AoC welcomes DfE detail on £300m funding boost

David Hughes, Chief Executive, Association of Colleges, said: “I am pleased that the DfE has provided more detail on how they plan to use the extra £300m announced in the autumn budget last year. Colleges will be looking forward to seeing the detailed information of what their allocation will look like in February before they make any decisions on how they will be able to utilise it for both this year and next. They will also be keen to know about any in-year growth plans and their adult allocation for next year.

“The £300m is a welcome boost for 16 to 18 funding, but because of demographic growth it is clearly not enough to restore the funding lost since 2010. It’s even more worrying that there is yet again no change to the adult funding rate which has been fixed for 14 years now. The rate is ridiculously low and it makes it increasingly likely that colleges will be turning away adults who want to learn skills in high demand in the labour market because they simply cannot recruit and retain teaching staff to deliver the learning needed at the pay they can afford.

“If the government wants to achieve its missions and ambitions for economic growth and fairness, additional, sustainable investment across all post-16 education must be provided in the spring spending review.”