A programme of job cuts at the Skills Funding Agency has been attacked as “ideological” by MPs who warned that staffing reductions could hit apprenticeships.

Around 20 Labour and Democratic Unionist Party MPs have so far signed an Early Day Motion (EDM) in Parliament condemning the cuts.

The agency shed 600 of 1,900 staff through cost-cutting schemes launched in October 2010 and December 2011 and it aims to reduce staffing levels further, by 30 per cent, to 925.

The EDM, tabled by Labour MP for Wansbeck Ian Lavery, said the house “condemns the reduction of staff numbers” and “notes that these ideological cuts to staffing will have a detrimental effect on the delivery of apprenticeships and the National Careers Service”.

It warned that reduced staff could “increase the potential for fraud” and could also mean small and medium-sized employers would have less support, limiting their ability to take on apprentices.

The EDM further called on the government “to acknowledge the value and dedication of staff working within the agency and to commit to further recruitment in the agency”.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock told FE Week the EDM “did not sound like something I would support”.

He added: “Making sure that we live within our means and that we deliver for learners as effectively as possible is what we’re all about.”

The latest job cuts formed part of the Civil Service reform programme, which is said to be aimed at making the service smaller, more open and flexible.

An agency spokesperson said that as of March, there were 1,278 agency staff. At the same time last year it was 1,320 and in 2012 it was 1,275.

He said: “The agency is nearing completion of reforming our organisational structure and ways of working.

 “By the end of June we will have reduced our overall headcount by just over 30 per cent and, more significantly, rebalanced our divisions to reflect more accurately where work should take place.

“As part of the changes the National Apprenticeship Service now operates as part of the agency enabling it to effectively deliver the government’s priorities on apprenticeships and traineeships.”

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3 Comments

  1. This means even more illegal/incompetence activity will continue in this sector with training providers failing, owing thousands and able to reappear the next day, with colleges sliding into insolvency delivering fourth rate course.

    Let’s scrub the whole organisation and put FE Week in charge

  2. The Civil Service reform programme is interesting. We are told that good independent learning providers cannot have a contract unless it is worth over £500,000, so the subcontracting model explodes taking 20-30% of funding away from apprentices. It is then proposed that funding is at employer level which goes against these savings (there will be fraud and a lack of training as there was in the early days of work-based inspection when the TECs could not even provide an accurate list and addresses of those that it funded). If I am a small back street motor vehicle servicing garage with one apprentice, who will notice the poor training they get and try and get the money claimed back (or ensure the apprentice finally gets trained)? At the other end of the deal what happened to the cuts that quangos such as Ofsted were meant to deliver as part of their contribution to the Civil Service reform programme? Senior jobs that were cut have been reinstated and have below inflation staffing costs been achieved? Top this off with yet more requests for FE to aim for quality marks that we all know from experience will not last. As a country we are no where near our young people seeing apprenticeships as a preferred route once they reach year 11 in school, because there has been a failure for schools to promote them and for small businesses in particular to engage with them. I can see this government promoting self-assessment online being the preferred way of funding until we achieve the first ‘Gary Barlow’.

  3. Anonymous

    I would like to know how the SFA supports small businesses or has any effect on Apprenticeships delivery through job cuts? The SFA has no contact with employers at all!

    Colleges and training providers are the contact for businesses and apprenticeships, not the SFA.

    The SFA competency comes into question at our college regularly with the massive data burdens they are creating while we are all facing financial pressures. The EFA seems much more organized and coherent organization and should absorb the SFA. This would save money by reducing the duplication of work across the two, I know lets rename it the LSC 🙂