As sixth form funding continues to decline, staff need to understand the financial position but they also need to pull together to find creative solutions. Stephan Jungnitz offers some suggestions for building up esprit de corps.

Rising costs and rhetoric

Just before the Easter break the Education Funding Agency (EFA) issued 16-19 funding allocations to schools and colleges. The funding per student is about £4,500 or less in many institutions. 

The money provided for the education of today’s 17 year-olds is now a little over a half (58 per cent) of what it was when they were born. (In 1997 the age weighted pupil unit (AWPU) was 138 per cent for sixth form education compared to Key Stage 4 education. Now the funding for sixth form is down to 79 per cent of the funding for KS4, a relative value of 58 per cent.)

The government’s stated intention of improving quality and raising standards seems like hollow rhetoric in the face of rising costs and a spiralling decline in post-16 funding.

Recent budget statements give little room for comfort. The plan is for a continuing diminution in funding for 16-19 education. Transitional protection funding ends in 2015-2016, formula funding protection ends in 2016-2017, and there could be more nasty little surprises in the pipeline, such as the reduction in funding for 18 year-olds or increased employer pension contributions.

Call to government

Last year, ASCL joined forces with other associations to campaign for a more realistic level of 16-19 funding with a letter to the Secretary of State that highlighted the dip in funding for 16-19 education and its consequences and calling on the government to re-think how it allocates resources for this age group. This year, ASCL has again led the production of a joint letter, but this time illustrating that the adverse consequences of which we warned are now coming to fruition. Last month we met with ministers and conveyed our concerns.

In the meantime, schools and colleges need to deal with this difficult situation. 

Working together, supporting one another through praise and encouraging creativity are perhaps more important than ever. A common understanding among staff of the challenges ahead is necessary to develop solidarity and a determination to overcome the hurdles.

A few rules of thumb can help explain what needs to be done on the finance and spending front. A few possible ones are outlined below (not including London weighting):

A sixth form may require a subsidy or create a surplus. To give a rough indication, work out the fraction of the timetable that is sixth form teaching and multiply total expenditure by this fraction to get the rough cost. Comparing this cost with the EFA 16-19 income statement will indicate the subsidy or surplus.

The frustrations of “How do they expect us to manage?” or the despondency of “Don’t they understand?” need to give way promptly to dealing with matters. An effective response to questions from staff such as, “What are we doing about this?” may be to refer to ASCL’s campaign or describe your own communication with your MP.

Larger classes

Solutions to tackling the low levels of funding per student may involve a greater determination to recruit and retain students, creativity in the organisation of teaching,  flexibility in roles between teaching and associate staff or simply an acceptance of larger classes.

The recent budget showed that when politicians perceive that there is a priority then resources will be made available. With a general election next year there isn’t a better time than to raise the issue with your MP.

It’s up to all of us to play our part in illustrating that 16-19 funding is tumbling to an untenable level.

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Concern	Rules of Thumb
What’s the total cost of a weekly timetabled period?	Divide the number of timetable periods per week by the total expenditure. This gives the total cost of a weekly period. It’s often between £4,000 and £5,000.
What’s the teacher salary cost of a weekly timetabled period?	Divide the number of periods per week by the total teacher staffing cost. The cost is likely to be about £3,000.
What’s an economically viable teaching staff to student ratio?	If students bring £4,500 per capita, and teachers cost £45,000 on average across all teaching staff (incl. on costs), then 1 teacher would be covered by 10 students. However, teacher costs are usually only a little more than half the costs. The real economically viable ratio is roughly 1 to 20.
What’s an economically viable class size?	If the average teaching load across all teachers is the same as the number of hours that sixth formers are in classes, then the class size is the same as the teacher to student ratio. If the average teaching load across all teachers is different from the number of hours that sixth formers are in classes, then adjust the teacher to student ratio proportionately. If the average teaching load is 90 per cent of the number of hours that sixth formers are in classes, 90 per cent of a teacher to student ratio of 20 would give an economically viable class size of 22.
Why do equipment purchases have a long-term cost?	Installing technology into a curriculum area can give students wider opportunities. However, a dependency on the equipment evolves and a replacement cost ought to be factored into an annual budget. This is probably around 25 per cent of the cost, assuming replacement after four years.

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Stephan Jungnitz is ASCL Colleges Specialist

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