Funding changes – hiding the wiring?

By: Lindsay Plumpton

Communications Leader

Thursday 26 July 2012

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You will have seen in recent weeks the usual media coverage of challenges facing the education sector in the UK; Michael Gove’s numerous announcements, comments regarding the merit of some of the qualifications on offer and changes to the funding system.

The most recent of these was the Education Funding Agency’s 16-19 Funding Formula Review published earlier this month. The review outlines how the Department for Education and the Education Funding Agency (EFA) plans to fund 16-19 year old students from September 2013, with all full time programmes to be funded at a single funding rate per student, per year.

But is this change a real simplification or is this more an exercise in ‘hiding the wiring’? Has the EFA missed the opportunity to identify the hard work and genuine value that shorter qualifications offer to those who’ve been disengaged with larger courses of learning, or more traditional course options.

The difficulty is that we have the broad headlines but no details as yet and there is a lot to finalise in a short period of time. Along with other changes such as post 19 funding and the new Ofsted inspection framework, how will the sector embed these changes to the standards required for the 2013 session?

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Authors

Lindsay Plumpton

Communications Leader
96 posts
David Grailey

Chief Executive
79 posts
Andrew Gladstone-Heighton

Policy Leader
75 posts
Esme Winch

Managing Director
35 posts
Michael Lemin

Policy and Research Manager
25 posts

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