Scottish Further Education Funding Council: A ... - Audit Scotland

4Part 1. Introduction1.1 Further education colleges inScotland provide education andtraining opportunities for a wide rangeof people. There are 39 1 collegesincorporated under the Further andHigher Education (Scotland) Act1992, and a further four educationcolleges, 2 two of which (Orkney andShetland) operate under the controlof local authorities. This report coversthe 39 incorporated colleges.1.2 The incorporated colleges receivethe majority of their funding throughgrant-in-aid payments from theFunding Council. Scottish ministersare responsible for providing directionfor both the Funding Council and thecolleges, based on policy advice fromthe Scottish Executive Enterprise,Transport and Lifelong LearningDepartment (SEETLLD).1.3 The Chief Executive of theFunding Council is the accountableofficer for the proper use of fundsderived from Scottish ministers andis also accountable to the ScottishParliament. College principals areaccountable to their governing bodies,and, under the terms of SFEFC’sfinancial memorandum to the FundingCouncil and its chief executive. Theymay also be called to appear beforethe Scottish Parliament (Exhibit 1).Colleges’ accounts are audited by theAGS and are laid in Parliament. ThePublic Finance and Accountability Act2000 gives the principal accountableofficer the power to appointaccountable officers to sign statutoryaccounts. Further education collegesare the exception to this because theiraccountable officers are appointedby college boards rather than theprincipal accountable officer.1.4 In October 2005 SFEFC mergedwith SHEFC to form the ScottishFurther and Higher EducationFunding Council.1.5 A ministerial review of Scotland’sColleges 3 was announced in June2005 to report by February 2007.The review will examine:• the contribution Scotland’s collegesmake to Scotland’s learners, theeconomy and wider society• its strategic future over the nextten to 20 years• how governance and accountabilitymight be strengthened• issues related to staffing, learnersand the learning environment,including opportunities for themodernisation and improvementof teaching methods, and forsupporting the professionalismand development of staff.1 There were three college mergers in 2005. Falkirk and Clackmannan colleges became Forth Valley College; Fife and Glenrothes colleges became AdamSmith College; the Glasgow College of Building and Printing and the Glasgow College of Food Technology merged to form Glasgow Metropolitan College.2 The four non-incorporated colleges are Newbattle Abbey College, Orkney College, Sabhal Mór Ostaig and Shetland College of Further Education.3 The further education sector uses the term ‘Scotland’s colleges’ because further education colleges also provide higher education.