"The government has been desperately slow off the mark to tackle a looming crisis in further education” claims Meg Hillier (Labour) MP, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, on the publication of the Committee’s report voicing concerns about the financial sustainability and future of FE in England.

The report says that the declining financial health of many FE colleges has potentially serious consequences for learners and local economies, but the bodies responsible for funding and oversight have been slow to address the problem.

The Public Accounts Committee urges government to take a more proactive approach in helping FE colleges prepare for the "significant financial challenges they face in the likely event of further funding cuts".

The report also claims:

• Funding and oversight bodies have taken decisions without understanding the cumulative impact that these decisions have on colleges and their learners
• Oversight arrangements are complex, sometimes overlapping, and too focused on intervening when financial problems have already become serious rather than helping to prevent them in the first place
  
• The government appears to see area-based reviews of post-16 education as a fix-all solution to the current problems, but the reviews do not cover all types of provider and it is not clear how they will deliver a robust and financially sustainable sector.