Correspondence Dec. 21 2023
Committee: Education, Children and Young People CommitteeFound: Flexible Workforce Development Fund 21 December 2023 Letter from the Minister for Higher Education, Further
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent steps her Department has taken to support care leavers move into (a) further and (b) tertiary education.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
In 'Stable Homes, Built on Love', the strategy for the reform of children’s social care, the department gave a commitment to improve the education, employment and training outcomes of children in care and care leavers by 2027. This can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/650966a322a783001343e844/Children_s_Social_Care_Stable_Homes__Built_on_Love_consultation_response.pdf.
The department set out a number of actions to take this forward, including:
In addition to the bursary, the department pays businesses and training providers £1,000 for every care leaver apprentice they employ or train. Employers and providers are free to use their additional funding wherever needed to support their apprentices, including contributions to travel or childcare costs, or the provision of additional mentoring.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a funding mechanism for pay in further education that is separate to per-pupil funding.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Colleges and other Further Education (FE) providers are responsible for setting the pay of their teaching and support staff. The government plays no role in this process. Colleges and other providers can make their own decisions about teacher pay in light of their own recruitment and retention needs and local skills priorities.
The department is investing an additional £185 million in the 2023/24 financial year and £285 million in the 2024/25 financial year to drive forward skills delivery within the sector. This funding is to help colleges and other providers to address their key priorities, including tackling recruitment and retention issues in high-value subject areas critical to our economy.
For academic year 2023/24 there is an 8.3% increase in the average 16-19 programme funding per student compared to academic year 2022/23. This funding supports colleges and other providers with staffing and other delivery costs.
The 2021 Spending Review set out an investment of £3.8 billion in skills across this Parliament to enable learners to access the skills and training they need to transform their lives.
The department is also delivering a programme to directly support the sector to recruit excellent staff, which includes a national recruitment campaign; strengthening and incentivising the uptake of initial teacher education, including through teacher training bursaries in priority subjects worth up to £29,000 each (tax free for 2023/24); and Taking Teaching Further, a programme that supports FE providers to recruit and provide early career support to those with relevant knowledge and industry experience to retrain as FE teachers.
To boost the recruitment and retention of teachers, we will also give eligible early career teachers in key science, technology, english and mathematics and technical shortage subjects, working in disadvantaged schools and colleges, up to £6,000 after tax annually on top of their pay. This will double the existing Levelling Up Premium paid to school teachers and extend it to all FE colleges for the first time.
Aug. 31 2023
Source Page: Further education workforce in EnglandFound: Further education workforce in England
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's guidance entitled Qualifications that overlap with T Levels, updated on 29 March 2023, whether she has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the withdrawal of funding for new starts for (a) BTEC and (b) other level 3 qualifications overlapping with T levels from 1 August 2024 on students in further education.
Answered by Luke Hall - Minister of State (Education)
This government is committed to ensuring that students in post-16 education have access to a high quality suite of qualifications that are easy to choose from and that provide the best chances for progression into higher study, or into a skilled job. The department firmly believes that A levels and T Levels are the best route at Level 3 to achieving those outcomes, supported by a range of Alternative Academic Qualifications and Technical Occupational Qualifications that are necessary, high quality and have a clear purpose.
The scale and complexity of the qualifications landscape means it is hard for students to make good choices about what they study. The qualifications currently funded do not consistently offer good progression outcomes and the department’s reforms are designed to fix this problem. The department’s new technical qualifications are based on the Institute for Apprenticeships And Technical Education’s employer led occupational standards, which means that young people can be confident they are studying the skills, knowledge and behaviours that employers need.
An impact assessment was undertaken to consider the post-16 reforms at Level 3 as a whole. It can be read here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1091841/Revised_Review_of_post-16_qualifications_at_level_3_in_England_impact_assessment.pdf.
An additional impact assessment, which is the most recent assessment produced, was conducted on the Wave 1 and 2 overlap list, which can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6421be532fa8480013ec0c23/EIA_updated_final_wave_1_2_T_Level_overlap_inc_Health_and_Science.pdf. These waves correlate to the qualifications defunded as of August 1 2024.
Correspondence Mar. 27 2024
Inquiry: Education Reform – independent reviews of qualifications and assessment, and skills deliveryFound: Update to Committee - Post school reform Letter from the Minister for Higher and Further Education, 27
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many meetings she has had with the Further Education Commissioner in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Between 1 December 2022 and 13 December 2023, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, has met the Further Education Commissioner on nine occasions. I have also met the Commissioner on five occasions. This includes one-to-one meetings, wider group meetings, and other events.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department is taking steps to help ensure that increases in Further Education funding are used to (a) address recruitment and retention and (b) support colleges’ abilities to deliver on skills policy.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Colleges and other further education (FE) providers are responsible for setting the pay of their teaching and support staff. The government plays no role in this process.
The department is investing an additional £185 million in the 2023/2024 financial year and £285 million in the 2024/25 financial year to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector.
This funding is to help colleges and other providers to address their key priorities, particularly tackling recruitment and retention issues in high-value subject areas critical to the economy.
This investment is being delivered via core 16 to 19 funding, including through boosting programme cost weightings for higher-cost subject areas, as well as increasing the per-student funding rate.
This investment is additional to the £125 million of funding the department has made available in the 2023/24 financial year to boost the national 16 to 19 funding rate and subject-specific funding. This means 16 to 19 providers are seeing a larger than expected increase to funding rates.
For the 2023/24 academic year, there is a 8.3% increase in the average 16 to 19 programme funding per student funding compared to the 2022/23 academic year.
The department is also delivering a programme to directly support the sector to recruit excellent staff, which includes a national recruitment campaign. The department is also strengthening and incentivising the uptake of initial teacher education, for example through teacher training bursaries in priority subjects worth up to £29,000 each, tax free for 2023/24.
To boost recruitment and retention of teachers, the department will give early career teachers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and technical shortage subjects, working in disadvantaged schools and colleges, up to £6,000 after tax annually on top of their pay. This will double the existing Levelling Up Premium paid to school teachers, and extend it to all FE colleges for the first time.
The Spending Review 2021 set out an investment of £3.8 billion in skills across this Parliament to enable learners to access the skills and training they need to transform their lives.
Each year, the department holds annual strategic conversations (ASCs) with each college in England where we meet the colleges senior leadership team. ASCs build upon the government’s response to the recommendations made in Dame Mary Ney’s Review of Financial Oversight of FE Colleges and the FE White Paper. Through the regular dialogue of ASCs and termly delivery conversations (TDCs), the department has established effective relationships with each of its statutory FE providers. This has enabled the department to develop a holistic view of each institution. With a clear focus on the priorities for development of skills provision, the ASCs and TDCs are informing both the department’s deployment of advice and practical support to colleges, and its wider policy and decision making.
Investment is also continuing in leadership and management development, which supports retention of staff. The Further Education Commissioner and her team are supporting the sharing of effective practice to enable delivery to be as efficient as possible whilst remaining high quality.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that additional funding for pay rises for support staff in further education colleges will be used for that purpose.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Colleges and other further education (FE) providers are responsible for setting the pay of their teaching and support staff. The government plays no role in this process.
The department is investing an additional £185 million in the 2023/2024 financial year and £285 million in the 2024/25 financial year to drive forward skills delivery in the further education sector.
This funding is to help colleges and other providers to address their key priorities, particularly tackling recruitment and retention issues in high-value subject areas critical to the economy.
This investment is being delivered via core 16 to 19 funding, including through boosting programme cost weightings for higher-cost subject areas, as well as increasing the per-student funding rate.
This investment is additional to the £125 million of funding the department has made available in the 2023/24 financial year to boost the national 16 to 19 funding rate and subject-specific funding. This means 16 to 19 providers are seeing a larger than expected increase to funding rates.
For the 2023/24 academic year, there is a 8.3% increase in the average 16 to 19 programme funding per student funding compared to the 2022/23 academic year.
The department is also delivering a programme to directly support the sector to recruit excellent staff, which includes a national recruitment campaign. The department is also strengthening and incentivising the uptake of initial teacher education, for example through teacher training bursaries in priority subjects worth up to £29,000 each, tax free for 2023/24.
To boost recruitment and retention of teachers, the department will give early career teachers in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and technical shortage subjects, working in disadvantaged schools and colleges, up to £6,000 after tax annually on top of their pay. This will double the existing Levelling Up Premium paid to school teachers, and extend it to all FE colleges for the first time.
The Spending Review 2021 set out an investment of £3.8 billion in skills across this Parliament to enable learners to access the skills and training they need to transform their lives.
Each year, the department holds annual strategic conversations (ASCs) with each college in England where we meet the colleges senior leadership team. ASCs build upon the government’s response to the recommendations made in Dame Mary Ney’s Review of Financial Oversight of FE Colleges and the FE White Paper. Through the regular dialogue of ASCs and termly delivery conversations (TDCs), the department has established effective relationships with each of its statutory FE providers. This has enabled the department to develop a holistic view of each institution. With a clear focus on the priorities for development of skills provision, the ASCs and TDCs are informing both the department’s deployment of advice and practical support to colleges, and its wider policy and decision making.
Investment is also continuing in leadership and management development, which supports retention of staff. The Further Education Commissioner and her team are supporting the sharing of effective practice to enable delivery to be as efficient as possible whilst remaining high quality.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Wansbeck)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the failure to agree a deal to build a gigafactory in Cambois on (a) the Gen Zero Campus in Ashington and (b) Energy Central Campus in Blyth.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Ashington campus of Northumberland College is one of the 16 large scale transformational projects that are being delivered by the department in partnership with colleges, as part of the £1.5 billion Further Education Capital Transformation Programme. The 16 colleges in this phase of the programme have some of the worst condition sites in England. The new campus in Ashington is a Gen-Zero development, designed to be ultra-low carbon in both construction and operation, and will provide exciting career pathways for learners across Northumberland and the wider region. The department is funding this project in order to improve the condition of the further education college estate and its investment is not linked to the gigafactory.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities state that the case for the Energy Central Campus in Blyth was based on an assessment of existing net zero skills requirements across the North-East of England. Progress on construction of Phase 1, the Energy Central Learning Hub, is progressing well, with the Hub on course to open in autumn 2024.