STAFF at a historic college for disabled people face losing their jobs after the Government axed residential training funding.

Finchale Training College, a registered charity which has been helping people with disabilities find work for more than 70 years, will lose around £2m under the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) shake-up.

The college, in Brasside, near Durham will cease to be residential and 19 of its 48 staff are at risk of redundancy.

Principal David Etheridge said he greatly regretted the impact of the overhaul on staff who had given many years of valued service.

The college was founded as a rehabilitation centre for injured military veterans after the Second World War and war hero Richard “Dickie” Annand, who won the British Army’s first Victoria Cross of the conflict, worked there for 31 years until his retirement in 1979. The college’s main building was later renamed in his honour.

The facility continues to be best known for its military links, including to Phoenix House Recovery Centre at Catterick, North Yorkshire – although Dr Etheridge stressed its veterans’ services are separately funded and not affected by the cutbacks.

The DWP is switching from residential training to community-based support for disabled people.

It spent £18m on residential training in 2009-10 but that has fallen in recent years and from September will be entirely replaced by the Specialist Employability Support (SES) programme, which the DWP says will support 1,700 disabled people a year and help 1,250 into work over the first two years.

Finchale had around 140 students last year, 80 of whom were residential. Its bid to become a “prime provider” of SES failed, but college bosses still hope to secure sub-contracting work.

For the 19 staff at risk of losing their jobs, five alternative posts have been found so far. The redundancy process will be completed by the end of August.

The college hopes to let or rent out its newly redundant residential accommodation, although it must do so within its charitable status.

Dr Etheridge said: “We’re having to re-think and re-position ourselves. The market has changed and we need to change too.

“We very much regret the impact of these Government changes on our staff. We’re doing our best to find any opportunities to reduce the impact.

“There are many new opportunities to allow Finchale to continue to fulfil its mission of supporting unemployed people with disabilities and complex barriers to work. Finchale will continue, albeit delivering in a different way.”

Announcing the SES in March, Mark Harper, the minister for disabled people, said it would open up more places for disabled people and more choice in how they access support.