Further education needs to be better funded

• London outperforms the rest of the UK, in terms of students remaining in education after secondary education.
• However, pressures on London schools and colleges in providing places, including for pupils with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability), as well as adequate services for students is expected to increase. There is added pressure on teachers to teach more subjects within their timetables, to more students in larger class sizes.
• As funding for 16-19 is squeezed, schools look to cross-subsidise by using the 11-16 funding. Although school funding to London’s boroughs is to increase by approximately 3.2 per cent from 2020-21, this is the lowest increase across all regions in England.[2]
• The funding per pupil has dropped by 2.6 per cent in real terms for students with high needs, despite a 20 per cent increase in the number of pupils attending special schools.[3]

The London Assembly Education Panel has today written to the Mayor to call on him to support and encourage the development of a more inclusive and better funded Further Education (FE) system.



Recommendations to the next Mayoralty include:

• Lobby the Department for Education to enable a common process for all London boroughs and FE providers, in terms of the submissions they are expected to put forward.
• Lobby the Department for Education to create a uniform standards and inspection body to provide uniform quality between sixth form colleges and school sixth forms.
• Consider allocating funding and support to small school sixth forms to merge and or share resources effectively in cases where students may benefit.
• Lobby the Department for Education to increase the basic rate of support in line with inflation, to ensure a real terms increase in 16-18 funding.
• Lobby the Department for Education to increase levels of specialist training for T-Level teachers to ensure specialist teachers can build relationships between FE institutions and placement providers to ensure T-Levels meet student expectations.

Chair of the London Assembly Education Panel, Jennette Arnold OBE AM said:



“We need a much more inclusive and better funded FE system, that is responsive to the changing demand for FE places and addresses the inequality of outcomes for all pupils, including those with SEND.



“Further education needs to attract and retain the best teachers, however this is tough to do when the system isn’t funded adequately and larger classroom sizes frustrate learners and those teaching.



“Educational inequality is a pressing economical and societal concern in the capital. We know that FE funding for those aged over 18 is slashed by 17.5 per cent upon their turning 18, therefore colleges that specialise in helping people either re-attempt qualifications, or help adult learners gain qualifications are unfairly penalised by the system.”