The Skills Funding Agency and the Education Funding Agency are to merge. The two agencies will form the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which will operate from April.

The new agency will be responsible for overseeing funding of education for students aged between 5 and 19, as well as apprenticeship and adult education and managing school building programmes.

The imminent merger was revealed by TES in February (article free for subscribers).

Justine Greening, secretary of state for education, said that the merger would provide a “joined-up approach to funding”.

“Creating the Education and Skills Funding Agency will mean we are able to provide a more joined-up approach to funding and regulation of schools, colleges and other providers, with improved accountability and better service,” she added. “We will be working closely with our staff, unions, stakeholders and the education sector to finalise and deliver our plans for the new agency.”

‘Simplifying the system’

David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “Merging the EFA and SFA provides the perfect opportunity to simplify the system and make it more efficient and cost-effective.

“The reality is though that the two agencies have been operating as a shared service for two years, so we don’t expect colleges to see much difference. We are keen to work with the Department for Education and the newly merged organisation to address some of the overlaps, inconsistencies and differences between regulations, rules and policies which have grown up across the old EFA-SFA divide. Streamlining some of the rules will help students - some will save money.”

Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “The merger makes a great deal of sense, particularly for providers delivering apprenticeships and traineeships for both 16- to 18 year-olds and adults. Hopefully it will make the contracting and growth funding processes much simpler. It is also timely as we move towards the implementation of the Sainsbury reforms. All of us have to make sure, however, that FE and skills are not overwhelmed by the combined agency dealing with the challenges faced by the school sector.”

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