- About us
- About colleges
-
Corporate services
- Corporate services
- Mental health and wellbeing
- Data Protection/GDPR
-
Employment Services - college workforce
- Employment Services - college workforce
- Employment: How we support members
- Introduction & Employment Helpline
- Absence & Sickness Management
- Contracts and T&Cs
- Disciplinary, Capability & Grievance
- Employment Briefings Library
- Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
- General Employee Relations & HR Issues
- Holiday/annual leave related
- Industrial Relations
- ONS reclassification related guidance
- Pay & Pensions
- Recruitment
- Redundancy, Restructuring & TUPE
- Safeguarding/Prevent
- Workforce Benchmarking, Surveys & Research
-
Governance
- Governance
- Governance: How we support members
- Governance Timeline
- Representation
- AoC National Chairs' Council
- National Governance Professionals' Group
- Code of Good Governance
- External Governance Reviews
- Resources
- Governors Inductions
- Student Governor Inductions
- Student Governor Support Hub
- Guidance
- Hot Topics
- Governance Briefings
- Archive
-
Projects
- Projects
- Get Involved!
- Resources
- Contact the Projects Team
- Apprenticeship Workforce Development (AWD) Programme
- Creating a Greener London – Sustainable Construction Skills
- The 5Rs Approach to GCSE Maths Resits
- Creative Arts in FE 2024 – developing student voice through creativity
- DfE Multiply Capability Support Programme
- Digital Roles Across Non-digital Industries
- GCSE Resits Hub Project
- Pears Foundation Youth Social Action Programme: Phase 2
- T Level and T Level Foundation Year Provider Support Programme
- T Level Professional Development (TLPD) Offer
- The Valuing Enrichment Project
- Creative Writing in FE Anthology 2021/2022
- Resources/Guidance
- Sustainability & Climate Action Hub
- Partnerships
- Honours Nomination
- Brexit
- Ofsted Inspection Support
- Recruitment and consultancy
-
Events and training
- Events and training
- Events
- AoC Annual Conference and Exhibition 2024
- T Level and T Level Foundation Year Events
- Events and training: How we support members
- Network Meetings
- Previous Events and Webinars
- In-House Training
- Senior Leadership Development Programme
- Introducing AoC's Early Career and Experienced Managers' Programme
- Sponsorship and Exhibition Opportunities
- Funding and finance
-
Policy
- Policy
- Meet the Policy Team
- Policy: How we support members
- Policy Areas
- Policy Briefings
- Submissions
- Policy Papers & Reports
- AoC Strategy Groups
-
AoC Reference Groups
- AoC Reference Groups
- 14-16 Reference Group
- 16-18 Reference Group
- Adults (inc. ESOL) Reference Group
- Apprenticeship Reference Group
- EDI Reference Group
- HE Reference Group
- HR Reference Group
- International Reference Group
- Mental Health Reference Group
- SEND Reference Group
- Sustainability & Climate Change Reference Group
- Technology Reference Group
- WorldSkills Reference Group
- Opportunity England
-
Research unit
- Research unit
- Surveys
- MiDES Benchmarking
- Research Further
-
Research projects
- Research projects
- Investigating the impact of the apprenticeship levy on training outcomes - January 2024
- Forecasting the cost of the English HE funding system - November 2023
- Local skills improvement plans: a review of their impact and opportunities for the future
- The educational provision for 14 to 16-year-olds in further education in England
- Staying with the troublemakers: A celebration of research in FE
- Strengthening governance arrangements in the English post-16 skills system
- Data Sources
- Think Further - thought leadership in FE
-
News, campaigns and parliament
- News, campaigns and parliament
- Post-election hub
- General and mayoral election resources
-
Comms advice and resources for colleges
- Comms advice and resources for colleges
- Media relations: 10 ways to build effective relationships with the media
- How to choose a PR agency
- Legal considerations for communications and media work
- How to plan for a new build
- Crisis communications: your go-to guide
- How to handle photo consent for media and marketing
- How to evaluate a PR and media campaign
- How to react to regulation, funding and restructuring issues
- How to react quickly and effectively to the media
- Working with the media: a complete guide
- How to write a compelling case study
- How to write for the web
- College communications, marketing and campaigns community
- AoC Newsroom
- AoC Blogs
- Work in Parliament
- AoC Campaigns
- Briefings
- Communications, media, marketing and research: How we support members
-
Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Equality, diversity and inclusion
- Equality, diversity and inclusion blogs
- AoC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Charter
- AoC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Charter for further education sector organisations
- AoC’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Charter signatories
- Diversity in Leadership
- Black FE Leadership Group and AoC partnership agreement
- AoC's Equity Exchange
- Equality, diversity and inclusion: how we support members
- Equality, diversity and inclusion case studies
- ETF Inclusive Leadership Coaching Programme
- Equality, diversity and inclusion briefings
- Home
- News, campaigns and parliament
- AoC Blogs
- The importance of the right investment
The importance of the right investment
Yesterday, the National Audit Office released an interesting report on school buildings. In it are a number of choice facts and figures which could be difficult reading for some in the Department for Education (DfE).
For example, there’s a question of whether DfE is spending money in the right places. The free school capital programme (£1 billion in 2015-16 rising to a peak of £1.4 billion in 2017-18) is forecast to create 57,500 surplus places and negatively impact 282 schools, 149 of whom were good and outstanding. The report goes into some detail about the problems associated with finding new school places while unearthing some surprising facts. DFE's new strategy for securing free school sites involves a £2.5 billion property purchase budget over the next four years, a sum which ranks the department alongside the top five housebuilders in terms of purchases. Twenty years after the school system sold lots of sites, government is buying back different sites in the same places at a much higher cost.
However, as with the NAO report on school revenue funding in December, there is frustratingly little on the sixth form or post-16 aspects of this issue. NAO tend to second guess what the department themselves are doing so if the department is narrow minded, NAO's report may also miss some big points. For example, there is no mention of:
The demographic pressures which required DfE to provide extra secondary places in the first place will flow through to post-16 in the 2020s, yet there is no support in place to effectively plan for it. DfE currently measures supply/demand from 5 to 16 but doesn't systematically do so post-16.
Only two of the seven capital funds listed are open to colleges (just to sixth form colleges). There is no dedicated capital funding at all for the 600,000 DfE funded 16 to 18-year-olds in further education (FE) colleges.
The DfE survey of the school estate covers the 23,000 schools and 90 sixth form colleges but excludes the 230 FE colleges. Data has, of course, been collected via post-16 area reviews but there are no plans I'm aware of to keep, use or update that data beyond March 2017.
The report provides various figures on the number of new school places created but doesn't make clear if the numbers include new post-16 places.
If even a small part of the money spent on school buildings was invested into the further education sector, the impact would be significant. That’s why the Association of Colleges is asking for fair funding for colleges in the Spring Budget in March.
We want investment that supports every college to provide excellence, meet industry needs and help people move and progress into work. Fair funding for colleges is even more essential following the Brexit vote, to plug skills gaps, deliver the new Industrial Strategy and support better social mobility.
Our education and training system needs to ensure that people are fully prepared for highly-skilled roles across our economy in order for the UK to compete on a global scale. A skilled workforce will be the backbone of this country’s future economic success. Colleges are key to making this a reality.
Julian Gravatt is the Assistant Chief Executive of the Association of Colleges.