THE suicide of Francis McGeachie, a former faculty director of Coatbridge College, in Lanarkshire, at the height of a controversial merger was a tragedy.

As The Herald reported this week the family were devastated by his death in December 2013 and have been seeking to establish what could have been done to prevent it.

As well as seeking answers they also wanted to know whether any lessons could be learned about the merger itself to prevent such a tragedy happening in future.

In 2014 they approached Michael Russell, the Education Secretary, and he asked Alex Linkston, the chair of Forth Valley Health Board, to investigate events leading up to the creation of New College Lanarkshire.

The subsequent Linkston Report sheds light not just on the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr McGeachie, but also highlights serious issues over the governance of the college.

Mr Linkston makes a number of crucial recommendations about how staff can be better supported in future with targeted training and an alert to the Scottish Funding Council (SFC) if three or more members of a senior management team go off sick at the same time.

It is to be hoped the Scottish Government and SFC make progress on implementing those recommendations as soon as possible.

Mr Linkston also records the way voluntary severance payments for staff were handled at Coatbridge - payments currently under investigation by Holyrood’s public audit committee.

The implementation of the scheme, which saw the principal and six other members of staff share pay-outs totalling £849,842, was described by Auditor General Caroline Gardner as one of the most serious failures in governance she has ever encountered.

The Linkston Report backs this view stating: “I regard the governance surrounding the decision to agree and offer a voluntary severance package for senior staff to be very poor.

“It is not difficult to conclude the scheme was designed to reward the outgoing principal for his considerable accomplishments in turning the college around.

“However, I consider that the college..... should not regard itself as having the same freedom to determine severance packages as the private sector and that this was an error of judgement.”

But the report also helps flesh out some of the extenuating circumstances which explain why staff were given extra money and the difficult circumstances they were themselves facing.

Mr Linkston stresses senior staff “did not themselves seek or lobby” for an enhanced package and yet had to “endure all the personal animosity from having a separate deal”.

In particular, he praised Sarah-Jane Linton, a faculty director, and Derek Banks, the head of finance, who stayed on to see the merger to its conclusion after the “collapse” of the management structure.

“It is of great credit to the two senior staff who remained to carry Coatbridge through to merger and their effort were greatly appreciated by staff,” Mr Linkston states.