Now, Ofsted aren’t exactly my favourite organisation in the world. I resent the often arbitrary judgement and the things that inspectors miss that are glaringly obvious to anyone involved in a college for more than a few days.

So when Amanda Spielman, the head of Ofsted, states specifically - in a letter to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee on what the inspectorate considers to be major risks to the country’s education - that FE is being underfunded in comparison to other sectors, and that that underfunding is having a direct negative effect on FE provision, I have to brace myself for an ice-cold bucket of cognitive dissonance.

How can it be that the boss of the bunch has now taken up the bat and started swinging for the sector? This lot, who’ve consistently represented no end of grief for me professionally are giving voice to the central problem that the sector is facing? In public documentation?

When a college is given recommendations by Ofsted, you damn well better believe that that’s where the focus will be until the next time they come knocking. Hopefully the recommendation from Spielman for an increase in base-rate funding for 16- to 18-year-olds during the next spending review will be taken up by the government as fervently, and we might see the advice become policy. As much as it feels weird to type it, Spielman’s recommendation shows that Ofsted gets it.

Tom Starkey teaches English at a college in the North of England