Yorkshire and Humber

Happy New Year! We hope you had a lovely break over Christmas and it’s been a good start to 2026.

We are delighted that Paul Smith is now in post as AoC Area Director for Yorkshire & the Humber. Paul is based in East Yorkshire and joins with extensive experience, having worked in the sector for 15+ years, most recently as head of quality, standards and statuses at the Education & Training Foundation. Paul looks forward to meeting you soon.

It’s been a busy start to the academic year, from results day and enrolment to plenty of policy announcements impacting the sector.

The 2025 AoC conference was our biggest yet. It was great to see nearly 100 delegates from the region and seven Yorkshire and Humber-led breakout sessions. At conference, we launched the Adult Learning Pays campaign, which aims to ensure the importance of adult education and the benefits it brings are recognised.

Last term, we hosted 14 regional networks with 111 attendees, with excellent discussion and debate and input from DfE, Ofsted and Irwin Mitchell. We are pleased to welcome Ken Merry from York College as the new Y&H representative on the AoC board, Rob Lawson from Hull College as the new Y&H representative on the National Chairs’ Council, Gareth Dixon from Craven College as vice-chair of the Finance Directors’ Network and Steven Spence from The Sheffield College and Victoria Lindberg from York College as co-chairs of the Y&H Curriculum and Quality Network. Forthcoming regional events can be found here.

Congratulations to colleagues who were awarded for services to further education in the 2026 New Years Honours, including Debra Gray CBE, Colin Booth CBE and Deborah Millar OBE. We are incredibly proud to see your hard work and dedication recognised.

Congratulations to Hull College, who were recently awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Higher and Further Education. Congratulations to Y&H commended and finalist colleges in this year’s Beacon Awards, including Barnsley College and Hull College. We have everything crossed for wins in March! It was brilliant to see two Y&H Student of the Year finalists: Harry Clayton for Apprentice of the Year and Presley Beckham for HE Student the Year, both from Barnsley College. If you have anything you’d like us to share, email AoC.North@aoc.co.uk.

Colleges Week is coming up soon: Monday 2 to Friday 9 March 2026. You can find more information here. Please let us know if you have any activities planned so we can promote and get involved.

Best wishes,
Rebecca Durber
Area Director (NW) and Senior Policy Lead (Devolution)