Guidance

College oversight: support and intervention

How the government will support and intervene to improve financial resilience and quality in colleges.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

This guidance is for:

  • college governors
  • accounting officers (CEOs and principals)
  • chief financial officers
  • governance professionals

It applies to:

  • further education (FE) colleges
  • sixth-form colleges
  • designated institutions

The guidance sets out:

  • how the Department for Education (DfE) will work with all colleges to identify any financial and quality issues that might hinder their success
  • updates to our intervention policy, following the reclassification of colleges as part of the central government sector

This guidance is linked to the help and support available from the FE Commissioner (FEC) and others. Find out more at help and support for colleges.

Updates to this page

Published 1 April 2019
Last updated 14 August 2024 + show all updates
  1. Removed 'College oversight: support and intervention (applies until 31 July 2024)'.

  2. Republished current guidance, 'College oversight: support and intervention (applies until 31 July 2024)'. Updated title of new guidance, 'College oversight: support and intervention (applies from 1 August 2024)' to clarify when it comes into effect.

  3. Updated ‘College oversight: support and intervention’ to show ways of working post-reclassification. This includes information on the steps the government will take where there is non-compliance with the managing public money framework as set out in the college financial handbook.

  4. Updated 'College oversight: support and intervention' for December 2022.

  5. Updated guidance to reflect the new duty to review provision; enhanced Secretary of State intervention powers; improvements to active support; and revised Ofsted framework.

  6. Renaming of Formal Intervention as Intervention and introduction of Active Support - to replace previous categories of Prevention and Early Intervention.

  7. Updated with details of emergency funding and/or insolvency funding given to 7 institutions in the period 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.

  8. Document updated to reflect amendment to formal intervention trigger for cash related concerns.

  9. Extended the criteria for FE Commissioner diagnostic assessments so a college can be referred for one earlier than the current criteria allows. Delegated the decision to place a college into Supervised College Status to the Case Management Group (CMG).

  10. First published.

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