The Office for National Statistics (ONS) decision on the reclassification of 228 colleges from the private sector side of the UK national accounts to the public sector is a ground-shifting one. But what really matters for colleges today is the department for education’s decision to introduce new treasury controls with immediate effect.
As of today, the ONS has decided that further education colleges, sixth form colleges and institutes of adult learning are again public sector organisations. Slightly bizarrely, the change means they have been since 1993 – at least in respect of their books. ONS keep the score in the UK national accounts and will now need to go away to restate 30 years’ worth of data.
In the meantime, in a policy document and a letter to college accounting officers, the DfE is asking college leaders from this week to ask for its permission to carry out transactions in 16 different cases. Some of these are occasional, infrequent areas such as write-offs of larger debts. But one area – control of borrowing – represents a major reversal of government policy on the funding of colleges.
