Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions she has had with further education colleges on the reclassification of colleges as public sector institutions by the Office for National Statistics.

Since the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced in May 2022 their review of the classification of the further education sector in England, departmental officials have engaged with colleges and the college sector representative bodies, and we have taken account of their feedback throughout.

On 29 November 2022, when the ONS announced the outcome of their review, the department wrote to college principals setting out how the changes to classification would affect them and how the government would support colleges. The department has also since spoken to representatives from the Association of Colleges and the Sixth Form College Association and to a number of college principals. The Education and Skills Funding Agency wrote to all college accounting officers with more detail on new processes and departmental officials published a government response on GOV.UK. We have held webinars attended by over 300 college representatives, and attended and spoke at the Landex conference.

The department is continuing to keep the sector informed as we move beyond the announcement into a more business as usual state, and will be working closely with colleges to inform development of a new college financial handbook.