Thirty four general FE colleges and 15 sixth form colleges (SFCs) will be involved in the second wave of post-16 education and training area reviews, it was announced today. Six reviews have been detailed in the Midlands, London and the North West among other areas, and are set to begin next month. And just like the seven reviews of the first wave, in which 83 colleges are being reviewed, no school sixth forms were listed. Steering groups for the second wave, each of which will be chaired by either FE Commissioner Dr David Collins or Sixth Form College Commissioner Peter Mucklow, are expected to get under way between January 18 and March 10. The government today also gave indications of which areas would be included in the remaining three waves (listed below). The indicative timings for waves three, four and five to begin were April, September and November next year respectively, and comprising 22 proposed area reviews — although the government acknowledged that some local areas may wish to change the timing of their reviews and circumstances at some colleges may change. “Together these three waves cover all of the areas in England not covered in waves one and two, although area reviews covering Greater London are yet to be confirmed. We currently anticipate that they will form part of waves two and three,” said a government spokesperson. In the Marches and Worcestershire area review in wave two seven FE colleges will come under scrutiny, along with four SFCs. Thames Valley will have the greatest number of FE colleges reviewed in the second wave at eight institutions, but only one SFC — The Henley College. The West of England will have four colleges examined and one SFC, St Brendan’s Sixth Form College, while Cheshire and Warrington will see six FE colleges and two SFCs under review. In Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire it will be five FE colleges and one SFC, City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College, and in Surrey four colleges and six SFCs — the great number of SFCs for the regions in this second wave of reviews. The first group of area reviews to be announced, as reported in FE Week on September 8, covered 22 FE colleges and 16 SFCs in Birmingham and Solihull, Greater Manchester, and Sheffield. More reviews, involving 21 FE colleges and 13 SFCs, were announced on September 25 for the Tees Valley, Sussex Coast and Solent regions. The seventh and final region in the first wave of area reviews was announced on October 16 as West Yorkshire and included seven general FE colleges and four sixth form colleges. The government has said the “need” to move towards “fewer, often larger, more resilient and efficient providers,” underlies the area reviews. However, Dr Collins has said “divorces” could also be on the cards. Main image indicative only and based on local enterprise partnership boundaries Wave two The Marches and Worcestershire FE colleges Heart of Worcestershire College Hereford College of Arts Herefordshire and Ludlow College North Shropshire College Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology South Worcestershire College Telford College of Arts and Technology Sixth form colleges Hereford Sixth Form College New College Telford Shrewsbury Sixth Form College Worcester Sixth Form College Thames Valley FE Colleges Abingdon and Witney College Activate Learning (City of Oxford College, Banbury and Bicester College and Reading College) Amersham and Wycombe College Aylesbury College Berkshire College of Agriculture Bracknell and Wokingham College East Berkshire College Newbury College Sixth form colleges The Henley College West of England FE Colleges Bath College City of Bristol College South Gloucestershire and Stroud College Weston College of Further Education Sixth form colleges St Brendan’s Sixth Form College Cheshire and Warrington FE Colleges Macclesfield College Mid Cheshire College Reaseheath College (specialist land based) South Cheshire College Warrington Collegiate West Cheshire College Sixth form colleges Priestley College Sir John Deane’s Sixth Form College Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire FE Colleges Burton and South Derbyshire College Newcastle-under-Lyme College South Staffordshire College Stafford College Stoke-on-Trent College Sixth form colleges City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College Surrey FE Colleges Brooklands College East Surrey College Guildford College North East Surrey College of Technology Sixth form colleges College of Richard Collyer Esher College Godalming College Reigate College Strode’s College Woking College The government also announced the following regions for indicative area reviews*: Wave 3 Cumbria Lancashire (Pennines) Liverpool City Region North East Black Country Wave 4 Leicester and Leicestershire Hampshire Dorset South East Midlands York, North Yorkshire and the Humber Greater Lincolnshire Lancashire (Coastal) Gloucestershire, Swindon and Wiltshire Wave 5 Greater Cambridgeshire and Greater Peterborough Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Essex Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Somerset Norfolk and Suffolk Coventry and Warwickshire Hertfordshire Kent
Bob Harrison Chair of Gov 3 December 2015 The opportunity cost and the scale and complexity of this task should not be underestimated. It is difficult to see how College leaders and governors will not be distracted from what should be their main focus which is the improvement of the quality of current teaching and learning which has been identified by the recent OFSTED Annual report. The recent outcomes of the FE rationalisation process in Scotland should also be heeded?
Frank Hughes 2 January 2016 Fair point re Scotland but regionalisation happened at the same time as post 16 education reform and college being classifed differently by ONS resulting in a much greater financial reporting burden. Positives have been reduced costs of delivery, more focused curriculum offering, strengthened regional reputation, greater inclusion in regional decision making and by reducing brand numbers made it easier for external stakeholder identification (and a greater focus on key purpose). My thinking is if it’s inevitable then be ahead of the curve, get someone in who can do a lot of the leg work for you and keep your Board’s and SMT’s minds on the quality and effectiveness of your current core products. This isn’t a sales pitch but having lived through the experience in Scotland I am available to act as a project manager and help you / anyone get there with minimum disruption.
Penny 3 December 2015 Totally agree with what Bob has said. I’m also concerned about what further college mergers will mean for vulnerable students (if this is the outcome). We already have a situation in the South West where there is very little choice, if a student is excluded from college, or simply asked to leave a course, there are very few places they can attempt to make a new start, particularlyb true if they are outside Bristol. This doesn’t sit at all well with the raising participation age ‘agenda’ (if you can call something so poorly worked out an agenda).
PaulB 4 December 2015 Be interesting to see how much things have moved on from the LSC’s Strategic Area Reviews (StARs)back in the early Noughties…….. I suspect not much, other than the Independent Learning Providers, who have grown in stature in line with the increasing prioritisation of Apprenticeships.