WIREDGOV

Keith Smith, the Skills Funding Agency’s Executive Director of Funding and Programmes, spoke on Adult Funding and Apprenticeships at a workshop at the Association of Colleges Annual Conference

He began by exploring the challenges and opportunities for the landscape of Adult Funding, stressing the importance of employer ownership across the whole funding and qualifications system.

Working with the sector and putting learners and employers at the heart of our simplification proposals has helped create a more streamlined and transparent system. The introduction of mechanisms like the new ‘Innovation Code’ help give colleges and providers greater freedom and flexibility in how they use their funding allocation to be more responsive to employer demand.

Other steps we have taken to implement a streamlined System include: 

• Introduced a single funding formula for the whole of the adult skills budget
• Rates expressed in £’s and new simplified rates matrix
• Scrapped Standard Learner Numbers and hidden wiring such as the ‘provider factor’
• Removal of Guided Learning Hours (GLH) from rates calculations and introduction of credit
• Streamlined approach to Learner Support
• Retained existing Apprenticeship funding rates
• Simplified funding formula

How we have taken steps to introduce wider simplification: 

• Established two externally chaired advisory boards – funding systems and qualifications but we need to review current governance arrangements for data and data collection to deliver the real benefits of open data.
• Root and branch review at a number of colleges to identify the causes of unnecessary bureaucracy and cost. 
• Simplified and clarified the funding rules and evidence requirements by publishing rules in plain English, receiving the Crystal Mark.
• Removed the Financial Management and Control Evaluation (FMCE) and published the revised Joint Audit Code of Practice. 
• Transformed Approved College and Training Organisation Register (ACTOR) into the Register of Training Organisations.

The Apprenticeships reforms will:

• Put employers in the driving seat
• Increase the quality of Apprenticeships, including a higher expectation of English and Maths
• Simplify Apprenticeships by introducing standards described simply by employers