Agenda item

(Director of Governance) To undertake appropriate external scrutiny of Epping Forest College, in response to the concerns of members with regard to local further education facilities and services.

The Chairman introduced the Principal of Epping Forest College, Saboohi Famili, who had been invited to address the committee on the recent Ofsted reports (latest re-inspection report was in November 2017) to update the committee on the latest improvements made by the College.

Ms Famili had last attended this Committee in February last year to respond to the concerns raised by the January 2017 Ofsted report on its ‘inadequate’ judgement of its local further education facilities and services.

Ms Famili noted that there had been three Ofsted inspections carried out over the last year. A full re-assessment had been carried out last week; but unfortunately she could not share the results of that with the Committee. However, their self assessment had shown they had noticeably improved since last she was here and they had moved one stage further up on their journey to excellence. They still had challenges and notices of improvement and these would not be removed until the Ofsted report was published and their judgement given.

As an indication she noted the results that they had received so far, which they were extremely pleased about. In July/August last year they had a 5.6% increase on their study programme that took them to just around the national benchmark, before that they were around 8% adrift of that national level. On level 2 they had increased to 12.8%, now 5% above the national benchmark; on level 3 that had increased by 3% to 88%. Significant improvements had been made on GCSE English; they were now 16% above the national benchmark. They had also had a 24% increase on health and social care. Over 93% of their learners expressed their enjoyment of studying at Epping Forest College, which was an increase of over 12% from the year before.

Another key area for progression where they were very poor at was delivering apprenticeships; they had improved immeasurably and were now just above the national benchmark at 61.2%.

All these improvements had been achieved through hard work by members of staff at the college and also having a very supportive and challenging board of governors. They have tackled poor performance by giving support where it was needed and taking immediate action when needed.

They had invested heavily in Continuous Professional Development (CPD), for their lecturers and had joined various organisations that had better practice that they had and this meant that they could now admit that there were things that they did not know and this has changed the culture of the organisation from blame to acceptance of the issues and then to deal with them.

They now had some significant partnership arrangements from other organisations and as well as other colleges which their students could benefit from.

They had now stopped their decline and were moving the college in an upward direction, mainly achieved by measuring and tracking progress and not being ashamed to tackle things that were not right. Their approach at the college was what they called “100-0”, that is 100% responsibility and 0% blame. This was only the start of their journey and it was now a college on the way up and would continue to improve and provide outstanding quality in the future.

The meeting was then opened up to questions from the members present.

Councillor Neville asked if there were still some subjects that were below the national benchmark and what action was being taken to improve them. He was told that there were; there was some concern about the Level 1 programme overall, also Maths and functional skills. There were still pockets of poor practice that they needed to address. But the processes they have put in place would enable them to tackle these areas of poor performance. Councillor Mohindra, who was there in his capacity as the Chairman of the College’s Board of Governors added it was worth saying that when Ms Famili joined the College last year they were at their lowest ebb. Since then they have had a lot of support from various government agencies and he would like to thank them for that. Ms Famili had said that data being presented from the college had been a problem and this had now fundamentally changed. As for consistency and quality, they were not there yet, it was a challenge. They had to look after the students they had now and make sure that they were sustainable and viable for tomorrow.

Morale both for staff and students was much better now; the College had improved immeasurably and the morale of the college had definitely changed for the better and she would welcome members into the college to see how far they had come. 

Councillor Patel noted that they had set themselves some very high benchmarks to meet. It was noted that student numbers were dropping and that was affecting the amount of resources they could draw on, as that was based on last year’s numbers. How did they manage to keep up improvements based on these resources? Ms Famili replied that the College had lost over 34% of its funding over the last four year and that they had no choice but to put in deficit budgets, having to match their costs to their income and that was still a challenge they had to face. They hoped to get the college back into balance by 2019 and then aim for a future surplus. Theirs was a young college with students from 15 to 19 and they needed to match their needs and aspirations and provide more cost effective improvements in learning and being innovative in the way that they did that. They benefited from a senior team that was well connected that enabled them to bring about some of those changes and best practices at no cost to the college.

Councillor Patel said that they were good at supporting struggling students and he hoped that this had not been cut. He was told that it had not been. They had put in place processes looking at provision of courses and resources and how much value they gave back to their community and they used that process to decide what courses they ran.

The Chairman noted that they had just had an open evening in January and wondered what sort of turn out and response they had received from that.  Ms Famili said it was very positive; they were extremely pleased with the enrolment this year, in September that had recruited more than their target. They have had a very positive response to the college, considering it had a poor reputation. 15% of students enrolled this year said they came to the college based on word of mouth from other students.  They also have a Career Festival every year which was well received and very busy. They were not seeing a decline of people interested in the college; they also had an “inspired by” speaker programme given by inspirational people who come and give a talk once a month. This has brought in a lot of people who would not have come to EFC otherwise.

Councillor Baldwin asked about technical and vocational education; had the college taken on the changes such as the ‘T’ level system (T for technical). He noted that there had been some criticism that there were too many qualifications, up to 13,000 different ones and there was an attempt to simplify these down to around 15 categories and fewer qualifications. Could she also say something about the modern apprenticeship scheme, in which 20% was to be spent in formal education and 80% in training. Was this fully funded for 16 to 19 year olds? Also he had noted that they had dropped motor engineering from the syllabus, this was an important engineering function. Councillor Mohindra said on motor engineering, the governing board had decided that they could not offer everything and so had chosen to concentrate on things they could improve on. As for apprentices, the college was not able to accept new apprentices and had not been able to do so since November 2016 and that was unlikely to change in the near future. Ms Famili added that they had removed the traditional motor vehicle course. But, taking into consideration the increase in electric cars, they were planning to bring this back sometime in a different form and was in their development plan. As for apprenticeships they had not been able to take part in the new set up for apprentices, and in her view that was a blessing in disguise, as it was proving very problematic for her colleagues. As for the ‘T’ (technical and technology) qualifications, they were a grade 4 college so were not allowed to do these. They were looking to supply IT and AI courses in the future, hopefully by 2020 as part of a consortium called the ‘Federation of Essex Colleges’ and as part of the Essex Skills Board.

Councillor Wixley had submitted a couple of questions before the meeting. This first one he conceded had been largely answered. The question was: “I note from the Ofsted report that amongst other things the College has “terminated the college’s motor vehicle provision.” I would like to ask why this is, as my understanding is that the College was considering running special courses for the training of motor vehicle technicians in respect of the new and advanced methods of propulsion e.g. electric motor propulsion and hybrid engines?

I do wonder if this is a missed opportunity because if that plan had gone ahead there may have been an opportunity for partnership working with a local vehicle dealership and perhaps this could have also included a sponsorship arrangement to help fund the project.”

Ms Famili noted that they were now exploring sponsorship for the new electrical workshops.

Councillor Wixley went on to read his second question: “My second question is in regard to the College’s link with Barnet and Southgate College and in particular is there any integration of finances? I ask this question because I have discovered that Barnet and Southgate College is the main sponsor of Borehamwood Football Club which is a professional or semi-profession football club playing in the 5^th tier of English football. I don’t know what benefit Barnet and Southgate College derives from this sponsorship, but presumably it involves a financial contribution to Borehamwood Football Club and therefore wonder if the College contributes either directly or indirectly?

If the College does in anyway contribute, it is difficult to imagine what benefit a college based in the Epping Forest District area would gain from such a deal.”

Councillor Mohindra said that Epping Forest College no longer had strong links with Barnet and Southgate College.

Councillor Holly Whitbread noted that they had spoken about partnership working and the improvement in health and social care; were there any opportunities for working with healthcare providers? Ms Famili said that if the Councillor was aware of any links they could make then they would be happy to follow it up. The College had established a commercial arm that could respond without the restraints of qualifications to the needs of developing employers of the future. If members were aware of any businesses that would benefit from staff development or on the job training, they would be happy to explore what they could do to help them as they have had some successes in that area.

Councillor Patel asked about supporting the students with mental health issues. What training did the staff have in identifying these types of students and what did the college do to support them. Ms Famili replied that they now had a full time counsellor on site and last year that made a large difference in their ability to respond to these types of problems; they had also implemented the “lets talk about it” campaign. They also have speakers come to talk about mental health issues. They have an open/ acceptance culture in the college that would allow students to disclose any problems. Despite this some students did not declare any issues they may have, so they had trained their support staff and lectures to enable them to identify any signs of mental health issues and to make referrals. This year they have had 346 referrals and in her view the higher that level was the higher the efficiency of their system was. They did take this very seriously.

Councillor Sartin asked if attendance was improving as this was mentioned in previous reports. She was told that yes it was improving. However, 40% of students came in from London where transport problems could be an issue. They have now introduced a block timetabling system which gave them three hour timeslots so that they would have concentrated period of study time. They have also started the day half an hour later, and this had made a massive impact for the students. If they were late there would be an expectation from their peers of an explanation of why they were late (or missing); peer pressure helps. Attendance was an issue but they were tackling it. Councillor Mohindra added that they send regular reports back to the parents which helped. Their systems also now automatically sent a text to the parents when a student did not turn up.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse noted that last time Ms Famili was here she said that an area review had got under way and had now reported giving various recommendations, could she tell us what if any implications there were for the college. Councillor Mohindra said that this question was about Barnet and Southgate College as part of an area review to which they were potentially looking to merge with them. They have since decided not to do so. Because of their financial issues they were in the control of the FE commissioners and were now shortlisted to consider a couple of other colleges. His opinion was that there was one college that had good potential to be a partner. It was generally agreed that bigger was better, as a stand alone college they were a bit too small.

Councillor Sartin asked if there were some programmes in place to encourage governors to go into the classrooms to get a feel for themselves on how things were going. Councillor Mohindra noted that as a governing body they have had a fairly high turnover; that process was called a ‘learning walk’ and most of the governors had done at least one. In his view the quality of the governors had improved in terms of the challenges they were facing today. Councillor Sartin said that was interesting as the college had to have a good working relationship with their governing body to succeed.

Councillor Sartin then drew this item to a close and thanked Ms Famili and Councillor Mohindra for coming along that evening and answering their questions. Their offer to make a return visit would be taken up but not in the near future; but members would like an update in due course.