The government is considering whether to include individual college campuses in its performance reviews.
The Department for Education (DfE) has launched a consultation on the performance reporting system for FE colleges. The current system operates at corporation level.
Ministers are consulting on two proposals:
- Separate performance reporting for colleges that are part of a group. That would mean performance information was available for all colleges, irrespective of whether they were part of a group or not.
- Separate reporting for delivery sites that are part of the same college. That would provide greater transparency on the quality of local provision, alongside performance information relating to the college as a whole.
‘No changes to allocation of funding’
The consultation document states that the corporation must remain the accountable body “however large or complex its activities, and wherever its provision is delivered”.
The government is seeking to “support” existing performance reporting rather than replace it. “These include achievement rates, progress measures, learner destinations and outcomes. It does not propose any changes to the measures themselves. Other, non-educational performance measures, such as financial indicators, are not in scope of this consultation,” the consultation states.
The government also insists that no changes are proposed to the current system for allocation of funding.
David Corke, director of policy at the Association of Colleges (AoC), said: “We have been asking for performance reporting to change for some time so we are happy that the department is consulting on this. As colleges become more complex through mergers, it is important that outcomes and performance measures are reported in a fair and meaningful way. We will continue to work closely with the department on this”.
The consultation runs for two months until 10 Jun 2018.
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