College learners received the red carpet treatment as their outstanding achievements were celebrated at the FE Sussex Spring Awards.
The Hilton Brighton Metropole Hotel was the setting as the awards brought together 12 colleges from the area in a glitzy evening of 13 presentations.
The City & Guilds-sponsored event, now in its 11th year, is planned, coordinated and delivered by FE Sussex — a consortium of all post-16 colleges in Sussex.
Students from faculty of hospitality and catering at Northbrook College served dinner, while Chichester College students had prepared floral decorations and Central Sussex College learners studying an air cabin crew course performed meet and greet functions.
Apprentice of the year winner Bruce Daughtree, aged 40, from City College Brighton and Hove, who studies level two apprenticeship in health and social care, said: “Winning a Spring Award to me is a magical thing. I’ve never won anything in my life. My confidence is on top of the mountains.”
A focal point of the event, held on Thursday, March 26, was the song and dance entertainment provided by performing arts students from Worthing and Chichester colleges.
FE Sussex chief executive Tim Strickland, who has hosted the evening for the past six years, said: “The standard of performance equalled that of professional west end productions.”
He added: “What I find incredible is that the 13 Spring Award winners and 14 runners-up are selected from over 60,000 learners in our colleges. Just to get to be a Spring Award finalist is difficult, never mind winning.”
FE Sussex Spring Awards 2015 Winners
Pearson BTec learner of the year — Victoria Jenkins, aged 19, level-three health and social care national extended diploma at Central Sussex College
AQA Sussex college learner of the year — Charlotte Cozens, 17, A2 further maths and maths with mechanics at Worthing College
Hilton Brighton Metropole hospitality student of the year — Jodie Batchelor, 19, NVQ level three in hospitality at Central Sussex College
Barclays Sussex apprentice of the year — Bruce Daughtree, 40, level two apprenticeship in health and social care at City College Brighton and Hove
FE Sussex innovative use of technology in education award — Steve Bassett, tutor for AS and A2 sociology at Sussex Downs College
City & Guilds Sussex learner making the most progress award — Lee Goodwin, 25, level three apprenticeship in motor vehicle at Chichester College
University of Chichester outstanding progression to higher education award — Aila Figura, 19, level-three extended diploma in creative media production at Northbrook College
University of Brighton widening participation in higher education award — Heidi Gourlay, 34, access to HE health and health sciences at Northbrook College
Pearson award for most improved learner — Peter McCleery, 18, level-three diploma in information technology at Central Sussex College
Sussex A-level/international baccalaureate learner of the year —Eliza McHugh, 17, international baccalaureate diploma programme at Varndean College
NCFE Sussex learner of the year — Kyle Sinclair, 24, essential skills course at Central Sussex College
OCR Sussex College learner of the year — George Bontoft, 17, AS level human biology at Chichester College
City & Guilds Sussex learner of the year — Renzzo De Souza, 19, site carpentry higher diploma level-three at City College Brighton and Hove
The European Commission has been accused by a civil rights group of “overstepping the mark” in making FE learners say if they are from single parent households.
Final guidance on data requirements for 2015/16 individualised learner records (ILRs), published last month by the Skills Funding Agency (SFA), revealed that providers will have to collect information on the ‘household situation’ of students for the first time.
It will include checking if learners are from a household containing only one adult and one or more dependent children, and if anyone they live with is unemployed.
The document, entitled Specification of the ILR for 2015 to 2016 (Version 2), stated that the information “must be collected in the form of a self-declaration from the learner, signed by the learner to confirm it is correct”.
It said: “The household situation must be collected for all European Social Fund (ESF) funded learning aims that start on or after August 1.”
It added providers would also have to collect the information from learners involved with “all adult skills funded and other SFA-funded learning aims”, as they could potentially be eligible for ESF match funding.
But Andrew Allison, head of campaigns for civil rights campaign group The Freedom Association, said: “The employment status of a household, or whether or not someone is a single parent, is personal information, and it is too much to expect potential students to divulge this information simply to enrol on a course.
“It could also mean some will be put off from enrolling because of this requirement, which will be not only detrimental to them, but the wider economy.
“The European Commission is overstepping the mark [by making the SFA collect household situation data]. The government should stand up to the bureaucrats who came up with this.”
An SFA spokesperson said it had been forced to start requesting household situation data to meet European Commission requirements for ESF funding.
A European Commission spokesperson said: “In order to ensure closer monitoring and improved assessment of the results achieved by actions supported by the ESF, a common set of output and result indicators has been established [since December 2013].
“The information will help to monitor the support of the funds to the most vulnerable family groups.”
Joe Vinson, National Union of Students vice president for FE, said: “While you might well have to ask personal information for example about an individual’s family background to effectively target funding, it is incredibly important that this is undertaken carefully and sensitively, and that there are clear assurances that this information will otherwise remain confidential.”
When asked if the data could potentially be passed to other agencies and used against single parents and the unemployed, the European Commission spokesperson said: “Individual participants’ data is protected by national and EU data protection rules. They are processed and aggregated to indicators. Only those indicators are reported.”
Trailblazer employers will not have to shell out tax on cash rewards for taking on apprentices, it has been confirmed.
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA), in its Trailblazer Apprenticeships Funding Rules 2014 to 2015, said it “considered” the payments exempt from VAT, but recommended getting Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) approval anyway.
The document said: “While providers and employers should always seek their own VAT advice, we consider that incentive payments are beyond the scope of VAT and therefore VAT should not be charged on them.”
Employers are eligible to claim incentive payments when they contribute towards all or part of externally-purchased training or assessment if the apprentice is aged 16 to 18 or the business has fewer than 50 employees. An incentive payment is also available when an apprentice completes their programme.
However, HMRC ended the uncertainty over the payments.
“Grants and similar payments by government agencies are outside the scope of VAT because no service is supplied to the government agency in return,” he said.
“For VAT to become chargeable, there must be a direct link between a payment made and a service supplied in return for it.”
He added: “The supply of vocational training is exempt if funded by the SFA.”
A Leicester-based training provider has been slapped with an inadequate grading by Ofsted after failing to carry out criminal checks on staff working with learners under 18.
Qdos Training Ltd was inspected in February and although the report, published on Thursday, April 9, found “good” success rates and managers with “a clear strategic vision”, it issued a damning verdict on the provider’s safeguarding processes.
The Skills Funding Agency (SFA)-funded provider, which has 917 learners, 61 of which are aged 16 to 18, had previously been graded as good, following an inspection in 2011.
But this time around inspectors found “staff with regular, unsupervised access to learners aged up to 18 have not had appropriate disclosure checks and arrangements to demonstrate that these checks have been carried out are weak”.
Disclosure and Barring Service checks, which replaced Criminal Record Bureau checks in 2012, identify staff members who may be unsuitable or banned from working with young people due to past criminal convictions.
Qdos Training managing director Elena Ryabusha vowed to appeal against the result, but declined to comment on why the checks had not been carried out.
The report called for disclosure checks on all staff working unsupervised with 16 to 18-year-old learners “as a matter of the highest priority” and said Qdos should “systematically train staff” to understand safeguarding.
Inspectors gave Qdos a grade two for learner outcomes, three for teaching, learning and assessment and deemed leadership and management grade four.
Qdos offers apprenticeships, traineeships and classroom-based programmes in customer service, ICT and administration, although rules restricting traineeship provision to grade one and two lead providers, and also grade three subcontractors, mean it will be forbidden from recruiting more trainees.
No-one from the SFA was available to comment.
In another Ofsted report published on the same day, Prior Pursglove College, a Yorkshire-based sixth form college, shot from a grade four rating to a grade two.
The 1,983-learner college was judged good by inspectors visiting in March, having made “impressive improvement” since being deemed inadequate in its last inspection in December 2013.
The report said: “Leaders and governors have taken decisive and successful action to improve the quality of provision and outcomes for students.”
Principal Judy Burton said the college was “absolutely delighted” and “exceptionally pleased with inspectors’ findings”.
“We were disappointed with Ofsted’s findings last year but our fantastic team of staff have spent the last fifteen months relentlessly driving improvements across the board to regain our reputation as an excellent college which offers the very best for all students,” she said.
With notable past experience advising those in the corridors of power on FE, Roger Dawe outlines what he’d be saying if called upon for his views today.
Bromley College has been doing relatively well and has been diversifying into new areas — a Career College for hospitality, food and enterprise, the recruitment of 14 to 16-year-olds, securing approval for a University Technical College, setting up a Multi Academy Trust, establishing strong links with employers in the community and wider, and becoming a technical and vocational hub for local schools.
For me, it has been a new and exciting experience to be at the sharp end of FE for the first time. But it is becoming increasingly sharp.
Compared with some colleges, our financial position is good but we are coming under increasing pressure. Looking ahead, with the large cuts in adult funding for 2015-16, the financial outlook for us as for all colleges involves formidable challenges especially for our courses for adult students.
The increasingly serious financial position of the sector is not at all surprising. All the significant education and training expenditure cuts throughout the last Parliament were focussed on FE, both on 16 to 18-year-olds and on adults, and there are further huge cuts to come on adult funding in 2015-16.
It can be an uphill task inside government to get the right deal for FE compared with schools and higher education
Expenditure on schools up to 16 has been protected in real terms. Most universities have done very well out of the £9,000 student fee and are in a strong financial position. And expenditure on apprenticeships has increased and will continue to do so.
At Bromley College we are doing our best to link into all of these areas through sponsoring academies, through providing a large number of higher education places and through linking with employers on apprenticeships. But the core business remains, as it should be for a college, FE — and that is under increasingly severe financial pressure.
In my Departmental days in the period before a General Election the major task during the election campaign was to look ahead and prepare advice for incoming Government of any colour. Usually in those days it was sufficient to prepare two briefing folders — a larger number may be required this time.
If I were still an official advising whatever party or parties come to power in May on FE, I would want to emphasise a number of things. Firstly, the FE sector has a central part to play in lifting the qualifications and skills of young people and adults. This is absolutely key to the continued growth of the economy, to promoting social mobility and to helping young people and adults into apprenticeships, work or higher education.
Next, the financial position and prospects of the sector are more serious than they have ever been since it was set up in 1993. As a result a record number of colleges are in serious financial difficulties. There needs to be an immediate review of the overall financial position of the sector and rapid action to tackle the serious problems which have developed.
Then, and looking ahead, protection of expenditure on children up to 16 should be extended to young people aged 16 to 18.
I’d also want to raise the fact that 2015-16 cuts to adult funding are particularly severe and threatening for the future provision of adult education of all kinds and for the future sustainability of colleges. They should be reviewed in the light of the representations made from the sector. Looking further ahead, there should be an examination of the purposes and financing of adult education.
Finally, I’d emphasise the pressure on all FE colleges to improve performance, results and employability and to work closely with employers and the local community should, of course, continue but within a reasonable financial context.
I know from my Departmental days that it can be an uphill task inside government to get the right deal for FE compared with schools and higher education. Schools are more ‘political’. University leaders have strong political links, and most Ministers and journalists are more familiar with universities where they received their education than with colleges. So good luck to my successors working on the FE front — for all of our sakes.
Anthony Mann looks at the issue of careers advice with the demands of employers for workers with certain skills becoming ever-more complex.
Two elements of education and skills policy have, of late, attracted particularly intense controversy. Both are Cinderellas of their sectors and the two are related: careers education and adult skills provision.
What connects them is that they are at the sharp end of action to ensure there is a meaningful relationship between the skills delivered by providers and those actually demanded by employers.
Careers provision and adult skills training should be acutely sensitive to the labour market’s touch.
There are indications to suggest, however, that sensitivity levels are falling into evil step-sister territory with scale and volume of provision in both areas out of kilter with demand.
It’s a concern that has been identified by thinktanks like Reform, which recently brought together leading FE figures, including Professor Alison Wolf, to take stock of the issues with a roundtable conversation under the title Adding value in the labour market: what role for ‘second chance’ education? What was clear from the debate is that a crisis is coming into view, not just of short term funding, but of structural change requiring strategic response.
We see people finding themselves possessing skills now unwanted, while employers struggle to expand into new fields because they can’t find the skills they need
In an attempt to get to grips with this change, last month I ran an experiment. The charity where I work runs a free, national volunteering programme called Inspiring the Future. Employee volunteers sign up to make themselves available to schools and colleges looking to help students make careers choices and develop skills for employment.
I wanted to know how many of the volunteers signing up had unique job titles. I was interested in the ways in which work is becoming more complex. Over recent years, a chorus of commentators, led by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has argued that complexity is growing and it is a problem — for young people, for adults, for education and training providers and for governments.
Analysts highlight the rise of self-employment, small and medium sized enterprise (SME) employment and the ways in which economic sectors can experience rapid changes in skills demand linked to technological innovation: witness online retail, electronic engine maintenance, replacement of people with machines at every multiplex cinema.
Essentially, the argument runs that if the labour market is more complex, then it is harder for employer demand to be signalled and for providers to put on the right courses and for students to choose them.
More complex labour markets increase the risk of skills mismatch. Complexity relates to ways in which technological innovation changes work, the ways that it can and does destroy trades, creates new jobs and rapidly changes working practices. The new wave of digital automation is changing work fundamentally.
Young people have long struggled to understand demand in their local labour markets, making decisions on the basis of aspirations which, collectively, have nothing in common with projected skills demand.
The risks of poor decision making have long been high, it will only get greater if high quality careers provision, rich in first hand experiences of the workplace, does not become the norm.
The risks, moreover, to individuals of getting caught out grows too. We cannot trust the market to provide — where once teenagers got tastes of the local labour market from part-time work, the Saturday job is now dying; and with liberalisation of labour market regulation, employers (predictably) are investing less in training.
Through no fault of their own, we see people finding themselves possessing skills now unwanted, while employers struggle to expand into new fields because they can’t find the skills they need.
The moral and economic case combines to drive a re-evaluation of how the worlds of education, training and work relate.
Which brings me back to my test. I looked at the job titles of 675 Inspiring the Future volunteers who registered over a three-week period in January. How many were unique? The outstanding answer: 670. Economic life is changing and quickly: the need is for a strategic response to the challenges it presents.
Businesses have called on the government to keep faith with its employer ownership of skills pilot despite a damning review of the project having revealed the first stage had resulted in less than 40 per cent of desired starts.
A review (pictured below right) of the £340m pilot, which aimed to involve employers in the design of skills training by giving them public money to combine with their own investment, has revealed that starts were at 37 per cent of the 10,000 apprenticeships and 90,000 non-apprenticeship qualifications originally planned in grant offer letters from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
The review outcome sparked a call from Association of Colleges chief executive Martin Doel for an investigation by MPs, while Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Stewart Segal said it was “disappointing”.
But despite criticisms in the review that a lack of demand or commitment from employers was a factor in the low recruitment numbers, businesses that were involved in the first pilot have sung the praises of the scheme and called for continued faith in it.
Toby Peyton-Jones (pictured), HR director for Siemens UK, told FE Week: “There is no doubt that employer ownership of skills has set the right policy direction for the future as it drives a demand led approach to skills development.”
He said the pilot was “working well” despite “difficulties” with early contracting, adding: “There are of course learning points that need to be made on implementation of these new policies, but the demand-led direction of travel is right, and we need to work out how to make it better not try to reverse what is probably one of the most important innovations in the skills arena for decades.”
Steve Pallas, training manager at Nissan’s Sunderland plant, said: “The employee ownership of skills pilot helped Nissan launch five new car models in two years, supporting the training and skills development of over 3,000 Nissan employees and involving additional staff from a further 25 companies in our supply chain.
“The value of the employee ownership of skills fund is that it gives us increased flexibility in developing the skills of our workforce to meet the needs of the business. In addition to providing match-funding from Nissan and our suppliers, having exceeded the targets in our grant letter, we’re confident we’re providing value for money.”
Dr Adam Marshall, policy director for the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “The employer ownership of skills pilot has been a useful way to find out what does and doesn’t work when it comes to boosting business investment in skills.
“From the lessons learned it’s important that we now look forward and think about how we can help more interested businesses to get involved, while keeping other routes to access training open too.”
A round 30 days to go and we may know who the next government will be and the damage these ‘wannabe’ leaders are inflicting on the apprenticeship vision might be over.
It’s the time of the year when we are talking to this summer’s school-leavers who want to become an apprentice and already several are concerned that an apprenticeship may not be available to them if Labour get into power.
Those looking to start their craft careers in hotel and catering or construction, typically NVQ level two entry level skills, are being put off by Labour’s plans to abandon intermediate apprenticeships and demand A-level entry for advanced apprenticeships as the only apprenticeship option.
At the same time they are promising to build 250,000 new homes a-year with no mention of how to fix the skills shortage of construction workers or train young people for this industry.
Again, we are finding resistance from employers about commencing apprenticeship programmes at the moment with the uncertainty of their future content if the Conservatives return to power following the various Trailblazer fiascos and uncertainties.
Why would an employer wish to commit time and resources to an apprenticeship programme when the Conservatives’ current plans are uncharted, unclear and untested?
It will be interesting to see what effect all the political claptrap about apprentices throughout the election campaign has on actual start numbers, which are already declining.
Both potential apprentices and employers want certainty and consistency before committing, not just political rhetoric.
I wonder how long it will be before the voucher is viewed as an additional bureaucratic burden and scrapped rather than a political expediency to support the government’s mantra of the employers controlling the funding
Outside of the education trade press, I have not read or heard any political commentator or candidate comment on the vicious slash in funding to the FE sector.
It’s disappointing how considered reports based on empiric evidence, such as the Russell review of FE or the Leach report on the country’s skills requirements are so quickly kicked into touch without their recommendations ever coming fully to fruition.
Our young people deserve, and our country requires, the skills needed to grow the economy.
Whether through apprenticeships or full-time vocational courses, the consequences of not funding them will result in economic growth stalling, or more imported skilled labour resulting in increasing Neets (those not in education, employment or training).
I am glad the government has decided to allow apprenticeship funding to continue to be paid directly to providers, albeit with a sop to employers with a voucher.
I wonder how long it will be before the voucher is viewed as an additional bureaucratic burden and scrapped rather than a political expediency to support the government’s mantra of the employers controlling the funding by selecting the provider they wish to choose. It is a relief to us at HIT.
Employers already have the choice of which provider or college to use. However, we continually find at the various trade show we attend around the country, many employers, especially small and medium-sized enterprises are unaware of the availability and breadth of the apprenticeship programmes on offer. Selling the apprenticeship concept to new employers is much easier if they are not burdened or put off by having to claim the money from government themselves and then pass payment to their provider.
At a time of reduced funding and increasing costs, it was pleasing to note a 20 per cent decline in fuel costs on our monthly £100k plus petrol and diesel bills.
About half our trainer-assessor staff opt to have a company car, boldly emblazoned with the HIT red bow tie logo to undertake their site visits to their learners.
Now we are moving to a metallic bright red mini with the logo in black and white, a design which will with be as distinctive and recognizable as our current one. We attract a lot of business from the 0800 number on the side of our vehicles as well as a variety of comments on the quality of the driving or the driver.
A sailboat cannot travel forward with the wind blowing straight towards it — instead, the boat must zig-zag, travelling diagonally across the path it wants to take.
So even if the boat has travelled three miles in total, it may only have progressed two miles in its intended direction — in sailing parlance, only some of its velocity is “made good”.
This, says Lindsey Noble, interim principal of Greenwich Community College, is “a pretty good metaphor” for running a troubled college — and she should know, having completed the Clipper Round the World challenge in 2013/14, before taking the helm at the grade four-rated college in January.
“We want to get to a position where we’ve got a reasonably viable strategic plan — I mean, it can’t be a perfect document in the time available — but a reasonable restatement of where the college is going,” she says of Greenwich, which was reviewed by the FE Commissioner, just days after Noble became principal, in a visit triggered by the Ofsted grade, but which also unearthed concerns over the 5,000-learner college’s finances.
But, buffeted by funding cuts and future uncertainty, the 60-year-old Noble admits it will be a challenge to make progress in the direction she wants.
Switzerland skipper Vicky Ellis and Noble on board the yacht
“We want to be in a position to pass a viable budget in July for next year, and that obviously means the college will be downsizing as a result of the funding cuts and the decline in recruitment,” she explains.
“There’s a lot of work involved to do that — strategic planning, quality, and then making sure that we can do a financial recovery, or we can demonstrate that the financial recovery is possible within two years.”
And like sailing, you need data and calculations to get you there.
“You have an action plan based on the seven areas Ofsted have given us to focus on and you’re using data to monitor students’ performance more effectively and hold teachers and managers to account — a simple statement, but it gives rise to a whole load of issues about organising data not just for funding,” says Noble.
“But it’s not a case of whether we can afford to do this or that or the other — it’s got to be done, otherwise the college doesn’t exist.”
And it was for data management that she discovered an affinity during the clipper race, drawing information about the yacht’s position, course and oncoming weather patterns below deck — a task many crew members found difficult as being in the cabin often induces seasickness.
She may have had a strong stomach but, concedes Noble, it was “a completely different sort of challenge” to anything she’d experienced before.
“I wanted to see how I got on with the people and the pressure — because I can be a bit prickly and difficult,” she says.
And despite living in a confined space with the rest of the 10-strong crew of the yacht The Switzerland, Noble says she “got on better with the people than I expected”.
Noble saying bye to friend Laura Downton before setting off on the trip
“I didn’t lose it with anybody — I lost it with machinery, but then everyone lost it with machinery,” she adds.
And, she says, the experience of living in a space of six feet by two feet, although “bizarre” prepared her well for taking on the interim role at Greenwich, commuting for the week from her home in Winchester.
“I’m living out of a suitcase now — but I am used to living without much stuff around me now,” she says.
The physical challenge of the gruelling, four hours on, four hours off, six hours on and six hours off regime took its toll.
“After the first leg I was thinking, ‘I want to get off’ — I think a lot of people do that,” she says.
“In the middle of the ocean, when you realise you can’t do something, that left me wondering if I had bitten off more than I could chew, but I stuck it out.”
Noble took up the challenge, she says, because she’s “always been probably naively confident that I could do stuff”.
It’s a self-confidence that stood her in good stead in her own education, growing up in Surbiton, a Surrey suburb of London.
“I wasn’t always particularly successful at education, but I always enjoyed it,” she says.
“I always came out of whatever I was doing feeling I had learnt something, though whether it was the right thing is another matter.”
After escaping the “boring”, “soft suburban south” for a geography degree at Sheffield University, Noble joined Debenhams as a management trainee and then moved into sales and marketing.
But when considering returning to work after the birth of her daughter, Fern, who is now aged 26, Noble realised retail marketing wasn’t where she wanted to be, so did an MBA and discovered an interest in not-for-profit organisations.
It’s not a case of whether we can afford to do this or that or the other — it’s got to be done, otherwise the college doesn’t exist
“I enjoyed communication and I was very interested in finding out and understanding the process of influencing people to change their lives for the better — so I chose education or health,” she says.
The first job that came up was in marketing at South East Essex College (now part of South Essex College).
“At the time I didn’t know much about FE,” says Noble.
“Marketing had given me a good commercial background, but I wanted to generate more good for society, the feeling that, after a day’s work, one has done something meaningful and important — which of course, as we all know, is what FE is all about.”
After a range of management roles over the next eight years, in around 2000, Noble’s thoughts began to turn towards leadership.
“That wasn’t one of the occasions where I was over-confident,” she says.
“I had done the Aspiring Principals programme or something similar, and the sector was describing how it needed good, trained people as principals, and I thought I would give it a go.”
After her 12 years as principal at City College Southampton, which she left in a grade two-rated condition, she set off on the round the world challenge — and even after just 18 months out of the sector, she can see changes.
“I think the speed of intervention when there are problems is faster, because it took quite a long time to galvanise people to support us in my previous position,” she says.
“The level of scrutiny is very, very high — you are being scrutinised by the FE commissioner on the one hand, scrutinised by Ofsted on the other and obviously, scrutinised by the Skills Funding Agency.”
The crew of the Switzerland
But, she adds, the scrutiny and support has been “helpful” at Greenwich.
One of the key ideas behind the senior management team’s efforts to turn college around is an understanding that “one size doesn’t fit all”, she says.
“We’ve got some areas that are good,” she says.
“But we still need to encourage empowerment amongst our curriculum team leaders and managers, and if we ask for them to take responsibility and accountability, we you have to give them the freedom to use some tools, within a clear policy framework, to make things right for their students to get the outcomes that they want.”
Changes in the college have to happen, but Noble is determined it will happen with the support of staff.
“On the whole, like every FE college, Greenwich is full of very talented, very intelligent people, because we are all in education, so most people understand really,” she says.
Once she’s weathered the storm at Greenwich, and got it heading back on course, Noble plans to sail into the sunset once again — although this time at a more leisurely pace.
“The plan for me in the future is eventually to live on a boat in the Mediterranean,” she says.
It’s a personal thing
What is your favourite book, and why?
At the moment I’m reading Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and enjoying it. I like non-fiction as well as fictional treatments of history like Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
The Switzerland passing the Thames Barrier as it began its voyage
What do you do to switch off from work?
I do try to get to the gym and do yoga. At the weekends I will walk the my dog, Morse, a West Highland terrier, eat out and go to the gym — I do yoga, body balance and body pump classes
What’s your pet hate?
At the moment it’s the unpleasantness of people on the tube. Even though I have a bad foot in a brace at the moment, a woman raced me to the last seat on the tube. I couldn’t believe it
If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?
I would be very interested to know what Shakespeare made of 21st Century life. So I’d like to pick him up in a helicopter from the 17th Century and take him to a modern London restaurant for dinner to see what he thought
