AoC responds to in-year growth funding for 16 to 19 education

David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said: “Colleges and their students are being let down once again in today's announcement by a dysfunctional funding system and a lack of respect which harks back to the dark days of austerity they suffered in the 2010s. This academic year, colleges recruited 32,000 more 16 to 19-year-old students than they were funded to and did so because they believe in the power of learning to support people in life and in work. Today, we learned that the government cannot even find the funding to pay around 50% of the full cost for their courses. Instead, they only have sufficient funding to pay three quarters of their formula, meaning colleges will end up being part-funded at a little over a third of the full cost.

"The cost of fully funding those 32,000 students would be around £220million and the Department for Education (DfE) formula would probably result in colleges getting half of that, around £110million. But they will now get three quarters of that - around £80million - meaning that they have failed to find £30million to fully fund their own formula. That suggests these learners and colleges are simply not viewed as high priorities, because no other part of the education system is expected to operate like this. At a time when the government is rightly aiming to reduce the numbers of young people not in education, training or employment (NEET), it also makes no sense. College leaders feel that their good will and strong inclusion values have been abused and I worry about what that might mean in future decisions they take when faced with unfunded students.

"We need proper demand-led funding for colleges so they have a guarantee of full funding for every 16 to 19-year-old student they enrol. Coming on the back of the meagre 0.55% funding rate increase for next academic year, this decision is deeply disappointing."