Worcester Further Education Colleges

Jo Swinson Excerpts

Thursday 24th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Jo Swinson)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester (Mr Walker) on securing the debate, on his powerful advocacy of the value of having high quality further education locally for his constituents and on standing up for his college—as he said, that is his job—as his local college principals make the case for the funding they require.

Today, I am deputising for the Under-Secretary of State for Skills, my hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matthew Hancock), who is currently abroad on official business. I will of course attempt to address the points that have been raised. I have to admit, perhaps to the disappointment of the House, that my hon. Friend’s absence may well deprive us of an interesting discussion on the finer points of cricket, as I understand that both he and my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester are such passionate followers of the game. I will not attempt to stand in my ministerial colleague’s shoes on that particular subject as I fear I would not be particularly eloquent—I apologise to the House for that. Instead, I shall turn to the points that my hon. Friend has raised in his speech.

He extended a kind invitation to me and my colleagues at BIS to visit Worcester. I confess that I do not think I have ever visited Worcester, so I was unable to picture the areas he mentioned in his speech. Who knows, there may well be cause at some point for me to visit. If I do not visit the college—it is not in my portfolio—then perhaps there will be a range of post offices undergoing transformation.

On capital investment, as my hon. Friend knows and outlined, for decades, colleges were starved of the funding for capital renewal that both schools and universities enjoyed. It was therefore no surprise that when the Learning and Skills Council offered significant capital grants, the colleges jumped at the opportunity. Bids were encouraged, including bids to grow, with atriums, spas and other such luxuries. Promises were made without the funding being available to match them. Hugely expensive projects with poor cost controls delivered poor value for money in some of the projects that were completed, so the Learning and Skills Council ran out of money. Suddenly building projects were stopped, sometimes after huge expense on plans and with holes in the ground. It was not a happy time, as my hon. Friend eloquently explained—my hon. Friend the Member for Wyre Forest (Mark Garnier) also managed to contribute his experiences to the debate.

It is in that context, as well as the wider catastrophe of the public finances that we were bequeathed, that we are now rebuilding. We have been working hard to ensure that lessons are learned, as my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester urged. Inevitably, one of those lessons is that we should have a firm focus on value for money, the physical infrastructure needs of colleges and the benefits that capital investment can bring to students, employers and the communities they serve. The approach is also coupled with a focus on affordability. This provides the background to how we have moved forward, set priorities for capital investment and given hope and a better sense of certainty to both general FE colleges and sixth-form colleges. I hope he will agree that since 2010, this coalition Government have done everything possible to rectify the disaster that the previous Labour Government left us. Indeed, between May 2010 and November 2012, we made more than £330 million available to the Skills Funding Agency for investment in the general FE college estate, with more than £120 million made available through the Education Funding Agency for investment in the sixth-form college estate, making a total of £450 million over that period.

My hon. Friend raised capital funding issues in relation to two important institutions in his constituency: Worcester technology college—the general FE college serving his constituency—which had issues around its recent unsuccessful bid for capital funding; and Worcester sixth-form college, which had issues relating primarily to the Department for Education’s building condition improvement fund. If I may, I propose to respond on the latter first, as I would like to cover the more substantive issues raised in relation to the technology college in some detail.

On the capital funding available to Worcester sixth-form college, my hon. Friend explained that his local college had made great progress already, with improvements to the cladding and structure of the building, and set out what else it was keen to do, with the science and other facilities. He made a good case for a two-year allocation approach, which would provide greater flexibility in build and delivery options. As I have mentioned, capital funding for maintenance in sixth-form colleges is provided annually by the Department for Education through the Education Funding Agency. However, I understand that the Department is currently undertaking a property data survey of the school estate, which is due to be completed later this year. It will inform wider thinking in that Department on the scope and options for longer-term allocation periods from 2014-15 onwards, which I am sure my hon. Friend will welcome. I am also happy to ensure that I draw the comments he has made about this issue on behalf of his sixth-form college to the attention of my colleagues in the Department for Education, as I am sure they will be interested to hear what has been said, both by him and by the principal of Worcester sixth-form college, who I think was Mr Kitcatt—maybe if he is lucky, he will have a break in the next funding round.

Let me return to Worcester technology college and the allocation of capital funds by the Skills Funding Agency. It might be helpful if I explain the broad approach we took to capital investment in general FE colleges. Ministers set the priorities for capital investment. The Skills Funding Agency then consulted the sector on the detailed criteria for deciding allocations and took the sector’s advice on timing and process issues, to minimise burdens while ensuring a focus on value and impact. The agency then launched the various schemes, publishing the agreed criteria for all to see. The agency then offered advice to colleges, assessed bids and, with input from the sector, undertook moderation to ensure fairness. At the end of the process, the agency confirmed funding decisions to colleges.

Clearly, with all competitive bidding processes there are winners and losers. Of course I recognise and understand the concerns—such as those expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Worcester and the principal of Worcester college of technology—about ensuring that those colleges that most urgently need capital funding support can get it. I also understand their concerns about the assessment process carried out by the Skills Funding Agency before grants were awarded, although I would say that the agency’s approach to capital funding has, by and large, served the general FE college sector well. As I have said, it was based, as such processes inevitably often are, on competitive bidding between colleges against a set of published, sector-endorsed criteria, with sector representatives involved in moderating the assessment of bids in order to ensure fair play.

I understand my hon. Friend’s point about the seemingly bizarre scenario in which points would be awarded for not yet having complied with disability discrimination legislation. I would say, however, that whether the situation involved access issues for students, health and safety issues involving asbestos, or issues relating to the basic structure of a building not being windproof or watertight, if there were a needs-based element to the criteria, issues such as those would be taken into account to some extent to ensure that the money was being spent where it was most needed. I understand my hon. Friend’s point, however; he certainly put it very well.

I am given to understand that Worcester technology college’s bid in the last exercise, announced in the autumn, was assessed as primarily falling short of the required standard in its description of the benefits to students’ education and of the area’s prospects for economic growth that would result from funding being awarded. That was obviously a great disappointment to my hon. Friend and to the college and its students, but I can only conclude that that was a reasonable outcome on the basis of the funding criteria then in place. I am sure, however, that my hon. Friend will want to ensure that his college is well placed to make further bids that will have a more positive outcome. He has certainly made a strong case for his college today, and I am sure that he will continue to advocate powerfully for it.

Cases such as that one, and those that other hon. Members have raised with the Minister on previous occasions, serve to underline the fact that we now need a change of approach in the capital funding of general FE colleges, and such a change was set out in the FE college capital investment strategy published on 6 December 2012. Our shared commitment to working with the further education and skills sector to help it to provide the best possible service to adults and young people is clear, as, indeed, is the £550 million of funding for general FE college capital projects that was announced in the skills investment statement, which was also published on 6 December.

Accordingly, we want all general FE colleges to feel able to help to shape the programmes and processes involved, so that we can most effectively manage and allocate public funds to those capital projects that need them most. My hon. Friend the Minister has already asked the Skills Funding Agency to continue working closely with a sector-led capital reference group to ensure that issues and concerns are known, shared and addressed. He is also keen to ensure that colleges have access to help and advice in developing their plans. I note my hon. Friend’s point about feedback, and it is important that good feedback should be given when bids are unsuccessful, to help plans for future bids to be developed.

On 14 December, the Skills Funding Agency wrote to all 60 colleges that had been unsuccessful in securing funding last time around, to set out the next steps and the options available to them. Today, I want to encourage Worcester college, and all colleges with an interest, to engage constructively with the agency and the capital reference group as we develop and implement our new FE college capital funding programme. It will be a more flexible programme that will include project development support, published time scales and the opportunity for colleges to resubmit applications that fall short of the standards agreed with the sector.

I say to my hon. Friend, and to the college whose interests he has so ably represented today, let us move forward rather than dwelling on the past. I am sure that he is nodding in agreement with that. I understand that, as a first step, Worcester technology college authorities are due to meet representatives of the Skills Funding Agency tomorrow to discuss the options available to them. I sincerely hope and expect that that will be an important first step towards ensuring that the college’s urgent capital funding needs are met before too much longer, and that it succeeds in gaining its fair share of the substantial new investment now on offer from the coalition Government.

Question put and agreed to.