AoC responds to DfE announcement that "thousands more school and sixth form places to be created"

AoC responds to DfE announcement that "thousands more school and sixth form places to be created".

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: "Although there is a pressing need for more secondary and 16 to 19 places, there are better ways to create these places than setting-up new, small and highly-selective institutions for a minority of the population. There is no evidence that these areas suffer from poor quality 16 to 18 education currently, so it is difficult to see what these proposals are the solution to.

"Colleges already support students from all parts of society and help them progress to great outcomes. Colleges desperately need the capital funding to be able to support more students as the 16 to 19 population continues to grow.

"Despite this DfE last year turned down more than 50 college bids to grow 16 to 19 places and rejected more than 100 bids for colleges to upgrade their facilities in the latest capital transformation round.

"While any extra funding is welcome, the metrics DfE use to determine Education Investment Areas – primary and GCSE results data – are less relevant to performance by age 18. As the DfE does not publish 16-19 student number forecast data, there is a risk that this money could be allocated to the wrong places."

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