Parent Data Requests Are Getting Messier. Colleges Need Clear Lines.
Parent-led learner data requests are a growing governance risk for colleges, especially where support, consent and safeguarding overlap.
4 days ago3 min read
The Week College Funding Became a Staff Pay Problem
College pay is back in the hard part of the conversation. This week, FE Week reported that the Association of Colleges, UCU and UNISON have jointly warned ministers that college staff could be facing a very low pay award, possibly even zero, unless there is a material change in funding. That is not a normal sector posture. Employers and unions do not often stand shoulder to shoulder on pay. When they do, it usually means the spreadsheet has run out of room. A zero offer woul
Jun 193 min read
Parliament Just Promised SEND Reform. Colleges Are Reading the Small Print.
Tuesday's King's Speech put SEND reform into legislation for the first time. The Education for All bill, confirmed on 13 May, bundles school standards and special educational needs into a single piece of law, backed by £4 billion in investment. [FE Week] For colleges, the question isn't whether reform is coming. It's whether the timetable and the funding model will work in practice. What the bill actually covers The detail, so far, tracks closely to February's school white
May 153 min read
The NI Grant Is Coming. So Is the Pay Claim. Colleges Are Caught Between Both
College finance teams are working through a familiar kind of late-April: multiple funding announcements arriving, none of them quite settled, with decisions due in May that will shape the rest of the financial year. This week brought guidance on the post-16 National Insurance contributions grant, updated apprenticeship funding rules, and a pay claim from joint unions now queued for its first formal hearing in June. The combination doesn't make for easy planning. The NI Grant
May 13 min read
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