Pounds 169,000 handshake

'How is it that someone who has made this kind of financial mess can walk away with a golden handshake, with money we haven't got?'

The early retirement of principal Jenny Shackleton has cost Wirral Metropolitan College at least Pounds 169,000. The news comes as a new management team proposed 170 redundancies at the crisis-hit Merseyside college.

Ms Shackleton announced her retirement late last year, just weeks before the Further Education Funding Council called for the sacking of the college's governing body on the grounds of mismanagement.

The college's inspection report, published this week, condemned Ms Shackleton's management by giving the worst possible inspection grade -"poor with many weaknesses". Governance at the college was also given the worst grade.

Leaked internal documents obtained by The THES reveal that Ms Shackleton's early retirement cost the college Pounds 169,000. It is understood that Ms Shackleton will personally receive a lot more than Pounds 169,000, as she will also receive money from the Teachers' Pension Scheme.

The "adverse publicity" surrounding the college following the crisis has led to a Pounds 135,000 slump in corporate income, the documents reveal. The college now faces a projected deficit of more than Pounds 12 million.

This week the college's Natfhe representative, Sue Doleman, said the pay-off was an outrage. "How is it that someone who has made this kind of financial mess can walk away with a golden handshake, with money we haven't got?" she said. "We also believe the FEFC should bear responsibility, as they failed to realise what was happening."

Lifelong learning minister George Mudie said in a written parliamentary answer last week that Ms Shackleton's retirement provision was made in compliance with FEFC guidance.