City & Guilds Foundation members have voted in favour of an inquiry into the controversial sale of its commercial wing to a private company.
At a meeting this week, 67 members, out of more than 100 in-person and online attendees, voted in favour of probing the charity’s deal with Greek firm PeopleCert last year, which saw almost all its around 1,400 staff members transfer across.
The potential new investigation would be separate to the Charity Commission’s statutory inquiry, which opened in January.
PeopleCert is also investigating and recently stood down two City & Guilds executives who had transferred across from the charity.
Kirstie Donnelly and Abid Ismail, who were chief executive and chief finance officer of the charity respectively before being transferred, plan legal action against PeopleCert over their exits, FE Week reported earlier this month.
On the new potential investigation, the City & Guilds Foundation told Civil Society that its trustees needed time to reflect on the resolutions passed on Tuesday.
“[They] will be meeting in the coming days to discuss them and next steps,” a spokesperson for the charity said.
“There was a commitment made from the trustee board at both meetings to better work with and engage with [members] moving forward.”
Frustration over speed of regulator’s investigation
Representative of Save City & Guilds Action Group, which proposed the new inquiry, Neil Bates told Civil Society that the vote on Tuesday came despite trustees producing a two-page legal document in a bid to “scare off” members.
Meanwhile the charity’s council, which appoints and advises the trustees, did not vote in support of a new inquiry.
Members also approved the appointment of City & Guilds Foundation chair Jessica Leigh-Jones to replace Ann Limb who stood down in January to take up her House of Lords seat.
Bates said he remained optimistic about an inquiry being launched and that his group would request a meeting with the new chair and interim chief executive of the City & Guilds Foundation to determine who will lead the mooted inquiry.
“It is the City & Guilds trustee board who have responsibility for commissioning the review, although we would expect to be involved in that,” he said.
Bates said his action group sent a detailed submission to the commission regarding its separate inquiry proposal, which it has put forward due to fears over the scope and speed of the regulator’s investigation.
“One of the reasons that we were so determined to get an inquiry is because we think the commission’s report is taking too long, and we cannot wait in relation to the issues that we're facing, and its focus is too narrow,” he said.
“We’re equally concerned that the commission inquiry will row back in relation to the conduct of trustees in relation to this matter.”
In its most recent accounts, City & Guilds Foundation estimated that it received £166m in net proceeds from the sale to PeopleCert.
The accounts also state that Donnelly was paid £526,000 in her final year before the sale, up from £448,000 the year before, including a bonus estimate of £126,000.
Meanwhile, overall remuneration for the charity’s executive leadership team, including Donnelly, increased by over a fifth to £2.22m in the year to August 2025.
Civil Society has approached the Charity Commission for comment.
