Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
8
Financial pressures are affecting provision for students.
Conclusion
Financial pressures are affecting provision for students. They have caused some colleges to narrow their curriculum and reduce the length of courses. Some FE colleges have significantly reduced enrichment activities for students, such as careers advice and employability activities, and some are particularly concerned about reduced mental health support for students.13 The Department told us that colleges had been good at prioritising support, and supporting vulnerable students was important to them. It acknowledged, however, that colleges had had to make difficult choices during challenging times, and that it was important for it to remain alive to these issues. The ESFA said that it was looking at students’ experience of being supported and trying to understand their perspectives.14 Pension costs
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
7.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: August 2021 7.2 The department will be conducting a survey looking at the experiences of Further Education learners during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak for the 2020-21 academic year. This survey will be run on a national scale, to provide greater insight into the pandemic impacts. It will focus on areas including pastoral support and quality of teaching in addition to remote learning, lost learning and apprentices’ experiences with their employer and training provider. 7.3 The survey will enable learners to feed back to the department on their experience, which will help inform future policy development. 7.4 The department is currently working with the contractors on the design of the questionnaire. It will be finalised in March 2021 before being piloted. Fieldwork will take place in the summer term of 2021 and the survey results will be published as soon as possible after that.