Background
Cambridge Regional College is a financially successful general further education (FE) college, a very different picture to a few years ago. The college was in a state of financial crisis, experiencing resource and staffing problems. In close partnership with Tribal, the college turned things around, moving from a deficit to a surplus position, representing a financial improvement of £1.7 million over three financial years.
The college is proud of its achievements and attributes their success to the positive partnership they enjoyed with Tribal’s team of education experts. Chris Lang, Vice Principal Finance and Resources at the college said '...what this is most certainly not about is consultancy, merely providing the college with a report at the end of the process. This is about partnership to help the college meet its strategic goals. Tribal planned this out with college curriculum staff, not for them.'
The college had received good results from their 2003 Ofsted inspections, but despite this they were seriously inhibited by a number of issues:
- a financial deficit of £1.05 million
- under investment in buildings, equipment and resources
- poor recruitment and retention of staff.
These problems were beginning to have a negative impact on the student experience and meant that future growth would be impossible until a solution had been found to these difficulties.
Curriculum planning and resource allocation were key concerns. Significant funding opportunities were being missed due to a lack of knowledge regarding best practice and resourcing levels were not in line with the financial position.
Management realised the need for a complete review of their curriculum offering, right down to individual courses. They also recognised the need for a planning system to prioritise quality, forecast expected income and detail the required resources. This planning system would provide for a more informed decision-making process for management.
The college required a partner to help them to put these changes into place swiftly, as they did not have the expertise, specialist knowledge or time to achieve this.
The college's management team chose to work in close partnership with Tribal on a number of benchmarking initiatives. The college and Tribal worked closely together to create new planning methods, spread best practice and achieve efficient use of resources.
Tribal's solution came in three parts:
- Curriculum Efficiency Benchmarking – providing curriculum planning advice, guidance and project management
- 'Value for Money' – an easy to use web based benchmarking tool which allowed the college team to review performance from individual learning aims up to the wider college perspective. It allowed the college to monitor both their success rates and curriculum efficiency
- Total Financial Benchmarking – reviews which analysed income and expenditure variances against 'best practice' colleges. This valuable exercise was undertaken twice over the 3 year period and highlighted several cost reduction opportunities and the need to re-balance spend between academic and service areas.
Outcomes
- Areas of high spend were identified and cost reduction exercises carried out on outsourced contracts.
- Curriculum delivery has been modernised to address both the needs of financial efficiency and a good quality student experience.
Staff recruitment, retention and morale have improved exponentially and union relations are the best they have been for many years.
"We are now able to best support staff and students in their ambitions and desires to succeed. Good terms and conditions for staff, and good facilities for staff and students really allow everyone to focus fully on the training and education we are here to provide."
Chris Sherwin, Vice Principal Learning and Achievement
"Working with Tribal, especially their value added to curriculum planning, has been a fundamental part of turning around the college’s finances."
Chris Lang, Vice Principal Finance and Resource