The FE Commissioner will intervene in one of the country’s last surviving adult residential colleges after the government found “serious” cashflow pressures.
Richmond and Hillcroft Adult and Community College (RHACC), which teaches around 7,000 learners in south-west London, was issued a financial notice to improve by the Department for Education.
The intervention follows financial strains that include a near-£1.8 million DfE clawback, unsold campus sites and crippling country-wide cuts to adult education funding.
Leaders will be required to submit rolling cashflow forecasts to new FE Commissioner Ellen Thinnesen as well as plans to make staff savings and reviews of its curriculum.
The college incurred a deficit of £436,000 in 2025, a financial health grade of ‘requires improvement’, and £160,000 of unrestricted cash, according to its latest accounts.
RHACC’s chair Sharon Raj vowed in the accounts that the college’s cash balance would not fall below £100,000 and it would improve its unrestricted cash position. But she added the college was still reviewing staff and funded course cuts to offset drops in potential income from tuition fees.
Pressures on RHACC’s cash balances stem partly from a strict repayment schedule with the DfE, which made a £1,799,485 erroneous payment to the college in 2017.
Additionally, leaders had secured £5 million from Greater London Authority to redevelop its Hillcroft campus into a community learning hub, but the project collapsed in 2024 after planning permission for the residential element fell through.
The GLA is now clawing back around £45,000 of the £200,865 claimed to date for the project.
The college was banking on the sale of the campus to stabilise its finances and repay the remaining £200,000 owed to the DfE, according to its accounts, but the site still appears to be unsold.
The college has also anticipated “significant” funding reductions from its main funders, the GLA and DfE.
RHACC had received a flat rate of £5,088,948 in adult skills funding from the GLA for the past three years. London officials have indicated they will cut individual provider allocations by 1.65 per cent from 2025-26 due to a reduction in the overall ASF allocation it receives from the DfE.
College board minutes from last July show the GLA will slash funding by around £81,000 each year for the next two years.
Additionally, the college was locked out of extra cash from the DfE to help fund college staff pay rises last year because officials distributed the money through 16-to-18 funding.
RHACC and the GLA were contacted for comment.
A Richmond Council spokesperson said: “The council has not been approached either by the college or the GLA and therefore we regard this as a matter between those parties to resolve.
“RHACC’s provision remains very important to the borough, and we hope that the current financial challenges can be resolved so these communities continue to be served.”
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