Welcome John Taylor Head of FE Directorate Territorial Team January 2019

1. Welcome John Taylor • Head of FE Directorate Territorial Team January 2019

2. Agenda ESFA Restructure Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers - Relaunch AEB Allocations 2019/20 Post-16 Funding Letter to the Sector Round Table Q&A

3. ESFA Restructure • Intervention Teams • Funding Centre • Service desk

4. Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers - Relaunch • Relaunched on 12/12/18 for eligible organisations not currently listed on the register. There is no deadline and the portal will remain open for applications. • ESFA will start to assess applications on the first working day of each month for any applications received during the previous month. It usually takes around 12 weeks to assess an application, but it can sometimes take longer. • If your organisation is currently on the register, you will need to reapply. We will be inviting organisations to reapply in phases, during 2019. • If your application is unsuccessful, we will provide feedback. You will be able to apply twice within a 12-month period.

5. Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers - Relaunch • Changes to the application process • Readiness to deliver • All supporting providers must apply • A higher quality threshold • Information you must supply • Your hierarchy and management structure • Financial health • How you evaluate the quality of your provision • Your employees and their experience • Readiness to engage • Policies which safeguard learners

6. AEB Allocations 2019/20 • We have issued illustrative ESFA funded Adult Education Budget (AEB) allocations for the 2019 to 2020 funding year (for delivery to residents outside of devolved areas). • Your illustrative allocation value excludes funding allocated for 19-24 traineeships (March 19) and/or continuing learners (Indicative March 19 / Allocation July 19). • Allocations are illustrative because we have based them on an indicative national budget for 2019 to 2020 and we are still quality assuring 2017 to 2018 data. We are sharing with you now to help with planning but final allocations may be different. • How you earn your funding for AEB in academic year 2019 to 2020 is unchanged from academic year 2018 to 2019 including the rates that we will use within the funding calculations.

7. Post-16 Funding Letter to the Sector • 16 to 19 and 19+ allocations, funding and contracting teams operate as a single post-16 funding centre. • National base rates for 16 to 19 funding • Supporting growth in maths • Implementation of T Levels • European Social Fund • Further education reforms • Insolvency regime for further education and sixth-form colleges • Oversight of independent training providers • Apprenticeship non-levy contract extension • Learner transfers

8. Young People • Base rate confirmed • T Levels consultation • Maths pilots • Maths and English condition of funding • High Needs Students

9. Adult Funding • European Social Fund • Advanced Learner Loans • Apprenticeships

10. Roundtable Q&A • Small employer funding: • Extra Support for small employers is outlined from E94 of apprenticeship funding: rules and guidance for employers - August 2018 to July 2019, which is available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/733034/1819_Employer_Rules_v1.0.pdf No further news at present regarding fees as part of autumn budget • Level one prior attainment: • Advance notification of change to the funding guidance: students with prior attainment in English and maths at grade 4 or above. We are aiming to include in the 2019 to 2020 Funding Guidance that students with prior attainment in English and maths at Grade 4 or above that are undertaking a vocational qualification are not expected to be on an Entry Level or Level 1 core aim, even if they have no previous experience in the vocational area – they should undertake a core aim at L2 or above, except in exceptional circumstances. Exceptional circumstances will not be on the basis of previous experience in the vocational area in question and should be fully documented for audit purposes. More information on this is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/review-of-end-of-year-16-to-19-study-programmes-data-for-2016-to-2017 • Provider engagement • We continue to engage nationally with nationally with the likes of AELP and AoCetc. We also continue to listen to feedback from more local networks, such as NELP and we do feed messages from networks to policy colleagues.

11. Roundtable Q&A • Degree apprenticeships: • To gain a general view as to how degree apprenticeships are performing members may wish to review the following article on the Office for Students website: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/news-blog-and-events/press-and-media/new-data-shows-profile-of-degree-apprentices/ • Digital Apprenticeship Service Rollout: • We have responded already to the question on this. Timeline for full rollout was first announced in August 2018: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/apprenticeship-service-transition-acting-on-user-feedback • Is the Matrix Standard for IAG still a contractual requirement? • Yes see section 18 of apprenticeship contract and section 21.1 for Skills & AEB contract. • Is there any Regional performance data available so that we can see as a region how we are performing on Apprenticeships and 16 to 19 study programmes? • We will investigate what meaningful and sharable data is available and share this with network at a later date.

12. Questions