Further education area reviews: £470m funding to restructure colleges

Guidance and forms for further education colleges to apply for financial support from the government’s restructuring facility.

Documents

Restructuring facility: guidance for applicants

PDF, 650KB, 33 pages

Details

The guidance and application forms are for further education colleges that:

• need to make major changes following an area review recommendation
• cannot fund it themselves

It’s not for sixth-form colleges – restructuring is part of the process of becoming an academy.

Applications for the restructuring facility have now closed.

Restructuring facility: progress to date

As at end January 2019

We have received 76 applications for the restructuring facility. Of these, 58 cases have been assessed and approved and 5 remain in the assessment and approval processes.

The 76 applications comprised 30 applications from 31 sixth form colleges expressing plans to convert to academy status, the majority of which have not been allocated any funding to support this conversion; and 46 applications to support restructuring within the college sector.

Of the 58 applications assessed and approved, 32 include funding to support restructuring. Of the remaining 26, 17 include VAT funding only to meet VAT liabilities arising from the change of ownership of buildings and 9 relate to conversions to Academy Trusts that did not require restructuring facility support.

The total allocation of restructuring facility funding is approximately £470m. Total spend so far is approximately £290m. This allocation is the maximum available and the full amount will not be drawn down in all cases. Of the total £470m allocation up to £435m has been allocated for General Further Education Colleges, including partnerships with universities, up to £25m to mergers between General Further Education Colleges and Sixth Form Colleges and up to £10m for conversion of Sixth Form Colleges to academy status (although this total includes some VAT funding which is nil net cost to the Exchequer).

We have now published case summaries of providers that formally agreed restructuring facility terms by 31st July 2018. For more information, see annex C in the guidance above.

Published 26 May 2016 
Last updated 11 February 2019 + show all updates

1. 11 February 2019 We have updated the restructuring facility: guidance for applicants and have provided an update on the applications process.
2. 26 October 2018 We’ve updated the restructuring facility: progress to date information.
3. 12 October 2018 Updated restructuring facility: guidance for applicants.
4. 14 September 2018 Updated restructuring facility: guidance for applicants.
5. 16 July 2018 Annex C – case summaries of providers that agreed restructuring facility funding prior to 31 December 2017 added.
6. 11 April 2018 Updated the guidance for applicants with the inclusion of principles (pages 6-7) which will be used by officials and a reminder that the deadline for final applications is 28 September 2018.
7. 9 April 2018 Added information about the restructuring facility: progress to date.
8. 6 November 2017 Updated restructuring facility guidance for applicants.
9. 20 October 2017 Updated document ‘Restructuring facility: guidance for applicants’.
10. 19 January 2017 Updated document ‘Restructuring facility: guidance for applicants’.
11. 19 October 2016 Updated restructuring facility guidance and funding application forms.
12. 26 May 2016 First published.