In March 2017, the ESFA shocked the sector by announcing the first providers to successfully make their way onto the new Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP). Initially the shock was that some well established providers had failed in their application. Then widespread concern was raised about the sheer number of new companies, with no track record of trading, had been successful. FE Week wrote extensively about it at the time – see example here.
I interviewed Ofsted’s chief inspector and Ofsted’s director of FE about it, and they said they were “worried” that the number of providers in-scope for inspection had nearly doubled, from 793 to 1,473 (1,303 training providers and 170 employer providers). See here.
So, Ofsted won their case with the DfE for extra funding to enable them to undertake a new type of inspection, the two day ‘New Provider Monitoring Visit (NPMV). The NPMV visit by Ofsted should come “within 24 months of enrolling their first apprentices. Providers are given 2 days’ notice of the visit”. More information about NPMVs can be found here.
It turns out Ofsted had reason to be concerned, and the ESFA realised they had made it too easy for companies and sole traders to successfully find their way onto the register. Since it’s first launch, the ESFA has twice paused applications for lengthy periods before introducing a ‘refresh’ to the process.
Ofsted’s NPMVs have continued, with some Covid interruption, and by 31 August 2022 they had undertaken and published 865 reports.
Each report includes a separate judgement for three themes: Leadership and management, Quality of education and/or training and Safeguarding. If the provider receives a “insufficient progress” for any of these themes the ESFA implements their intervention policy, typically refusing to pay the provider for any new apprenticeship starts and potentially removing the provider from the register.
The current register includes a ‘start date’ column, which suggests the original 1,473 training providers and employer providers in 2017 has shrunk to 899 (a 39% fall) as at 25 October. However, since 2017, 493 providers have joined the register, making for a current total of 1,392.
The graph below shows the number of training providers and employer providers added to the register in each calendar year, based on ‘start date’ in the current register.
RoATP provider start dates
Source: 25 October RoATP (excludes those removed)
No Data Found
So, companies continue to successfully apply to join the RoATP, and Ofsted continues to undertake their new provider monitoring visits.
The graph below shows the cumulative number of NPMVs as at 31 August since 2019.
Ofsted New Provider Monitoring Visits - cumulative
Source: Ofsted FE and skills inspections and outcomes: management information
No Data Found
Of the 360 NPMV that had taken place by 31 August 2019, there were 21% with an ‘insufficient progress’ judgement for one or more of the three themes. So the ESFA were implementing their intervention policy for more than 1 in five of all new apprenticeship providers.
I think it should be expected that over time, and given the RoATP application process has got tougher, the percentage of new providers receiving ‘insufficient’ judgements should fall significantly.
Yet, by 31 August 2022, after a total of 865 NPMV had taken place, the percentage of ‘insufficient progress’ judgements remains at 21 percent. And the percentage of ‘significant progress’ judgements for leadership and management had fallen from 10% in 2019 to 9% by 31 August 2022. And ‘insufficient progress’ judgements for safeguarding had risen from 7 to 8% of NPMV by 31 August 2022.
So, it seems fair to say that based on NPMV judgements, new providers seem to be stubbornly stuck at more than 1 in 5 requiring ESFA intervention following an Ofsted visit.
The graph below so the number of NPMV in the past 3 years. In 2019/20 there were 21% ‘insufficient progress’ judgements for leadership and management. This slightly worsened to 21.8% for 2020/21 and slightly improved to 19.7% for 2021/22. The ‘insufficient progress’ judgements for quality of education went from 20% to 18.7% to 17.9% and safeguarding from 7.7% to 8.8% to 7.7%
Ofsted New Provider Monitoring Visits - annualised
Source: Ofsted FE and skills inspections and outcomes: management information published 21 September 2022
No Data Found
On this annualised graph the has been very minor improvements – clearly I think insufficient to suggest anything of significance.
In fact, the percentage of ‘significant progress’ judgements for leadership and management fell from 10.9% in 2020/21 to just 6.8% in 2021/22 and ‘significant progress’ judgements for quality of education fell from 10.4% in 2020/21 to just 6.8% in 2021/22.
On this annualised basis the has been very minor improvements – clearly I think insufficient to suggest anything of significance.
In fact, the percentage of ‘significant progress’ judgements for leadership and management fell from 10.9% in 2020/21 to just 6.8% in 2021/22 and ‘significant progress’ judgements for quality of education fell from 10.4% in 2020/21 to just 6.8% in 2021/22.
Conclusion: Despite the ESFA tightening up the RoATP application process, there appears to be little to no evidence new provider quality is improving (based on Ofsted NPMV judgements), with 1 in 5 continuing to find themselves in intervention.
You can downloaded a one-pager of the my NPMV analysis from the ADI data section of the website, or from here.
Three questions that the ESFA and Ofsted might like to try an answer:
1. Why are 1 in 5 continuing to find themselves in intervention?
2. Does the RoATP need tightening further?
3. What’s an acceptable percentage of new providers requiring intervention? Note: Last year (to 31 August 2022) Ofsted awarded 17 grade 1s (5%), 197 grade 2s (62%), 85 grade 3s (27%) and 20 grade 4s (6%). If you consider a grade 3 and 4 to require intervention, that makes a whopping 33%.