Issue 133 | December 2022

EDUCATION SECRETARY AND SHADOW EDUCATION SECRETARY SPEAK AT THE AOC ANNUAL CONFERENCE

The AoC held its 2022 Annual Conference in Birmingham on 15 and 16 November. Keynote speeches were given by Gillian Keegan, the new Secretary of State for Education in England (the fifth education secretary to be appointed in four months) and Bridget Phillipson, the Labour Shadow Education Secretary. In her speech, Ms Keegan focused on three areas, which she described as ‘gamechangers’. These were:

• Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs): Produced by a partnership of employers, FE colleges, universities and other providers, they identify skills priorities and shortages in a local area and are a plan to deliver education and training programmes aimed at addressing these skills shortages.
• Institutes of Technology (IoTs): These are collaborations between FE providers, universities and employers for designing and delivering higher technical qualifications (HTQs) at Level 4 and 5.
• Excellent teaching in FE: Ms Keegan highlighted the DfE’s new recruitment campaign to attract industry professionals into FE teaching. Although she referred to the extra funding for FE in last year’s spending review, it was unclear if Ms Keegan understood that colleges are still funded well below 2010 levels and that most cannot afford to offer the salaries needed to retain good staff, let alone recruit new ones.

In her speech, Ms Phillipson said that she was unable to commit to boosting FE funding levels because if Labour forms the next government, it would be necessary to first need to assess the ‘scale of the damage to the economy caused by the current Conservative government’, and she did not wish to make promises that she could not keep. However, she assured delegates that FE colleges were ‘central to the ambition Labour has in education’. She also confirmed Labour’s commitment to extending the apprenticeship levy to small and medium size firms and to allowing employers to spend up to half of the levy funding raised on training programmes other than apprenticeships. She went on to say that Labour intended to devolve more centrally held budgets to mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) and would establish a new national taskforce, to be called ‘Skills England’, which no doubt left delegates from colleges feeling much better.

THE AUTUMN STATEMENT

On the following day (17 November), the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, presented his Autumn Statement to the House of Commons, which included proposals to increase taxation and reduce spending in an attempt to help fill in a ‘black hole’ in public finances. Announcements made by Mr Hunt in the statement included the following:

• There was surprise £2.3 billion increase in schools funding in England in 2023/24, with a further increase of £2.3 billion in 2024/25 (along with proportionate ‘Barnett Formula’ increases in education funding in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). In an analysis of the statement published on 17 November, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) says that not only is this increase expected to exceed the increase in school costs, but it will also restore real terms per pupil funding to 2010 levels.
• Another skills advisor, Sir Michael Barber, has been appointed to provide advice to the government on such things as the delivery of skills reforms, the rollout of T-Levels, the expansion of higher technical qualifications, Skills Bootcamps and the introduction of the Lifelong Loan entitlement. Sir Michael is currently the Chancellor of the University of Exeter, and his new role will be in addition to that of Professor Alison Wolf, who will retain her role as a Number 10 adviser on skills policy.
• Colleges, training providers and schools are currently able to receive help through the government’s Energy Bill Relief Scheme for the period between 31 October this year and 31 March next year. However, it was announced that the government is reviewing what support can be offered beyond this date, with a warning that it is ‘not sustainable to continue to provide financial support at this level’.
• The Low Pay Commission’s recommendation for increases in the National Minimum Wage was accepted. The new rates listed below must be paid by all employers (including colleges, schools and training providers) from April 2023:

Age	Current rate	Rate from April 2023	Increase
23+	£9.50	£10.42	9.7%
21-22	£9.18	£10.18	10.9%
18-20	£6.83	£7.49	9.7%
16-17	£4.81	£5.28	9.7%
Apprentice rate	£4.81	£5.28	9.7%

• Confirmation of plans to roll out the Lifelong Loan Entitlement from 2025 onwards.

Such was the importance given to FE, that Mr Hunt managed to present his entire Autumn Statement without mentioning the word ‘college’ once. Desperate pleas for financial help for colleges have clearly fallen on stony ground, but to be fair Mr Hunt did confirm that the extra FE funding announced in the 2021 Spending Review would not be cut. Although willing to provide significant amounts of ‘in and out’ cash for projects and schemes in FE, the government seems reluctant to address the issue of the systemic underfunding funding of core FE provision. The intense inspection, scrutiny and audit regimes that colleges are now under, combined with chronic underfunding, brings to mind the old aphorism about the farmer who spent so much time weighing his pig, he forgot to feed it and it starved to death.

More information on elements of the Autumn Statement affecting education can be found in the Department for Education (DfE) blog published on 18 November.

FE AND SIXTH FORM COLLEGE CORPORATIONS IN ENGLAND TO BE RECLASSIFIED AS PUBLIC SECTOR ORGANISATIONS

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) regularly carries out reviews to ensure that various sectors of the economy are classified correctly in government accounts. The criteria for ONS reviews are published in the Public Sector Classifications Guide (PSCG). Since April 2012, FE and sixth for colleges in England have been classified as being part of the private sector (although prior to that they were classified as public sector organisations). This has had financial implications for colleges. For example, unlike schools, colleges were deemed ineligible to receive any funding support to help cover the cost of recent National Insurance increases (recently reversed in the Autumn Statement). They were also deemed ineligible to reclaim VAT, which would otherwise have added more than £200 million collectively to college budgets.

The ONS review was triggered by the Skills and Post 16 Education Act 2022, which gives the Secretary of State for Education in England greater legislative powers to intervene in the governance of colleges. These include the powers to appoint and/or remove members of a college’s governing body and to direct college governing bodies to do more to meet local skills needs, if necessary by ordering mergers. Following the review, on 29 November, the ONS, as was expected, took the decision to reclassify colleges as once again as being part of the public sector, with the change coming into immediate effect. The re-classification brings with it significant regulatory changes for colleges, which include the following:

• Colleges wishing to borrow money for new capital projects from the private sector will be subject to a new ‘consent process’. They will only be allowed to borrow from private sector sources ‘if the transaction delivers value for money for the Exchequer’. To help make up for the inability of colleges to borrow commercially the remaining £150 million in the DfE’s 3-year FE Capital Transformation Programme will be provided to colleges in early 2023.
• College overdrafts and/or revolving credit facilities will need to be phased out by August 2024. £300 million will be provided by the DfE to help mitigate the impact the new arrangements may have on college cashflow for the period to March 2023. However, if colleges choose to take advantage of this facility, they will receive corresponding lower payments between April and July 2023.
• Colleges are now in scope for government senior staff pay controls. This will apply to all new appointments made from May 2023. The controls also include a requirement for DfE approval to pay salaries over £150,000, bonuses over £17,500 and severance payments above contract entitlement.
• The college sector’s collective debts of around £1.1 billion will be incorporated into the DfE’s balance sheet. This may trigger new external controls on college finances, borrowing and governance in order to bring this level of indebtedness down. Some colleges have expressed concerns that any cash reserves they may have accumulated might also end up being absorbed into the DfE’s finances, but it has since been confirmed that colleges will be allowed retain their reserves.
• Colleges will also retain flexibility in respect of their use of operating surpluses and be allowed to keep any revenue generated from the sale of assets but can only spend this cash on new capital projects.
• Colleges will retain the ability to operate subsidiaries. However, those subsidiaries will now also be brought into the public sector and be subject to the new financial constraints.
• The DfE says that colleges will not be allowed to reclaim VAT since this is ‘not directly related to their ONS classification’, adding that many other public bodies are not allowed to recover the VAT they incur either. Because schools with sixth forms are, and always have been, allowed to recover VAT, college leaders have accused the government of ‘perpetuating the long standing and indefensible inequalities that exist between colleges and other providers of 16-19 education’. They go on to say that this will encourage even more colleges to consider converting to academy status, where they can.
• Colleges will be expected to produce their annual report and accounts for the year ending 31 July 2023 as normal, although a review of the format will take place during 2023. From 2023/24 onwards, colleges are likely to also have to provide the DfE with income and expenditure details for the period from April to March, since this is needed for the consolidation of all college accounts into a single DfE account.
• A consultation will be held on a new financial handbook for colleges that will come into effect from August 2024. This will bring colleges into line with the Treasury’s managing public money 
• At present, it is not entirely clear if the re-classification will impact on the college insolvency regime. For example, is it legally possible for a college to retain its corporate status and separate legal identity outside of the public sector of which it is part? And if not, can a college legally be made bankrupt?

DFE MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITIES CONFIRMED

On 27 October, Baroness Diana Barran was re-appointed as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the DfE with responsibility for the School System and Student Finance, completing the DfE ministerial team for England. The individual responsibilities of each minister in the team are as follows:

Education Secretary: Gillian Keegan

Overall responsibility for:

• Early years and childcare
• Children’s social care
• Teacher quality, recruitment and retention
• The school curriculum
• School improvement
• Academies and free schools
• Further education
• Apprenticeships and skills
• Higher education

Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education: Robert Halfon

• Post-16 vocational and technical education strategy
• T-Levels and T-Level Transition Programme
• Qualifications reviews (Levels 3 and below)
• Higher technical education (Levels 4 and 5)
• Apprenticeships and traineeships
• Further education workforce
• Institutes of Technology
• Local skills improvement plans and the Local Skills Improvement Fund (LSIF)
• Adult education, including basic skills, the National Skills Fund and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund
• Careers education, information and guidance, including the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC)
• Office for Students (OfS)
• Higher education quality and reform
• Lifelong Loan Entitlement
• Student experience and widening participation in higher education
• Funding for education and training, provision for 16-19-year-olds
• College governance and accountability
• Intervention and financial oversight of FE colleges
• Reducing the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET)
• International Education Strategy and the Turing Scheme

Minister for Schools: Nick Gibb

• School accountability and inspection (including links with Ofsted)
• Standards and Testing Agency and primary assessment
• Supporting a high-quality teaching profession including professional development
• Supporting recruitment and retention of teachers and school leaders including initial teacher training
• Teaching Regulation Agency
• National Tutoring Programme
• School revenue funding, including the national funding formula for schools
• Pupil premium
• Free school meals
• Qualifications (including links with Ofqual)
• School curriculum
• Behaviour, attendance and exclusions
• School sport
• Digital strategy and technology in education
• Admissions and school transport

Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing: Claire Coutinho

• Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision
• Alternative provision
• Children’s social care
• Children in care, children in need and child protection
• Adoption and care leavers
• Early years and childcare
• Family hubs and early childhood support
• Disadvantaged and vulnerable children
• Children and young people’s mental health
• Policy to protect against serious violence
• Freedom of speech in education
• Online safety and preventing bullying in schools

Minister for Schools Systems and Student Finance: Baroness Diana Barran

• Regulatory review and overall approach to academisation
• Intervention in underperforming schools and school improvement
• Academies and multi-academy trusts
• School governance
• Education Investment Areas
• Free schools
• Faith schools
• Independent schools
• School capital investment (including pupil place planning)
• School efficiency and commercial policy
• Departmental data strategy
• Student finance (including the Student Loans Company)
• Safeguarding in schools and post-16 settings
• Counter extremism in schools and post-16 settings
• Home education and supplementary schools
• Departmental efficiency and commercial policy

SEVERANCE PAY FOR MINISTERS

The Institute for Government has carried out an analysis of the recent rapid turnover in ministerial posts. In the last year there have been 3 Prime Ministers and 19 different ministers in 6 government departments. The DfE leads the way, with 5 Secretaries of State, followed by 5 other government departments that each have had at least 3 Secretaries of State. The rate of ministerial churn has financial consequences because under current parliamentary regulations ministers who resign their posts or are sacked, are entitled to severance pay, no matter how long they have served (providing they don’t get another government position within three weeks). For example, 10 ministers who were sacked or resigned (3 of whom only served for 50 days or less) became collectively entitled to £110,000 in severance pay, of which £36,000 has so far been paid out. A further analysis by Sky News published on 26 October shows that a total of 71 ministers and whips who lost their posts this year were collectively eligible to receive a total of £709,000 in severance pay. To be fair, ministers can and often do, reject their severance payment entitlement. For example, Michelle Donelan, who was Secretary of State for Education for just 36 hours, turned down the £17,000 severance payment she was entitled to.

DFE ANNOUNCES £500M FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY UPGRADES IN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

On 6 December, the DfE announced that schools and colleges in England will be allocated a share of £500 million to spend on energy efficiency upgrades to help them to save on bills during the winter months and to better manage their energy consumption. The DfE says that, on average, a primary school will receive around £16,000, a secondary school will get £42,000 and a ‘further education college group’ will benefit from £290,000.  Improvements could include installing better heating controls, insulation to reduce heat loss from pipes or switching to energy efficient lighting. Also on 6 December, the DfE published guidance to schools and colleges to support senior managers and estates teams in improving energy efficiency.

DFE PUBLISHES UPDATED FE CAPITAL FUNDING LIST

On 6 December, the DfE published an updated comprehensive list of all capital funding currently available for post-16 education providers. The list specifies the type of funding available, what it can be used for and details of how and when providers should apply.

DFE AIMS TO CUT DEPARTMENTAL JOB NUMBERS BY AROUND 10%

The Treasury has asked every government department to look for ways to ‘secure value and maximise efficiency within their budgets’. In response, the DfE is proposing to reduce its workforce by around 10% and, 9 November, launched a ‘voluntary exit’ scheme. Under the scheme, eligible staff are being offered a financial package equivalent to three weeks’ salary for each year of service if they are prepared to leave by

next May. A DfE spokesperson said that the aim of the scheme was to get staffing numbers down from the current 8,300 closer to the 2020 pre-pandemic levels of 7,500 but added that the exit scheme was entirely voluntary and ‘staff should not feel pressured’ into applying for it’.

DFE IN STUDENT DATA BREACH

On 2 November, the DfE was issued with a formal reprimand by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), a copy of which can be found here.  The reprimand was in respect of a serious breach of general data protection regulations (GDPR) involving the misuse of personal information on up to 28 million children and young people. The information was contained in the DfE’s Learning Records Service database (LRS) which is accessible by registered education providers. An ICO investigation found that the LRS database was accessed 22,000 times by a firm called Trust Systems Software UK Ltd (trading as Trustopia), to check for age verification on behalf of gambling companies to confirm that customers opening online accounts were over the age of 18. The ICO found that data protection legislation was breached because LRS data was not being used for its original purpose. Trustopia was able to access to the database because it was the new trading name for Edududes Ltd, a training provider that had been able to access the LRS database. In the reprimand letter, the ICO sets out the steps the DfE has been required to take to improve its data protection practices. Luckily for the DfE, on 30 June the ICO introduced a new approach to dealing with public sector data breaches to reduce the impact of fines on public finances. The ICO says that had this new approach not been in place, the DfE would have been issued with a fine of over £10 million.

NEW CHAIR OF EDUCATION SELECT COMMITTEE APPOINTED

Robin Walker has been elected as the new Chair of the House of Commons Education Select Committee. He replaces Robert Halfon who had been the Chair of the Select Committee since 2017 but resigned the role on being re-appointed as Skills Minister at the Department of Education (DfE). Mr Halfon commenced his new duties by confirming that there were no plans for the creation of ‘elite’ technical colleges and that the government was looking to IoTs to take the lead role in addressing national skills shortages.

NEW REPORT FROM LABOUR SUGGESTS FE COLLEGES SHOULD BE ‘BROUGHT UNDER LOCAL CONTROL’

On 5 December Sir Kier Starmer launched the report of Labour’s Commission on the UK’s Future, entitled  ‘A new Britain: Renewing our democracy and rebuilding our economy’ . The report was produced by a team headed by the last Labour prime minister, Gordon Brown, and includes proposals to abolish the House of Lords and form regional clusters of industry. The report also contains proposals for linking local skills

training more closely to local employment needs, further devolution of adult skills funding and ‘the devolution of 200 FE colleges to local control’. Since there is no mention of devolving funding for 16-19 provision (or for HE provision) to local control, it is at present unclear how much control of FE colleges it is intended local leaders should be given.

OFSTED ALLOWS COLLEGES TO APPOINT SECOND ‘SHADOW’ NOMINEE DURING INSPECTIONS

Colleges are asked to nominate one person from their organisation to be the link between the provider and the Ofsted inspection team during college inspections, but Ofsted says that from 1 January colleges can, if they want to, nominate a second person act as a ‘shadow nominee’. The main nominee will still be the primary point of liaison with the inspection team and the shadow nominee is expected to act mainly in an observational capacity and will not make contributions or ask questions during inspection team meetings. Ofsted says that it recognises that as some providers have become larger and more dispersed geographically, there was need for the main nominee to be provided with more support. Ofsted also says that allowing a second nominee will help with nominee training and address issues that might arise if the main nominee is prevented from carry out the liaison function (eg through illness).

OFSTED PUBLISHES INSPECTION OUTCOMES BY TYPE OF PROVIDER FOR YEAR TO 31 AUGUST 2022

On 24 November, Ofsted published details of FE and Skills inspections and monitoring outcomes for different types pf provider in the year to 31 August 2022. The list below gives the percentage of each type of provider judged as either ‘outstanding’ or ‘good’ in that year, and a comparison with the previous year:

• Sixth form colleges: 100%, up 13%.
• General FE colleges: 88%, up 11%.
• Specialist Colleges: 79%, up 4%.
• Adult Community Education: 96%, up 4%.
• 16-19 academies- 98%, up 6%.
• Independent training providers: 75%, down 4%.
• Prison based provision: 37%, down 9%.

OFSTED INSPECTIONS NOW INCLUDE SUB-JUDGEMENTS ON COLLEGE CONTRIBUTIONS TO MEETING SKILLS NEEDS

Ofsted inspections now include an evaluation of the extent to which colleges are effectively contributing towards meeting the skills needs of their local economy, including both the skills the needed for those already in employment and the skills needed to help people progress into employment. Inspectors make a sub-judgement on this which, in turn, will feed into inspectors’ key judgements on the quality of the college’s provision, and its leadership and management.

The sub-judgement can be ‘strong’, ‘reasonable’ or ‘limited’. A college’s contribution to local skills needs will be judged to be ‘limited’ if inspectors did not consider there was sufficient engagement with local employers and other key organisations, such as local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), or did not involve employers in the design of the curriculum or did not contribute effectively to the design and delivery of Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs). Further details on the criteria for sub-judgement can be found in the Ofsted updated Handbook for FE and Skills Inspections. The requirement to include the sub-judgement came into force in September and the first four college inspection reports with the sub-judgement have now been published. One college’s contribution to local skills was judged to be ‘strong’, two colleges’ contributions were judged to be ‘reasonable’ and interestingly, and one college’s contributions was judged to be ‘limited’ (although the college was still given an overall ‘good’ rating).

OFSTED PUBLISHES REVIEW OF SKILLS BOOTCAMPS

Skills Bootcamps are intensive courses of up to 16 weeks intended to help adults obtain jobs in skill shortage areas and in emerging new sectors of employment such as green technologies. On 9 November, Ofsted published the findings of its review of Wave 2 Skills Bootcamps. The review was based on visits to 14 providers carried out between January 2022 and March 2022, and found that:

• Most providers had developed a wide range of Skills Bootcamps to help people move into sectors where there are skills shortages. The curriculum was appropriate and learning resources and materials were of a high quality.
• However, the quality of teaching was not consistently high. A minority of courses did not allow learners to develop their skills to an appropriate level and too many providers had not carried out sufficiently rigorous initial assessments, meaning that learners’ progress could not be accurately measured.
• Some providers had not ensured that each learner was guaranteed a job interview.
• Some providers had subcontracted the delivery of part of their programmes. This is allowed, but often the prime contractor did not maintain sufficient oversight of subcontractors’ activities.

From April 2023, Ofsted will inspect Wave three and further waves of Skills Bootcamps as an integral part of its regular inspection programme of FE and skills providers.

OFSTED TO REVIEW CAREERS GUIDANCE IN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES

Ofsted is to carry out a one year ‘thematic review’ of careers guidance in schools and colleges. The aim of the review is to identify strengths and weaknesses in current provision and to make recommendations to help providers to improve their practice. The terms of reference for the review were published on 9 November. Ofsted inspectors will examine how schools and colleges are meeting their legal obligation to provide independent careers advice and guidance, and how they ensure that the careers education their institution offers helps with meeting local skills needs.

ESFA PUBLISHES ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR TO MARCH 2022

On 7 November, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) published its annual report and accounts for the year to 31 March 2022. The Government Internal Audit Agency gave the agency a ‘limited assurance’ for two of the 17 audits it conducted. One was for the ESFA’s oversight of its own cyber-security. The other was for employer incentive payments for apprenticeship schemes. With reference to the latter, around £5 million in fraudulent payments were detected, with around £4.5 million of this recovered.

GCSE, AS AND A-LEVEL EXAMS IN 2023

On 30 November, the DfE and Ofqual published a document entitled ‘Supporting Resilience in the Exam System in 2023’. The publication says that although it is very unlikely that exams in 2023 will not be able to go ahead, ‘good public policy’ means that contingency arrangements should be available for alternative methods of assessment. Ofqual has therefore provided guidance for schools and colleges on the steps they should take to collect and retain evidence in the academic year 2022/2023 should exams be cancelled. The document says that students taking GCSEs, AS and A-Levels in 2023 should be assessed under exam-like conditions wherever possible. For example, students should:

• Not know the questions in the assessment beforehand.
• Work independently and without assistance (other than as required for a reasonable adjustment).
• Not have access to books or revision notes.
• Be supervised during the assessment (though centres do not have to use external invigilation).
• Be assessed under timed conditions equivalent to those which would be expected in an exam.

On 30 November Ofqual also published the responses to a consultation on the ‘Assessment of mathematics, physics and combined science in 2023’, which confirms that students will be provided with formulae and equation sheets, similar to those provided in 2022 exams. Ofqual also says that grades awarded, although still ‘protected’, will be much closer to pre-pandemic grades.

NEW T-LEVEL IN MARKETING

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) has invited awarding organisations (AOs) to bid for an exclusive license to develop and design the assessment and examinations for a new Wave 5 T-Level in Marketing to be taught from September 2025. The course content has been designed by a T-Level panel. These are employer-led groups who come together to list the key knowledge and behaviours a student should learn as part of their qualification. The bidding process will be in two stages. The first stage closed on Monday 14 November. Those that progress through the first stage will be required to submit their second stage bid by 21 February 2023. Further information about the process can be found on the ‘Find a Tender Service’ website, the link for which can be found here.

COLLEGES INVOLVED IN WAVE 5 T-LEVELS INVITED TO BID FOR CASH FROM THE LATEST T-LEVEL CAPITAL FUND

On 22 November the DfE published an invitation to colleges involved in Wave 5 T-Levels to bid for a share of £150 million being made available via the latest T-Levels Capital Fund (TLCF) allocation. The cash is intended to help colleges offering Wave 5 T-Levels in September 2024 to upgrade their premises and equipment. This follows previous allocations to colleges that totalled £38 million for Wave 1, £95 million for Wave 2, £135 million for Wave 3, and £150 million for Wave 4. There are two parts to the TLCF. These are:

• The Building and Facilities Improvement Grant (BFIG), which providers will have to bid for by 3 February 2023.
• The Specialist Equipment Allocation (SEA), which will be allocated to those providers registered to deliver T-Levels in 2024 via a formula.

T-LEVEL EMPLOYER SUPPORT FUND PILOT IS UNDERSPENT

On 3 July 2020, the DfE announced that £7 million would be made available from the T-Level Capacity and Delivery Fund for a pilot scheme to help employers cover their costs in providing industrial placements for T-Level students. Employers were initially offered a £750 grant to cover the costs of each T-Level student they provided the mandatory 315-hour (or 45-day) placements for. In 2020/21 this was increased to £1,000. The scheme was initially rolled out in the South West and West Midlands and was extended to the East of England and Yorkshire and Humber in 2020/21. On 24 November, the DfE published an evaluation report of the pilot. The report revealed that employer grants from the pilot had been provided for just 843 T-Level student industrial placements against a target of 32,466. This means that only around £500,000 (or 8%) of the £7 million made available was taken up by employers. The report also says that the grant increase to £1,000 did not result in a significantly higher take up by those employers who had initially said they were not interested in providing T-Level placements. Against this, some employers said that they would have provided T-Level placements even if had they not been any offered funding at all. The report says low grant take up would be partially explained by the Covid restrictions in place at the time.

DFE PUBLISHES LATEST DATA ON APPRENTICESHIPS AND TRAINEESHIPS

On 25 November the DfE published its latest data on apprenticeships and traineeships . Figures on apprenticeship starts for the 2021/22 academic year show that:

• Advanced apprenticeships (Level 3) accounted for 43.3% (151,300 starts).
• Higher apprenticeships (Level 4 and 5) accounted for 30.5% (106,400 starts).
• Under 19s accounted for 22.2% (or 77,500 starts).
• Apprenticeships on the new standards made up 99.5% (347,500 starts).
• Of the 349,200 apprenticeship starts in the 2021/22 academic year, private providers were responsible for 65.2% (227,600). General FE colleges accounted for just 18.7% (65,300).
• Just 15,500 traineeship starts were recorded in 2021/22 against a government target of 43,000

CMI REPORT ON THE APPRENTICESHIP LEVY AND THE IMPACT OF APPRENTICESHIPS ON PRODUCTIVITY AND GROWTH

In November, the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), in partnership with the University Vocational Awards Council (UVAC), published a report entitled the Future of the Apprenticeship Levy.

The section of the report dealing with the apprenticeship levy says that:

• Evidence of the productivity gains achieved through the levy-funded system comes at a time when there are calls for a substantial part of it to be turned into a general training fund. The CMI warns that such a move would be a risk, not just for the drive towards a higher skilled workforce but would also result in more of the funds being spent by fewer, larger employers.
• The apprenticeship levy is not the main barrier to the take-up of apprenticeships. The main barriers are:
• Capacity constraints, not only in respect of funding but also in terms of administrative time. This is particularly acute for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).
• Lack of effective and timely information, advice and guidance for businesses and individuals.
• A complex application process.
• The risk involved for employers and education providers in taking on those less ready for work or needing additional support.
• Restricting employer choice on apprentice levels or occupations would not directly address these challenges. In fact, it could damage some of the progress that has been made to embed high quality training and improve much needed skills capacity in both the public and private sectors.

The section of the report dealing with productivity and economic growth says that apprenticeships:

• Are helping to ease the UK’s long-standing underinvestment in training. (UK employers currently spend half of the European average on employee training).
• Are boosting growth and productivity, with every year’s cohort of apprentices contributing almost £700 million a year to the economy.
• Will add £7 billion to the economy by the end of 2029. (This means an initial training investment of £2 billion is delivering a 300% return on investment).
• Produced average productivity gains of £7,000 per apprentice for those businesses using higher level management apprenticeships.
• Increased the pay of those completing management apprentices by an average of £7,000.

LWI PUBLISHES FINDINGS FROM 2022 ADULT PARTICIPATION IN LEARNING

On 7 November, the Learning and Work Institute (LWI) published its 2022 Adult Participation in Learning Survey. The LWI has tracked the number of adults taking part in learning for the past 26 years and the latest 2022 survey reveals the following:

• 42% of adults have taken part in learning in the last 3 years. The LWI says that more people are learning informally, including online. However, 70% said they had faced barriers which prevented them from accessing learning in the past three years. Of these, the most common barriers were affordability, work or time pressures, being put off by tests or exams, feeling too old, and a lack of confidence.
• Adults in lower socio-economic classification groups (social class D and E) are twice as likely not to have participated in learning since leaving full-time education than those in higher socio-economic groups (A and B). This gap (19% compared to 37%) has persisted since the survey started and shows little sign of narrowing.
• The gap between the highest and lowest performing geographical regions has widened. London has by far the highest rate of adult participation in learning at 56%, compared to 35% in South West England. The gap is widening, with 21% difference compared to a 17% difference in 2019.
• As in previous years, those from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds are more likely to take part in adult learning than those from white backgrounds (66% compared to 38%). Men from BAME backgrounds more likely to be participating in learning than women from BAME backgrounds. BAME participation in adult learning does not change significantly between social classes, whereas the participation of white adults in learning declines with social class.

DFE PUBLISHES LATEST DATA ON ADULT (19+) GOVERNMENT FUNDED PARTICIPATION IN FE AND SKILLS

On 24 November, the DfE published its own data on adult participation in FE and Skills in 2021/22. The data shows that adult further education and skills participation, including adult apprenticeships, increased by 4.8% to 1,719,600 compared to 1,640,300 in the same period in 2020/21, and that:

• Women account for 61.0% of the total (1,048,800).
• Higher level (Level 4 or above) participation increased by 12.7% (to 245,100 from 217,500 in 2020/21).
• Community learning participation increased by 24.9% (to 304,400 compared to 243,700 in 2020/21).
• Just under 25,000 participated in the ‘free courses for jobs’ offer of fully funded Level 3 courses.
• Advanced learner loans received a record low number of applications in 2021/22. Applications have been in steady decline every year since they were first introduced in 2016, however the drop from 62,870 applications in 2020/21 to just 49,210 is the largest year-on-year fall.

NUMBERS OF YOUNG PEOPLE WHO ARE CLASSED AS NEET REACHES RECORD HIGH

On 25 November the ONS published data which reveals that there was an increase in the number of young people aged 16-24 in the UK who were not in education, employment or training (NEET). This comes after two years of significant decreases. The number of young people who are NEET is currently estimated to be a record 689,000, with many being classed as ‘economically inactive’ meaning that they were not looking for employment.

The increase in young people who are NEET comes after the winding down of the Government’s £2 billion Kickstart scheme, which was designed to help 16 to 24-year-olds at risk of long-term unemployment by subsidising six-month job placements for young people. A House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report criticised the scheme saying that it had ‘supported far fewer young people than predicted’ and that it was £665 million underspent despite rising numbers of young people out of the labour market. The report also described the way the programme was delivered as ‘chaotic’.

FINAL REPORT OF THE COMMISSION ON YOUNG LIVES

On 4 November, the Commission on Young Lives, chaired by Anne Longfield CBE, published its final report. The report concludes that ‘thousands of young people in England are being groomed, harmed, and even killed because the systems that are supposed to keep them safe are not fit for purpose’. The report, which is entitled ‘Hidden in Plain Sight: A national plan of action to support vulnerable teenagers to succeed and to protect them from adversity, exploitation and harm’, says that social care, education, family support, and children’s mental health systems are failing thousands of vulnerable teenagers due to a lack of early intervention, and warns that a combination of Covid, a cost-of-living crisis, and any return to austerity would be a gift to those who exploit children. The report proposes a new national action plan, the recommendations of which include the following:

• The establishment of 1,000 new ‘Sure Start +’ hubs, to co-ordinate and deliver support for vulnerable teenagers. The hubs would be part-financed by the millions of pounds recovered from the proceeds of crime every year and would be established in and around schools. They would be run by charities, public bodies, business, and community organisations, and help young people at risk get early help when needed. The hubs would also work with the families of vulnerable teenagers to help them guide their children away from violence and exploitation.
• A one-off £1 billion fund should be provided to support a children and young people’s mental health recovery programme. This would be part-financed by a levy on social media companies and mobile phone providers. Young people should be guaranteed mental health treatment from Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services within 4 weeks, and with a guarantee of next day emergency treatment for young people at risk of self-harm and suicide. The rollout of mental health teams in the remaining two thirds of schools and colleges that do not have this provision should be accelerated.
• School and college buildings should be open before and after school, at weekends and during holidays, to provide safe places for teenagers, staffed by community groups, youth practitioners and volunteers and financed by funds from dormant bank accounts and National Lottery community funding.
• The culture of exclusion that exists in some schools should be ended. A new ‘inclusion measure’ to inform Ofsted judgements should be introduced. Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) should be abolished, and specialist provision should be established in and around schools and colleges instead.
• A new ‘army’ of around 10,000 volunteer youth practitioners should be recruited to help identify struggling young people and guide them away from harm.
• The Government should hold regular COBRA meetings to monitor child exploitation and gang related violence, and to drive the agenda for combatting this.
• The DfE should once again become the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCFS) and should be given additional responsibilities for protecting vulnerable children and young people and tackling serious violence and exploitation. The DCFS should be led by a minister at Cabinet level,
• Young people and their families should be helped out of poverty, beginning with the uprating of family benefits in line with inflation, ending the two-child benefit cap, the extension of free school meals to all families receiving Universal Credit and re-establishing a Child Poverty Unit.
• The children’s social care system should be reformed, including implementing the MacAlister recommendations, including funding more new local children’s homes and specialist youth foster carers, and supporting the expansion of kinship care.
• The youth justice system should be reformed and moved towards a fully welfare-based, trauma-informed Child First approach. Youth Offender Institutions should be abolished and replaced by secure schools and secure children’s homes. A statutory definition of Child Criminal Exploitation should be established.
• Many BAME children fall through gaps in services and into danger. Racial bias in the provision of services should be identified and removed. Support should be focussed on identified need. For example, a report from Institute for Fiscal Studies (IfS) published last year says that 63% of black Caribbean children grow up in fatherless households. Extra support is needed because the absence of a male role model in the family could be a factor in placing children at risk of being drawn into gangs and gang violence.  

 The report provides numerous case studies of young people being identified, groomed and exploited by criminals. The extent of the problem is supported by recent government statistics published in February which reveals that in 2021/22 there were over 16,000 instances in England where child sexual exploitation was involved. There were also 11,600 instances where gangs were a factor and 10,140 instances where child criminal exploitation was a factor.

The government says that these figures are likely to be the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and estimates that there could be as many as 200,000 children in England aged 11 to 17 who are vulnerable to serious violence. These figures are made even worse by the half a million children and young people which the NSPCC estimates are subject to abuse or neglect by their own family members.

THE NUMBER OF VISAS GRANTED TO INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS AND THEIR DEPENDENTS COULD BE RESTRICTED

Data released by the ONS on 24 November revealed that in the year to June 2022, a record 1.1 million long term visas were granted to people to come to the UK for work, study and family reunification. More than 60% of these were granted to record numbers of international students (487,000) and their family members (180,000). Commenting on the figures, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick, described the numbers arriving as ‘unsustainable’. He went on to suggest that, as was the case with earlier ‘bogus colleges’, some of those applying for student and family visas were using them as a ‘backdoor’ for gaining access to the country. The government was therefore considering restricting the number of student and family visas granted, particularly for those applying for courses deemed to be ‘low quality’.

However, universities heavily reliant on the income from overseas student fees have expressed their strong opposition to this, with many saying that they can’t afford run courses on £9,250 per year per student paid to them up front by the Student Loans Company on behalf of domestic students. (You can only imagine what their reaction would be if they were required to manage on core FE levels of funding – which is a maximum of £4542 for full-time 16-18 students, and some of which could be clawed back). They say that they need the much higher fees international students pay to avoid being left facing potential bankruptcy. Data published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) says that in 2020/21 tuition fees paid by international students made up 42.4% of all university tuition fee income. Others argue that domestic students are being squeezed out of places on degree courses by higher fee-paying international students, particularly at the more prestigious universities, many of which are alleged to be actively prioritising the recruitment of international students over domestic students.

NEW REPORT SAYS UK UNIVERSITIES SHOULD TAKE STEPS TO RECRUIT MORE EU STUDENTS

Students from EU countries still collectively make up the second largest group of international students in the UK, but UUKI says that the UK’s exit from the EU has caused a decline in student numbers. The latest UCAS data shows that from 2019/20 to 2020/21 there was a 37% decrease in the number of EU undergraduate applications to UK universities and a 47% drop in the number of EU students accepted (linked to fewer EU students applying in the first place).

A report published on 11 November Universities UK International (UUKi) entitled ‘International student recruitment from Europe: the road to recovery’ urges the UK Government and UK universities to take steps to reverse the decline in the number of students recruited from the European Union (EU) and recommends that universities should:

• Make the EU a specific target region in the government’s International Education Strategy .
• Address practical barriers to EU student mobility, including easing restrictions on visas and reducing visa costs for EU students.
• Increase partnership arrangements with EU universities post-Erasmus.
• Encourage EU students in UK universities to use the Graduate route to stay on in the UK after graduating, and for this to be added to the evidence base on positive international graduate outcomes..

For those looking for an alternative perspective on the impact of recent trends in international student recruitment to UK universities, an interesting article on the subject can be found here.

2022 JISC ANNUAL SURVEY OF CYBER SECURITY IN HE AND FE

On 7 November the Joint Information Services Committee (JISC) published the results of its 2022 annual survey. The research was carried out in June and found that

• 97% of HE and 94% of FE institutions now include cyber-security on their risk register.
• 87% of HE and 79% of FE institutions report on cyber-risks and resilience to their executive board.
• HE institutions ranked ransomware/malware as their main threat.
• FE institutions ranked phishing/social engineering as their main threat.
• ‘Unpatched’ software vulnerabilities were seen as a serious risk by both HE and FE institutions.
• Compulsory security awareness training is more common for staff than students, with 84% of HE and 77% of FE institutions implementing this, although FE organisations are more likely to run compulsory security awareness training for students than HE institutions.

A copy of the HE survey findings can be found here and a copy of the FE survey findings here.

AND FINALLY…

A British civil engineering company won a £multi-billion contract to build giant sea walls on both the Pacific and Atlantic coasts of the country of Panama. The aim was to reclaim land from the sea in order to vastly increase the land area of the tiny central American country. To help with the project, the firm began recruiting a number of talented young people on degree level civil engineering apprenticeships. As part of their interview, each candidate was asked to describe what his or her vision for the ‘Panama project’ (as it had become known) was. The response from one of the candidates was, ‘I’m dreaming of a wide isthmus’

From of all of us at Click, we hope you have a very merry Christmas and a happy & peaceful New Year.

Alan Birks – December 2022

As usual, the views and opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those held by Click.
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