The education secretary has said the government will have more to say on 16-19 education funding following this week’s “disappointing” below-inflation per-student rate rise for the next academic year.
Principals reacted angrily to this week’s announcement that the 16-19 funding rate would only increase by 0.5 per cent in 2026-27, despite a pledge in October’s post-16 education white paper of “increased funding to provide real-terms per-student funding in the next academic year to respond to the demographic increase in 16-19 year olds”.
DfE also told colleges this week to plan for a freeze in the rate it pays to cover free meals for disadvantaged students in colleges in 2026-27 (£2.61), even though the equivalent funding has been increased (to £2.66) for schools.
Inflation was at 3.6 per cent when the white paper promise was made. Last month, it was 3 per cent.
College leaders described this week’s 0.5 per cent increase to the 16-19 funding rate as a “betrayal” and told FE Week it would mean diverting funding away from areas such as high-needs provision and staff pay awards to cover the gap. DfE’s lagged funding model also means colleges have to front up funding for the rising number of students, which can cause cash flow challenges.
Following her keynote speech at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) conference in Liverpool today, education secretary Bridget Phillipson told FE Week colleges should expect more detail on 16-19 funding “in due course”.
Asked specifically about the broken white paper promise, Phillipson said: “We’ll be setting out more detail around this, but we have seen a big increase in the number of young people in post-16 provision.
“We face a demographic shift. There are more young people, but we’re also seeing a welcome increase in the number of young people who are staying on in education. That’s a good thing, because we know that too many young people are NEET at the moment. But we’ll be setting that out in due course.”
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