AoC responds to college accounting changes

David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said: "I’m pleased that a pragmatic approach is being taken to the task of consolidating college accounts into those of central government, after 18 months of hard work between government and college finance directors. That work helped to co-create an approach which meets the government’s requirements but minimises the disruption and workload for colleges. The original plan to change the sector's financial year end would have taken up enormous resource in every college, so this use of adapted but existing data returns will greatly smooth the process.

"There is still extra work from college finance teams at a time when they are already fully stretched but we welcome the fact that a co-creation and piloting approach was used to test a solution and the results were evaluated in a way that changed some of the decisions. Colleges have an exemplary record in making effective use of limited public funds. We thank the committee of Treasury, National Audit Office, Office for National Statistics and Parliamentary representatives and Department for Education officials for endorsing an approach that will gather the data that government needs in a cost-effective way."