• Guidance
• Funding and outcome agreements
• Institutional Finance and Governance
• Statistics
• Capital
• Mergers
  • Background
  • Defining mergers and federations
  • Role of the Council
  • The merger process
  • Models of merger
  • Content of the merger proposal
  • Culture and leadership
  • Communication
  • Student engagement
  • Who to contact
  • Resources
• Quality
• Environmental sustainability

Guidance on mergers and federations

This guidance was developed in 2012 in the context of the Scottish Government’s wish to better align post-16 learning, jobs and economic growth and to create regional colleges of scale as the best means of delivering coherent, relevant learning – from access-level to advanced and specialist provision – on a sustainable basis.

We have worked on post-merger evaluation and shall be reviewing this guidance again in 2017.

This online resource providing guidance for regions on structural change was developed in 2012 and, whilst it draws on the Audit Scotland Learning the lessons of public body mergers - Review of recent mergers and Good practice guide, it has, as its focus, the challenges around structural change that are specific to the college sector.

Areas covered

• Preparatory considerations for the models of structural change.
• Planning overall implementation.
• Preparing documentation for the case for merger or federation.
• Practical advice on issues of culture, consultation and communication.
• Draft templates which can be used in preparing the case for change.
• Support available via the SFC Regional Outcome Managers.

This guidance was developed in 2012 and will be reviewed in 2017.

Your feedback is important so let us know where you have used it or how it can be improved by contacting Linda McLeod, email: lmcleod@sfc.ac.uk.