Closed school, not actually closed
The revelation by Hebrides News that Bayble School was never properly 'closed' is as unbelievably shocking as it is predictable.
There has been some 5 years of detailed discussion on the process for the new school, involving consultations, which have had to be re-run. Reports by HMIE to the Scottish Government about the processes, and a protracted exercise to see how the new staffing structure could work.
Only that somewhere along the way, someone failed to ensure the legal procedures were properly adhered to.
Who, how and when are the three simple questions that need to be answered, and the culprits properly disciplined. This failure is going to cost the Council huge amounts in time, effort and additional work that shouldn't need to be done, and which is only going to cause extra stress to parents, teachers and pupils before it is sorted.
To give the public any confidence that there is the most basic levels of competency in the Council in expediting decisions, then we need to have a detailed public statement about what went wrong and why.
To many failures are being brushed under the carpet, and too many are avoiding any scrutiny.
Whilst we might want a zero error level, reality is that we will never achieve that. But when mistakes of this scale happen, Councillors need to find out why; and take the appropriate steps to stop them happening again.
Are any Councillors prepared to take those steps?
There has been some 5 years of detailed discussion on the process for the new school, involving consultations, which have had to be re-run. Reports by HMIE to the Scottish Government about the processes, and a protracted exercise to see how the new staffing structure could work.
Only that somewhere along the way, someone failed to ensure the legal procedures were properly adhered to.
Who, how and when are the three simple questions that need to be answered, and the culprits properly disciplined. This failure is going to cost the Council huge amounts in time, effort and additional work that shouldn't need to be done, and which is only going to cause extra stress to parents, teachers and pupils before it is sorted.
To give the public any confidence that there is the most basic levels of competency in the Council in expediting decisions, then we need to have a detailed public statement about what went wrong and why.
To many failures are being brushed under the carpet, and too many are avoiding any scrutiny.
Whilst we might want a zero error level, reality is that we will never achieve that. But when mistakes of this scale happen, Councillors need to find out why; and take the appropriate steps to stop them happening again.
Are any Councillors prepared to take those steps?
2 comments:
It would also be interesting to see if there is public confirmation (from the highest levels) that all the other consultations which have taken place (both for the Schools Project and other purposes)are legally correct. Or if any flaws can be discovered in them.
Someone should step up to the plate here. That's what they're paid for.
I take it that last question was rhetorical? Although there are a handfull of good ones the majority of Councillors are at best incompetent, some criminally so, and at worst recklessly corrupt. In the real world, an optomistic two minutes is about all they would last. As we all know, to err is human but most folk learn from their mistakes - this bunch just keep doing it over and over again!
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