Keegan refuses to retract remarks about punching Ofsted inspectors

The education secretary has said her comments about punching Ofsted inspectors were “off-the-cuff remarks made in a light-hearted manner”, as she swerved a trade union’s call to publicly retract the statement.

Gillian Keegan said she would have “probably punched” disrespectful Ofsted inspectors, during a question-and-answer session at the Association of School and College Leaders conference in Liverpool last month. 

Dave Penman, general secretary of the FDA union, which represents inspectors, wrote to Keegan on March 11, urging her to retract the “inflammatory language”, which he called “unacceptable in any context, let alone coming from the secretary of state”.

But, in a response sent on Tuesday, seen by FE Week, Keegan said: “As I think you know, the comments you refer to were off-the-cuff remarks, made in a light-hearted manner in a very particular context, and in the spirit of expressing support for headteachers and teachers in the audience.

“Clearly, I would not be punching anyone, or advocating anyone else do so, and to imply otherwise would be completely wrong.”

Keegan goes on to state she is a “strong advocate and staunch defender of Ofsted, and the important work it does”.

“It is precisely because Ofsted and its inspectors play such an essential role that we must strive to ensure that all inspections are conducted to the highest possible standard. The vast majority are, but not all.”

At the ASCL conference, Keegan recalled feeling “shocked” after hearing from a school leader about the conduct of inspectors during an inspection.

She told the audience: “I heard recently actually from a fantastic school I went into, [and] they told me how their Ofsted experience had gone.

“I was shocked, I was actually shocked. I thought, ‘God, if I’d met these people, I’d have probably punched them.’ They were really rude.”

Sir Martyn Oliver, Ofsted’s chief inspector, was asked about her comments at the time and said he thought “people should act with professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect on both sides”.

Sir Martin Oliver Ofsted chief inspector

In her letter, Keegan echoed Oliver’s remarks, saying she “strongly” supports “his mission to make sure that Ofsted’s culture and practice always has professionalism, courtesy, empathy and respect at its centre”. 

But Penman rebuked Keegan for her response and said she “could have gone further to rebuild trust with inspectors”

“It’s disappointing that the secretary of state has not publicly retracted her comments, as we urged her to do in writing last month,” he said. 


“We welcome her acknowledgement that Ofsted inspectors play an essential role and I know our members share her belief that we must strive to ensure that all inspections are conducted to the highest possible standards.

“However, it’s clear she could have gone further to rebuild trust with inspectors, so that crucial work to improve inspection arrangements could be carried out in a collaborative approach, based on mutual respect.”

FE Week’s sister publication Schools Week previously revealed Ofsted data on complaints relating to inspector conduct.

In the 2020-2021 financial year, 39 complaints from 2,585 inspections related to concerns over the conduct of inspections (1.5 per cent). The number of inspections this year was lower than normal amid Covid.

In the 2022-2023 financial year, Ofsted received 171 complaints raising conduct concerns out of a total of 7,615 inspections (2.24 per cent).

What Ofsted will hear when it listens to training providers

The breadth of experiences relating to Ofsted inspections are vast. No two providers share the same experience other than the passion! For some, the passion relates to extreme elation and delight about every aspect and for others frustration, relief, exhaustion or devastation.

Since Ofsted launched its Big Listen, members of the Fellowship of Inspection Nominees (FIN) from across the sector have been feeding in proposals for reform. Starting with the dreaded phone call that an inspection is imminent, nominees are adamant that five days’ notice should be given to providers of all sizes.

This is particularly important for work-based learning where the provider has to liaise quickly with employers and apprentices. They also want an end to Friday notification calls from Ofsted because this will avoid the need to contact employers and learners over the weekend.

Providers believe that inspection reports are sanitised and lack either the detail about strengths or insufficient information to expand on the areas for improvement. Where ‘Requires Improvement’ (RI) has been the overall judgement, the outcome could be in sharp contrast to the learner and employer feedback in Ofsted’s surveys, which are not published. This leaves providers feeling very unfairly represented.

FIN members have suggested one of two ways forward: that Ofsted produces two reports, including a private one for the provider (and the funder) with more specific details, strengths, areas for improvement and most importantly recommendations to improve, or alternatively that Ofsted publishes a richer, more meaningful report that shows survey outcomes and other elements of provision.

For providers awarded RI or ‘Inadequate’, improvement recommendations are essential, especially for independent learning providers who will need to show how they can meet them to keep trading.

Over half of the respondents to FIN’s Big Listen survey felt that the size of their inspection team was not appropriate for their provision. For some larger providers, the team’s size limited the learner sample size and therefore some of the negative findings were disproportionate. On the other hand, one provider was allocated a team of six inspectors to look at just 116 learners.

Emotions run high and the sense of urgency is overwhelming

Ofsted should therefore provide clarity on the rationale for the number of inspectors or learner sample sizes, for instance by stipulating the number of learners and employers or a percentage that constitutes a sample to help providers with their preparation process.

Even if these issues are addressed, we still need to tackle the poor alignment of the provider contract for delivery and the inspection framework (EIF). Ofsted is generally valued by the sector for its professionalism and ability to make fair judgments, but inspectors are limited to only judging against the framework.

FIN looks at reports by provider type and the number of sixth form colleges achieving ‘Outstanding’ is extremely high and disproportionate to all other types of provider. Our research of ‘Outstanding’ outcomes shows a clear correlation with the requirements of the EIF:  a fixed term time and a full-time education programme which includes a pastoral curriculum,  selective entry and a well-established exam system. By contrast, adult education short courses, apprenticeships and bootcamps are being shoehorned into the EIF.

We are not trying to devalue the richness of provision that Ofsted reports on, but as the grades are business-critical for so many contracts, there needs to be a different approach. The EIF should be streamlined to reflect different types of provision. Reform should follow the principle that if it’s paid for, it should be graded; if it is not in the contract and therefore not funded, don’t grade.

A highly technical apprenticeship provider should not be prevented from achieving ‘Outstanding’ because they do not spend precious off-the-job hours promoting healthy eating or personal fitness. The judgement should be primarily focused on the technical training, potentially fantastic career progression and valued output into the employer’s business.

As FIN continues to gather nominees’ feedback and form judgements for submission into Ofsted’s consultation, emotions run high and the sense of urgency is overwhelming. Change is needed fast. 

College Financial Handbook 2024: making the best of a bad job

The College Financial Handbook 2024 (which we will call the “Handbook”) has been released and comes into effect on 1 August 2024. It sets out restrictions on colleges post-reclassification.

We already knew that the Handbook would be bad news for colleges. It could only ever bring more regulation to an already over-regulated sector.

The Handbook will indeed increase the regulatory burden on colleges and its overlap with other documents could bring confusion.

But there is nothing outrageous in the Handbook; none of the new obligations on colleges look unfairly limiting and the sector and DfE have done a good job of producing something with which colleges can work.

Nevertheless, I still do not think that we needed it in the first place.

A bit of background

Reclassification of colleges to public bodies in November 2022 has changed their financial landscape and obligations. The ESFA has aimed to capture this new framework and combine the financial rules and requirements into a single document for the FE sector.

The Handbook applies to further education and sixth-form college corporations and bodies designated as being in the FE sector. It does not apply to 16-19 academies, sixth-form colleges forming part of an academy trust, LA maintained schools within a sixth-form, 16-19 free schools or University Technical Colleges.

The document will be refreshed annually and, in the words of the ESFA chief executive, takes a principles-based approach demonstrating to the sector “what needs to be done rather than how it should be done”.

The Handbook is a combination of well-established obligations with which colleges will be conversant, such as compliance with procurement principles and subcontracting standards, but also provides further detail, such as when colleges must obtain DfE approval for certain transactions.

The requirements are described in two ways: musts, meaning statutory or regulatory requirements to be adhered to, and shoulds which are standards of good practice to be followed, unless colleges can show a good reason for differentiating their approach in individual circumstances.

Compliance with the Handbook is a condition of colleges’ accountability agreements. The DfE may take action if there are concerns with college compliance.

Part 2 sets out the main financial requirements, which cover internal control frameworks, budget and spending decision management and the roles played by governors and college individuals in determining financial management.

What is in it?

Not much of the Handbook is totally new – it tends to repeat obligations to which colleges were subjected post-reclassification, and it sets out other obligations which are already covered in funding agreements or guidance documents.

Where there are new obligations on colleges, these tend to be additional detail in an already regulated area, or things which colleges probably already do.

Some of the obligations include that colleges must:

  • follow procurement processes and ensure delivery whether direct or subcontracted meets the necessary standards
  • follow codes on setting executive pay
  • have an audit committee with oversight of financial controls of the college
  • refer novel, contentious and repercussive transactions to the DfE for approval before the transaction occurs
  • obtain DfE’s prior approval for writing off their debts and losses beyond the delegated limits, entering into guarantees/letters of comfort and entering into indemnities which are not in the normal course of business and beyond the delegated limits
  • obtain ESFA’s prior approval for new borrowing from the private sector and amendments to existing private sector borrowing, regardless of the interest rate chargeable.

Some more difficult provisions

A college now needs DfE consent to appoint an accounting officer who is not an employee of the college. It is very rare that a college would want to do this, but we have seen it happen, for example where colleges are merging.

Accounting officers must adhere to the Nolan Principles. Of course accounting officers will probably be a governor of the college and so should comply with the Nolan Principles anyway. But it is odd that a college is now in breach of its obligations to the DfE if one of its officers behaves in a way which is contrary to a list of principles which cannot be seen as hard and fast rules.

The accounting officer must notify the ESFA if the college acts outside its powers. It would normally be a college’s governance professional who advises the board on vires issues. These can be complicated and nuanced, so it is a bit harsh on an accounting officer to take personal responsibility for this.

Colleges must ensure that “a competitive tender policy is in place and applied”, but then colleges should “consider approving a procurement policy”. These things seem to be contradictory.

Over-regulation and confusion

The college Handbook is mercifully a bit shorter than the equivalent Handbook for academies. Overall the two are unsurprisingly pretty similar, but the DfE and their consultees have done a good job in tailoring the Handbook to the further education sector.

However, this is a sector that is already heavily regulated. Colleges are subject to charity law, multiple funding agreements, many sets of funding rules, dozens of regulatory documents imposed by the DfE, laws which set the powers of colleges, their own constitutions and to restrictions contained in grant agreements for the many stand-alone pots of funding for which colleges must compete.

The Handbook brings more restrictions on the sector which it did not need.

Arguably more problematic than bringing more regulation, is confused regulation through so many different layers. Just to take one example: Why does the Handbook need to cover audit committees when they are already subject to regulation in funding agreements and policy documents? By regulating the same issue multiple times we make it harder for colleges to know where to go to find definitive answers. Worse still, we risk one regulatory document contradicting another.

The Handbook’s foreword sets out that the ESFA is “supporting the sector in the application of these rules in as streamlined and simple a way as possible”. This continues promises to streamline funding and regulation which were set out in the Skills for Jobs white paper.

As things stand, this policy objective is very obviously not being achieved. The further education sector would hugely benefit if the ESFA and DfE could achieve it.

In the meantime, as usual, colleges will just get on with it.

How colleges can help students attain the green roles they want

Demand for careers focused on sustainability is accelerating in line with the growth of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment and increasing pressure to hit net zero targets.

In construction, many suppliers are moving to improve the sustainability of their operations and products to meet their own and their clients’ environmental commitments. As such, the number of ‘green roles’ in the industry is rising and creating an opportunity for FE providers to encourage more young people to pursue a sustainable path.  

Research has shown that 54 per cent of people interested in green careers are motivated by a desire to help the environment; a further 47 per cent report the demand for these jobs as a key driver while 45 per cent say they want an occupation they can take pride in.

Increasingly, opportunities to satisfy this appetite for green jobs are opening up. The UK’s net zero target could provide up to 750,000 new jobs in low-carbon sectors and in construction. Additional decarbonisation work could create demand for 86,000 project managers and 33,000 building envelope specialists by 2028, according to estimates from The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB).  

Among the key areas driving sustainability in construction are procurement and estimation. Procurement professionals oversee resource investment and can steer a company’s uptake of sustainably sourced materials. This involves assessing the entire lifecycle of products and choosing materials that have lower embodied carbon and can be reused.

Procurement specialists work hand-in-hand with estimators to weigh up the cost of sustainable investment. They, in turn, collaborate with design experts such as computer-aided design (CAD) technicians to map out the feasibility of eco-friendly designs.  

Green duties have become entrenched in other occupations across the building sector too. Companies are setting annual targets as part of their ESG agendas. These include goals to manage waste efficiently or, in the case of projects built through modern methods of construction (MMC), developing zero-carbon-in-operation buildings.  

Early insight could be the ticket to harvesting a green job

With so many green career opportunities in construction on the table, FE providers have a key role to play in encouraging uptake among young people.

First, providers should ensure teaching about green skills and career paths is introduced to every curriculum area, and staff training on these is up-to-date. While demand for green occupations and employers is growing (over half of Gen Zs and Millennials research a company’s environmental impact before accepting jobs),  there is still little awareness of the job options and skills required to secure them. Dedicated workshops and careers education for sustainable employment pathways can help bridge that gap.  

Second, role models really matter. Many green jobs are relatively new, but there are professionals all over the country who have pursued green careers in construction. These include ESG directors, modular building designers and energy engineers who can discuss their experience and route to the role. Consider speakers with different educational backgrounds too; this will demonstrate that green careers are attainable through apprenticeships, vocational courses and other avenues.  

Third, formalised work experience reaches those who already show an interest in a sector, but they miss all those undecided young people who may simply not know what’s available. Many of these may be glad of a steer towards green construction careers. FE providers often have excellent relationships with local or regional companies who not only open up opportunities for young people but will also welcome the chance to promote their activity and vacancies.  

Finally, when applying for green careers with construction companies, FE providers must ensure young people can confidently discuss ESG. Recruitment has evolved into a two-way street: while employers have a greater duty to demonstrate their ESG credentials and perks, prospective employees for green roles will need to illustrate an interest in sustainability, their knowledge of the employer’s environmental credibility and their ideas for improvements they could bring to the given role. 

ESG and sustainability are now a priority for most sectors as well as society as a whole. Green careers are ripe for the taking – and early insight could be the ticket to harvesting one.  

Educators and employers must do more to encourage women into the digital industry

As an 18-year-old leaving school with excellent A Level grades and an unconditional offer at university to study psychology, no one expected me to go to college. However, I had a huge desire to explore the world of IT and knew that this was my chance to do it.

So, without telling my teachers (who I knew wouldn’t be keen), I deferred my university entry, took a gap year and embarked on a Level 3 IT course at Barking & Dagenham College.

As the only girl in my class, it was a daunting start. IT is perceived to be a male-dominated industry, and this was very much reinforced in my mind when starting college.

For many girls, particularly those who come from an all-girls’ schools or who, for cultural reasons, are not encouraged to mix with boys – the lack of girls can be a huge barrier to a digital/IT career.

But what’s become clear to me is that there are many, many amazing women working in this sector. They need to be more visible, more relatable and out there for young, talented women to meet and be inspired by.

There are also many misconceptions around what an IT career even is. I thought it was all about coding and programming before embarking on my college course, only to be pleasantly surprised by how wrong I was.

My IT course only had one Java-based module, with the majority being far more business and project focused. The huge scope of what was actually on offer became clear during a national digital skills industry challenge my college got involved in.

This project was run by Julia Von Klonowski, CEO of Digital Skills Consulting, who has many years’ experience in the sector and is on a mission to break down gender stereotypes.

We had to work in groups over a two-month period, to develop a digital solution for a charity. We were mentored by industry experts, who gave advice and guidance in all areas from software development to marketing.

Colleges should ensure their marketing of IT courses is more female-led

We then went to London to present our ideas to all the other groups from FE colleges around the country, and to a panel of industry judges. This was the first time I’d ever done anything like this. It helped develop my confidence and my public speaking skills – as well as giving me real insight into the industry.

As a result, I secured work experience through one of the judges at the Lawn Tennis Association – somewhere I’d never have thought or dreamed of working. This is when I really understood the scope of career opportunities available in the IT and digital world, including project management, PR and business analytics.

I went on to secure a digital apprenticeship with Accenture, helped by the experience I’d gained in the industry while at college. The experts I met as part of the Digital Skills Challenge were incredibly supportive and gave me the confidence to take this path, rather than going to university in the traditional sense. I obtained a First, which I’m hugely proud of and am now working as a business analyst in the public sector, supporting digital literacy and skills in my local community.

To ensure more young women get the opportunities that I’ve had, employers need to make themselves more relatable and more approachable. They need to demonstrate the full scope of job roles and opportunities available within the digital industry and have lots of female mentors to encourage new talent. People want to work somewhere where they feel they
can fit in and not simply be a number.

Colleges can also help immensely. Getting involved in industry challenges is great, as is encouraging successful women to come in and speak to students about their personal experiences and career paths. Hearing this first hand can be inspirational and make the journey feel more achievable. Colleges should also ensure their marketing of IT courses is more female-led, and be clear that there is more to the curriculum than coding.

I want to play my part in this, so last week I was a judge and mentor in the same Digital Skills competition that had given me such a head start seven years ago. The students were amazing, with fantastic ideas and determination to succeed. We must create more of these opportunities if we are truly serious about being inclusive and attracting the talent
that the industry needs.

Who is Luke Hall? 11 facts about the new skills, apprenticeships and HE minister

Luke Hall was appointed as a Department for Education minister last week following the sudden resignation of Robert Halfon. 

The DfE has now confirmed that Hall will take over all of Halfon’s responsibilities for skills, apprenticeships, and higher education.

Here’s what we know about the incumbent minister:

  1. Aged 37, Hall was born in South Gloucestershire and worked in supermarket chain Lidl from age 18. He became the manager of the supermarket branch in Yate and then progressed to area manager for Farmfoods.
  2. Hall was first elected as a Conservative MP for Thornbury and Yate in the 2015 general election. 
  3. Since then, he has voted in parliament for schools to become academies and has pushed for the construction of a SEND school in his constituency. He also spoke in 2021 about his work with DfE to carry out the ambitions of the skills for jobs white paper, including the devolution of the adult education budget.
  4. He was one of the MPs implicated in the battlebus expenses scandal in 2015 for reportedly spending more than the constituency cap during the election campaign. The Crown Prosecution Service ultimately did not press charges on any MPs despite finding evidence of inaccurate spending, according to reports at the time.
  5. He has sat on several House of Commons committees, including for work and pensions, petitions, and environmental audit.
  6. Hall has also served in junior government roles as minister for rough sleeping and housing and was a parliamentary private secretary to the ministerial team at DfE in 2017.
  7. In 2017, Hall was re-elected as MP with a 55.3 per cent majority compared to 14.2 per cent in 2015.
  8. Luke Hall originally campaigned to remain in the European Union. Since then, he has stayed on the side of the government, voting to trigger Article 50 – the treaty to begin Brexit. 
    “Prior to the referendum, I personally advocated and campaigned for a remain vote, so I can completely understand the concerns that many people have,” he told local reporters.
    “However, both South Gloucestershire and the country voted to leave the European Union, and I am respecting that result.”
  9. The MP was also minister for regional growth at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government from September 2020 until September 2021. During that period, he came under fire from the opposition for advising rough sleepers to “where appropriate and possible, to return to friends and family”.
  10. He has also held the post of Conservative Party deputy chair until he resigned in July 2022 ahead of Boris Johnson’s resignation as prime minister. Current prime minister Rishi Sunak reappointed Hall as deputy chair last February.
  11. Hall has accepted donations from companies and private individuals alike over the years. Most recently, he received £5,000 from the Bristol Port Company. Hall has also received a total of £18,396.66 from Andrew Godson since 2019. Godson appears to be the CEO of an investment firm in London named Aptimus Capital Partners. He has also received donations from Henry Somerset, an English peer and landowner in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire.

Ofsted upgrades ‘resilient’ emergency care provider from ‘inadequate’ to ‘good’

An emergency care training provider that struggled to support hundreds of apprentices it took on at short notice has seen its Ofsted grade jump from ‘inadequate’ to ‘good’.

In 2022, the education watchdog criticised Medipro for a lack of resources and infrastructure to support 537 ambulance worker apprentices that it took on in addition to its own 700 apprentices.

The Stockton-on-Tees based provider stepped in to help the additional apprentices a year earlier at the request of the government after their previous provider, the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust, lost its contract due to “inappropriate behaviour” of some staff.

Following a full inspection last month, Ofsted said Medipro has been “proactive” in improving on previous criticisms that it had failed to act “quickly or effectively enough” to ensure a smooth transition for the apprentices.

Leaders and managers now have “effective quality assurance processes” in place to ensure apprentices achieve their qualification.

They have effective oversight of their apprenticeship programmes and a “detailed understanding” of their learners’ progress and support.

The provider is also in the process of setting up an advisory board, the watchdog reported.

Inspectors praised the way tutors, who are all serving paramedics, “skillfully link theory to practical application” in their teaching.

The report, which scored Medipro as ‘good’ across the board, said apprentices “rapidly acquire significant new knowledge, skills and behaviours” and are well prepared for future job roles.

‘Demotivated’ apprentices show ‘determination’

Medipro – which also has branches in the east of England and Bristol – added the 537 apprentices from the NHS ambulance trust to its own 700 apprentices in 2021.

Many of the new learners had reportedly already reached their planned end date, but 230 were yet to qualify when Ofsted inspectors arrived a year later, in November 2022.

Ofsted said “too many” of the transferred apprentices were “demotivated” and “frustrated” by a lack of guidance and clarity about their progress. 

Inspectors also claimed that the apprentices had experienced “long delays in the return of marked work and, in too many cases, have been without a tutor for a long period of time”.

Medipro was a relatively new apprenticeship training provider, having only started this type of teaching in April 2020.

However, the Education and Skills Funding Agency took the rare decision of retaining Medipro’s funding agreement despite the ‘inadequate’ grading in recognition of the way the provider had stepped in at short notice.

At the time, Medipro’s managing director Brian English said he was “disappointed” given the size of the group of transferred apprentices, the short timeframe for taking them on, and the fact that their portfolios were paper-based.

Two short Ofsted monitoring reports in 2023 showed the training provider soon made improvements including giving learners a dedicated tutor, offering drop-in support and an online portfolio to receive feedback from their tutor.

Kirsty Wharton, head of apprenticeships at Medipro, said: “During the late Autumn of 2021, Medipro was approached by ESFA and Health Education England to onboard 600 apprentices who were not able to continue with their current provider.

“This was a large scale and complex task which was still being undertook when we had our Ofsted inspection.

“I’m pleased to say that over 95 per cent of these apprentices have now succeeded and are working in their greatly-needed sector, and that we have now returned to normal operational business as reflected with this grade and the previous monitoring inspections.

“I would like to thank by staff for their resilience and fortitude over this past year, and the apprentices themselves for showing perseverance and determination during the re-engagement process.”

Resilient Ricketts: How Brooklands was saved from going broke

Christine Ricketts tells FE Week how an all-or-nothing council meeting saved Brooklands College from going bust, clearing a path to a ‘bright and thriving future’

On Tuesday December 5, 2023, Christine Ricketts headed to Elmbridge Borough Council for a showdown presentation with 15 councillors that would decide whether Brooklands College would go insolvent, or survive. 

It was the culmination of four years of estates planning triggered by a subcontracting scandal that required the small college to repay the Department for Education more than £20 million.

“There were no other options on the table. It was high stakes,” the principal explains.

“I remember how emotional I felt when I presented, it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. It was crystal clear to me that we had to get that planning. I’m not a business person but I do care about students, and I’m the CEO of a college, so that’s how I approached it.”

And her approach worked. Despite one councillor – unfairly and inappropriately in Ricketts’ view – suggesting the principal was effectively blackmailing the council into approving the £45 million redevelopment to ensure the area has a college, 11 councillors voted in favour, and four opposed.

The greenlight was met with celebrations outside the council hall at around 9.30 pm from staff who went along to support their principal. But for Ricketts, there was no time to rest. Despite one weight being lifted off her shoulders, Ofsted had begun inspecting her college that very same day.

She was finally able to “take a moment” and reflect on a stressful but “fantastic” week on the Friday when the college was told it would retain its ‘good’ rating.

The journey to get to this point was one of twists, turns, survival and resilience for the Surrey-based college.

The scandal that almost broke Brooklands

Longstanding FE Week readers will remember how events unfolded in 2018 that plunged the then-financially healthy college to the brink of insolvency overnight.

To recap: The Education and Skills Funding Agency discovered how one of Brooklands College’s subcontractors, SCL Security Ltd, was using apprenticeship funding illegally including by making up “ghost” learners and using funding to pay wages.

The college handed over millions of pounds over three years with little oversight to the mysterious provider that had hardly any staff and fake locations across the country.

As Brooklands was the prime provider in the relationship, it fell on the college to repay the government when officials discovered fraudulent activity – a whopping £20 million worth.

Several other colleges also got stung by SCL Security, but nowhere near the scale of Brooklands. 

The subcontractor went bust in 2020 and its owner, Andrew Merritt, has been banned from running a company until August 15, 2029, by the Insolvency Service. He’s also had to sell his multi-million-pound home to repay some creditors. 

The SCL Security case was one of the main reasons for the government’s subcontracting crackdown that began in 2020.

Ricketts joined the college as deputy principal in 2016 and stepped up to the top job in 2019 after the former principal, who handled subcontracting and apprenticeship arrangements directly as a separate unit from other parts of the college, resigned. 

The FE Commissioner intervened and imposed an immediate ban on subcontracting – a big income stream for the college. The college saw its budget halve from £23 million in 2017 to £11 million in 2020.

Income has begun to increase in recent years and sat at £13 million in 2023, driven by increases in student numbers, particularly in its own direct apprenticeship delivery.

Andrew Baird, one of the FE Commissioner’s national leaders of governance, was parachuted into Brooklands College as chair in 2019 to aid Ricketts in the recovery mission.

It says more about a person if they step up rather than walk away

The principal says she was “shocked” at the “huge scale” of fraud, lack of integrity and debt the college was left with, but that she was “absolutely aware” of the recovery job at hand.

“It says more about a person if they step up rather than walk away in a situation like that.

“I knew what the challenges were but I also knew this was a good college with loads of potential in terms of the estate and the importance of its position in the local community.”

One of the key challenges Ricketts faced was communication about the college’s future with staff and students amid reports of potential insolvency in the trade and local press.

“It was a very difficult period. Insolvency was discussed in ESFA meetings, but my responsibility was to give continuity to the college. So, irrespective of all of the noise, I had a responsibility to ensure students had a really good experience.

“The fear definitely filters down to the staff. It’ll only filter down to the students if the staff are relaying some of those negative messages about survival. So, our comms approach and engagement with the staff was absolutely critical.

“Brooklands is very fortunate to have very committed, hard-working staff who really care about the students and that has come through.”

Staff numbers have reduced at Brooklands College from over 300 in 2018 to 231 in 2023.

Ricketts says she brought in a completely new executive team when she took on the top job after the SCL Security fiasco came to light, but claims staff have remained relatively stable.

She admits that staff were “rightly concerned of the scale of the SCL challenge” and the sudden change in leadership caused “disruption”, but turnover “wasn’t particularly high”.

The apparent solid relationship between leadership, staff and students was evident when in late 2019 Ofsted came knocking and handed the college a ‘good’ judgment, an achievement which it repeated this year.

The £45m redevelopment rescue

While good quality education was being delivered, leadership had to work on a debt-repayment plan and chose to revisit an idea first floated in 2007 about redeveloping its large multi-site campus.

In the aftermath of Covid, the college announced a major resizing plan that involved selling off land and a historic mansion to make way for houses in a deal worth around £45 million with Cala Homes.

The project at Brooklands’ Weybridge site will build 320 new homes, including 128 “affordable homes” for local families, a new sports centre, a community hub, and public access to 12 hectares of woodland.

The new campus will also feature a new dedicated special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) building.

But, while leadership worked on the proposal the college was brought under the spotlight for the wrong reasons again – this time because its government consultant chair, Andrew Baird, became embroiled in a race row.

He shared a racist meme in a local Conservative Party WhatsApp group about Rishi Sunak after his appointment as prime minister in October 2022. The college troubleshooter was suspended by the Tory Party and resigned as chair of Brooklands. 

Ricketts said when the situation emerged, she was “initially shocked” but went straight into leadership mode to promote then-vice chair Barbara Spittle to interim chair and communicate the change to staff. 

“There was a little bit of disruption, obviously, because of the nature of Andrew leaving,” Ricketts says, “but it was absolutely right that we acted immediately”.

The college named a new permanent chair in summer 2023, bringing in former university vice-chancellor Professor Craig Mahoney, who “adds a new set of skills and expertise that actually we really needed”.

After handling the chair controversy, attention returned to securing the planning application for the redevelopment and it all boiled down to that presentation to council leaders on December 15. Work is now expected to start after the Easter break.

Resizing, not downsizing

Selling off college buildings and land for homes has often led to local outrage in various parts of the college in recent years, considering the implications of a reduced course offer.

Ricketts says the question was raised during the estates development but claims the project will actually allow the college to grow its 16-18 space, in its “buoyant” STEM offer and SEND. 

“Although we’re resizing, we’re not downsizing. We’ve got so much land that now it feels like a land-based college. So, we will consolidate the college, it will be much better environment for the students.”

Far from cutting provision, Brooklands will be introducing new courses including T Levels from September.

Student numbers have also “held up” at the college and leaders predict growth from demographic estimations in the coming years.

Ricketts expects the “vast majority” of Brooklands’ government debt to be repaid when Cala Homes transfers the money for the project this year. Final repayments will be made over the next few years.

Survival, resilience, leadership

Next steps will be exiting formal intervention. The college is still banned from subcontracting but has no desire to re-enter that market anytime soon.

Reflecting on the saga, Ricketts says it has been an “absolute privilege” despite the circumstances. “If I’m honest, I didn’t really stop at any point and think, ‘oh, this is chaotic or how are we how are we going to get through this?’

“But it has certainly developed me as a leader to come through that journey and have real positives on the redevelopment and Ofsted. It’s amazing. The team have done a fantastic job.

“How I’m not burnt out I’m not sure, but my intention is to stay and see the development through. It’s a fantastic story in FE about survival, about resilience, about strong leadership.

“We are on our way for that bright and thriving future.”

Special exam requests soar in colleges

Soaring requests for special exam access arrangements in colleges are putting a strain on staffing and causing campuses to temporarily close, an FE Week investigation has found.

Almost nine in 10 (86 per cent) of exams officers have reported the number of students needing reasonable adjustments has soared since the return of exams in 2022, according to a snap survey of 50 colleges by the Association of Colleges.

Leaders told FE Week more students are experiencing anxiety and other mental health issues stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic. In turn, increasing numbers of students are requesting extra help such as extra time or rest breaks, during exam season.

However, the increase in requests is putting pressure on staff workloads as they are required to invigilate smaller groups of students in classrooms instead of exam halls.

DfE data shows there were 556,435 approved access arrangements for GCSE, AS and A-level exams during 2022/23, up by 8.7 per cent from 2021/22. Learners asking for 25 per cent extra time was the most common request.

Nottingham College has seen a 102 per cent increase in exam support requests – from 800 learners last summer recorded as having current support needs to 1,623 learners this academic year.

Rachel Wadsworth, vice principal for curriculum and support, said this exam support requests are at a record high.

“I think there’s a variety of reasons for this – the effects on anxiety following the pandemic, but also more awareness of needs across the education sector, as well as from parents,” she said.

“Inevitably, this means more staff support is needed for arrangements such as scribes and readers. We also need to consider space, to accommodate those who need separate rooms.”

Some colleges, such as Hartlepool College, are having to shut down the entire college during exam season so all teaching and support staff can lend a hand. The college has seen a 50 per cent increase in the number of learners tested for exam access arrangements, to a total of 300.

“There’s no way we’d be able to keep the college open and run courses on the days of exams,” said Sue Harris, Hartlepool’s head of school SEND and foundation studies. “There’s just far too many people involved.”

Bridgwater & Taunton College has seen a 47 per cent increase in exam access arrangement referrals in 2023/24.

A spokesperson said: “We also receive referrals for centre-delegated arrangements such as alternative rooms, with this being the most common request this academic year. We have utilised external assessors to support our internal team and are currently managing to accommodate all requests.”

Students are ‘anxious and overwhelmed’

Now’s the time to support students with revision and exam stress

The “devasting” impact of Covid-19 has caused a wave of poor mental health among young people.

The NHS recorded a 53 per cent increase in the number of children and young people referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) crisis teams since 2019/20.

Seeking professional help is a long wait, with young people having to wait on average five months, and in the worst cases, two years for CAMHS referrals from a GP, according to NHS England data.

“Obviously CAMHS can’t cope, they’ve got a two-year waiting list and so colleges, I feel that we’re trying to pick up the pieces of that,” said Suzanne Scott, assistant curriculum manager at Bury College.

“In particular, we’ve seen a massive increase in rest breaks, which used to be for medical conditions. Now it’s because people are so anxious and overwhelmed.”

In December, Sir Ian Bauckham, Ofqual’s interim chief regulator, highlighted the risk of “ineffective exam administration” due to staff capacity and capability and variations in requirements.

“The pressure to provide space in schools and colleges, to recruit and retain invigilators, and to manage the complexity of exam logistics is a challenge now and will continue to increase,” he said.

Harris also believes cases will rise for the next year or two.

“I think this peak that we’re having might be there for another year or two. If it keeps increasing, then, there’s going to be more of a demand for assessors across all establishments.”

Schools must share data

The survey asked 50 colleges in England what the main challenges are around arranging special adjustments for exams and found 25 colleges (50 per cent) said accommodation, 22 colleges (44 per cent) said staffing, and three colleges (six per cent) said lack of transition information.

FE staff have criticised schools for the delayed transfer of information of students after they progress to college. AoC’s survey found that less than half of colleges (46 per cent) are partially receiving information from secondary schools in good time, and 20 per cent said they are not at all getting the information in due time.

Schools are meant to transfer information on exam access arrangements of learners when they go to college, through documentation called Form 8. Colleges can assess learners if they need exam help if they don’t receive the data from schools.

“At the end of the day, if schools are unwilling to share, or they just don’t do it in time, then they’re putting that student through another assessment for no reason,” said Scott.

“This important data-sharing requirement urgently needs to be improved if all college students are to get the support they need,” added Eddie Playfair, Senior Policy Manager at Association of Colleges.