Story: Lisa Swift
The Council have announced massive cuts to their Adult and Community Learning (ACL) team, which will have a major impact on Burngreave.
For 10 years the ACL team developed and delivered courses in the area, and helped local organisations to work together to provide learning to those who need it most. The Council are proposing to cut the team from 15 down to 5.
The Council say the reason for the cuts is reduced funding from government, Service Manager Dee Desgranges told the Messenger:
“In previous years the ACL team has been funded from a number of funding pots, these have all now come to an end. We have managed to maintain the service up until this point by pooling resources but now that money has run out. It has not been an easy decision, but we are prioritising the funding we get from the government to deliver courses from September.”
Jobs will also be lost at a local centre, Sheaf Training, where funding has been clawed back by the government.
The Council claims it is still committed to directly delivering courses, however the head of the department Tony Tweedy admitted at a Community Assembly meeting in April that they had failed to include the ACL team in their bid for Area Based Grant.
One worker told us
“Their priorities lie elsewhere and they think they can run adult community learning cheaply on a market model from April 2011.”
The proposed cuts come ahead of Cabinet and Full Council meetings at the end of July where cuts to other departments are expected.