Gender Pay Gap reporting deadline – many colleges yet to publish results
Despite the deadline of 30 March fast approaching, many colleges have not yet published their gender pay gap data. At the beginning of February, only 19 of the 84 employers who have so far published their data are in the FE sector. Whilst there is no obligation on colleges to publish earlier than the deadline, in our view, there is little point in delaying once your organisation has crunched the numbers.
Information can be filtered by sectors and the education sector includes schools, colleges and universities.
https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk/Viewing/search-results?s=P&y=2017
Carillion collapse: MPs call for regional breakdown of impact on schools
Following the collapse of Carillion, MPs have asked for a regional breakdown of the likely impact on schools, colleges and apprenticeships.
According to the TES, Carillion provided caretaking and cleaning services to hundreds of schools, provided 32,000 school meals a day and had also sponsored an academy.
https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/carillion-collapse-mps-call-regional-breakdown-impact-schools
Mental health Green Paper: MPs hear evidence from FE sector
The Health and Education Committees hears has recently heard evidence from the FE sector about the proposals contained in the mental health Green Paper to improve mental health provision for children and young people which found that "half of all mental health conditions are established before the age of 14".
Representatives from the Association of College have made representations. Its most recent mental health survey, revealed that 85% of colleges said they had experienced an increase of students declaring mental health issues and in many cases, these issues had first arisen while the young person was at college; 81% felt that there was a significant number of students who had undeclared mental health difficulties and 74% had referred students to A&E for mental health-related issues in the previous year.
https://old.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/health-committee/news-parliament-2017/transforming-children-young-peoples-mental-health-provision-evidence-17-19-/
Disclosure and Barring Service updates identity checking guidelines
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has released new identity checking guidelines for standard and enhanced disclosure checks. The changes to the guidelines are in response to the DBS aligning the identity-checking process with right to work checks, which state that employers must root out illegal working in the UK by undergoing document checks on potential hires.
Although the new guidelines have been running in tandem with the previous guidelines since October 2017, the previous guidelines will be replaced and will cease to apply.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-identity-checking-guidelines
Consultation on insolvency regime for FE and sixth form colleges
Primary legislation was introduced in the Technical and Further Education Act 2017 to create an insolvency regime for FE and sixth form colleges. It will apply existing insolvency procedures and will introduce a special administration regime called education administration designed to “protect learner provision.”
The government is consulting on this. Responses should be submitted by 12 February 2018 and the results will be published in spring 2018.
https://consult.education.gov.uk/fe-college-quality-and-resilience-team/fe-insolvency-regime/supporting_documents/Insolvency%20regime%20for%20further%20education%20and%20sixthform%20colleges%20%20consul....pdf
New project to boost diversity in apprenticeships
Five major cities across England have pledged to work with the government to drive up apprenticeships among underrepresented groups and ensure they are accessible to individuals from all backgrounds.
The ‘5 Cities Project’, launched by the Department for Education will see the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) work with partners in the Greater Manchester, London, Bristol, Birmingham and Leicester areas to promote the take-up of apprenticeships among under-represented groups, including Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
http://www.educationbusinessuk.net/news/01022018/new-project-boost-diversity-apprenticeships
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