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External Board Reviews

The Skills for Jobs White Paper includes a focus on strengthening governance. It outlines a requirement for colleges to undertake an External Board Review every three years to help 'level up governance' across the sector.

AoC’s External Board Reviews provide a unique opportunity to celebrate and strengthen governance across the further education sector. With a collaborative and tailored approach, we help boards build on their successes while identifying key areas for development. AoC has firmly established itself as the most successful and prolific provider of External Board Reviews, with more appointments than any other External Board Review provider in the sector during the first cycle which took place between 2022 and 2024.

Governors dedicate an enormous amount of time leading the strategic direction of colleges, agreeing a mission, vision and values set within an incredibly complex context of regulation, audit, compliance and policy change. The external board review is an excellent opportunity to take stock of the work being carried out by a group of committed, successful volunteers looking to improve the opportunities afforded to their local communities. The relationship between the chair, governance professional and principal/CEO is absolutely critical in setting the tone for the leadership and strategic direction of the college and we regard the initial meeting with these key individuals as the starting point in agreeing any key themes or focuses within the review.

AoC sees the external board review as an opportunity to look at your college governance through a different lens. An opportunity to celebrate the strong practice taking place within your board and support you in identifying areas to develop and planning to improve the composition, structure and interaction of your board further in the future. Our approach to board review is a supportive one, based on the ETF/AoC Pilot framework, working collaboratively with colleges to ensure that the report covers all key principles, but can also address key themes of importance to the you.

For further information, please read our brochure or contact Briony Denvir (Briony.Denvir@aoc.co.uk).

Meet our reviewers

Gordon Smith

Gordon has high-quality and wide-ranging experience in educational governance and leadership. As Chair of Croydon College for seven years he led the Board through the journey from requires improvement to good with OFSTED, significant capital changes, and through the takeover through merger of a local sixth form college.

Carole Drury

Having worked in the FE sector for many years, as a lecturer, middle and senior manager, governance professional and more recently as a National Leader of Governance, Carole can bring a wealth of experience to reviews into board capability.

David J Wright

With Governance experience totalling 20 years, including 14 years within the FE/Sixth Form college sector, David is currently Chair of Corporation at an Outstanding Graded Sixth Form College in Leeds.

Elton D’Souza

Elton is a seasoned business veteran with over 30 years’ experience in the IT sector, working with customers in the finance and government sectors. He now follows a passion for education as the key enabler for social mobility and increased productivity in our society

Joanne Platt

Joanne has worked in the public sector for her entire career, rising to Director level before becoming self-employed. Joanne has specialised in corporate governance for many years, within local authorities, the NHS and the FE College sector.

Helen Hewlett

Helen Hewlett is an education consultant with extensive experience in governance and educational leadership. Currently, she serves as the National Group Lead for the Chartered Institute of Educational Assessors (CIEA) at the University of Hertfordshire, supporting headteachers and senior leaders nationally.

Julie Dougill

Julie has many years’ experience of working in education including in secondary schools, in FE as a senior leader and more recently in a local authority where she had strategic responsibility for Leadership Development and Governor Services.

Marina Gaze

Since leaving full-time employment with Ofsted in 2015 Marina has specialised in supporting further education and skills governors and leaders to rapidly improve their provision and improve people’s life chances through learning.

Lesley Venables

Lesley is a corporate governance specialist, who has worked mainly in the education/public sector for over 25 years.

Since establishing her own consultancy, she has been engaged by a significant number of FE colleges to support the development of their governance frameworks.

Mark Silverman

Mark has 30 years of successful experience within the further education sector and is passionate about the power of high-quality education and training to truly transform lives. Having twice served as a Principal and CEO of two large GFE Colleges, Mark has now spent several years providing consultancy in a range of areas, including; strategic planning, organisational and structural change, quality improvement, curriculum development and leadership coaching.

Mark Silverman

Martin McNeill

Martin is a knowledgeable governance professional and consultant with wide experience of supporting schools, colleges and other public-facing institutions. Having developed his analytical skills in investment banking, he subsequently worked for 20 years for the Audit Commission, reviewing the performance of local public bodies and producing insightful reports on management and governance issues.

Mary Malcolm

Mary has experience of FE, HE and sixth form college governance, as independent governor, independent director and Chair, in addition to experience as a charity trustee and a company director.

Rachel Nicol

Rachel is the Group Director of Governance for The Bedford College Group (since 2015), company secretary to 3 subsidiary companies and supports governors, non-executive directors and management team.

Rachel Nicol

Rob Lawson

Rob was appointed Chair at Hull College in September 2022.

Previously he was a journalist for more than 35 years, working in newspapers in Yorkshire and the North East. He was appointed Editor of The Shields Gazette in 1997 and The Sunderland Echo in 2002. He was also Editorial Director of Northeast Press and Tweeddale Press.

He was awarded an OBE for services to the FE sector in 2021.

Paul Wakeling

Paul has over 30 years of successful experience within the further education sector and is understands that the quality of leadership of colleges has a direct impact on student achievement & progression and on the community.

Ron Matthews

After a previous career as a senior manager in local government Ron has been the Governance Professional at Myerscough College since 2010; a large land based college north of Preston in Lancashire that also has a number of smaller campuses across the north-west.

Sandra Prail MBE

Awarded an MBE for services to education in the 2022 New Years’ Honours List Sandra is a recognised and respected specialist in FE good governance at a national and local level.

Shirley Collier MBE

Shirley believes that an independent review is an opportunity for reflection and deep thinking which both builds governor confidence and drives up engagement. She has carried out ten reviews for FE colleges, most recent clients being MidKent College, Queen Alexandra College, Plumpton College and New College Durham.

Simon Perryman

Simon was previously Executive Director of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. He managed the UK network of Sector Skills Councils and delivered £300m of industry led skills development.

Wendy Randle

Wendy has over 15 years’ experience in governance and project management across the public sector.

A previous Local Leader of School Governance (LLG) in the South West with solid experience of managing governance in the education sector, Wendy has undertaken board reviews and created and delivered a variety of governance training.

Wendy Stanger

Wendy is a Chartered Governance Professional and has had a varied career working at a management level in the public sector including as a Senior Local Authority Housing Manager, an Internal Auditor for the NHS and a VAT Inspector. She has worked in governance since 2014 and has also been a school governor. Wendy is currently Director of Governance at East Coast College and a governance consultant providing support to other Colleges.

Stuart Lindeman

Stuart is a specialist education consultant and accredited mediator. His consultancy roles have included work for the government , schools , colleges and academy trusts undertaking a range of reviews.
His last substantive post was as Strategic Director of Education for Partnerships for Schools, the government agency responsible for Building Schools for the Future.

Fiona Chalk

Fiona is an experienced board consultant and reviewer (35 ERGs to date) FE board chair, certified trainer/speaker on governance issues, a published researcher on governance, and winner of TCGI Governance Champion (2021/22), DMJ’s Governance Trailblazer (2023), and TCGI Governance Service Provider of the Year (2023/4).

Stephen King

Stephen has over 20 years of experience in large sector-leading organisations and has led the strategic governance of organisations across education, tourism, and transport.

Testimonials

"The AoC External Board Review of Governance proved to be very useful for our board of governors. The process was smooth and facilitated a diligent and purposeful report with clear evidence-based recommendations. The review kept to the agreed timescales and the report was presented to the board at the end of year meeting. The consultant took the time to build good relationships with our board members, he was professional and supportive throughout. The AoC structure was succinct and fluid and good value for money. I have no hesitation in recommending Mark Silverman, Briony (AoC) to others seeking an external review of their board." - Linda Burlison, Governance Professional at Strode College.

"We were impressed by the AoC External Board Review offer which laid out clearly what to expect and helped us to identify an appropriate reviewer. The offer was competitively priced, and its administration was well-managed. In carrying out the review Simon Perryman worked well with the board, making sure that governors understood and had confidence in the process.

His governance experience was invaluable and was reflected in the quality of the report, which demonstrated understanding of this college, and its recommendations which the board found relevant and helpful." - Janet Hemmant, Clerk at Boston College.