Stourbridge College Funding bid

In a letter to the Press, Margot James tells the public about the decision taken by he Learning & Skills Council (LSC) last week to reject the bid for capital funding by Stourbridge College, whilst approving the bid made by Sandwell College.

Dear Editor,

I think the public should know the scale of incompetence that lies behind the outrageous decision taken by the Learning & Skills Council (LSC) last week to reject the bid for capital funding by Stourbridge College, whilst approving the bid made by Sandwell College.

People might be surprised to know that between thirty and forty per cent of all public money spent on education is channelled through QUANGOs of which the LSC is one. The LSC, for all their highly paid executive staff, had no proper financial controls in place. Nationally they had a budget of £2 billion for building improvements in the further education sector. They approved in principle bids costing £8billion, a fourfold over spend.

But for the economic crisis this overspend would probably have been brushed under the carpet together with so many other poorly executed public expenditure programmes (or “investment’ as Gordon Brown calls spending). However the scale of debt the country is now burdened by has made such fudges impossible. So the Government has had to renege on the approvals it made, via the LSC, to Colleges like Stourbridge College last year.

With what little money there is now available hard choices have had to be made. But why reject Stourbridge and approve Sandwell? On every measure of performance Stourbridge is far and away the superior college. Stourbridge had the highest A level point score in the Black Country last year. It has improved from a position five years ago, when it was performing in the lowest half of the sector nationally, to its position now in the top twenty five per cent of all colleges and is heading for the top ten percent of colleges nationally by the year end.

Not surprisingly the success of Stourbridge College attracts vastly more students than Sandwell College. The skills training programme, known as ‘Train to Gain’ is known to be excellent at Stourbridge. In the current year 5648 learners are enrolled on Train to Gain programmes at Stourbridge compared to fewer than one thousand at Sandwell.

Unemployment has risen by 120% over the last twelve months in Stourbridge, the second highest increase in all areas measured west of Birmingham. We need more skills training. But this is also being cut back, again because of the incompetence of the LSC and their over spending on the Train to Gain programme (this time by thirty per cent) last year.

Our College will not give up on its bid to secure funding for the development of much needed new facilities. But it is scandalous that public money has been so wasted by the LSC; and then the wrong decision is made with what little money is now left. Like its Labour Government masters the LSC has chosen to subsidise failure rather than reward success with its decision to prefer Sandwell over Stourbridge.

Yours sincerely

Margot James
Conservative Party Candidate for Stourbridge