The FE Commissioner has singled-out former principal Jacqui Mace (pictured) for failings at a London college that has been placed into administered status.
Dr David Collins said this in a report published on Thursday (February 18) on Stanmore College, which was led by Ms Mace until December.
A letter published on the same day, from Skills Minister Nick Boles to college chair John Howard, confirmed that he had accepted Dr Collins’ recommendation that it should be placed into administered status.
Dr Collins said his team, which inspected the college in December, had found “at all levels, [a] lack of confidence in the [former] principal’s ability to lead the college going forward”.
His report added staff and managers had been “highly critical of her [Ms Mace]”.
It also said Dr Collins’ team advised Mr Howard that Ms Mace “should not continue with an active role in the college and should not return after term ends [last December]”.
The visit by Dr Collins’ team to the 3,500-learner college, which has a current SFA allocation of £2.1m, was prompted by an inadequate Ofsted rating in November.
Following publication of the Ofsted report, the college governors took “decisive action” to replace Ms Mace “in terms of the day-to-day running of the college by an externally appointed interim principal”, Dr Collins said.
The board had agreed that Ms Mace should move to an “externally-focused” role, developing the college’s planned merger with neighbouring Harrow College, until Ms Mace’s planned retirement at the end of March, the FE Commissioner added.
But this was considered “inappropriate” by Dr Collins.
Interim principal Sarbdip Noonan told FE Week on Thursday that Ms Mace was no longer employed “in any capacity by the college”.
However, she declined to confirm if she had been sacked.
“All staff are now working in a focused and urgent way to improve the college’s quality of provision and ensure our learners are successful,” she added.
“We have every confidence that the strengths of the college will be consolidated further and the areas for improvement will be transformed to strengths.”
Four lead providers based in the north east have said they are taking steps to ensure more than 160 apprentices get qualifications after their subcontractor was said to have ceased trading.
Learning Curve Group (LCG) chief executive Brenda McLeish (pictured) told FE Week on Tuesday that her company had been informed by Sunderland-based Xiscad Training Ltd it was going into liquidation.
Brenda McLeish
It means, FE Week understands, that alternative training arrangements need to be made for 164 level three and four IT professional apprentices that were with Xiscad, through subcontracting with LCG, Sunderland College, Stockton Council, and South Tyneside Council.
LCG, which employed Xiscad as a subcontractor for 97 level three and four IT professional apprentices through an SFA contract worth £1.8m as of last December, is setting up a new training centre in Sunderland next Monday, specifically for affected learners.
Ms McLeish told FE Week: “We have been working with Xiscad since 2011 with no problems. They were with us for our ‘good’ Ofsted rating [in March 2014].
“Unfortunately, on 10 February, they told us they had taken the decision to liquidate.
“We have retrieved all our apprentices’ files and record of work they have done attempted to contact every single one of them via phone, text, emails or social media.
“We are opening a brand new IT training facility in Sunderland on Monday so we can continue with their training directly.”
Nigel Harrett (pictured), the deputy principal of Sunderland College, which had an SFA contract worth £253,566 with Xiscad, said: “We are aware that Xiscad ceased trading last week.
Nigel Harrett
“As a result, we have been in contact with the 35 [level three] apprentices and six on traineeships who are funded through Sunderland College, and we have also held an information, advice and guidance event for them.
“In addition, our business development team is currently working with employers to establish opportunities for the 41 people affected to be able to complete their apprenticeships and traineeships.”
Councillor John Anglin, lead member for regeneration and economy at South Tyneside Council, which had an SFA contract worth £265,216 with Xiscad, said the local authority was “doing everything we can to support those affected [21 level three apprentices]”.
“We have opened dialogue with all of our apprentices and are currently reviewing their files,” she added.
“Moving forward, we will look to appoint a new supplier to support the apprentices in completing their qualifications as well as identifying potential new employment opportunities.”
Councillor Jim Beall, cabinet member for adult services and health at Stockton Council, which had a contract worth £88,325 with Xiscad, said: “We are doing everything we can to support the 11 [level three] apprentices affected.
“Three of them have recently completed their apprenticeships and we are seeking urgent clarification as to the status of their qualifications. The remaining eight are nearing the end of their training and we are supporting them so they can complete their qualifications.”
An SFA spokesperson said: “Where our providers decide to use subcontractors, we expect these arrangements to add value to the provision and for public funding to be used to directly support learners.
“Xiscad is a subcontractor to a number of lead providers and we are working with these organisations to ensure there is minimum disruption to learners and employers and ensure continuity of training.”
The homepage of the Xiscad website was down and there was no answer on the main company phone number up to Thursday (January 18).
But when FE Week called company director Steven Carr’s mobile number, a man who answered, but refused to confirm his name, said: “I can’t comment [on the trading status of Xiscad]. It is in the hands of the insolvency people.”
However, an Insolvency Service spokesperson told FE Week before publication that it and Companies House had not yet been made aware Xiscad had folded.
The chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has warned providers that failing to adapt to changes in the FE sector could put their future in the market at risk.
Peter Lauener (pictured), who is also chief executive of the Education Funding Agency, described recent changes in the sector as radical and stressed the importance of providers finding ways to work with the new system, in a speech at the Skills Summit yesterday in London.
He told an audience dominated by colleges and training providers: “This is a radical, radical change programme and in any radical change programme there are some organisations, some employers that will adapt and work out the best way of working with the new system — and there are others that will take longer.”
He warned that failing to adjust to developments, such as the impending introduction of the apprenticeship levy, could jeopardise providers’ progress.
“There is risk in this, particularly probably for training organisations and for colleges if they don’t adapt to the new world,” he said.
Mr Lauener repeatedly acknowledged that the process would not be an easy one, but reassured his audience that though there were “some big, big challenges” there would also be “some big opportunities”.
“There is, I think, a lot of opportunity for innovation. Providers do need to diversify; they need to be the first port of call for employers, whether that’s colleges or independent training providers.
“That’s the biggest single difference that we’re looking to build into the system as the levy gets underway,” he said.
He told his listeners that although he saw the future as “a challenging environment”, he also looked to the next five years with “considerable optimism”.
“There will be enormous challenges for colleges, for other providers, for employers, in all this. But there will be massive opportunities as well for apprenticeship growth,” he said.
He said that with funding from the apprenticeship levy, the government target of 3m new apprenticeships by 2020 would be “an achievable target”.
“I see no reasons why that should not be achieved with the tools that have been in place and the funding that has been put in place,” he said.
When pressed in a question and answer session to expand on what the potential risks would be for providers who failed to keep up with this changing landscape, Mr Lauener replied: “In the system, the demand will come from employers and under the adult education budget will be a matter of meeting local needs.
“This will be national entitlements and other things but the exact provision needs to be right for the locality — people need to adapt to that and people who don’t adapt won’t do as well.”
He said it would be “no good” to call for a return of the old system.
“The people who don’t adapt to the market won’t have a future in the market,” he said.
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) will reduce funding rates for the level three ‘IT, Software Web and Telecom Professionals’ apprenticeship framework by around £2,000 from April 1.
The agency warned in it’s Update bulletin this afternoon that it would be reducing the funding values for the Level 3 competence qualification.
The rate for the competence qualification published by the SFA will fall from £8,673 to £6,650, a 23 per cent reduction. For a fully-funded 16-18 year-old learner, this would equate to a fall from £9,299 to £7,131, a cut of £2,169.
The Update bulletin said that “this is part of our regular review of apprenticeship framework costs to ensure value for public funds.
“From 1 April 2016, we will reduce the funding values for new apprenticeship starts only; those already on programme will remain on their existing rates. We will change the competency aims (not knowledge, English or maths aims) for the published rate from £8,673 to £6,650, a 23 per cent reduction.”
The SFA has not reduced apprenticeship framework rates since 2012/13, after a freeze was imposed during plans for switching to the new standards funding system.
But FE Week understands the rate for ‘IT, Software Web and Telecom Professionals’, which is one of the highest for all frameworks and includes a competency, knowledge and up to three functional skills qualifications, is now considered far too high by the SFA — particularly at level three.
Funding for a 16-18 year-old learner that completes at level 3, for example, currently exceeds £15,000 and can rise to over £18,000 if delivered in central London.
“Based upon the most up to date information, the new rate is more reflective of the cost for delivering the framework, an SFA spokesperson told FE Week this morning: “We are making the change following a review, which we do periodically and when new information is available, as part of a routine review of apprenticeship framework costs.
But Stewart Segal, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, told FE Week he would be calling on the SFA to review the timing of its decision.
He said this “very short notice” change had not been thought through and would “inevitably disrupt starts for learners and employers”.
He added the decision was “based purely on the measurement of duration… just one aspect of the cost and quality of the framework and it should not drive the funding which is based on a complex mix of delivery factors.”
Despite the relatively high level of per apprentice funding, the level three course is, for example, not a relatively long framework.
The Tech Partnership, a network of mainly large technology firms, is the government’s Issuing Authority for the apprenticeship framework and they expect a minimum of 18 months with just a minimum of 674 guided learning hours with Functional Skills or 539 without — or, they say, as little as six months for an adult with prior attainment.
The framework is becoming increasingly popular with colleges and training providers, especially those recruiting fully funded 16 to 18-year-old learners. It had the second most starts at level three for 16 to 18-year-olds by framework last year and the number of starts have been rising rapidly since 2012/13.
The most recent published success rates are for 2013/14. They show which providers had the most leavers for this framework at level three (August 2013 to July 2014):
There were 38 providers delivering this framework, also based the latest success rate data — with the most in total being the British Army (870 leavers) and QA Limited (450 leavers).
The Tech Partnership was unable to comment ahead of publication.
Hackney Community College and Tower Hamlets College have announced plans to merge from August this year.
A spokesperson for the two London colleges said their intention is to create a “single, larger and more sustainable college” that is “better able to meet current and future local needs”.
Both colleges will keep their individual existing campuses, names and branding.
The spokesperson added: “The merger will create a significant educational provider in London, supporting the success of around 17,000 students and apprentices, 800 staff and with a combined turnover of around £40m. It will benefit from combined staff talent, facilities and financial resources.”
The new board of governors will be made up of an equal number of governors from the two existing colleges, with a new, independent chair. The governance structure of the new college will however take on a new name.
Martin Earwicker, chair of Tower Hamlets College’s board of governors, said: “We are all very excited to be at this stage of the merger process. Throughout, both corporations have been concerned with ensuring that we are able to continue to provide our respective local communities with access to high quality further education. This merger will enable us to continue to do so for many years.”
Tom Mautner, chair of Hackney Community College’s board of governors, said: “Through this merger we will be in an excellent position to achieve our shared vision of maintaining high quality and wide-ranging further education in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, and beyond. The synergy between the two colleges is very strong, with shared values and ambition, and I am confident of a successful future for the newly-merged organisation.”
An exciting new continuing professional development (CPD) event has been announced today by the organisers of The Telegraph Festival of Education for the FE and skills sector.
The Festival of Skills will take place at Capel Manor College’s 74-acre site in North London from July 7 to 9 later this year.
Hosted by Summerhouse Events, organisers predict that the festival will bring together the best of the sector’s most forward thinking advocates, practitioners of change, policy makers and educators.
It will be developed with headline partner, City and Guilds, and lead strategic partner, the Education and Training Foundation (ETF), with premier media partner FE Week, and will be known as the FE Week Festival of Skills.
Shane Mann managing director of Lsect (publisher of FE Week) and Summerhouse Events said: “In recent years there has been a growing need and appetite specifically for the FE and skills sector.
“This three-day event at the glorious Capel Manor College will provide vital CPD for professionals working in the further education sector. It’s going to be a knowledgeable and fun-filled spectacle.”
Kirstie Donnelly, City & Guilds managing director, said: “City & Guilds is delighted to sponsor the first FE Week Festival of Skills. This three day festival will provide FE and skills professionals with the inspiration, ideas and the skills they need to succeed.
“Bringing together some of the sector’s brightest lights, this will be the event of the year for thought leadership, CPD and debate in the FE and skills sector. We hope to see all of you there.”
The ETF chief executive David Russell said: “I’m delighted that the ETF is the lead strategic partner for this exciting new event, the Festival of Skills.
“Everything the ETF does is to support excellence in teaching and training. We look forward to this event that will showcase innovation and quality from across our sector and beyond.”
Tailored to suit all levels of interests and expertise, the festival will feature more than 200 workshops for teachers, business support staff, managers and governors in the sector.
Festival goers will also have the opportunity to explore Capel Manor College’s 34-acres of landscaped gardens, which include a walled garden, with pyracantha covering the library wall, a rock garden, a woodland walk with an ilex collection, a lake garden and a zoo.
City of Wolverhampton College has won the Association of Colleges (AoC) Leading Light Award for its programme tackling local unemployment and skill shortages.
An AoC spokesperson praised the college’s work with small, medium and large employers, including Jaguar Land Rover, BAE Systems and Lego.
She said the programme was geared at ensuring that “students and adults are provided with the right skills for the jobs available”.
“It is aimed at employees, unemployed people and apprentices. It identifies areas of skills shortages such as construction, engineering and healthcare and sets them as key priorities,” the spokesperson added. “All students enrolled onto a substantial course at the college are given the opportunity to undertake work experience, which introduces them to local employers.”
Principal Claire Boliver said: “We are absolutely delighted to win the award because it demonstrates our hard work with employers and the local community to get people back into work.”
The accolade was presented by Baroness Sharp of Guildford, president of the AoC charitable trust, at a ceremony in central London (pictured).
The college was one of 11 winners in the AoC Beacon Awards.
The full list of winning colleges:
AQA Award for the Development of Transferable Skills
Abingdon and Witney College
AoC Award for College Engagement with Employers and AoC Award for Outstanding Leadership of Improvement
City of Wolverhampton College
UCAS Progress Award for Careers Education and Guidance and CoLRiC Award for Effective Integration of Libraries/Learning Resources Centres in Curriculum Delivery
Weston College
City & Guilds Award for Staff Development in FE
Reading College (part of Activate Learning)
Edge Award for Practical Teaching and Practical Learning
Rotherham College of Arts & Technology
Gateway Qualifications Award for Widening Participation in Learning
Barking and Dagenham College
Jisc Award for Efficiency through Effective use of Technology in FE
South Eastern Regional College
Microlink and AoC Charitable Trust Award for Inclusive Learning
Leicester College
OCR Award for Innovation in FE
Exeter College
Pearson Award for the Promotion and Delivery of Successful Apprenticeships
On Monday (February 15) Alice Barnard will take up her new role as chief executive officer of the Edge Foundation, replacing acting chief executive David Harbourne who will return to his policy and research role.
For the former chief executive of The Peter Jones Foundation, the position will be the latest step in a diverse career that has taken her from writing for the Police newspaper at Scotland Yard, to running for a seat in Parliament and setting up her own business.
Barnard has always been driven and quick to adapt to new situations. She puts this partly down to her experiences as a child, when her family moved a number of times because of her father’s work in the army.
Born in Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in London in 1977, Barnard and her parents moved to live in Germany for three years until she was four and a half, when they returned to the UK. Her sister Charlotte was born in Germany and Barnard attended kindergarten there.
She has fond memories of living in army quarters in Weingarten, where there were a number of other children her age. “We were properly part of the army family,” she says.
“It was like a ready built community … It’s really safe and because all the quarters are purpose built, it is like a village – safe, open, fun. I enjoyed it. ”
Alice with her horse Catcher in 2010
When the family moved back to England and settled in Salisbury in Wiltshire, Barnard started her first school, Leaden Hall, which she attended for a year. She remembers Salisbury as “charming”, with narrow, cobbled streets and a beautiful cathedral.
But it wasn’t long before they were on the move again, uprooting to Sheffield as her father went back to his former career as a barrister.
She says adapting to the change wasn’t a struggle at the time. “It was quite transient, which didn’t worry me, it seemed quite normal to move. I was blissfully unaware of having to pack everything up again!”
They moved into the centre of Sheffield, a busy and crowded city compared to her previous home.
But Barnard liked Sheffield, and says it sometimes gets a bad press. “Most people think of Sheffield as being heavily industrial — which obviously it is in how in made its wealth — but it’s actually full of Victorian buildings and big, wide roads with lots of trees on them. It wasn’t a difficult transition,” she says.
She went to a private school, Sheffield High School for Girls, which she says was “heavily motivated by results”. It was here that she discovered a passion for history and settled on politics as her chosen career of the future.
“I had a lovely history teacher called Mrs Hangas who was a bit eccentric; I don’t think she would mind me saying that,” Barnard says.
“I loved her and she completely inspired me and made me believe that anything was possible.
“I’d wanted to be a politician, although I’m sure it’s not a popular choice at that age.”
She enjoyed talking about the current affairs of the 1980s and 90s with her school friends.
“We probably just talked rubbish at the time, but it seemed very real. We had lots of opinions on things – whether they were informed or not I’m not sure!”
Alice riding Catcher
After finishing school Barnard took a year out and worked for gentleman’s outfitters Brocklehursts. She worked in the warehouse of the retail outlet and as a sales assistant at shows around the country, looking after others in the team while they were travelling – despite being the youngest by far.
“I really wanted to work properly. I had had bar jobs and things like that, but I wanted to find out what work really was,” she says.
“It was good for me because it made me independent. Half the time I was completely out of my comfort zone … I realised the importance of team work.”
When her gap year was up, Barnard decided she wanted to go to Cambridge to read history.
She says the prospect of applying was scary after being in the world of work and she set herself a project on ‘Gladstone and the Irish Question’, to help get back into an academic mindset and show the tutors how much she wanted to be there.
“It was nerve-wracking. You know that the competition is going to be really difficult and the other participants are going to really want it,” she says.
But she successfully secured a place at Newnham College, and despite initial worries about keeping up with her peers, she “settled in well”.
The three years flew by for Barnard – thanks in no small part to fitting her passion for horses around all her academic work.
“Everything revolved around horses while I was at Cambridge. I took my horse with me and I would get up at the crack of dawn to muck him out before I went to the library,” she says.
Barnard used the money saved from her gap year to put her horse, Dennis, into stables just outside Cambridge and it was looking after him that also led her to meet her now husband, Matt, when she was 19.
Alice with her latest horse Scarlett O’Hara, when she was just a foal. She is now five years old
A jockey and trainer working with racehorses, she met Matt at a competition.
“I thought he was a bit bossy at first actually,” she says. “He was pretty good at what he did so that’s probably why – he knew what he was doing.”
Despite these distractions, Barnard knuckled down in her third year and passed her final exams. She then went on to work for Mike Gallimore, editor of Sporting life, a racing newspaper.
She was sent straight out to get interviews and for her first one bagged a chat with TV presenter and broadcaster, Clare Balding.
“I remember staring at the phone or about ten minutes before I could summon up the courage to call her,” Barnard says.
Working for Gallimore was another important life experience. “Although he completely dropped me in at the deep end he was a really nice guy,” she says. “In a very short period of time I learned a huge amount from him.”
Gallimore also ran offices in London, and it wasn’t long before Barnard transferred to the capital to work at New Scotland Yard on the police newspaper The Job.
She enjoyed being part of another new environment, where security clearances were required just to get into work in the morning.
“The newspaper was produced every two weeks and I used to have to take it down to the Met Commissioner [Paul Condon] and that was quite a nerve-wracking thing to do. He would ask about all the articles,” she recalls.
The job was also a new challenge in terms of location – Barnard was living in Cambridgeshire at the weekends with Matt, but during the week she stayed with friends of her parents, as the cost of commuting everyday was just too expensive.
Then in 2000 Barnard decided to take a change in direction, starting a five year career in advertising. She worked in sales for a company called SPG and says the sector was “a very competitive, male-dominated environment”.
She didn’t find it intimidating though, and says her success helped her to stay confident. “I didn’t find it difficult, mainly because I was good at it. If I’d struggled with the work, I think I would have found it much more tough.”
She then moved to work for a competitor, The World Trade Group, with a number of her other colleagues who had been “poached”, and eventually they decided to set up their own company – Building on Business.
Still only in her late 20s, Barnard and her colleagues established themselves in a friend’s basement in Dulwich.
“None of us had had any experience of setting up a business before … it was a steep learning curve,” she says.
It taught her the pressures of managing a team. “When we started taking on staff you suddenly saw that weight of responsibility, it’s not just about you and getting through the say and earning your living – it’s suddenly about making a success of something because other people are depending on it as well,” she says.
She was a shareholder of the company and enjoyed the work, but after 18 months began to feel that “there was something missing”.
“Although the cut and thrust of it was quite exciting, I felt there was probably something else out there in life,” she explains.
I am looking forward to the opportunity to be able to work with FE in a broader sense. At Edge I feel I will be able to see the whole landscape, right the way through the whole of the FE sector and how it operates.
This led her to move into a campaigning environment, recalling her childhood dreams of politics. In 2007, a year after getting married, Barnard decided to go for a position that came up at the Countryside Alliance, as a regional director for the east of England.
“The Countryside Alliance I guess is best known for being pro-hunting, shooting and fishing, so it’s quite a contentious organisation in the sense that public opinion is often not with them. But obviously I’d been involved with horses and hunting all my life,” she says.
Her role focused on media, PR, fundraising, campaigning and lobbying for the east of England and included issues such as setting up rural broadband and campaigning against the closures of rural post offices and building on flood plains. She lobbied local MPs and local authorities and found her previous experience of journalism gave a helpful context.
“It was about everything rural and working on behalf of rural communities,” she says.
Barnard worked for the Countryside Alliance for five years, becoming chief executive when she was just 34, in 2010.
“I was dazed when I got it. The Countryside Alliance has this image of being 60-something, male, white, middle-class, and they’d never had CEO in their 30s before – let alone a woman.”
In the same year she had gone onto the Conservative Party list and stood as candidate. She got shortlisted for Stratford-on-Avon, but was beaten by Nadhim Zahawi, who is now the Prime Minister’s Apprenticeships Adviser.
“It was an amazing and brutal process and I learned a huge amount. It was that process that inspired me to go for the top job at the Countryside Alliance. Everything I was doing I hadn’t done before, it pushed me to the edge of my capabilities and I enjoyed that in some strange way.”
Alice’s dogs Herbert (left) and Finlay, who are brothers, taken in 2014
Then in 2012, a new opportunity presented itself for Barnard. She was approached by a head hunter who invited her to apply for the role of CEO at the Peter Jones Foundation.
The Foundation was founded in 2005 by the Dragons’ Den entrepreneur and focuses on supporting educational activities and initiatives which champion entrepreneurship.
“I was instantly attracted to the position,” she says. “I was quite excited about the opportunity to move out of rural campaigning, because I didn’t want that to be my only area of expertise. I wanted to have a broad CV and I wanted to be relevant to more people.”
Barnard says she loved the work from the very beginning and thoroughly enjoyed learning about what made the industry tick.
“I really enjoyed the opportunities to talk to so many people – principals, policy makers and the students themselves,” she says.
She has recently been keeping up with changes in education because her daughter, Isobel, is coming up to taking her GCSEs, and will be one of the first cohort to take the new exams with the 1-9 grading system.
Barnard says it is important to acknowledge that women can have vibrant careers alongside family life, even though it may be challenging at time. “I think women have a tough time trying to juggle everything and getting a balance is never easy,” she adds.
Turning to her new role, Barnard says: “I hope my new appointment at the Edge Foundation proves that I really am very passionate about this area. I think this sector is hugely important and it is one that I really see myself working in, working for, for the long haul.”
She had done partnership work with the Edge Foundation whilst heading up the Peter Jones Foundation, and is now “absolutely delighted” to be joining them.
In terms of plans for starting her new position, she says: “We will be working on the ebacc … we think that young people should have the opportunity to study technical and professional qualifications alongside.
“I am looking forward to the opportunity to be able to work with FE in a broader sense. At Edge I feel I will be able to see the whole landscape, right the way through the whole of the FE sector and how it operates.”
Barnard recognises that “FE had taken quite a hit over the last few years financially”.
“It’s about rebuilding and finding a way forward, so that the industry does not lose its confidence,” she says.
It’s a personal thing
What’s your favourite book?
Late Fragments by Kate Gross. It’s an amazing book, she was an amazing women. She very sadly died of cancer, but if someone is looking for someone inspirational, she was incredible.
What do you do to switch off from work?
Spending time with my horses, my dogs and my family.
What’s your pet hate?
Lateness. I hate being late myself, even if it is out of my control, but I’m not keen on other people being late either!
If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?
I’ve decided on a man and a woman for good gender balance – so it would be Sylvia Plath and Albert Einstein, I think that would be interesting.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
A politician.
Curriculum Vitae
1977: Born in Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in London
1978: Moved to Rheindahlen Germany and attended kindergarten
1981: Returned to the UK and moved to Salisbury, attended Leaden Hall independent day and boarding school for girls
1982: Moved to Sheffield and attended Sheffield High School for Girls until age 18
1995: Finished school and took a year out working for Brocklehursts gentleman’s outfitters, also working with horses in spare time
1996: Went to Cambridge to study history
1996: Met her husband Matt while working with horses in spare time
1999: Started work as a journalist for former editor of the Sporting Life, then at New Scotland Yard working on the Police newspaper, The Job
2000: Started work in advertising with SPG and later The World Trade Group
2001: Daughter Isobel was born
2005: Set up her own company with colleagues – Building on Business
2006: Got married
2007: Appointed regional director for the east of England at the Countryside Alliance
2010: Shortlisted for two safe Conservative seats, appointed chief executive officer of the Countryside Alliance
2012: Became chief executive of the Peter Jones Foundation
2016: Became chief executive of the Edge Foundation
