AOC Strips Weston of Governance Award after Phillips Scandal

The Weston College was deleted an “Excellence in Governance” price last month according to the damn results of the FE commissioner.

The Association of Colleges Charitible Trust, which operates the annual Beacon Awards, has also started an “independent review” of a recently carried out president of the membership authority to examine the “process and judgments” that led to granting the award in 2022-23.

It is the first time that the AOC has lifted an award in its 30-year history.

The campaign is part of a potential series of sanctions against Weston College and the former director Sir Paul Phillips, who recently left Education Trust, while another organizer of the award reports to withdraw another gong.

The report by the Fe Commissioner Shelagh Legrave to the Somerset College, which was revealed on April 8, revealed 2.5 million GBP of hidden payments that were made in Phillips between 2017 and 2023.

Some governors did not know the extent of the PAY package of Phillips and that regular wage and salary accounting procedures were “avoided” to make direct payments.

The Ministry of Education has a continuous investigation of the financial controls of the college.

The news triggered a counter -reaction on social media, with several FE sector executives asked the AOC to roam the Governance Award college.

Print that was built last week as Satirical News Magazine Private detective pointed out the “embarrassing” situation.

“A really positive, public step”

Mark White, AOCS Trust Chairman, said: “The AOC Charitible Trust has commissioned an independent review of the process and the judgments that led to WESTON COLLEGE to grant the Beacon Award for Excellence in Governance in 2022.

“The review is intended to ensure that the approach when granting awards is as robust and strict as possible.

“As part of this process, the Trust asked Weston College to return the Beacon Award, and I am pleased to say that the new board agrees that this is the right procedure.”

Former AOC President Corrienne Peasgood was appointed to lead the review. Peasgood took over the presidential role in October 2022, six months before the Weston College was announced as the winner of the Governance Award.

A spokesman for Weston College said: “At Governance membership, the structures and procedures on college were made significant changes in accordance with the recommendations of the FE commissioner.

“In view of the knowledge of the actions of some members of the previous government authority, however, the new board of directors can see the advantage for the AOC -community -proof trust in the review of the procedures in relation to the granting of the AOC price list for outstanding services in the government in 2022. It is important that Award processes are as robust as possible.

“Weston College is very proud of the many other awards that have been achieved by the efforts of our excellent teams of employees, whose successes have been recognized and celebrated in recent years by several AOC beacon prices and awards of many other authorities.”

The AOC has now shown five “focus areas” to ensure good college government in the light of the Weston devices. This includes: Compliance with the AOC governance code, monitoring the supervision of the performance of the headmistress/CEO, the behavior of the remuneration committee, the wage and salary accounts and the transparency of the university.

David Hughes, Managing Director of AOC, said: “Today's announcement is a really positive, public step, which shows how college continues.

“However, it is really important that, as a sector, we ensure some decisive lessons from this and college chairman, board members and managers that in their governance arrangements, they maintain a clear focus on the five key areas that we have emphasized.”

To take more measures?

The Pearson National Teaching Awards informed the FEEK that it checked the Gold Award of Phillips' Lifetime Achievement “in 2020 in the light of the FE Commissioner report.

Elsewhere, Phillips was removed from the prisoner of the Education Trust last week.

Chief Executive Jon Collins confirmed to the FE week that Phillips resigned as a trustee, but did not say the reasons for his resignation.

Phillips was halfway in a second term in the Trustee Committee of the Pet.

Image: Weston College is presented with the AOC Beacon Award