The week Debra Gray became principal of Hull College was one of the toughest of her life. Hull was one of the most challenged colleges in the country and she was its eighth principal in three years. Then Gray discovered her mum was dying.
The way she led the college out of crisis came to define the ethos of her team – affectionately known as the Hullraisers because they made it their mission to raise the college’s prospects.
But on that first day, in April 2022, morale was at rock bottom.
Hull was put under government intervention in 2016, the same year it generated a pre-tax deficit of £9.3 million. Two years later it required a £54 million government bailout, believed at the time to be the highest ever paid to an English college.
Hundreds of jobs were slashed, and two campuses (in Harrogate and Goole) were axed.
Gray had watched the mess unfold from across the River Humber while leading Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education.
She arrived just after Hull received a second consecutive Ofsted judgement of ‘requires improvement’ and says she was “surprised there were any staff left”.
Friends in need
Gray’s mum was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer that same week and within two months, the “fighting fit, fierce” 68 year old went from being “perfectly normal” to “bedridden”. She died that September.
But from the outset, Gray’s leadership team “wrapped around me to enable me still to do my job”. She says: “This college saved my life – I needed the distraction”.
She was upfront with staff about her challenges at home and at work and believes this “made it easier for them to offer condolences and see if I needed anything, which I thought was super”.
She adds: “People mopped me up, then I’d walk the floors. The best medicine for anything is knowing you’re doing something really well.”
At the time, Hull’s policy was to provide five days of bereavement leave – but that leave is now being extended to 15 to 20 days.
Other leave policies, such as end-of-life care and supporting staff who have had a miscarriage or need fertility treatment, are also being upgraded to “best in class”.
Gray tells me: “We should be there for our staff when the shit hits the fan. I don’t want to compete with other colleges. I want to compete with the best [companies] in the world.”
Hull’s marketing director, Kirstie Cawley, appreciated this flexible approach when her daughter, Amelie, 18, was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome last year, and she was allowed to start work later each day.
Cawley says: “Debs and the college have been there to support me, so I can support my daughter. It’s a very real thing, that sense of teamwork and camaraderie. The term ‘Hullraisers’ evolved from the way we work together.”
That’s why (on Gray’s insistence) this article is not just about the principal but about the entire Hullraiser team, who Gray says “try really hard not to operate on the basis of rank and hierarchy”.
Pay rises at last
Meanwhile, high leadership churn prior to Gray’s appointment meant there was “very little organisational memory” for the leader to draw from.
The first year was spent “trying not to trip up over the things we found that we had no idea about because there was nobody left from previous teams to tell us”.
Staff had not had a pay award for 10 years, and staff costs had been slashed from 78 per cent of income in 2015-16 to 70 per cent in 2021-22.
Gray knew they needed consistent pay awards and she has “followed through on that every year since”.
The rises weren’t huge but financial prudence reaped dividends.
In 2022-23 the Education and Skills Funding Agency judged Hull’s financial health was ‘outstanding’, and it went from generating a deficit of £2.3 million in 2021-22 to a £975,000 surplus.
This year, Hull emerged from intervention and Gray believes the college is “nothing like” it was three years ago.
Office makeover
Because she is one of the most colourful personalities in FE, Gray felt Hull’s overwhelming grey and purple décor made it feel “massively unloved”.
And she wanted to make her “terrible corporate office” more welcoming because “it’s scary enough being invited to the principal’s office. You may as well be comfy when you come in”.
The thrifty Gray bought sofas from Ikea because “it’s not like they’ll get a lot of wear and tear, and this is public money”.
And her Star Trek and Star Wars memorabilia and intergalactic feature wall reflect how she has “no doubt” that if aliens landed, she’d be “straight on their ship – they’d need to take me, I’d be useful”.
Nobody comes in hungry
When I arrive, I’m introduced to cleaners Betty and Bernie, who have both worked at the college for 21 years.
Betty, 57, admits sometimes the pair “get into trouble for laughing because we’re a bit loud – everybody knows us”.
And they sometimes get students offering to help them empty the bins.
“It’s home from home here; nobody ignores you,” she says.
But it was different three years ago, when “you didn’t know if you were going to have a job, morale was so low”.
They both rave about the free breakfasts Gray introduced for staff and students in 2022. Free lunch options (soup and a roll or salad) are now being planned, and Gray is also considering introducing “reasonably healthy” free snacks, such as popcorn, because she’s “not having anybody coming in hungry”.
This conviction is rooted in her own memories of being a college student who “couldn’t afford to eat”. Sheffield College’s cleaners and caterers “looked after” her.
She was “utterly clueless” upon starting there, having grown up with “dad and brothers in and out of prison”, and tells me: “The best predictions anybody had of me was pregnant and on the council house list at 16.
“But my lecturers gave me a fighting chance. They looked past the way I presented myself and saw something else in me.”
Although she “ballsed up” her A Levels in physics, biology and chemistry, she returned to take criminology. Aged 24, Gray taught in a men’s prison for which she “took some hassle” but “really enjoyed”.
“If you can deal with prison, you can deal with anything an FE college throws at you,” she says.
Crumbling buildings
One of the biggest challenges the Hullraisers face is the state of their buildings. Most date from the 1950s and fall under government condition categories C (major defects or not operating as intended) or D (life expired or serious risk of failure).
When Gray started, the college didn’t have a bid team to apply for government capital investment, and intervention prevented it from borrowing money. Gino Tommasi, vice principal of finance and corporate services, said that since then they have tried to access the “very niche and limited” government capital funding pots but to no avail.
“We’ve been very upfront with the DfE that we need some cash – the answer is no!” Gray says.
“So we are trying our best to cosmetically upgrade at least”.
The revamp is being done “on an absolute shoestring, being from Yorkshire, I’m so tight I only breathe in”.
So, “tired” purples were replaced with greens, vibrant Hull-themed murals, and funky wallpaper patterns, which Gray bought from B&Q for £9.99 a roll. After being quoted £30,000 each for breakout booths for her reception area, she bought some via Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace for “under a grand a pop.”
A feature wall is adorned with an inspiring quote from one of the “state of the nation” speeches Gray delivers to staff five times a year.
“Our students are fighters, they are resilient, they are incredibly bright, and they care deeply about their people, their city and their future,” it reads.
“Together, we are the Hullraisers. Fearless and driven. Ready to succeed. Ready to rise!”
It was important for Gray that when learners walk into college, they “know they’re in Hull”. So a cityscape wraps around the reception, complementing the plethora of Hull puns that catch your eye across the campus, such as “we’re incredihull!”
The fact the new lecture theatre gives its speakers angel wings is “whimsy”, Gray admits, “but you can’t take yourself too seriously in this business”.
“There are lots of Instagrammable moments that students can throw out on their socials,” she adds.
Captain’s log
Gray wants students to embrace technology. So the college’s digi-den has been bolstered from 20 machines to 78 because “digital poverty is a real thing”, and there is a Minecraft zone with Minecraft wallpaper. The college’s e-sports provision is thriving, with Gray being a “big gamer” herself who enjoys watching her students play.
Having done two master’s degrees (in criminal justice and leadership), she is now finishing off her doctorate in education exploring “Skills for the Fourth Industrial Revolution” – a topic she can “bore people to death on”.
Gray embraces AI for all sorts of day-to-day tasks. The college runs free AI academies for local businesses, staff and students. Moreover, popping government reports into ChatGPT for executive summaries has saved her “hours and hours”.
Hull also boasts a mural in which AI tools enabled its ESOL learners to communicate their “heartbreaking” journeys to this country.
“People think AI is just about cheating and safety risks, it isn’t. It’s about creativity and storytelling.”
But one thing Gray never uses AI for is writing the weekly “captain’s log” message she sends to staff. She says: “This has to be my voice because “authentic leadership is crucial.”
That leadership has helped steer the college from being in the bottom 5 per cent in the country for attainment in 2022 to “bang average”. Now, Gray has her sights set on being “among the best in the world”.
Attendance is at least 15 per cent up since 2022 to the “high eighties”, and Ofsted last year rated the college ‘good’ with outstanding features.
Gray admits challenges remain, and “sometimes it feels for all of us, we’re more social workers than we are educators”.
But she says the fact Hull’s students come from the fourth most deprived area in England is “not a reason to excuse under-performance”, and “the very reason you need to be better than the next college down the road or in fact, any college anywhere”.
She adds: “Because our kids are fighters, that’s what they learn. You put that person in Whitehall, in Downing Street, or in the FTSE 100, then the world starts to change. And that’s what we’re here for, isn’t it? To change the world.”
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