Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on how many FE colleges in England have had an increase in funding smaller than their estimated increase in energy bills in 2022.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department does not collect data regarding energy costs and contracts at institution level that would enable the accurate estimates of increased energy bills required for a direct comparison with allocated funding for the year 2022.
Funding allocations for 16-19 education are published annually here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-education-funding-allocations#published-allocations.
Comparison of the allocations for academic years 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 will show the 16-19 education funding increases for all institutions.
Until 31 March 2023, further education colleges will continue to benefit from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. This will reduce how much they need to spend on their energy and give greater certainty over budgets over the winter months. A new energy scheme for businesses, charities, and the public sector was confirmed on 9 January, ahead of the current scheme ending in March. The new scheme will mean all eligible UK businesses and non-domestic energy users will receive a discount on high energy bills until 31 March 2024.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students passed (a) level 1, (b) level 2, (c) level 3, (d) level 4, (e) level 5 and (f) foundation level courses in each subject in each FE college in England in each year since 2010.
Answered by Robert Halfon
For adults over the age of 19 further education and skills, learning aim achievements by level, sector subject area and provider have been published for the 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22 academic years in underlying data supporting the apprenticeships and traineeships statistics publications. Tables showing the breakdowns requested for these three years are present in the attached file.
To note, aim achievements are a count of achievements at aim level. Learners will be counted for each aim they are studying and so can be counted more than once.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many lecturers were paid at the highest scale of the advanced teacher and training scale for FE college lecturers by each college in England in each year since 2000.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Further education (FE) colleges are responsible for setting the pay and terms and conditions of their workforce. This remains the case following reclassification of the statutory FE sector. The department has no role in setting or negotiating teacher pay in further education colleges.
Reclassification of the statutory FE sector does mean that colleges will fall within the scope of senior pay controls, as set out by HM Treasury.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the maximum salary of the advanced teacher and training scale for FE college lecturers was in each year since 2000.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Further education (FE) colleges are responsible for setting the pay and terms and conditions of their workforce. This remains the case following reclassification of the statutory FE sector. The department has no role in setting or negotiating teacher pay in further education colleges.
Reclassification of the statutory FE sector does mean that colleges will fall within the scope of senior pay controls, as set out by HM Treasury.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of students doing (a) level 1, (b) level 2, (c) level 3 and (d) foundation level courses were black, Asian and minority ethnic in each college in England on 1 January 2023.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The table below shows the proportion of participating further education and skills learners over the age of 19 in the 2021/22 academic year that declared themselves from an ethnic minority (excluding white minorities).
Adult (19+) further education and skills learners in the 2021/22 academic year:
| Proportion declaring themselves from an ethnic minority group (excluding white minorities) |
Total Participation | 26.2% |
Participation Below level 2 (excluding basic skills) | 40.7% |
Participation Basic skills | 43.8% |
Participation Level 2 | 23.7% |
Participation Level 3 | 18.5% |
Participation Level 4+ | 16.7% |
Participation No level assigned | 27.1% |
Note: Instances where a learner’s ethnicity is not declared are excluded from the calculation.
The department does not have this information broken down further by provider. For provider breakdowns by ethnicity we publish the number of learners over the age of 19 that declare themselves from an ethnic minority group at each provider for each provision type on page 12 of our data visualisation tool, which can be accessed here: https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiNzYwNTcxNDItNjgyNS00ODMyLTgwNGUtMjFlODkyMjE4OWMyIiwidCI6ImZhZDI3N2M5LWM2MGEtNGRhMS1iNWYzLWIzYjhiMzRhODJmOSIsImMiOjh9.
The department published the number of adult learners over the age of 19 that declare themselves from an ethnic minority group by level, sector subject area and local authority delivery scheme for both apprenticeships, education and training, and community learning that can be created in the following tables:
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many students (a) began and (b) successfully completed traineeship programmes in each year since they began.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Traineeship starts, completions and completion rates since the 2014/15 academic year are published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/50bc6985-f66e-4301-8179-08dae43019f8.
The academic year refers to the start year of the traineeship. Completions and completion rates for traineeships started in 2021/22 are not yet available.
Further statistics on traineeships can be found in the Apprenticeships and traineeships statistics publication here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) teaching and (b) non-teaching staff each FE College in England made redundant in 2022.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department does not hold data relating to the number of teaching vacancies in further education (FE) colleges in England on 1 January 2023 or the number of redundancies in the sector in 2022.
Last year, the department launched a mandatory annual FE Workforce Data Collection which will improve the data the department holds on the FE workforce.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many teaching vacancies there were in each further education college in England on 1 January 2023.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department does not hold data relating to the number of teaching vacancies in further education (FE) colleges in England on 1 January 2023 or the number of redundancies in the sector in 2022.
Last year, the department launched a mandatory annual FE Workforce Data Collection which will improve the data the department holds on the FE workforce.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations she has received about potential delays to college capital projects as a result of her direction for FE colleges to suspend any capital projects which were likely to rely upon private sector borrowing arrangements.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Following the decision by the Office for National Statistics to reclassify colleges to the public sector, the department is supporting colleges to meet the requirements of managing public money while retaining many of their key areas of autonomy and flexibility. Public sector organisations may only borrow from private sector sources if the transaction delivers value for money for taxpayers.
A consents process has been put in place for any new commercial borrowing and the department aims to respond to requests from colleges as quickly as possible. Through this process, as of week commencing 9 January, the department has received 63 consent requests, of which 36 have capital projects as part of the request, from 24 colleges. We estimate up to 28 of consent requests relate to projects that are currently underway at 20 colleges.
The department is working through the consent requests and will seek to mitigate the risk of delays to capital projects as far as possible.
To take into consideration the new restrictions on commercial borrowing, the department will be providing an additional £150 million of capital funding that will be available to further education colleges, sixth form colleges and designated institutions in April 2023. In late 2022, the department published the allocations to ensure colleges have certainty about how much they will receive so that they can factor this into their plans.
To help colleges manage their cashflow, the department is addressing the historical issue of uneven monthly payments from central government for 16-to-19 funding and the adult education budget. The department is investing £300 million before the end of the current financial year by bringing forward payments. The new funding profile will better match colleges’ needs, recognising the challenging environment the sector faces.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of college capital projects delayed as a result of her direction for FE colleges to suspend any capital projects which were likely to rely upon private sector borrowing arrangements.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Following the decision by the Office for National Statistics to reclassify colleges to the public sector, the department is supporting colleges to meet the requirements of managing public money while retaining many of their key areas of autonomy and flexibility. Public sector organisations may only borrow from private sector sources if the transaction delivers value for money for taxpayers.
A consents process has been put in place for any new commercial borrowing and the department aims to respond to requests from colleges as quickly as possible. Through this process, as of week commencing 9 January, the department has received 63 consent requests, of which 36 have capital projects as part of the request, from 24 colleges. We estimate up to 28 of consent requests relate to projects that are currently underway at 20 colleges.
The department is working through the consent requests and will seek to mitigate the risk of delays to capital projects as far as possible.
To take into consideration the new restrictions on commercial borrowing, the department will be providing an additional £150 million of capital funding that will be available to further education colleges, sixth form colleges and designated institutions in April 2023. In late 2022, the department published the allocations to ensure colleges have certainty about how much they will receive so that they can factor this into their plans.
To help colleges manage their cashflow, the department is addressing the historical issue of uneven monthly payments from central government for 16-to-19 funding and the adult education budget. The department is investing £300 million before the end of the current financial year by bringing forward payments. The new funding profile will better match colleges’ needs, recognising the challenging environment the sector faces.