Following the Macpherson Report (1999) on The Stephen Lawrence Enquiry, the Commission for Black Staff in FE was established to address race inequalities in FE, supported by all sector organisations.

The Commission set out a comprehensive set of recommendations for the FE sector through its report Challenging racism: further education leading the way (2002).

The Foster Review (2005) challenged colleges to do better on Race Equality. It resulted in the formal recognition of the Network for Black Managers (later the NBP) as the independent voice representing Black staff in the FE sector, and the role of the Black Leadership Initiative (BLI) in growing the talent pool of future Black leaders in the sector.

The ensuing 15 years saw an increase in black representation at senior levels in FE, peaking at 13% in 2017, but since decreasing sharply to circa 5% now. There is no data for second tier and below. Nor is there data on ethnic representation on College corporations. Beyond colleges, the picture is even starker.

Throughout this period, black student representation in FE has continued to climb, and is currently at around 30% (of 2.2 million students) nationally (source: Association of Colleges data for 2019/20). This compares with an overall UK black and minority ethnic population of 14%. In contrast, black student representation on Apprenticeship programmes stands at only 12% according to latest government figures.

Despite the introduction of the 2010 Equality Act, black students following post-16 pathways have continued to encounter structural barriers to attainment, progression and sustainable destinations.

Given the role that FE plays in delivering and feeding into university level courses, the findings of the Universities UK Report ‘BAME Student Attainment at UK Universities; Closing The Gap’ (2019) are important. The latest statistics show a 13% attainment gap for black students, and black staff are poorly represented in both senior academic and university leadership roles.

The World Skills UK Report ‘Championing Difference for a Better Workforce’ (2020), confirmed that in 2018 90% of WorldSkills UK competitors were White, while only 8% were black. These differentials extend to judges (8%) and training managers (7%). The follow through of this means that there is next to no black representation on World Skills Team GB selection lists.

The 2021 ‘Skills for Jobs’ White Paper incorporates a commitment to mandate the collection and reporting of comprehensive workforce data and to strengthen governance for colleges, including addressing black under-representation on Corporation boards.

Most of the FE sector’s national representative and regulatory organisations comprise 100% White leadership teams. For instance, the Association of Colleges, Education & Training Foundation and Association of Employment and Learning Providers have always had 100% White leadership teams, and historically near non-existent Board level representation (accepting some notable progress over recent months). The FE Commissioner’s senior team also has no black representation. Whilst Ofsted, which is responsible for inspecting colleges, reports that only 5% of all its inspectors (HMIs) are black.

Over the past five years, a number of hitherto successful and publicly recognised minority ethnic principals have been driven out of the sector by unsubstantiated public smears by sections of the sector press. All these cases were met by silence, most notably from ‘the voices of the sector’. Within this hostile environment, many black staff prefer to keep a low profile in raising their concerns, so the black representative voice in FE, is further suppressed.

The proportion of black students engaging in post-16 education and skills is only going to increase in Post-Brexit Britain. Black young people account for 20% of those aged 24 or under now, and this will grow to one in three of that age group by 2050. Black representation amongst students and staff in FE is typically much greater is cities and urban conurbations, and UK population projections indicate that these communities will become even more concentrated, but also more dispersed into regions that are not currently diverse.

Given this context, making the most of an ethnically diverse Britain must be a priority for all invested in the future of further education.