Troubled college principal hits back at union claims over mis-use of public money

A stricken Nottinghamshire college refused to heed warnings that it was heading for trouble, according to one union.

West Nottinghamshire College, in Mansfield has received a Financial Health Notice to Improve after requesting an extra £2.1 in funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).

The college is now set to be referrerd to the FE Commissioner for “an independent assessment of the college’s capability and capacity to make the required changes and improvements within a reasonable period of time”.

West Nottinghamshire College said earlier this year that it was having to let 100 staff go in order to make £2.7m worth of savings.

UNISON national officer Leigh Powell said: “It’s a disgrace that financial troubles have escalated to this level. Last year UNISON tried to warn the FE Commissioner and governors about financial mismanagement at the college.

“Senior managers at the college have played fast and loose with public money to the detriment of students’ education, and the future of the dedicated staff who work there.

“Both the college and the FE Commissioner have passed the buck even when 100 members of staff were being made redundant.

“Staff are now left wondering who will be leading the financial recovery plan and how future changes will affect them. An urgent meeting with UNISON, the College and FE Commissioner representatives is needed so that staff and students’ questions get clear answers.”

Dame Asha Khemka, principal and chief executive of West Nottinghamshire College, has hit back at the claims, saying: “Like many others in the sector, the college has experienced some financial difficulties as a result of a national change to apprenticeship funding and delivery methods, in particular the removal of sub-contracting, which had been a major part of our model. This resulted in the college implementing a staffing restructure, with close to 100 colleagues having left the organisation towards the end of last academic year through a combination of redundancy and voluntary redundancy.

“While the restructure was intended to rebalance the college’s finances, the full impact of savings will not be realised until 2018/19. This led to the college finding itself in a position of needing a short-term loan of £2.1m from the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which was provided in July of this year. Under the terms of government guidance, this automatically triggered a Financial Notice to Improve, which was published on the Department for Education’s website on 17 September.

“The college’s plan for financial recovery, which led to the restructure, was also based on us meeting student enrolment targets in 2018/19. Early indications are that we are well on track to do so. Despite the challenges the college has faced, I am confident we will continue to serve our local communities as a vibrant institution that provides high-quality education and training to local people and employers. Our current challenges will have absolutely no impact on our students’ experience.

“The college strongly refutes any suggestion that it has mismanaged public money. Our financial pressures are the result of national apprenticeship reforms, which have disproportionately affected this college due to the size of our delivery.

“We are more than willing to meet with UNISON representatives to discuss the present situation. However, to date, we have not received any requests to do so.”

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