A college in Cumbria has been hit with an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted judgment after inspectors found a raft of leadership and governance failures.
Furness College was criticised by the watchdog for overseeing a “decline over time” in attendance, retention and achievement.
Inspectors found “overwhelmed” apprentices, insufficient control over the quality of provision, and “ineffective” governors who failed to hold leaders to account.
The college has now become the only college in England to hold the inspectorate’s lowest possible grade and is also in government intervention through the FE Commissioner.
A new chair of governors was appointed this month following the inspection which took place in October.
Principal Nicola Cove and new chair Gary Lovatt said in a joint statement they were “very disappointed” with Ofsted’s findings, adding that they recognised multiple issues identified by the watchdog and put in place plans to address them at the start of this academic year.
It was “unfortunate that the inspection took place so early in the year”, the leaders said, as the college was “not able to evidence the positive signs we’re now starting to see”.
Furness College, which took on Barrow-in-Furness Sixth Form College in 2016 through a merger, teaches almost 2,000 students.
Ofsted’s report shows eight out of the nine areas judged were deemed ‘requires improvement’. Leadership and management was the only category dealt an ‘inadequate’ judgment, which dragged the college’s overall effectiveness down to the lowest possible grade.
Inspectors praised “effective” safeguarding, highlighted the college’s “welcoming and friendly learning environments”, and noted that teachers help learners and apprentices who stay on their course to develop confidence and resilience.
But “too few” learners and apprentices routinely attend their course or training, Ofsted’s report said.
The college also makes a “limited contribution” to meeting skills needs, with inspectors criticising leaders for not implementing the “measures needed” to respond to “worklessness or meaningful education opportunities for young people”.
Ofsted said leaders “do not have sufficient oversight of the strengths and weaknesses of their provision”.
The targets and actions leaders set to remedy weaknesses are “not specific enough to bring about sustained and rapid improvement”.
There is a “decline over time in attendance, retention and achievement across all provision types and all age groups” and leaders are “too positive in evaluating the quality of their provision”.
For apprentices, Ofsted found that trainees complete much of their training in their own time. Apprentices feel “overwhelmed” with the amount of work and “do not complete in planned timeframes”.
Inspectors also criticised the quality of teaching for not being of a “consistently high quality”, and leaders fail to ensure that learners “have a secure understanding of fundamental British values”.
Governors were slammed for not holding leaders “well enough to account”. The board had become “too reliant on what leaders tell them rather than scrutinising the information that they have available to make the improvements that are needed”.
Principal Nicola Cove joined the college as a deputy in 2018 and became the top leader in 2023.
Furness’ previous chair, Jan Fielding, joined the board in 2016 and became chair in 2020.
Cove and Lovatt said: “We are focussed on looking forward and want to reassure all our students, parents, employers and stakeholders that our senior leadership team, staff and board of governors are wholly committed to delivering improvements.
“Furness College looks forward to working with the FE Commissioner’s office and Ofsted over the coming months. The support they provide will help us achieve this.”
The last general FE college to be judged ‘inadequate’ was Croydon College in 2023, which was upgraded to ‘good’ this month.
Ofsted ditched overall effectiveness grades for schools in September 2024 and plans to remove them for FE providers in September 2025.
Very sad to see a college become inadequate without governors knowing that things were deteriorating. Being a governor is much more than nodding through what you are told by college management. This is probably the most important time of the year where you approve the self-assessment report and quality improvement plan. This report should be a wakeup call for all governors to ask for the right information about learner performance and the quality of teaching and learning.