Coventry and Warwickshire Area Review Final Report January 2017 Contents Background 3 The needs of the Coventry and Warwickshire area 4 Demographics and the economy 4 Patterns of employment and future growth 6 LEP priorities 9 Feedback from LEPs, employers, local authorities, students and staff 11 The quantity and quality of current provision 12 Performance of schools at Key Stage 4 13 Schools with sixth-forms 14 The further education and sixth-form colleges 14 The current offer in the colleges 15 Quality of provision and financial sustainability of colleges 16 Higher education in further education 17 Provision for students with special educational needs and disability (SEND) and high needs 18 Apprenticeships and apprenticeship providers 18 The need for change 18 The key areas for change 19 Initial options raised during visits to colleges 19 Criteria for evaluating options and use of sector benchmarks 21 Assessment criteria 21 FE sector benchmarks 21 Recommendations agreed by the steering group 23 City College Coventry and Henley College, Coventry 23 Hereward College of Further Education 24 King Edward VI College, Nuneaton 24 North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College 25 Stratford-upon-Avon College 25 Warwickshire College Group 26 Joint Venture Apprenticeship Company 26 Collaboration between the LEP, LAs and Colleges 27 Conclusions from this review 28 Next steps 29 2 Background In July 2015, the government announced a rolling programme of around 40 local area reviews, to be completed by March 2017, covering all general further education and sixth- form colleges in England. The reviews are designed to ensure that colleges are financially stable into the longer-term, that they are run efficiently, and are well-positioned to meet the present and future needs of individual students and the demands of employers. Students in colleges have high expectations about standards of teaching and learning and the extent to which their learning prepares them to progress further, to higher education or directly into employment. The local steering group was chaired by the Further Education (FE) Commissioner, Sir David Collins. The steering group met on 5 occasions between April 2016 and October 2016, and additional informal meetings also took place to consider and develop options in greater detail. Membership of the steering group comprised each college’s chair of governors and principal, representatives from Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), the 2 local authorities (Coventry City and Warwickshire), the Regional Schools Commissioner, and representatives from the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), the Education Funding Agency (EFA), and the Department for Education (DfE). Visits to colleges and support throughout the process were provided by staff from the FE and Sixth-form College Commissioners’ teams. The Joint Area Review Delivery Unit (JARDU) provided the project management, administrative support and developed supporting materials and papers used by the steering group. JARDU also led on consultations with local stakeholders. 3 The needs of the Coventry and Warwickshire area Demographics and the economy Coventry and Warwickshire area review covers the 2 local authority areas of Coventry City Council and Warwickshire Council, with a total population of approximately 899,400 people1. The area is illustrated in the map below, which shows where Coventry and Warwickshire sits in the context of the new West Midlands Combined Authority area, of which it is a part: 1 ONS Local Authority Profiles – see data annex – Local socio-economic data 4 The table below provides a snapshot of key demographic and economic data2, which has acted as a starting point for this review. Coventry City Warwickshire Great Britain Council Council Total population (2015) 345,400 554,000 63,258,400 Population aged 16 to 64 66.1% 61.7% 63.3% % with higher education 29.5% 41.4% 37.1% qualifications3 Those formally qualified to level 2+ 65.6% 73.0% 73.6% Gross weekly pay £ of residents £509.70 £536.60 £529.00 Gross weekly pay £ by workplace £535.20 £510.90 £528.50 Out-of-work benefit claimants 1.9% 1.1% 1.8% % of main benefit claimants 9.5% 6.2% 8.7% Jobs density4 0.77 0.94 0.82 Average for Total workplace units: the West Midlands Micro5 81.2% 84.5% 82.6% Small 13.2% 12.4% 13.9% Medium 3.7% 2.6% 3.0% Large 0.8% 0.5% 0.5% 2 ONS Local Authority Profiles – see data annex – Local socio-economic data. Please note that ONS update the data set on a regular basis and that the data included relates to the point at which the report was written. 3 Percentages relate to those aged 16 to 64 4 Job density relates to the level of jobs per resident aged 16 64. For example, a job density of 1.0 would mean that there is one job for every resident aged 16-64. The job density for the West Midlands as a whole is 0.75, which is slightly below the national average. 5 Micro-businesses have a total of 1 to 9 workers; small businesses have 10 to 49 workers; medium have 50 to 249; large have 250+ (2015 data). 5 The key points to note are: • Coventry residents are less likely to have a higher level qualification compared to the national average. In comparison, the proportion of those in Warwickshire qualified to degree level is above the national average • Warwickshire has low levels of benefit claimants, more jobs and residents receive higher pay than the national average. The earnings of residents are higher than the local workplace average, indicating that individuals are commuting to access better paid jobs • Coventry has a higher level of benefit claimants and fewer jobs than the national average. When pay is considered, earnings of residents are lower than the local workplace average • Coventry has a higher concentration of small, medium and large businesses than the regional average. Patterns of employment and future growth Coventry and Warwickshire’s nominal gross value added (GVA) was £21.56 million6 in 2014 and the nominal GVA per head for the area for 2014 was £24,2497 . Coventry and Warwickshire’s GVA grew more rapidly than the national average between 2010 and 2014 (3.75% compared to 3%)8. Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (CWLEP) 9 have indicated that: • the proportion of the workforce within the LEP area that is employed in manufacturing and in energy and water is above the national average • there are strengths in advanced manufacturing and engineering and low carbon technologies, and in associated research and development • research and development is supplied by major internationally renowned companies, plus private and public sector research establishments • many of the organisations involved are small and medium sized enterprises, which face particular problems in addressing issues of adequate skills supply • the large majority of jobs in the LEP area are in services sectors and although a number of these, for example in distribution and in transport and communications, may be geared towards serving companies engaged in advanced manufacturing and engineering, this still leaves well over two-thirds of the LEP’s workforce employed in 6 GVA for Local Enterprise Partnerships (worksheet A1 GVA) 7 GVA for Local Enterprise Partnerships (worksheet A3 GVA per head) 8 Coventry and Warwickshire Updated Strategic Economic Plan 2016 9 Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership Skills Strategy 2014 6 generalised service occupations, including hotels and restaurants and banking and insurance. The CWLEP10 has highlighted significant differences between the demographic and economic profiles of the 6 constituent district authorities included in the LEP: • the populations of North Warwickshire and Stratford have age profiles that are notably older than for the rest of the LEP area • Warwick is more prominent economically relative to its size than might be expected, whilst the opposite applies in the case of Coventry • unemployment rates are highest in Coventry, and also in Nuneaton and Bedworth • there are also wide differences across the 6 local authority areas in the relative proportions employed in public and private sectors. The advanced manufacturing and engineering sector directly employs 34,000 people in Coventry and Warwickshire accounting for 10% of employment, 57% greater than the United Kingdom (UK) average overall and 500% greater than the UK average for the automotive industry. The advanced manufacturing and engineering workforce is 10% more productive than the UK average. The area has major research and development and innovation centres: Coventry University; the Manufacturing Technology Centre (the location of a new high temperature research centre for the development of future generation aero engines); the University of Warwick and Warwick Manufacturing Group (home to the National Automotive Innovation campus and Tata Motors European Technical Centre); and on the border with Leicester and Leicestershire LEP, MIRA, a world class independent vehicle engineering consultancy. The map11 overleaf shows average productivity levels in the West Midlands and surrounding upper tier authorities and illustrates the increased productivity level closer to London. The Coventry and Warwickshire sub-region does, to an extent, benefit from the “London effect”, with good transport links and its location at the end of the M40 corridor. 10 Coventry & Warwickshire LEP Skills Strategy 2015 11 Coventry and Warwickshire's Strategic Economic Plan 2014 7 CWLEP’s Strategic Economic Plan prioritises geographical areas for investment and other support along the transport corridors: The A46 (from M40 Junction 15 to M6 Junction 2), A444 (from Coventry to Nuneaton), A5 (In North Warwickshire and Nuneaton and Bedworth) and the rail corridor from Warwick and Leamington Spa to Nuneaton via Coventry. Current skills gaps and shortages are as shown in the chart below12 : 12 UKCES Employer Skills Survey 2015 8 CWLEP has reported employers are currently experiencing skills shortages (3,600 vacancies) and skills gaps (25,600 employees).