Several people have been asking about the FE area review process, now it is coming to a close. I’m really not sure what to say. While it’s put FE centre stage, it has not provided many answers to the key issues facing us.
As the London area review progressed, much of the time in the steering group meetings I attended was spent looking backwards at past accounts, past student numbers and past results. Far from being about a new future for FE, the focus seemed to be on what to do about the handful of institutions beset by chronic financial and Ofsted problems.
The highly publicised travails of these few colleges - and others across England - has damaged the reputation of the FE sector. How have they gone from being dynamic institutions at the forefront of skills delivery to ailing beasts in need of the drastic surgery of merger? The answer is that, for nearly a decade, colleges have faced a toxic combination of three Cs: costs, cuts and competition. The colleges now in most difficulty were hit by two or three of these brickbats.
The area review process may give failed colleges a decent burial, but the gravediggers may be back
Who is to blame? Is it incompetent principals and governing bodies asleep at the wheel? Maybe, but successive governments have played a part. It began with the Labour government’s scheme to support colleges to modernise their ageing estates, which imploded in 2009, leaving hundreds of colleges with aborted building plans. Those who managed to get gleaming new buildings up and running were often left with bank-loan repayments based on the assumption that new buildings would be a launchpad for big increases in student numbers.
Then the coalition government’s adult funding cuts eroded the income that was supposed to repay the loans. On top of that, new players were encouraged to compete for 16 to 18-year-old students: academy schools with ambitious plans for sixth-form expansion, university technical colleges and free schools. The increased competition left many colleges with declining enrolments.
The area review process may give failed colleges a decent burial, but the gravediggers will be back again soon unless the three Cs that caused the crisis are addressed. Funding for rebuilding ageing colleges needs to be based on public benefit, not a postcode lottery of land sales and loans. Adult funding needs to be boosted in key areas, particularly for sub-degree courses. Boutique sixth forms and designer-label schools need to be confined to the drawing board unless they can demonstrate real value and sustainability right from the outset.
With a far more positive mood music from the government about the FE sector, I’m optimistic about the future.
Andy Forbes is principal of the College of Haringey, Enfield and North-East London
