Finance director blamed in new FE commissioner report

A former finance director has been singled out as the “root cause” of a major London college’s financial failings, in one of three recent FE commissioner reports.

The former commissioner Sir David Collins and his team visited Lambeth College in September, following a “significant deterioration” in its cashflow.

Their report found that college finances were “no longer sustainable” unless it merged.

They cited and concurred with an investigation that had been carried out by the college itself, which found that “the root cause for both management and governors was the reliance on and trust placed in the vice-principal for finance and business planning who oversaw financial controls that were inadequate”.

Meanwhile, reports of the FE commissioners’ interventions into Tresham College and Epping Forest College – both published on Thursday – revealed that both had been placed in administered status.

Sir David’s team visited Tresham in September after it had been rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, while his successor Richard Atkins (pictured) visited Epping Forest in January, after it was given a grade four.

The report into Lambeth College found that both the 2015/16 budget setting process and financial reporting had been “poor”.

Its budget had been prepared by its former finance director, but it “was not based on a realistic and accurate curriculum plan”, while there had also been “a lack of rigour in ensuring the budgets were deliverable”.

The college’s principal at the time, Mark Silverman, and its then-finance director, Shaun Orrell, have left the college since its financial difficulties were uncovered.

Mr Orrell, who is currently finance director at independent training provider JTJ Workplace Solutions, said when he took up his post in March 2014 he had inherited a number of issues at the college that he had “worked hard to address”.

He added that there were “several ongoing and significant issues that affected the college’s finances”, including funding cuts, and industrial action at the college.

As previously reported by FE Week, Lambeth is pursuing plans to join forces with London South Bank University, though no date has yet been set for any link-up.

Monica Box, the college’s interim principal, said: “Lambeth College is currently working to address the recommendations within the commission report”.

She added that discussions with LSBU were “moving forward on models of governance”.

The report into Tresham College said there had been a “high level of churn” in senior management, and that the board had failed to identify this as a “key risk”.

“Weak performance has been left unchallenged until it has reached a crisis point,” it said.

Financial forecasts were meanwhile found to be unrealistic, and it was “likely that the college will go back into deficit this year”.

Although it noted that changes were now being made, the report concluded that “the quality and finance improvement agendas are both now urgent”.

Ioan Morgan, who is the interim principal at Tresham, said he was pleased the report “acknowledges that we have taken appropriate action to address the college’s position”.

He added: “The college is now working towards a merger with Bedford College which will address both quality improvement and financial sustainability.”

The commissioner’s report into Epping Forest was damning about governance, standards and finances at the college.

While the college’s financial health had been rated ‘good’ until recently, the report concluded that a “significant deterioration” in its finances meant that it would fall to ‘inadequate’.

I have every confidence that the college is on the way up

There were found to be “serious issues” in governance, and both the board and the senior team had “been too slow to recognise the declining quality and financial performance”.

Saboohi Famili, Epping Forest College’s principal, said she agreed with the commissioner’s report and was already working to implement his recommendations.

“The college has already established a renewed leadership team and new members of the board of governors,” she said.

“Our practices have been revamped to ensure our learners are successful in their qualifications and gain university places or progress to higher-level courses or jobs. I have every confidence that the college is on the way up and I am personally grateful for the support we receive from government agencies on our journey.”

Performing arts student gets real life filming experience in VR road safety video

A Walsall College student has become the face of road safety after appearing in a promotional virtual reality film created by the West Midlands Fire Service.

The seven-minute video will be used to educate young people in colleges and universities across the west Midlands about driving safely.

Dean Webb, a 20-year-old level three performing arts student, spent two days working in various locations across the Black Country to film the video, which has been shot from the driver’s perspective.

Following a group of friends on their journey to a party, the film – which can even be watched through a virtual reality headset – provides a 360-degree immersive experience, and poses decisions for the viewer to make. The choices they make will determine which scenario they end up in.

Dean said: “I really enjoyed being involved in the filming as it’s been a great experience.

“We do a lot of shows at college but this is the first time I’ve worked for a client with a real script.

“Filming the video gave me an insight into what it’s like for real actors in the industry and has made me want to become an actor even more.”

 

Main image: Hot stuff: Andy Gillespie from West Midlands Fire Service with Dean Webb

Struggling college has ‘agreed to release’ principal

A college that recently switched merger partner following an Ofsted grade four has “agreed to release” its principal.

The departure of Simon Andrews (pictured above) from Stockport College, after just two years at the helm, was announced today.

Former Guildford College Group principal Dr Mike Potter CBE will start as transitional principal on Monday.

Louise Richardson, Stockport College chair, said: “It is with sadness and regret that we have agreed to release our principal Simon Andrews, having made a significant contribution to the overall development and direction of the college.”

She said Mr Andrews had led the college, which was rated inadequate by Ofsted last November, towards a “secure future” with plans for a merger with Trafford College now “advanced”.

“Simon has led with dignity, professionalism, and vision through what has been an extremely difficult period for the college. The college is now a much better place and we will be very sorry and sad to see him leave,” she said.

No reason was given for Mr Andrews’ departure.

He took over as principal at Stockport in April 2015, replacing former interim principal Ian Clinton.

The college had been rated as ‘requires improvement’ by Ofsted in December 2014, up from its previous ‘inadequate’ grade in September 2013.

But it was downgraded again before Christmas, after the education watchdog found it to be inadequate in almost all areas.

As reported by FE Week, Mr Andrews said he would appeal the judgment as it did not “accurately reflect” the improvements made at the college over the previous 12 months.

Stockport emerged from the contentious Greater Manchester area review, which ended in June last year after nine troubled months, with a proposal for a three-way merger involving Oldham and Tameside colleges.

But, as reported by FE Week last month, that plan was scrapped following intervention by the FE commissioner Richard Atkin in favour of a link-up with Trafford College.

In an email dated February 3 and seen by FE Week, Trafford’s principal Lesley Davies told staff that the merger is expected to go through at the end of December and that she will lead the merged college.

Dr Potter led Guildford College from August 2012 until he stepped down at the end of October, having previously been principal at Wirral Metropolitan College following a career in the Royal Navy.

He said:  “I am delighted to be returning to the area, with a clear mandate of working with colleagues to take Stockport College forward and to provide a strong, successful and sustainable future for further and higher education in the area.”

Ofsted watch: sixth form college plummets after 10-year inspection wait

A sixth form college that hadn’t received an inspection for 10 years sank from ‘outstanding’ to ‘requires improvement’ – in a mixed week for FE Ofsted reports.

Governors at Holy Cross College, in Manchester, were criticised for their failure to recognise the “significance of the decline in standards” at the SFC.

The new report, published on March 15, said “sufficient challenge” has not been provided to senior leaders, who themselves have not “identified the weaknesses in underperforming subjects accurately and have been too slow to implement effective improvement strategies”.

Its previous ‘outstanding’ Ofsted report followed a February 2007 inspection.

The 2,000-learner institution received grade threes this time round, in all but one area – person development, behaviour and welfare.

It was also a bad week for university technical colleges, after Swindon UTC was branded ‘inadequate’ in its first ever Ofsted report, published March 10.

The government’s watchdog hit the UTC with grade fours in almost every category, including effectiveness of leadership and management, quality of teaching, learning and assessment, outcomes for pupils, and 16 to 19 study programmes.

Criticisms included “inadequate achievement of pupils in Years 10 and 11 in mathematics”, leaders making “insufficient use of the wide range of engineering-based industrial partners”, and the failure of senior leaders and governors to deal with “significant weaknesses in the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in order to raise pupils’ achievement”.

The grade four means that more than half of the 20 UTCs visited by Ofsted have now been rated ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’.

It was however good news for employer and independent learning provider Busy Bees Nurseries Limited, which jumped from ‘good’ to ‘outstanding’ across the board in a report published on March 16.

Inspectors said that since its previous inspection, in October 2012, leaders and managers at Busy Bees have “significantly improved” the quality of teaching, learning and assessment and outcomes during a “very significant growth in learner numbers”.

The provider now has over 1,250 learners compared with just 293 five years ago.

It was less good news for Nottingham City Transport Ltd, another employer provider, who received a grade three in its first inspection.

One way for the provider to improve is by getting managers to ensure all staff provide “suitable support to apprentices to develop their literacy and numeracy skills more effectively”, according to inspectors.

Meanwhile, The College of West Anglia fell from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’ in a report published March 14.

The college received grade threes in all areas except for apprenticeships, where they scored a grade one.

Two other colleges – Kensington and Chelsea College and Birmingham Metropolitan College – kept their grade three ratings from previous inspections.

Bolton College on the other hand stepped up from a grade three to a grade two.

Inspectors said leaders, governors and managers have “worked hard” since the last inspection in 2010 to “improve successfully the outcomes for learners and the quality of the provision”.

Amersham and Wycombe College had its second monitoring visit since an ‘inadequate’ rating in July 2016 and was found to be making ”significant progress”.

Lastly, Broadland District Council, an adult and community learning provider in Norwich, went from a grade three to a grade two in a report published March 15.

Inspectors said staff provide “good-quality information, advice and guidance, which ensures that apprentices receive the right support to help them make informed decisions about their next steps”.

 

GFE Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Kensington and Chelsea College 31/01/2017 13/03/2017 3 3
Birmingham Metropolitan College 14/02/2017 16/03/2017 3 3
The College of West Anglia 11/01/2017 14/03/2017 3 2
Bolton College 07/02/2017 15/03/2017 2 3
Amersham and Wycombe College 22/02/2017 16/03/2017 M M

 

Sixth Form Colleges Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Holy Cross College 31/01/2017 15/03/2017 3 1

 

Adult and Community Learning Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Broadland District Council 24/01/2017 14/03/2017 2 3

 

Employer providers Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
Busy Bees Nurseries Limited 01/02/2017 16/03/2017 1 2
Nottingham City Transport Ltd 14/02/2017 13/03/2017 3 0

 

Other (including UTCs) Inspected Published Grade Previous grade
UTC Swindon 25/01/2017 10/03/2017 4 0

How we’re preparing for the work experience revolution

The government is right to identify work experience as vital to high-quality technical education, but the cost of managing all those placements shouldn’t be underestimated, says Sam Parrett

The FE world – and indeed the wider education sector – welcomed last week’s budget statement, which included a £500 million windfall for technical education reforms.

Rarely the recipients of such a gift, all of us in FE have been eagerly studying the proposals to find out what it may really mean for us and our students.

The introduction of T-levels with 15 career-focused pathways is central to the reforms, which will consolidate thousands of vocational qualifications.

So far, so good. I am fully supportive of any initiative which aims to raise parity of esteem between academic and technical education, and I very much hope this will move things in the right direction.

Next year we’ll have to triple our work experience coordinators

But what will affect colleges, learning providers and businesses even more significantly are the proposals relating to work experience. Quite rightly, it is flagged as being crucial to all vocational education programmes, and it’s a vital theme in the new technical education reforms.

All 16- to 19-year-olds working on a new T-level programme will see their study hours increased by 50 per cent to around 900 hours a year, and will be required to do a three-month work placement as part of their course.

This is a significant undertaking for employers and colleges, particularly at a time when many businesses are already taking on more young people in the form of apprentices and trainees.

FE is generally much better than schools at providing more industry-led learning experiences. Many colleges having excellent links with employers, realistic learning environments and facilities, and teaching staff who are experts in their vocational field.

Good careers advice can help young people identify where their passion lies, and is the best way to reach their career goal.

But ultimately, if the government is going to realise its ambitious vision for work experience, we need to see real collaboration between employers and schools/colleges.

Not only must we ensure placements are worthwhile for young people, we need to make sure that employers also benefit in the short term as well as the long term. Having an extra pair of hands can be a hindrance if a student is uninterested and lacking in basic communication skills, but a keen, enthusiastic and motivated student can be a real asset to any business.

It also needs to be made easier for businesses to manage their placements and create strategies to ensure the young person gets a meaningful experience, for example: careful monitoring, mutually-agreed objectives and documented outcomes. Employers need to see that the time they are putting in will result in a skilled pipeline of talent further down the line.

What shouldn’t be underestimated is the cost of planning, organising, monitoring and managing placements

At my college, we are already preparing for the work experience revolution by setting up an employment and skills board, with 11 subgroups covering each industry area. The aim of these groups is to ensure that employers have direct input into the curriculum development, which in turn provides them with reassurance that our students will be equipped with the necessary skills.

Establishing a relationship with a diverse range of employers is not only helping us shape our study programmes effectively, but will also give these businesses an insight into the importance of providing young people with work-related experience.

The government is absolutely right to identify work experience as important. However, what shouldn’t be underestimated is the cost of planning, organising, monitoring and managing placements for, in our case, around 4,500 students.

Last year we had to triple the numbers of our maths and English teachers, next year we’ll have to do the same with our work experience coordinators!

This is no easy task for an already squeezed FE sector – and I can’t help feeling that the £500 million may be a drop in the ocean.

However, I do firmly believe that working collaboratively with employers will move things in the right direction – for both students and our economy.

 

Sam Parrett is principal and CEO of London South East Colleges

Institute for Apprenticeships most popular for external quality assurance

The Institute for Apprenticeships is the most popular choice for external quality assurance for apprenticeship standards – even though it was only set up as a “last resort” option for this sort of thing.

Of the 162 apprenticeship standards currently approved for delivery, 26 have chosen the IfA as their EQA route, compared with just 15 that have gone with the government’s official qualifications regulator Ofqual.

The Quality Assurance Agency, which generally deals with higher education qualifications, is also available, but has been named for quality assurance with just three standards.

A further 58 still have no confirmed choice of EQA provider, while the remaining standards have selected professional bodies or employer-led approaches.

An Ofqual spokesperson said that in the new apprenticeship landscape it was “inevitable” for trailblazers to reach “different conclusions regarding their preferred EQA provider”.

The IfA has said that it considers itself to be ‘the EQA of last resort’

He said: “The IfA has said that it considers itself to be ‘the EQA of last resort’. In this evolving landscape trailblazers may change their initial preferences.”

However, he defended Ofqual’s credentials, saying: “We start from a base of having renowned assessment expertise, regulatory tools and a tried and tested framework.

“This means that we are in a great position to provide EQA and can draw upon our statutory powers to impose rules, set gateway criteria, undertake audits, investigate, impose sanctions and compel action.”

He added that Ofqual is also “exploring how we can work in partnership with employers and professional bodies as providers of the EQA role”.

Speaking during a webinar on January 6, Peter Lauener, the shadow chief executive of the IfA, told FE Week’s editor Nick Linford that the IfA did not have “the resource to do the quality assurance role directly”.

He also insisted it would be acceptable for the Institute to charge for EQA because “the principle of a regulator charging bodies in the industry for regulation is not uncommon at all”.

In contrast, an Ofqual spokesperson told FE Week: “We don’t charge and do not intend to introduce charges for our external quality assurance role.”

Furthermore, while Ofqual, QAA and other professional or sector bodies which Trailblazer groups may set up to tackle EQA will be overseen by the IfA, the Institute itself will not have an organisation regulating its delivery of this role.

FE Week understands that the IfA has yet to tender for its EQA work, despite plans to start procurement in February.

And last month the Department for Education ran a consultation on the draft operational plan for the IfA, which invited feedback on quality assurance and other functions, and closed on February 27.

The principle of a regulator charging bodies in the industry for regulation is not uncommon at all

In its own response to the operational plan, Ofqual branded the “responsibilities and accountabilities” in the current apprenticeships system “blurred”, labelling it “crucial” to make the landscape “clear and easy to navigate”.

FE Week asked both the IfA and DfE to comment this week on whether they were now rethinking the IfA’s role in the process, and what would be happening with the EQA tender. They declined to comment.

Terry Fennell, chief executive and responsible officer at specialist awarding organisation FDQ, told FE Week that having four different EQA options is “extremely worrying for awarding organisations”.

He said: “We are used to one set of rules set out by Ofqual for qualifications and to this end all AOs are in the same game with the same expectations.

“When it comes to end-point assessments there are three new EQA bodies in the market and each is likely to have a different approach.

“Importantly it’s not clear who will police the EQA bodies so there is likely to be dispute and huge conflicts of interest.”

Level the playing field for colleges vs schools

Do colleges feel picked on? You bet. Funding cuts over the last 10 years and the difficulties in dealing with less money, annual redundancy rounds and adapting to a declining market have led to us being put under the cosh by government and Ofsted in a number of ways, some unfairly.

There isn’t a level playing field. Colleges need be treated in the same way as other providers, such as academies, school sixth forms and UTCs. Here’s what needs to change:

VAT

FE colleges pay it… others don’t. If we demerged our 16-18 work and set up an academy, we’d save £350,000 a year in VAT.

Let’s have one system, or let everyone use the other, to even things out, even though there’s a good chance that Spreadsheet Phil might prefer that all institutions pay.

New buildings

Colleges, or at least the financially viable ones, contribute to capital expenditure. In our case we have self-funded new build and the most we have ever received from the government is a 25 per cent contribution. The benefit of this approach is that it does make you think long and hard as to what you really need and why.

But school sixth forms and UTCs get 100 per cent capital funding. The taxpayer pays for the lot. No wonder there’s excess capacity of bricks and mortar for 16-18 provision, the average class size in school sixth forms is around seven – according to DfE data – and UTCs are on average working at only 50 per cent capacity. This is not an efficient use of scarce educational resources.

FE has been the Cinderella sector far too long

Area reviews

The heroic assumption with area reviews is that merging will cure all financial ills. We know that this doesn’t always follow: colleges large and small have got into financial difficulties.

But if big is beautiful, then surely UTCs and school sixth forms should be subjected to the same scrutiny?

There are over 1,200 school sixth forms and UTCs in this country each with less than 100 learners – a concern in terms of value for money/efficiency, never mind quality and breadth of the learner experience.

Quality

The DfE should publish 16-18 achievement rates for all providers, including drop-out rates as well as year-end successes – it’s the only way of assessing overall quality. The performance tables do not show drop-outs from subjects or institutions, except indirectly in the progress measures for English and maths, because a score of -1 is assigned for a drop-out or a no-show at an exam.

On a positive note, here’s what looks like it might be changing:

Access to schools

Colleges struggle to get access to schools so we have to rely on expensive, above-the-line advertising to get our message across. From a freedom-of-choice perspective this is unfair.

Lord Baker’s amendment to the Technical and Further Education Bill (which has already become immortalised as the ‘Baker clause’) theoretically means schools will have to allow a “range of education and training providers” access to pupils aged between 13 and 18, to promote technical education qualifications or apprenticeships.

This should be for all provision, including ‘academic’ and hybrid (a mix of academic with vocational) routes. It’s high time this change happened.

T-levels

Funding for primary and secondary education has risen rapidly in the last 25 years, and universities can raise income by levying tuition fees. But there’s been no such rise for FE.

So the budget announcement on T-levels – which seem to be a resurrection of Ed Balls’ 14 routes to stardom (now 15) – provides a welcome boost in funding to vocational education.

The chancellor has promised an additional £500 million a year by 2022 – a 19 per cent increase. This goes some way to restoring the cuts to maximum annual funded hours, now down to 540 and 450 respectively for 17 and 18-year-olds.

I hope the extra funding will flow to broader educational needs including the generic skills of English, maths and IT. If so, this might just be the longer term solution to increased productivity that the chancellor wants.

These two developments suggest government seems (at last!) to understand that further education is vital to the future of the UK’s economy.

Let’s hope they follow up these positive announcements by addressing the remaining inequalities. FE has been the Cinderella sector far too long.

 

Graham Taylor is principal and chief executive at New College Swindon

Don’t forget work experience in the apprenticeships frenzy

Of course there will be teething troubles as the levy kicks in, but current developments in the apprenticeships arena – the most significant overhaul of the system for more than 30 years – have to be warmly welcomed. Anything that significantly enhances employability, work readiness and job prospects must be good.

Many of today’s senior industry leaders will say that they owe it all to what they learned as an apprentice. Apprenticeships are already in the DNA of industries like engineering, but one of the most positive outcomes of these new initiatives will be their becoming the norm in all industries, professions and sectors.

But – and there’s always a but – there are dangers of which we must be aware.

Sir Dominic Cadbury’s line, that “there is no such thing as a career path; there is only crazy paving and you have to lay it yourself”, so effectively encapsulates what has happened to the pattern of working life in recent decades. People are forced to navigate an extremely complex and confusing path which, almost invariably, has no clear signposts.

Work experience is important to successful navigation, whether it’s paid or unpaid. Apprenticeships are a powerful and influential form of work experience, but they are not the only one.

Getting it right is a win-win-win

My first concern is that, in all the frenzy currently surrounding apprenticeships, and the resources their implementation will demand, other types of work experience will get less attention than they merit. Placements (from the traditional five days for year 10 students to the incoming three-month placements for 16- to 19-year-olds in technical education), traineeships, internships and volunteering that leads to employment are all immensely important.

Traineeships have an especially key role to play as a lead-in, pre-apprenticeship programme. One could consider placements, internships and volunteering as being primarily about “soft skills” and getting to understand the working environment – whereas traineeships can be considered more “sleeves-rolled-up” preparation for a job in a specific sector.

Unemployed young people who have little or no work experience and who have not yet achieved a full level three qualification are going to find the job hunt especially hard. They’re also unlikely to be ready to fully capitalise on an apprenticeship. Traineeships help to bridge that experience and skills gap, as well as adding capacity to employers, and to send the learners on the path to employment or an apprenticeship.

Work experience that begins as early as possible (and I’d like to see it start with 11-year-olds) and continues throughout a young person’s educational and personal development, taking some people right through to a degree apprenticeship, is a hugely powerful navigational tool for those learners on careers’ crazy paving.

For employers, it represents a genuine talent pipeline that has significant bottom-line benefits, alongside CSR merits. These range from cutting recruitment costs to providing invaluable management experience and raising both the morale and productivity of an existing workforce.

Getting it right is a win-win-win for learner, employer and learning provider – and ultimately for our economy and society.

Work experience is a hugely powerful navigational tool for those learners on careers’ crazy paving

But it is pointless if the work experience, in whatever form, is not undertaken by all parties at the highest possible quality. And that’s my other concern.

In focusing on meeting numerical targets and ensuring that levy contributions are fully used, there’s a risk of corners being cut and apprenticeships not being carried out thoroughly enough. The new standards, if devised correctly, will be an invaluable guide to getting it right, but success will be absolutely dependent on everyone involved being committed to quality.

So, as the apprenticeships momentum gathers pace, let’s not overlook other forms of work experience, which are vital elements, both in learners’ pathways and employers’ talent pipelines and, above all, let’s not jeopardise quality as we strive for quantity.

 

Rod Natkiel will be running a workshop called ‘Creating a talent pipeline for the future’ at AAC2017

College steps in as sponsor to save 103-year-old local carnival

A Hampshire college has saved a historic local carnival from cancellation by stepping in as the official sponsor.

After concerns the 103-year-old Totton and Eling carnival would be cancelled due to lack of funds, Totton College offered up financial support to keep it afloat following discussions with carnival organisers.

Not only will the college now fund the event, but students on the BTEC public services courses will act as stewards on the day.

Derek Headrige, the college’s campus principal, said: “The carnival is close to the hearts of many residents here in Totton which is why it is so important to us that it goes ahead. It is a longstanding tradition and is always well attended.

“It is a really upbeat and positive event that brings the whole community together and we are delighted to be providing our support this year to make it happen.”

The theme of the carnival – which takes place on June 10 – is ‘animals’, and there are around 16 floats expected on the day.

 

Main image: A float from last year’s Totton carnival