Latest news from FE Week

The principal of City College Coventry is to leave his job after the Skills Funding Agency demanded “fundamental changes” following a disastrous Ofsted inspection report.

After 16 years in post and two previous poor inspections, Paul Taylor (pictured) was hit with grade four (inadequate) results across each inspection headline field last month.

We have made it clear through the issue of a notice of concern, that an improvement plan that does not include fundamental changes to leadership and governance will not be acceptable,”

He is to be replaced as soon as an interim principal can be found.

It was unclear whether he has decided to leave or was asked to go, but the agency said it had called for change at the top of the 8,000-learner college.

“We have made it clear through the issue of a notice of concern, that an improvement plan that does not include fundamental changes to leadership and governance will not be acceptable,” said an agency spokesperson.
“We will consider and discuss next steps with the college.”

The statement leaves a questionmark hanging over the college’s board of governors, including its chair since 2001, Warwick Hall.

However, a college spokesperson said she was “unaware of any changes planned for the board of governors”.

Coventry’s Ofsted report, published on April 23 following inspection in March, also gave grade fours throughout the main findings board, including apprenticeships and 19+ learning programmes.

Its highest mark was a single grade two for teaching, learning and assessment on independent living and life skills.

Mr Taylor had wanted to stay on despite the blow, saying: “If I walk away I’ll regret it forever.”

But a statement from the college read: “The decision has been taken that Paul Taylor is to leave his position as principal of City College Coventry.

“The board of governors led by the chair and with the support of the Skills Funding Agency and the Association of Colleges is seeking an interim principal. The aim is for the interim principal to be in post by July.”

Meanwhile, Walsall College, among the first to be described as outstanding under Ofsted’s new common inspection framework, and Yorkshire’s Kirklees College, which got a good grading from Ofsted last year just 18 months after it too had been labelled inadequate, are to be involved in the bid to improve the Coventry college.

Mr Hall said: “There is much we can learn from the experience and performance of these two colleges.

“A year after its poor Ofsted report, Kirklees achieved a rating of good across every element of its operations, except leadership and management where it was rated outstanding. This is an achievement I want City College to emulate.”
The Coventry college statement added that a performance improvement action plan was being implemented.

“We are also building a relationship with Walsall College, which has been rated as outstanding, through which it will benchmark its performance and improvement,” it said.

College leaders hoping to play a part in the FE Commissioner hit squad have been put “at a disadvantage” by the job’s specifications.

The deadline for applications to the post, along with its seven advisory posts, ended last week.

But the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) and its leadership arm, the Association of Managers in Education, questioned the requirements of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Education.

This means college leaders will be at a disadvantage, compared with the many national leaders of education, etc, who are already registered and ready to respond to the request to quote.”

The departments wanted candidates registered on the National College for Teaching and Leadership’s operational associate framework so they could issue a request for quotation.

But an ATL spokesperson said this could stifle applications from FE staff.

“The invitation to bid through a request for quotation and the requirement to be registered on the framework will prejudice applications from anyone in FE who hasn’t already set up a limited company — which is ridiculous, given the nature of the role,” they said.

They said the framework was established to save money and to ensure that consultants were not working regularly enough for the taxman to consider them full-time employees.

The spokesperson added: “Even if FE staff have formed a limited company, it will still take a few days to fast-track their application to join the framework.

“This means college leaders will be at a disadvantage, compared with the many national leaders of education, etc, who are already registered and ready to respond to the request to quote.”

But a BIS spokesperson said individuals were not required to be set up as a limited company.

They could register against a company, school, college or university, said the spokesperson, adding that if an organisation was not already included on the framework, potential applicants could register their organisation’s profile on the system.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock announced the FE Commissioner plans last month as part of the government’s Rigour and Responsiveness in Skills strategy.

The strategy said a commissioner would be sent into colleges graded inadequate by Ofsted; in financial trouble; or failing to hit learner success targets. They could call for institutions to be given administered college status, thereby losing powers such as staff changes and expenditure, and could recommend governors be kicked out. Ultimately, they could call for a college to be dissolved.

Lynne Sedgmore, 157 Group executive director, said a team of eight seemed “reasonable”, but she, along with the ATL, questioned the departments’ call for candidates to be registered against broker and practitioner skills frameworks.

“The detail of what the skills frameworks actually entail is slightly elusive,” she said.

“We wonder whether there is anything more specific about social impact and responsibility?”

A BIS spokesperson said: “The FE Commissioner’s appointment and that of the advisers is being managed through the National College for Teaching and Leadership’s e-procurement system.

“We alerted representative bodies and those who had expressed a direct interest to the process and included an article in the FE and skills newsletter, giving interested individuals more than a week to register on the operational framework.”

The lack of learner presence within a new FE body that will set professional standards across the sector has now been taken “seriously”, the National Union for Students’ president-elect has told FE Week.

Toni Pearce spoke out after a union-led discussion on learner engagement at the most recent steering group meeting for the FE Guild. She has now been invited to present a paper to the guild’s board.

It is heartening that the guild has been willing both to hear our arguments and to take them seriously,”

Last month FE Week reported how Ms Pearce called the new organisation’s plan not to include learners on its board as “a bad April fool”. Seats were set aside for the Association of Colleges, the Association of Employment and Learning Providers and the Association of Adult Education and Training Organisations (AAETO), which operates under the name HOLEX.

But Ms Pearce said it was “heartening” that dialogue had now begun between the union and the guild, which is due to launch in August.

“It is heartening that the guild has been willing both to hear our arguments and to take them seriously,” she said.

“We’re optimistic of further progress to ensure the learner voice is heard.”

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and chair of the guild steering group, said its commitment to ensuring learners had a strong voice was “clear”.

“We have agreed that we will develop a joint paper that will ensure the learner voice is heard at the highest levels in the new guild, and this will be presented to the new board when it meets,” he said.

“I look forward to continuing to work with the union.”

Ms Pearce, currently NUS vice-president, and Gemma Painter, NUS head of further education, delivered their paper, FE Guild Governance Arrangements: Involvement of Learners, to the steering group on May 7.

A guild spokesperson said Ms Pearce was also a “key figure” at a recent meeting at Windsor Castle where 27 delegates discussed how the guild would progress.

FE Week reported last month that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills had confirmed funding, excluding VAT, of £18.8m for August to April next year, and the same figure again for 2014-15, to run the guild.

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Editorial

It comes as welcome news that the FE Guild has revisited the issue of learner representation, and now could end up with a seat on its board for the voice of students.

Learner representation is critical to the credibility of the new body, and should also add value to its decisions.

After all, learners are the recipients of the FE service and so should have a central role in shaping proposals for improvement.

So I congratulate the NUS and representatives of the guild for being reasonable and putting their heads together for a rethink.

The result must be one in which the learner plays a role within the guild, with a voice that is listened to AND taken seriously.

Nick Linford, editor

The principal of City College Coventry, labelled inadequate by Ofsted, is to leave as soon an interim replacement can be found, FE Week can reveal.

Paul Taylor is expected to have been replaced by July, a college spokesperson said.

After 16 years in the job and two previous poor inspections, Mr Taylor was hit with grade four results across each of Ofsted’s headline inspection fields last month.

The 8,000-learner college was also given grade fours throughout the main findings board, including apprenticeships and 19+ learning programmes.

Mr Taylor had wanted to stay on despite the blow, telling FE Week at the end of April: “If I walk away I’ll regret it forever.”

However, the college spokesperson said: “The decision has been taken that Paul Taylor is to leave his position as principal of City College Coventry.”

FE Week editor Nick Linford is expected to take part in a BBC Coventry and Warwickshire Breakfast Show item on Mr Taylor and City College Coventry today (Thursday, May 16) at around 7.15am.

Read edition 67 of FE Week, or revisit this website tomorrow, for more.