The government’s area review process of the further education sector, intended to lead to fewer, more resilient institutions, is “fundamentally flawed” because it only focuses on sixth form colleges, according to the Sixth Form College Association (SFCA).

In a written submission to the Education Committee, published today, the SFCA stated: “It does not make educational or economic sense to scrutinise the 90 sixth form colleges in England, but not the 2001 school and academy sixth forms.” The SFCA added that despite sixth form colleges being more efficient and more effective than school and academy sixth forms, the government was now “simultaneously committed to reducing the number of sixth form colleges through the area review process, while increasing the number of smaller school, academy and free school sixth forms”.

“Eking out further efficiencies in the most efficient part of the post-16 sector whilst ignoring the most inefficient providers is difficult to square with ‘the need to maintain very tight fiscal discipline in order to tackle the deficit’ - the policy rationale outlined in the original statement on area reviews,” the SFCA added.

‘Very unhelpful’

According to its submission, it had quickly become apparent that the process was designed for further education colleges rather than sixth form colleges when more information, policy documents and first-hand accounts began to emerge on area reviews. “It feels very much that sixth form colleges have been bolted on to a process intended for further education colleges. Most sixth form colleges have more in common with schools and academies than they do with the world of FE and have felt it very unhelpful to be bracketed with FE colleges through the area review process,” it said. 

The initial questionnaire sixth form colleges for example asked for information on examples of significant employer engagement, according to the submission. “Equating significant with ‘the amount of commercial income generated’ is to misunderstand the nature of the links that many sixth form colleges have with employers.”

The narrow focus on reducing costs had been another flaw of the review process, said the SFCA, with little thought given to the quality of provision and related outcomes for students. “The government has been unable to provide compelling evidence that ‘fewer, often larger’ providers will result either in a more financially sustainable sector, or have any effect on quality,” said the document.  Around a quarter of sixth-form colleges had succumbed to mergers with larger further education colleges since 1993 with no evidence of improved efficiency but some evidence of reduced quality, it adds.

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