Further cuts to college funding could be on the horizon, the Scottish government’s further education minister has indicated.
Speaking in her first interview with TESS since being appointed in May, Shirley-Anne Somerville warned that the government’s spending review later this year would come at a difficult time, due to continuing austerity and uncertainty surrounding Brexit.
She added that Audit Scotland’s report on colleges, published in August, had shown the sector to be “financially stable”, although it noted specific issues with a small number of individual colleges.
“The sector in general is in good heart,” said Ms Somerville. “I think obviously we are going through a funding review where [colleges] will make demands of the government, and so will other sectors, but all of the spending review will have to be in the spirit of realisation of where we are in the financial context.”
According to the Audit Scotland report, Scottish government funding to the FE sector has been reduced by 18 per cent in real terms since 2010-11, although it remains broadly static for 2015-16. “The financial performance of the sector in 2014-15 deteriorated from the previous year with four colleges experiencing underlying financial challenges,” it stated.
However, the minister refused to rule out further cuts to sector budgets, but said: “[College leaders] will have seen the Fraser of Allander Institute report and its predictions for the Scottish budget [of a fall by more than 6 per cent over the next five years], and the noises that are coming from the UK government under its new leadership, and although we would wish to see an end to austerity, that is unlikely.”
‘This is a difficult time’
She said that the added uncertainty of Brexit was making long-term planning more difficult for the government and this in turn did the same for colleges.
“This is a difficult time,” said Ms Somerville. “I know that makes it difficult for the colleges to do long-term planning, but it is not the position the government wanted to be in.”
There were a lot of demands on colleges, she acknowledged, including the need to engage with schools, as well as employers and the university sector. However, she stressed that the sector did have the backing of the Scottish government: “There is opportunity in it as well. Yes, colleges will get the spending review, along with HE and the other public sector. But we have to bear in mind that we are delivering a high level of investment, both in terms of revenue and capital [to colleges]. They are a sector that is supported by the Scottish government. This is not a sector that is without support from the government.”
‘It is not the position the government wanted to be in’
Despite strike action from both teaching and support-staff unions this year - most recently by Unison members last week - and college leaders insisting there is insufficient funding for further pay increases, Ms Somerville insisted national bargaining continued to be a government priority.
“It is a very important part of how we would like to see FE delivered,” she said. “It is not an easy process - I would not pretend that it is.”
However, it was still the right way to go, she said, stressing that the formation of an employer association, which now represents the employers at the negotiating table, had been an important step: “The Scottish government has funded the employers’ association to allow them to be fully established, and that is very important. Both sides need to use the facilities which they now have.”
College leaders have called for additional funding, but Ms Somerville said: “Every part of the public sector needs to look at how it spends the pounds it receives. Colleges will make their own decisions on how they use those funds, and I think the employers and the staff side need to get together and look at both the terms and conditions, and the pay of those in the sector, to see what can be done to deliver on national bargaining.”
