City College Norwich Federation & Shared Services Development
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City College Norwich Federation & Shared Services Development Supported by AoC 1. Introduction – How the project came about Background As far back as 2008 City College Norwich established a subcommittee of its Governing Body - the Partnership and Federations Committee, whose brief was to develop a strategy in response to a number of changes in the education sphere but, in particular, to the introduction of Academies by the then Labour Government. At that time City College Norwich had over 1,000 14-16 year olds from local schools studying one or two days per week, over 4,000 full-time 16-18 year olds, and had taken the lead within a local partnership of five schools, Open Opportunity, in the development of collaborative bids to deliver the new diplomas. The bids were very successful, and the College and Open Opportunity developed into one of the country’s largest deliverers of the new diplomas. Secondary education in Norfolk overall had GCSE scores well below the national average and some of its schools were in the bottom 10% nationally. Earlham High School for example was the fourth worst performing school in the country, with a 5 A*-C score of 6%. As a failing school, Earlham was in a prime position to be converted to an Academy under the rules as they then stood, supported by a number of sponsors including a lead sponsor. The College took the lead in the development to convert Earlham into an Academy and became the lead sponsor – City Academy Norwich opened its doors in 2009 as an independent Academy. As the Academy movement flourished, first under the Labour Government and then accelerated under the Coalition Government, it quickly became clear that Colleges had to have a response in order to protect the integrity of their vocational provision, to continue to improve outcomes for students and to remain competitive in the market for 16-18 year olds. City College Norwich’s response was to look into the possibility of creating a federation comprising secondary schools, FE Colleges, primary schools, and possibly private training providers and a University Technical College, (UTC), should the College be successful in bidding for one. A fundamental component of the federation was to be a shared services company which would deliver all of the non-teaching related activities for all organisations within the federation. This was in order to remove from the Academics the “heavy lifting” associated with the delivery of services allowing them to focus on improving students’ education at all levels, giving more of them the opportunity to progress to Higher Education (HE) and employment. The College was then successful in obtaining funds from the Efficiency Innovation Fund (EIF), managed by the Association of Colleges (AoC) to carry out a feasibility study, the results of which led to the successful bid for more substantial funding to create the federation with a shared services company at its heart (see appendix 1). (www.aoc.co.uk/shared-services/citycollegenorwich-federationdevelopment) City College Norwich 2 2. The Plan The feasibility study or business case (see link appendices 2, 3 and 4) (www.aoc.co.uk/shared-services/ citycollegenorwich-federationdevelopment) clearly indicated that services could be delivered much more effectively and efficiently via a single company, bringing together College and school staff, than had previously been the case under the auspices of the local authority. This meant that a better service could be provided at less cost and that any savings made could be ploughed back into educational delivery in order to help improve student performance. This would be achieved via a rationalisation of services and staff over time with better procurement being key to any early savings. The implementation plan in the business case contains more detail on the original intentions and needs to be read in conjunction with this document. The key implications of the proposal are given below. 2.1 Original Proposal To create a legally compliant federation comprising: • City College Norwich (CCN) (an existing statutory corporation) itself potentially comprising CCN Higher Education Centre (HE) (a proposed limited subsidiary company) CCN Vocational/Technical Institute (FE) (a proposed limited subsidiary company) CCN Sixth Form College (A Levels) (a proposed limited subsidiary company) • City Academy Norwich (CAN) (an existing limited company) • Wayland Community High School (at the time local authority controlled but with Academy status pending; proposed limited company from September 2011) • Norfolk University Technical College (UTC) (UTC application pending approval; proposed limited company from September 2011) • A manufacturing and electrical training provider - an existing limited company • Shared Services Company (proposed limited company) The two key elements of the plan were the creation of (1) the federation, and (2) the shared services company, and each had different emphases. 2.2 Creating the Federation The creation of the federation was seen essentially as a legal process taking up to a year and involving the establishment of each of the above entities as separate companies, except for City Academy Norwich which was already an independent company. The College was also an independent company but the proposal was to split it into three organisations (see appendix 5). (www.aoc.co.uk/shared-services/citycollegenorwich-federationdevelopment) City College Norwich 3 2.3 Creating the Shared Services Company The creation of the shared services company would require not only a change in legal status for many individuals but also their actual movement from one organisation to another via TUPE transfer. It was envisaged to be a more sensitive matter, particularly as new academy staff would first have to be TUPEd into the Academy from the local authority. The plan therefore was not to TUPE these staff twice in close succession. Please refer to section 5. 3. Creating the Federation (for a more detailed breakdown of this section please see appendix 6) (www.aoc.co.uk/shared-services/citycollegenorwich-federationdevelopment) Original Vision for the Federation As the College was driving the process, it was initially envisaged that the College would be the lead organisation, establishing a new body for governance of the federation in addition to having its own corporation board. Over time this approach proved unpopular as it tended to be seen as a College take- over, rather than the creation of a group of equal partners in the development of the education of Norfolk people (see appendix 7). (www.aoc.co.uk/shared-services/citycollegenorwich-federationdevelopment) Structure of a Parent Company This eventually led to the creation of a parent company called Transforming Education in Norfolk (TEN) but not before many months had been spent by the College’s lawyers negotiating with two Government departments (the Department for Education (DfE) and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)) on modifications to the Instruments and Articles of Governance, not all of which was wasted. At this point, however, the College still required the signature of two Secretaries of State to approve any changes. Progress was slow. Then in December 2011 the Government’s newly proposed freedoms and flexibilities became law and the requirement to get the Secretary of States’ approval was removed. Things began to move forward slightly more quickly. The problem now was that no precedents existed for newly constituted Instruments and Articles so the departments weren’t entirely sure exactly what they should contain, but departmental approval was still required. The departments were clear that consultation should take place between the College and its communities to confirm support for its proposals (see appendix 8) (www.aoc.co.uk/shared-services/ citycollegenorwich-federationdevelopment). When the College asked for guidance in relation to which particular communities it should consult with, the departments said that it was up to the College to decide – but that they would be sure to inform us if they thought our choice inappropriate. The College Around this time, following advice from KPMG, it was decided not to split the College into three separate entities as it would create a plethora of complications in terms of dealing with VAT (see appendix 9) (www.aoc.co.uk/shared-services/citycollegenorwich-federationdevelopment) . However, the College continued with its plans to create a separate HE Centre at a new location, for delivery to its 1,500 HE students, as this was thought still to be an appropriate response to the Government’s proposals relating to fees, loans and (HEFCE) funding. City College Norwich 4 The Academies – Wayland Academy came into being on 1 March 2012 Sponsored by City College Norwich in full knowledge that the federation was being established, which its head and governors viewed as an added incentive. It became the first member of Norfolk Academies Trust and all future Academies joining the federation will sit within this Trust. The Trust was established, along the lines of many Academy trusts, immediately prior to Wayland becoming an Academy. The UTC Application had been successful (May 2012) and negotiations began with the Baker Dearing Trust in relation to the opening date – eventually September 2014 was agreed upon. City Academy Norwich was in its third year of operation as an Academy and could not sit within Norfolk Academies Trust as it was set up under different regulations with a number of sponsors. The Parent Group Transforming Education in Norfolk – the parent group, TEN, was established during the summer term of 2012 and naturally it was anticipated that it would be the owner of the shared services company. However this turned out to not be possible due to the regulations of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). Of itself, TEN has no direct income and no reserves, and is therefore not in a position to underwrite the pensions of all those staff to be transferred into the shared services company.