report<\/a>, conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), analysed data for 16 to 18-year-old exam entries per provider to work out the range of subjects available and class sizes.<\/p>\nThe study, published today, found cold spots in council areas across the country, where certain A-levels and vocational qualifications in 23 subject areas including creative arts, social sciences, languages and performing arts are not offered by any provider.<\/p>\n
It also found \u201cfragmented\u201d markets, with smaller settings such as school sixth forms that deliver marginal subjects in \u201cinefficient\u201d class sizes.<\/p>\n
Having large numbers of school sixth forms appeared to \u201cundermine\u201d nearby colleges\u2019 economies of scale because it is \u201charder\u201d for them to sustain marginal and specialist subjects, the report argued.<\/p>\n
It added this resulted in a narrower overall range of subject choices in those areas, because colleges were more likely to withdraw more marginal courses in areas with more school sixth forms.<\/p>\n
David Hughes, AoC chief executive, said the report showed a\u202fmarketised\u202fapproach \u201cdoes not result in a high quality, broad and complete offer of courses and institutions that are accessible by every young person\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system we have requires providers to compete for students and plan independently of each other, inevitably leading to a strong offer in some areas and insufficient capacity in other areas.”<\/p>\n
\u2018Real consequences\u2019<\/h2>\n Researchers looked at 2023-24 exam entry data across 151 local authority areas and found 23 cold spots \u201cscattered across the country\u201d where 15 or more of the subjects were not offered.<\/p>\n
While core subjects such as history, geography and sociology A-level were offered in most areas, music technology was not available in 79 areas, dance was unavailable in 73 areas, and A-level German was unavailable in 31 areas.<\/p>\n
Cold spots included urban areas such as east and south west London, Greater Manchester and Portsmouth, as well as more rural areas such as Herefordshire, Cumbria and the Isle of Wight.<\/p>\n
To address this \u201cexcessive market fragmentation\u201d and ensure broad subject choices are available for all students, the paper suggested five policy options at \u201cvarying degrees of intervention\u201d.<\/p>\n
These include the Department for Education (DfE) handing strategic authorities delegated powers or strengthened mandates to \u201cbroker collaboration\u201d between schools and colleges around their subject offers and specialisations.<\/p>\n
Local government should also \u201cconvene\u201d schools and colleges to explore shared provision and timetabling arrangements, as some schools may currently feel \u201ccompelled\u201d to offer marginal subjects that attract students despite low enrolments.<\/p>\n
Combined and local authorities could also take a more active role, such as commissioning areas reviews \u201cwhere appropriate\u201d to encourage schools and colleges to merge into \u201clarger, more resilient\u201d institutions that can offer a broader curriculum.<\/p>\n
Other measures could include supporting local specialisation through designation of specific providers as \u201csubject hubs\u201d, particularly in creative and performing arts.<\/p>\n
However, the report also called for more research into the most effective collaboration models and what drives student and parent choice, as the current evidence body \u201cremains scant\u201d.<\/p>\n
The government should also strengthen its oversight of school sixth form expansion to ensure \u201cefficiency and sufficiency\u201d aren\u2019t undermined by having too many small local providers.<\/p>\n
The DfE could update its guidance to local authorities and regional directors to make considering system-level impacts of new sixth forms an \u201cexplicit consideration\u201d, the report suggested.<\/p>\n
At present, new school sixth forms are typically approved or rejected based grounds of quality or viability, with a 200-student rule of thumb.<\/p>\n
Young people\u2019s potential limited<\/h2>\n Luke Bocock,\u202fresearch director\u202fat NFER, said restricted subject options due to fragmented post-16 education systems have \u201creal consequences\u201d for some young people.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe subjects available to them at this stage can shape what they go on to\u202fstudy,\u202fand the opportunities open to them later in life.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoupled with this,\u202fpost-16 education providers\u202fface bigger challenges to delivering courses efficiently where the\u202fprovision\u202fin their area\u202fis\u202frelatively more\u202ffragmented\u202f-\u202ftoo often in these areas small, inefficient class sizes are the norm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout better coordination across the\u202fpost-16 education\u202fsystem, these gaps risk limiting\u202fyoung people\u2019s\u202fpotential and\u202fcreating\u202finequalities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hughes added: \u201cEvery\u202fstudent should have a wide and varied choice that they are able to access. To achieve this, we need a more co-ordinated approach to planning the capacity for the full range of 16-18 provision and institutions locally.<\/p>\n
“Doing this will achieve greater efficiency (with fewer students dropping out and starting again and fewer\u202fvery small\u202fclass sizes) and sufficiency (covering the\u202fwhole range\u202fof learning,\u202ftraining\u202fand education) while being sensitive to local contexts.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Researchers also call for council powers to tackle ‘cold spots’ in post-16 provision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":246306,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[2057,2607],"post-theme":[2961],"class_list":["post-246302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-post-16","tag-sixth-forms","post-theme-curriculum"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t