Derbyshire County Council to close adult education centres

The Reform-run Derbyshire County Council is closing five adult education centres without any public consultation following a private meeting.

Cllr Jack Bradley, Reform’s cabinet member for education, has unilaterally decided at a closed-doors meeting to shut five adult community education centres in Ashbourne, Matlock, Middleton-by-Wirksworth, Shirebrook and Long Eaton.

This comes two months after Cllr Bradley – who was elected on the principle of openness and transparency – also opted to close two centres in Alfreton and Glossop, also without public or user consultation.

A county council report says the five further centres will close from September with no consultation planned.

This would leave the authority with eight adult community education centres in Bolsover, Buxton, Chesterfield, Clay Cross, Cotmanhay, Glossop, Holmewood and Swadlincote.

A council report details that the closures will affect 1,337 “learners” and that the overall cost of the five centres was £1.044 million, averaging £1,050 per learner.

The cost per learner ranged drastically between centres, with the Eco Centre in Middleton-by-Wirksworth costing £498 per learner and £1,462 in Long Eaton.

Meanwhile, the cost of the whole adult community education centre service costs £4.36 million and supports 5,973 learners with an average cost per learner of £731.

The report shows that 59 per cent of users at the Shirebrook centre are in the most deprived groups, followed by 41 per cent in Long Eaton.

It details that 22 members of staff could lose their jobs if they do not accept reallocation to a different centre, with a support package of travel compensation for the first 18 months.

The report says the majority of its tutor workforce are on “relief contracts” “with no defined contractual work base” “and therefore there is no obligation to be offered or accept work”.

It says some of these tutors may be able to claim redundancy if they have had two years of continuous service, without a break in service of more than a week.

The council has no estimate of the cost of the total associated redundancies.

It has not detailed the cost savings of the proposal, but says the closure of the centres, before sale, will be £350,000 for the current year, with no information provided of the potential profit from the sale of the properties.

The report details that three centres in Ashbourne, Middleton-by-Wirksworth and Shirebrook could be disposed of on the open market, while the option to lease the properties is retained for all but Matlock, which is listed as “lease surrender”.

It details: “If not addressed, the significant financial pressures due to reduced grant funding and increased costs may impact the Council’s ability to deliver planned learning outcomes and maintain service levels.”

The council was given £4.516 million in grant funding for these services in August, which it says is a reduction of 19 per cent (£1.285 million).

It says the decision was made by Cllr Bradley in private due to it being a “business critical decision” because of rapid changes to the grant conditions.

The council report says this move, making it seven adult community education centres closed this year, is in advance of “a full and comprehensive review of adult community education services in Derbyshire to determine a future sustainable delivery model for the academic year 2026/27 onward.”

It says this will include consultation with all stakeholders following permission from cabinet in autumn 2025.

Cllr Bradley said: “I have taken a decision to declare five properties that the Derbyshire Adult Community Education Service use surplus to the service’s requirements.

“Unfortunately the funding we have from the Government does not support the courses that we run from these venues so the service no longer needs the buildings.

“Our property team will now carefully look at all the buildings to make decisions as to what could happen with them. Those we own could be sold, or leased to other organisations. No decisions on the future of the buildings have been made.

“We have been liaising with the existing community groups and other users of these buildings so we understand their needs and the potential options for them and we will continue to keep them updated.

“Not running any courses from these five buildings future proofs the whole adult education service, puts us in a similar position to other councils, and importantly makes sure that we can afford to run the adult education service within the money we receive from the Government.

“We are not making any staff redundant, as those who have been based in these buildings will work out of our other centres.”