Job cuts have been announced at a school run by an educational trust which has just appointed a chief executive who suddenly left his role at another trust.
The ECHO has been reporting on the situation surrounding Tom Quinn, who suddenly departed from his role at St John Plessington Catholic College in Bebington, Wirral - and his role as boss of the trust running the school.
Mr Quinn was followed out of the door by his operations director and the school's chair of governors - but just a week later he was announced as the new chief executive of the Frank Field Educational Trust (FFET).
Today it has been revealed that jobs will be cut at one of the schools run by FFET - the Ellesmere Port Church of England College.
School bosses have written to all staff to request volunteers for redundancy.
Unions were informed about the news last night.
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The college was taken on by the FFET after previously being run by the University of Chester Academies Trust (UCAT).
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UCAT was closed down in 2018 because of financial difficulties and parents, pupils and staff were told Mr Field's trust would bring stability to the college.
Unison says that assurance is now being cast into doubt after the shock news of looming redundancies.
Keith Bradley, regional organiser for UNISON, the union that represents support staff in schools, said: "This is a very worrying development for staff, parents and students. Staffing levels need to be maintained in order for pupils to receive a high quality education.
“We have requested detailed financial information from FFET as it is not clear that these redundancies are necessary. We are very concerned that FFET have expressed an intention to undertake further restructuring even after these voluntary redundancies are made. FFET need to come clean about their financial situation and their future plans.
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“Pupils, parents and staff have been through this before when UCAT ran the school. It is not right that the future of young people in Ellesmere Port can be jeopardised by the financial circumstances of these academy trust chains. The experience here brings into doubt the stability and fairness of the whole academy programme. We need high quality schools that are accountable to local communities.”
News of problems at Ellesmere Port C of E college comes hot on the heels of the drama at St John Plessington, where two separate investigations were launched in and around the time of Mr Quinn's sudden departure.
One of those investigations is understood to be focusing on a budget black hole of hundreds of thousands of pounds - while an outside human resources company has also been brought in to investigate bullying complaints.
Responding, Frank Field MP said: "The school was running, before the Frank Field Education Trust took it over, at a £2 million pounds a year loss.
"We met the unions soon after it was transferred to our trust, in December 2018, and they agreed that a restructuring would have to take place as a result of the previous poor financial management.”
