The FE Commissioner has called on colleges to publish board minutes within four to six months after an FE Week probe revealed half had failed to publish any this year.
A review of 215 colleges found 106 had not released any full board meeting minutes to the public in 2025, while a fifth (45) had published nothing in 12 months.
Board minutes for taxpayer-funded bodies such as FE and sixth-form colleges are considered an important symbol of accountable governance which, according to FE specialist lawyers, should be published on websites in line with freedom of information laws.
But FE Week’s review found 10 had published no minutes for more than two and a half years, and six had never made minutes available.
Responding to the findings, FE Commissioner Shelagh Legrave said: “From a transparency angle and as organisations who are receiving substantial amounts of public money, it is good practice for colleges to publish the minutes of their governing body meetings in a timely manner.”
Legrave, who advises the Department for Education on the college sector and leads interventions in struggling institutions, suggested they should publish their minutes “within six months”.
She added: “In an ideal world it would be about four months assuming you only have meetings every three months, you’ve got to have the time to approve it [at the next board meeting].”
College governance experts have blamed the failings on “administrative inefficiency” rather than deliberate concealment.
Legrave confirmed that a college failing to publish its minutes would not be grounds for an intervention but declined to comment on whether the rules on timely publication should be tightened up.
Wait just a minute
The six colleges without any minutes published online were Aquinas, Bexhill, Fircroft, Joseph Chamberlain Sixth Form, the Mary Ward Centre and Plumpton.
When contacted for comment, Plumpton CEO Jeremy Kerswell said the college had been wary about publishing minutes on its website due to the “high degree of transparency” between the board and senior management.
However, the college said FE Week’s enquiry was an “opportunity to change” and it would publish all board minutes moving forward.
The Mary Ward Centre and Aquinas College both claimed their minutes were usually online but had been temporarily removed during website updates.
Therese Reinheimer-Jones, CEO of the Mary Ward Centre – which has now uploaded minutes for the last two years – said public records of board meetings were “an important part of our governance” and can be a useful tool for students, partners and potential trustees to learn about the “successes and challenges” the centre is experiencing.
Fircroft College said the missing minutes were an “oversight” due to staff illness and committed to publishing them from now on.
Bexhill and Joseph Chamberlain colleges did not respond to requests for comment.
FE Week found that 11 colleges had published minutes for meetings held in June and July. A further 55 had uploaded minutes from March and April.
‘No deliberate concealment’
Martin Sim, who has led turnarounds at several colleges, said he was an “avid minute reader” when looking at colleges on behalf of the FE Commissioner.
He added: “At the end of the day it’s not something people will deliberately hold back for any reason.
“I’ve yet to find a situation where I’m pretty happy that it’s a deliberate act of concealment – there are different ways of protecting information, you can redact or go fully confidential.”
Governance expert Ian Valvona, who has chaired multiple colleges, said minutes are an important way to help outsiders understand what could have led to failures.
“But I’d be very surprised if there was deliberate foot-dragging because corporations wanted to withhold something that was difficult,” he added.
“The non-availability of minutes is not good, don’t get me wrong, but I think in most instances it’s going to be just an administrative inefficiency, or just something hasn’t worked in getting a set of minutes onto the college website.”
‘Request a copy’
Ten colleges had not published minutes since the end of 2023. Several of those updated their website with newer documents after FE Week approached them for comment.
This included South Staffordshire College – whose most recent published minutes were from October 2022. The college did not respond to requests for comment.
Huddersfield New College was another example where board minutes hadn’t been published since 2023 but it has now updated the online archive up to its April 2025 meeting. Principal Marcus Smith-Connor said his college takes transparency and accountability responsibilities “extremely seriously”.
He added: “Anyone with an interest can contact the governance professional to request a copy of meeting minutes which have not yet been published, and these will be provided (excluding confidential information) in a timely manner.”
What are the rules?
Guidance for FE colleges issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) says that in line with the Freedom of Information Act, colleges are expected to publish governing body and committee meeting minutes for at least the current and previous three years.
Although it does set a specific timeframe, the ICO guidance says this is part of a legal commitment to publish “as much information as possible on a routine basis”.
Anieka Sheppard, a solicitor specialising in education at Shakespeare Martineau, said: “In addition to publication obligations in their [instruments and articles] and good governance, colleges are also subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
“The ICO has a guide for colleges as to what should be in their publication scheme. Minutes of corporation meetings are included as documents which should be published.”
Colleges are also governed by their own constitutional rules, known as instruments and articles, which they have been free to amend since reclassification as public bodies in 2012.
Most contain standard wording that commits to making board agendas, minutes and related documents available “as soon as possible” to members of the public.
They also promise to make copies of signed minutes available on the college website for at least 12 months.
The DfE’s FE and sixth-form college corporations governance guide also says it is a requirement under the funding rules to follow codes such as the Association of College’s (AoC) FE Code of Good Governance, which recommends colleges demonstrate transparent decision making by publishing minutes.
Jeff Greenidge, director for diversity and governance at the AoC, said: “The AoC code is clear that transparency is a fundamental feature of good governance and we encourage colleges to follow our governance code in all respects.”
A related point – why is there a need to redact sections of Minutes without explanation of what appears to be fairly mundane matters?
Fortunately one does not see it across the sector but there are examples
As others have said Minutes are important and need to be published without undue delay once confirmed
Publishing minutes is a start, but how do you ensure those minutes are a true and fair reflection of what was discussed?
Minutes can be as transparent as a prism…
How long before the AoC release another powder puff statement defending the indefensible?
Agree with FEC. Publishing minutes in a timely manner is a first step. often you see backdated minutes suddenly appearing prior to an imminent inspection. Too many minutes do nothing for public assurance and scrutiny, especially now that colleges are in the pubic sector. It is common to see whole sections redacted and/or alternative sets of minutes for external consumption. Use of commercial confidentiality as a reason is far too widely seen in an environment where collaboration and place based solutions should take precedence. Colleges need to be embedded in their communities they serve and should always be as transparent as possible with them and sector media. Expectations should be clear in governance codes and recommendations and form part of narrative from governance reviews and inspections.