Skidder Shorts No. 8 - Sandwell College - Poor Governance

This is the content of a letter which I have today posted first class to Ofsted with copies to the Skills Funding Agency and to The College itself:

Dear Sirs,

SANDWELL COLLEGE – POOR GOVERNANCE

I shall be writing to you separately with regard to the (still secret) shenanigans surrounding the “back-door” acquisition of a second £70m+ campus in two years by Sandwell College in due course but wish to make a formal complaint here about a specific example of poor governance by Sandwell College.

The College is a publicly-funded body susceptible (in theory, at least) to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. It seems from my research to date that this public body has not been used to external examination of its affairs but the taxpayer is entitled to scrutinise its activities to ensure that public money is being spent wisely and appropriately.

The College has persistently failed to publicly disclose the minutes of the meetings of its Board of Governors timeously. In recent times it has attempted to avoid publication of its decision-making body completely, eg by having a “private”, “un-minuted” meeting in an hotel last summer, and even where publication has eventually been made it has sought to redact information (this has been the subject of at least one Freedom of Information Act  request).

I am aware that the College needs a little time after meetings to collate the minutes and circulate them but in these days of e-mail etc I submit that 14 days is ample time to do this. In the case of Sandwell College the release of minutes is, routinely, a period of months. As I write this on 29^th April, 2014, the Board of Governors minutes for the meetings of 9^th December, 2013 and 24^th February, 2014 remain unpublished (despite a Freedom of Information Act request dated 3^rd April, 2014).

At “best” (sic) this gross delay in a result of sheer incompetence by College staff. At worst, there is a deliberate attempt to prevent timeous disclosure of information which should be in the public domain. No doubt you will wish to bear this in mind when fulfilling your statutory duties.

Yours faithfully (etc)

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