“Having an ethnically diverse leadership team boosts your financial performance,” she said. “And, actually, I can quote the latest data from McKinsey [management consultants] on this - it just came out a couple of months ago. If you are in the top quartile of ethnically diverse companies, you outperform in profitability by a staggering 36 per cent the bottom quartile of the least ethnically diverse companies, and there is a huge business incentive for everybody.
“And, actually, if you consider the FE sector, a lot of the financial challenges facing this sector mean that, actually, financial sustainability is critical. So, if you want to be more financially sustainable, become more ethnically diverse in your leadership team. The two go hand in hand.”
Ms Francke said an ethnically diverse business increased the ability to attract and retain talent, and added ethnically diverse and inclusive cultures boosted authenticity, trust and employee engagement.
Last August, the Black FE Leadership Group sent a letter to education secretary Gavin Williamson and prime minister Boris Johnson stressing that racism in further education was undermining the sector’s ability to fully engage with its constituent communities.
Improving diversity in college leadership
The letter came a week after Tes revealed that 84.1 per cent of senior leaders in English colleges identified as white British. According to information obtained through a freedom of information request, just 8.7 per cent identified as being from a black, Asian and/or minority ethnic (BAME) background.
Sector-wide, there has been a push to increase equality, diversity and inclusion, including the appointment of a director of diversity, Jeff Greenidge, by the Association of Colleges and the Education Training Foundation.
But Denise Brown, principal and chief executive of Stoke-on-Trent College, told the conference today that reform was needed within the Department for Education, Ofqual, awarding organisations, Ofsted, the FE commissioner’s team, teacher training organisations, the Education and Skills Funding Agency and membership organisations.
Brown said there needed to be leadership from the DfE on the issue, and said “in terms of the post-16 sector, it is fair to say maybe that leadership has been found wanting”.
She added that Ofqual needed to be diverse in representation, and needed to have an explicit policy for tackling racism. Awarding organisations, she said, needed to “develop qualifications that are more broad-based and inclusive”, while Ofsted needed to use the Teaching Excellence Framework to advance the cause of anti-racism.
The FE commissioner’s team should hold FE organisations to account on the outcomes of black learners and make sure black learners are getting the progression, Brown added, while saying that teacher training organisations needed to “implement anti-racism in the teaching skills and the design of the courses”.
Brown added: “If [the ESFA] were to have criteria in terms of awarding tenders around anti-racism and inclusivity, then that would be a game-changer. Because organisations will change their practice, obviously to make sure they stay financially viable and afloat. I think that could be a tremendous instrument within the sector to advance the case of anti-racism in the post-16 sector.”
She also called on membership organisations to “demand of the sector a radical review in changes to what is taught to all learners, but in particular to black learners”.
Ofsted: Using data to hold providers to account
Paul Joyce, head of FE and skills at Ofsted, said he recognised the importance of using data on student outcomes and leadership diversity when it came to holding providers to account.
“There’s a raft of data collected, and we at Ofsted will obviously use data as part of our inspection,” he said. “I will always consider that data when we make judgements to hold providers, and the sector, to account, whether for the quality of provision or whether for the effectiveness of leadership and management, and in terms of governance, in terms of the composition of governing boards, of senior leadership teams, and whether or not senior leadership teams, managers and governors do represent the student population or the communities institutions serve.”
However, Mr Joyce said there was often a “time lag” when receiving this data from the DfE.
“[There are] difficulties in DfE data, in terms of its timeliness, and, in some cases, it’s accuracy,” he said. “And, as we’ve already heard from previous panellists, a lot is being done with data to make data more useful, more meaningful and to enable policymakers to act upon it. But currently we find some of the difficulty with data that’s supplied. There’s often too big a time lag in us getting that data for it to be meaningful and useful at the time of inspection.”
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