College leaders have branded plans to bring their financial year in line with the public sector as “disastrous” amid fears the move would wreak havoc on their finances.
Colleges currently manage their budgets along the same timescales as the academic year, with the financial year and the academic year both beginning on August 1 and ending on July 31.
But FE Week understands this could all change as government officials draw up plans to force colleges to adopt a public sector financial year, which begins on April 1 and ends March 31.
This follows the reclassification of colleges to the public sector which requires college accounts to be consolidated into the accounts of the Department for Education and the rest of the government.
