Petition to the CEO and Chair of governors: Celebrate difference: don’t standardise CCCG. Listen to staff

There are no clear lines of communication in the newly created group, with one of the three colleges nearly imposing their rationale behind everything on the other two. People often do not know who to refer to when in need of support.

1 year ago Featured

Merger taken place wihtout any proper consent or direction what where we will be going or what is the objective to achieve. CEO in building but does not talk to staff in the corridors or any of the other leading senior teams - it is such a shame to see this disconnect and to see lots of empty classrooms that can't be booked for actual students in situ.

Yes the whole thing is scary. We do not want to lose our college identity and good reputation.

Give us our rights

Needs more consultation, rushed through without explanation.

Very poor communication, lack of staff or student engagement/involvement. It appears and feels that staff doesn't matter.

The merger has not had a positive impact in the college where i work

It is a shame to see once bustling classrooms standing empty now and the reduced student & staff around. Worried this might lead to closure of campuses for housing needs!

Forward Brothers & Sisters!!!

The lack of meaningful consultation is unfortunate, particularly after positive EDI efforts undertaken with PD Days that demonstrated feedback raised via staff survey's was being taken seriously. The re-branding undertaken has yet to resolve significant problems support staff, tutors and applicants still experience finding courses via the CCCG's Website. If teachers on various courses at different sites are all having the same challenges shouldn't this be a priority! Could we not focus on ensuring systems exist that ensure inaccurate course descriptions to be amended in a timely manner. Finally, I would ask that before eradicating the local college identities the views of young people and the communities we serve have also been fully listened to. There are post code issues and travel concerns which teenagers and parents consider when making decisions about their further education.

Our colleges have their own identity that reflects and connects with the local community. This is our strength.

This proposition is going to destroy the identity of the branches. Also as a result every branches are going to get less money that as they got.

One more point: if there was enough money to spend it in the rebranding, why was it not better used to replace the lift at CAS before it finally completely broke? We have been climbing to the 9th floor and down every day since the October half term and this will not be solved until after the Christmas break. In the past couple of weeks some lessons were rescheduled to lower floor / 6FC rooms to allow access for disabled staff and students, this could have been prevented, but teachers still need to take the stairs up and down many times daily carrying all their resources to and from lessons. If there was money available, why not use it to update the lift at CAS by installing ID card readers on each floor to call the lift, as all the other buildings in the group have? Why was the money not used to finish the ladies' ground floor toilet and to install one accessible toilet at CAS, instead of spending on something unnecessary? The ground floor demolition happened in April this year and no work has been done since. There is no disabled toilet and very limited ladies’ facilities (6 cubicles) at CAS. These questions require answers.

While merging colleges can bring about practical and academic synergies, maintaining their original identities allows institutions to retain their legacy, minimize disruption, and preserve their established reputations in a competitive educational landscape.

Communication has been a problem for some time, we need to feel valued.

The restructuring was done during the summer break mostly when most staff were away.

Each college is as unique as each of the students. Don't break that which isn't broken.

Our identity as a college has disappeared. Having worked here for 20 years to build this identity and the reputation attached to it, I feel disheartened to see this happen without any consultation. It undermines the energy and years of work that have gone into establishing our identity, achievements, and reputation. Over the years, our students, past and present, have identified with the strong sense of community we have cultivated.

The absence of a consultation process seems to reflect a failure to understand the importance of equality and diversity.”

I totally agree with the statements on the petition! We were not consulted nor informed to the extent to which this “rebranding” move was going to impact the colleges, each of the centres and the staff. The group must consider the knowledge and experience of staff to decide measures that pertain to education, including the good names of the group’s colleges. There is no need to rebrand any of the colleges or centres, they are already well known in their communities, each providing a range of courses to the local student populations, as they should be. Rebranding is a pointless exercise, thought by someone trying to make a name for themselves instead of thinking about the educational institutions and the students they provide education. The idea of unifying centres to provide specific courses is a very unwise idea, as it will limit access to the students from poorer backgrounds, defeating the purpose of serving the local communities in place of favouring financial gains by the group's management, discriminating against these students and depriving them of the possibility of the future they aspire to. Furthermore, “unifying the courses” is not the answer to higher quality of teaching; organising standardization meetings per course across the colleges, sharing good practice amongst the experienced staff is. However, despite this being the common academic practice / solution, management have not organized standardization meetings, which raises the question whether they want staff across the colleges to know what is happening in the other centres. This only brings more distrust in the managers at the helm or our colleges and the group… The latest restructure removing the centres’ HoSs, has done nothing more than complicate the daily processes at each centre for all staff, delaying communication and actions that were swift and efficient before this latest idea to save money. The restructure is impairing local coordination and understanding of a centre, to the de