Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to move adult skills policy out of DfE and into a new “super ministry” focused on workforce productivity and growth is a golden opportunity for the FE sector and the country.
Details are still emerging on exactly how this latest machinery of government change will pan out under its new secretary of state, Pat McFadden.
DfE officialdom will resent the fact that a large chunk of its FE budget is to be taken away. Education ministers are set to lose responsibility for at least £5 billion of annual public expenditure, including the apprenticeship budget and the adult skills fund.
Skills England shift
Skills England will become an arms-length body of a UK-wide department, which itself presents an opportunity to create a more coherent approach to skills and devolution. The emergence of “post-code lotteries” for adult learners and costly “parallel skills bureaucracies” across the UK has created stark inequities and inefficiencies in delivery.
McFadden, born in Scotland and representing an English Midlands constituency since 2005, is a stalwart of the Labour movement, having cut his teeth in student politics.
Of course, this move takes place in the context of a terrible decade for adult learning. Following the Wolf Review in 2011, the Conservatives significantly reduced the qualifications available to those seeking access to the lower rungs of the opportunity ladder.
Austerity delivered cuts of 40 per cent to the adult community budget. It meant that participation has plummeted, from 5 million 16-64 years in FE during the early 2000s to just above 2 million today. Historically, we are far removed from the working-class self-improvement movements of the nineteenth century that gave rise to the first mechanics’ institutes.
Sluggish growth
The tragedy is that this underinvestment in publicly funded skills capacity has coincided with sluggish productivity growth, exacerbated by the fact that private sector training volumes have halved since the abolition of the industrial training boards in the early 1980s. Many workers are paid little more in real terms today than they were at the time of the 2008 global financial crash.
It is one of the leading causes of today’s cost-of-living crisis. That’s because the skills engine has been allowed to decouple from the growth engine: policy has focused on tinkering around with skills supply instead of focusing more laser-like on tackling skills demand.
Focusing on demand requires an entirely different policy approach from the one that Whitehall officials have been pursuing. Instead of top-down training products designed by the centre and delivered via FE, the model needs to shift its focus to skills utilisation and creating good jobs in every community. It requires local differentiation within a universal framework of properly funded learning entitlements. Crucially, it requires the seamless integration between domestic skills policy and the issuance of work visas to overseas nationals.
The new ministry has these kinds of levers, should it choose to use them. For example, instead of the emphasis on taking minimum-wage jobs inherent in universal credit eligibility, it should now be possible to upskill and reskill the workforce to secure higher-paid employment.
It can also implement strategies to address the impending job dislocations that will result from increased automation and AI.
Levy upside
Apprenticeships are another area that could benefit substantially from a UK-wide approach. I dedicate a whole chapter to this issue in my forthcoming book.
After all, the growth and skills levy is collected on a UK-wide basis. Employment policy is reserved for Westminster. By reclassifying apprenticeships as part of employment policy, ministers would acquire the levers to ensure a common approach to apprenticeship standards and delivery regardless of whether apprentices and firms reside in England, Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.
Such a move would help bolster the UK’s internal market, as well as reduce red tape for training providers and assessment bodies to work in all four nations.
Of course, success alone doesn’t come from government machinery changes. However, this move by Keir Starmer might just get what has been a hollow and hugely disappointing year for skills policy back on track.
Education Partnership North East CEO Ellen Thinnesen will become England’s fourth FE Commissioner in January – and face a new Ofsted inspection framework, a post-16 education strategy reboot and calls for a “reset” with the sector.
Announcing the appointment last week, the Department for Education said Thinnesen would be expected to “drive improvement at pace across the sector” and play a “key role” in helping the government tackle the rising numbers of young people not in education, employment and training (NEET).
Thinnesen said it was a “great privilege” to take on the role at a “crucial time when skills are vital to delivering the government’s missions for growth and opportunity”.
By the time Thinnesen officially takes over from current FE Commissioner (FEC) Shelagh Legrave, the new Ofsted inspection regime should be in place, the government will have set out November’s Budget, and the long-awaited white paper on post-16 education and skills should be published.
College and sector leaders say each of these issues will shape Thinnesen’s tenure as FEC at the same time as colleges battle mounting staffing, capacity and financial challenges.
The announcement came months after a national leader of FE, part of the FEC team, was parachuted in to support the interim principal of Burnley College after Ofsted inspectors found the college had “misled” students by inflating achievement rate data.
The incoming FEC will inherit an intervention caseload including South Devon College, which recently required a £1.5 million loan to ease cash pressures, and Weston College, which is under investigation for historic financial irregularities.
Legrave’s legacy
The FEC role first appeared in the 2013 DfE strategy document Rigour and Responsiveness in Skills as the government’s chief troubleshooter for underperforming colleges. Ministers empowered the post to demand “rapid”, “rigorous” and “decisive” improvements to struggling colleges’ financial management and/or education quality or face serious sanctions.
Since then, the role has evolved, with principals welcoming the current FE Commissioner Legrave’s focus on pre-emptive action and support services to avoid formal intervention.
Colin Booth, chief executive of Luminate Education Group, said the commissioner’s office must retain the supportive and approachable reputation it gained under Legrave.
Legrave
“I think Shelagh’s made the FE Commissioner’s office something you can go to for support and help. It’s much more approachable. There isn’t another part of the DfE that is almost entirely populated with people who used to run colleges,” he said.
Booth also valued Legrave’s visibility in the sector, particularly her frequent college visits, and hoped that will continue.
Alun Francis, CEO of Blackpool and The Fylde College and the government’s social mobility commissioner, agreed.
He told FE Week: “I think Ellen’s a really good choice. I’m particularly pleased to see somebody whose experience is in northern colleges and post-industrial towns. Having that perspective is helpful.
“What I would say about my experience of the last two FE commissioners is we’ve seen a real evolution in the way they’ve worked. They’ve made the role focused on the right kind of approach, which is early intervention support, less crisis intervention, more about helping people navigate the challenges of FE in a successful way.”
Stop. Collaborate and Thinnesen
While the FEC role has evolved, its core function remains turning around underperforming colleges. It’s not clear how one central intervention trigger – the ‘inadequate’ overall effectiveness Ofsted grade – will apply under the inspectorate’s proposed new inspection model, which does away with the headline overall grade and introduces up to 20 individual grades for colleges.
College finances are now overseen directly by the DfE following the closure of the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
David Hughes, chief executive at the Association of Colleges, said the relationship between the FEC, Ofsted and DfE was ripe for a “reset” and should be “set out clearly”.
Hughes added that the commissioner should avoid sliding back into a “punitive intervention regime”, and called for notices to improve on quality improvement to be issued “sparingly rather than liberally”.
He said: “I think there’s a reset moment I’m hoping Ellen will help lead, because what we don’t want is a return to a sort of punitive intervention regime. We want a balance, and intervention only where it’s the last resort.”
Booth mused that the upcoming white paper could call upon the FEC’s expertise beyond colleges, noting that crackdowns on subcontracting and talk of area reviews, mergers and insolvencies in universities mirror proposed solutions to colleges’ financial struggles over the past decade.
Francis believes the commissioner’s office should push harder on collaboration.
“Some of the new challenges for colleges are going to be how do you collaborate with neighbouring colleges, and with other partners like HE,” he said. The FEC, he added, is well-placed to spread good practice on curriculum efficiency, governance and leadership.
But Francis was clear that college staffing should be a top priority for Thinnesen.
“There’s a real challenge around wellbeing of our staff, not just recruitment and retention. I think that’s going to be an important theme over the next few years,” he said.
Jacqui Smith has been re-appointed as minister for skills in Keir Starmer’s ministerial reshuffle.
Number 10 confirmed today Smith will stay on as minister for skills, but will work in the Department for Work and Pensions as well as the Department for Education.
It’s means Smith now has two bosses, education secretary Bridget Phillipson and new work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden.
Smith told FE Week: “I’m delighted and proud to have been appointed as minister for skills working across DWP and DfE.
“Skills are critical for our plan for change, to ensure lifelong opportunity and now even more clearly at the heart of the Government’s growth mission.”
McFadden replaced Liz Kendall last night and took the “skills” brief from Phillipson. However it’s not clear what “skills” policy will move to DWP and what will stay in the DfE.
Phillipson said last night: “Delighted to remain in post as education secretary and minister for women & equalities in this Labour government.
“Now, we redouble our efforts to break the unfair link between background and success by giving children growing up in our country the best start in life.”
Schools minister Catherine McKinnell has left the government after declining a different ministerial role.
Her resignation letter to the prime minister said: “whilst I was honoured to be offered a role to remain in government, I have made the decision to resign during this reshuffle. I hope in the future I may be able to serve again in a role through which I can make a difference.”
Janet Daby, who was minister for children and families and represented Smith on FE, HE and skills in the House of Commons, has also left the government.
Stephen Morgan, who was minister for early education, has been redeployed to the whips’ office.
New ministers
Former council leader Georgia Gould has been appointed a minister of state at the DfE and Josh MacAlister and Olivia Bailey have become parliamentary under-secretaries of state (junior ministers).
Gould, Bailey and MacAlister were all first elected to the House of Commons in last year’s general election.
The government is yet to confirm the individual portfolios for these new ministers and who will speak on FE, HE and skills in the House of Commons given Smith sits in the House of Lords.
The government is planning to pull the skills brief out of the Department for Education and move it to a new department.
Prime minister Keir Starmer is understood to be moving the skills brief to the Department for Work and Pensions, under a new secretary of state, Pat McFadden.
This brings to an end nearly a decade during which policy for education and skills was managed together under one government department.
A new reported ‘growth department’ will be formed from the current Department for Work and Pensions and will include skills.
Pat McFadden, formerly of the Cabinet Office, moved jobs in today’s cabinet reshuffle following the resignation of Angela Rayner.
Skills minister Jacqui Smith will continue in the role across both the DfE and DWP. It is not clear whether responsibility for 16-19 education, universities or apprenticeships will be moved along with adult education.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson remains in post. Liz Kendall, who was work and pensions secretary, has been appointed secretary of state for science, innovation and technology.
Skills is no stranger to being bumped around government departments.
Government policy for employment and skills last sat together between 1995 and 2001 at the Department for Education and Employment (DfEE).
Then the last Labour government split DfEE, creating a Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and a Department for Work and Pensions.
Skills was moved to a Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) in 2007 until 2009 when it went to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
Four colleges have won tax rebates worth more than £2.8 million ahead of a Court of Appeal battle over VAT rules that will affect the entire FE sector.
The appeal, scheduled for June next year, is the latest round in a dispute between the Colchester Institute and HMRC over whether colleges can claim VAT discounts on the cost of large building projects started before 2010.
If the Colchester Institute wins, colleges could reclaim VAT on payments for projects used for teaching a mix of fully-funded and fee-paying students.
However, most FE colleges may also face significant increases to their tax bills after losing charitable reliefs, including a zero-VAT rate for new-build construction projects and 5 per cent tax rates on fuel and power costs. It could result in FE colleges paying millions more in tax, experts believe.
VAT advisers told FE Week an estimated 20 to 30 colleges could benefit from a victory by Colchester Institute as they have tax claims on similar building projects.
But if HMRC wins, it is understood colleges will retain the right to VAT reliefs and those following Colchester Institute’s example could have to repay any VAT adjustments they have already claimed.
The new rulings
News of the Court of Appeal date was confirmed last month in a series of rulings from a judge in the First-Tier Tribunal Tax Chamber, which deals with the first stage of appeals against HMRC decisions on VAT bills.
In the rulings, the judge said he was “bound” to rule in favour of the colleges, in line with a more senior tax court’s ruling in the dispute between Colchester Institute and HMRC that was issued in 2020.
Stuart Savage, tax director at RSM UK, said: “These cases, on their own, aren’t particularly important other than to those parties involved; but the issue more broadly is massively important to the sector.”
He added that, given that HMRC appears committed to pursuing the case to the Supreme Court, the Colchester Institute case should “resolve” the uncertainty around the VAT rules in this area, but warned that this “might not be for some years to come”.
The dispute
The Colchester Institute made a series of claims for VAT it paid on a large building project started in 2008 using a rule known as the ‘Lennartz mechanism’.
In 2020, the Upper Tax Tribunal, whose decisions set a precedent for other cases, ruled in Colchester’s favour.
The decision changed the way grant-funded education is treated for tax purposes, switching it from a “non-business activity” to a “business activity”, which excluded it from VAT reliefs.
However, soon after the 2020 ruling, HMRC said it acknowledged the court decision but would not impose the new rules on colleges while it mounted a new “test” appeal. This is the appeal scheduled next year.
In the meantime, HMRC left FE colleges with the choice of applying tax rules in the same way as Colchester Institute, which Portsmouth College, Cornwall College and Derby College Group did, or continue to follow tax rules as they stood before 2020.
Savage said the tax authority was “trying to do the right thing” by giving colleges the choice, as losing VAT reliefs would be a “real issue” for most colleges.
How much is at stake?
James Hurst, VAT adviser at Johnston Carmichael, said the cost for colleges could be worth “many, many millions”.
He told FE Week: “I’d say the vast majority of our FE colleges don’t have Lennartz claims and they are probably more concerned that on an ongoing basis they might lose their VAT reliefs, especially around fuel and power.
“If the Colchester decision is upheld it’s a massive additional cost for them. We are seeing HMRC start to pay more attention to how FE colleges are applying the Colchester decision or not right now, and making sure they’re consistent in that point.
“And for me, the sooner it can get to March 2026, and get to conclusion, the better.
“Rather than ‘pick a lane’, let’s get a long-term determination on where that is, and that would make the point simpler for everyone.”
An HMRC spokesperson said: “We are challenging the Upper Tribunal’s decision in the Colchester Institute case in an upcoming hearing in the Court of Appeal, which is relevant to the Derby College Group appeal and others.
“It remains our position that the funding given to the colleges is not payment for the free education they provide.”
The spokesperson added that HMRC will await the outcome of the appeal process before reviewing the tax treatment of FE colleges.
An ‘unusual’ case
HMRC’s decision to tell colleges they can “ignore” the binding 2020 ruling has led to a “long period of uncertainty”, said Socrates Socratous, VAT adviser at Buzzacott.
While the agency has given colleges the “flexibility” to decide which tax route to follow, the final court decision could lead to “subsequent adjustments” which could be backdated several years.
Socratous added that the HMRC withdrew permission for colleges to use the Lennartz mechanism in January 2010, meaning Colchester Institute and its adviser VAT Angles have secured a “one-off win”.
He said: “If they are successful, yes they’ve achieved the short-term win of getting repayments, but in the long term they’ve removed the ability of colleges to have buildings zero-rated for VAT. Is that a good or bad thing for the sector, if they can’t claim other VAT expenses?”
Previous Job: Chief Executive, Crystal Palace Park
Interesting fact: Val was leader of Croydon Council in the 1990’s, and a London Assembly member in its formative years. She went on to become Deputy Mayor for Transport until she retired from full time politics in 2018.
Ben Treloar
Chair, Natspec
Start date: July 2025
Concurrent Job: Head, Treloar College
Interesting fact: Ben was once a professional jazz musician. Useful grounding for responding to unexpected changes to SEND policy.
A group of the UK’s best young tradespeople head to Denmark next week to compete against their European peers at EuroSkills 2025.
After months of gruelling training, pressure tests and several bootcamps, Team UK is due to arrive at the Danish industrial hub town of Herning on Monday.
The 19 UK representatives will go head-to-head against 600 young professionals from other European countries in the intense competition that runs from Tuesday to Saturday.
The largest skills competition in Europe culminates in a sparkling medal ceremony, awarding the highest achievers in 38 skills with gold, silver, and bronze medals.
The event will host a visit from the King of Denmark Frederik X, and skills minister Jacqui Smith is also expected to attend.
Smith said in a message to Team UK: “Congratulations and good luck to the 19 young people from across the UK who will be taking part in EuroSkills, showcasing the best of our trades and professions.
“I am looking forward to meeting you all and watching you share your skills on the world stage – making our country proud.”
Team UK was selected following last year’s national competitions and subsequent heats, beating dozens of young people who are part of Squad UK, the official candidates preparing for the global WorldSkills 2026 competition in Shanghai, China.
They gathered last month for one final bootcamp weekend of training and exercises on handling the mental pressure that comes with representing your country on an international stage.
The 19 students and apprentices will be competing in their vocational specialisms such as graphic design, cooking and welding.
Lowdown on EuroSkills
Danish town of Herning, where this year’s EuroSkills competition will be held
EuroSkills Herning marks the ninth biennial event and is the largest European competition before the global WorldSkills contest, which will be held next year in Shanghai.
WorldSkills UK has slowly scaled up its participation in EuroSkills since the pandemic.
The UK pulled out of the 2021 event, held in the Austrian city of Graz, which had been delayed by a year.
Team UK returned at EuroSkills Gdańsk 2023 where it sent 20 young people to compete in 17 skills. They achieved one gold and two bronze medals, as well as six Medallions for Excellence, which are awarded for achieving the international standard in a particular skill. Overall the team came 13th.
Hometown pride
Messages of encouragement for Team UK have been made by college principals and sector leaders.
Rachel Kay, principal of Macclesfield College, said she was “incredibly proud” of student Grace Longden, who will be competing in the health and social care competition and is also a UK triathlete in her age group.
“Competing at this level requires immense commitment and resilience, and Grace is a fantastic role model for our college community.
“I wish Grace and the whole of Team UK the very best of luck in Denmark. We are cheering them on and are confident they will showcase the outstanding talent and skills that the further education sector has to offer.”
Five students from Southern Regional College in Northern Ireland will be competing in the industry 4.0 (Patrick Sheerin and Caolan McCartan), mechatronics (John Doherty and Jason McVerry) and electrical installation (Jonathan Gough) competitions.
Its college principal and CEO Lee Campbell told FE Week that having students earn their place on Team UK was a “remarkable achievement”, not just for the college but for Northern Ireland and the wider UK skills community.
She added: “We are confident that Team UK will inspire audiences with their skill, professionalism and dedication. On behalf of Southern Regional College, I wish the competitors every success.”
Ben Blackledge, chief executive of WorldSkills UK, said: “We are so excited to be heading out to EuroSkills Herning 2025 with this fantastic group of young professionals and wish them the best of luck for the competition.
“They will be tested to the highest standards, showcasing the skills that global employers are looking for, and will return to the UK with the knowledge and experience that will fast-track their careers.
As part of the deal, the Department for Education handed the new college group a £7.3 million grant – understood to be non-repayable as long as conditions are met – agreed loans of up to £2.1 million, and accepted plans to sell off a campus and theatre in Melton Mowbray.
It is hoped the merger will create a solvent college group under Loughborough College’s leadership, with campuses stretching across north Leicestershire.
But news of plans to sell the large 40-year-old theatre and adjoining college buildings has been met with dismay by people who fear the loss of a site for vocational training will harm the town’s already struggling economy.
Merger terms revealed
Details of the grant and campus sale were revealed by Loughborough College when FE Week sought details of the merger in a freedom of information request.
Loughborough College shared minutes of its July board meeting, which are yet to be published, which say the DfE gave the college a £7,368,770 grant to “support the merger” and a loan agreement of up to £2.1 million.
A Loughborough College spokesman said the DfE grant would be used for “strengthening essential operational functions”, to support “strategic investment” for the college group’s long-term future, and for “safeguarding the quality of teaching”.
The merger also involved the transfer of all of SMB College Group’s “property, rights and liabilities” – including its three campuses in Stephenson, Brooksby and Melton Mowbray.
Loughborough College principal Corrie Harris has taken over as the merged group’s CEO, while SMB College principal Dawn Whitemore has retired.
Campus sale plans
A previously unpublished merger proposal document written by Loughborough also referred to “plans for sale of the Melton site” and part of Brooksby, a specialist land-based campus six miles outside of Melton Mowbray.
The Melton campus has long specialised in performing arts and includes a 340-seat theatre auditorium, a hospitality training centre, public library and classrooms that were mothballed during the pandemic.
Whitemore told FE Week her team worked with the council to safeguard the Melton campus and Brooksby Hall, a 16th century manor house acquired by Leicestershire and Rutland County Councils in the 1940s to establish an agricultural college. However, options worked up by the team “were not embraced” by the FE Commissioner, who was appointed to lead the DfE’s financial intervention in 2023.
She added: “All parties were well aware of the need to find a solution for the historical financial burden that the group had faced, so as part of the merger we were very open, honest and transparent as we did not want the merger to fall through.”
Consultation notices published ahead of the merger did not detail any property sales, but simply listed “benefits” for students, staff and employers such as “enhanced facilities” and “financial resilience”.
A published ahead of the merger summarised responses from 63 people and referred to concerns about the “potential closure” of the Melton Theatre, which the college warned needed “major investment” to stay open.
Local dismay
Pip Allnatt, leader of Melton Borough Council, told FE Week that SMB College Group management and the FE Commissioner withdrew from proposals to save the theatre.
He said: “We are very disappointed at the slow demise of the Melton campus even though Brooksby continues to grow.
“The Loughborough College campus is used by Melton students but it is an inconsistent and long bus journey away. The start time of some courses is prohibitive.”
Mark Frisby, a former student at the theatre who went on to teach there, sat as a governor on the college board and now runs a careers advice company, called the merger a “takeover” by Loughborough College.
He said: “I think [selling the campus] would be an enormous step backwards, a theatre for a town of our size is one of the jewels.
“That people can’t go to a local college in a town centre where buses stop is a loss for us.”
Allen Thwaites, an independent councillor on Melton Borough Council, said: “The former Melton Tech was where I first met many people who are now local business owners – they all started at Melton College.
“The facility is the victim of a wider lack of support for education that is not university-based.”
College seeking solutions
A Loughborough College spokesperson claimed “no final decisions have been made” and said management was “working closely” with Melton Borough Council to “explore viable, long-term solutions” for the theatre and campus.
They added: “We fully recognise the theatre’s cultural and community value as a much-loved local asset and are committed to carefully considering all options for its regeneration and continued use.”
A DfE spokesperson declined to comment on record but told FE Week the financial support package provided to the college was intended to establish it as a financially sustainable institution.
As Nelson and Colne College Group unveils a new identity, its leader Lisa O’Loughlin reflects on tackling illness, steering a landmark curriculum review, and why she believes FE can’t lose its heart
Lisa O’Loughlin and the college group she leads have both undergone a transformation.
Her organisation is changing its name from Nelson and Colne College Group to East Lancashire Learning Group to better suit its wide remit.
Meanwhile, O’Loughlin herself has contended with challenges that have altered both her appearance and her mindset. She has, for the last 12 months, faced the pressure of helping decide how to overhaul our national curriculum and assessment system as one of 12 members of the government-appointed curriculum and assessment review (CAR) panel.
And a year earlier, shortly after moving to East Lancashire from her previous role as principal of The Manchester College and deputy CEO at LTE Group, she was diagnosed with grade three breast cancer.
Successive rounds of chemotherapy meant her “very blonde, quite fine and very curly long hair” grew back much darker and thicker, which was “bizarre”, O’Loughlin says.
Now clear of the disease, she jokes she went into chemo with hair like her former-seamstress mum, and came out with her dad’s (a former joiner).
But her new appearance aptly reflects her new “more mindful” approach to how she sees the world and her role in it. She adds: “You think about what’s happening today, rather than constantly thinking about the future.”
Lisa when she was at The Manchester College, with her previously long, blonde locks
Intense times
O’Loughlin’s present is still firmly focused on the CAR panel, as it prepares to present its final report to the government. The review is the most comprehensive attempt since the national curriculumwas introduced in 1988 toconsider curriculum content and assessment methodsacross all phases up to age 19.
O’Loughlin is one of only two panel members who represent FE and has “absolutely” felt a “big burden of expectation” because “these decisions – shaping the national curriculum and pathways post 16 – are so incredibly important”.
It has been a “very intense time” of roundtables, evidence sessions and online webinars. Over 7,000 responses were received to the panel’s call for evidence, which was itself over 100 pages long.
Some have expressed scepticism over the panel’s ability to properly analyse all those lengthy responses in detail.
O’Loughlin admits AI was used to help the panel’s support team analyse responses, but “we also had access to all the specific documents, so panel members were absolutely going into their areas of specialism and reviewing the detailed submissions”.
The chair of the Curriculum and assessment review panel, Becky Francis
Finding consensus
The responses demonstrated to O’Loughlin how she had underestimated the “overwhelming” extent to which young people wanted a stake in changing the curriculum. There were “lots and lots of calls” from them for more diversity, which were generally “thought through, considered provocations”.
She was also surprised at the scale of their demands for more education in financial and media literacy, which was highlighted in the review’s interim report.
The panel’s 12 members hailed from all corners of the education sector, from a SEND consultant (Gary Aubin) to Ofqual’s chief regulator, Sir Ian Baukham. “Ultimately”, a consensus was reached on “all” their recommendations, albeit with “a lot of debate”.
The work was a “significant time commitment”. But the fact many meetings were held online enabled O’Loughlin to continue with her day job.
Though the work was “very much evidence-led”, “you always bring the flavour of who you are to it”, O’Loughlin says, adding that she brought her strong passion for curriculum reform as a means of overcoming social disadvantage.
Lisa celebrating graduation with HE students
Curriculum passion
That passion pours out of O’Loughlin as she talks about her own college group, which holds an enviable position in the sector.
As well as being the only college in England to have been rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted for two decades, it is the top-performing provider of adult education in England by achievement rate and second nationally for overall achievement across all ages and levels.
Its recent pass rate for level 3 technical courses was 98 per cent and 100 per cent for T Levels, which is particularly impressive given its learners hail from relatively deprived communities.
Some of its neighbours have not attained such glory; nearby Furness College is set to merge with Blackpool and The Fylde College (B&FC) after being branded ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted last year, while Burnley College was downgraded to ‘requires improvement’ after being caught inflating achievement rates.
So what is the secret of the East Lancashire Learning Group’s success?
Its “strategic curriculum intent”, says O’Loughlin, is “always high-quality and focused on destinations beyond qualifications, with a real focus on the right programme for every learner”.
Similar buzzwords proliferate throughout the sector. But O’Loughlin claims their culture really is special; her colleagues “live and breathe” the ‘right programme, right learner’ approach “as vocabulary”.
“We provide a forensic approach to personalisation of learning programmes here,” she says.
As an example, she explains how level one and two foundation programmes “very carefully carve out different pathways” for learners, some of which lead to academic progression while others are occupational. All are “very carefully designed to lead to those destinations, with the pedagogies that underpin them”.
O’Loughlin followed a similar ethos at The Manchester College, which won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2021 for its ‘careers not courses’ curriculum strategy.
Lisa going back to the floor as part of National Apprenticeship Week
Striking a balance
Every college leader must decide where to strike the balance between academic and business leadership, and for O’Loughlin, it is very much tipped towards being “led by the academic”, as “that’s where the magic lies”.
“Of course, no chief exec will take their eye off the finances,” she adds, “but there’s a culture where we expect teachers to understand pedagogy and have an academic curiosity for the pedagogies that have impact.”
The college group conducts extensive pedagogical research with the Department for Education, and has just become a post-16 research partner for the Education Endowment Foundation.
There is a “very strong expectation” that lecturers will “very much invest in researching [teaching and learning] and implement what they learn”.
To give them the time for that they have slightly fewer contractual teaching hours than they might at other colleges; 810 hours a year, with community teachers teaching around 100 hours less in recognition of the travel they undertake.
Holidays are also generous at 43 days a year, plus eight bank holidays and five closure/efficiency days.
But on the business side of the leadership coin there are capacity and funding challenges that O’Loughlin has to contend with.
The group’s 4 per cent EBITA position in 2024-25 was regarded by its corporation board last year as being “below the level preferred”, with “the ambition for capital investment and reinvestment usually requiring a 6-8 per cent EBITDA”.
Each arm of the group has different needs; the Accrington campus faces more of a “purpose challenge”, with a “very clear focus on re-establishing high-quality technical education” there.
The Nelson campus is currently “experiencing capacity challenges”, with capital investment being its biggest issue. However, ELLG has now been announced as a formal partner in the newly launched North West Construction Technical Education College (CTEC). In collaboration with lead partner Wigan and Leigh College and Blackpool and the Fylde College, ELLG has been entrusted with leading on teaching excellence and technical pedagogy.
To boost capacity, the college will “tend not to overload class teacher ratios, because we are very, very focused on personalised learning programmes”.
Lisa helping create a ’20 years of Ofsted outstanding’ garden at the Nelson campus
But O’Loughlin is also determined the college will not become more selective about who gets a place on its courses.
“What’s often misunderstood about us, because we are incredibly high performing, is that people sometimes assume we’re selective and we’re not at all,” she says. “That [is shown] in our progress scores.
“Apart from any fitness-to-study issues, we accept students whatever their starting points. At the moment, we haven’t had to be more selective. We’ve managed to find innovative ways.”
O’Loughlin says her deputy principal of finance and resources, David Rothwell, who leads her estate strategy, is a “magician” because he “makes things work for us, without compromising the teaching and learning”.
But with population growth expected to continue, she fears a “tipping point” will arrive in the next two years.
The task of keeping the “investment in your colleagues and in your estate in balance” has “obviously been made much harder” by reclassification. The group would “definitely” have otherwise pursued commercial borrowing to repurpose its Accrington campus, but now “the pace is not as fast” for them to access funding.
Meanwhile, O’Loughlin believes young people “really felt” the impact of Covid, which played out in a lack of engagement and a “significant increase” in anxiety and mental health-related issues. But she also believes the “tide is turning”. Attendance rates across her college group in 2024-25 were “much improved”, with a “real strong upturn” in engagement.
“I’m hopeful that we’re over the hump of that, particularly in my college,” she says.
O’Loughlin adds that a lack of aspiration among students is caused by the options some are forced to take post-16, which “hopefully some recommendations in the [CAR] review” will “help change”. There is speculation the review will call for the scrapping of GCSE English and maths resits, though nothing has been confirmed yet.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham
The divining rod
Collaborating with partners from different sectors on curriculum matters has been central to O’Loughlin’s career; she previously spent six years as chair of the Greater Manchester Colleges Group, having been asked to “bring them back together” in 2016 after a tense area-based review meant college leaders had “ceased to collaborate”.
In 2017, Andy Burnham became the country’s first regional mayor, and college leaders worked with his combined authority to draw up radical plans for a collaborative 16-18 curriculum strategy for the region. This “ambitious” plan is “not yet complete, as the devolution journey itself is not yet complete”, but O’Loughlin believes so far it has been “incredibly successful”.
“There was a journey of learning together on the skills agenda, and that enabled us to form really high-trust relationships and collaboration with the combined authority,” she says.
She credits Burnham for being “almost the divining rod” for “bringing everybody together” and using the combined authority’s convening powers with employers to boost engagement and support for T Levels. The region had one of the first Gatsby-funded capacity building projects, and as a result had a higher uptake in T Levels than anywhere else.
The collaboration also led to free bus transport being rolled out for 16 to 18-year-olds, and extended to working with university partners on developing sectoral specialisms at level four, leveraging higher-level skills back into the area.
Just before she departed for Lancashire, she and Burnham launched the integrated technical education system as “almost the foundation” for the development of the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate (MBacc) which has just completed its first year of delivery and which O’Loughlin is watching “with excitement”.
While it could be a blueprint for other areas to follow, O’Loughlin – mindful of her position on the CAR panel – emphasises that any local agenda that better prepares learners for the workforce should be an “overlay on that national curriculum”.
These days, O’Loughlin is “drawing on” the learning she did in Greater Manchester in her current role on Lancashire’s new skills advisory board, which is helping to guide its recently formed combined county authority.
The new authority might turn out to be rather more right-leaning than Greater Manchester in its political outlook; Reform is gaining popularity locally, and last year took control of Lancashire County Council from the Conservatives.
But O’Loughlin dismisses concerns that it may not prioritise funding the FE and skills agenda.
“If the supporting organisations are very strong and can work collaboratively to align those strategic intents, we should still be able to deliver really strong outcomes from it,” she says.
