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Greenwich Fairness Commission

London South East Colleges

Submission of Evidence

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Contents 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................... 3

2. Background of London South East Colleges: ................................................... 3

3. Context: ................................................................................................................. 4

4. Vision & Mission: ................................................................................................. 5

5. LSEC Profile: ........................................................................................................ 6

6. Challenge & Opportunity: .................................................................................... 7

6.1 Post 16 Education: Student Engagement ..................................................... 8

6.2 Apprenticeships .............................................................................................. 9

6.3 Student Progression to Higher Education.................................................. 10

6.4 Under-represented groups........................................................................... 11

6.5 SEND Provision ............................................................................................ 13

6.6 Adult and Community Learning................................................................... 13

6.7 Career Progression ...................................................................................... 14

7. Key Issues and Inequalities in Greenwich ....................................................... 14

8. Priorities for Change: ......................................................................................... 15

9. Conclusion: ........................................................................................................ 15

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Greenwich Fairness Commission

London South East Colleges Submission of Evidence

1. Introduction This report is to provide evidence to the Greenwich Fairness Commission on behalf of London South East Colleges. It is intended to present the context in which we operate and the outlines the challenges and opportunities that we believe need to be addressed to reduce the inequality of life experience of local people.

2. Background of London South East Colleges: London South East Colleges was formed in August 2016, following the merger of Bromley College of Further and Higher Education with Greenwich Community College and Bexley College. This merger was led by Bromley College, one of the highest performing providers of vocational education and training in London. The newly formed London South East Colleges is now the leading provider of Further and Higher Vocational education and training in the sub-regional area of South East London and beyond, and is acknowledged locally within Bromley, Greenwich and Bexley boroughs as both a high quality community resource and a beacon of best practice. Governed by the Bromley College Corporation, the new College now has 13,000 students, 1100 staff, 7 campuses and a turnover of £50M. The new college is already a significant education provider in South East London and one of the largest colleges in the region giving it financial and long term sustainability. In the past year more than 13,000 students successfully completed over 11,000 qualifications in Further, Higher and Business School Education. Success Rates for 16-18 learners is 83.1%, exceeding national rates by 0.8%, despite 38% of vocational students at the College coming from disadvantaged backgrounds, and 16.2% having a Learning Difficulty or Disability. The formation of LSEC, with a reputation for excellence, operating across Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich Local Authorities has created a strong and compelling offer for learners and communities across this sub region. The rationalisation of courses, staffing and resources has enabled LSEC to maintain the breadth of choice in course opportunities and areas of specialisation. It has enabled a reduction in costs through addressing areas of duplication where there is less demand, and by extending provision where there is greater economic need. The new College has a very clear direction of travel and is ambitious in its aims. It sees itself firmly as a community college contributing to the economic and social health of Bromley, Bexley, and Greenwich and beyond. The College aims to provide high progression rates that enable leaners to progress onto higher levels of study, professional qualifications, Higher Education and the workplace. It will do this by working with partners across the sub-region to deliver innovative projects and a curriculum that will respond to the needs of local and regional employers. The College’s new LSEC brand and associated marketing will ensure that the College is seen as not only an innovative and ambitious organisation but one that can deliver excellence and consistency across all its curriculum areas and campuses.

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The examples of the innovative nature of the College includes the establishment of a Multi-Academy Trust (Bromley Educational Trust) that has taken on responsibility for the Borough’s Pupil Referral Units at Kingswood Secondary and Grovelands Primary schools as the Bromley Trust Academy. It has also taken on other alternative provision schools and increased the provision for learners with behavioural, emotional and social needs within the Bromley Beacon Academy. The College is opening in 2019 a Technical Free School for 11-19 year olds, in Bromley, in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) and King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust specialising in Science, Health and Wellbeing. These developments build on the earlier success of opening one of the UK’s first Career Colleges in Hospitality, Food and Enterprise, which incorporates an industry advisory board consisting of such prestigious organisations as the Dorchester Hotel, the Hyatt Group and the Hilton Group. As part of this the College has secured the backing of leading industry figures and organisations such as the Tanner Brothers and Springboard UK. The College has an outstanding reputation in many areas of its work including the Nido Volans (‘Fly the nest’) Centre, which has been specifically designed to meet the specialist needs of learners with complex learning difficulties and disabilities. The Centre and staff provide skills for life including a working café and practical home environment for the development of independent living skills. Learners in this area achieve outstanding success rates of 95%. LSEC has a broad curriculum offer with quality in study support programmes across all sector subject areas for learners aged 14 and above including Higher Education. The College uses market intelligence and employer demand to identify skills gaps and meet local employer needs. The curriculum is designed to develop the skills and knowledge of learners’ career aspirations to progress into work, further and higher education. The College has high aspirations for its learners and is focussed on raising standards. Learners have a diverse range of backgrounds and the College provides significant levels of support that effectively enable learners to achieve their full potential. The College has two sites in Greenwich. London South East Colleges’ Greenwich Campus is located on the border of Plumstead and Woolwich and a Construction Skills campus is located in Kidbrooke. Students at the Greenwich site have access to a wide-range of facilities including the new student-led restaurant ‘BR6@Greenwich’, hair and beauty salon ‘Salon95’ and a Learning Resource Centre. At the Construction Skills campus students develop work-related construction and building craft skills using industry-standard equipment.

3. Context:

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The Royal Borough of Greenwich in South-East London is a borough of contrasts with highly prosperous areas in Greenwich and in Blackheath, but these are adjacent to areas of high deprivation, particularly in the east of the Borough where the Greenwich Campus is situated. Royal Greenwich is ranked as the 14th most deprived borough in London and 78th most deprived area in England based on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) 2015. According to the Office of National Statistics, approximately 64,676 children and young people under the age of 18 years live in Royal Greenwich. This is 24% of the total population in the area. The Greater London Authority estimates that the child population will rise by 8,400 children by 2021, a 13% increase. The population of the Borough is just over 250,000. The College provides education for just under 4000 learners, who are mainly adults. The population in Greenwich is predicted to grow significantly over the next 5 to 10 years. The College is responding to the new employment opportunities through collaboration with the Local Authority and Greenwich Local Labour and Business (GLLAB) to provide innovative new areas of provision in niche sectors. Given that creative industries are worth £87.4bn GVA to Britain with the creative economy accounting for one in 11 jobs, and that it has been the fastest growing sector of the UK economy since the 2008 crash, we are keen as a college in the heart of this location to capitalise on the opportunity for young people.

4. Vision & Mission: The College’s mission is to deliver real skills and knowledge for the real world. This brings to life the absolute focus on relevant, up to date, high quality skills that meet the needs of the local community, employers and industries in the region. The College's vision is to be recognised, valued and respected in our communities as listening, responsive and relevant. We will be recognised as an outstanding centre of vocational and educational excellence and will play a leading role in the economic and social development of the area. The LSEC Corporate Strategy identifies five key priorities intended to provide quantitative measures that demonstrate progress against the key standards of business activity:

1. Local Strategic Community Priorities: The annual Strategic Intelligence Assessment (SIA) provides the Community Safety Partnership with an understanding of community safety issues across the three Boroughs;

2. Excellence in learner success: By 2020 we will deliver excellence in all areas of the

Figure 1: Income deprivation affecting children (Local Overview: They key data on the education and learning of young Londoners in your Borough (Jan 2017))

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learner experience, outcomes and destinations; 3. Teaching and learning: By 2020 we will be an organisation that shares best practice

and learns from others and has a reputation for excellence in teaching and learning and its contribution to student success;

4. Investing in excellence: By 2020 we will have a first class working environment with industry standard resources, be and employer of choice and a reputation for excellence in all that we do; and

5. Excellence in community responsiveness: By 2020 we will be seen by all including employers as a collaborative and effective strategic partner in the economic, social and cultural development of South London and beyond we will be firmly placed at the heart of the communities we services as a leader of innovation and transformation and the ‘go to’ place for learners, community and businesses.

5. LSEC Profile: Table 1 - Learner numbers across London South East Colleges: Table one shows the current student numbers across each campus. Clearly more needs to be done in collaborative marketing and promotion at every level in Greenwich, to encourage local families and young people to make Greenwich Campus their college of choice. Furthermore, the adult number of learners (the highest in the group) shows the continued importance of ensuring a viable Adult Learning offer which enables local people to improve their life chances in the economy of this growing sub region. Of the Greenwich student population, 75% of students live within the borough (the highest in the group). Of the student population, the most prevalent ethnicities are: 28.4% African, 30% White ‘British/White Other’, and 12% ‘Asian Other’, 72% are female, with only just over 450 male learners, and 12% of the student population has a declared learning disability.

Campus 14-16 16-19 Higher Education

Traineeship &

Apprentices

Adults

Bromley 116 2680 420 1149 2510

Bexley 951 180 487 730

Greenwich 368 20 3608

TOTAL 116 3999 600 1656 6848

Table 2 - Prior to merger College Self-Assessment grades: Table 2 below shows that Bromley College has remained a strong grade 2 since 2011. Bexley College has remained a grade 2, although success rates declined in 2014/15; but improved this year back to the national benchmark. Greenwich has been a grade 4 since its poor inspection in 2013/14, but due to the intensive work when Bromley College federated with them in January 2016, the outcomes for learners have improved significantly moving it to a grade 3. This progress is encouraging but our aspiration is to achieve consistency of quality across all campuses, and for this to happen a continued investment in excellence and collaboration with the local employer stakeholders to add value and richness to our offer will be essential.

College Last Ofsted Grade SAR Grade 2014-15 2015-16

Bromley 2 2 2

Bexley 2 2 2

Greenwich 4 4 3

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Table 3 - Functional English and mathematics achievement 16-18 year old learners

Campus English 2014/15

English 2015/16

Maths 2014/15

Maths 2015/16

Bromley 75.5% 70.6% 72.5% 72.4%

Bexley 65.6% 75.8% 59.8% 70.3%

Greenwich 44.4% 55% 51.2% 60.4%

19+ Functional English and Maths achievements have both improved from 64.6% and 67% in 2014/15 to 70.6% and 72.7% in 2015/16, but this is still below the national rate of 75.8%. We need to collaborate with our feeder schools and ensure that the best possible provision is put in place to encourage young people to arrive at college with these core skills in English and Maths already, or if they need more help, being ready and willing to learn.

6. Challenge & Opportunity:

In terms of the economic outlook, Greenwich as a Local Authority has both challenges and opportunity.

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Total population (2015)

242,100 324,900 274,800 8,673,700 63,258,400

Population aged 16 to 64

152,300 (62.9%)

203,500 (62.6%)

186,100 (67.7%)

68% 63%

% with higher education qualifications1

33.6% 47.0% 42.3% 49.80% 37.10%

Those formally qualified to level 2+

71.9% 81.4% 69.7% 76.10% 73.60%

Gross weekly pay £ of residents

612.7 681.0 601.0 621.1 529.6

Gross weekly pay £ by workplace

555.8 563.1 584.4 659.9 529

Out-of-work benefit claimants

1.2% 1.0% 2.1% 1.80% 1.80%

% of main benefit claimants

9.8% 8.6% 12.7% 10.40% 11.80%

1 Percentages relate to those aged 16 to 64

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Jobs density2 0.53 0.63 0.52 0.96 0.82

Total workplace units:

Micro3 7,650 (87.1%)

13,420 (88.3%)

8,245 (87.4%)

435,625 (86.2%)

Small 890 (10.1%) 1,450 (9.5%)

960 (10.2%) 55,360 (11%)

Medium 215 (2.4%) 295 (1.9%) 195 (2.1%) 12,040 (2.4%)

Large 30 (0.3%) 35 (0.2%) 30 (0.3%) 2,115 (0.4%)

With the advent of Cross Rail in the next two years into Abbey Wood and Woolwich, the potential for development and growth is immense. A significant house building scheme as part of regeneration plans are already well underway with developers Lovell and Housing Association Peabody. As the data above shows there are some challenges in Greenwich and Bexley regarding skills and training needs of the current population, but there are also signs of substantial entrepreneurial activity with the density of micro businesses. A significant proportion of these are in the creative industries. The annual Strategic Intelligence Assessment (SIA) provides the Community Safety Partnership with an understanding of community safety issues in the Borough. The priorities emerging from the SIA for the year 2015/16 were driving down anti-social behaviour (ASB) in neighbourhoods, driving down terrorism related offences (a Home Office priority), working towards safer public places, tackling hate, reducing re-offending, ending violence against women and girls, including child sexual exploitation, and preventing youth violence and gangs. As a key stakeholder in the community, London South East Colleges is keen to play a key role in community development, enabling the use of our resources and expertise in partnership with other key agencies locally to help address aspects of these strategic priorities wherever possible. We have much to do in this area, as Bromley College at the request of the FE Commissioner took on the management of the failing Greenwich Community College in January 2016. This management was then formalised in August 2016, through a merger (detailed earlier). We are pleased to report that our Greenwich campus is reporting success rates at national levels, with good progress in all areas confirmed by the Ofsted monitoring visit in May 2016, though much still needs to be done to rebuild the role and contribution of the college in the wider community. 6.1 Post 16 Education: Student Engagement

2 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 [insert name of region] as a whole is [insert figure], which is [slightly above/below] the national average.

3 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).

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There are challenges regarding levels of student engagement in post 16 education in Greenwich, with particularly low levels in FE and also in apprenticeships. Currently, 90.8% of all 16-17 year olds in the Borough are involved in Education and Training, which is 2.4% lower than the London average4. Furthermore, 6.8% of KS5 students in the Royal Borough of Greenwich are not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET), which is 0.2% higher than the East London average. There is therefore a need for more joined up work between schools, LSEC and the Local Authority in order to increase attendance and involvement in Education and Learning.

6.2 Apprenticeships In 2015/16, LSEC supported over 1000 apprentices, of these, 67% were College learners and 33% were sub-contracted provision. The apprentices make good progress in the development of work related skills, and progression rates into sustainable employment are high. The College offers 15 different apprenticeship frameworks with apprenticeships offered at Intermediate, Advanced and Higher levels. As a combined college, learners’ overall achievement declined with overall achievement 1% below national rate but timely achievement was 1.5% above the National rate. LSEC’s growing links with a wide range of employers enables the College to grow its numbers and expand into new areas during 2016/17. Current employers include King’s NHS Hospital Trust, Berkeley Homes and the London Borough of Lewisham. Employers tell us that Greenwich requires more apprenticeships to keep in line with the growing economy and regeneration currently underway across the borough and in particular within the ‘Woolwich Triangle’. However, the predecessor college in Greenwich, due to its recent underperformance in success rates and financial sustainability, has had a limited impact in recent delivery and so significant work is required to scale this back up to the required standards. Much more needs to be done to address this and London South East Colleges would welcome collaboration from key large employers to ensure local people benefit from the changing apprenticeship landscape. A joined up comprehensive apprenticeship offer across the borough and indeed the region could provide a compelling incentive for the remaining 16-17 year olds not involved in Education and Training. Having an opportunity to participate

4 MI Monthly Summary Report (Dec 2016)

Figure 2: Diagram indicating the participation of learners in Apprenticeships

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in education in a format which would allow them to learn the skills employers want, earn a wage and gain qualifications at the same time, whilst avoiding the confinements of conventional schooling could address this under engagement and have a significant economic impact at the same time. Planning for this is commencing with the advent of the London South East Employment and Skills Board, in which LSEC is collaborating with key stakeholders and employers across the sub region, to plan for the future skills priorities that communities and industry needs.

6.3 Student Progression to Higher Education From the perspective of ensuring a local HE offer delivered through LSEC as a college of Further and Higher Education, much needs to be done to increase the take up of learners in Greenwich. In 2016/17, only 1.8%, a total of 14 learners progressed from FE to HE in the LSEC group, primarily in leisure and tourism, an area of significant growth in economic terms. We are keen to make this figure much higher across the range of subjects. Progression of learners who achieved L3 qualification in 15/16 to LSEC HE Course in 16/17 (Direct & Indirect)

SSA Tier 2 of L3 Qualification

Bromley Greenwich Bexley Total

Learners

Prog %

Learners

Prog %

Learners

Prog %

Learners

Prog %

01 Health, Public Services & Care 315

3.2% 81 0.0% 160

5.6% 556

3.4%

02 Science & Mathematics 89

0.0% 18 0.0% 0 na 107

0.0%

04 Engineering & Manufacturing Tech 109

0.0% 0 na 0 na 109

0.0%

05 Construction & Planning 32

0.0% 0 na 0 na 32

0.0%

06 Information & Comm. Technology 123

3.3% 0 na 23

4.3% 146

3.4%

07 Retail & Commercial Enterprise 33

0.0% 6 0.0% 19

0.0% 58

0.0%

08 Leisure, Travel & Tourism 190

0.5% 24

12.5% 5

0.0% 219

1.8%

09 Arts, Media & Publishing 112

0.0% 0 na 43

0.0% 155

0.0%

11 Social Sciences 15 0.0% 0 na 16

0.0% 31

0.0%

13 Education & Training 58

6.9% 12 0.0% 14

7.1% 84

6.0%

15 Business, Administration & Law 204

0.5% 26 0.0% 19

0.0% 249

0.4%

All 1,280 1.6% 167 1.8% 299

3.7% 1,746

1.9%

2016/17 LSEC HE Learners

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Learners by Gender

Gender Bromley Greenwich Bexley All

Share

Dir. Ind

. All Dir

. Ind

. All Dir

. Ind

. All Dir. Ind

. All

Female 91 223 314 0 11 11 49 28 77

140 262

402 57%

Male 64 98 162 0 3 3 30 105

135 94 206

300 43%

All 155 321

476 0 14 14 79 133

212

234 468

702 100%

Learners by Ethnicity

Ethnicity Bromley Greenwich Bexley All

Share

Dir. Ind

. All Dir

. Ind

. All Dir

. Ind

. All Dir. Ind

. All

African 20 50 70 0 3 3 33 13 46 53 66 119 17%

Arab 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 3 3 0%

Bangladeshi 0 2 2 0 0 0 3 4 7 3 6 9 1%

Caribbean 21 27 48 0 4 4 4 2 6 25 33 58 8%

Chinese 0 3 3 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 4 4 1%

Indian 1 5 6 0 0 0 1 5 6 2 10 12 2%

Irish 1 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3 0%

Other 1 2 3 0 0 0 4 3 7 5 5 10 1%

Other Asian 3 17 20 0 0 0 1 3 4 4 20 24 3%

Other Black 0 8 8 0 0 0 7 4 11 7 12 19 3%

Other Mixed 3 5 8 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 6 9 1%

Other White 7 24 31 0 3 3 3 2 5 10 29 39 6%

Pakistani 1 3 4 0 1 1 1 0 1 2 4 6 1%

White British 80 141 221 0 0 0 15 89

104 95 230

325 46%

White/Asian 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 2 2 4 1%

White/Black African 1 3 4 0 0 0 2 2 4 3 5 8 1%

White/Black Caribbean 7 11 18 0 0 0 2 1 3 9 12 21 3%

Not provided 7 15 22 0 2 2 3 2 5 10 19 29 4%

All 155 321

476 0 14 14 79 133

212

234 468

702 100%

6.4 Under-represented groups Research has shown that there is poor achievement relative to expected progress, in some under-represented groups, which include SEND and Higher Needs Learners, young White males and young African and Caribbean males in Greenwich.

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Interestingly, young African, Caribbean and White males are London South East Colleges’ most prevalent groups and so focussed intervention is needed, with the support of other key agencies in order to increase achievement of these young people. All learners – by ethnicity

Ethnicity

All Campuses Bromley Orpington Greenwich Bexley Offsite In House Subcontracted

African

13.2% 9.6% 12.3% 28.4% 16.7% 7.3% 13.3% 12.2%

African

13.2% 9.6% 12.3% 28.4% 16.7% 7.3% 13.3%

Arab 0.6% 0.5% 0.2% 1.5% 0.6% 0.3% 0.6% 0.6%

Bangladeshi

1.0% 0.6% 0.7% 1.5% 0.7% 1.5% 1.0% 0.8%

Caribbean

5.7% 8.2% 10.4% 3.0% 2.8% 3.7% 5.8% 4.3%

Chinese

1.0% 1.1% 0.6% 2.7% 0.3% 0.1% 1.1% 0.0%

Gypsy/Irish Traveller

0.2% 0.1% 0.2% 0.0% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% 0.6%

Indian

1.4% 1.2% 1.1% 2.0% 1.9% 1.2% 1.5% 1.0%

Irish 0.4% 0.4% 0.6% 0.2% 0.1% 0.7% 0.4% 0.6%

Other 2.0% 1.2% 1.6% 5.5% 3.4% 0.3% 2.1% 0.2%

Other Asian

4.2% 4.4% 2.4% 12.0% 2.6% 0.9% 4.6% 0.5%

Other Black

2.1% 1.6% 1.6% 2.9% 4.4% 1.4% 2.1% 2.1%

Other Mixed

1.8% 2.3% 3.0% 2.0% 0.7% 1.1% 1.8% 2.0%

Other White

10.1% 12.7% 6.4% 19.1% 5.4% 4.8% 10.4% 6.3%

Pakistani

0.8% 0.3% 0.5% 2.4% 0.4% 1.0% 0.9% 0.5%

White British

48.8% 46.7% 50.0% 10.9% 55.7% 70.5% 47.6% 60.9%

White/Asian

0.8% 0.9% 1.2% 1.6% 0.3% 0.3% 0.8% 0.4%

White/Black African

1.3% 1.1% 1.2% 1.9% 1.2% 1.4% 1.2% 2.8%

White/Black Caribbean

2.7% 3.6% 4.0% 1.3% 2.0% 2.4% 2.7% 3.1%

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Not Provided

1.9% 3.5% 1.9% 0.9% 0.6% 0.9% 2.0% 0.8%

All Learners

100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

6.5 SEND Provision In order to increase progression for SEND and Higher Needs learners, London South East Colleges has scaled up investment in this area. The College has already established the Nido Volans (‘Fly the nest’) Centre at the Bromley Campus, which was specifically designed to meet the specialist needs of learners with complex learning difficulties and disabilities. The Centre and staff provide skills for life including a working café and practical home environment for the development of independent living skills. Learners in this area achieve outstanding success rates of 95%. The Nido Volans Centre at Bromley is now at capacity with 70 learners with severe to complex needs and an additional 84 learners with severe to moderate learning disabilities/difficulties. Through the merger LSEC SEND has added capacity across the 4 sites, providing two employability programmes at Greenwich for 17 learners with moderate learning difficulties, and 4 programmes at Bexley for learners with severe to moderate learning disabilities/difficulties. The 4 programmes at Bexley develop both independent living skills and employability skills. A TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication related handicapped Children) programme was successfully established in September 2015, supporting 6 learners with complex needs who could not otherwise access the individualised curriculum. This academic year of 2016/17, a further 6 learners are being supported and a new member of staff has been trained and supported to deliver the TEACCH curriculum, further developing the knowledge and experience of the team. Speech and Language is now available 5 days per week and is accessible to all learners within the LSEC SEND provision. In addition to this Occupational Therapy is available across the SEND provision of LSEC 2 days per week, and Physio Therapy 1 day per week. The learners in the SEND provision across all the sites are actively involved in enterprise and employability activities.

6.6 Adult and Community Learning The Greenwich campus of LSEC has a long history of delivering Adult Community Learning programmes with high levels of adult engagement. In 2016/17 alone in Greenwich there are 3608 adult learners enrolled. A significant proportion of these learners require ESOL qualifications. Given the barriers to playing an active role in the economy and the wider community that a lack of English skills can create it’s very important that this provision continues and is funded to the required levels to meet this high level of local demand. In terms of the new ACL provision commissioned by the Royal Borough of Greenwich for 2016/17, which commenced in October 2016, there is a target of 5,500 learner this year, and 600 have been recruited to date. The new provision is much more focused on a learning offer which enables economically inactive residents to gain the skills required to progress into employment. This has been a challenge as the new contract has required significant changes to the provision. The emphasis has changed from a ‘learning for leisure’ focused

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offer historically expected by more affluent parts of the borough, to a focus on ‘back to work skills’ which better meets the priorities highlighted by the Royal Borough. It is our view that the changes in the funding available for the new contract has impacted significantly on the recruitment and uptake so far. There has been a 100% increase in fees set by the borough which we believe has been reflected in lower numbers of learners enrolling. In addition the decision to award the contract later in the year awarding the contract meant a delayed start to the marketing and start dates of courses. However, much focused activity is planned around the spring and summer terms and it is expected that recruitment figures will see a significant increase in this time. 6.7 Career Progression There is insufficient careers advice in London which inhibits choice, options and progression for students wishing to pursue further education. More needs to be done to engage with students in order to further their ambitions and talents into a given industry sector. In order to combat this challenge, London South East Colleges is currently running two projects. The first is an ESF Careers Cluster Project which endeavours to enable more secondary schools and colleges to access high quality careers through an education provision supporting the career development of all young Londoners. LSEC is currently working in partnership with eight Greenwich secondary schools, to review and rate their current educational offer and create action plans to help them improve. The following key findings were highlighted:

Access to LMI

The adoption of Work Experience

Strategic Employer links

Strategic HEI links (Russell group)

Extracurricular activities

Especially access to volunteering The second project, ‘Ambition London’ focuses on Health and Social Care in East London. London South East Colleges seeks to trial and test a range of interventions to engage, train and support people to change their lives with the support of Advanced Learner Loans. By trialling these interventions, we can then aim to develop models and approaches which can be rolled out sub-regionally to:

Support employers and young people to meet their skills needs and demonstrate the impact

Provide people with career advancement support

Increase individual (and employer) investment in skills and learning

Support people to progress from low paid jobs

Close skills gaps

7. Key Issues and Inequalities in Greenwich In summary our view of the key issues and inequalities that some young people and their families experience locally are:

1. Lack of knowledge and awareness that Greenwich now has a good college that can enable local people to achieve their full potential through a strong FE and HE offer. This is particularly the case with NEET young people, or for those young adults and families facing in work poverty.

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2. The advent of 19+ self-funding loans can be an intimidating prospect for adults that are unemployed or in lower paid jobs, and can present barriers to self-development. Lack of careers advice, and awareness of career opportunities hinders progression.

3. The LSEC Greenwich Campus is in much need of repair, and updating, with out of date equipment and facilities, and doesn’t present the inspiring and aspirational environment that young people benefit from.

4. Though the creative and cultural industries in Greenwich have a strong presence there are limited entry level opportunities and progression pathways to careers in this industry for local young people.

5. More needs to be done to ensure that there is a greater number and choice of Apprenticeships available to local people. Employers need to influence the future skills priorities that will deliver the economic growth needed in the area, particularly with regards to advent of the new Apprenticeship Levy.

6. More provision for SEND young people and support to gain work place employability skills is needed in the borough.

8. Priorities for Change: London South East Colleges is committed to addressing these issues and inequalities and is keen to collaborate with other partners in the pursuit of this:

1. Raising Awareness: we have rebranded the college and seek marketing and promotional partners keen to provide pro-bono support to help us spread the work that LSEC Greenwich is the college of choice for local people, delivering ‘real skills for the real world’.

2. Apprenticeships: we want to work with employers to increase the range and breadth of apprenticeships available to young people, and those that are economically inactive in Greenwich.

3. NEETS: we are keen to continue to drive down the numbers of young people not in education employment or training, and ensure they have viable pathways to future careers and progression opportunities within these roles and industries.

4. SEND: we are keen to build on our excellent SEND provision and grow this offer in Greenwich, with the support of specialist partners and employers.

5. Development Opportunity: We are committed to relocating and rebuilding the college to a new location and seek partners keen to add value to the development of the new college through grants and sponsorship.

6. Creative and Cultural Industries: In September 2017 LSEC will open a new Performing Arts facility for the Creative and Cultural Industries, and we are currently seeking employer partners to co-design this curriculum and join our Employer Academy.

7. Industry Specialisms: we are keen to develop new specialisms in response to the sub regional industry growth and skills needs, to ensure that the jobs of the future are located in and accessible from Greenwich and that local people can participate in this employment market.

8. Employer Engagement: We have established sector specific Employer Boards and academies that local companies can participate in to shape the future design and delivery of the LSEC curriculum and we seek new partners to participate in this.

9. Conclusion: It is the view of London South East Colleges that there are aspects of life in Greenwich which are unfair for some local people. However we also believe that through collaboration with key strategic and local partners on the above priorities we will be able to address these inequalities.