Post-school education and skills reform legislation: consultation

Chapter 4: Enhanced functions for the Scottish Funding Council

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring all learners across Scotland have access to a high quality post-school education that meets their needs. We need to be assured that we have well-governed further and higher education sectors which are financially and environmentally sustainable. We also need to understand all the benefits and outcomes coming from people undertaking post-school education and skills training. Finally, Scottish Government and SFC need to receive regular and timely information on the delivery and financial performance of individual institutions.

In the context of constrained public sector funding, it is vital that the Scottish Government gets the possible best value from its significant public investment.

Gaps in information

Recent reviews of the post-school landscape by both SFC and Scottish Government have identified gaps in the collecting and reporting of consistent information on performance, impact, outcomes and value for money.

In 2020, Scottish Government asked SFC to review the coherence of further and higher education provision. One conclusion in the Coherence and Sustainability: A Review of Tertiary Education and Research report was that there was a need for a new approach to accountability and assurance which:

“makes outcomes and expectations clear for everyone (institutions, students, researchers, employers, government, and tax-payers) and more clearly connects with Scotland’s National Performance Framework.”

One of the challenges highlighted in the Purpose and Principles (as set out in the Evidence Report) was that:

“There is a lack of a comparable system-wide evidence base and regulatory framework which can describe the current successes and challenges, the desired outcomes and metrics and allow for accountability and assurance.”

Within this, specific challenges identified included:

• Little evidence on the community-level impacts of learning provision across the system, particularly in relation to how the presence of institutions within a community setting impacts on other areas of local public service delivery (transport, housing, leisure and entertainment, noise and nuisance behaviours etc.).
• While there is a vast array of data and reporting mechanisms for specific elements of delivery, there is little in the way of consistent data collection on performance and outcomes across different providers or learner journeys (particularly for colleges and universities).

Work already underway

At present, SFC has Financial Memoranda with colleges and universities which set out the formal accountability relationship between the college or university and SFC. Colleges and universities need to follow these requirements to get public funding. What colleges and universities plan to deliver each year are set out in outcome agreements.

SFC is already rolling out and introducing a new form of assurance and accountability for academic year 2024-25 which will shift the focus from targets to what has actually been delivered. This change was developed with sector representatives. It builds on existing information collection and monitoring including:

• Financial Memoranda set out the formal accountability relationship between fundable bodies (college, university, higher education institution) and the SFC. Fundable bodies need to follow these requirements to get public funding.
• Single Tertiary Quality Enhancement Framework developed with the sector which moves to a consistent framework for assessing the quality of learning and teaching across colleges, universities and higher education institutions.
• Statistical data collections on finance and performance including financial forecasts, college performance indicator returns, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data for higher education, and apprenticeship activity.

Proposals for improved information collection

In order to make sure that the new framework works properly, we need to make sure we have the right quality and frequency of information on financial health, performance and outcomes provided to SFC by organisations which it funds.

Under proposals 2 and 3 in chapter 2, SFC would additionally fund a range of organisations delivering apprenticeships. This change is an opportunity to reconsider the way that all organisations provide information to SFC. This means looking again at the current system and how well it works; there may be any number of reasons why information is not reported in practice.

We are interested in your views as to whether the data currently collected is adequate in scope and quality to be assured of the health of the post-school sector. We are interested in your views as to whether we need to place any new duties in legislation on some or all types of organisation to provide regular information to SFC on their financial health, performance and outcomes being delivered. We are also interested your views on what improvements could be made to the current systems and processes for reporting information to SFC and then making it more widely available.

Making changes to the quality of information on financial health, performance and outcomes provided by organisations could require new or changed business processes and may have resource implications. This would need to be weighed against benefits for learners who would have access to more comprehensive and robust data and information on outcomes for each learning journey. In addition, employers would also gain greater insight as to the benefits of each learning journey, which might help to inform their recruitment and training decisions.

Other powers

We are also interested to hear your views on whether SFC needs further powers to ensure the quality of the post-school education and skills system effectively.

Tell us what you think

Q8. Do you think we need to introduce new duties on organisations receiving public funding to provide better information to SFC?

Q9. Do you think there is a need to strengthen existing systems and processes for collecting data? If your answer is yes, then please explain why the data is needed.

Q10. Do you think there is a need to strengthen existing systems and processes for reporting and publishing data? If your answer is yes, then please explain the purposes for which you or others might use the information.

Q11. What information about funded organisations would you most like to know and why?

Q12. What, if any, additional powers should SFC have in order to help ensure the post-school education and skills system operates effectively?