Education and Skills Funding Agency boss David Withey is set to become the chief executive and principal of a college.
The senior civil servant will take on the top role at South Gloucestershire and Stroud College (SGS) in March 2025 when the agency closes and staff integrate with the Department for Education.
He will replace Kevin Hamblin who has served as SGS CEO since 2001. The group also sponsors the SGS Academy Trust, which has three schools.
Withey became the ESFA’s chief in August 2022, joining from the New South Wales Department of Education in Australia where he was chief operating officer and deputy secretary.
Before that he worked on public spending in Treasury departments in the UK and Australia and led the New South Wales COVID economic taskforce.
The government announced in September that the ESFA would shut as an arm’s-length body of the DfE and “integrate” into the core department from March 2025.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said at the time the decision to merge the ESFA with DfE was to “enable a single, joined-up approach to funding and regulation to improve accountability”.
SGS was formed from the merger of Filton and Stroud colleges in 2012. The college has six main campuses where it teaches more than 8,000 students. It was judged as ‘good’ by Ofsted last year.
Withey said: “I’m looking forward to joining the team at SGS and leading the college on behalf of the communities it serves. I‘ve been fortunate to meet some of the brilliant learners, staff and external stakeholders over the past few weeks and I cannot wait to meet more of them once in post.”
SGS chair Matt Atkinson added: “We are thrilled to welcome David to SGS. His impressive leadership career and his strong alignment with the values of SGS make him a perfect fit for the college, as we continue to strive for excellence. David’s experience and strategic leadership abilities will be invaluable as we work towards doing even more for the learners, communities and businesses that we serve.”
The appointment comes after SGS principal Sara-Jane Watkins left to lead the Warwickshire College Group last year.
The SGS board went out to recruitment for a joint principal and CEO in September. The college hired FE Associates, which is run by chair Atkinson, to run the recruitment process. FE Week has asked the college how it managed this conflict. It is understood that FE Associates conducted the search pro-bono.
A reason for Hamblin’s departure was not included in the college’s announcement.
