Review of further education governance in Scotland

Annexe B - Remit Of Review

• to consider whether current institutional governance arrangements in the college sector in Scotland deliver an appropriate level of democratic accountability given the level of public funding institutions receive; and
• to examine the structure of college governance and make recommendations for change, including at sector-wide level, which will support the role of colleges in economic and social development in a highly challenging future financial climate.

The review to look at in particular, though not exclusively, at a number of specific aspects:

• the composition of a college's governing body, including the need to retain current, or any, statutory requirements;
• whether the college governing body should have the duty to take into account regional and sector-wide considerations in addition to those relating to its own college;
• the board appointment process: the extent to which greater accountability might be required; and how this might be achieved;
• the scope for achieving better links with employers, communities and other stakeholders though a different governance structure, perhaps involving a 'council of stakeholders' and the possible division of the governance structure between 'outer' and 'inner' bodies
• the effectiveness of the board in holding the Principal to account; and
• the relationship between effective college governance and the overall alignment of the college sector.

All the above aspects should be considered in the context that Governance depends, and is interdependent, on a number of issues all of which have be examined and taken into account namely (but not exclusively):

• the objective of the organisation and what its outcomes are supposed to be and who sets those;
• the size of the organisation;
• the corporate structure of the organisation and what controls or regulates that;
• the funding of the organisation and who provides that and what constraints or controls that are put on that; and
• the capacity of the organisation to deliver all the above consistently nationally and locally.

In terms of the FE sector, Government provides both the legislation and direction to Colleges, albeit through a variety of bodies. It and the bodies it controls or instructs should therefore be key stakeholders in providing future context for the review.

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SUPPLEMENTARY GUIDANCE ON REMIT PROVIDED BY CABINET SECRETARY IN LETTER OF 29 SEPTEMBER 2011

Dear Russel

REVIEW OF COLLEGE GOVERNANCE

When I asked you earlier this year to take on a review of college governance, my fundamental objective was, through your advice, to develop arrangements that brought a transparency, accountability and rigour to the system that brought it into line with the demands of 21st century Scotland. I know that, consistent with this focus on governance, your group has quite reasonably been considering the shape of a future college sector, in order that the governance requirements reflect any structural change that might be necessary.

I am very grateful for the work you have undertaken to that end. However, I am afraid that the demands of the Spending Review mean we have had to work faster on the issue of shape and structure than I had at first planned. That is why our pre-legislative paper on post-16 reform proposes a number of regional groupings; and it is why, on 21 September, I wrote to the Scottish Funding Council to ask that they move quickly to a regional approaching to commissioning and funding ahead of the next academic year.

This means that I have to ask you to focus your attention to the core issues of governance identified in your remit - though you should of course feel free to discuss with the SFC the nature of its planning for regional commission. I am sorry to have to ask for this slight change of tack that I am afraid is inevitable in the circumstances we face; and I remain very grateful for your efforts, and those of your group, for your continued work. I very much look forward to seeing the outcomes later this year.

MICHAEL RUSSELL
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning