The Board
The information authority board receives its authority from Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Department for Education (DfE) 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 page .
Current members of the information authority board and the organisations they represent are:
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Geoff Hall, Chairman of the information authority (appointed January 2011)
Geoff Hall retired from his post as Principal and Chief Executive of New College Nottingham in July 2011. Prior to NCN, he was a national director at the Learning and Skills Council and the Further Education Funding Council, where his responsibilities included funding and data.
Before that, Geoff was Director of Education in the London Borough of Bexley. He has also written a number of publications about leading change in the FE sector.
Geoff was awarded a knighthood for services to further education in the 2012 New Year Honours List. |
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Susan Pember, Director, Further Education and Skills Investment, Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills (BIS)
Susan Pember is currently Director, Further Education and Skills Investment at BIS.
Susan was first appointed as a Director in 2000 when she joined the Department for Education and Skills as Head of the Adult Basic Skills Strategy Unit. Prior to this she was Principal of Canterbury College.
She was awarded an OBE for services to further education in 2000. |
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Caroline Miller, Head of Adult Learning, Newcastle City Council
Caroline is Head of Adult Learning for Newcastle City Council and is a member of the HOLEX policy group. She has significant experience of managing MIS teams both in a college and in the local authority. She has a degree in Maths, a Masters in Computing, is a fully qualified teacher, holds a management qualification and undertook the Principal’s Qualifying Programme in 2011.
Prior to becoming Head of Adult Learning she was Deputy Principal of Derwentside College and then managed the Quality Team at LSC Tyne and Wear. She is also a member of the Data Service Steering Group. |
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Emma Cochrane, Head of Economic Regulation, Ofqual
Biography to follow.
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Jon Collis, Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP)
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. |
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Julian Gravatt, Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Research and Development, Association of Colleges (AoC)
Julian has been at the Association of Colleges (AoC) since 2003. Prior to his current role, Julian was the Director of Funding and Development at AoC, where he worked 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. |
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Jude Hillary, Head of Data and Statistics Division, Department for Education (DfE)
Jude is responsible for the collection, management and dissemination of a wide range of statistics which provide an evidence base for important policy and delivery challenges and funding decisions, as well as support public choice and accountability. The Data and Statistics Division provides data and information that underpins the development and monitoring of policy right across the Department's strategic objectives.
Jude joined the Department for Education as a Goverment Statistician with over 20 years' experience across a number of Whitehall departments, including HM Treasury, HM Revenue and Customs, and, latterly, the Department for Work and Pensions. |
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Caroline Kempner, Head of Information Services, Young People's Learning Agency (YPLA)
Caroline is the Head of Information Services in the YPLA. She is responsible for ensuring that the required MI and Information Services are delivered to the Agency, and leads on the development and implementation of data and IT governance and standards to meet the YPLA's legal requirement. Prior to this, she worked in the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), where she played a key role in the setup of MIAP (now the Learning Records Service) and the launch of the Unique Learner Number. |
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Kim Thorneywork, Executive Director Delivery, Skills Funding Agency
Kim began her career as a science teacher in Walsall. Her last teaching post was as a Deputy Headteacher in a Technology College. In 2003, she entered Local Government as a School Improvement Inspector, and is an Ofsted Accredited Inspector.
In 2006, Kim joined the LSC and became Area Director for Coventry and Warwickshire. At the launch of the Skills Funding Agency, she became Senior Account Director for the West Midlands.
In May 2011, she was appointed to the post of Exectutive Director Delivery, and became responsible for leading the Agency's work on funding policy and investment and provider performance. |
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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. |
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Robert Pike, Chief Statistician, Ofsted
Robert Pike is Chief Statistician at Ofsted, with responsibility for ensuring that its statistics are produced to high standards. He is also Divisional Manager for Ofsted's Inspection Data and Information team, providing information to support inspection across the range of remits, including Learning and Skills.
Before joining Ofsted, Rob worked at the Office for National Statistics, where he was responsible for producing and disseminating the Consumer Prices Index and Retail Prices Index. |
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Manjit Galsinh, Alliance of Sector Skills Councils
Manjit is a Senior Research Manager at Energy and Utility Skills, the Sector Skills Council for the gas, power, water and waste management industries and has over 13 years experience in delivering a wide range of projects in the skills, learning and education sector.
Manjit started his career managing a research department at Sandwell Training and Enterprise Council before working at the Black Country LSC as a Performance Advisor on learner statistics. Manjit is a member of the Intelligence Network Data Acquisition Group. |
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David Pye, Local Government Association (LGA)
David Pye is a Senior Analyst within the Research and Information Team at the Local Government Association and Research Director at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER).
Prior to this, David was Principal Research Officer at NFER and was involved in a range of evaluations of education and training initiatives both within the UK and overseas. David has also lectured and researched at a number of higher education institutions. |
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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.
Ian was awarded a CBE for services to further education in the 2011 Queen's Birthday Honours List |
