City’s sixth forms to face scrutiny and tie in with government’s wider Sussex Coast review

Councillors on Brighton & Hove City Council’s Children, Young People & Skills Committee have voted unanimously to review the city’s post 16 sixth forms and include this in the government’s wider Sussex Coast area review.

The decision comes a month after the government unveiled a review of post 16 education and training in eight regions that included the Sussex Coast.

The review will look at:

Central Sussex College, Crawley,
Chichester College
City College, Brighton & Hove
Northbrook College, Sussex
Plumpton College
Sussex Coast College, Hastings
Sussex Downs College
Worthing College
Bexhill College
Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College
Varndean College

The review is expected to last around four months and be carried out through desk top research, college visits and a series of five steering group meetings. The group will be chaired by FE/Sixth Form Commissioner and consists of college principals and chairs, LEPs, Upper Tier local authorities, Regional Schools Commissioners, the funding agencies and DBIS.

Cllr Tom Bewick, chair of the Children, Young People & Skills Committee, said:

“We want to make sure that our post 16 education and training offering is the best it can be for the young people in our region. This is about balancing the economic needs with the education and training offering.

“We believe the justification for the inclusion of school 6th forms is because they are part of the family of provision, a proportion of learners in the City attend these schools and it is important to include all providers in the debate and dialogue.

“On top of this post 16 provision and outcomes are one of our administration’s four priorities. One of my actions since election has been to establish an Employer Skills Task Force to explore new approaches which includes increasing the number of apprenticeships and considering ways to improve engagement between the city employers and our schools and academies.”

For more information

To view the reports of the Children, Young People & Skills Committee on 12 October see here

For more information on the Employer Skills Task Force see here