These are difficult times for all those working in post-16
education. Across the United Kingdom there have been funding cuts – and there
will be more before and after the 2015 election. This week the usually
excellent Guardian Datablog added to the anxiety. It ran an article warning “The number of staff in further education dropped by 35% last year”.
Is that really so? I doubt it. Where did the numbers come
from? It is not clear. What went wrong? My guess is that the article relied in
part on data from the Staff Individualised Record. The SIR is soon to cease.
The SIR 2011/12 suffered disinterest with a 22% non-response rate.
So what has happened to staffing? For English FE we have the
college finance records which include staffing numbers.
We have seen a contraction in teaching Full Time Equivalent
numbers since 2009/10. In English colleges teaching FTEs peaked at 80,674.
Numbers fell 6% to 75,999 in 2010/11 and then 4% to 72,755. Painful job losses
but not the one year apocalyptic drop shown by the Guardian.
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