Josh Mellor

FE to get ‘extra £800m’ next year as Starmer ‘scraps’ 50% uni target PM replaces Blair’s mantra with a new goal that includes FE and apprenticeships and teases post-16 white paper plans

Starmer's speech was a major trail for the upcoming post-16 white paper:
- Regional improvement teams (presumably replacing or reporting to the FE commissioner) - £20m just been splashed on these for schools
- Some kind of national CPD offer for FE teachers (no sign of pay equality though)

...

Please follow and subscribe, and always keen to hear your thoughts, either in the comments or in confidence via josh.mellor@feweek.co.uk.

NEETs top McFadden's DWP skills agenda McFadden will seek to use his new powers over skills policy to curb 'wasted potential' from youth unemployment and cut the government’s growing benefits bill

Even though we know very little about the big skills shift to DWP, there was a fair bit to pack into this week's coverage: what's moving over? what's the secretary of state's vision? What's at stake? And what exactly are the risks and opportunities here?

feweek.co.uk/neets-top-mc...

What was the scheme?

Some helpful questions and considerations re the skills brief shifting to DWP/"Growth Dept"

Skills brief to move out of DfE – reports New 'growth department' expected to be created following Keir Starmer's reshuffle

Breaking: Keir Starmer has shifted the skills brief out of DfE and into a new reported 'growth department' with the Department for Work and Pensions, led by @patmcfaddenmp.bsky.social

feweek.co.uk/skills-brief...

Skills brief to move out of DfE – reports New 'growth department' expected to be created following Keir Starmer's reshuffle

Breaking: The government is planning to pull the skills brief out of the Department for Education and move it to a new department feweek.co.uk/skills-brief...

Now widely reported the skills brief is moving to the DWP under Pat McFadden. A very interesting move.

Skills has been under the DfE since 2016, when it was moved from the business dept.

Seems unlikely this will include 16-19, but will it include both higher education and further education?

To be fair, minutes are a pretty niche area of interest, but they are nonetheless an important (and legally required) public record of how colleges are spending billions in taxpayers' funding each year on education for 16-19, adults and apprentices.

Get on board and publish your minutes, says FE Commissioner FE Week audit finds half of colleges have not published governor minutes this year

Over the summer FE Week took a look at college governance board minutes to see how many are published on a regular basis and how up to date they are. We found a mixed picture, so is it time to tighten up the rules?

feweek.co.uk/get-on-board...

Reform local media ban is a glimpse of what may happen with Farage in power As Nigel Farage attacked the state of free speech in the UK in front of a congressional committee in Washington DC, The Independent’s political editor David Maddox discusses Reform’s attitude to a fre...

Will be interesting to see whether Nottinghamshire County Council ignores/excludes/bans Nottinghamshire Live to the point that they don't provide right of reply comments for future stories, even if it's in their interest.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

MP criticises college group after another campus sale WCG has now closed two sites since it merged in 2016

Here’s another recent example:

feweek.co.uk/mp-criticise...

MP criticises college group after another campus sale WCG has now closed two sites since it merged in 2016

Small town education - should the ever-restricted funding system justify a market town losing its vocational college?

Colleges as a local heritage guardian - do colleges have a duty to safeguard large legacy assets like theatres and stately homes?

MP criticises college group after another campus sale WCG has now closed two sites since it merged in 2016

This story touches on some ongoing issues for wider the FE sector:

Transparent decision making - should the DfE/college management come clean if they plan to sell off a town's only FE campus and agree a £7m grant?

feweek.co.uk/dfe-props-up...

EMCCA's adult skills cash released after legal bid is ditched But losing providers continue complaints that most winners are out-of-area

💸 A new combined authority has finally dished out £6.5m in procured adult skills fund contracts following the withdrawal of a legal challenge that delayed the tender process feweek.co.uk/emccas-adult...

New ‘honesty’ rules for awarding organisations in December Awarding organisations required to act with honesty and integrity or face fines

📚 Awarding organisations have warned they face fresh layers of bureaucracy after Ofqual confirmed plans to add new enforceable 'principles' to its bulging rulebook

feweek.co.uk/new-honesty-...

Marples trial: Witnesses end with 3aaa ‘fraud’ scrutiny Competence and motive of investigators challenged

A massive High Court trial against the Department for Education is approaching its final stages

A loss for the government could cost them around £60m

feweek.co.uk/marples-tria...

Shockingly little planning goes in to planning post 16 education places.

Colleges in some major cities are full already, and numbers are set to rise further.

Burnham, who has no official role in 16-19 education, is at least putting his money where his mouth is.

How many millions in spending should the mayor approve before the public can get excited and and start asking questions?

HEY Combined Authority - 28 May 2025 YouTube video by Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority

Here's Campbell answering the question about whether Reform UK policies conflict with the interests of the regions.

Also, enjoy the weird automated shifting videos of the board and audience depending who's speaking

www.youtube.com/live/dD-APry...

No sign of drastic DOGE cost-cutting instincts yet as he green lit UKSPF funding, agreed to ask the govt for £1.6m in renewable energy grants for local projects, and agreed £20m in transport funding for local councils.

Campbell said he’d been elected by the people and was there to work for them, so that means no?

The new mayor then said nowt, while fellow board members (local Lib Dem and Tory council leaders) and officials chatted away about whether the adult skills strategy should prioritise farming and fishing.

Things were a tad more interesting in Hull and East Riding, under new Reform mayor Luke Campbell…

Who faced public questions about whether he’d be a Reform style anti-net zero mayor given that his region is, er… home to 8 operational offshore wind farms

Anyway, Jenkyns did what most regional mayors do: decided how to spend local economic growth/transport/skills funding that govt allocates them each year.

This time, a few million from the Shared Prosperity Fund for an oral health institute, a local skills needs study and an agritech centre

Both new @reformuk.bsky.social regional mayors have held their first public meetings this week.

Up in Greater Lincs on Weds, new mayor @andreajenkyns.bsky.social was surprised no public came to ask her questions (as they have a right to), maybe because the meeting was at 2pm?

Eureka! Science trainer given Ofsted's highest grade Inspectorate full of praise for 500 learner-strong provider's curriculum and teaching

🧪 A healthcare and science specialist training provider has been judged ‘outstanding’ after inspectors found students 'excellently prepared for their future roles' feweek.co.uk/eureka-scien...

“We’re in a position where information which is far more prejudicial to future proceedings is swirling on social media, and sadly, future juries are now far more likely to be exposed to that information than they are true information which is published in reputable news platforms.”

@transportforlondon.bsky.social think there might be an issue with your displays on the Liz line, this passing train stopped.

Hazlewood school pupils eating in tent amid concrete fears Pupils still eat meals in a marquee a year since dangerous concrete was found at their school.

Lovely www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Mayors dump adult education cuts on independent training providers Up to two-thirds axed from devolved procured budgets

After revealing mayors have been told to cut their adult skills budgets, @joshmellor.bsky.social has been investigating where the axe will fall

While some are using banked underspends to protect budgets, others are planning huge cuts to procured contracts

feweek.co.uk/mayors-cut-i...