Julian Huppert – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julian Huppert on 2014-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what criteria were used to calculate the levels of area cost adjustment used for sixth form colleges in (a) Cambridgeshire and (b) Oxfordshire; and how frequently those criteria are reviewed.

Matthew Hancock

Area cost adjustments for 16-19 education and training are based on the differing wage costs across England, as indicated by the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The same area cost index is used for sixth form colleges as for all other post-16 institutions in England that are funded by the Department for Education. It is also used for education and training for adults funded by the Skills Funding Agency.

The current area cost index was developed in 2002 by the Learning and Skills Council and has been reviewed on several occasions since then. Initially Cambridgeshire did not have an area cost adjustment, but in 2008 there was a specific review of the area cost adjustment for the county, which considered a range of factors and gave Cambridgeshire an uplift of 2% for the academic year 2009/10 and all years subsequently. The uplift for Oxfordshire is 7%.

The whole post-16 funding formula was reviewed in 2012, and we decided at that stage not to make any changes to area cost adjustments.