Fraud and error in further education are getting “worse”, according to the ESFA’s director of finance, who has revealed there was £50 million worth of clawback last year. Andrew Thomas, who heads the agency’s provider market oversight division, said clamping down on misused funding was his “top priority” at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers autumn conference. He told provider leaders that his agency doesn’t want there to be “any clawback”, to give the assurance to parliament that taxpayers’ money is “being used as intended”. Thomas also revealed that the agency is now planning to publish summary reports of “all” investigations it undertakes into FE providers “to help you to understand what you shouldn’t be doing. It is not clear whether these reports will be based on individual providers. More details are expected in due course.” Click here for more.
