Getting value for money from the education of 16- to 18-year-olds
Getting value for money from the education of 16- to 18-year-olds

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-03-23

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780102969597

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Increases in expenditure on education for 16- to 18-year-olds, which now stands at £6 billion per year, have been matched by improvements in students' achievements and increasing participation of 16- to 18-year-olds in education. Nevertheless, the National Audit Office cannot conclude that value for money is being delivered across the system because of variation in the arrangements for accountability, performance monitoring and intervention where poor performance exists. Students achieve, on average, better academic progress and results in institutions educating large numbers of 16- to 18-year-olds, whether colleges or school sixth forms. Sixth-form colleges perform best on most measures of student achievement, despite currently receiving £280 per student less funding than school sixth forms. The Department for Education has taken steps to reduce inconsistency in how different provider types are funded and has committed to bringing the funding levels for school sixth forms into line with colleges by 2015. Although there are clear arrangements for dealing with poor performance in colleges, there is no consistent approach to dealing with poor performance in school sixth forms. In addition, the inspection frameworks and performance and financial reporting requirements for the various types of provider are not consistent. Many schools and colleges have improved their management of back-office costs through good practice in procurement. However, direct costs including teaching staff account for over 60 per cent of a provider's costs and some providers have a poor understanding of how to manage these costs

Getting value for money from the education of 16- to 18-year-olds
Getting value for money from the education of 16- to 18-year-olds

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-08-16

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780215561152

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This report examines the effectiveness and efficiency of the current education system for 16- to 18-year-olds. In 2009, over 1.6 million 16- to 18-year-olds participated in some form of education and training at a cost of over £6 billion. Most studied full-time for qualifications such as A levels or National Vocational Qualifications, at a general further education college, sixth form college or school sixth form. The system governing the education of 16- to 18-year-olds is devolved and complex. The Department for Education (the Department) has overall responsibility, and the Young People's Learning Agency funds education providers and monitors their performance. Local authorities have a duty to secure provision but they have limited powers, and having duties without powers cannot work effectively. There has been an overall improvement in the achievements of 16- to 18-year-olds over the last four years. Students in larger providers have generally achieved better results. Smaller providers, by collaborating, can achieve some of the benefits of size. In a market, consistently poor providers should fail because they lose funding as students choose to study elsewhere. For the 16 to 18 education market to work effectively, there needs to be consistent and relevant information so the Department can assess value for money and students can make informed judgements about their courses and what they lead to. Also, where a provider's performance is poor, there must be clarity about the criteria for intervention, and the timing and extent of intervention. Neither is fully in place at present.

Accountability for public money - progress report
Accountability for public money - progress report

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-04-17

Total Pages: 82

ISBN-13: 9780215043740

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This report is a follow-up to the Committee's report on Accountability for Public Money (HC 740, session 2010-11 (ISBN 9780215559029)) an issue at the core of the relationship between Parliament and government. Accounting Officers remain accountable to Parliament for funds voted to their departments but the policy intention is that local bodies will have significant discretion over the services they deliver. In the Government's response, 'Accountability: Adapting to Decentralisation', Sir Bob Kerslake drew a distinction between those services that government delivers directly and those that it may fund but are delivered in more decentralised arrangements. He proposed that Accounting Officers set out, in Accountability System Statements, the arrangements they have in place to provide assurance about the probity and value for money of funds spent through devolved systems. All departments are expected to produce Statements by summer 2012. Departments have made a genuine effort to develop arrangements which reconcile accountability and localism but the Statements so far are unwieldy and considerably more needs to be done to improve their clarity, consistency and completeness. There is concern that accountability frameworks must drive value for money and, critically, are sufficiently robust to address the operational or financial failure of service providers. Departments are placing increasing reliance on market mechanisms such as user choice to drive up performance and value for money, but there are limits to what these mechanisms can achieve. The Treasury needs to take ownership of the system and ensure that the Comptroller and Auditor General has the necessary powers and rights of access to examine the value for money of funds spent through devolved systems

Oversight of special education for young people aged 16-25
Oversight of special education for young people aged 16-25

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-11-04

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780102976762

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This report shows that, where comparable data is available, course outcomes for young people aged 16-25 receiving special educational support are improving at similar or better rates than those for all students within this age group. This performance has been achieved while known average special education funding per head has decreased in schools and further education colleges. However, parents, students and local authorities do not always have the information they need to choose the school or college that best meets the young person's needs given the available funding. Assessments of young people's needs vary in quality, and local authorities do not always consider the full costs to the public purse of different placement options. There is insufficient knowledge about total cost of provision. In addition, there are wide variations between local areas in the percentages of young people studying in different provider types (such as schools and colleges), and in the availability and use of specialist provision. The Department, in its 2011 Green Paper, has proposed significant changes to special education from birth to the age of 25. The NAO report suggests that providing appropriate support for young people with special needs has the potential to deliver longer-term benefits for students and to the public purse. The Department should address current limitations in information, and better understand the relationships between needs, costs and outcomes so that it can secure value for money from its expenditure in this area.

Department for Education
Department for Education

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-05-11

Total Pages: 48

ISBN-13: 9780215044075

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The Department for Education is distributing £56.4 billion in 2011-12 to schools, local authorities and other public bodies for the delivery of education and children's services in England. The Department has set out how it intends to provide Parliament with assurance about the regularity, propriety and value for money in an Accountability System Statement (the Statement) of which the Committee has now seen three drafts. Responsibility for value for money is shared by the Department with schools, academy trusts, local authorities, the Young People's Learning Agency and the Department for Communities and Local Government. However, the Statement does not yet clearly describe the specific responsibilities of each body, how these will interact, or how the Department will assess value for money across the entire education system. The Department relies on local authorities and the YPLA to exercise financial oversight over local authority maintained schools and academies respectively. However, oversight by some local authorities is currently weak and could worsen as many authorities reduce the resources they devote to overseeing their schools. There are also concerns about whether the YPLA will have the right skills, systems and capacity to oversee the rapidly increasing numbers of academies expected in coming years. More consistent requirements for data and data returns must be applied to all schools so that academic and financial performance can be benchmarked, and all schools can be held accountable. The Department needs to enforce these requirements more stringently, particularly given previous problems with lack of compliance

The Life and Death of Secondary Education for All
The Life and Death of Secondary Education for All

Author: Richard Pring

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-05-07

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1136211764

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Is there life after death for secondary education? This book focuses upon the quality of learning. ‘Reform’, so called, too often begins with qualifications, examinations, institutional provision, paths of progression. All those are very important, but their value lies in the support they give to learners and their learning in its different forms. One needs to start with the aims of education and then with what it means to learn (practically, theoretically, morally) and with the very many different needs of the learners. That is what this book aims to do. In so doing, it will be both philosophical in analysis and empirical in example. So much is happening ‘from down below’ that goes unrecognised by policy makers. But innovations too often get hampered by government interventions, by a bureaucratic mentality and by failure to spread good practice. The general argument of the book, therefore, will be illustrated throughout with detailed references to practical developments in schools, colleges, the third sector, youth work, independent training providers and professional bodies – across several countries. The book builds on Education for All, which was based on 14-19 research into secondary education, this book transcends the particularities of England and Wales and digs more deeply into those issues which are at the heart of educational controversy, policy and practices and which survive the transience of political change and controversy. The issues (the aims of education, standards of performance, the consequent vision of learning, the role of teachers, progression from school to higher or further education and into employment, the provision of such education and training and the control of education) are by no means confined to the UK, or to this day and age. Pring identifies similar problems in other countries such as the USA, Germany and France – and indeed in the Greece of Plato and Aristotle and offers solutions with a comparative perspective. It is a critical time. Old patterns of education and its provision are less and less suitable for facing the twenty-first century. The patterns and modes of communication have changed radically in a few years and those changes are quickening in pace. The economic context has been transformed, affecting the skills and knowledge needed for employment. The social world of young people raises fresh demands, hopes and fears. A global recession has affected young people disproportionately making quality of life and self-fulfilment ever more difficult to attain. In addressing ‘learning’ and the ‘learners’ first and foremost, the book will argue for a wider vision of learning and a more varied pattern of provision. Old structures must give way to new.

Reducing bureaucracy in further education in England
Reducing bureaucracy in further education in England

Author: Great Britain: National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-12-16

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 9780102977035

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The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Skills Funding Agency are pursuing a range of initiatives to simplify funding, qualification and assurance systems in further education as part of their wider reform of the skills sector. However, they do not know the scale of the problem faced by further education colleges and other providers. It is estimated that the administration of funding, qualification and assurance systems is costing general further education colleges around £180 million a year which equates to £150 per student. The NAO has further estimated that this cost amounts to around £250 million a year for all types of further education colleges and other providers, even assuming the other providers bear only half the costs of general further education colleges. Working with the Department for Education, the Department and the Agency have developed a series of initiatives to simplify the system, which target the most costly burdens. Colleges themselves suggested cutting administration. The Department and the Agency should set a clear, ambitious target for the scale of the burden reduction they are seeking to provide more impetus to change. A complete picture is needed of the final operating model for the funding, qualification and assurance system, supported by a detailed plan of how to get there. Nor is it known how much the new system will cost or its impact. There are various initiatives underway but they are not well coordinated and further education colleges and other providers, although welcoming the changes, do not have confidence that the simplification of the system of administration will be sustained

The College Solution
The College Solution

Author: Lynn O'Shaughnessy

Publisher: FT Press

Published: 2008-06-06

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0132703327

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“The College Solution helps readers look beyond over-hyped admission rankings to discover schools that offer a quality education at affordable prices. Taking the guesswork out of saving and finding money for college, this is a practical and insightful must-have guide for every parent!” —Jaye J. Fenderson, Seventeen’s College Columnist and Author, Seventeen’s Guide to Getting into College “This book is a must read in an era of rising tuition and falling admission rates. O’Shaughnessy offers good advice with blessed clarity and brevity.” —Jay Mathews, Washington Post Education Writer and Columnist “I would recommend any parent of a college-bound student read The College Solution.” —Kal Chany, Author, The Princeton Review’s Paying for College Without Going Broke “The College Solution goes beyond other guidebooks in providing an abundance of information about how to afford college, in addition to how to approach the selection process by putting the student first.” —Martha “Marty” O’Connell, Executive Director, Colleges That Change Lives “Lynn O’Shaughnessy always focuses on what’s in the consumer’s best interest, telling families how to save money and avoid making costly mistakes.” —Mark Kantrowitz, Publisher, FinAid.org and Author, FastWeb College Gold “An antidote to the hype and hysteria about getting in and paying for college! O’Shaughnessy has produced an excellent overview that demystifies the college planning process for students and families.” —Barmak Nassirian, American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers For millions of families, the college planning experience has become extremely stressful. And, unless your child is an elite student in the academic top 1%, most books on the subject won’t help you. Now, however, there’s a college guide for everyone. In The College Solution, top personal finance journalist Lynn O’Shaughnessy presents an easy-to-use roadmap to finding the right college program (not just the most hyped) and dramatically reducing the cost of college, too. Forget the rankings! Discover what really matters: the quality and value of the programs your child wants and deserves. O’Shaughnessy uncovers “industry secrets” on how colleges actually parcel out financial aid—and how even “average” students can maximize their share. Learn how to send your kids to expensive private schools for virtually the cost of an in-state public college...and how promising students can pay significantly less than the “sticker price” even at the best state universities. No other book offers this much practical guidance on choosing a college...and no other book will save you as much money! • Secrets your school’s guidance counselor doesn’t know yet The surprising ways colleges have changed how they do business • Get every dime of financial aid that’s out there for you Be a “fly on the wall” inside the college financial aid office • U.S. News & World Report: clueless about your child Beyond one-size-fits-all rankings: finding the right program for your teenager • The best bargains in higher education Overlooked academic choices that just might be perfect for you

Leading for the Future
Leading for the Future

Author: Steve Lambert

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2014-03-17

Total Pages: 135

ISBN-13: 144385784X

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Developing the next generation of leaders is critical to the success of further education colleges. However, this has to be more than talent development or succession planning if colleges are going to succeed in the highly complex and political environment in which they currently operate. This book looks at developing future leaders through a different lens. The book advocates for leadership development to be located within a sustainable leadership framework which encompasses a range of existing leadership theories. This enables leadership to be developed holistically from deep within an organisation and provides a framework for developing individuals who have the skills necessary to lead further education colleges.

Sessional Returns
Sessional Returns

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2012-09-14

Total Pages: 442

ISBN-13: 9780215048387

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On cover and title page: House, committees of the whole House, general committees and select committees