Further Education: Government Assistance

(asked on 21st January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason post-16 providers rated by Ofsted as requiring improvement are unable to apply for certain funds, grants and Government initiatives.


Answered by
Alex Burghart Portrait
Alex Burghart
Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 26th January 2022

The vast majority of funds available to post-16 providers are available to all providers, regardless of Ofsted rating. This includes the Further Education Capital Transformation Fund which seeks to improve the condition of the further education college estate, the Post-16 Capacity Fund which seeks to ensure there is adequate space to accommodate the demographic increase in 16-18 year old learners, and the Skills Accelerator Development Fund which supports projects that build providers’ capacity to meet locally agreed skills priorities. Some funds may be targeted at providers with stronger Ofsted grades for a variety of reasons, including where programmes are at an early stage, and it makes sense to ask the strongest providers to work on the initial development phase or where we are looking for a provider to lead the delivery of a programme where the quality of provision is the overriding immediate priority.

The T Levels capital fund was restricted to providers rated Ofsted good or outstanding on a temporary basis while the programme embedded but now, in Wave 4 of the T Levels capital fund worth £150 million, all providers offering T Levels in 2023 are eligible to apply. The Higher Technical Education Growth Fund and the Institutes of Technology programme were also restricted to providers rated good or outstanding. This was to ensure effective delivery of these new qualifications and provision. Funding for Institutes of Technology was restricted to bids where all core further education partners were Ofsted good or outstanding, this is because they are expected to lead the provision of Higher Technical Education in an area. The impact of eligibility requirements for funds on learners are considered on a case by cases basis for each fund, bearing in mind the impact on protected characteristics and on learners in less affluent areas.

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