A radical shake-up of post-16 education in Powys which could see sixth forms axed is nothing to do with Estyn, the education standards watchdog has confirmed.

But Estyn would feed into any formal consultation on final proposals and give the council its opinion on them.

Later this autumn it is expected that the council will start an “engagement “exercise on the controversial reorganisation of post-16 education which is already being met with opposition.

This is supposed to find a way forward ahead of a decision being taken on the issue next year.

The need to address post-16 provision has been mentioned by Estyn in a scathing report published in March in which they said they had “significant concern” about the council’s education department.

One of the four recommendations from Estyn’s report says the council needs to: “Work with partners to rapidly develop and implement a model for 16-19 education that is financially viable and sustainable, and meets the needs of all learners, and considers Welsh-medium and ALN provision.”

However, the report only mentions post-16 reorganisation in just one paragraph and says that the council has been “slow” in addressing this area.

Cllr Claire Hall (Liberal Democrat), who represents Crickhowell with Cwmdu and Tretower, has been trying to find out whether Estyn are driving the post-16 education reorganisation.

She has asked whether Estyn had told the council that there is a need to: “reduce the number of English-medium school-based sixth form settings.”

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked Estyn if it has told Powys what post-16 education should look like.

A spokeswoman for Estyn said: “Estyn has not suggested any future models for post-16 reorganisation in Powys.

“We would expect to be a consultee of any proposed changes, but it would be for the parties involved to form their own blueprint.”

The “preferred” way at the moment could see a sixth form college set up with one board of governors and management team across two sites in Brecon and Newtown.

This would mean the closure of several school sixth forms.

Similarly, a sixth form college would be based across Welsh medium all through schools at Ysgol Bro Hyddgen in Machynlleth, Bro Caereinion in Llanfair Caereinion and potentially Builth Wells.

The Welsh medium sixth form would also be run separately.