The front line, the back office, and the long corridor in between

Former House of Commons Education Select Committee specialist Ben Nicholls is head of policy at London’s Newham College. He writes exclusively for FE Week every month

Michael Gove, easily the naughtiest boy in the class in many teachers’ eyes, got himself into trouble again last week. But this time he might be feeling a bit unfairly treated as he was taking the rap for a colleague’s misbehaviour.

The Education Secretary was hauled back in front of the Commons education committee over concerns about his special advisers’ alleged bullying attitudes towards staff at the Department for Education, and if the defensive tone of his letter to the committee’s acting chair, Pat Glass, is anything to go by, he wasn’t entirely happy about it.

The bullying issue is clearly important. But other than that it’s difficult, perhaps, to work up much interest in this story. Outside the Westminster-Whitehall village, ministers’ special advisers – or SpAds – seem pretty irrelevant.

It’s easy, in fact, to agree with Sir David Bell, once permanent secretary at the department and now Reading’s vice-chancellor, who said last year that he “cannot get excited about the issue of special advisers, having worked with quite a few.” He argued that they are “an important part of our system” but are “only small in number compared with the department as a whole”.

Sir David is undoubtedly right, but SpAds are, as he noted, “very powerful”, which might lead – as Gove’s recall suggests – to them getting a little big for their boots. Concerns exist, too, that SpAds might be part of a growing ‘politicisation’ of the civil service.

But of arguably more concern is the provenance of whatever advisers are closest to ministers. Are the political advisers closest to our own political servants (let’s not go with masters) and experts in the fields they advise on? Are the civil servants involved? And, most important, what should the balance be?

Concerns exist, too, that SpAds might be part of a growing ‘politicisation’ of the civil service”

Sir David has argued that the current system ‘requires’ that civil servants are generalists, and there are plenty of advantages to this. It means that experts bring a useful degree of outsiders’ scrutiny to issues; further, it means that civil servants are recruited not for specialist knowledge, which arguably ought to be condensed at the front line where it is needed, but for more general skills that are transferable between departments and jobs. In theory this means the system is efficient and well-organised.

This said, though, Sir David’s former colleague Jon Coles – now heading the United Learning Trust – argues that a strength of the department is “its ability and willingness to bring in very senior practitioners from outside and to have civil servants going outside… so that there is a proper understanding of life in the education system in the department”.

The department itself lists several such appointments in a recent report – including ex-headteachers Charlie Taylor and Elizabeth Sidwell – and has promised to consider “how to increase secondments into the department”.

This opportunity might provide particular scope for FE, offering as it does a breadth of provision rarely found in schools, sixth forms or universities, and which might prove useful to the department and its (rightly generalist) civil servants.

And yet the department rejected the call of the Commons education committee, in 2011, to appoint chief advisers on education and children’s services, and its first round of non-executive directors following the election included more representatives from the financial sector than the world its policies impact on.

At a time when politicians themselves are so mistrusted, these questions of the gap between the front line and the back office are critical, particularly if – as I pleaded in my last column – we are serious as a sector when it comes to engaging with the policy development process.

How the FE sector – and its students – are being starved

It’s time to end the inequity that means more than 103,000 16 to 18-year-old college students miss out on a free school meal, says Nic Dakin

If you’re 16 or 17 and in a school sixth form, you can get a free school meal; if you’re at an FE or sixth-form college, you cannot. This simply isn’t fair.

As a former principal I know how important it is for students to have a meal during the college day. There is a direct correlation with better motivation, attendance and achievement.

That’s why I’ve been a keen supporter of the Association of Colleges’ No Free Lunch? campaign.

I’m not alone. MPs from all political parties supported my ten-minute rule bill (a parliamentary device to raise an issue and put pressure on the government) to right this wrong.

As a result, the government now understands the strength of feeling about the issue. So much so that it has moved away from the argument that it could not do anything about it because colleges did not have the kitchen facilities.

A clear nonsense, but that’s what it said. Now it is saying that the schools don’t get the extra money when everyone knows it was consolidated into their base budget some time ago.

More than 103,000 16 to 18-year-old college students miss out on a free school meal as a result.

Worse still, 13.3 per cent of college students are from more disadvantaged backgrounds, compared with 8.3 per cent of school students. This means that those with the greatest need are suffering the greatest disadvantage.

This unfairness is causing real hardship to colleges and their students, especially now the education maintenance allowance has been scrapped.

It will only get worse if the participation age is raised.

The chaotic fragmentation of post-16 education is another reason to right this wrong. It cannot be right that a student at the Hackney University Technical College can get a free meal, while the student at Hackney FE College – they share a campus, remember – cannot.

And if that injustice isn’t enough, consider this: funding per 16 to 18-year-old is lower than in other stages of education.

In 2012/13, funding per full-time 16 to 18-year-old will average £4,543, while funding per secondary pupil aged 11 to 16 will average £5,576.

Those with the greatest need are suffering the greatest disadvantage”

It’s hard to believe that it can really be 22 per cent cheaper to educate a 16 to 18-year-old compared with a younger child.

Interestingly, once the same student goes on to university he or she will have an average £8,000 spent on them for a teaching week of around 14 hours.

Unlike schools, colleges have to pay VAT on revenue spending and buildings. The new academies are almost identical to colleges in their legal status, but are exempt from paying VAT on most of their purchases.

There is no rational reason or argument for this difference.

And what’s more, academies currently get their insurance costs back from the government; colleges do not.

Finally, it’s worth noting that unlike all other education institutions, sixth-form colleges get no quality improvement funds.

I worked in post-16 education for 30 years so know how hard people in the sector work and what a great job they do.

But they are being asked to perform more than miracles now. It’s not surprising that the number of experienced principals deciding to retire is reaching epidemic proportions.

But what matters is treating our young people fairly.

While the government seems content to sprinkle money around liberally on its pet projects of free schools, university technical colleges and the like, public money is being wasted on inefficient, unproven structures.

Meanwhile the FE sector — with its track record of success and innovation — and its students are being starved.

The students, their colleges and UK plc are missing out.

Nic Dakin, Labour MP for Scunthorpe and member of the Education Select Committee 

WonderWalsall

The first general FE college to achieve an outstanding grade under Ofsted’s tough new inspection regime has been announced.

Walsall College, in the West Midlands, won glowing praise from the education watchdog across its headline fields.

Its success means the college is also the first to get a published Ofsted report with outstanding for teaching and learning — a field that, under the common inspection framework introduced in September, limits the overall grade.

Principal Jatinder Sharma (pictured with college staff, students and governors) said: “We are incredibly proud of this achievement and delighted that Ofsted has recognised the college as one of the best in the country for outstanding teaching and learning, and the impact this has on producing high levels of success.

“This would not have been possible without the dedication shown by all staff and governors at the college in ensuring students are stretched and challenged in their studies, enabling them to fulfil their true potential and successfully progress to university or into employment.

“Over the past few years we have also worked hard to develop strategies to create an inclusive environment that promotes equality and diversity, making it easier for all students to access learning and this was again highly praised by the inspectors.”

The 15,000-learner college, rated as good in 2008, was re-inspected around the middle of last month.

The Ofsted report said it was “rooted in its community and works in very strong partnership with key organisations for the benefit of students and to promote the regeneration and prosperity of the borough”.

The report added: “Teachers set very high standards, have very high expectations and use their vocational skills and expertise to make lessons motivating, interesting and memorable.

“Lessons are well planned, engaging and enable students to make rapid progress and achieve well.

“Leaders, managers and governors have an ambitious vision for the college and its students.”

The report comes around four months after chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw’s annual report in which he called on the government to “shine a spotlight” on FE.

He pointed out how 13 colleges were graded as inadequate in 2011/12, compared with four the previous year.

And just two colleges achieved outstanding last year — the most recent being Hampshire’s Eastleigh College in July, inspected under the old framework.

The new framework, introduced from September, followed Ofsted’s Good Education For All consultation that ended last May.

It includes a reduced inspection notice period from three weeks to two days and a potential re-inspection of providers ‘requiring improvement’ within 12 to 18 months.

Providers who get the grade twice in a row can be judged inadequate on their third inspection if they haven’t improved.

The first good grading under the new framework went to City College Plymouth after an inspection in October.

And Mr Sharma said he wanted his college to build on its outstanding grade.

“Our aim now is to continue to embed further improvements and ensure more students in the community are able to access the outstanding education and resources available at Walsall to set them on their chosen career paths,” he said.

“Current students and new students looking to join us in September can be confident that they will be studying at a forward-thinking college highly recognised by Ofsted, for not only producing excellent results, but also for making sure students graduate with the qualifications needed to progress to higher education or the skills required in the workplace.”

It is the second outstanding Ofsted rating to have gone to the Black Country town recently, with Walsall Adult and Community College having achieved the grade — as a local authority provider, rather than general FE — in January.

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Editorial : So it can be done

Huge congratulations to Walsall College on a stunning double first for a general further education college.

The outstanding result comes in stark contrast to our last front page story, which reported on City of Liverpool College’s grade four.

And all this follows a string of poor results and a less than complimentary annual report from Ofsted.

So beyond the obvious congratulations and reward of recognition, this should come as a welcome relief to other large colleges.

Why? Because it shows that a large college can achieve an outstanding grade with an “assiduous determination to improve the quality of teaching and learning”.

Oh, and under the new Ofsted inspection regime Walsall now has an outstanding college as well as an outstanding local authority provider of adult education.

So in the postcode lottery of quality providers, it seems WS is the place to be.

Nick Linford, editor of FE Week

Gordon Marsden, shadow skills minister

Picture the young Gordon Marsden on his first day as a tutor for the Open University. It is the early 1980s. He is standing in a hall in Tottenham, North London, and no one is taking much notice of him. He is 20 years younger than most of the others in the hall. What to do?

“I went to the front and heavily put my files on the desk and said: ‘I am Gordon Marsden and I am your course tutor’. We took it from there,” says the Shadow Skills Minister.

It may have been a shaky start, but it was the start of a long love affair between the now 59-year-old and the university.

So much so that he went on to tutor part-time in history for the next 20 years. But it wasn’t his first – or only – job. He’d already worked in public relations before editing History Today, as well as New Socialist.

This was after graduating from the University of Oxford and completing  postgraduate research at Harvard University, all before he was 30.

But it is the ethos of the Open University — education for all — that has resonated most with Marsden.

“Giving people life chances is very important to me; it is at the centre of my political beliefs,” he says.

“Socialism is what Labour governments do, but for me it was always about practical things to improve people’s life chances.”

Marsden won Blackpool South for Labour in the late 1990s, a seat that he retains today.

“I knew Blackpool as a child and I thought that seaside and coastal towns had had a raw deal in terms of small businesses and tourism,” he says.

“But these things are important because of the cultural and historical resonance so I asked, ‘how do we get this town regenerated?’ How do we get skills?’ I also pushed the position of small businesses.

“In 1997, I became the first Labour MP in Blackpool. I thought whatever else happens to me, I’ve always got a little piece of history here.”

Marsden, who lives in Brighton with his partner of 28 years, Richard, grew up in a Labour household.

His father had been a trade union shop steward and, by the age of 10, the schoolboy from Romiley, just outside Stockport, had already stood for Labour in a mock election.

“I knew it was the party for me then, so when I was 17 I decided to join,” he says.

“I tracked down the local secretary who lived with his mother nearby and was literally signed up there and then in his front room.

“His mother gave me a hand-knitted Labour rosette, which I still have.  My involvement with the party from those days really coloured my view of what I thought politics was about.”

Marsden, born in Manchester, describes his railway engineer father and housewife mother as “ordinary working-class” people who “thoroughly supported him” through life.

The 1980s were a very difficult time for the Labour Party and a very frustrating time for me”

He went to grammar school and was the first of his family to win a university place, giving his parents “very quiet pride”.

He describes his days studying history at Oxford as a “very important experience”.

“I met a huge range of people from different backgrounds and there were lots of opportunities to get involved with things — the debating society, historical society, literary groups and the Fabian Society,” he recalls.

“It focuses you sharply when you come from a background where no one had gone to university, let alone Oxford.

“I was there in the mid to late 1970s and I was very grateful, but there were a lot of people who I felt had come from much more privileged backgrounds who were playing at being revolutionaries. I used to call them mini Marxists.”

He got to know many well-known figures, including Peter Mandelson and Benazir Bhutto [Pakistan’s only female Prime Minister, who was assassinated in 2007].

“Benazir was a close friend,” says Marsden.

“It was difficult at the time because the situation in Pakistan was so complex and we were all very concerned about what would happen in the future for her. It was a great loss, not just for her friends and family but also for her country.”

Marsden continued to pursue his love of history — handed to him, he says, by his grandfather — researching medieval religion for the Warburg Institute after university. But he crossed the Atlantic when the chance came up to take a year out to look into US politics.

He arrived on the eve of Jimmy Carter’s presidency, and was soon involved with an inquiry on human rights in Eastern Europe.

On his return, Margaret Thatcher was taking power for the Conservatives and academic jobs were, he says, “thin on the ground”.

Although the young academic landed the “dream job for a historian”, editing History Today, at his heart Marsden was still a political man, worrying about the bigger picture and the country in which he lived.

“The 1980s were a very difficult time for the Labour Party and a very frustrating time for me,” he says.

“I felt a lot of posturing and sloganising  was getting in the way of the big issues to improve people’s lives and the things that we should have been doing to fight Thatcherism and the Conservatives.

“I never thought of leaving the party because it was in my family, but it was only when Neil Kinnock became leader in the mid-1980s that I thought we were getting somewhere.”

He said Lord Kinnock inspired him so much that he wanted to “step up to the plate”. It was then that he started putting himself forward for a seat in Blackpool.

“When Neil Kinnock made his famous speech, ‘why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to go to university?’ he said it wasn’t because his ancestors were not strong — it was because they had no platform on which to build,” says Marsden.

“That’s how I feel when I think of my grandfather and mother.”

Would local enterprise partnerships go some way to addressing this?

“The principle that skills policy should have a very strong local and sub-regional input is essential,” he says.

“We want the highest possible democratic participation in that process of decision-making. The students in FE, the apprentices, their families, local authorities have all got to have a say in that.”

But he adds that engagement between colleges and partnerships varies and his “top priority” is to create “strong, transparent structures and frameworks in education that will allow people to dip in and out.

“We should keep doors open and build bridges, not barriers,” he says.

How does he feel he was able to create his own platform?

“You just have to keep at it. You get disappointments and knockbacks, but you have to pull yourself up and not think that simply because you got on the ladder, that everyone else can get on the same one,” explains Marsden.

“I want to create exciting new frameworks in education that will make Britain prosper — at the same time giving people life chances.”

It’s a personal thing

What’s your favourite book? 

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

What did you want to be when you were younger?

An archaeologist

What do you do to switch off from work?

Listen to music – everything from Hildegard of Bingen and Thomas Tallis, to John Adams and Sufjan Stevens

If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?

Elizabeth I, Charles Dickens, Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan, Desmond Tutu, Louis Macneice [poet], Francis Poulenc [composer]

What would your super power be? 

To visit – and learn from – the past

Halesowen staff escalate action

Halesowen College staff have pledged to boycott lesson observations as four sacked staff announced they were taking the college to an employment tribunal.

The University and College Union (UCU) said that from today around 60 of their members at the college, near Birmingham, would snub “anything to do with lesson observations” as the row over the sackings continued.

The union also claimed to have “discovered” that “replacement lecturers were appointed by the college last October — two months before the existing staff were sacked or had the opportunity to appeal against their dismissals”.

The union’s regional official, Nick Varney, said:  “The new teachers started work on the same day that three of the existing teachers had disciplinary hearings.

“It is extremely telling that members feel so strongly about the behaviour of college management that they have voted to continue taking action alongside the legal action that has the full support of the national union.”

The dispute began with the dismissal of maths lecturer and union branch chair David Muritu on the day before the college closed for Christmas. In January three other maths lecturers — also active union members — were sacked and, like Mr Muritu, have since lost their appeals.

The college said it dismissed Mr Muritu because of his students’ poor results.

At the time the college told FE Week they had provided the lecturer “intensive support” over a period of three years.

“However, David Muritu had failed to make any improvement in student attainment, and indeed the pass rate declined further over the period,” said a college spokesperson.

But the UCU claimed the former maths lecturer was “treated unfairly” labelling it an “attack” on union workers.

Mr Varney added: “At all the appeals the employer did not have enough evidence against the individuals to dismiss them and used students’ failure to achieve certain levels of attainment as a basis for sacking them. Not only is this unfair, but it threatens all lecturers’ jobs at the college.

“The industrial action makes the point that all the lecturers were sacked despite good teaching grades from their lesson observations.”

Union members took strike action on February 14, claiming they were “banned” from delivering a mock Valentine’s Day card to college principal Keith Bate with thousands of signatures calling for the sacked lecturers’ reinstatement.

FE Week reported last month how union members marched through the Midland town chanting support for the “Halesowen four”, as they have become known in press coverage, just a month after a picket on the same issue.

The college declined to comment on the union’s latest claims.

Colleges keep sign–off on 16 to 18 provision

The government has clarified its position on local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) after FE leaders were left scratching their heads after what one sector leader called “bizarre” official advice.

The confusion revolves around the extent to which LEPs had sign-off on 16 to 18 provision.

On Monday, March 18, the government said that “all FE learning providers must consult and agree their provision with LEPs to ensure the courses they offer to 16 to 18-year-olds reflect local labour requirements”.

However, the Department for Education (DfE) later told FE Week: “Ultimately, schools and colleges remain autonomous and are free to decide how to meet the needs of their students.”

The issue surfaced after the government’s response to Lord Heseltine’s No Stone Unturned report, which, among other things, called for power to be devolved to LEPs.

In last week’s Budget, Chancellor George Osborne further indicated the government’s acceptance of the former deputy prime minister’s ideas, by making reference to a “Single Local Growth Fund…operational by April 2015”.

However, James Kewin, deputy chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges’ Association, questioned the wisdom of giving LEPs sign-off on its largely academic 16 to 18 provision.

He said: “Given that around three-quarters of what we deliver is either AS or A-level, it would be bizarre to insist that we must agree our provision with LEPs.

“It is interesting that there is not a corresponding requirement for schools or academies to agree their provision in this way, even though many have a sixth form and are in direct competition with our members.”

But a government spokesperson has now clarified the apparently conflicting guidance.

He said the DfE was right, and added: “We are encouraging colleges to have a strong focus on work and meeting skills shortages.

“As part of this we want LEPs to have an influence over skills policy and to set local skills strategies against which colleges can respond, with chartered status for FE colleges being dependent on taking account of partnership priorities.”

Programmes offered by colleges for learners of all ages are already designed in line with labour market intelligence.”

The issue of LEPs remains a concern among FE leaders, though, with the government having accepted 81 of Lord Heseltine’s 89 recommendations, including FE providers having to consult with LEPs.

And the Chancellor said more decisions on LEPs — including the possible inclusion of the adult skills budget in a single funding pot — would be made in the annual spending review, in June.

Lynne Sedgmore, 157 Group executive director, said: “Programmes offered by colleges for learners of all ages are already designed in line with labour market intelligence and in partnerships with employers.

“Formal scrutiny by LEPs and employers must add value to what is already a rigorous quality assurance and partnership process.

“How can colleges be assured and convinced that LEPs have the capacity and skills to
carry out this role effectively, and not just add an additional layer of bureaucracy and cost
to a skills system that works very effectively and is fit for purpose?”

Julian Gravatt, assistant chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said: “Colleges are keen to correspond with, and be influenced by, LEPs in how the skills funding colleges currently receive is deployed to best effect. But this does not mean that we need to re-create the bureaucracy of training and enterprise councils or similar.”

Scrabble to rename the FE Guild

The proposed FE Guild could have a different name by the time it is launched in August.

Peter Davies, who heads a project helping to shape the guild, said a survey was set up after consultation revealed that more than 60 per cent of respondents did not like the original title.

He said that many of the 200 or so replies to the survey suggested that FE did not “reflect the whole sector” while the word guild was “a bit traditional”.

Other suggestions have included the words skills, institute or alliance, said Mr Davies, former principal of London-based adult education provider City Lit.

He said it was important that the organisation — designed to set professional standards in FE as funding ends for the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) — should not alienate any part of the sector.

“There was a view that we needed to look at the name,” he said.

It’s important to get the name right to give it some stability”

“People felt strongly that the further education — FE — aspect did not cover the whole sector. Some felt that the title referred just to colleges and private providers, and many felt guild was more linked to individuals rather than an organisation.

“We’ve all seen organisations come and go and I think it’s important to get the name right to give it some stability.”

He said he preferred “something around learning and skills” as it was “more all-embracing”.

But he admitted that some respondents liked the word guild because it “gave a feeling of stability and longevity, which would be quite unique for this sector”.

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education who is independent chair of the guild’s steering group, revealed on Twitter that he preferred the title Guild for Learning and Skills.

And Christine Doubleday, deputy executive director of the 157 Group, said she backed the FE moniker but preferred institute.

“While we fully appreciate the power of the word guild for a craft-based focus, FE is much broader and varied,” she said.

 “Therefore the word institute has broader appeal as in Institute for FE Professionalism, or Professional Institute for FE, or FE Professional Institute, which puts us on a par with other professional bodies.”

During a recent Association of Colleges conference that focused on the guild, Mr Hughes said its steering group, involving representatives from 28 groups, was still considering the priorities of the organisation, due to launch in August.

He estimated the guild would have around £10m to spend in its first year compared with the £100m LSIS had in its first year.

The survey on potential names can be found at www.feguild.info.

It will be discussed at the FE Guild steering group’s meeting on Monday.

Funding protection outlined by Skills Funding Agency

The Skills Funding Agency has announced more detail on a measure to protect providers from potentially huge drops in funding under a new payments regime.

The agency revealed that it would be acting to stop providers’ funding dropping by more than 3 per cent in the next academic year.

Agency payments for delivering qualifications under the new system would also be protected to within 6 per cent the following year.

The measure – termed transitional protection — will also limit the amount the agency pays out, with FE Week research having shown the value of some qualifications could rocket under the agency’s new system.

One such qualification looks set to soar 271 per cent as the agency moves from the ‘demand-led funding formula’ to the ‘streamlined funding system for adults’ from August.

Last month the agency exclusively told FE Week that the protective measure would come into play after research showed the value of many qualifications would fall more than 20 per cent.

These arrangements will ensure the impact on providers from the new funding system will be limited.”

And a recent agency webinar also told of late changes to credit bandings for awards (one to 12 credits) in the agency’s ‘simplified funding rates matrix’.

An agency spokesperson said: “Over the past few months, we have been consulting the sector on the most effective mechanism to underpin the transition to the simplified funding system.

“We are setting out the arrangements for this in the briefings we are now undertaking with providers.

“These arrangements will ensure the impact on providers from the new funding system will be limited to 3 per cent in 2013/14 and 6 per cent in 2014/15.”

She said there would be “specific measures” to protect some areas of provision changing due to wider and longer-term qualification reform, such as at English for Speakers of Other Languages.

The spokesperson was unavailable to further comment on changes to credit bandings.

The change in the value assigned to qualifications in shifting to the new system is called turbulence.

“We accept that the simplified funding system will shift rates of individual qualifications, but our initial assessments suggest that turbulence at provider level will be low in most cases,” the agency has said previously.

“Transitional protection will be put in place to limit this turbulence even further.”

When the current funding system was introduced in 2008/09, transitional protection was also put in place for the same reason and on that occasion funding variations in both directions were limited to a maximum of 2.1 per cent.

‘Inadequate’ grading triggers government funding threat

City of Liverpool College could have its funding withdrawn after falling from outstanding to the lowest Ofsted grade of inadequate.

The Skills Funding Agency and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) said they were “considering action” in response to the 17,000-learner college’s inspection result.

Options listed in the agency’s Provider Risk Assessment and Management guidance include issuing  a notice of concern, suspending recruitment of learners and, ultimately, withdrawing funding. Its 2012/13 academic year the college’s agency allocation was £18.5m.

A joint statement from the agency and BIS said: “Following the publication of the Ofsted report, we are considering the action we will take in line with our published processes for provider risk assessment and management.”

The Liverpool college, which achieved the highest grade almost across the board at its last inspection in early 2009, was revisited in early February. It was graded inadequate in every headline Ofsted field.

It has withdrawn from the 157 Group as a result of the report that said the college, formerly Liverpool Community College, had too many students turning up late for lessons — if at all — and leaving without qualifications.

It said there were improvements in leadership, but governors had “not monitored the significant deterioration in student performance”.

The college must address this major challenge and show how improvements can be made rapidly.”

Principal Elaine Bowker, who took up post mid-2011, said she accepted the result, but declined to add to her statement issued on March 15 – the day the Ofsted report was published.

She said: “We accept the report and are working hard to ensure that the areas highlighted as inadequate are improved.

“We have met with all of our internal teams, from governors to teaching staff, and we are certain that there is a strong commitment to tackle any weaknesses.”

Lynne Sedgemore, 157 Group executive director, said: “We fully understand the college’s top priority will be to focus on improving performance and regaining good or outstanding grades.”

The college remains a member of the Gazelle Group, whose chief executive, Fintan Donohue, said: “Gazelle totally recognises the value of the Ofsted process and every Gazelle college is wholly committed to achieving the highest possible grades.

“However, this is not a deciding factor in the membership, therefore City of Liverpool College’s membership remains unaffected, and Gazelle remains fully supportive of the college.”

Meanwhile, Liverpool City Council’s cabinet member for employment, enterprise and skills, Nick Small, said he was “confident the issues raised by Ofsted have already started to be addressed”.

And Shadow Education Secretary Stephen Twigg, Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, said he would be having regular discussions with Mrs Bowker about the situation at the college.

Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, added: “The college must address this major challenge and show how improvements can be made rapidly. I am confident this can be achieved.”

Steve Rotheram, Labour MP for Liverpool Walton, said: “The leadership team of the college is working hard to ensure that areas highlighted in the Ofsted report are addressed and will continue to do so with our support.”

And Luciana Berger, Labour MP for Liverpool Wavertree, said: “While the Ofsted report was disappointing and the weaknesses must be addressed… I am confident the college will work hard to ensure this happens.”