Value for money of 16-18 education questioned | Education | guardian.co.uk

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Whitehall's spending watchdog has warned that some of the £6bn spent each year on educating 16- to 18-year-olds may be going to waste.

The National Audit Office said it was impossible to judge whether the government was getting value for money from sixth-form colleges, school sixth forms and further education colleges because they report their data in different ways.

It said some schools and colleges have a "poor" understanding of how to manage their staff budget, which for some accounts for more than 60% of their costs.

Its report – Getting value for money from the education of 16- to 18-year-olds – warns that the government should be wary of encouraging new schools to have sixth forms to increase competition because this may reduce the choice of subjects and quality of teaching on offer to pupils.

"Providers with many learners are able to offer a greater choice of courses, so course choice can be diminished where there are relatively large numbers of smaller providers in an area," the report states. "New providers generally start small and need time to build up their student numbers. If, however, new providers do not grow to a cost-effective size, then increasing choice of providers may lead to lower quality, high-cost providers and reduced choice of courses for learners."

The report found that pupils in the largest sixth forms had the best academic results.

"Across most of the main measures of learner achievement, performance has improved nationally over the last four years," it states. However, it said there was "no consistent approach" to dealing with poor performance in school sixth forms and details on inspections and financial reporting requirements were inconsistent.

Amyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, said that while there were some positive indicators of value for money, "a number of issues will need to be addressed, including performance management and accountability arrangements, before I can conclude that value for money is being delivered across the board".

Responsibility for overseeing the education of 16- to 18-year-olds is shared between the Department for Education, the Young People's Learning Agency and local authorities.

via guardian.co.uk