Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the current state of sixth form education and the future financial prospects of sixth form colleges.

Sixth form education in England has real strengths, offering a wide range of both academic and technical education for young people. The newly reformed A levels and the T levels that are now being developed are strengthening the 16-19 offer. 89% of sixth form colleges and 79% of state-funded school sixth forms were graded as good or outstanding by Ofsted at their most recent inspection as of 31 March 2019.

We have protected the base rate of funding for 16 to 19 year old students up until 2020, and we will be investing an additional £500 million per year in the delivery of T levels, once fully rolled out, and have launched a £38 million capital fund to support the initial roll-out.

However, we do recognise that all types of institutions providing sixth form education face financial challenges, and we will be considering future needs in the forthcoming Spending Review.