FRIENDS OF BILSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Spokesperson and official Whistleblower: Dr. George Barnsby 141 Henwood Rd.
Wolverhampton W.Mids WV6 8PJ. Phone and Fax 01902 751888
eMail address: bilstonfriends@hotmail.com
Website: pages. unisonfree.net/friendsofbilstoncollege

Bulletin No.9. Winter 2002

THE UNIQUENESS OF BILSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE
In the annals of Institutional Racism the Closing of Bilston Community College (BCC) will stand as a unique example and its significance will grow over the coming months. BCC was the most important College in Britain for ethnic minority education, having at its peak in 1997 some 47,000 mainly part-time students, a budget of £23 million, and some 30% of its staff from ethnic minorities. It had been specifically set up to provide community based education and training to all students who applied, black or white, without previous educational qualifications.

In fact those who supported the FEFC in closing BCC were an incredibly mixed bunch of people with jealousies and personal interests, particularly in Wulfrun College, the other FE college in the city. A key element had a cavalier disregard for ethnic minority opinion, which brought about closure without ethnic minority opinion ever being sought.

The College was accused of being the most inefficient in the country and of having vast debts. The FEFC implied to Parliament that there was fraud, and without waiting for confirmation of this charge, they proceeded to allow Wulfrun with about 9% of ethnic minority staff to take over the much larger BCC with 30% of ethnic minority staff and thus commit this act of Institutional Racism which is having such monumental consequences.

FRIENDS of BCC proved most of the charges against the College false. But when the West Midlands Police Fraud Squad in August 2001 stated that 'no evidence was found to suggest that any of the activities were of a criminal nature', the writing should have been on the wall for the governors of Wolverhampton College because if Bilston Community College had been wrongly closed it followed that Wolverhampton College must have been improperly set up. Governors at that point must have known that they were connected with a very dubious enterprise and should have taken steps to distance themselves from it. Instead, they dug themselves in, and were reduced to ever more desperate measures to justify their support for the closure of BCC. The last ludicrous fling was an attempt to show that Bilston had debts of £33.7 million. In fact £27.2 million of this sum was money the FEFC said it was owed. £21.5 million of this so called debt related to 1995-1997, and had been audited and the accounts accepted by the FEFC.  However the FEFC declared it retrospectively ineligible for funding. The new auditors were unable to confirm the new accounts as an accurate statement of the College's financial position. In fact it can be said that the so-called debts of BCC are phantom, non-existent debts. The College spent the money given to it legitimately on community education. End of story.

The late Further Education Funding Council and, to some extent, its successor body the Learning & Skills Council took equally desperate measures to justify the closure as increasing evidence of their abuse of power was revealed. When the National Audit Office stated that there would now be a parliamentary enquiry into the closure of BCC, the LSC allied itself to the farcical charge that BCC debts were £33.7 million. Then they declared that they were considering prosecuting the auditors who had signed the accounts of BCC. Now this was never likely to happen. Previously the FEFC / LSC have raised the question of prosecuting auditors and concluded that the amounts received (if any) would be less than the expenses of prosecution. This is no doubt true. However, this is not the real reason for not prosecuting auditors. Bilston's auditors were the huge and prestigious firm of Deloitte and Touche. They would take a very poor view of being considered inefficient by the FEFC and would act robustly to defend themselves. Any civil action would reveal that FEFC instruction were constantly changing and ambiguous. Further, when decisions were not favourable to the FEFC they were not above trying improperly influence and even threaten auditors. And how would they explain to a court that their own auditors had reported on BCC and found the College's arrangements to be 'in accordance with statute and the Council's requirements'. So successive dates for coming to a decision about the much discussed civil actions have come and gone and the auditors remain unprosecuted - and we guess they always will!

The real effect and cost of closing Bilston Community College on further education in Wolverhampton have skilfully been revealed by Paul Goddard-Patel, the previous Financial Director of BCC. He it was who forced the National Audit Office to recommend that a Parliamentary Enquiry take place into the closure of BCC and he has now revealed the real cost to further education in Wolverhampton as follows.

CONTESTING INSTITUTIONAL RACISM.
The project of the FRIENDS is not simply to defend itself, but to end Education by Quango, and re-establish democratic education in Britain. To that end current activities include:
Monday 11 February 18-30 to 20-30, Bilston Community Centre, Prouds Lane, Bilston.

PROFESSOR ERIC ROBINSON

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM IN EDUCATION

Also Keith Wymer (ex Principal Bilston Community College) and
G.Barnsby - COMBATING INSTITUTIONAL RACISM IN WOLVERHAMPTON
Discussion    Admission Free