Parent and Carer Update
Message to Families 30 July 2026
Dear parent / carer
My goodness, the academic year has flown by and you can read all about our busy summer term in the Newsletter here.
I just needed to update you on an error in our college calendar. Our returning Further Education Students should start back on Monday 7th September (if they are normally scheduled to attend on a Monday). The date was incorrectly advised as Tuesday 8th on the calendar we sent out. I am relieved to tell you that transport is in place for Monday 7th so hopefully all the arrangements will go smoothly.
Finally, I do want to thank the parents/carers who took the time to respond to my survey on our new 5-year plan. It was very helpful to have your views and some quite detailed feedback. The main thing I detected in several responses was real anxiety about the future for your young people after Portland College with concerns about the axing of local services to support disabled people, changes to benefits and the national policy changes to the SEND system in England. A small number of respondents were doubtful about developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI).
I do think we will have to deal with a lot of changes over the next 5 years. Locally in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire we will have new local authorities in less than 2 years’ time. The national SEND reforms I believe will still leave a place for specialist colleges and schools like Portland though clearly many of you are worried about the apparent erosion of parental rights. We will continue to work in wider system partnerships to develop meaningful provision such as our Progress programme, Portland Pathways and Newstart community outreach which all have role to play in supporting disabled adults in the East Midlands. I hope that a change of Prime Minister will create new opportunities such as social care reform which is so badly needed and a rethink on some of the benefits changes.
I can reassure you on the AI point that the systems we are working on at Portland are purchased, closed systems where we control the data and it doesn’t go out to the world wide web.
Please take the time to read our latest Summer Newsletter which highlights some of the fantastic stories that have come from across the college over the last term. Click here to read.
Despite all the uncertainty in the country, and indeed the world, right now I remain optimistic and committed to working hard for brighter futures for disabled people, including my own two boys.
I do hope you have a chance to enjoy the summer, between heatwaves.
Best wishes
Mark Dale
Group CEO