Blog posts for tag:funding

Per Page

Policy Corner - 21 May 2015

By Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, Policy Leader, Thursday 21 May 2015

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

The Sector speaks in the FE & Skills Survey and funding is key issue (p4/5) - The news for this week is dominated by the findings of the FE Week FE & Skills survey, which finds the key concerns from people in the sector are funding, the volume of change and workload, English and maths and the ‘broad direction of travel for the sector.’ 90% of respondents were concerned about levels of funding, both for individuals and institutions, while 92% were concerned about the pace & volume of changes, and 96% were concerned at perceived levels of external bureaucracy.

Read More

Tagged:

Post-election round-up: How will Schools be affected?

By , Tuesday 19 May 2015

The big news of the past month has of course been the General Election – the surprising outcome of which is continuing to be a hot topic of discussion. I’m sure you’ll agree that a majority Conservative government – and the resulting potential impact on schools – was not what most of us were expecting, whatever your political views. Nicky Morgan’s reappointment as Education Secretary brings some stability, but also a commitment to the Gove reform agenda which will impact heavily on teachers of learners aged 11-19.

Read More

Tagged:

Vocational education following the general election

By , Tuesday 19 May 2015

The big news of the past month has of course been the General Election – the surprising outcome of which is continuing to be a hot topic of discussion. I’m sure you’ll agree that a majority Conservative government – and the resulting potential impact on the FE sector – was not what most of us were expecting, whatever your political views. The full details of the Conservatives’ spending plans will be outlined in a spending review, expected to take place in June. However, we’re likely to see further cuts to adult skills funding, which will continue to have a significant impact on our sector. The loss of Liberal Democrat Vince Cable – a key ally as a champion of FE – is a particularly significant blow. Despite the inevitable cuts, we’ve retained funding for many of our important qualifications, and we’re delighted that so many of you have told us that you want to retain or grow this provision.

Read More

Tagged:

An update on adult skills funding in 2015-16

By David Grailey, Chief Executive, Wednesday 22 April 2015

David Grailey

The cuts to funding for adult skills in 2015-16 have been widely documented in the last month as the Association of Colleges warns that up to 190,000 adult education places will be lost next year. However, the government has stated that although overall funding is being cut, high quality apprenticeships and English and maths are being prioritised to ensure that learners are literate and numerate, with vocational qualifications of prestige.  At NCFE, we have been working hard to ensure that our popular and valued vocational qualifications have their funding protected and we’re pleased to say that we now have almost 100 funded qualifications available for 15-16 with further qualifications pending approval. These qualifications include courses within Health and Social Care such as Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of Dementia Care, Level 2 Certificate in the Principles of the Prevention and Control of Infection in Health Care Settings, as well as substantial qualifications such as Level 1, 2 and 3 Diplomas in Entry to the Uniformed Services and many more.

Read More

Tagged:

General Election - what's in it for schools?

By Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, Policy Leader, Wednesday 22 April 2015

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Over the last few weeks the manifestos for the UK national parties have all been released. So we wanted to give you a round-up of the key points potentially impacting schools and secondary education. Of course this is just a snapshot and with many pundits saying that this election is going to close, (some commentators stating a 91% chance of a hung parliament at present) coalition (or supply and confidence) relationships between parties could be highly likely which means many of the points outlines below could be up for negotiation. Conservatives

Read More

Tagged:

A call for improvements to end of life care access

By Marcus Ridley, Communications Assistant, Tuesday 17 March 2015

Marcus Blog

A report by the Commons Health Committee has called for improvements to be made to the access available for social care at the end of life. Following the report which claimed there was “unacceptable variation” in the quality of care received across England, Care minister Norman Lamb said the government will now look closely at a policy of free end of life social care for all. Currently, families seeking free care for a dying relative at home have to go through a complex process of means testing and assessment to identify if they qualify for funded support for end of life care. As a result, more than half of deaths across England still occur in NHS hospitals, despite more than two-thirds of people saying they would prefer to spend their last days at home.

Read More

Tagged:

Policy Corner - March 2015

By Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, Policy Leader, Sunday 08 March 2015

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Government scraps ‘deterrent’ apprentice rule (p1) – the government has ‘scrapped’ the rule that requires Apprentices to re-sit any English & maths GCSEs they sat more than 5 years before the Apprenticeship start date. The “Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) confirmed it had removed the rule — in place since 2009 — from the latest version of the specification of apprenticeship standards for England (SASE), but individual frameworks will need to be amended to reflect the change.”

Read More

Tagged:

Policy Corner - 17 February 2015

By Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, Policy Leader, Tuesday 17 February 2015

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

‘Open traineeships up’ plea as starts hit 5K in first quarter (p2) – the government has been urged to open up more traineeships as ‘figures show 1,700 more people started on the scheme in the first three months of 2014/15 than in the entire first half of last academic year.’ Chief Executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) Stewart Segal said that he was encouraged by the figures – but called for a relaxation to the current rule that only allows Traineeships to be delivered by Ofsted grade 1 or 2 providers.

Read More

Tagged:

DfE changes begin to bite

By David Grailey, Chief Executive, Friday 30 January 2015

David Grailey

A number of schools have been hit by the changes in which qualifications count in the school performance tables. This year, 330 schools fell below the required benchmark which is up from 154 in the previous year - clearly a big increase but probably not a big surprise to the schools it has impacted upon.

Read More

Tagged:

Reflections on the Autumn Statement

By Andrew Gladstone-Heighton, Policy Leader, Thursday 29 January 2015

Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

The key piece of political theatre this quarter was the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. This now annual event outlines the government’s spending plans for the remainder of this parliament, and gives us the best indication of their plans following the 7 May election next year. Due to a combination of lower than expected income tax receipts (due to the increase in low quality and zero hours contracts), an increase in the National Insurance thresholds, low oil and gas revenues and corporate tax avoidance, the treasury has less money than it planned for at this point in the parliament.

Read More

Tagged:

Subscribe

Get notified when a new post is published.


Authors

Categories