It has been a difficult few years for Kensington and Chelsea College. The churn of senior leaders and governors during the past five years and more reflects some of the challenges around finance and quality that the college has faced.
In early 2018, the college board took the decision not to merge with Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College following an assessment undertaken by the FE commissioner in late 2017 in the wake of the tragic Grenfell Tower fire. The options facing the college at that time were not good and included insolvency.
Today the situation is better. The college decided to pursue merger with Morley College London in March. In July, the government announced that up to £32 million would be available to purchase the college’s North Kensington site from the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and support merger with Morley.
Quick read: £30m FE funding boost for Grenfell Tower community
Background: College facing £6m deficit plans to cut jobs
More on this: Kensington and Chelsea College reveals merger plan
Passionate campaign
A lot of hard work by the two colleges, the wide range of stakeholders in local and central government, personal commitment and follow-through by ministers and a passionate local campaign have contributed to this improvement in the college’s situation. The next six months will prove to be crucial as a consultation on the merger is launched and extensive, independent due diligence for both colleges is carried out.
However, there is one group that we want to single out for special thanks ahead of the new academic year. Staff at Kensington and Chelsea College have shown fortitude, loyalty and professionalism across an enormously difficult period when uncertainty has seemed at times to be the only constant. In all our interactions with staff, it is a rare occurrence that students are not mentioned. KCC staff are very protective and very proud of their students. Rightly so when we look at the quality of students’ work in areas such as the creative arts and industries.
We have worked with many organisations across the past 18 months in Chelsea and North Kensington: the Education and Skills Funding Agency; the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; the Department for Education; Ofsted; the Greater London Authority; and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to name but a few. Every organisation has their perspective, their role to play. Every organisation has wanted to progress to the best possible conclusion in the interests of Kensington and Chelsea’s local communities.
Staff who ‘get it’
However, in among the property questions, the financial questions, the legal questions, recent restructuring - the complexity of the college’s situation generally - we have always felt that it is college staff who really “get it”. Their passion for what they do and obvious commitment towards their students (our students) have perhaps been an anchor for them and, in turn, this has anchored the whole college through difficult times.
On behalf of the board, we are very grateful to college staff. With Morley, we plan to work together as one college with three outstanding centres in North Kensington, Chelsea and Waterloo. A bright new chapter for education and training provision lies ahead for staff - meeting the needs of a growing number of students across the capital and serving our local communities as a new force for public good.
Ian Valvona is chair of Kensington and Chelsea College, and Lizzie Cho is vice-chair
