Senior Leadership Team - Roles and responsibilities
September 2014
Principal - Chris Nicholls
The Principal takes responsibility for everything that happens in the College, although, for the most
part, does not directly control any of the activities of staff or students. The Principal is also responsible
for providing leadership to the Senior Leadership Team, the College Leadership Team and Governors
for shaping both the strategic direction of the College and its mission and purpose. As accounting
officer and chief executive, the Principal is held accountable for the financial performance of the
College and for ensuring that that resources are managed appropriately although, in practice, the work
is done by the VP Finance and Resources. The role also involves a significant amount of outward facing
work; building relationships in the local community and liaising with networks of Principals and other
bodies that have responsibility for further education. Performance management objectives are
agreed with the Chair and Vice Chair of Governors and they clearly reflect the fact that the Principal is
fully accountable for student outcomes.
Vice Principal Finance and Resources - Ann Rowswell
The VPF&R takes responsibility for securing and managing all funding for College activity. In addition
to ensuring that the organisation remains solvent in increasingly challenging conditions, it is also vital
to ensure that all funds are used appropriately and are accounted for in accordance with legal
requirements. A key part of the role involves being constantly on the look-out for ways of using limited
resources more effectively.
The VPF&R also takes responsibility for Business Support areas, comprising estates (site), catering,
human resources, IT services and reprographics. Each of these areas has a team that is led by
someone who is directly responsible to the Vice Principal. The broader remit of the role also includes
responsibility for Health and Safety, Risk Management, College insurances and lettings.
Vice Principal Students and Quality - Altaf Hussain
The VP S&Q line manages the Directors of Curriculum and Teaching & Learning and so is responsible
for the overall leadership, management and development of learning, teaching and student outcomes.
The VP S&Q also leads a team of staff working in the area of student services who, in addition to
supporting the functions described above, administer examinations, manage student enrolment,
school liaison, admissions, timetabling, tutorial programme, careers, reception, marketing & public
relations, safeguarding and equality & diversity. In the event of an inspection, the VPS&Q would be
the main point of contact for the Ofsted inspection team.
As the member of staff who is, ultimately, responsible for the quality of all aspects of the work of the
College, the VPS&Q takes a strategic lead on developing innovative practice, both in and out of the
classroom. This also involves developing quality assurance processes and reporting procedures to
enable senior leaders and governors to monitor the progress of the College towards the achievement
of core and strategic objectives. Specifically, this involves the production of the annual College
Improvement Plan (CIP) and the Self-Assessment Report (SAR).
Director of Human Resources - Sayeda Meghjee
The Director of HR is responsible for every aspect of staffing, particularly; staff welfare, contracts, pay,
benefits, conduct and performance. A key aspect of the role involves ensuring that the College is able
to recruit high quality staff. Once recruited to the College, a new member of staff is provided with
induction training and is helped with the transition to a new working environment. The Director of HR
along with the Director of Learning is responsible for ensuring that this takes place and that there is a
programme of Professional Development available for all staff at every level, including the
maintenance of staff welfare and wellbeing. The Director of HR is responsible for developing and
maintaining safeguarding processes and practices to ensure staff, students and visitors to the College
are safe. The Director of HR and the VP Students and Quality are responsible for Safeguarding and
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Equality & Diversity across the College. There are a significant number of policies which prescribe the
effective people management in the College and the Director of HR is responsible for maintaining,
updating and implementing policies in line with legislation, and for ensuring that they are adhered to.
The Director of HR is responsible for handling individual people management issues by working with
relevant staff, managers, leaders, trade union representatives and external agencies.
Director of Information and Technical Services - Steve Kelby
The Director of Information and Technical Services looks after all of the technology that helps staff
and students to do their work, whether it be on the College site or elsewhere. This involves ensuring
that the team provide and maintain hardware and software that is cost effective and reliable, against
a backdrop of ever-changing technology and diminishing resources. The team is also responsible for
developing and maintaining centralised data and reporting systems to integrate the many third party
databases and applications used within the College. This minimises manual data entry and correction,
and allows accurate and timely data to be provided to staff and students.
The Director also develops strategic thinking about the use of new technologies and, by working with
the team of software specialists, develops new ways of working that save time and money and make
life easier for staff and students.
Director of Curriculum - Tony Divey
The Director of Curriculum is responsible for ensuring that the curriculum offered by the College
enables young people to make good progress and, after achieving good qualifications, proceed to their
chosen destinations. This involves adapting to the frequent and fundamental changes imposed by the
Government while responding to students’ wishes and the requirements of universities and
employers.
The Director of Curriculum also takes responsibility for timetabling the curriculum; ensuring that there
are sufficient appropriately qualified staff to deliver it and that there are sufficient rooms to enable
its delivery. The Director of Curriculum line manages the Heads of the six teaching departments and,
together with the Director of Teaching & Learning and the VP Students & Quality, shares responsibility
for the delivery and quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. The Director of Curriculum is
the BTEC Quality Nominee, with full responsibility for all aspects of the delivery of BTEC programmes
in the College.
Director of Teaching and Learning - Marc Hulbert
The Director of T&L ensures that high quality professional development is provided for all staff. A
particular focus is on improving the quality of teaching and learning and this includes taking
responsibility for monitoring and evaluating the performance of classroom teachers through the use
of observation and performance management schemes. A key aspect of the role involves encouraging
and facilitating the sharing of good practice within and between teaching departments.
The role also includes developing resources to support learning, either through the use of technology
or other, more traditional learning resources such as books, and the Director of T&L therefore
manages the Learning Resources Centre. In addition the Director of T&L has responsibility for the
team providing additional support to students to enable them to access the curriculum successfully.
The Director of T&L has responsibility for particular aspects of monitoring student progress through
use of value-added data (Alps) and student tracking (ProMonitor). The Director of T&L shares
responsibility for the quality of student outcomes with the VP Students & Quality and the Director of
Curriculum.
In addition to these roles, the Director is responsible for some of the extra-curricular provision in the
College, notably, D of E and non-curricular sport.
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