The new elitist free schools bring more destructive competition into the post-16 system – but they also have an unfair headstart over FE colleges, writes Colin Booth
It is undoubtedly counterproductive to give Eton College and Star Academies the opportunity to set up state funded sixth forms.
The capital investment to build the new Eton College-Star Academies sixth form colleges will create additional capacity for A-level teaching that is simply not needed.
Furthermore, it would only be introducing a model that would be difficult to reconcile with a society and education system that should be inclusive of all and committed to helping everyone achieve.
This is therefore using public money to create an oversupply of places – and to increase competition between providers.
This means they are explicitly an investment in provision for young people who have already achieved well at age 16.
In that sense, these kinds of schools are the direct opposite of ‘levelling up’. ‘Levelling up’ should be primarily about the young people who have fallen behind at age 16.
But the new schools are simply not for these young people.
By increasing the number of selective schools and colleges that focus only on recruiting half of young people at age 16, we marginalise and undervalue the other half of our young people.
And by institutionally separating those two halves from each other, we are recreating, at age 16, a system with the same fundamental flaws that grammar schools impose on 11-year-olds.
It is astonishing that this waste of public money for capital investment in education is happening at the same time that we are seeing schools being closed because there isn’t enough money to fund either capital replacement or refurbishment.
In fact, nine of the 15 new schools approved by the government recently will be elitist 16-to-19-year free schools. All these new schools will be focused on selective, and mostly academic, level 3 provision (level 3 provision is A-level or A-level equivalent).
Instead, existing provisions could do with the much-needed investment to transform the lives of learners. But that’s not what is happening.
At the same time as capital investment was withdrawn from the Building Schools for the Future programme, the government decided to make significant capital investment in new free schools, UTCs and national colleges.
Many of these projects failed after a few expensive years of operation because they were never needed in the first place. (See the number of closed or failed UTCs in investigative newspaper FE Week here).
By choosing to invest in new free schools that are not needed, for political reasons, the government is repeating the same mistakes which will inevitably lead to a similar and shocking waste of public money.
Moreover, we risk investing less and thinking less about those young people who don’t make the grade at age 16 and don’t enjoy the parental or other support to catch up. Ministers and media commentators seem totally uninterested in what we could or should be doing for young people who do not achieve five good GCSEs.
I have an open question for all our politicians as they think about their education policies for the future.
What will the next government do to improve opportunities for the 50% and more of young people who will not benefit from new and elitist 16 to 19 schools?
And how can post-16 education policy create a system that works for all of our young people?
Here are some top priority suggestions:
- Give FE colleges the same VAT status as elite sixth forms
A quick win would be to ensure FE colleges benefit from the same VAT status as the new 16-to-19 free schools will enjoy (and already applies to schools and academies).
Did you know that FE colleges often have twice the number of students from the most deprived communities than selective sixth forms do?
But at the moment, FE colleges must pay VAT, whereas these selective sixth forms, with higher achieving pupils, do not.
There is no rational reason for this difference in treatment. Currently it results in less funding to resource frontline teaching and support for young people from our most disadvantaged communities.
We are at a critical stage in the development of our national 16-to-19 education system. We need to see real investment in the sector.
This isn’t just a matter of equity for young people who have been left behind in the school system; it is also crucial to the government’s agenda to deliver the skills the economy and employers need.
2. Sixth forms should follow local skills improvement plans like FE colleges have to
Every area now has a local skills improvement plan (LSIP) led by local employers. FE colleges are required by law to match their courses and curriculum to these LSIPs’ priorities.
But these new free schools won’t be subject to the same legal requirement. They can, and probably will, completely ignore their LSIP.
3. Ensure clear responsibility for post-16 education planning
National investment in education should carefully take account of the wider impact of changes to the structure and stability of the whole system. Recent decisions do not do this.
These new 16-to-19 free schools will increase local competition for those who are already more advantaged and well served by the education system and put at risk the stability of FE colleges who provide for young people from all backgrounds and attainment levels.
This will eventually lead to the unplanned and chaotic failure and closure of other school sixth forms or college provisions. The overall impact will be felt worst by young people who do not immediately follow a level 3 academic programme.
Post-16 education planning and policy are dysfunctional. Local authorities continue to have the main legal responsibility for sufficiency of 16-to-19 education and training, but they have no formal role in the kind of decision-making process that resulted in the investment in 15 new free schools.
It is a fundamental flaw that there is no effective local or national accountability or responsibility for creating a post-16 education system that has ‘sufficient suitable education and training provision for all young people’.
We can and must do better.
Colin Booth is the chief executive of Luminate Education Group, which has four FE colleges and three learning training centres. Prior to that, Colin spent seven years as principal of Barnsley College, where he steered the college to an Ofsted rating of outstanding.
He has worked in the further education sector for over 35 years, as both a teacher and manager in ‘skills for life’ and provision for students with disabilities or learning difficulties.
Colin has also worked as a part-time inspector for Ofsted and the Adult Learning Inspectorate. He was awarded an OBE for services to further education in the Queen’s 2015 New Year Honours list.
[A version of this article was published in FE Week].
