Specialist colleges occupy a niche within the Further Education (FE) landscape. Their small student populations, coupled with responsibility for them falling between skills and FE (Minister for Skills) and SEND (Minister for School Standards), puts them at a disadvantage. As a result, specialist FE colleges are often overlooked with priority given instead to SEND provision at the school level.
Bridgehead Education was retained by Natspec from April 2023 to October 2024 to raise the profile of the organisation and the key challenges faced by its member colleges among policymakers in both Westminster and the Welsh Assembly. On behalf of its members, Natspec championed a range of key policy issues largely centred around fairer access for learners, improved quality, greater post-college support, and a robust system of accountability. However, their key priorities included securing a one-off urgent capital improvement fund, ensuring greater government consultation in policy formulation, integrating specialist FE colleges more thoroughly into wider SEND and FE policies, and lobbying the government to exclude specialist post-16 institutions (SPIs) from changes to VAT policy.
We designed and implemented a comprehensive public affairs engagement programme across Westminster and the Welsh Parliament. Central to our approach was updating existing stakeholder maps to ensure they included relevant policymakers, such as MPs, Peers, MSs, special advisers and civil servants with a specific interest in SEND, FE, or those with member colleges within their constituencies.
We also established a comprehensive Parliamentary monitoring system to detect and track relevant government and parliamentary activities, allowing us to update our stakeholder map and target MPs and MSs accordingly. This monitoring allowed us to engage with policymakers who were sympathetic to Natspec’s aims, particularly those with a history of advocating for SEND or FE.
Our outreach campaign focused on one-to-one meetings with MPs and MSs, strategically seeking to build a coalition of supporters. Key figures we engaged included Peter Aldous MP, former Chair of the APPG for FE, Edward Timpson MP, former Minister of State for Education, and Seema Malhotra MP, former Shadow Minister for Skills. We prioritised asking MPs to table Parliamentary Questions, speak in relevant debates, and send letters to Ministers in support of Natspec’s policy requests. In Wales, MSs such as Laura Jones MS and Paul Davies MS were consulted on issues relating to the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) code, with Davies posing an oral question to the Welsh Education Minister on the subject.
Our campaign gathered significant traction among policymakers. Over an 18-month period we secured a total of 27 meetings with relevant MPs in Westminster and 10 in the Welsh Assembly. These engagements led to tangible outcomes. They saw numerous written and oral questions raised in both Parliament and the Welsh Assembly; and letters sent to Ministers petitioning on key issues, ranging from capital funding and VAT relief for specialist FE colleges in England to ALN reforms in Wales.
Our outreach efforts surrounding the Commons debate on SEND provision in early 2024 saw David Davis MP and Peter Aldous MP raise the key issue of capital funding for specialist FE. VAT-related challenges facing SPIs were also raised in the House of Lords by Baroness Barran and Baroness Monckton and in a Westminster Hall debate by both James Wild MP, Shadow Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Education, and Esther McVey MP. These contributions have served to broaden awareness of Natspec’s key challenges and lay the groundwork for further policy engagement under the new Labour Government in 2025.
The highlight of our engagement campaign to date remains the launch of the Natspec manifesto in Parliament on 19 February, 2024. Sponsored by Dr Lisa Cameron MP, Chair of the APPG for Disabilities, the event saw speeches from Helen Hayes MP, the then Shadow Minister for Children and Early Years, and Seema Malhotra MP the then Shadow Minister for Skills. Their attendance, alongside other notable MPs and Lords such as Lord Addington, Jesse Norman MP, and Florence Eshalomi MP, demonstrated the increasing policy focus Specialist FE has attracted in England and Wales.
The event’s impact also extended beyond Parliament with Billy, a student from Hereward College, personally petitioning the now Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer MP, to ensure that a future Labour government commits to supporting specialist FE colleges.
