Save College - No to Cuts

Staff at Salford City College, the area’s leading provider for young people, have been presented with a Business Transformation Plan (BTP) which aims to cut vital services at the college in order to fund a forecast £1.5m surplus per annum in future years. This is despite already having cash reserves of £6m. Although it is appreciated that the College needs to find some funds for buildings and equipment, the scale of the cuts to services is too harsh and may lead to a drastic reduction in the quality of service that Salford City College has to offer young people and other learners in the area.

Some areas that will be cut are as follows:

· Vital mentoring and counselling support, essential for students with mental health and emotional needs

· The sale of land at the Walkden Centre, which will cut provision and ultimately affect access to education for learners in the wider deprived areas around Salford

· Cuts to teaching staff where it is forecast they will be replaced with E-Learning, where students will have less time in a formal classroom environment

There are also serious concerns that the BTP will conflict with the new OFSTED requirements published in June 2015, which will ultimately lead to a greater level of accountability for teachers and a possible downgrading of the college.