Further education: post-16 area reviews

In July 2015, the then Skills Minister, Nick Boles, announced plans for 'a restructuring of the post-16 education and training sector, through a series of area based reviews of provision'. The 37 post-16 area reviews were carried out over a two year period beginning in September 2015. The reviews were intended to enable a transition towards fewer, larger, more resilient and efficient providers, which are more specialised and collaborate more effectively. They focused on further education (FE) colleges and sixth form colleges, but the Government stated that the quality and availability of all post-16 education and training provision in an area would be taken into account. Concerns were raised about whether the reviews could provide a sufficiently comprehensive look at provision in an area without focusing on all post-16 providers, including school sixth forms. This policy briefing summarises the area review process, the Committee inquiries and the outcome and evaluation of the area reviews.

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