76 jobs under threat at Telford College of Arts and Technology

Telford College of Arts and Technology has launched a 30-day consultation with unions and staff members.

TCAT bosses say there will be a potential reduction of 76 posts, although it is thought the final figure will be less.

The college says a detailed review has been carried out and it has been decided that making efficiencies and a re-prioritisation of resources is essential to build on improvements.

Education chiefs say that the potential redundancies are needed to ensure the financial sustainability of the college.

Interim and agency staffing are to be significantly reduced, but it is understood that there will be opportunities for staff to retrain and take up other positions across the college.

The college in Wellington, which employs about 480 staff, will be offering voluntary redundancies to reduce the need for compulsory redundancies.

It comes after the college received a damning Ofsted inspection report last year, but it was recently judged to be making progress.

Graham Guest, principal and chief executive of TCAT, said: “This is an extremely difficult decision we have to make to ensure we can continue to invest and diversify our curriculum in the long term.

“We are looking forward to the future and are continuing to build on the successes from this year with more opportunities in new areas for us to branch out into.

“It has no impact on our students and our priority is to build on the improvements noted and highlighted by both Ofsted and the FE commissioner during their recent visits.

“The college has been operating with a staff surplus based on its income and student ratio for several years and unfortunately this must now be addressed.

"This unavoidable decision has been made in order to lay strong foundations for the future growth of the college.

“The college is making every effort to minimise the number of redundancies and we have already reduced the shortfall significantly through robust planning and targeted savings in running costs.”

Earlier this month, Ofsted's latest report on TCAT stated reasonable progress in the quality of teaching, and significant progress had been made to ensure that apprentices achieve their qualifications.

However, there is still said to be a problem with low ambition among some students and the amount they are challenged.

When inspectors visited last year, they said governors and senior leaders at the college had failed to provide solid leadership.

Their report said apprentices made slow progress, had low achievement rates and teachers’ expectations of learners were too low.