WEST Somerset's largest school is undergoing a major staff restructuring in a bid to bridge a £700,000-plus financial black hole. Both teaching and support staff at the West Somerset College in Minehead are affected by the changes, which will result in redundancies. But deputy principal Hannah Enticott told the Free Press this week that the aim was to avoid compulsory redundancies and achieve the reduction through natural wastage, early retirement, voluntary redundancy and voluntary redeployment. "We are on target to do this," she said. The process is likely to be concluded and the number of redundancies known by the end of June, with a special information evening for parents expected to take place shortly afterwards. The college is blaming the funding crisis on two issues - a decline in student numbers and a worse than expected reduction in national funding. Ms Enticott the college had received details of its funding for 2014/15 at the end of March. The falling student role had been known about for some time and the college had already undertaken a series of cost saving measures in preparation for the expected reduction in funding changes post 16 and the reduction in numbers pre-16 due to a decreasing birth rate. "Despite the planning and action in place to limit the impact of decreasing funding levels, focused on reducing costs in non-teaching areas, it has been necessary to invoke the redundancy procedure for a number of staff groups, including teachers and support staff," said Ms Enticott. She said the plan to address falling numbers had been in place. However, the impact of the change in funding formula had been worse than expected and more immediate actions had been required to bridge the shortfall. More than £500,000 of the shortfall is related to pre-16 funding, with around £200,000 related to post 16 students. "Both these drops in funding are as a direct result of changes to funding formulas at a national level," said Ms Enticott. "It is the intention to avoid compulsory redundancy wherever possible and we are working with all staff to identify areas of savings to prevent the loss of staff roles. "Providing the best quality teaching and learning is the priority for the college and, whilst any reduction in staffing is challenging, there are also significant opportunities to improve the experience and support provided to students and teachers at this time." But one parent, who asked not to be named, told the Free Press this week that she understood the funding shortfall was nearer £800,000. And she said she believed principal Gaynor Comber, who took over from Nick Swann almost two years ago, director of finance and services Graham Carne and the board of governors should bear some responsibility for the current situation. "I cannot believe that they were unaware of the situation developing," she said. "Good financial planning will allow schools to budget accordingly. "Budget cuts are ongoing but good monitoring by bursars and governors should mitigate their impact. "I am sure the Government has not suddenly announced revised funding at the last minute - if it had, then surely most other educational establishments in our community would be facing similar issues. "This situation must have an impact on the children. I am a concerned parent and member of the community and I don't want to see our once wonderful college decline any further."