College 'solid and sustainable' as FNTI published

A Financial Notice to Improve applicable to Lakes College has been published by the Department for Education — Chris Nattress, Principal and Chief Executive Officer at Lakes College, provides some context below:

“At Lakes College we are committed to meeting employers’ needs and helping to train the workforce of the future. We work successfully with many hundreds of employers and partners — local, regionally and nationally — and have a very impressive, award-winning track record of meeting demand with our programmes of learning and apprenticeships.

“In addition to the funding pressures faced by the sector over recent years, and the effects of rising inflation on costs, we have recently experienced extra pressure on our short-term finances over the past 12 months, owing to a combination of: shortfalls in our Adult Learning delivery and T Level recruitment, and significant upfront investment in our STEM Engineering Skills Academy.

“In order to alleviate these short-term pressures, we successfully secured a relatively small loan from the DfE during the 2023/24 academic year. We plan to repay this in full by Autumn 2027. A condition of the loan is to engage with the FE Commissioner, and have a Financial Notice to Improve (FNTI).

“Our revised, robust financial plan includes an appropriate business model to ensure we continue to support all of our learners, apprentices and employer partners. Our underlying position and arrangements going forward are solid and sustainable — we have no other borrowings. We have not implemented a compulsory redundancy programme; we will continue to deliver necessary savings via increasing our operational efficiency.

“I am confident that the FNTI will have no direct negative impact on the day-to-day running of our Ofsted Good rated college, ensuring we continue to deliver our high standards of teaching and training to all our learners — and employers — as well as supporting continued growth within the college.”