East Sussex College Group comprises five college campuses: Hastings Plaza and Ore Valley (formerly Sussex Coast College), Eastbourne, Lewes and Newhaven (formerly Sussex Downs College). The college group was created in 2018 with the merger of the two colleges. Sussex Downs College received a full inspection in October 2017, at which time inspectors judged the provision to require improvement. Sussex Coast College received a full inspection in November 2017, and inspectors judged the provision to be good. Since merging, the college group has received two monitoring visits where inspectors found that leaders and managers had made significant progress in three themes and reasonable progress in two themes. The merged college group provides a range of vocational, further and higher education courses, as well as apprenticeships from pre-entry to level 5 and provision for students with high needs. At the time of the inspection, there were 4,333 16-to 18-year-old students on academic and vocational programmes, 1702 adult students and 1634 apprentices. There were approximately 110 students in receipt of high needs funding. The college works with 14 main subcontractors that deliver mostly apprenticeships in niche sectors, such as window fitting and agricultural subjects.