Charlie used to carry a knife to school for protection. If he had not secured a place at Leeds City College’s 14+ Academies, he believes he probably would have ended up on the streets.
“They’ve taken their time to actually help me,” he says. He received not only help for his dyslexia that had been unavailable at school previously, but also anger management support.
Increasing numbers of young people, many of whom have stopped attending school altogether and been classed as ‘electively home educated’ (EHE), are rediscovering the value of classroom-based education through their local FE colleges.
Our analysis of college data found that three-quarters (74 per cent) of the 50 biggest colleges by learner numbers currently teach 14-16 year olds. Of these, over half offer EHE pathways, and over a third ‘school links’, in which young people study vocational courses part-time at college while still enrolled with a school.
‘EHE’ placements doubled from 2,410 to 4,800 in just seven years up to 2023-24, Association of Colleges (AoC) research found. And 14 colleges, including Leeds’ provision for 14-16 year olds, offer full-time direct-entry placements.
Some see colleges’ 14-16 provision as a key solution to rising levels of young NEETs (not in employment, education or training) and ongoing school attendance challenges.
Yet young people like Charlie are often invisible in government policy, because data on college 14-16 placements remains fragmented and obscured. EHE and direct-entry placements come via 16-18 funding, but the DfE does not hold data on the number of 14-16 year old EHE students enrolled at colleges, nor on those placed there by schools or local authorities.
Cultural differences with schools
Colleges tend to take a more relational or trauma-informed approach to 14-16s than many schools.
There are no strict uniform policies (learners are sometimes distinguished from others by different coloured lanyards), and teachers are often referred to by their first names.
14+ Academies headteacher Niki McKenna says his provision tries to “remove all barriers to education”, and “reflect what being an adult in the world of work is like; I don’t call my boss ‘sir’”.
“They know we’re teachers and we’re in charge, but it doesn’t need to be forced on them.”
Where school class sizes average 25 to 28 for that age, South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS)’s Create provision has no more than 22 learners in a class. Leeds’ and South Devon College’s 14-16 classes run with around 20.
A survey of Leeds’ students found that 94 per cent did not enjoy attending their previous school, and 76 per cent felt unsafe there. By the time they left Leeds, all reported feeling safe and 95 per cent cared more about their education.
“A teacher might be playing the ukulele and singing a song to teach, which seems completely bizarre but it works because it’s memorable,” says Charlie.
However, deputy head of South Devon’s 14-16 ‘high school’ James McCauley says he has toinitially “bust a lot of myths” about 14-16 provision. Some young people arrive thinking it will be “more chilled” and they will just be “building brick walls all day”, he explains.
“It is more informal, but that doesn’t mean lower standards.”
Plumpton’s principal Jeremy Kerswell says their 14-16 provision has become more school-like over time.
“We really took a step back and thought about how we need to totally approach this differently. We appointed people into school-like roles and adopted policies more akin to school policies and ways of working with assemblies, a house point system, heads of year and pastoral tutors.”
From disruptive pupils to anxious ones
Colleges used to be seen as places where schools sent their most disruptive pupils. But since Covid, leaders say they are now predominantly taking on socially anxious young people with a history of low school attendance, which they often put down to being bullied.
Alun Francis, chief executive of Blackpool and the Fylde College (B&FC), has “reservations” about 14-16 provision, having previously seen some “terrible” provision used as “a sink option for schools’ naughty children”.
But he says B&FC’s ‘school links’ programme, still in its first year, is “quite carefully managed…to make sure there is progression and improved performance”.
B&FC has led work withMyerscough College and five schools in Fylde Coast Academy Trust to develop a curriculum for “disengaging” young people, giving them a “stepping stone towards a vocational option post-16”.
Francis is willing to take a gamble on the provision. Half the town’s school leavers fail their GCSE English and maths. But he would be “worried if the government started to wholesale go into the 14-16 route without really thinking through what that should mean”.
Bradford College has provided 14-16 alternative provision for almost 15 years, growing from 80 to 200 learners in the last five years alone.
Head Tracy Wilkinson says a “growing proportion” present with social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) needs, emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD), and SEND needs. They are supported by her team of pastoral and intervention officers, academic intervention officers and on-site safeguarding and wellbeing staff.
Selective entry as demand grows
College 14-16 provision is generally in high demand, and colleges can be selective in which learners they recruit.
North East Surrey College of Technology’s website explains its 14-16 provision only accepts those with an education, health and care plan who “are home schooled, have lost their confidence or are unable to attend school”. It says it is not for those “more suited to a pupil referral unit”.
Similarly, Capital City College says its home education hub programmes “may not always be suitable for young people with significant behavioural issues”.
When EKC governors questioned in a meeting if its 14-16 ‘direct entry’ junior colleges were viewed by local schools as alternative provision, its director said they are “making it explicit to headteachers that junior colleges are not alternative provision to try to avoid this misconception”.
14+ Academies at Leeds City College has been oversubscribed every year since its second intake in 2014. This September, it increased its year 10 intake from 120 to 140 learners, with one in five applicants successful in securing a place. Learners come from as far as 20 miles away.
“We try to select the ones that we feel can help the most,” says McKenna. “If they’ve gone through some sort of trauma that we know of, we’ve got a specialist and the wellbeing team to support them. If they’ve got the desire to change…then great. But if they just say, ‘well, I just can’t get out of bed’, unless we can really delve down and figure out why, then we’re not sure we can help them.”
Similarly, Hull College can only offer one place for every six applicants, despite expanding its provision to help keep pace with demand.
Darlington College is poised to open a new £2.6 million pre-16 learning centre to cater for an additional 50 under-16s on top of the 100 it currently teaches, while Bolton College is hoping to introduce 14-16 provision from September.
But some colleges are hamstrung by lack of available capacity, at a time when demand for 16-19 provision is also rising. One FE leader in an area with a rapidly growing population of young people said he “would be happy” to take on more 14-16 year olds, but explained: “We haven’t got anywhere to stick them.”
College asks applicants for videos
A rigorous application process helps colleges pick the right learners for their programmes.
Applicants for SGS Create must not only write a “handwritten personal statement” but also produce a “short to camera video, demonstrating why they want to come to SGS”, says its head, Thomas Beer. Some are “absolutely incredible…One did a Kill Bill style movie.”
Beer’s team then sits down with officers from the local authority to corroborate the information young people have sent, and whether there has been social care involvement to “help us build a picture”.
Last year Plumpton College was “flooded” with over 60 applications for its EHE provision in the first 20 minutes of it going live on the website”, and “probably could have filled every space we had three times over”, says its director of education pathways and foundation learning, Scott McCue. This year they have provided a “four-week window” and “made it clear” to families that it is not offered on a “first come first served” basis.
Electively home educated
Nationally, the number of young people opting out of the school system has risen dramatically since Covid. In the two years to 2024-25, EHE numbers rose by 38 per cent from 80,900 to 111,700. Meanwhile ‘children missing education’ (CME) rose 59 per cent from 24,700 to 39,200. Ofsted described these figures as a “significant concern”.
Many colleges have increased their EHE provision to meet rising demand. EHE placements at Plumpton went from 145 in 2022-23 to 216 this academic year.
Wigan & Leigh College’s EHE provision was launched in 2023, after the number of EHE in the borough shot up from 80 to over 400 after Covid.
Some learners lacked friendships due to having not attended school for many months or years. Principal Anna Dawe recalls that the morning the provision opened, her vice principal was “sat in a car with a parent trying to coax a young man into class”. But strong friendships between learners soon formed, and parents “made a community amongst themselves”.
Dawe admits setting it up was “a risk” as Ofsted “might come in and question the quality. But we do what’s right for our community.”
“It’s hugely labour-intensive. But it’s also one of the most rewarding things I’ve done, and has worked phenomenally well for these young people.
“Otherwise they would literally have been in their bedroom for two years, then land in college at 16 with the very same issues they’d had at school.”
Paying for SEND support for a college’s EHE learners is at the discretion of the local authority.
SGS is named on education, health and care plans by the three local authorities it works with, and is “funded quite effectively” for SEND needs.
Plumpton does not get this funding from East Sussex Council. So it has to be “explicit” with parents that learning support assistants cannot be provided, says McCue. But Plumpton tries to provide other resources, such as “overlays for dyslexia” that a learner might need from its own pocket.
Stopping schools treating colleges as ‘dumping grounds’
School link programmes allow pupils to attend college part-time while remaining on a school roll, with SEND support following the learner.
But one education leader said some schools seek to use colleges as “a dumping ground” for disruptive pupils. They now send out a guidance document to schools explaining what the college can and cannot provide.
While colleges appear to have scaled back on alternative provision commissioned by local authorities or schools where the college is that young person’s only form of education, many now provide this school link pathway instead.
In October 2025, Northumberland College launched a 14-16 engineering academy with a local school to teach engineering design and manufacturing.
Catherine Sezen, the AoC’s director of education policy, sees potential for the school links route to be expanded further.
AoC’s submission to the Milburn review on young NEETs suggests colleges piloting day release programmes for small groups of young people as transition support for those leaving schools.
The number of colleges offering direct entry provision, where learners attend college full-time, declined from 19 in 2017-18 to 14 this year.
Some colleges pulled out due to affordability concerns. Schools receive a base funding rate of £6,113 for their 14-16 pupils, but colleges get the lower 16-18 year old rate of £5,105 for for 2025-26.
Gemma Simmons-Blench, Luminate Education Group’s deputy CEO for quality and curriculum, says the timeline for payments is the “more fundamental issue”. Schools receive this funding from September, while colleges delivering 14-16 provision must wait until April.
“We therefore have to deliver and cover expenditure for over six months with no income.”
Some colleges have grown the size of their direct-entry provision. In September 2025 East Kent Colleges Group (EKC) opened a new “junior college” on the Isle of Sheppey, providing direct-entry placements. EKC provides junior colleges across four of its colleges, where 14-16 year olds take specialisms such as catering, sport or digital studies.
Some schools fear having to compete with colleges for 14-16 placements in their local areas.
McCauley says South Devon College has an agreement with one local school to only take up to 30 of their year nines. “We’re not seen completely positively by the schools but we are seen very positively by the local authority and that’s where the support comes from,” he says.
Attendance a major challenge
Colleges create separate spaces on their campuses for direct-entry provision, but other 14-16 pathways deploy various methods to keep their under-16s safe and, in many cases, separate from older cohorts of learners.
Plumpton invested “significant funds” to create a 14-16 hub with its own common room, which is “consistently staffed throughout the week with members of our pastoral team”, explains McCue.
Some colleges insist their 14-16 cohort remain on campus. For others, going off-site at lunchtime is a privilege which can be taken away, according to the AoC’s 14-16 reference group minutes.
East Sussex’s alternative provision students are “escorted by a mentor at all times whilst on campus, including break and lunch times”. They are “able to have five minutes out of lessons if they need space to regulate their emotions”, the college says.
As most 14-16 year olds in college did not previously attend school regularly, boosting their attendance can be an uphill struggle.
Attendance for this cohort in colleges was on average 66 per cent in 2023-24, according to VLE Support’s data on college registration systems.
McCauley describes attendance as “the single biggest challenge” for his 14-16 provision.
But when attendance rates are viewed in comparison to that young person’s previous school attendance, it has often improved significantly – even if it is not hitting the 90 per cent standard.
“For the kids who have not been in school for two years, getting up to 50 per cent attendance is remarkable,” says Beer.
Last year, Wigan & Leigh’s EHE maths and English GCSE cohort achieved an 89 per cent attendance rate. That compares with a 24 per cent average while those students were at school.
Some staff less keen to teach 14-16 than others
Learners arriving at college vary from those who have always been home educated to those who withdrew from school more recently. Catering for students with “such different journeys” involves SGS being “adaptive and flexible” with curricula, says Beer, adding that “making up for lost learning is quite challenging in their first year”.
A big incentive for colleges providing 14-16 provision is the pipeline it creates for future 16-19 programmes.
But “a consistent approach” is “harder” to achieve in vocational subjects.
McCauley says South Devon’s 90 per cent retention rate into 16-19 provision “is significantly higher than our next best feeder school”.
Attracting suitably experienced teachers can be challenging too, when colleges pay less than schools to teach the same cohort.
Finding a suitable science teacher has become “one of the banes of my life”, McCauley says. Meanwhile, some vocational teachers are more on board with 14-16 provision than others. “Some start their career in FE because they had a career in a school previously and didn’t like it, and want to just teach those older students.”
Pressure for school-based provision
Despite the success of college 14-16 provision in turning young lives around, many more young people not in school are still being left with no (or poor quality) educational provision. Political pressure is therefore building for schools to bring EHE young people back into their settings.
Myerscough College recently said that “after extensive discussions with our local authorities regarding the future of home education, it is clear that the government is focused on prioritising the reintegration of many home-educated young people back into mainstream education”. It was therefore altering its EHE pathway to instead focus solely on school-funded alternative provision.
Reaseheath College is ceasing its EHE pathway from September for the same reason.
“There is an open dialogue with the Department for Education and local authorities, and we will take guidance as to how this may develop in future,” it said.
More oversight, standardisation and time limits for unregistered alternative provision are also expected to be introduced by the government soon. Colleges with alternative provision will be eyeing these reforms closely to see if they affect them.
Ofsted has warned that alternative provision should be “viewed as a fixed-term intervention, not a long-term solution”, and said it is “concerned that high numbers of children do not attend school on a full-time, permanent basis”.
Such reforms may impact the flexibility colleges currently have to adapt their provision to learners’ needs.
Beer describes college 14-provision as “transformational” for some young people.
“Schools are doing a great job for lots of young people, but they don’t work for everybody. We have the flexibility and the freedom to be able to offer something different.”
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