The closure came after the government rejected proposals from the College’s leaders that it should be given responsibility for additional functions, such as post-qualifying training, which would have secured much-needed income.

Ministers made the decision to withdraw support having been presented with the findings of a warts and all review that revealed the College was in significant financial difficulty. This review was carried out by the College. A copy of it was leaked to Community Care and wereported on its findings last year. The report itself was never published by the College or the government.

Today, with permission from a source, we make the report available to download in order to inform the debate around the College’s closure.

An article we published on the closure this week has drawn criticism from a former College board member for being “really poor and badly researched”. The crux of the article was based on the College report and the piece quotes from it. The information on finances is based on the section featured below.

Other figures referenced in our article come from The College’s published accounts. These show the government invested £5m in start-up funding for the College and, during its two years in operation, the organisation received more than £2.5m in additional government funding for projects and £792,000 in membership fees. The accounts also show the College had committed to a ‘non-cancellable’ property lease worth £199,704.

With the report sent to ministers now available, social workers can hopefully gain a fuller picture around the closure of their first professional college.

Source: Community Care