The Board

The information authority board receives its authority from Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) Ministers and is empowered by further education and training organisations through the signing of a protocol.

The authority is accountable to Ministers and all organisations across the sector for balancing the demand for data against that needed by providers to run their businesses.

The board makes far-reaching decisions to reform data and information standards and processes and requires all stakeholders to abide by them. It does this by:

Appraising, approving and rejecting requests for the collection of new data.
Agreeing the definition of reports, sets of data and their dissemination cycle.
Setting standards and definitions for all data collected from learning providers about learners, the derived variables generated from that data and standard reporting to all stakeholders.
Incorporating relevant existing and emerging external data standards into those for further education.

Board Meetings

Details of upcoming information authority board meetings, minutes, agendas and other papers can be found on the Board Meetings pages.

Current members of the information authority board and the organisations they represent are:

Graham Jones, Chairman of the information authority

Graham Jones is the former Principal and Chief Executive of Sutton Coldfield College. He has more than 20 years experience in senior further education roles and is a former schools and colleges Chief Inspector; a regional head of the Further Education Funding Council and an occasional columnist with the Times Educational Supplement.

His appointment as independent Chairman of the information authority was recommended by an interview panel comprising senior representatives from the Department for Education and Skills; Learning and Skills Council; the Association of Colleges and an independent assessor.

John Landeryou, Director of Learning, Quality and Systems, Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills (BIS)

Originally a teacher, John has been involved in post-16 work throughout his career, including curriculum development, advisory services and planning and funding. He has held senior positions in local authorities, the Trading Standards Council and the Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI).

Immediately prior to joining BIS, John worked for Ofsted, where he led their post-16 and learning and skills work. He acted as Project Director for ALI's merger with Ofsted.

John has also chaired the governing body of a secondary school and served on a local authority education committee.

Caroline Miller, Head of Adult Learning, Kenton College

Bob Powell, Chief Executive of HOLEX, the national network of local adult learning providers

Bob has taught in adult, further and higher education and is widely published. During the 1980s he worked with Regional Advisory Councils for FHE, and followed this with a senior role at the Unit for the Development of Adult Continuing Education.

He has worked on a freelance consultancy basis since 1991 - clients include DfES, LSC, OfSTED, national development agencies, and over 50 provider organisations. In 1995 Bob created HOLEX, the national network of local adult learning providers. Bob sits on a number of DfES, LSC and ALI groupings and was a member of the Bureaucracy Task Force.

Fiona Pethick, Director of Regulation, Ofqual

Fiona's responsibilities at Ofqual include regulatory policy, the Qualification and Credit Framework, economic regulation, 14-19 policy, recognition, accreditation and monitoring awarding organisations, and overseeing Ofqual in Northern Ireland.

Before joining Ofqual, Fiona spent 19 years with Ofwat, the economic regulator for the water industry, as Director of Corporate Affairs. Prior to this, she led on areas including Competition Commission references, efficiency, tariffs and customer research.

During the 1980s, Fiona was a Statistician in the Department of Employment, where she worked on employment and unemployment statistics.

Jon Collis, Association of Learning Providers(ALP)

Jon is Operations Director of National Training Resources and prior to becoming one of its founding directors, was involved in training for some 24 years previously as chairman and board member of Fylde Training. With a broad knowledge of Government, TEC and EU funding policies, he has been involved with design and implementation of some conceptual programmes for small and medium enterprise (SME) business managers and employee development models.

Jon also oversees the Excellence in Learning division, and is the point of contact for major projects and LSC liaison.

Julian Gravatt, Director of Funding and Development, Association of Colleges (AoC)

Julian has been Director of Funding and Development at the Association of Colleges (AoC) since 2003. Julian’s role at AoC is to represent and advise colleges on political, finance, funding and governance issues. He works closely with principals, governors and finance directors to ensure that government and Learning and Skills Council decisions take accounts of the needs of colleges and the people they serve.

Julian has worked in the college sector since 1992, including eight years at Lewisham College and three years at the City Lit. He contributed to the transformation of Lewisham College in the 1990s and to the redevelopment of City Lit in the early 2000s.

Malcolm Britton, Divisional Head of Analytical Services, Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF)

Margaret Coleman, Regional Director for Yorkshire and the Humber, Learning and Skills Council (LSC)

Margaret Coleman is the Learning and Skills Council’s Regional Director for Yorkshire and the Humber. She is the former the Principal of Huddersfield New College and before that, Deputy Principal of Dewsbury College.

Margaret is a Fellow of the Institute of Management and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Mario Ferelli, Head of Funding and Analytical Services, Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)

Mario’s academic background is in Maths, Statistics and Operational Research and prior to joining HEFCE in 1991 he worked for Unilever Research modelling markets and the University of Lancaster in their Computing Department supporting their mathematics and statistics software.

He joined HEFCE as a principal analyst/statistician responsible amongst other things for designing and implementing the infrastructure to support data collection systems and funding models. Mario became the Head of Funding and Analytical Services at HEFCE in 1999.

Melanie Hunt, Director of Learning and Skills, Office for Standards in Education (OfSTED)

Melanie Hunt is Director for Learning and Skills and has responsibility for leading Ofsted’s Learning and Skills Directorate. The Directorate is responsible for college inspections of colleges, work-based learning, adult and community learning, nextstep, learndirect, judicial services (with HMI Prisons and HMI Probation) and programmes sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Prior to her appointment to Ofsted, Melanie worked for the Learning and Skills Council in a variety of roles. As National Director of Learning she was responsible for the LSC’s strategies in adult learning, 14 -19 learning, quality assurance, learner support and equality and diversity.

Chris James, Director of Research and development, Asset Skills

Chris James is Director of Research and Development at Asset Skills, Sector Skills Council, where he leads and directs the research function. He has spent most of his career in vocational education, as an FE Lecturer, Head of Department, as Director of an Industry Awarding Body and as Chief Executive of CINTO, a national training organisation, and the forerunner of Asset Skills.

Asset Skills is the lead SSC for research across the Alliance of 25 Sector Skills Councils and Chairs the “All Sectors” research board.

Ivor Jones, Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Strategy and Business Development, Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK)

Jo Baty, Local Government Association (LGA)

Jo Baty joined the REACT Team early in 2009 from her previous role as Partnership Director at Befordshire and Luton LSC. She worked closely with Luton Borough Council's Director of Children's Services and 14-19 Director on all issues relating to 14-19, and in particular the 14-19 Partnership, Children's Trust and Safeguarding Boards and Local Area Agreement. Jo led the post-16 education and training contribution to Luton's Joint Area Review and Bedfordshire and Luton's Business Cycle Group, responsible for the planning and commissioning of provision from colleges, schools and apprenticeship providers.

Jo has previously worked for Hertfordshire LSC, initially as Head of Community Learning, and later as Director of Skills and Adult Learning. Prior to the LSC, she has worked within the Criminal Justice System and within two London Local Authorities.

Ian Pryce, Principal and Chief Executive, Bedford College

Ian Pryce has been Principal and Chief Executive of Bedford College since 1998, having joined the College in 1996 as Finance Director.

He was previously a regional Finance Director at the Further Education Funding Council and has also worked as a Director or Senior Manager in retail, electricity generation and local government in Liverpool, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Northamptonshire. He is a member of the Institute of Directors, the accountancy body CIPFA, a member of the CBI Regional Council, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Councillor of City & Guilds.