The latest inadequate grading from Ofsted has emerged less than 24 hours after the government announced plans for a new FE Commissioner to challenge failing colleges.

The 30,000-learner City of Bristol College has fallen from a 2010 good grading following inspection last month.

The college, which was the sixth biggest in England, with a turnover of £67.5m for the year ending July 31, 2011, according to the Skills Funding Agency, has released a statement on the grading.

However, the report itself has not been published by Ofsted yet.

Principal Lynn Merilion said improvements were already under way.

FE Week will be covering the report, including further reaction from the Bristol college, in full when it has been released.

City of Liverpool College fell from a 2009 outstanding grade to inadequate around three weeks ago.

Principal Elaine Bowker said there was a “strong commitment [at the college] to tackling any weaknesses”.

The government has said the FE Commissioner, who will be able to call for failing colleges to be shut down, was expected to be in place for September.

UPDATE: Read the FE Week follow-up article here.

Proposals for the FE Guild have been criticised as a “bad April fool” by the NUS after it emerged there could be no student representation on the board.

A draft guild implementation plan, seen by FE WEEK, suggests seats on the board for the Association of Colleges (AoC), the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and the Association of Adult Education and Training Organisations (AAETO), which operates under the name HOLEX.

The plan compares the guild to the York-based HE Academy, which does have learner representation on its board, but there are no plans for a recognised student voice on the guild board.

Toni Pearce, vice president of the NUS and spokesperson on FE, said: “The attempt to remove student representation from the sector would risk undermining the guild’s credibility from the start.

“It goes without saying that we intend to resist this patronising and regressive attempt to erode the learner voice.”

Referring to guild aims outlined in the draft document, she added: “For the guild to define its measure of success ‘genuine improvement in learner outcomes and experiences’ and then seek to remove national student representation reads like a bad April fool.”

The proposals for the guild have been defended by the AoC, which has been contracted to develop the guild. Its chief executive, Martin Doel, said: “The need to engage with learners is a very firm commitment in the implementation plan.

“The steering group considered the best way of achieving this and did not feel that having a single representative as a director on the board was the most effective way to achieve the level of engagement needed.”

He added: “An early task for the implementation team, working with the steering group is to decide how the student voice is best heard.”

The draft plan acknowledged the importance of learner views on the guild, but proposed that “learners specifically be part of the wider sector engagement processes, rather than part of the governance arrangements”.

But Ms Pearce dismissed this as an attempt “to fob students off” which “merely adds insult to injury”.

The plan further outlines a proposed budget and home for the guild, predicting the total core infrastructure and overhead costs to deliver a year’s activity at £2.8m, based on 32 full time staff — in London.

The plan says: “It should be emphasised that this is a very early estimate… If and when approval for the next phase of development is secured a more detailed, costed activity model will be developed.”

The implementation plan said Central London property costs were around £70 per square foot, in Birmingham they were £44 and in Coventry they were £27.

However, a Central London base was recommended as “the guild is a small organisation and as such any saving or cost between locations is more marginal”.

The plan continued: “Using reasonable assumptions it was calculated that the maximum saving on locating in the Midlands was under £60,000 once additional travel time and other costs had been included.

“This is marginal given the overall size of the guild so it can be concluded that this factor is not as important as proximity to key stakeholders.”

A “phased approach” to funding of the guild was also proposed, with a direct grant from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills covering the guild’s first two years, with a top slice, or levy, of the overall skills budget funding the third year. The guild would aim to be self-funding after that, it adds.

A powerful commissioner who can call for a college to be shut down will be introduced under tough new further education rules due to be announced today.

The FE Commissioner will be sent in if a college is graded ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted, is in financial trouble or is failing to hit learner success targets.

They will report directly to Ministers with the aim of turning the college around within a year.

They could call for institutions to be slapped with ‘Administered College’ status, thereby losing powers such as staff changes, expenditure or transfer of assets.

They could also recommend governors be kicked out, but ultimately they could also call for a college to be dissolved.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock has announced the intervention measures under the government’s new Rigour and Responsiveness in Skills strategy, along with £214m of investment in 47 colleges.

We are interested to know more about the role of the FE Commissioner”

“Where colleges are failing learners we will be knocking on their doors and take swift and effective action,” he said.

“It is a dereliction of duty to let failing colleges teach young people. We will not fail in our duty to act.

“All providers should meet tough standards of rigour and responsiveness. Through these reforms we will be able to intervene without hesitation where they fall short.”

The Shadow Minister Gordon Marsden told FE Week he was concerned about the timing of today’s announcement, saying: “when Ministers return to Parliament after Easter they will have to answer detailed questions on their so called new strategy which should properly have been announced when Parliament was sitting.”

Mr Marsden went on to question if a “new FE Commissioner would cut across Ofsted’s powers and remit and be accountable to MP s and the Select Committee?”, and called for “maximum safeguarding of quality and transparency for college learners and staff in any new set up with no aping by the Skills Minister of the micro- meddling practised by his boss in the Education Department , Michael Gove”

The commissioner role was welcomed by the Association of Colleges, although chief executive Martin Doel also called for further clarification.

“While we wholeheartedly support the proposition that students, businesses and communities served by all colleges deserve the best, our experience is that the triggers for intervention suggested in these proposals may only be required in a very small number of cases each year,” he said.

Mr Doel added: “In the very rare instance of a significant failure there may well be a benefit to having a clear and quicker resolution and we are therefore interested to know more about the role of the FE Commissioner in this regard.”

For colleges who require improvement (one grade better than inadequate), Ofsted will provide enhanced support and work with them on a development plan.

But the new skills strategy also includes stronger action to support good and outstanding colleges.

Lynne Sedgmore, executive director of the 157 Group, said: “We support the development of a tough, but fair approach to intervention when underperformance is identified.

“An FE Commissioner with a clear remit and a due process for intervening in the best interests of students and all stakeholders will help such colleges. For the reputation of the sector, that has to be good.”

Meanwhile, the funding announcement covered £77m of new capital funding to be matched with £137m investment from colleges. It will be allocated through the Skills Funding Agency to support projects ranging from a construction training centre to an automotive technology hub.

The funding is in addition to the £110m of the Enhanced Renewal Grant (ERG3) for 56 colleges announced in November. It means that in 2012-13, the government has invested £187m alongside college investment of £439m to enable important capital works of more than £625m.

Mr Doel said: “This new investment in college capital is a very welcome acknowledgement of their contribution to economic recovery — new buildings and facilities improve the student experience and help attract further investment from business.”

Mrs Sedgmore added: “It is good that the strategy acknowledges the vital role that colleges play in the skills development of individuals and localities. The additional capital investment in 47 colleges is recognition of that good work.”

A government spokesperson said it was hoped the FE Commissioner would be recruited by June with the new intervention arrangements in force from August.