Four lessons from six years as an FE college chair

Two seemingly unrelated life events have happened to me recently. I stepped down as chair of Barnet and Southgate College after six fantastic years, and I saw The Odyssey at the cinema.  Through scenes of storm-lashed boats, it occurred to me that FE governance does in some ways feel comparable to steering a steady course through choppy seas and unpredictable headwinds.  Being chair of my local FE College has been the professional privilege of my career and has taught me many lessons.

The most important has been how critical FE governance is to enabling colleges to stabilise, grow and thrive during tumultuous times.

That recent years have been challenging for the FE sector is not in doubt.  Emerging from the pandemic, colleges have had to support students impacted by lost learning.  Ongoing qualification reform, Ofsted framework changes, shifting stakeholder engagement priorities, devolution – to name but a few – have complicated long-term planning. All of this during an initial period of historic underfunding, while FE staff continue to contend with cost of living challenges.

Barnet and Southgate College has not been immune to this.  When I became chair in 2020, the college had recently been judged ‘requires improvement’ and was dealing with a significant financial deficit at the end of 2019-20 of £1.2m.  Most of the governing body were coming to the end of their term, so significant change was imminent.  Reductions in adult education funding were hitting the college particularly hard, in a geographical area where competition for enrolling 16-18s was consistently fierce.

Amidst these challenges, the college was able not just to stabilise, but eventually grow and thrive.  Our governance played a fundamental role in enabling this.  The college received an Ofsted ‘good’ (with ‘outstanding’ for apprenticeships), converted a historic financial deficit into a healthy surplus, grew student numbers year on year, underwent successful structural transformation, and set an ambitious new strategy for 2030.

Reflecting on my time as chair I learnt four key lessons for how governance can support college stability, growth and transformation:

1: Focusing governance structures, processes and culture on delivering success

Introducing a new committee structure, refreshing data flows and redefining governor skillsets delivered an immediate step-change in our governance quality. Building a sense of team identity and empowering our governors to work directly with the college’s senior executive unleashed the powers of their experience and skills.  Making the governing body more visible to college staff also brought governance out of the shadows, so their purpose was clearer.

2: Putting learner impact at the heart of decision-making

Student governors were newly recruited, and wider ‘meet the student’ sessions for the governing body helped triangulate information and led to more informed decision-making. Delivering growth required more students coming through the doors and staying with us.  Governance deep dives on the recruitment and enrolment process, plus the challenges in improving attendance, helped drive executive focus on these areas.

3: Fostering relationships between the governing body and the college executive team

These were the foundation for success.  Committee chairs worked in partnership with their direct equivalents in the executive.  Myself and our CEO/principal developed a hugely productive working relationship through clear and honest communication, availability, coaching and mentoring, and above all trust.  This was particularly key as new senior leadership structures were built.

An enhanced role for governors in performance management of senior postholders also made clear how ambitious the governing body was for college success.

4: Being ambitious for the college, and expecting it back

Recruiting excellent governors meant setting high expectations for our college.  Our governing body challenged the college leadership to be bold, to be transformative for our students and to enhance our role as a local and regional skills stakeholder.  The college’s ambitious ‘Strategy 2030’ was the result – an approach we are all hugely proud of.

Much is rightly now expected of colleges. Within a supportive and challenging environment, governors can – and must – continue to drive their institutions forwards through the storms they face to deliver growth and learner success.