A new stage of more confidential “targeted support” has been added to the government’s college oversight regime.
Department for Education (DfE) guidance published today details “a more prioritised” college support system that will “increasingly and more systematically” target improvement by the next academic year.
Regional improvement teams (RITs) staffed by DfE officials and helped by a lead regional deputy further education commissioner (FEC) will manage ‘targeted support’, a new “tier” of oversight that it hopes will replace formal intervention in most cases.
The DfE says RITs will benefit “around 70,000 college students”, helping to “break the link” between background and success.
Revised oversight guidance sets out three tiers of support for colleges: universal support based on sharing best practice, targeted support for “colleges that would benefit most”, and intensive support for “challenges that cannot be resolved through improvement alone”.
Performance concerns the improvement teams are expected to address include not meeting local skills needs, poor financial management, leadership and governance failures or poor quality of provision.
‘Non-published letters’
If “serious risks” are flagged or a college refuses to accept targeted support “voluntarily”, RITs can issue a “non-published” ‘letter to improve’ that will mandate an FEC-led “improvement review”.
The new guidance says letters and reviews will not be published and the improvement team’s involvement will not be “seen as intervention”.
This behind-closed-doors approach appears to differ from the DfE’s quality improvement-focused Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence teams, which name “stuck” schools and academies they are working with in a regularly updated public list.
The DfE has been asked to clarify why this new tier of support for colleges whose performance raises concerns will remain private.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said: “Every young person deserves a brilliant education, and these new teams will help to drive improvements and share best practice in colleges across the country.
“By providing targeted support where it’s needed most, we’re delivering on our commitment to break down barriers to opportunity and give young people the best possible start in their careers.”
Who are RITs?
RITs will be staffed by DfE officials who “currently oversee” colleges and ITPs – paired with a lead deputy FE commissioner who can provide “expert practitioner advice”, the guidance says.
It is unclear whether RITs will replace or work alongside teams of officials known as ‘place-based teams’, who manage day-to-day relations with college leaders, monitor performance, and ultimately decide on intervention actions.
Place-based teams are currently split into three large regions for the whole of England.
Avoid formal intervention
The department hopes targeted support will avoid formal intervention, which includes publishing formal intervention notices and reports summarising failures at colleges.
“While some issues will always trigger immediate intervention or use of the secretary of state’s statutory intervention powers, in the majority of other cases, the department will initially seek to work with colleges to resolve issues without placing the college into intervention,” the guidance said.
Persistent or “significant challenges” at a college will continue to trigger “intensive support”, decided by RITs and led by the FEC team, which can include formal intervention or a structure and prospects appraisal (SPA).
FE Week has also asked the DfE to clarify whether targeted support will replace the FE Commissioner’s ‘active support’ service for colleges, which includes informal conversations, “health checks”, leadership monitoring, curriculum efficiency and consultations on restructuring.
Strengthening post-16 delivery
The guidance said RITs will work with strategic and local authorities to set priorities for post-16 provider improvement based on their performance and skills improvement plans.
Priorities could include NEET, special needs student outcomes, local growth priorities, uptake and delivery of new qualifications such as T Levels or V Levels, and improving progression to higher levels of training.
They will also look at roles of both colleges and independent training providers at tackling skills shortages.
The guidance said: “Having clear priorities for regional improvement will enable us to consider how ITPs contribute to regional needs – where, for example, some ITPs have played a leading role in supporting young people at risk of being disengaged.”
Ministers also want to “promote collaboration and foster continuous improvement” through universal support that already exists, including national guidance, benchmarking data, FE Commissioner effective practice guides and webinars.
Former social mobility commissioner Alan Milburn will lead an independent investigation into rising numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), the government has announced.
The review, which will place a particular focus on the impact of mental health conditions and disabilities, is hoped to tackle what work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden has warned is a “crisis of opportunity”.
Figures show that nearly one million young people, approximately one in eight young people aged 16 to 24, are currently NEET.
The government is trying to cut its “ballooning” benefits bill and announced earlier this year that it plans to slash health and disability benefits for young people in a bid to push them into employment or training.
Officials said today that over a quarter of NEET young people now cite long-term sickness or disability as a barrier to participation, compared to just 12 per cent in 2013-14.
The number of young people claiming Universal Credit (UC) health and employment support allowance has also increased by more than 50 per cent in the last five years.
And around 80 per cent of young people on the UC health element currently cite mental health reasons or a neurodevelopmental condition among declared health conditions.
The NEET review announcement comes days after new analysis from Sir Charlie Mayfield’s Keep Britain Working review also revealed a 76 per cent increase in economically inactive 16–34-year-olds with mental health conditions since 2019.
Additionally, the review found that being out of work at a young age can cost over £1 million in lost earnings over a lifetime.
McFadden said: “The rising number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) is a crisis of opportunity that demands more action to give them the chance to learn or earn.
“We cannot afford to lose a generation of young people to a life on benefits, with no work prospects and not enough hope.”
‘Uncompromising in exposing failures’
Last month’s post-16 education and skills white paper contained a range of new measures designed to combat rising young NEET numbers, including auto-enrolling school-leavers on post-16 courses and tracking attendance of 16 to 19-year-olds.
Milburn was health secretary from 1999 to 2003 and is a former chair of the social mobility commission. He was appointed last year as a non-executive director of the Department of Health and Social Care.
His review will make “practical recommendations to help young people with health conditions access work, training or education — ensuring they are supported to thrive, not sidelined,” the government said.
The report will not cover the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system.
It will “complement” the Timms Review, which was launched in October to examine broader reforms to the disability benefits system, by “focusing specifically on the link between youth mental health, economic inactivity and benefit system”.
Milburn said: “We cannot stand by and let a generation of young people be consigned to a life without employment or prospects. It’s clear urgent action is needed.
“That’s why with the help of a panel of expert advisors; I will aim to get to the bottom of why current efforts are not preventing young people from becoming trapped out of work and education.
“The review will be uncompromising in exposing failures in employment support, education, skills, health and welfare and will produce far-reaching recommendations for change to enhance opportunities for young people to learn and earn.”
Interim findings will be shared with the government in Spring 2026, with the final report published in summer 2026.
Long-serving principal Chris Nattress is set to retire after steering Lakes College out of government intervention.
He will be succeeded on December 1 by Mark Fell, currently executive principal at Milton Keynes College.
Nattress (pictured above) joined the college in West Cumbria in 2009 as a deputy before taking up the top job in 2013.
The college has doubled in size since Nattress started but it hit cashflow issues in early 2024 mostly due to student number shortfalls that required a £1.5 million emergency government loan.
A new chair was appointed to the college in August 2024 and the college’s financial notice to improve was lifted in June 2025 after a period of FE Commissioner intervention.
Nattress, who was presented with a lifetime achievement accolade in the Pearson Teaching Awards this year, said he was “immensely proud” of what has been achieved at the college during his time.
He said: “I have been very fortunate to work with fabulous colleagues and partners who have always supported me in seeking ways to improve opportunities for everyone in West Cumbria to thrive and prosper.
“Amongst many highlights, visiting Buckingham Palace to receive the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for our work, opening our Construction Skills Centre and the National College for Nuclear Northern Hub, and working with key employers and organisations in our area to more than double the size of our college do stand out.”
His replacement, Fell, has more than 20 years of experience in the FE sector.
Mark Fell
Fell said: “I am delighted to be joining Lakes College as principal and have been working closely with Chris and the executive team over the last few weeks to ensure a seamless transition and I can’t wait to get started. I’ve been inspired by the commitment of the staff in supporting our students to succeed and progress. I now want to help further progress the College to be at the absolute forefront of technical, vocational and professional learning.
“Further education is entering an era of change, with the government white paper, the Ofsted and apprenticeship reforms, but what won’t change is our college playing a crucial role within our local community and beyond. Our approach to learning will be around raising aspiration, supporting skills development and ensuring that we meet the needs of stakeholders locally, regionally and nationally.”
Ministers have appointed a former higher education access chief to reprise his role at the Office for Students.
Professor Chris Millward (pictured), who was the first person to hold the director for fair access and participation post when it was created in 2017, has begun immediately on a part-time, interim basis.
It comes as John Blake, the current director, announced on Friday that he will stand down when his four-year term ends this year to “move on to a new challenge”.
The director for fair access and participation is a statutory position established in the Higher Education and Research Act 2017 and comes with a range of powers to approve, monitor, and report on higher education providers’ performance against their access and participation plans.
Millward served a full four-year term in the role until January 2022. He has since been professor of practice in education policy at the University of Birmingham and a board member of Medr, the Welsh government’s commission for tertiary education and research.
He will join the OfS board and continue his role at the University of Birmingham.
Before joining the Office for Students the first time, he was director of policy at its predecessor regulator, the Higher Education Funding Council for England.
Millward said: “I am delighted to be returning to work with the OfS during this crucial period, and grateful to my colleagues at the University of Birmingham for making this possible.
“We have made terrific progress on access and participation during the last two decades. Now is the time to seize the opportunities afforded by a wider range of pathways to higher education, which will enable more people and places to benefit.”
Blake
The Department for Education said it will recruit for a permanent post-holder in due course.
“When I took up the role, I was charged with reforming OfS’s system of access and participation plans. Now that all-new plans are in place across the sector, and with the government recently setting out its plans in its post-16 education and skills white paper that they will build on this by introducing a risk-based equality regulation system … I feel that it is the right time for me to move on to a new challenge,” he added.
A former refugee-turned-ESOL tutor and an apprentice determined to decarbonise the capital are among this year’s finalists in the Mayor of London adult learning awards.
Now in their fourth year, the awards celebrate inspiring learners, tutors, employers and learning organisations who are helping Londoners gain skills, confidence and opportunities.
Run by the Greater London Authority, and sponsored by FE Week and awarding organisation Ascentis, winners of the coveted awards will be announced next Thursday. Categories this year will include employer champion for skills progression, inspirational adult learner and inclusive provider of the year.
From more than 250 nominations, 20 finalists have been shortlisted by a panel of judges drawn from the capital’s adult learning sector. Their stories showcase how adult education is transforming lives and London’s economy.
Education changed everything
Hamzeh Mouallem
Among the finalists is Hamzeh Moullem, who arrived in London as a refugee from Syria in 2019 speaking little English. While holding down a full-time restaurant job and caring for his younger brother, he completed a higher national diploma in business at United Colleges Group with a distinction and is now at university.
“One of the most rewarding parts is seeing my brother willing to enrol in college because of my experience. This journey has transformed me personally and inspired those around me,” he said.
Another learner finalist, Jennifer Flanigan, enrolled on a British Sign Language course with Professional Training Solutions so she could communicate with her non-speaking son. Despite her own eyesight and health challenges, she completed the qualification and now serves as co-chair of governors at his deaf school.
“Before I learned BSL, I felt shut out of his world,” she said. “Now we talk every day.”
Breaking barriers
In Redbridge, Judith Guarte Lee turned to learning after moving from the Philippines and overcoming attitudes towards her disability.
With support from Redbridge Institute, she has gained childcare qualifications and a job in a nursery. “I want to show my son that if you put your heart into something, good things can happen,” she said.
Meanwhile, Hannah Barrow is completing a low-carbon heating technician apprenticeship at London South Bank Technical College.
Her skills in heat-pump and solar-thermal systems recently earned her a place in the WorldSkills UK national finals. “I wanted a career that matched my values around sustainability,” she said.
Tutors and employers making the difference
Several awards honour the professionals behind these successes.
Iryna Hura
Iryna Hura, an ESOL tutor at Hammersmith & Fulham Adult Learning Service, arrived from Ukraine and now teaches English to other refugees, achieving a 100 per cent pass rate with her pioneering trauma-informed teaching.
Another finalist, Emily Bunu from Step Ahead Social Enterprise, is praised for combining education with safeguarding and pastoral care – often connecting learners with food banks, social services and employment support.
Employers are also being recognised.
Wellcome Collection has been shortlisted for its partnership with Step Ahead to help unemployed residents gain accredited qualifications and jobs in visitor-experience roles, while Marlborough Highways and the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust are celebrated for high-quality apprenticeships that lead to skilled careers to diverse range of Londoners.
Training providers such as Kundakala, a Camden-based charity teaching sewing and enterprise to women from minority backgrounds, and MAMA Youth Project, which helps under-represented young adults break into the media industry, highlight how community learning can transform individuals and industries alike.
A Reform UK mayor’s plans to ditch ESOL courses because they don’t benefit “native” residents have not yet been copied elsewhere in England, an FE Week investigation has found.
Last month, Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority (GLCCA) mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns announced her intention to redirect about £1 million in funding spent on English for speakers of other languages courses towards a more “inclusive” literacy and numeracy programme.
Jenkyns, who had a four-month stint as skills minister in 2022, is due to take control of £17-£19 million in adult education funding next year.
Her “policy principle” will mean ESOL courses which benefited about 1,400 learners in 2023-24 will no longer be funded by her authority from next September.
Explaining her position at a board meeting of GLCCA members who oversee skills and employment last month, she said literacy and numeracy were on a “really downward spiral” in Britain and that English language provision “doesn’t go to native Lincolnshire people”.
Dame Andrea added: “I stood on a manifesto to put Lincolnshire people at the forefront and a million pounds a year goes on this.
I think we need a more inclusive scheme which actually goes to the Lincolnshire people, because we’ve got to upskill them – they are left behind, very sadly.”
Other rule changes include requiring learners to live in the Greater Lincolnshire area for at least three years – reversing a recent national eligibility rule that gives learners funding eligibility from day one.
The draft policy changes for the next academic year won the support of all but one of the seven councillors representing GLCCA local authorities at the meeting, which included several Conservatives.
Dame Andrea said she hoped to make a further change to the rules requiring learners to have worked for the last 12 months “actually putting money into the system” before they can start funded learning.
Diana Sutton, director at The Bell Foundation, a charity that campaigns for language education, warned that removing or cutting funding for ESOL could be “counterproductive” in terms of promoting integration and improved job prospects for immigration.
She said: “Importantly, the 2021 Census shows that, of those people of working age who reported that they cannot speak English well or at all, 35 per cent have British nationality.”
“Access to appropriate and specialist English language provision should be seen as a sound financial investment as it can unlock skills and enable learners to contribute to and participate in society.”
Plans not replicated
The Reform mayor, elected earlier this year, appears to be the sole leader from her party to take a concrete step towards scrapping publicly funded ESOL courses, FE Week’s inquiries suggest.
Reform UK leads nine English local authorities and two combined authorities.
Six local authorities said they had no plans to reduce ESOL provision, although Kent County Council said it made changes to “some” courses to incorporate more literacy and numeracy skills following a £500,000 cut to its adult education allocation from the Department for Education this year.
Kent County Council’s leader Linden Kemkaran was the first Reform UK leader to publicly suggest scrapping the courses, questioning whether ESOL was “value for money” and suggesting individual learners should pay for the courses themselves or use a free language learning app.
But the council now says essential skills development, “including ESOL”, remains a priority for the council.
The spokesperson said changes it had made were part of a “wider redesign” of adult education in Kent following new adult skills fund rules that prioritise skills for employment and “no real-time funding increases in over 20 years”.
Cornwall Council, Derbyshire County Council and Kent County Council are all known to have closed some of their adult learning centres in the last year following national funding reductions for adult education.
Caroline McDonald, CEO of adult education sector body HOLEX, said Jenkyns’ plans were “an interesting development and one to watch”.
She added: “While it’s vital for integration that those making the UK their home can learn the language, positioning language development more firmly within the essential skills framework could, if managed well, strengthen pathways and progression.”
Local power
The government told FE Week that decisions on how adult education funding is spent are down to local authorities.
It added that devolved areas can decide how to support local and national skills needs, but should publish annual skills reports setting out how they have used funding.
It comes as the government announced plans to review the national essential skills offer, including ESOL, to ensure it helps people “progress into and within employment”.
In its immigration white paper earlier this year, the government also announced plans to impose tougher language requirements for immigrants applying to extend their visa or settle in the UK, alongside a promise to “make it easier” for people who need “additional help”.
Head of Skills, Employment and Education, York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority
Start date: November 2025
Previous Job: Head of Skills and Inclusion, North East Combined Authority
Interesting fact: Leigh is a keen cricketer, and in the spirit of widening participation in the sport, she is a counding member of the ladies cricket team in her home town
George Trow
Chair, Hereward College
Start date: October 2025
Previous Job: Vice Chair, Coventry College
Interesting fact: Earlier this year, George drove 7,500 miles around the west of America visiting nine states and spent 43 nights in motels en route, having previously done Route 66 in a van in his early 20s.
Top government officials offered updates on key skills reforms during this week’s Association of Employment and Learning Providers autumn conference. Here’s what we learned.
Minister defends flexibilities amid apprenticeship reputation fears
Skills minister Jacqui Smith (pictured above) defended the government’s apprenticeship reforms in the face of concerns from providers that increased flexibility could damage the brand.
Ben Rowland, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP), said while shorter modules and assessment changes were welcome in principle, there were worries about undermining a brand that has been built up over the past decade.
“From 2012 on, apprenticeships were very focused on rigour and employer engagement. Employers can really trust it to mean something,” Rowland said.
Officials who are pushing through plans that involve assessing apprentices on only a sample of knowledge and skills have suffered a backlash from employers. The government will also allow mandated qualifications within apprenticeships to become the sole form of assessment, and employers will be responsible for testing behaviours.
Construction employers have already warned that these reforms risk allowing apprentices to qualify without proving they are competent.
New “apprenticeship units”, set to be funded through the growth and skills levy from April, could also last just one week and involve zero assessment.
Smith acknowledged the challenge, but said reforms were designed to balance quality with widening access.
“The brand has grown because the quality is there,” she said. “People know that if they go onto an apprenticeship, they’re going to get proper training to progress in their careers. But as programmes develop, you have to judge where standards may restrict growth more than they maintain it.”
Smith cited Skills England’s consultation with employers in areas like carpentry and joinery, which led to revisions of proposed assessments.
The employers involved in this consultation have, however, hit out at the approach taken by Skills England, accusing officials of ignoring their concerns.
“Keeping close to employers, being clear that quality is important, but being as flexible as possible – it’s not always easy, but it’s the right approach,” Smith said.
‘Damp squib’ start for foundation apprenticeships
The government’s new foundation apprenticeships have welcomed their first cohort of apprentices, but sector leaders warned the much-hyped rollout has fallen flat.
The first seven foundation apprenticeships launched in August, including three for the construction sector, two for digital, one for engineering and manufacturing and one for health and social care.
The new programme is designed to “give young people a new route into careers in critical sectors” and create “a new pipeline of fresh talent”, Kate Ridley Pepper, DWP director of work-based skills, told AELP conference delegates.
She revealed the first cohort of foundation apprentices had started, but stopped short of saying exactly how many there were.
AELP chief executive Ben Rowland said the delivery had been “a damp squib”.
“Foundation apprenticeships are an idea that AELP helped to generate,” he said. “The prime minister announced them to great fanfare over a year ago. Saying the delivery has so far been a damp squib is an understatement. Government did what they thought would look good, rather than what would do good.”
Rowland added that the initiative had been championed by employers in hospitality and backed by sectors such as retail and care, “but the government began by taking them to industrial strategy sectors who didn’t ask for them, need them or want them”.
FE Week understands the government is mulling over whether it can afford to extend foundation apprenticeships to more sectors.
Ben Rowland
Registration needed to offer apprenticeship units
Training providers will need to register with the government to deliver new “apprenticeship units” through the reformed growth and skills levy, it was confirmed.
Officials also expect the content of each unit will be drawn from existing apprenticeships instead of brand new or other non-apprenticeship-related courses.
Ridley-Pepper told AELP’s conference that this design approach would ensure government and employers know that all apprenticeship units have “the rigour to be really high-quality products”.
Last month’s post-16 education and skills white paper confirmed the current apprenticeship levy would fund a selection of short courses when it is turned into the growth and skills levy from April.
Apprenticeship units will be offered initially to employers in “critical skills areas” such as engineering, digital and artificial intelligence.
Skills minister Jacqui Smith revealed during an FE Week webinar on Monday that the units’ duration will be as short as one week and up to a few months.
Ridley-Pepper confirmed this approach on Tuesday before outlining which providers would be eligible to offer apprenticeship units.
She said: “I’m sure you’ll be keen to know how you offer apprenticeship units, and I can confirm that you will need to be approved by the department in order to deliver and claim funding for apprenticeship unit delivery.
“Details of how that will work will be published near the time and shared, but I can assure you that we will try and make sure the process is simple and efficient with no duplication.”
Ridley-Pepper added the plan was to use the existing apprenticeship provider and assessment register (APAR) instead of developing a separate register. Providers already on APAR will not need to re-register.
The skills director added the government is also thinking about ways to ensure providers not currently on APAR can get onto it to deliver apprenticeship units.
She also confirmed that apprenticeship units will be “built from employer-designed occupational standards using quality assured knowledge and skills”, adding that the “intention there is to complement existing apprenticeships and to offer employers the greater choice in how they invest in their skills in their workforce, which they have been calling for for some time”.
Ridley-Pepper said the government planned to lift existing content from apprenticeship standards, such as a mandatory qualification, to use as apprenticeship units.
There is, however, concern that providers will be able to deliver apprenticeship unit training without an element of independent assessment.
Asked about this during the conference, Ridley-Pepper said: “So I think that will very much depend on what the particular unit is and how long it is, whether, in the existing apprenticeship, there is an assessment associated with it.”
Kate Ridley-Pepper
Minister’s transparency pledge on levy decisions
Skills minister Jacqui Smith said the government would “try to be as transparent as possible” when deciding how to ensure the apprenticeship levy remains affordable.
Officials are turning the policy into a growth and skills levy, which will fund a range of shorter courses from April, following years of employer lobbying.
But as Smith reminded the sector during Tuesday’s conference, the apprenticeships budget was fully spent last year.
It was partly for this reason that ministers have pushed through the defunding of level 7 apprenticeships for people aged 22 and older, which will come into effect from January.
This controversial policy decision was made without consultation and has received sector-wide backlash.
Smith said the government will “try” to be transparent about decisions on levy spending restrictions if more hard choices need to be made.
She told the conference: “As we develop the growth and skills offer, we’re mindful that last financial year, the entire apprenticeship budget was spent.
“So, like any budget, it demands choices, but we will make these in a careful, considered way, taking into account the needs of employers and the economy, so that we make the most of the levy and deliver on our shared priorities.
“We will always try to be as transparent as possible in our decision making, to give you as much chance as possible to feed into that and to plan ahead. But a clear priority is young people. They are front and centre of our plans.”
LLE focuses on ‘missing middle’ to fill skills gap
The government’s new Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) will focus on qualifications at level 4 and above to plug England’s “missing middle” of skilled workers, the skills minister said.
Jacqui Smith faced questions over why the flagship scheme will not cover level 3 qualifications amid calls for a more inclusive approach. The LLE, due to launch in 2027, will give adults access to student-style loans for tuition and maintenance on higher technical and degree-level courses at levels 4 to 6.
AELP chief executive Ben Rowland challenged the government’s decision, asking: “Why are we limiting it to level four and above? Why don’t we want to make it really inclusive?”
Smith said the government’s focus reflected the country’s biggest skills gap. “The majority of the new skills that we need will be level four and above,” she said. “We have a high proportion of people educated at level six, but where we have a gap – the missing middle – is in levels four and five. That is holding us back.”
She added that technician-level roles were vital to improving productivity in key growth sectors, and that lifelong access to funding for higher-level training would help close that gap.
Smith described the LLE as a “big opportunity” for independent training providers to deliver the modular, shorter courses that will be funded under the new system.
However, Learning Curve Group CEO Brenda McLeish warned that private providers face “huge barriers” to participation because they must register with the Office for Students (OfS), which comes with strict conditions.
The OfS is, however, planning to consult this autumn on proposals to remove some conditions of registration for providers in the further education sector already regulated by the Department for Education.
Smith said quality safeguards were essential but confirmed the LLE remained a “work in progress”.
A high-stakes legal battle over what former apprenticeship boss Peter Marples called a “malicious” government intervention has ended decisively in favour of the Department for Education.
In a detailed High Court judgment, Mr Justice Rajah dismissed the £37 million claim brought by Marples, his wife Sarah, son Thomas and nephew Lee against the secretary of state for education.
The judge found no duty of care was owed to the family and rejected claims that senior officials at the former Skills Funding Agency (SFA) acted out of personal animosity, ruling that government chiefs sought to “protect public funds”. He also made stinging criticisms of several witnesses, including findings of “evasion and dishonesty” against Peter Marples.
Background: 3aaa blocked sale and collapse
The Marples family were shareholders in apprenticeship giant Aspire Achieve Advance Ltd (3aaa), which collapsed in 2018 following a government investigation into alleged data manipulation. The police were later involved, but no charges followed.
The court case centred on the SFA’s refusal to “approve” a proposed majority sale of 3aaa to private-equity firm Trilantic Capital Partners LLP in 2016. Under clause 5.10 of its apprenticeship contract, 3aaa had to notify the SFA of any ownership change. The SFA reserved the right to terminate its contract if the change “prejudiced” delivery.
In a first-of-its-kind refusal decision, then-SFA chief executive Sir Peter Lauener told 3aaa the agency was “not able to agree to this change of ownership in the context of current and future contracts”. The claimants argued this refusal blocked the sale, cost them tens of millions, and amounted to misfeasance in public office because the SFA was exercising a power it did not legally possess.
The government countered that the SFA owed no duty of care to shareholders and that its process was an informal assurance, not a statutory power of “approval”. Officials said the decision was taken in good faith for regulatory reasons, including doubts about the proposed business plan and the impact of forthcoming apprenticeship levy reforms.
SFA had no approval power – and no duty to shareholders
Rajah accepted it had become routine for providers to seek “approval” before ownership changes, but confirmed the SFA had no power to refuse or block such transactions – only to terminate a contract if necessary.
While internal SFA emails showed some staff, including Sir Peter and then-funding director Keith Smith, mistakenly believed they could approve or prevent a sale and 3aaa had to seek its permission before the sale, the judge ruled this misunderstanding did not create any obligation to the claimants.
The Marples family, he said, had their own legal advisers and could not reasonably rely on the SFA to act with a duty of care toward their commercial interests. It was foreseeable the decision might affect the sale, but that alone “is obviously not enough” to create such a duty.
“There was nothing to stop the parties proceeding with the sale,” the judge wrote. “It was not reasonable to rely on the SFA taking care in relation to that ineffective decision.”
The SFA was, he said, 3aaa’s customer, not a regulator acting on behalf of shareholders. “I conclude there was no duty of care owed by the SFA to the claimants in relation to the decision letter.”
No evidence of personal grudge
A major plank of the family’s claim was that Sir Peter held a personal grudge against Peter Marples and acted out of malice, fuelled by resentment of his wealth.
Emails from late 2016 appeared to show Sir Peter being agitated by information about 3aaa’s profits and the renewed interest from Trilantic. “My blood pressure is much higher now,” he replied to a message describing the firm as “highly cash generative”.
Rajah said Sir Peter’s explanation that this was “banter” was “unsatisfactory”, and that it was clear the messages reflected genuine irritation. However, he found no proof that this irritation amounted to a malicious intent to harm the Marples family.
Evidence showed Sir Peter had earlier praised 3aaa as an example of success to then-skills minister Nick Boles, even intervening in early 2016 to save the company from administration. These actions were “not consistent” with a “grudge or personal animosity of the strength required” for targeted malice.
While former SFA official Tony Allen told the court that Sir Peter and others regarded some private providers as a “necessary evil” who made “excessive profits”, Rajah found that such policy concerns about value for money did not amount to personal hostility.
“I reject the allegation that Sir Peter Lauener and others at the SFA held a grudge or significant personal animosity against Peter Marples,” he concluded.
Sir Peter’s motives: protecting public funds
The judge accepted that Sir Peter personally intervened in an unprecedented way, taking charge of the change-of-control process and describing it internally as an “important test case”.
Emails showed him anticipating “fireworks” when the SFA refused approval, predicting that Trilantic would “ditch 3aaa” after learning of the decision. The judge said he was “painting a deliberately pessimistic scenario” to Trilantic during the proposed buyout and this reflected a deliberate attempt to discourage the sale, but not a malicious one.
“Sir Peter was at pains to understand what value the sellers were taking out of the deal. It is likely Sir Peter was concerned that the value being placed on 3aaa and the sums the sellers would receive were excessive,” he wrote.
“Sir Peter’s intention appears to have been to protect the sector and public funds, not to injure the claimants.”
The judge found Sir Peter’s stance was driven by anxiety over private equity’s entry into apprenticeships amid the incoming levy, and by scepticism about Trilantic’s “over ambitious” business plan. He exaggerated the risks to deter the sale, but this, the court found, was not bad faith.
“A desire to prevent excessive profits being made from public funds, or to discourage private capital from entering the sector in search of profits, is not a specific intent to injure anyone, even if that may be a consequence of the action,” Rajah said. “The claim based on targeted malice fails.”
Key witnesses criticised
The judge reserved his harshest criticism for several witnesses.
Rajah said Sir Peter’s evidence was “not consistent with the contemporaneous documentation”, accusing him of trying to “spin” the documents to fit his narrative.
Former SFA funding director Keith Smith – now principal of the HRUC college group – was described as a “poor witness” who sought to “distance himself” from responsibility for the decision letter and the change of control process. His claim of limited involvement was “not credible”.
However, “on matters not concerned with the decision letter and change of control, I considered him more reliable,” the judge added about Smith.
The judge said much of Peter Marples’ evidence was a “reconstruction after reviewing the documents and mulling over this case over the last decade” and added: “It did not seem to me that Peter Marples would have volunteered or conceded any point which he thought undermined his case.”
Expert evidence thrown out
The court also threw out the claimants’ expert accounting evidence after discovering that Marples had secretly rewritten it himself.
The appointed expert, Vivian Cohen, had previously worked for Marples’s company, Fair Result, on matrimonial valuations. Marples made around 150 amendments to Cohen’s joint expert statements, which were supposed to be impartial.
“This was a deliberate, cynical, planned breach of the rules relating to expert evidence,” Rajah said. Both men “colluded” to mislead the court. Cohen, who has been criticised in at least two previous High Court cases, had his evidence thrown out.
The judge said this episode of “evasion and dishonesty” further undermined Marples’ credibility and required his evidence to be treated “with considerable caution”.
3aaa data-manipulation allegations ‘inconclusive’
Although the claim focused on the 2016 sale decision, the DfE’s defence drew on subsequent data-manipulation allegations that led to 3aaa’s 2018 collapse.
The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA), which replaced the SFA, had accused 3aaa of inflating achievement rates by altering learners’ planned end and withdrawal dates, and of wrongly retaining about £1.2 million in apprenticeship grants meant for employers.
However, Rajah said it was “not possible” for the court to rule on whether these allegations were true. The ESFA’s statistical analysis of large-scale data anomalies suggested deliberate manipulation, but investigators never completed their work after the company went into liquidation.
Key investigators Keith Hunter and David Smales admitted under cross-examination that the inquiry remained “inconclusive” as to who, if anyone, was responsible. The judge described both as “honest, straightforward witnesses” who were “simply doing their jobs.”
By contrast, he found Lee Marples, who had been implicated in the alleged data issues, unreliable: “At times he would argue that black was white if he thought it would assist his case.”
Court rejects all claims
Rajah comprehensively rejected the Marples family’s case. The SFA’s refusal letter, he said, may have discouraged the sale but had no legal effect – it was open to the parties to proceed regardless. The SFA owed no duty of care to shareholders, and there was no targeted malice behind the decision.
The Marples family’s assertion that their shares were rendered unsaleable was “flawed”, because “the SFA’s blessing was not required”.
While the court found that some of Sir Peter’s conduct and correspondence were unprofessional and “unsatisfactory”, his overriding concern was judged to be protecting public money and shaping policy as private capital entered the apprenticeship market.
Both parties must now agree legal costs, which soared into the millions.
Marples has until 4pm on November 18 to apply for permission to appeal.
