PEMBROKESHIRE COLLEGE has consulted with its students about the construction a news £6.6m Advanced Level Centre on its Haverfordwest campus.
However, the timescale for the consultation of learners was crammed into the five days (including a weekend) between January 28 and February 2. The College apologised for the short timescale of its consultation.
Quite why the consultation period was so short, when the statutory consultation period for young people (expressly recognised as stakeholders by the statutory guidance on schools’ reorganisation) was so truncated is not clear. Neither is it clear why the consultation period for college students has been so significantly less than that given to students at the county’s secondary schools and the information available to them reduced to an email flyer.
The responses from College students will doubtless be presented to the Council when it considers its school reorganisation plans at a meeting on Thursday February 25. It remains to be seen what weight can be attached to them given the paucity of the information provided to students and the ephemeral nature of the consultation.
As a provider hoping to benefit from public money, the College’s legal position on the consultation would hopefully be no less robust and beyond challenge than that of the local authority.
The County Council’s handling of its own consultations has been less than re-assuring in terms of competence, rigour, and transparency.
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