DfE and councils turn tables on collapsed Prevista

A collapsed training provider that claimed it was owed nearly £1 million by public funding bodies has been hit with counterclaims worth nearly double that amount amid allegations of misconduct.

North London-based Prevista Limited went into liquidation in May 2025 with more than 400 apprentices on its books.

Liquidators appointed to oversee the company’s affairs said their “particularly complex” investigation was expected to last “for some time”.

According to a progress report, liquidator Farheen Qureshi of Parker Getty Limited is probing misconduct allegations about unauthorised and undisclosed subcontracting arrangements, inaccurate record-keeping, failure to produce the required certification for learners and “various other serious matters”.

At the time of its collapse, Prevista’s records suggested it was owed £966,000 by the Department for Education and “various local authorities”.

However, Qureshi said the same public bodies have now issued claims of about £1.9 million against the company.

The DfE is understood to have been investigating Prevista’s funding claims at the time of its collapse.

Total claims faced by the firm, including from the Redundancy Payments Service which covered the outstanding wages for the company’s 40 staff members, are expected to reach £2.7 million.

Management concerns

According to the liquidator, senior staff who were interviewed after Prevista’s collapse raised concerns about the “adequacy of the company’s record keeping” and controls to ensure learners were appropriately enrolled and supported.

Staff also made allegations “concerning the conduct of the company and certain key personnel”, Qureshi added.

Prevista’s sole director, Salik Miah, is yet to respond to questions about transactions linked to a government-backed coronavirus business interruption loan of £1.2 million, according to the liquidator.

Commenting on the investigation, Qureshi said: “The level of involvement by higher-grade staff is significantly greater than would ordinarily be expected in a standard creditors’ voluntary liquidation, reflecting the complexity, sensitivity and potential implications of the matters under investigation.”

Miah, who was sole director of the company from 2022, did not respond to requests to comment.

Turnover tanked

Miah put Prevista into voluntary liquidation, a process that places a company that cannot pay its debts into the hands of insolvency practitioners.

The company was founded in 1996. Previous owner and managing director James Clements Smith sold it to an employee ownership trust in 2020.

Since its sale, the ownership trust ultimately controlling the company has been run by Miah and three independent directors, who resigned earlier this year.

At the time, the training provider had a turnover of about £10 million, but this had fallen to less than £4 million by March 2023.

An Ofsted inspection from 2023, which graded the business as ‘requires improvement’, said it had more than 1,000 apprentices on early years and care programmes, of which one third were trained by six subcontractors.

Inspectors criticised the curriculum quality taught by subcontractors, which they said focused too closely on “passing embedded qualifications”.

Subcontracting disclosures for 2021-22, which are still available online, show the company had arrangements with 16 apprenticeship and traineeship providers across England worth more than £1.1 million.

Prevista Ltd won a national adult education contract from the government in 2023 but was not listed on the Department for Education’s final allocations database.

The provider also appeared to hold adult skills fund contracts with the Greater London Authority worth £1 million per year from 2023-24 until its collapse.

A GLA spokesperson said: “Since the training provider went into insolvency, the GLA has been working with liquidator, Parker Getty, to reconcile the final funding position. We are unable to comment further at this stage.”

The DfE was approached for comment.