The DfE Loans Scheme is a Short Term Sticking Plaster
Last year's ONS reclassification of FE Colleges as 'public sector' will have many impacts. One is Colleges' inability to borrow from commercial lenders for capital construction projects. As a result, as reported in MabelPost 030323, the Department for Education (DfE) is creating and managing a new capital loan facility for colleges.
This week applications to the facility opened for English colleges, and they must be submitted before June. The facility will be used to bridge funding gaps for projects in financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25. Loans can support self-funded projects or those that have already attracted DfE grants (T-Level fund, post-16 capacity fund, FE capital transformation fund etc.).
Speaking to FE Week, Julian Gravatt, deputy chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said, "It's a short-term thing, which is kind of understandable because no one knows what's going to happen to the budget after 2025 [the end of the spending review period]... what we all really want is for Treasury in a future financial settlement to set out a continuing capital budget for FE."
MabelSpace could not agree more. FE Capital Project funding in this spending round has generally meant late announcements and rushed applications and projects.
Announcing funding competitions at short notice, where the applicant must complete the work in short timescales, is not helpful. Developing a college-wide Estates Strategy, and then generating a project business case with design proposals, typically takes around one year for a +£5 million project. Projects must then be approved by the DfE (a process often taking many months). Following approval, getting such a construction project tendered and built may consume another 18 to 24 months.
Capital within the current spending round is now largely allocated. This new loan facility will allow pre-approved projects to proceed. While the facility is welcome, it is only a necessary reaction to the ONS reclassification. It is a sticking plaster that will allow previously devised projects to proceed, and it is not new money for colleges (they will need to repay their loans).
To give Colleges time to plan appropriately and spend wisely, ministers should now devise a provisional future capital plan beyond the current spending round. This plan will be vital for those cash-starved FE Colleges needing estate improvements in 2025. The more notice, the better the proposals.
Of course, confirmation of any future allocation will be for the next parliament, and the present administration languishes in the opinion polls. Do ministers have the moral fibre to oversee the necessary planning activities? What are the long-term plans? As citizens, we have a right to know. More on this soon!
Has the DfE Abandoned a £100m Online Learning Platform?
The Guardian reports that the UK government has shelved plans for a £100m online learning platform. The platform was part of 'Multiply', a plan to improve adult numeracy skills. The then Chancellor Rishi Sunak pledged £560m toward the scheme in 2021. However, the Guardian says that Education insiders claim the project has been rushed. Meanwhile, the shadow schools minister Stephen Morgan has called the platform an "unworkable distraction" from the failure to recruit and retain maths teachers.
With respect to the online platform's procurement, the Guardian reports that:
the DfE admits the process has been paused while the government reviews how the wider scheme is working
Surely any learning platform should be integral to the wider scheme. It would be useful to understand the DfE's strategy and commitment to online. MabelSpace wants to know, as any long-term strategy would fundamentally affect the scale and nature of the sector's complementary physical learning facilities (See MabelPost 310323 & MabelPost 070423).
Meanwhile, Mark Dawe, CEO of online learning and skills provider The Skills Network, posted on LinkedIn, "is this yet another sign that the Department for Education are moving backwards rather than forwards in the delivery of skills in England?"
