North Shropshire College's future is bright, says chief of governors

Gillian Richards, chairman of governors at North Shropshire College, said the college is now in a much better position despite the collapse in negotiations.

After 18 months of work and discussions, a merger with Reaseheath College in Nantwich fell through at the 11th hour last week.

Government education officials had said they would not fund the merger for the college, which has campuses in Oswestry, Walford, Shipley, near Bridgnorth and on the Herefordshire border. It came just a year after the two colleges formed a federation ahead of the potential merger.

Since the news was announced, officials at North Shropshire College have been locked in discussions with other potential partners.

But Ms Richards said the college’s future was secure whatever the outcome of those discussions.

“It would be wrong of me to claim that we are not disappointed with the outcome last week because we really are,” she said.

“An awful lot of work had gone into the potential merger from both college teams, but as a governors and as a college we have already been working towards the next step.

“We are already preparing alternatives to give this college the best possible outcome, because that is what we all want. But what I will say is that this college certainly has a bright future, the future is rosy.”

Last week a joint statement said that long term funding could not be secured, that was after both had been working with the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and the Treasury Transaction Unit (TU).

After the uncertainty that came with last weeks announcement, bosses got to work immediately and Gillian admits they are now in a stronger position that they were 18 months ago when the first deal emerged.

“It is a different situation from when we went into the merger work. Since then we have had better Ofsted results, better grades and we are in a much, much stronger position going into this,” she said.

“Because of the work that has taken place already preparing for that merger, some of the work doesn’t need to be done again so another merger would not take the 18 months this one has taken.”

The news of the merger collapse came on the same day that students received their results for their courses.

A week on the chair of governors is positive about the future., and has insisted that a merger isn’t necessarily essentially for the long term future of the college.

She added: “A merger is not generally essential for our future, but it is the preferred option moving forward.

“At the moment it wouldn’t be right to confirm when any new announcement will be made on a merger.

“But I can confirm discussions are under way and there are other parties interested in merging with us.”