Decision details

Dr Michele Lawty-Jones, Director of the Lancashire Skills and Employment Hub, presented a report on the proposed merger between Accrington and Rossendale College with Nelson and Colne College.

The report detailed a request for funding that had been received from the Education and Skills Funding Agency and Nelson and Colne College in order to support the proposed merger.

The Board identified that, due to the lack of a Growth Deal Business Case, and subsequent assurance, that there are a number of questions which could not be answered at this meeting.

At this point Dr Michele Lawty-Jones was asked to leave the room to enable the non-conflicted Committee Members to consider the recommendations.

The Board agreed to support the proposal in principle, subject to the independent appraisal of a business case achieving the recognised thresholds for delivery on each of its five cases.

Resolved: The Growth Deal Management Board agreed to:

(i)  Recommend to the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership Limited Board, in principle, to approve a £500k contribution from the Lancashire Growth Deal programme, to the merger, subject to independent appraisal of the business case achieving the recognised thresholds for delivery on each of the five cases.

(ii)  Ask Growth Deal Management Board colleagues from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to use their internal central government networks to provide further contextual information about the funding of this project.

Dr Michele Lawty-Jones re-joined the meeting at this point.