By Richard Johnstone | 16 August 2011
The Public Accounts Committee has called on the government to assess how participation in education will be affected by the abolition of the Education Maintenance Allowance.
In a report published today, the MPs said that the scrapping
of the weekly student support payment needed to be evaluated for its impact on
the Department for Education’s plans to have everyone up to age 18 in education
or training by 2015.The EMA will be replaced by a bursary scheme administered by schools and colleges, but it will be smaller, £180m in place of £560m.
The PAC’s call followslast month’s criticism by the Commons education select committee of the DfE’s assessment of the impact of the changes. PAC chair Margaret Hodge said that the committee would return to this issue if the DfE failed to provide the assessment.
Today’s report, Getting value for money from the education of 16- to 18 year-olds, also found that the age group’s educational attainment had improved over the past four years.
However, the MPs noted the complexity of the competitive market in which providers competed for pupils.
In 2009, more than 1.6 million 16- to 18-year-olds participated in some form of education and training, at a cost of more than £6bn, at either general further education colleges, sixth form colleges or school sixth forms.
Young people chose where they wanted to study, with funding following the student. But the committee found that information measuring the performance of providers was not comparable, inhibiting the operation of the market. It recommended that all providers should be required to compile and publish comparable performance information, which would also support the assessment of value for money.
Hodge said: ‘If the 16 to 18 education market is to work effectively, there must be relevant and robust information so that students can make informed choices about courses and the department can assess value for money. There must also be clear criteria for intervention when providers are underperforming. Neither is fully in place at the moment.’
The PAC also found that institutions were answerable to a ‘complex web of agencies, governors and students’.
The DfE has overall responsibility for the sector; the Young People’s Learning Agency funds education providers; and the Skills Funding Agency has responsibility for the general further education colleges and oversees provision for students over the age of 19 on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Therefore, many colleges reported to two departments and two funding agencies. The MPs said there needed to be greater clarity of roles to avoid over-burdening providers with regulation.
