecross Productions
  • Digital – Mark Sherwin, managing director, global digital customer services lead, Accenture
  • Engineering and manufacturing – Dr Graham Honeyman CBE, chief executive at Sheffield Forgemasters
  • Hair and beauty – Suki Kalirai, director, GKC Infocus Ltd and Qi Spa (Spa WMC Ltd)
  • Health and science – Kirk Lower, national lead for apprenticeships, talent for care, widening participation and volunteering, Health Education England
  • Legal, finance and accounting – Mike Thompson, director, early careers, Barclays
  • Protective services – Sir Jonathan Murphy, former chief constable Merseyside Police, professor of advanced policing studies, Liverpool John Moores University
  • Sales, marketing and procurement – Godfrey Moger, station director for free radio, Bauer Media
  • Social care – Sir Roger Singleton, chair of the Independent Safeguarding Authority and previously chief executive of Barnados
  • Transport and logistics – Michelle Nolan-McSweeney, head of training strategy, Network Rail

The 11 members of the panel of apprentices are:

  • Heeran Basi – SevernTrent
  • Holly Broadhurst – JCB
  • Lucille Gallaway – Barclays
  • Adam Gymer – Pfizer UK
  • Kara Halford – Dawn’s Flower Box
  • Becky King – National Physical Laboratory
  • Kam Penglin – CT Skills
  • Sanna Shabir – Atkins Global
  • Adam Sharp – Sellafield
  • Daniel Skinner – BAE Systems
  • Poppy Wolfarth – Asset Training

 

What secret grade did you get?

This week we expose the ESFA’s top secret four-level grading system that gets applied to every one of just over 1,000 post-16 providers that they fund.

We learned that funding agency staff use what’s called a ‘profile and assessment tool’ to assign every prime provider one of four ‘intervention status categories’.

On the face of it this seems a well-structured and proportionate approach to intervention, given the ESFA’s responsibilities.

But what’s surprising – and concerning – is that over half (55%) of the providers that it contracts with are of concern, typically based on their finances.

This might be something the Education Select Committee, Public Accounts Committee and the National Audit Office will show an interest in.

And it’s disappointing that the DfE has refused to explain the basis on which a provider is given a grade or any detail on what they are used for.

The AoC and AELP are united in their expectation the agency should come clean.

It is now a case of watching this space…

UPDATE: It has been brought to our attention that there were inaccuracies in the full PAT list previously published, which FE Week downloaded from the DFE website. Whilst we investigate we have removed the link to this data. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The data was sent to the DfE in advance of publishing for their reference. 

Government secretly grading all colleges and training providers

UPDATE: It has been brought to our attention that there were inaccuracies in the full PAT list previously published, which FE Week downloaded from the DFE website. Whilst we investigate we have removed the link to this data. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The data was sent to the DfE in advance of publishing for their reference. 

More than half of providers have been secretly rated by the Education and Skills Funding Agency as posing a potential risk, FE Week can exclusively reveal.

They are surreptitiously marked using a four-grade system in the ESFA’s ‘profile and assessment’ software tool, which FE Week has discovered listed 563 (55 per cent) of 1,025 private training providers, colleges and councils with agency contracts as either being watched closely by officials or receiving formal intervention, as of January 2017.

The Department for Education has refused to comment on the scheme, but sector leaders who were shown the list of providers and grades have lambasted the ESFA’s secrecy and are now calling for urgent transparency.

The four categories included in the PAT are ‘formal intervention’ (red), the most severe, ‘active engagement’ (amber), ‘close watching brief’ (light orange), and ‘standard monitoring’ (green).

If a provider is placed in the first three categories, it means the government is concerned about their performance and places them under scrutiny. 

Read Editor Nick Linford’s view here

FE Week understands that a total of 73 providers were receiving formal interventions in January, with 299 in active engagement with the DfE, and 191 on the close-watching brief.

Just 462 were in the clear in category 4.

Mark Dawe, the chief executive of AELP, slammed the ESFA’s secret grading system.

“As a public body there should not be any secretive processes and this should all be transparent to all providers that they fund,” he told FE Week. “This is clearly something the AELP will need to raise with the ESFA on behalf of our members.”

David Hughes, the boss of the AoC, said it was “appropriate” for the ESFA to be assessing the financial and overall health of the providers it funds.

However, he added that it would be “good for the agency to be more transparent about what the triggers are using to move providers into and out of each category”.

He also wants further information to help “understand more how the agency uses these categories for funding decisions”.

Providers rated in category 1 of the PAT are treated like those with a notice of concern or serious breach, and face having their funding contracts terminated if they do not meet the government’s conditions for improvement.

The Department for Education would not provide FE Week with any further details about these categories, or the way they are determined and used.

“We do not comment on leaked documents,” said a spokesperson.

UPDATE: It has been brought to our attention that there were inaccuracies in the full PAT list previously published, which FE Week downloaded from the DFE website. Whilst we investigate we have removed the link to this data. We apologise for any inconvenience caused. The data was sent to the DfE in advance of publishing for their reference. 


 

ESFA was right to pause non-levy ITT process

The government’s decision over funding allocations for apprenticeship provision for non-levy-paying employers has been paused, to allow it more time to review this policy area. Anne-marie Morris explains why she thinks this was a good move.

The pause in the non-levy ITT will bring some much needed stability to a sector that is currently in a state of confusion.

While I support the reform in principle, in practice it has been rushed, in particular for non-levy-paying employers. The Education and Skills Funding Agency now has the time to review the process fully and make sure it is implemented properly.

The stance the ESFA has taken is a brave one, and I appreciate the difficulties it has caused for many. However the very fact it has taken this step demonstrates that it has listened to these concerns, and agrees that more consideration is required.

It should be remembered that even for those providers that made it onto the RoATP, there was never any guarantee of contracts for non-levy employers, meaning there was always going to be disappointment for the majority of providers.

READ MORE: Why the pause will destroy good specialist providers

The RoATP process has had its difficulties, and there is still doubt over whether it was needed at all, as its aims could have been achieved through the current ROTO system. The ESFA already holds a wealth of information on primes and subcontractors that it could have used to make informed decisions about providers – more time should have been spent on this.

Ofsted results should have been considered more during the RoATP process. Not utilising their findings was a mistake

Ofsted results should have been considered more during the RoATP process and not utilising their findings in a more considered way was a mistake.
Equally, for subcontractors, the prime provider’s grade would have given the ESFA information on those who work with them, which would surely offer more reassurance of quality than three ambiguous questions.

This approach could have stopped the list filling up with insolvent providers, shell companies and those with grade fours or notices of concern.

I recognise the ESFA wanted to attract more providers to the market, and some existing subcontractors should certainly be prime providers, but not at the price of proven experience.

The government has set a challenging target to hit three million apprenticeships, but surely taxpayers want them to be good? Over the years the ESFA has lost touch with its provider base, and the RoATP process clearly demonstrated its lack of knowledge on what is actually happening on the ground.
I believe the government has put pressure on the ESFA, and I would hope that this pause also demonstrates that it also sees the need to slow down and review what apprentices and employers need.

The RoATP process clearly demonstrated a lack of knowledge

With Brexit, there has never been a more important time to ensure that we are developing an effective workforce for the long term, rather than as a three-year business plan between general elections.

The ESFA needs more time to listen to the many issues and to work in partnership with sector experts to ensure the process is robust, and that providers’ rigorous checks are meaningful.

Employers and apprentices should not have to worry that a provider they choose from the RoATP has no experience, is financially unstable, under notice of serious breach, or has a poor Ofsted grade.

The very purpose of the RoATP was to give employers confidence that providers would be able to deliver the quality needed for their apprenticeships; the pause will enable ESFA to ensure this now happens.

I admire the ESFA for taking this difficult but fundamentally sensible decision to pause the process – let’s hope it continues to apply good sense, and allows us all to get back to the important business of supporting our employers and apprentices.

 

Anne-marie Morris is an assessor at Acacia Training