Further education corporations and sixth-form college corporations: governance guide
Legal and regulatory requirements and recommended practice that apply to further education (FE) and sixth-form college corporations.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
This guide summarises the key legal and regulatory requirements that apply to FE corporations and sixth-form college corporations as charities providing education. It also summarises recommended practice.
The guide:
- is for governors of FE corporations and sixth-form college corporations in England
- provides essential information for governance professionals
- will also be useful for:
- senior college staff
- auditors
- college inspectors
It is not intended for:
- sixth-form academies (see the academy trust governance guide)
- independent specialist providers
- independent learning providers
- designated institutions, though aspects of it may be useful to them
To provide feedback, contact fe.governance@education.gov.uk.
Updates to this page
Last updated
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Updated the 'Duty to review provision in relation to local needs – the local needs duty' section of the governance guide to reflect a clarification made in the recently published college accountability agreement about how often a board should carry out reviews. Added a link in the 'Further reading and resources – Fraud and cyber security' section to the Home Office's 'Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023: Guidance to organisations on the offence of failure to prevent fraud'.
Update history
2025-04-01 09:30
Replaced references to ‘ESFA’ with ‘DfE’ or ‘government’. Updated links to old ESFA pages. Removed an outdated reference to the Strategic Development Fund.
2025-02-14 13:54
Updated the ‘Duty to review provision in relation to local needs – the local needs duty’ section of the governance guide to reflect a clarification made in the recently published college accountability agreement about how often a board should carry out reviews. Added a link in the ‘Further reading and resources – Fraud and cyber security’ section to the Home Office’s ‘Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023: Guidance to organisations on the offence of failure to prevent fraud’.
2025-01-29 16:50
We have updated the ‘Further reading and resources – Investments and trading’ section in the ‘FE and sixth-form college corporations: governance guide’ to include a link to charity investment governance principles.
2024-12-10 13:27
‘FE and sixth-form college corporations: governance guide’ in the ‘further reading and resources’ section: updated the links to protecting your charity from fraud and cyber crime.
2024-11-07 14:34
Added a link to ‘Sexual harassment and harassment at work: technical guidance (Equality and Human Rights Commission)’ to the ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion’ section.
2024-08-01 09:30
Updated the governance guide to align with the college financial handbook. Changes have been made to the sections on Managing conflicts of interest, Fraud and cyber security, Whistleblowing, Financial and estate management, Risk management and assurance and Executive pay.
2024-04-29 12:17
Updated wording to reflect updated Prevent guidance.
2024-02-12 16:42
Updated ‘FE and sixth-form college corporations: governance guide’. Added a link to local skills improvement plans statutory guidance. Made updates to accountability agreements and local needs duty in ‘duty to review provision’ section. Clarified how often boards must conduct self-assessment in ‘governance reviews’ section. Added resources to ‘Further reading’ section, on positive behaviours and estate management.
2023-10-23 12:57
Updated the section ‘Investments and trading’ following new Charity Commission guidance.
2023-08-02 16:19
Updated ‘FE and sixth-form college corporations: governance guide’. Replaced references to ‘funding agreements’ with ‘accountability agreements’. Amended equality, diversity and inclusion section to clarify Public Sector Equality Duty requirements. Added a link to the Education and Training Foundation’s qualifications for governance professionals, in the section on a governance professional’s specific role. Added a link to Department for Education guidance on asset disposals, in the further reading and resources.
2023-03-02 09:36
Updated ‘Executive pay’ section to reflect new senior pay controls. Added new section on special educational needs and disabilities to ‘Compliance’.
2022-11-30 17:52
A link to HM Treasury’s senior pay guidance has been added to the ‘Executive pay’ section. A link to the FE governor recruitment service has been added to the ‘Recruiting and developing governors’ section.
2022-06-28 16:29
First published.