There is a £760 per student shortfall between the funding that
Sixth Form Colleges receive and the amount they need to educate
their students according to a report published today.
The report Understanding the funding
shortfall in sixth form education was produced by
London Economics on behalf of the Sixth Form Colleges
Association. It shows the dramatic impact of the government
freeze on sixth form funding combined with a sharp increase in
running costs. The report found that:
- Sixth Form
Colleges need an increase in funding of at
least £760 per student in 2020/21 to
continue providing a high quality education to young people
- This funding
is the minimum required to:
- Increase
student support services to the required level (e.g.
improving the mental and physical health of students)
- Protect
minority subjects that are at risk of being dropped (e.g.
modern foreign languages)
- Increase
non-qualification time (e.g. extra-curricular activities,
work experience, university visits)
- Sixth Form
Colleges will require a
further £140 per student in 2020/21 if
the proposed increase in employer contributions to the Teachers’
Pension Scheme is not fully funded by the government
- In real terms, Sixth Form Colleges
received £1,380 less per student in
2016/17 than they did in 2010/11 –
a 22% decline in funding
- The number of teachers in Sixth Form Colleges decreased
by 15% during the same period as a
result of funding pressures (from an average of 97 per college to
82), but the number of students increased
by 6% (from an average of 1,702 per
college to 1,806)
Commenting on the report, Bill Watkin, Chief Executive of
the Sixth Form Colleges Association, said:
“It is now well understood that sixth form education has
experienced deeper funding cuts since 2010 than any other phase
of education. But until the publication of today’s report, the
impact of cost increases has been less well understood. The
debate about sixth form funding now needs to move from how much
funding has been cut, to how much funding is actually needed to
provide the sort of high quality, internationally-competitive
education that our young people deserve.
“We now have a minimum figure - £760 per student - but this
will need to increase by a further £140 per student if the
government does not fully fund the proposed increase in employer
contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. We will launch the
Raise the Rate campaign later this month in partnership with a
range of other school and college associations to help secure a
significant increase in the funding rate for sixth form students
in next year’s spending review”.
Maike Halterbeck, an Associate Director at London
Economics and primary author of the report said:
“The ongoing cuts to sixth form education have caused a
significant reduction in the resources available for front-line
teaching activity. This has resulted in a narrowing of the
curriculum on offer – and a narrowing of the opportunities
available to more than 150,000 young people. Significant
additional financial resources should be provided to properly
fund young people’s education and provide them with an
internationally competitive sixth form curriculum.”
Notes to editors:
- A copy of Understanding the funding shortfall in
sixth form education can be downloaded here
-
Raise the rate: why funding for sixth form education needs
to be increased provides more information on sixth
form funding and can be downloaded here
- Employer contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme
will increase from
September 2019 - early indications are that this will be from
16.48% to 23.6%. Although it is likely the government will meet
the cost of the increase in 2019/20, decisions beyond that
point will depend on the outcome of the spending review.
