Colleges received a total of £57.6 million in bailouts from the Education and Skills Funding Agency in 2017-18, which will not be recovered.

The figures emerged in the ESFA annual report, published today, which lists the value of all claims worth £300,000 or more which are described as “waived or abandoned”.

These include exceptional financial support for current and former colleges. Recipients include: Hull College (£21.3 million), Central Sussex College (£12.1 million), Bournville College (£10.5 million), Telford College of Arts and Technology (£4.5 million), Somerset College of Arts and Technology (£4.4 million), Sussex Downs College (£1.8 million), West Cheshire College (£1.7 million) and Lowestoft College (£1.4 million).

Also listed are five UTC closures leaving balances of £3.2 million. “The balances relate to pre- and post-16 pupil number adjustments for excess pupil funding and recoverable deficit funding,” the report states. This total includes funding given to: Daventry UTC (£1.3 million), Lancashire UTC (£1.2 million) and Greater Manchester Sustainable Engineering UTC (£645,000).

‘Very exceptional’ cases

The report explains that exceptional support is provided when “funding is urgently required to meet college liabilities in order to protect education and training provision for learners”.

This is provided “as a loan wherever possible” or as a conditional grant. However, the report continues: “In very exceptional circumstances, a non-repayable grant may be provided. To support the implementation of recommendations from the area reviews of post-16 education and training, funding has been made available for college restructuring.

“The affordability of repaying exceptional financial support loans or conditional grants has been considered alongside the requirement for restructuring funding, and in some cases ministers in the Department [for Education] and HM Treasury have agreed to waive the repayment of the exceptional financial support loans and grants recognised as assets by the ESFA.”