Schools closure - the guidance
The latest exchange of correspondence between the Comhairle and the Scottish Government is entertaining, and it is obviously such a hot potato that Fiona Hyslop has passed it onto a junior minister to get her out of the mess they find themselves in.
Having realised that centralised Soviet style control has certain implications for other decisions elsewhere in Scotland, the back-tracking is something to behold. The Government now accept that the decisions - shock! horror! - now lie with the Comhairle, and that all the elements affecting the decision are interlinked.
Morag Munro, in her letter to her fellow Councillors, quiet rightly puts the boot in:
We have now also receive a further letter from the Cabinet Secretary regarding School closures accompanied by Guidance which first appeared in 2004 and which she has re-issued. I cannot resist copying one paragraph of the re-issued Guidance to you
Scottish Ministers’ Roll and Statutory Responsibilities
20 In all cases the final decision rests with the education authority as to how to fulfil its statutory duties, including such decisions as whether to close, merge or change the site of a school. It is not the role of Ministers to second guess decisions taken by an authority or to act as some sort of ‘appeal court’ for those who disagree with a Council’s decision. Ministers could never be in possession of all the local facts and ‘intelligence’ that informs a Council decision such as would enable them somehow to re run or re take the Council’s decision. Despite widespread assumptions to the contrary, Ministers have no locus to, and cannot interfere or intervene in Council proposals for and decisions on school changes or closures beyond their defined role in cases where the Council decision must be referred for Ministerial consent
Presumably our MSP will now quietly withdraw his attempts to undermine the Comhairle, and work with the Comhairle in the best interests of the Western Isles.
Having realised that centralised Soviet style control has certain implications for other decisions elsewhere in Scotland, the back-tracking is something to behold. The Government now accept that the decisions - shock! horror! - now lie with the Comhairle, and that all the elements affecting the decision are interlinked.
Morag Munro, in her letter to her fellow Councillors, quiet rightly puts the boot in:
We have now also receive a further letter from the Cabinet Secretary regarding School closures accompanied by Guidance which first appeared in 2004 and which she has re-issued. I cannot resist copying one paragraph of the re-issued Guidance to you
Scottish Ministers’ Roll and Statutory Responsibilities
20 In all cases the final decision rests with the education authority as to how to fulfil its statutory duties, including such decisions as whether to close, merge or change the site of a school. It is not the role of Ministers to second guess decisions taken by an authority or to act as some sort of ‘appeal court’ for those who disagree with a Council’s decision. Ministers could never be in possession of all the local facts and ‘intelligence’ that informs a Council decision such as would enable them somehow to re run or re take the Council’s decision. Despite widespread assumptions to the contrary, Ministers have no locus to, and cannot interfere or intervene in Council proposals for and decisions on school changes or closures beyond their defined role in cases where the Council decision must be referred for Ministerial consent
Presumably our MSP will now quietly withdraw his attempts to undermine the Comhairle, and work with the Comhairle in the best interests of the Western Isles.
1 comment:
"Presumably our MSP will now quietly withdraw his attempts to undermine the Comhairle, and work with the Comhairle in the best interests of the Western Isles."
And pigs might fly. I think AA sees this as his next election non promise hoping that RET and windfarm referendum's go away.
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