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Colleges chief resigns over funding fiasco
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent23.03.09
THE head of the college funding council resigned today with a £100,000 pay-off after major errors left the Government's £5billion rebuilding programme in crisis.
Mark Haysom said it was right that he should "take accountability" for the failings which have left London colleges facing tens of millions of pounds of debt. Ministers have launched an inquiry into what went wrong. But MrHaysom said he already knew that the learning council had failed to manage the programme effectively.
The council told 144 colleges across England - including 16 in London - that they were in line to receive millions of pounds towards the cost of new buildings and facilities. But the funding was suddenly withheld after it emerged that the scheme was running billions of pounds over budget.
Mr Haysom, who has been in the job for five and a half years, said: "As the man at the top, I am accountable for the performance of the LSC - the good and the bad. There has been so much that has been good and the LSC has received many plaudits but it is now right that I take accountability for the current very difficult situation."
Skills Secretary John Denham thanked Mr Haysom for his "very real achievements" but said he understood his decision to resign "given the significant problems with the Building Colleges for the Future programme".
Mr Haysom leaves with £104,000, which officials said represented six months' salary in lieu of notice, but no bonus. He will not receive the £250,000 he would have been paid had he remained in post until the LSC is dissolved next year.
Shadow skills secretary David Willetts today said: "Getting someone else to take the rap is a classic device, but John Denham cannot escape responsibility for this mess."
Reader views (5)
It sounds as though he's taken money, not responsibility: when you resign without giving notice, you should you be paying the compensation. Why anyway should there be one centralised national planner of college funding? There isn't one for street cleaning, or primary schools. My Council's a shambles, but they've got a much better notion of local needs than someone in Whitehall. It wasn't all that long ago that FE was managed and funded by local authorities, not some Stalinist quango.The trouble with unified central plans is that they require geniuses to run them and,as we now know, all the geniuses have been busy running the banks.
- Mdj E10, london uk
This is another example of a quango being morphed into yet another quango without thinking through the consequences.(In 2010 the LSC will be replaced by two smaller agencies. The Young People's Learning Agency which will oversee local authorities' co-ordination of skills training for 14-19 year olds, and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) will handle the £4 billion annual further education budget for adult training.)
My guess is in setting the budgets for the two new agencies, the bureaucrats were so busy congratulating themselves on their new approach and the savings they were making, that they forgot to transfer over the colleges' rebuilding budget and no-one told Mark Haysom. And that he has resigned rather than carry the can.
- Mrs Jackson, London England
Taking one step back I cannot understand why so many colleges need re-building. Yes there may be a need where the facilities are used for teaching the sciences but new buildings do not improve lectures or the student's ability. Some of my most enjoyable lectures were given in an old building that had fireplaces in the lecture room!
- Michael, London
Guess Mark Haysom wasnt computer literate. Best to take some time out and perhaps do an Excel course? It will help when dealing with big numbers.
- Gordi, Manchester, UK
Staggering incompetence, after almost a full twelve years, and all that investment'!!!
The poor kids.
This is on your CV too now, Denham!
Walk.
- Dave, Cumbria
