College to make staff cutbacks

Forth Valley College has announced the launch of a voluntary severance scheme for staff to help ease the “uncertainty” surrounding college sector finances.

As it stands, the Scottish college sector is preparing for a flat cash funding settlement and a cut in the volume of delivery following the draft Scottish Budget announced in December last year.

Whilst the budget showed a four per cent increase to revenue funding for 2023/24, the college says it is understood this funding has been ring-fenced for transitional support for projects, not frontline delivery and is therefore a flat cash settlement.

Professor Ken Thomson OBE, Principal and Chief Executive of Forth Valley College, said: “With inflation currently running at just over 10 per cent, the continuing public sector pay negotiations and increased energy costs, there is a high degree of uncertainty surrounding the financial position for the college sector.

“The final budget position won’t be confirmed until mid-march, however we are preparing for some challenging times ahead. Our Leadership Team is currently scenario planning and exploring a range of opportunities to ensure the college’s future financial stability. This means looking at options right now to mitigate the challenges we may face with the announcement of the funding allocation in mid-march. Therefore, I have announced that the college will be launching a collegewide voluntary severance scheme from Monday March 6 to March 31.

“I would stress this is the last position we would want to find ourselves in, especially after overcoming the challenges presented by the pandemic, however we are up against a range of factors out with our control. These are really difficult times for everyone, and the college sector is no exception.

“Our key focus as always will be to continue to provide high quality learning experiences at every stage of the student journey.”