Question: How are further education providers giving support to the community during the COVID-19 outbreak?

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Guidance Maintaining education and skills training provision: further education providers
section_headers: Broader support to the community
section_content: Further education providers are major community institutions and have greater
capacity and organisational resilience than smaller schools.
We know a number of colleges have already taken steps to support vulnerable
learners, or the children of critical workers who can’t be supported
elsewhere.
This is a hugely valuable contribution; colleges have a vital role to play in
holding communities together and supporting our broader national response to
coronavirus (COVID-19).
Remember that, if your organisation is a charity, any help you provide for the
national effort must be consistent with your organisation’s charitable
purposes. If your organisation is a registered charity, see the Charity
Commission guidance on how charities can help while keeping within their
objects.
FE and sixth form college corporations which are helping the national effort
in ways other than education, such as giving surplus food to a food bank or
allowing key workers to use unoccupied student accommodation, are to be
applauded for contributing in this way. Governors must be satisfied that such
assistance is in their corporation’s interests, and does not create additional
risk or significant one-off or ongoing costs to the corporation, and should
record the basis for their decision.
*[FE]: further education

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
Has detailed information specifically about further education providers. Fully on topic.
It only mentioned some things that education providers are doing.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Acceptable

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Guidance Maintaining education and skills training provision: further education providers
section_headers: Funding
In year recruitment of learners
section_content: We currently use the profile of recruitment throughout the year to determine
the lagged student numbers used in 16 to 19 allocations. For providers who
recruit learners later in the year rather than purely at the beginning of the
academic year, and whose enrolment of new learners in the summer term will
have ceased, we will determine a way to ensure this does not have an unfairly
detrimental impact on future allocations. For example, we could still apply
the current approach of identifying what proportion of student numbers were
recruited after we take the initial data return in the autumn but use full
year data from 2018/19.
Student prior attainment in English and/or maths GCSEs
Three elements within the 16 to 19 funding formula use students’ prior
attainment in English and/or maths, namely:

the condition of funding
disadvantage funding - block 2
level 3 programme maths and English payment

We anticipate that these will continue to be calculated as now following the
alternative plans that have now been published to award grades to students in
the absence of GCSE exams this summer, and so providers will still be
allocated additional funding for young people with low prior attainment in
GCSE English or maths. As further details are published for how the
replacement for exams will work, we will consider these elements in more
detail.
Funding to prepare for and deliver T levels
Allocations have been made to providers who will be delivering the first wave
of T levels in 2020 to 2021 based on planned T level student numbers. We have
already published the approach for applying a tolerance where enrolment of T
level students is below the planned number.
Due to the lagged student number approach, where the level of T level students
recruited means the tolerance would be implemented, only the numbers above the
tolerance would be converted to a full-time band 5 student. Read more about
the tolerance in the How T levels will be funded in 2020 to
2021 guidance.
We will monitor the suitability of this approach over the coming months as we
get nearer to the introduction of T levels.
Industry Placement Capacity and Delivery Fund (CDF) 2019 to 2020
The unprecedented impact of coronavirus (COVID-19) has meant that it is
currently extremely difficult for providers to continue to organise and
deliver industry placements through the Capacity and Delivery Fund (CDF).
Given these exceptional and unprecedented circumstances, providers will not be
penalised for missing specific CDF industry placement targets this academic
year. Funding will not be clawed back if providers can demonstrate how the
funding has and will continue to support your work on industry placement
delivery. We want to make sure that providers are able to maximise the
activity that they are able to carry out during this period to continue to
support the delivery of placements, and to prepare to deliver placements in
2020 to 2021. Activities we would expect to continue to go ahead:

continuing to build relationships with employers and developing engagement strategies for different industries
preparing students for placements (such as through virtual training for work programmes)
ensuring alignment between curriculum planning and industry placement provision
developing matching processes for when students can go on placements again

We will ask for evidence of this through the usual autumn CDF monitoring
process in order to minimise reporting burdens, and we will still look to claw
back funding under the usual arrangements should providers fail to demonstrate
they have continued to support the delivery of industry placements. Providers
must avoid the risk of double funding. We will seek to claw back funding
should providers furlough staff involved in these activities.
Free meals in further education
We expect further education institutions to continue to support students who
are eligible for, and usually receive, free meals in further education, or are
newly eligible, whether they are continuing to attend the provider or are
studying remotely due to coronavirus (COVID-19) related issues. Read further
guidance on free meals in further education funded institutions for 2019 to
2020.
*[CDF]: Capacity and Delivery Fund

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
Has detailed information about educational resources during the pandemic.
It's a very thorough answer. They talked about helping in multiple aspects.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Excellent

Answer passage (source: UK):
page_title: Guidance Maintaining education and skills training provision: further education providers
section_headers: Funding
section_content: We recognise that the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak carries financial
implications for many providers, and we are working to make changes where we
can. We set out below the flexibilities we are introducing to support grant
funded providers to continue to deliver learning.
To help manage the financial implications, we can confirm that the Education
and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) will continue to pay grant funded providers
their scheduled monthly profiled payments for the remainder of the 2019/20
funding year.
ESFA allocations for 2020/21 have been confirmed, and payments will be made in
line with the national profile which will be confirmed in the relevant 2020/21
Funding Rules.
*[ESFA]: Education Skills Funding Agency

Reviewer feedback on this answer:
It says specifically what an education agency is doing during the pandemic.
Talks about the pandemic's financial implications for educational providers, but doesn't specifically mention further education.

Reviewer ratings:
Excellent
Bad