£400k: cost to taxpayer of transferring four UTCs in 2018/19

Janet Downs's picture
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Four University Technical Colleges (UTCs), schools providing technical education for 14-19 year olds, changed hands in financial year 2018/19.   Sir Charles KAO UTC moved to Burnt Mill Academy Trust after the DfE intervened.  It had already been bailed out with £373k in 2017/18.   BMAT received £80k in grant funding (aka transfer fees) for the UTC in the previous financial year.

 Heathrow Aviation Engineering UTC transferred to Activate Learning Education Trust and was renamed UTC Heathrow.  The UTC had been  bailed out with a £20k grant in 2017/18.  £113k of grant funding was awarded to Activate Learning.

Aldridge Education took over UTC@MediaCity from Creative Industries UTC and renamed AldridgeUTC@MediaCityUK.  Aldridge Education received £75k grant funding in 2017/18 to facilitate the transfer. 

£250k in grant funding was received by REAch South Academy Trust when it took over UTC Plymouth from Plymouth UTC Limited.  The transfer was due to DfE intervention.   UTC Plymouth had applied to take thirteen-year-olds in the hope it would boost numbers.  The inadequate UTC was rebrokered instead.  According to government records, the original UTC closed ‘for a fresh start’ on 31 September 2018.  The ‘new’ UTC Plymouth opened in October 2018.

It cost taxpayers £418k in grant funding for these four UTCs.   No studio schools changed hands.

Six UTCs and 21 studio schools had already closed by December 2018.   At that date, there were 50 open UTCs and 27 open studio schools,  a Parliamentary written answer confirmed

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