East Durham College - Accountability Agreement 2024-25

PURPOSE

Mission, Vision and Values

We exist to enrich lives by delivering transformative further and higher educational opportunities to all students at East Durham College. We will do this by providing exceptionally high-quality education, providing progression opportunities for all, through purposeful and collaborative partnerships. We will specifically grow provision in regionally important skills priority areas including construction, advanced manufacturing and engineering, social care, digital, culture, creative and tourism and health and life sciences, horticulture, agriculture and food security and sustainability, and national priority of science and maths.

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Our mission and vision are underpinned by our organisational values which are to have students at the heart of our decision making; excellence in curriculum and service delivery; a respectful culture with an inclusive environment; and sustainable provision.

We will make our vision a reality by being solutions focused, creative and responsive to our local community need. The key building blocks are:

PERFORMANCE

We are ambitious for our performance, and we will continue to grow our share of key markets whilst achieving excellence in provision that meets regional skills needs.

PEOPLE

We are ambitious for our people, and we will develop and implement an aspirational People Strategy which will support our people to work collaboratively to deliver our highly ambitious curriculum goals.

PARTNERSHIPS

We are ambitious for our partnerships, and we will participate in highly effective and proactive collaborations which allow us to accelerate our growth in key priority skills areas.

A HIGHLY AMBITIOUS CURRICULUM

The College defines a highly ambitious curriculum as one that contains the elements below and this is the expectation in all areas for all students:

Highly effective implementation of the right combination of qualifications (ambitious, meets employer skills needs and student progression aspirations) that lead to outstanding teaching, learning and assessment.

Right student, right course, right level approach to recruitment, facilitated by robust CEIAG throughout the course.

Progression pathways through the levels (up to level 5). Meaningful work experience. Meaningful and inclusive skills competitions.

High quality resources in world class facilities.

The development of industry standard and specific digital skills.

High expectations of staff and students that meet the best of industry standards.

Real Work Environments used well which benefit staff and students.

Employer involvement including curriculum design and employer led / set briefs and projects.

Staff with relevant, credible, and up-to-date skills and experience.

High quality and highly effective support to ensure all students achieve their potential

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NATIONAL CONTEXT

This Accountability Agreement has been produced at a time of unprecedented change in the FE sector, and wider society. The sector is widely recognised as underfunded, yet the delivery of an effective skills system is central to the Government’s economic strategy. The Skills for Jobs White Paper, published in January 2021 sets out ambitions to reform the skills system. The Government’s Build Back Better Plan for Growth published in March 2021 places FE colleges firmly at the centre of the levelling up agenda, leading a skills led recovery out of the Covid pandemic and supporting employers to increase their productivity.

In the short to medium term our students, staff and the system in which the College operates are facing the following significant challenges which have been considered when setting the targets at the end of this document:

Curriculum - significant qualification reform removing progression pathways and increasing curriculum delivery inefficiency / lifelong learning entitlement

Staff - workforce / recruitment & retention & pay issues

Colleges - rising energy costs / fixed funding levels leading to sector sustainability fears

Systems - Office for National Statistics reclassification of the sector / Local Skills Improvement Plans / funding & accountability reforms / political changes

LOCAL CONTEXT and PLACE

The College is:

Made up of three campuses (including a 500-acre land-based site) and is a mediumsized general FE College, that enrols around 6,000 students and employs 500 staff

The third largest provider for 16–18-year-olds in County Durham

Consistently the biggest provider for adults in the County Durham (around 50% of our enrolment volume is for this age group)

The biggest provider for 14–16-year-old provision in the NE LEP area

The biggest land-based provider in the Northeast LEP area

The largest provider for education for students with Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs), including specialist autistic provision and supported internships

The fifth largest provider of apprenticeships in the County with income doubling over the past three years

Inclusive; we offer provision in all 15 subject sector areas, across all levels, including a significant and broad A level offer and recruit from across the northeast as shown, by campus, on the maps below.

The vast majority of college enrolments are at levels 1 to 3 (93%)

Willerby

Grove and The Technical Academy

The Willerby Grove Campus in Peterlee offers a range of vocational study programmes, A-levels, higher education programmes and provision for directly recruited 14–16-yearolds. The Technical Academy, based on Peterlee’s Southwest Industrial estate, offers a range of engineering, constructionrelated vocational pathways including renewables and an HE offer in engineering. Most enrolments at this site are concentrated from within County Durham, however we recruit a significant number of students from the Tees Valley area.

Houghall Campus

The Houghall Campus, in Durham, offers a range of landbased study programmes, in eight different career pathways, a higher education offer and several industry related commercial courses. SEN provision is delivered across Willerby Grove and Houghall with the latter also hosting a provision for students with autism. Recruitment is from across the region with many from County Durham and wider into North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Northumberland.

County Durham is a largely rural county and suffers from a poor transport infrastructure in many areas. Within the county there are pockets of severe, sustained deprivation with 69.2% of the population living in the 30% most deprived areas with significant volumes in the 0.2-10% most deprived areas in England. Employment rates are lower than the national average, qualification attainment lags national attainment rates, and the average salary is lower than the regional and national average. A high proportion of students come from the most deprived areas in the county (73%) with a third of these coming from the most deprived areas in England, and a high proportion claim free school meals, over 13% points above the national average.

Continual improvement in student outcomes, raising participation and attendance and strengthening inclusion pathways for the hardest to reach, vulnerable students will always remain the highest priority for

the College. We maintain a broad offer, across all subject sector areas, to ensure that there is a pathway for all students into the career of their choice.

All our provision is aligned to local labour market intelligence (purchased from Vector) which is supplemented by intelligence on employers’ skills needs gathered through our stakeholder engagement strategy and business engagement team.

While the College has an extensive, broad offer at levels 1-3, there is an ambition to grow provision further at levels 4 and 5, in specific skills priority areas. The College has benefitted from securing investment in recent years to facilitate this through the DfE funded higher technical qualification fund, the strategic development fund and because it is a member of the NE Institute of Technology.

East Durham College makes a considerable contribution to its community. All 16–18-yearolds students take part in a community action project where they investigate issues in their local area and give their time and effort to helping alleviate social issues, promote good causes or develop wellbeing strategies. This work forms part of our social corporate responsibility and was recognised nationally in 2021 when the College was awarded Beacon Status by the Association of Colleges.

The ‘local’ area that the College serves is defined by several

political geographies; the Northeast LEP area (the whole of the northeast from the borders of Scotland to the Tees Valley) which will move to full devolution in September 2024 to become the NEMCA (North East Mayoral Combined Authority.

The College itself is based in County Durham, which has just signed a devolution deal to become part of NECA (the North East Combined Authority) and a smaller geography is the focus for the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) which covers County Durham, Gateshead, South Tyneside and Sunderland. The Willerby Grove campus is very close to the Tees Valley, managed by the TVCA, who have a devolved adult skills budget for this area. The local economic realities are that students, businesses and their employees migrate and work and learn across these boundaries. The College recruit

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The NE LSIP is led by the North East Automotive Alliance and the priorities are below, which mirrors the NE LEP skills priorities:

Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering

Construction

Digital

Health and Life Sciences

Transport and Logistics

Land based skills are not a stated priority for either the NELSIP or the NE LEP, but this is a significant part of the college offer and a national skills priority. Data from Vector shows that there are 4,000 jobs in agriculture and the land-based sector in the NELEP area and this sector has the greatest proportion of working owners compared to all other sectors.

The largest employment sector for the region is health and health / life sciences, including social care, which accounts for 17%* of jobs in the NE LEP area, above the national average. Other sectors where employment in the region is more than 1.5% above the sector average include public administration, manufacturing, education and accommodation services and food. The visitor economy (accommodation and food) is not identified as a NELSIP

or NELEP priority but is identified as such by the North of Tyne Combined Authority. (2021 data)

The profile of businesses in the NELEP area shows that they are dominated by those defined as micro (0-9 employees) and small (10-49) who make up 81% and 16% respectively, with just 3% of businesses defined as medium (50-249 employees) and large (250+). In County Durham, 98% of businesses are micro or small, with 2% being medium or large.

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Skills and Employment

The most recent key indicators measuring employment and skills performance in the North East show that since 2014:

The working age (16 to 64) employment density has decreased;

The proportion of the population that is working age has decreased:

The working age employment and economic activity rates have both increased;

The proportion of working age people with degree level qualifications has increased, while the proportion with no qualifications has decreased;

The percentage of vacancies that are skills shortage vacancies has grown but the percentage of employers with skills gaps has fallen; The working age economic activity rate and the unemployment rates for working age, younger and older workers have all decreased;

Average full time employee pay has increased.

The North East’s trends in the proportion of employers with skills gaps, the working age and older workers unemployment rates, and full-time employee pay have been better than the national equivalents. This has not been true for any of the other indicators.

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National LISP NEAA

North East LEP

North East IoT

Tees Valley CA

Regional and National Skills Priorities

East Durham College Skills Priorities

Area Why?

Construction

Agriculture and Horticulture

Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering

Life Sciences (inc Health and Social Care)

This is a national, regional and local skills priority. The interest in modern methods of construction (MMC), specifically offsite modular building, has been growing since the pandemic. The Governments ‘Build, Build, Build’ and ‘Green Industrial Revolution’ pledges has ensured that the wider industry has been forced to think differently. The proportion of new homes built using MMC is predicted to increase from 6-10% currently to 20% by 2027. Key job areas include Construction Production Managers and Directors and Specialist Construction Professionals, both of which have predicted growth of 4.8%. The college will continue its training in the key trades which input into MMC such as joinery, however it will look to increase the wider knowledge and skills of LEAN and production quality process management such as six sigma.

LMI indicates a 7% increase in the numbers of jobs which require practical farming skills. Additionally, the average age of a UK farmer is 59. New entrants to farming and food production need a new skills set and understanding of the link between science and technology and agriculture for the UK to meet the target in the Government Food Strategy. Horticulture is a cross cutting theme which goes across all land based areas delivered at Houghall.

This is a national, regional and local skills priority. Almost three quarters (70%) of UK Manufacturing businesses report that trade has returned or even exceeded pre-pandemic production. An annual growth rate of 4.56% is expected between 2023 and 2027. Key job areas include Production Managers in Manufacturing (4.8% growth); Engineering Professionals including mechatronics (3.3%); Quality Control and Planning Engineering (3.3%); Design and Development Engineers including robotics and CAD (3.3%) and Electronic Engineers (3.3%).

In 2021 it was reported that there wouldbe 107,598 jobs (which is 22% above the national average) available within the health Industry alone in the North East. This figure is set to rise by over 1.9% in the next five years. Following on from this the 2021 Skills Gap report discovered that 84% of respondents in the healthcare sector were suffering from a lack of skilled workers. Within Life Sciences which is a sub-component of Health, there is an expected 7% growth in the job market by 2028. Life sciences is broken down into three distinct areas: Pathology, Genetics and Reproductive Science. The top four healthcare jobs in demand are Nurse Practitioners (52% increase from 2020-2030); Physical Therapists (35%); Medical and Health Service Managers (32%) and Medical Assistants.

Animal Science Qualification reform is a risk to maintaining learner numbers. T-levels will only meet part of the local skills needs and are unlikely to support progression to the STEM HE pathways which meet regional LMI data which indicates a 21% increase in veterinary activities (vets, veterinary nurses). Spending on pet care in the UK saw a 270% increase from 2005 - 2021 with more growth expected.

Digital 82% of advertised jobs required digital skills at some level, with those requiring higher level skills paying a significantly higher salary. This is a national, regional and local skills priority and is central to most roles as well as being a job in its own right. Many industries are also relying on automation to help with economic recovery following covid. Key job areas are data science and analytics (9.2% growth), cyber security (12%) as well as the infrastructure and connectivity to support business activity and remove digital poverty and exclusion.

Culture, Creative and Tourism

Regional tourism related jobs are set to grow in the north east by over 20% in the next 10 years, the majority of these are set to be in the travel sector. This presents both a national and regional skills priority which we can position our learners to take advantage of. Following the restrictions imposed by Covid, the travel sector is now working hard to recover to pre-pandemic levels. To achieve this growth these organisations are looking to change to more modern ways of working and are therefore looking for a more modern skills set. This presents a great opportunity for us to place our learners competitively as this sector grows. East Durham is uniquely placed between all of the norths major travel hubs which means that learners are geographically well placed to take advantage of the industry growth.

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OUR APPROACH TO THE ACCOUNTABILITY AGREEMENT

The college uses purchased labour market intelligence (Vector) to inform its curriculum offer, supplemented by intelligence collected by our employer engagement team and employer focus groups, as outlined in our Stakeholder Engagement Strategy. In developing the accountability agreement, the college has utilised intelligence from our involvement with a wide range of stakeholders including the North East LEP, Tees Valley Combined Authority, North of Tyne Combined Authority, NHS England, Health Education England, Durham County Council, North East Chamber of Commerce, Landex and numerous employers to inform our key priorities and targets. We have actively engaged with the North East Automotive Alliance who are the Employer Representative Body for the North East LSIP.

The college established the North East Health Skills Hub to bring together a range of providers to meet the skills needs of the NHS as we recognised that individual providers could not meet the extensive skills needs of this sector. This led to an investment of £2.7m from the Strategic Development Fund to develop CEIAG for schools and a range of new apprenticeship provision at level two to level four in healthcare science and science manufacturing. The success of this work has allowed us to develop a model of delivery that works, gaining the confidence of the NHS, and we are now working on the next set of skills priorities in health as the LSIF regional lead.

We are a key partner of the North East Institute of Technology (IoT) whose focus is on Advanced Manufacturing and Construction. This partnership gives us a key

insight into the requirements of these industries, and we are in the process of refocussing the KPIs for the IoT to meet the changing demands of the regions businesses.

We are a key member of Landex, a membership body for land-based colleges across the country and recognise the role that land based education has in meeting wider regional skills priorities and in driving the green skills agenda. We operate a commercial farm and are involved in research with partners such as Agrii and Durham and Newcastle Universities on animal welfare and nutrition, precision grazing, productivity and reducing the carbon footprint, and improving the sustainability of agriculture.

We have successfully delivered on a range of projects as lead or a partner including ESF, Skills Bootcamps, Skills Injection Fund, NEETs, NECOP and WorldSkills.

In developing the agreement, we engaged with all our staff and Governors to inform our key priorities and targets. This involved a full staff event where they were involved in challenging the college direction as well as

highlighting any gaps from their perspective. Work with Governors commenced with a strategic planning day the outcomes of which are now embedded into the full board and its subcommittees. This accountability agreement is aligned with the college Strategic Plan (202326), it will state how the college intends to change or further improve its provision and will provide a basis for Governors from which they can undertake their statutory review. The strategic plan contains targets against all of the priority areas, however as this agreement is for one year it does not include targets which come in later years in relation to digital and culture, travel and tourism.

where ambitions are high but funding is low, there will be an annual review of provision so that scarce resources are better deployed and meet our community’s needs.

We will always look to maintain the breadth and depth of our offer, especially in light of 50% of jobs requiring skills at levels 1 – 3 and will focus our investment in developing the skills priority areas up to level five.

CONTRIBUTION TO NATIONAL, REGIONAL & LOCAL PRIORITIES

The priorities within our 2023-26 Strategic Plan have informed the priorities for this agreement alongside the priorities of the North East LEP, the LSIP and from our own intelligence.

All our provision is aligned to local labour market intelligence (Vector) which is supplemented by intelligence on employers’ skills needs gathered through our stakeholder engagement activity and business team.

While the college has an extensive, broad offer at levels one to three, there is an ambition to grow provision further at levels four and five in specific skills priority areas. The college has benefitted from securing investment in recent years to facilitate this through the Skills Injection Funds, the Local Skills Improvement Fund and the North East Institute of Technology.

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Local Needs Duty

East Durham College makes a strong contribution to meeting local and regional skills needs.

EDC is one of four colleges in County Durham and nine across the North East. We are the only college with specialist facilities for land-based programmes, discreet provision for students with autism and a bespoke offer for those aged 14-16. The college offers provision across all 15 subject sector areas and is the largest provider of courses for adults in County Durham.

The college helps shape local provision through its highly collaborative approach and constant stakeholder engagement. The regional Health Skills Hub, developed by the college and involving most regional colleges, a university and private training providers, ensured that there was a co-ordinated approach to meeting the vast and complex needs of the NHS. This led to a successful combined bid, led by the college, as part of the Strategic Development Fund where a careers focussed website, facilities for clean rooms, new apprenticeships and staff training packages were developed to meet the needs of the NHS. The college also led on the Local Skills Improvement Fund for the region ensuring that there was provision in all LSIP priority areas but with reduced duplication of provision and shared work on resources and staff CPD. The college is represented on forums across

all key priority areas to help inform our direction of travel. We are key members of the North East Institute of Technology which focuses upon Digital, Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing and has employer working groups to inform curriculum development. An outcome of this was the identification of the need for Retrofit Training which has not been developed by the partner colleges and an agreement made as to who will deliver which element. The college was key in developing the Durham Alliance, a partnership of the four County Durham Colleges with Durham University to map provision at level three to help to increase the proportion of local students who progress to higher tariff institutions.

In planning its provision, the college takes account of the Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), national and regional skills priorities as well as local skills needs informed by labour market information and the rich knowledge we gain from our employer and community stakeholders including employer forums. We played a key role in influencing the development of the LSIP ensuring that the voices of our stakeholders were heard and understood so that new provision could be developed. Our ongoing engagement with key stakeholders including other colleges and universities, private and public sector employers, local authorities and devolved authorities, ensures that

the information we base our planning on is current and will ensure that more of our students move into employment or higher study in key areas.

Governors are involved throughout the whole planning process. They are regularly updated on skills priorities and participate in an annual strategic planning day with college leaders where they challenge and question the direction of the college in relation to local, regional and national data. They are fully involved in discussions around changes to the offer including when to remove, when to duplicate and when to introduce new provision which is always linked back to the college values and the needs of our community.

As well as introducing new provision such as health science, land based engineering, Supported Internships, ESOL and a degree in animal management; Governors and leaders made a conscious decision to maintain a broad, deep and inclusive curriculum to assist with the social mobility for our students 70% of whom come from the top three most deprived areas. The area has a poor transport infrastructure and travel to learn patterns suggest that those who study at a lower level do not travel for education, therefore as long as the provision can be delivered in a sustainable way, we will ensure that we continue to meet the needs of our community.

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College Strategic Objective (2023-26)

Objective 1:

Grow our higher level academic and technical progression pathways in skills priority areas: Construction

Advanced Manufacturing & Engineering

Health, Life and Animal Sciences

Social Care

Digital Horticulture

Agriculture

Food Security and Sustainability

Creative, Cultural, Tourism and Hospitality

Objective 2:

Continue

**

Increase the number of adults studying level 4 and 5 qualifications by 35% in skills priority areas

Staff recruitment and retention

Funding for many qualifications via OfS until 2025/26

Deliver 20 supported internship programmes for students with an EHCP

Continue to growth in 16-18 study programme numbers

50% of grant funded provision to be in skills priority areas (all age)

Increase the number of enrolments on T- levels in line with the funding agreement

Keep attrition below 5%

Increase Progression

Staff recruitment and retention

Curriculum inefficiencies arising from level 3 qualification reform reduces the breadth of offer

Availability of funding from Welfare to Work to fund Job Coaches

Efficiency of delivering to smaller groups

Reputational damage to T-levels and content not being fit for purpose

Increase the number of adults studying level 4 and 5 qualifications by 25%

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Deliver 20 supported internship programmes for students with an EHCP

Continue the growth in 16-18 study programme numbers

48% of grant funded provision to be in skills priority areas (all age)

Increase the number of enrolments on T- level enrolments within 20% of the funding agreement

Keep attrition below 6%

College Strategic Objective (2023-26)

Objective 3:

Double apprenticeship numbers in the lifetime of the strategic plan

Objective 4:

Become the preferred partner for employers, civic organisations, the community and other education providers.

£1.8m

Excellent

Objective 5:

We will realign our adult offer to be ‘labour market responsive’.

3 formal forums internally in skills priority areas

Representation at 2 external forums in skills priority areas

Increase apprenticeship income to £2m

Maintain an excellent score for employer voice

Staffing recruitment and retention

Apprenticeship standards failing to meet employers’ needs and funding does not make them viable

Inability to infill off the job training into study programmes due to narrow nature of standards

Employers to endorse the knowledge, skills and behaviours of our study programmes in all skills priority areas

Increase apprenticeship income to £2m

Maintain an excellent score for employer voice

46%

Increase percentage of adult provision in skills priority areas from 46% to 50%

Pressure on businesses to be involved in qualification design, reform and placements whilst dealing with staffing issues could lead to them withdrawing from partnership work

Staff recruitment and retention

Curriculum inefficiencies arising from qualification reform reduces the breadth of offer

Employers to endorse the knowledge, skills and behaviours of our study programmes in 50% of skills priority areas

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Increase percentage of adult provision in skills priority areas from 46% to 48%

CORPORATION STATEMENT

On behalf of the governing body of East Durham College we confirm that the plan set out above reflects an agreed statement of purpose, aims and objectives as approved by the corporation. The plan will be published on the college’s website within three months of the start of the new academic year.

Signed: Chair of Governors

Signed: Principal / Chief Executive

HYPERLINKS AND SUPPORTING INFORMATION

On behalf of the governing body of East Durham College we confirm that the plan set out above reflects an agreed statement of purpose.