This guide outlines the skills help that is available to employers and learners in the third sector to improve skills of the workforce. The guide applies to paid and unpaid staff and it is relevant to volunteers. It recognises that for volunteers it may be a route into a paid job.
The Children’s Secretary, Ed Balls, has suggested shared management teams and joint procurement could be used to reduce costs.
Mr Balls has proposed cutting the schools budget by £2 billion, around 5% of the total. But he stressed the importance of preserving frontline teaching jobs. Instead he proposes cutting administrators, and senior school staff such as head teachers, deputies, assistant heads and heads of departments.
To do this, schools would be urged to join together in ‘federations’. The Children’s Secretary told the Sunday Times: “You might have a head teacher and a team of deputy heads working across the different schools, but we are not going to have larger class sizes.”
About 3,000 senior school jobs could be cut, mainly through “natural wastage”, saving the department about £250m a year. Meanwhile 300 civil servants employed to advise schools on the curriculum are also likely to go, saving £100m. Whitehall officials have also suggested that encouraging more joint procurement by schools could cut up to 10% of their spending on equipment, facilities, insurance and energy.
The proposals have split teaching unions, with NASUWT head Chris Keates backing the targeting of a “proliferation” of heads and deputies who worked as administrators not teachers. However, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) has responded by suggesting that the flagship academies programme should be scrapped instead.
Mick Brookes, general secretary of The National Association of Head Teachers, said that the quantity of bureaucracy and regulations imposed on schools by the government had to stop if head teachers were to get away from “form-filling” to spend more time with children.
Mr Brookes said: “The impression he gives is that head teachers are among the ‘bureaucrats’ who can be replaced. We’re looking for him to get his own house in order before criticising school leadership.”
The Scottish Parliament is expecting a record number of people at a meeting in Alness today. The Parliament’s Petitions Committee will be the first Scottish Parliament committee to meet in the town, in Ross-shire, when it holds a meeting at Alness Academy.
The Petitions Committee receives all public petitions made to the Parliament and decides what action should be taken on them. Options include writing to the Scottish Government, a local council, or other public bodies asking what action they will take. It is a key way for Scots to raise concerns with their MSPs.
More than 100 primary and secondary school children from Alness, Dingwall, Invergordon and Dornoch are expected to attend the meeting, as well as interested members of the public.
Petititions being considered include calls for better out of hours GP cover in remote area, safety measures on the A96, and free public transport for young people. Two Alness Academy pupils will present their petitions, one calling for blood donors to be paid, and the other asking that funding for school trips does not disadvantage young people in more remote and rural areas of Scotland.
Frank McAveety, the committee’s Convener (chair), said: “It looks as if we will break all records for public attendance, which is great news.
“We hope everyone from members of the public, community groups and school children come along to watch a committee of their Parliament at work and take part in a question-and-answer session with committee MSPs about petitions, what the Parliament does and how to engage with it.”
Read more on SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE BREAKS NEW GROUND…
Information has been brought together to help people facing difficulties from the recession. Real help now (realhelpnow.gov.uk) provides information and news about the support that’s available and where to go for help.
The Scottish Government will protect frontline services, despite having the first real terms cut in its budget since devolution, according Scotland’s Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney. But he has been strongly criticised for cancelling a rail link for Glasgow Airport.
The government has issued data showing carbon emissions for each local authority area in the UK and said that councils are key to addressing climate change. According to the figures the UK’s overall CO2 emissions dropped by 2% between 2005 and 2007, and emissions have fallen in 335 out of the 434 local authorities in the UK.
By Dr Alex Horne
Mental health services are undergoing change with the creation of more foundation trusts. This change has brought a need for business intelligence so that information is available on care delivered, the outcomes and the financial costs. The author explains how business intelligence can give clinicians a more comprehensive understanding of the care delivered, empowering them to make more meaningful decisions, and to work more closely with commissioners to shape future healthcare delivery.
Read more on SUPPORTING CLINICAL LEADERSHIP IN MENTAL HEALTH…
A senior police officer has joined criticisms of a proposed scheme for vetting adults who volunteer to work with children. Sir Hugh Orde, the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the scheme was a ‘blunt instrument’ and he warned that police forces might end up paying outside agencies to check their own intelligence if the scheme goes ahead.
Read more on TOP POLICE OFFICER RAISES CONCERNS OVER VETTING SCHEME…
A new national learning network on sustainable social care has been launched as a means of strengthening the sector. It has been established by the Local Government Information Unit and is sponsored by the Social Care Institute for Excellence and the Department of Health.
Read more on ‘GROUND BREAKING’ LEARNING NETWORK AIMS TO STRENGTHEN CARE SECTOR…
By Bill George
The author draws from his own in-the-trenches experience and lessons from leaders who have weathered tough storms.
With straight talk and clear directions, George shows leaders specifically what they must do to become strong leaders and survive any crisis. His seven lessons include: Face Reality, Starting with Yourself; Never Waste a Good Crisis; and Be Aggressive: This is Your Best Chance to Win.
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