Full-time enrolment of 14 to 16-year-olds in further education and sixth-form colleges: 2023 to 2024 academic year

Question 1

Timeline for delivery

Accepted Answer

Key dates for 2023

Activity	Date
Department for Education (DfE) publishes guidance on 14 to 16 full-time enrolment in colleges for 2023 to 2024 academic year	31 March 2023
Colleges confirm intent to directly recruit 14 to 16-year-olds	By 1 August 2023
Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) issues funding agreements to colleges continuing with direct enrolment and those for new colleges as soon as possible after they confirm intent	By 31 July 2023
14 to 16-year-olds enrol in colleges for start in September 2023	From 1 August 2023
Colleges submit pupil premium and service premium data return	December 2023
Colleges complete individualised learner record (ILR) return (R04) to identify number of 14 to 16-year-olds enrolled	December 2023

Key dates for 2024

Activity	Date
ESFA issues allocation statements and contract variations to colleges	February 2024
ESFA provides colleges with 7/12 of pupil premium	By 31 March 2024
ESFA provides colleges with programme funding and remainder of pupil premium	Between April 2024 and July 2024
DfE publishes guidance on 14 to 16 full-time enrolment in colleges for 2024 to 2025 academic year	By 31 March 2024
Ofsted inspects 14 to 16 provision in colleges	Ongoing

Question 2

College eligibility

Accepted Answer

Expression of intent

Colleges intending to enrol students aged 14 to 16 in the 2023 to 2024 academic year should ensure they meet the programme eligibility criteria stated in this guidance. They must inform the Department for Education (DfE) of their intent by 1 August 2023.

The expression of intent must be submitted by the college principal and chair of governors, and must include a completed readiness-to-open checklist.

Colleges are expected to have discussed their intent to directly enrol 14 to 16-year-olds with relevant local authorities before submitting their expression of intent.

DfE will consider expressions of intent received after the 1 August 2023 deadline on a case-by-case basis. Funding for the 14 to 16 cohort cannot be guaranteed if the deadline has been missed.

We will acknowledge expressions of intent and, providing colleges meet the programme eligibility criteria, confirm the arrangements for funding this provision. We will inform Ofsted of the colleges delivering the programme and publish a list of participating colleges as part of this guidance.

Colleges must retain a copy of the expression of intent and completed readiness-to-open checklist and make it available for inspection if required by either Ofsted or DfE.

Inspection-based eligibility criteria

Colleges intending to enrol and receive funding directly from ESFA for 14 to 16-year-olds in the 2023 to 2024 academic year must have either an Ofsted ‘outstanding’ (grade 1) or ‘good’ (grade 2) overall effectiveness judgement.

Those with either an Ofsted ‘requires improvement’ (grade 3) or ‘inadequate’ (grade 4) overall effectiveness judgement are not eligible to receive funding directly from ESFA for students aged 14 to 16.

Newly merged colleges that wish to commence a 14 to 16 programme

A newly merged college will not have an inspection grade in its own right. In cases of merger, where the receiving college had an ‘outstanding’ (grade 1) or ‘good’ (grade 2) overall effectiveness judgement prior to the merger, the new institution meets the criteria on the basis of the pre-merger grade. If the grade of the receiving college prior to the merger had a ‘requires improvement’ (grade 3) or ‘inadequate’ (grade 4) overall effectiveness judgement, it does not meet the criteria. In those cases, the new institution will need to receive at least a ‘good’ (grade 2) overall effectiveness judgement in its own right before it meets the criteria.

Dedicated 14 to 16 area within the college estate

Although education may take place all around the college, there should be a designated and identifiable area for the sole provision, when appropriate, of education and support for 14 to 16-year-olds. This area may be used for other students outside the timetabled or usual hours that 14 to 16-year-olds use the area, however.

Dedicated 14 to 16 leadership

There must be an identifiable and qualified person responsible for leading the provision of education and responsible for the pastoral support of students. Further information about support for children and young people is available.

Break in programme delivery

If a participating college discontinues 14 to 16 delivery and there is a break of one academic year or more, it will be required to submit a new expression of intent and readiness-to-open checklist prior to recommencing 14 to 16 delivery.

Colleges subject to intervention from DfE

Colleges that are in intervention for either financial or quality reasons will not be eligible to apply for ESFA funding for 14 to 16-year-olds. However, if a college is in intervention for financial health reasons, but has moved into post-intervention, monitoring and support, it will be eligible to apply, providing it meets the Ofsted grade criteria. You should refer to the Intervention section for information about colleges entering intervention after 14 to 16 delivery has commenced.

Arrangements for colleges planning a merger

DfE will support participating colleges that intend to complete a planned merger. A merger may involve the dissolution of college corporations where the:

activities of all colleges come together in a new college corporation (a ‘type A’ merger)
activity of one college corporation is acquired by another (a ‘type B’ merger)

Where one of the predecessor colleges has an existing directly funded 14 to 16 cohort, we will consider allowing the merged college, whether it be a new or a continuing college, to continue this provision. If provision is continued, we will ensure the relevant funding arrangements are in place.

We reserve the right to alter requirements subject to the specific circumstances of each merger. A college should keep its territorial lead informed about any planned merger so we can consider how these arrangements apply to individual college circumstances.

Arrangements for college disaggregation

DfE will also support participating colleges where they intend to complete a planned disaggregation.

A disaggregation may involve a college transferring a portion of provision to one or more college(s). This does not involve any dissolution process and could involve the transfer of provision with or without site assets – for example, a college takes on a campus from another college, and both colleges continue to be operational and funded by ESFA.

A disaggregation may also involve a college that is dissolving, with its provision or sites being dispersed across one or more ‘receiving’ colleges – for example, a college with 2 campuses dissolving and 2 existing colleges taking on a campus each.

If the college that is disaggregating 14 to 16-year-old student provision has an existing directly funded 14 to 16 cohort, DfE will work with the colleges involved to ensure the responsibility for that provision transfers to the appropriate college and ensure the relevant funding arrangements are in place.

For both arrangements, DfE will review any merger or disaggregation request on a case-by-case basis.

Question 3

Funding regulations

Accepted Answer

We publish 16 to 19 funding regulations each year and information about 16 to 19 student eligibility is available in section 3. This also applies to 14 to 16-year-old students attending further education and sixth-form colleges.

Participating colleges must ensure:

a student is aged 14 or 15 on 31 August in the year in which they enrol
parent or carer consent is obtained before a student is enrolled and the college retains a record of the parent’s or carer’s consent
the parent or carer is advised that they should notify the student’s previous school that their child will be enrolled in college and receiving education other than at school
parents or carers are made aware that they can get impartial advice, information and support from the National Careers Service
they follow this guidance in full, as a requirement of their funding agreement

ESFA will only fund 14 to 16-year-olds enrolled and recorded on the ILR R04 return submitted by the college in December 2023. It will only count students who started their programme on or before the R04 reference date of 1 November 2023. This is consistent with the approach taken for deriving 16 to 19-year-olds eligible for funding.

Any 14 to 16-year-old students enrolled and recorded after this date will not be funded by ESFA. If a college is approached to enrol 14 to 16-year-olds after this point, it should negotiate an appropriate transfer of funding from either the school the student attended from the start of the academic year or, in the case of 14 to 16-year-olds arriving from overseas, from the relevant local authority.

In exceptional circumstances – for example, students arriving in the UK for the first time during school year 11, ESFA will consider provision for individual students of compulsory school age to be eligible for ESFA young people’s funding in colleges. Groups of students would not be eligible for funding, however, as by inference such circumstances are unlikely to be exceptional.

Question 4

High-needs students

Accepted Answer

Colleges are subject to a range of legal duties in relation to their students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including:

They should anticipate the SEN requirements of students as much as possible, working with feeder schools, where appropriate, and, where possible, through advance planning with the student and their parent or carer. This is the case for students with SEN support in school as well as those with education, health and care (EHC) plans. The same principles regarding advance planning and co-production apply if the student has a disability.

Colleges may also undertake assessments themselves to identify the support students may need and whether they may need to agree high-needs funding with the student’s home local authority.

Where a student has an EHC plan prior to transition to a college, the parent or carer or the young person has the right to express a preference for a participating college to be named in the plan. The local authority must consult the college about this, and if the college is named in the plan, it must admit that student. We recommend the college attends the young person’s EHC plan review prior to transition.

A college should enquire of a student’s school whether there any already identified SEN or disabilities and whether the student has been identified as having high needs - that is, if their additional support costs exceed £6,000 per year. If a student has already been identified as having high needs, their home local authority should be aware of them, and the college should ask the local authority for further information about their needs. For example, they may already have been assessed for an EHC plan, even if they do not have one. The college should discuss with the student’s home local authority what level of additional support would be appropriate and whether any additional high-needs top-up funding would be payable by the authority.

Colleges have a duty under section 66 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to use their best endeavours to meet the SEN of their students, including 14 and 15-year-olds. If the college considers the student’s needs may require special educational provision that isn’t normally available, it may draw the local authority’s attention to the student and consider requesting an EHC needs assessment.

Question 5

Admission arrangements and appeals

Accepted Answer

Participating colleges must publish admission arrangements for their 14 to 16 provision that clearly set out how children will be admitted, and include the criteria that will be applied if there are more applications than places. The arrangements should be published on the college’s website and be easily accessible to students and parents or carers.

There must be no charge in respect of admission of 14 to 16-year-olds, and the college must charge such students only where the law allows maintained schools to charge. Guidance on charging for school activities is available.

Colleges should work collaboratively with the appropriate local authorities to promote their offer to full-time 14 to 16-year-old students. They should inform those local authorities in a timely manner if an application to enrol is refused or an appeal against a refusal to enrol is unsuccessful.

A parent or carer who is refused a place for their child at a college has the right of appeal to an independent and impartial appeals panel. The college is responsible for arranging the appeal and appointing a clerk who is independent of the college and the education functions of the local authority and has a sound understanding of admissions issues.

Question 6

Attendance

Accepted Answer

Colleges should work collaboratively with the appropriate local authorities in order to share information about attendance or absences, both authorised and unauthorised, as those local authorities deem necessary. The local authorities can then consider if it is necessary to take any action in light of their duties under sections 436A and 437 of the Education Act 1996, which relate to children of compulsory school age who may not be receiving suitable education.

Colleges should consider when to authorise an absence. There are some circumstances in which a college would have no other option than to do so. These are when the student is unable to attend:

because of sickness or another unavoidable cause
on a day exclusively set apart for observance by the religious body to which their parent or carer belongs

A college decides when it is appropriate to remove a student from the roll. It should inform the relevant local authority immediately, supplying the grounds for removal and the student’s contact address. The local authority must then make alternative provision for that student’s education.

Colleges should have a policy on attendance that specifies when a student would be removed from the roll because of unauthorised absences. This policy should be communicated to parents or carers, and the college should send warning letters of its intention to remove a student if no improvements are made within a specified period. Before removing a student because of absence, the college must be satisfied that absence is not as a result of sickness or another unavoidable cause.

Question 7

Suspensions and exclusions

Accepted Answer

The legislation and statutory guidance on suspension and permanent exclusion, including pupil movement applies to all pupils, including those who are above or below compulsory school age – for example, where a school also has a nursery or a sixth-form in:

maintained schools
academy schools (including free schools but not 16 to 19 academies or 16 to 19 free schools)
alternative provision academies (including alternative-provision free schools)
pupil referral units

The legislation and guidance also applies to all students at these schools, including those who are above or below compulsory school age - for example, where a school also has a nursery or sixth-form.

However, the legislation and guidance does not apply to independent schools (other than the academies listed above), city technology colleges, city colleges for the technology of the arts, further education colleges, sixth-form colleges,16 to 19 academies or 16 to 19 free schools, all of which have separate fixed-period suspension and permanent exclusion procedures.

Colleges may nonetheless wish to consider as best practice the guidance as it applies to maintained schools when drafting their exclusions policy for full-time 14 to 16-year-old students. The policy should be published in a manner that is accessible to students and parents or carers.

Colleges must work collaboratively with the appropriate local authorities in relation to all suspensions and permanent exclusions used in respect of students aged 14 to 16, notifying them in a timely manner and keeping an accurate record. If a 14 to 16-year-old is either suspended for any length of time or permanently excluded, both the local authority in which the college is situated and the local authority where the student resides must be notified on the day the decision is taken. This is to ensure the relevant local authority is aware of its duty to provide education and multi-agency support to a pupil of compulsory school age who would not otherwise receive it.

In cases where a college suspends or permanently excludes a student and that student subsequently takes up educational provision elsewhere, ESFA expects the funding to follow the student.

Question 8

Statutory duties

Accepted Answer

At present, colleges have various powers to provide secondary education to pupils of compulsory school age. These powers are set out in the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 (FHEA 1992): section 18(1) (aa) to (ac) for further education colleges and section 33E (1) (b) to (d) for sixth-form colleges.

They allow colleges to:

provide secondary education suitable to the requirements of persons who have reached the age of 14
provide education which is secondary education by virtue of section 2 (2B) of the Education Act 1996
participate in the provision of secondary education at a school

Colleges are required to consult such local authorities as they consider appropriate before exercising any of these powers, in line with section 18 (1A) and section 33E(3) of the FHEA 1992.

Colleges are also subject to the duty, pursuant to section 52A of the FHEA 1992, and the Education (Secondary Education in Further Education Institutions) Regulations 1999, to ensure that students aged 14 to 16 are not educated in the same room at the same time as a student aged 19 or over without a teacher being present in the room.

Question 9

Programme requirements

Accepted Answer

Careers guidance

Colleges are required to secure independent careers guidance for all students up to and including the age of 18, and 19- to 25-year-olds with an EHC plan in place under section 37 of the Children and Families Act 2014.

Independent careers guidance should:

inform young people about the full range of education and training options available, including approved technical qualifications and apprenticeships, and how those options relate to local and national skills needs
be external to the college
be provided in an impartial manner
promote the best interests of the student to whom it is given

External sources of careers support could include:

employer visits
mentoring
website, telephone and helpline access
personal guidance provided other than by the college

Colleges should review their existing support and take steps to ensure this meets the needs of their 14 to 16-year-old students. They should also check that students have received sufficiently robust careers guidance prior to enrolling at the college to ensure they are following the most appropriate learning pathway. It should build on their prior attainment and enable them to develop clear, ambitious and realistic plans for their future.

DfE has published statutory careers guidance that colleges can use to support 14 to 16-year-old students.

Curriculum

Participating colleges do not have to deliver the national curriculum, but the curriculum provided to 14 to 16-year-olds should be broad and balanced.

In addition, colleges:

must teach a curriculum that includes English, mathematics and science
must make provision for the teaching of religious education and for a daily act of collective worship
must make provision for the teaching of relationships and sex education and health education as provided under the Relationships Education, Relationships and Sex Education and Health Education (England) Regulations 2019, and have regard to the associated statutory guidance
should act in accordance with section 406 (political indoctrination) and 407 (duty to secure balanced treatment of political issues) of the Education Act 1996
must actively promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect for and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs

Meal provision

If requested to do so by a 14 to 16-year-old student or their parent or carer, a college must make provision for meals for that student unless it would be unreasonable for it to do so.

Free meals

In order to receive a free meal, a student or their parent or carer must be in receipt of one of the qualifying benefits. Student eligibility can be determined by reviewing the criteria. A student is eligible to receive a free meal only when a claim has been made on their behalf and their eligibility has been verified, either by the college they attend or by their local authority. If a student is eligible for free meals, these should be provided by the college. The disadvantage element of 14 to 16 programme funding in part reflects the need for colleges to meet the cost of this provision.

Colleges should develop their own process for dealing with free-meals applications. Some may wish to use a paper application form, while others may wish to provide an online application option.

Health and safety

The college must take such steps as are necessary to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of students while they are on work placement or experience or engaged in other work-related activity either on or off the college premises.

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 is the primary piece of legislation covering occupational health and safety in Great Britain. Guidance on health and safety is published by both the Health and Safety Executive and the Department for Education for colleges to access.

Safeguarding

All students are entitled to have a safe environment in which they can learn, and nothing is more important than safeguarding students and promoting their welfare. It is essential that everybody working at the college understands their safeguarding responsibilities. Colleges must ensure they have appropriate safeguarding arrangements in place so students are protected from harm.

Colleges must have regard to the keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) guidance when carrying out their duties to safeguard and promote the welfare of students receiving education or training at the college. This includes how to deal with allegations made against or concerns raised in relation to people who work with children. For the purposes of the guidance, ‘children’ includes everyone under the age of 18.

Allegations that may meet the harms threshold include a person having:

behaved in a way that has harmed a child or
behaved in a way that may have harmed a child and/or
possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child and/or
behaved towards a child in a way that indicates they may pose a risk of harm to children and/or
behaved in a way that indicates they may not be suitable to work with children

There are additional allegations or concerns that do not meet the harms threshold. These are referred to in the guidance as ‘low-level concerns’. For further information, see part 4 of KCSIE.

The working together to safeguard children guidance sets out the legislative requirements placed on individual services, organisations and agencies that have functions relating to children.

Publication of information

Schools and colleges must publish specific information on their website. These requirements are set out in the school information regulations for maintained schools and in individual funding agreements for colleges.

Full guidance on what academies, free schools and colleges must or should publish online is available.

Question 10

Additional programme guidance

Accepted Answer

Electively home-educated 14 and 15-year-olds

Colleges sometimes admit electively home-educated students aged 14 or 15 to take courses on an in-fill basis by arrangement with the local authority or their parent or carer. If these courses are at level 3 and approved for delivery to 14 to 16-year-olds – which can be checked using the find a learning aim service and ensuring it is eligible in the 14 to 16 ESFA funding stream – they are funded by entering the student on the ILR. The student then counts for lagged funding in the following year in the same way as if they were a 16 to 18-year-old.

These students can be enrolled and funded only for part-time courses – if an institution recruits them for full-time courses, they are no longer home-educated and the institution will need to meet the criteria for direct recruitment.

Colleges may make the local arrangements for these students that they consider appropriate – there is no nationally prescribed model for provision. They are not subject to the arrangements for the full-time enrolment of 14 to 16-year-olds in further education and sixth-form colleges. Further information on elective home education and guidance for local authorities is available.

Employment of children

Colleges should abide by guidance published by the UK government in relation to the employment of children.

Home-to-school transport

Children of compulsory school age are eligible for free home-to-school transport in certain circumstances. However, students aged 14 to 16 who enrol at a participating college will not be eligible because colleges are not qualifying schools for home-to-school transport purposes. Local authorities may choose to provide free transport for such students, but are not obliged to do so.

Statutory guidance on home-to-school travel and transport and information about local authorities’ help with transport arrangements is available.

Question 11

Funding arrangements

Accepted Answer

Funding will be calculated using the 16 to 19 funding methodology and national funding rate. However, there is some adjustment to accommodate elements of funding that are not specific to this age group.

The 16 to 19 funding formula

(Student numbers x National funding rate per student x Retention factor x Programme cost weighting x Disadvantage funding) x Area cost uplift = total programme funding

Funding formula applied to directly recruited 14 to 16- year-olds

(Student numbers x National funding rate per student (£4,642) x Retention factor (x1) x Programme cost weighting (uplift of 4%) + Disadvantage funding (Block 1 - as per 16-to-19 factor; Block 2 - index of multiple deprivation (IMD) used as proxy) x Area cost uplift (as per 16 to 19 uplift) = Total programme funding

Retention factor

A retention factor of 1 will be used in the funding formula for 14 to 16-year-olds, as this is not applicable to pre-16 students.

Programme cost weighting

A cost weighting is applied to recognise that some subjects are more expensive to teach than others. The most applicable cost weighting for this type of provision is 20%, therefore a cost weighting of 4% (one fifth of 20%) is to be applied to 14 to 16-year-olds.

Disadvantage funding

Disadvantage funding is made up of 2 blocks: one to account for students’ economic deprivation and another to account for low prior attainment in English and mathematics.

Block 1: economic deprivation funding

Block 1 funding recognises that there are additional costs incurred in engaging, recruiting and retaining young people from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Whether a student is eligible for block 1 funding is determined by their home postcode and the level of deprivation recorded for that area in the IMD 2015. You should refer to ESFA funding rates and formula if further information is required. The same block 1 factor applied to 16 to 19 funding will be used for 14 to 16 funding.

For 16 to 19 funding, block 1 also gives an additional amount of funding for students who are in or have recently left care. This is not applicable for 14 to 16-year-olds, as those students who are in or have recently left care will receive pupil premium funding.

Block 2: GCSE mathematics and English using IMD as a proxy

Block 2 funding accounts for the additional costs incurred for teaching students who have low prior attainment. However, as most 14 and 15-year-olds will not yet have started or achieved English or mathematics GCSE, the proportion of students eligible for IMD in the calculation of block 1 will be used to generate the block 2 percentage. The number of students attracting block 2 funding is multiplied by £1,008.

Funding for high-needs students

We use the 16 to 19 funding methodology for the implementation of the 14 to 16-year-olds further education programme. This means that the post-16 funding arrangements set out in the 2023 to 2024 high-needs operational guidance apply to 14 to 16-year-olds in further education with high needs. For more information on funding for students with high needs, refer to the high-needs funding arrangements guidance for 2023 to 2024.

Additional funding

Pupil premium and service pupil premium

Colleges should include a question in their enrolment process that allows a student or their parent or carer to identify eligibility for pupil premium or the service pupil premium. The criteria include whether the child:

is currently claiming a free meal
was recorded as claiming a free meal at any point in the past 6 years
is in care, has been adopted or has left care through a specific court order
is classed as a ‘service child’ as defined in the pupil premium conditions of grant

The college must submit a return detailing those pupils eligible for pupil premium or service pupil premium to DfE in December in the prescribed format. It must see and retain copies of the evidence of entitlement to free meals for a period of 6 years from the end of the year in which the provision was first made.

The payment of the pupil premium grant is subject to the conditions detailed in the requirements of funding and the conditions of funding grant. The timeline for delivery in this guidance sets out when payments for the pupil premium and service pupil premium will be paid.

An example letter that colleges may wish to use to write to parents and carers is available.

Question 12

Data collection

Accepted Answer

Performance data

Data on 14 to 16 student examination performance is routinely collected in the same way as that on 16 to 18 student performance and published in the DfE performance tables. The performance of 14 to 16 provision is measured using DfE’s key stage 4 performance measures. Information about how these measures, including Progress 8 and Attainment 8, are calculated, with worked examples and diagrams, can be found in the secondary accountability measures guide.

Performance relating to 14 to 16 students directly enrolled in colleges was reported in the 2015 key stage 4 performance tables for the first time in January 2016. The most recent attainment data for 14 to 16 provision was published in the key stage 4 performance 2022 statistical release on 2 February 2023. Institution-level attainment data for 14 to 16 provision in 2021 to 2022 was also published in February 2023, on the find and check the performance of schools and colleges in England page.

ILR and funding for 14 to 16-year-olds

There are 2 learning delivery monitoring (LDM) codes for use on the ILR:

LDM code 320 (14 to 16 ESFA direct-funded students)
LDM code 321 (14 to 16 home-educated students)

Only students recorded using LDM code 320 will be used to determine direct 14 to 16 funding. LDM code 320 should only be used to identify those students who are directly enrolled. It should not be used to identify any other 14 to 16-year-olds, such as:

home-educated students
students who have already achieved a level 2 qualification and are choosing to enrol on a full level 3 course
students enrolled in a school but studying part-time in a college

Students who are recorded using LDM code 321 will count as lagged students for funding purposes.

Bespoke data collection for free meals and the pupil premium

Participating colleges are required to submit this data to DfE. We will use it to calculate pupil premium and service pupil premium funding, and collect it using a bespoke data return in December 2023.

Pupil premium and service pupil premium allocations for delivery in the 2023 to 2024 academic year (that is, the final 7 months of the financial year 2022 to 2023 and the first 5 months of the 2023 to 2024 financial year) will be based on the information submitted by colleges in December 2023.

Further information on pupil premium eligibility is available in the additional funding section.

School-to-school (S2S) service

The S2S system allows local authorities, and schools, further education and sixth-form colleges directly recruiting 14 to 16-year-olds to securely share student information. Guidance on how schools and local authorities should send records and other information is available.

Any college directly recruiting 14 to 16-year-olds that wishes to use the S2S service can do so by applying for a DfE sign-in account via the service request form on the DfE sign-in page.

Question 13

Intervention

Accepted Answer

Colleges are subject to regular reviews of risk by DfE. As part of our continued core function, we ensure that there is an effective use of public funding and students receive a high-quality learning experience.

The criteria that may prompt intervention action include:

an Ofsted ‘inadequate’ trigger
an ‘inadequate financial health’ trigger
a ‘poor’ or ‘breaches in financial management and control’ trigger
a failure to demonstrate sufficient progress in resolving identified issues

If a college meets one or more of these criteria, or fails to comply with the conditions set out in its funding agreement, DfE will act in accordance with the provisions of that agreement and as set out in the college oversight: support and intervention guidance.

The college’s 14 to 16 delivery will be an important but proportionate consideration as part of any intervention process.

If a college is placed in intervention, DfE may use a range of actions, including but not limited to requiring it to:

accept and comply with additional conditions in relation to 14 to 16 funding
suspend or cease the further recruitment of 14 to 16-year-olds
cap any growth in 14 to 16 student numbers

Where applicable, the college is expected to work with DfE, the Further Education Commissioner and Ofsted to make the required improvement, which might be in relation to its 14 to 16 activity.

Additional information requests

Notwithstanding any other provision of ESFA conditions of funding, the Secretary of State for Education, acting reasonably, may from time to time call for information relating to the 14 to 16-year-olds enrolled at the college. This might include information about:

the curriculum
arrangements for the assessment of students
class sizes
the operation of the admission process and any arrangements for over-subscription
the number of fixed-period suspensions and permanent exclusions
levels of authorised and unauthorised absence
any other aspect of this provision

Question 14

Colleges intending to enrol 14 to 16-year-olds

Accepted Answer

Midlands

South and City College Birmingham

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Applies to England