A further productive meeting was held on 6 May 2011 to progress consultation on the 2011/12 contract and payments; with Derek Whitehead representing AoC / FE, Paul Brown BACH and Andie Usher, Simon Hood, Mick O’Flynn and Steve Hearty representing ConstructionSkills. The key points of the meeting were:

ConstructionSkills have, like all providers, received their funding allocation from the SFA. Like all providers they are facing a cut of 2% for 16-18 and 4.3% for 19+. Consultation is to continue on how these cuts will be absorbed jointly by CS and providers.

Draft contracts will be issued to the group by the end of May and potentially widely circulated as draft early June, with final versions by 31 July at the latest. Changes to the contract content are minimal.

ALS rates are being looked at by CS and consideration of a standard national hourly rate for all providers, however following discussion it was felt this could be problematic and would potentially remain the same this year. CS have had problems with some providers on completing the necessary ALS paperwork and thus CS have not been able to make claims through the SFA, losing funding which could potentially be passed back on to the providers. CS will tighten up on ALS claims this year if not evidenced appropriately.

Discussion took place around evolving relationship management of Apprenticeship Officers (AOs), provider staff and learners and encouragement of workplace evidence generation and simplistic workplace training plans will feature as an appendix in the contract to promote evidence generation.

CS are looking for approximately 4% growth in Apprenticeships; applications increased by 25% on this time last year.

CS have reinstated employer forums across the 15 UK regions to help engage SMEs (as well as large contractors).

CS have increased the provider to network to 166: 141 colleges and 25 providers.

Discussion took place regarding CS not charging fees for 19+ Apprenticeships like many colleges, as this could help support higher fee return from CS to colleges for the delivery. Unfortunately the employer led training committee did not want to include a fee element to the employer. We asked if CS would absorb this as it was their choice not to charge a fee to employers.

Funding rates to providers will be discussed at the next meeting planned for 20 June 2011, at which point we will provide a further update.

 

DEREK WHITEHEAD