SFCA Manifesto: six priorities for sixth form education

We have six major policy priorities for sixth form education and urge the governmnent, as well as opposition parties, to adopt the following points:

Priority 1: Review the implementation of V levels

• V levels are a new suite of vocational qualifications that will replace BTECs and sit alongside A levels and T levels at Level 3. Although the first three V levels will be rolled out from September 2027, qualification materials will not be made available until “Spring 2027”. Arrangements for assessment and grading will not be confirmed until late 2026.

• Sixth form leaders are deeply concerned about the impact such a rushed implementation will have on the first cohort of V level students. It is extremely difficult to provide effective careers advice when so little is known about these new qualifications, or to ensure that the right staff are in place with the right training to deliver them.

• The government should delay the rollout of V levels and use the time to revisit some of their fundamental features. For example, there is widespread concern among colleges and schools that limiting V levels to one size (equivalent to 1 A level) will disadvantage many young people.

• SFCA research shows that after controlling for prior attainment (GCSE grades), the qualification pathways with the lowest dropout rates are extended diplomas (equivalent to 3 A levels) and diplomas (equivalent to 2 A levels).

• Scrapping these larger size vocational qualifications will jeopardise the government’s plan to reduce the number of young people who are NEET, particularly as they are disproportionately studied by disadvantaged students and/or those with lower GCSE grades.

• Alan Milburn’s interim report on NEET reduction described young people who drop out in post- 16 settings as “the at-risk cohort of becoming NEET”. Despite this, the government is about to scrap the qualifications that are most effective at keeping this cohort in education.

• The priority for a new administration should be to delay the rollout of V levels and revisit their key features following the publication of Alan Milburn’s final report.

Priority 2: Introduce a real terms, real time, funding guarantee

• Sixth form is a pivotal stage of education, but according to the IFS, real terms funding for sixth form colleges is 11% lower than it was in 2013/14. The needs of students have become increasingly complex since then (e.g. the rise in demand for mental health support), student poverty has increased, and the cost of delivering sixth form education has risen significantly.

• To help ensure that every student receives the support they need, the 16 to 19 funding rate should increase by at least the rate of inflation each year. As a minimum, we must be able to fund the growing number of young people participating in education (by reducing the number not in education, employment or training and responding to demographic growth) without impoverishing their experience when they get there.

• A real terms funding guarantee (focused on the core rate), combined with a commitment to fund increases in student numbers in real time (early in the same academic year) would end the trade-off between increasing participation and maintaining quality while ensuring that colleges are not forced to turn students away due to a lack of in-year funding from government.

Priority 3: Devolve more responsibility to colleges

• The devolution revolution that we would like to see is one that sees more responsibility and autonomy extended to colleges.

• Successive governments have pledged to slash red tape on businesses, but the opposite approach has been taken with colleges – new duties and requirements are imposed on a regular basis, but existing duties and requirements are rarely removed.

• The government should commission an independent review into the bureaucratic burden placed on colleges with the aim of replacing the current regime of micro-management with a high-trust model of delivery where college leaders have the freedom to tailor their curriculum and resources to meet the individual needs of students and employers. This is one area where government can achieve a lot more, by doing a lot less.

Priority 4: Put post-16 education at the heart of SEND reform

• The government has set out plans to reform the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system. It is crucial that colleges are placed at the heart of a truly integrated, properly funded system that meets the needs of post-16 students in a consistent and co-ordinated way.

• The government should support schools and colleges to work together to improve the timeliness and accuracy of planning for the transition at age 16 and provide clear national guidance setting out expectations for information sharing.

• Funding for students with Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) and the proposed Individual Support Plans (ISPs) should increase by at least the rate of inflation each year and be made available in-year when needed.

• The government should develop a more sophisticated approach to allocating funding for post-16 students with SEND: the approach adopted this year (using low prior attainment in GCSE English and maths as a proxy) overlooked many young people with additional needs simply because they had secured a grade 4 in these two subjects.

Priority 5: Tackle the teacher recruitment and retention crisis

• There are simply not enough people entering the teaching profession, and the problem is particularly acute in certain subjects. Sixth form colleges offer a very broad curriculum, but finding teachers in non-national curriculum subjects such as economics and law can be even more difficult than in areas of well-known secondary shortage like business and physics.

• The government should increase investment in training bursaries to aid teacher recruitment. As research has shown that bursaries are associated with a sustained increase in long-term teacher supply, eligibility should also be extended to cover a much broader range of subjects.

• Bursaries should be coupled with larger incentive payments in shortage subjects – there is evidence that this approach is working in the schools sector. More broadly, efforts to improve retention should focus on reducing workload – increasing core funding would enable teachers to teach fewer or smaller groups, reducing the burden of marking and their wider workload.

Priority 6: Introduce a formulaic capital fund for sixth form colleges

• When it comes to capital funding, sixth form colleges are stranded between the worlds of schools and FE colleges. They are unable to access formulaic capital funding through School Condition Allocations (which is limited to larger multi-academy trusts) or the FE Capital Transformation Fund (which is limited to FE colleges).

• As government spending on sixth form colleges is 29% lower than spending on schools, it is difficult for SFCs to self-fund significant capital projects. Like FE colleges, sixth form colleges are no longer able to borrow commercially and are required to participate in the skills agenda, but unlike FE colleges, they do not receive a meaningful formulaic capital allocation.

• To address this anomaly, a dedicated formulaic capital fund should be created for sixth form colleges. This would help to address the significant challenges that many sixth form colleges face keeping their buildings safe and in good working order, particularly as the increase in student numbers across the sector continues to put pressure on the sixth form college estate.​

More information

You can view a PDF version of the manifesto here. For more information about the SFCA manifesto, contact James Kewin, deputy chief executive, or Noni Csogor, senior research and policy manager.