Audit Committee, 13 Nov 2001
Meeting date: Tuesday, November 13, 2001
Official Report
113KB pdf
“Scottish Further Education Colleges: Managing Costs”
I refer members to the progress report from the Scottish Further Education Funding Council and the accompanying summary paper. The paper is the follow-up response to points raised in our report "Scottish Further Education Colleges: Managing Costs", which was published last year. At our meeting on 4 September we considered a response from SFEFC. The funding council agreed to come back to us with further information on the current financial situation in the FE college sector. That is the response that we have before us.
Does the Auditor General have any comments?
I will pass over to Arwel Roberts, who has analysed it in more detail.
Mr Arwel Roberts (Audit Scotland):
The response brings the committee up to date on the various initiatives that the funding council is engaged in up to October 2001. It is worth pointing out that most of the issues referred to in the funding council update are covered in part 5 of the overview report that the committee has just discussed. Hitherto, the committee has been monitoring those developments separately, but now that we have produced an overview report on further education, the monitoring and overview processes come together. The committee has the opportunity to draw all the threads together into one process and one mechanism for monitoring FE. Much of the material that is reported by the funding council is work in progress. The council anticipates completing various initiatives by December or next spring.
We have put into the forward work programme a provision for a consideration of performance indicators in further education in the middle of 2002. The committee will recall that we carried out a report at the beginning of 2001 on the Scottish Environment Protection Agency in which we offered a commentary on the adequacy of its PIs. We envisage carrying out a similar exercise with the funding council over the next few months.
The analysis of the funding council's response shows clearly the detailed on-going monitoring process. The committee recommended that the council should report on the root-and-branch review of the sector and on the action planned to tackle college deficits, improve college management, and rationalise further education provision in Scotland. Recent developments in areas such as supply and demand are covered by the Auditor General's report on the further education colleges. We will take evidence on that on 27 November.
The funding council has established and is chairing a joint steering group with the Glasgow colleges group. That is also covered by the Auditor General's report and we will take evidence on it on 27 November. The council says that it has a new forward-looking approach and has produced a new funding formula—considered in detail and observed in action—on which it will make further comment.
On management review, the council has asked each college to prepare an action plan for implementing the review's recommendations. Consultants have reviewed each college's action plan. The Auditor General is planning a report on performance measurement in the FE sector for publication in the middle of 2002. Issues arising from the management review will be covered by that report.
The committee asked for improvement in the forecasts of the financial health of the sector. The Auditor General's report will contain a full analysis of the financial health of the sector and we will take evidence on that. There has been progress on the points that we raised. A full analysis of the sector's financial health will be contained in the report that we will deal with on 27 November.
We asked for a review of recovery plans in the remaining 10 colleges that are in poor financial health. We will receive that. We asked for a review of the estates strategy and the scale of any backlog maintenance and plans to invest further in infrastructure. That is covered in the Auditor General's report and we will be dealing with it.
We asked for the development of benchmarking, and performance indicators including a balanced scorecard. We also asked for plans to improve college costing systems. Again, the Auditor General is monitoring the progress that has been made by the council in implementing the action plan and will report results in future overview reports. Issues arising from the management review will also be covered by the Auditor General's report on performance indicators in the further education sector.
We asked for a target for efficiencies that can be achieved without harming the quality of education. Again, that should be covered in the Auditor General's report, which will be published in the middle of 2002. He will also cover the potential for developing efficiency targets. In every case, the funding council has responded to the specific points that we made. It is work in progress that the Audit Committee will monitor. It is an important element of the work of the Scottish Parliament that we have regular reporting—rather than one-off reports—to ensure that the public gets maximum value and quality provision in the further education sector.
Does the committee agree to continue to monitor developments on the issues in the response as part of the scope of the inquiry into the new overview report on FE colleges from the Auditor General?
Members indicated agreement.