You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out that something rotten is going on at Leicester Adult Education College. With job losses; staff being re-located; skilled people disappearing; restructuring, with staff having to do more than one job; people who’ve left not being replaced… Leicester Adult Education College is suffering.

The Incredible Shrinking College
We’ve seen courses being streamlined, other courses disappearing. We’ve already seen the closure and privatisation of the Creative Writing School. The Art Department is visibly shrinking with the loss of one of its three rooms, and now the loss of yet another.

Saatchi & Saatchi, it isn’t!
Courses are not being advertised well; the website was down for ages and has only recently been working again; students were receiving prospectuses late; people have been turned away from art courses when spaces were available; removal of the art display in reception, with bizarre reasons for this given… the list goes on.

It’s good to talk
Staff and college users are still being kept in the dark about future plans. Chris Minter has said “There will be major changes in the use of the building and this is just the start” and “there are further plans to change… which are not secret but are not yet common knowledge”. Well, if it’s not common knowledge and management aren’t letting on what they are, it’s secret! What have they got to hide?

As for public accountability…
Leicester Adult Education College is a public institution and a public building, belonging to Leicester City Council. In other words, it’s partly financed by your Council Tax payments. Because of this, you’d expect a degree of public accountability.
So, just who’s been informed of what’s happening at the college? Has there been any public consultation? No. Have staff been consulted? No. Have those trade unions party to recognition agreements been consulted? No. Have students and college users been consulted? No. In fact, student reps are ignored. Are local councillors aware of what’s happening? If they are, they’ve not said anything. So much for accountability then.