Further Education

(asked on 5th September 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what evidence the Government holds to demonstrate that merging further education colleges will create savings; and what assessment she has carried out on whether the policy of merging further education institutions in Scotland has been successful.


Answered by
Robert Halfon Portrait
Robert Halfon
This question was answered on 13th September 2016

Where an area review recommends further education colleges to merge, there will have been a financial assessment of the efficiencies that could be secured through the merger. These are likely to include reductions in administrative and management costs, as duplication of functions is reduced. This will make resources available for re-investment in delivering high quality teaching. This was one of the lessons that was learned from the pilot review carried out in North East Norfolk and North Suffolk and reflects the assessment undertaken by an independent further education adviser in 2015 of mergers in the further education sector to date. (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/current-models-of-collaboration-post-14-further-education)

As education is a devolved matter, any assessment of the mergers of further education institutions in Scotland would be a matter for the Scottish Government.

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