Brooksby Melton College makes 11 redundancies due to pandemic impact

Eleven people have been made redundant at Brooksby Melton College (BMC) due to the impact on the business of the coronavirus pandemic.
Brooksby Melton College EMN-201016-151443001Brooksby Melton College EMN-201016-151443001
Brooksby Melton College EMN-201016-151443001

The college said its parent organisation, SMB Group, which was formed this year when BMC merged with Coalville-based Stephenson College, has suffered a significant drop in income as a result of its activities being severely restricted since lockdown in March.

There has been a loss in income from apprenticeships, due to the impact of Covid on the economy and the job market, the college says, and it has also received no commercial income from the associated Melton Theatre, which has been closed for seven months with no immediate prospect of reopening.

BMC has also suffered a major loss of income from its equestrian centre, events and catering and student accommodation.

Brooksby Melton College chief executive and principal, Dawn Whitemore EMN-201016-151521001Brooksby Melton College chief executive and principal, Dawn Whitemore EMN-201016-151521001
Brooksby Melton College chief executive and principal, Dawn Whitemore EMN-201016-151521001

The college says it has been working closely with trade union partners to make every effort to redeploy staff wherever possible and make savings through natural wastage but ‘regrettably’ it has had to make some reductions from its staffing budget.

There has been ‘a necessary restructuring across both curriculum and business support areas of the college resulting in 11 compulsory redundancies’.

Principal and CEO, Dawn Whitemore, told the Melton Times: “In these difficult times we continue to put our learners first in all of our business decisions to ensure we are doing everything we can to safeguard the future for our students, staff and the local communities and businesses we are here to serve.”

The college, which has campuses in Melton and at Brooksby, declined to say in which areas of the business the job cuts were made.