New City College (NCC) is a very large college group that was formed in 2017 following the mergers of Tower Hamlets College, Hackney Community College and Redbridge College. The group is now made up of the following colleges: Tower Hamlets College, Hackney Community College, Redbridge College, Epping Forest College, Havering College of Further and Higher Education, Havering Sixth Form College and Brooke House Sixth Form College (BSix). The most recent to join was BSix College in August 2024. In 2023/24, there were 18,500 learners enrolled across the group, which has an annual turnover of more than £132 million. It is one of the largest providers of further education in England. The group is led by a group principal and chief executive officer. Pairs of former colleges are led by a principal and a team of locally appointed deputy principals. Principals are accountable to the corporation board through the NCC executive board. The group provides academic, vocational and technical courses from pre-entry level to degree level and apprenticeships from level 2 to 4. At the time of the inspection, there were 10,133 learners on education programmes for young people, including their largest subject areas of creative arts, media, business and information and communication technology. There were 7,071 adult learners on a wide range of courses, including English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), functional skills English and mathematics. The group had 694 apprentices. A high proportion of apprentices complete level 2 and level 3 apprenticeships within the construction trades and in business administration. Most apprentices study at the construction and engineering campus at Rainham and at the Hackney campus. There were 921 learners with high needs, studying mainly at Poplar in Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Ardleigh Green in Havering, Epping and Redbridge campuses. The group also had a small full-time alternative provision for 129 learners aged 14 to 16 at Ardleigh Green in Havering and Arbour Square in Tower Hamlets. At the time of the inspection, leaders worked with five subcontractors to teach courses in a community setting to 453 learners. The largest subcontractors were Jewish Training Academy for Girls (JTAG), Get Set Girls and Beer Miriam Seminary, who taught programmes of study to female learners within the Orthodox Jewish community.