Eats shoots and leaves

The SNP advert on Hebrides News seems to be advocating communal leasing.... 

Hopefully, the education policy is to a higher standard of literacy.

Eriskay School

These poor parents in Eriskay must be confused about the actual status of the school closure, er... discussion, er... consultation, er... whatever, er...nothing at all

According to the Bleader's Log (as it is affectionately called in the Executive Corridor), the initial discussion about the school, was not a discussion about the School in Eriskay but a discussion with the community about education provision in Eriskay, that may or may not included a discussion - and most definitely not a consultation - about the school in Eriskay.

Further clarification of the clarification makes it perfectly clear that the planned discussions weren't going to happen anyway.  At least not in the terms that were previously de-announced.

That this contradicts the position taken by the Comhairle at it's last meeting, and reiterated in private at the COSLA Meeting, and explained to Members as the outcome of the COSLA decision is neither here nor there.  I saw some of the detail last week from the unusual sources.

As the Bleader puts it:

Parents deserve to have the correct information.

Perhaps an FOI to see the internal emails and discussion might help the parents have the correct information.

Make no mistake, education provision in the islands needs reform - that's code for rationalisation, or closures - unless the birth rate picks up dramatically, but the least the Council can do is be honest about it and point out that the absence of kids is not conducive to the continued existence of a school.

The moratorium might not be right, or fair, or economically advantageous, as far as the Council is concerned, but the Government wield the big big, big stick and sometimes a different approach is required.

(Declaration of interest: I first went to Eriskay about 1975, and I loved the place.  Even just driving through it is blissful.)

Rural school closures

"It isn't about money" says both the Councils and the Minister.

Fibbers.

It is precisely about money, whether they like to admit it or not.

The Comhairle has committed the cash they expect to save to other projects.  The Minister hasn't got the cash to bung Councils a further subsidy.

The proposed resolution from the Minister - "find the savings elsewhere".  To which the Councils pose the simple question - "Where?"

With COSLA backing the Councils, or more accurately, the Councils united on the issue, we have a Mexican stand-off, with the added twist that the Minister has already admitted the current legislation is flawed and he may not be able to stop closures.

I suspect that the Council will any legal action, but that the Minister will then string out taking decisions until new legislation is in place; leading to a last minute compromise of 'cash for schools'.

And for added spice, our local MSP has already announced that he is going to have nothing to do with the decisions, leaving schools campaigners out on their own.

The islands are littered with empty schools; perhaps if we found a way to fill them with pupils, we wouldn't need to have this debate.

Accomodation for the mainland contractors

From the planning application....

The announcement that the schools contractors are going to be housed in a temporary 'hostel' and the airport, due to the lack of available bedspace, comes as now surprise to local B&Bs, Guest Houses and Hotels.

With bookings in most areas for this summer up significantly and current occupancy rates for some of the providers running at virtually 100%, the need to house all the contractors and sub-contractors on the new schools project was starting to cause serious problems.

Some of the accommodation providers were starting to worry about the conflicting demands on their limited space.  With stories of sub-contractors not paying and others trying to renegotiate after they had taken the bed nights, the potential for conflict was quite high.  Indeed, some providers had already prioritised the short holiday season, rather than the longer, but more uncertain, schools contract.

But it needn't have been so.

About 2/3 years ago the local tourism providers met with the Council to discuss contingency plans for the possibility of a large number of external contractors coming in to fulfil the schools contract.  The concept was to provide long term guaranteed bookings at sharp prices, but which would allow some providers to develop more bed space.

The Council response was to deny that any off-island contractors might be involved.  Ever.  End of story.  Go away.

This takes me back to an earlier post about the Council facilitating private sector growth.  The Council doesn't need to control, manage or approve the developments, but it does need to act in such a way that the private sector is not impeded.

In this instance, by simple advance contingency planning we could have had bigger and better accommodation available over a longer season to more tourists; employing more locals and putting more money in local pockets.

But then the Council knew best about the schools, didn't it?

Information for Councillors

Did you know that you are expected to approve the creation of a Gaelic school at Sandwick at the coming series of meetings?

No you didn't because it is going to be presented to you as a fait accompli at a coming meeting.

Sources in Sandwick told me a few weeks back that the staff had already been told that the school was (not might, subject to consultation and Councillor approval) being turned into a Gaelic Medium school for the greater Stornoway area.

Today I received a copy of the informal and unbinding unannounced non-consultation about the proposed possible maybe perhaps changes to the catchment areas for Laxdale and Stornoway Primary.  However, the heading of the letter included references to Sandwick which were totally absent from the body of the letter.

As a give away, the pdf from the Education Department was entitled "Sty Pri and Laxdale catchment Gaelic school" and issued by the Director.

Now you know how you are expected to think and vote, so as not to upset the decisions already taken on your behalf to create a Gaelic ghetto.

No fee will be charged for this information.

Schools building project

Irrespective of the merits or demerits of FMP as the contractors to the schools project, for the Comhairle to deny that they had anything to do with the selection of the nature of the contract, and to try to highlight the negligible benefits to the local contractors in the grand scheme of things is disingenuous at best and downright insulting at worst.

Let me make this clear for the umpteenth time - and I know what happened because I was there and saw the disaster unfold in the private discussions which precluded public comment - the decision to have one huge contract was a joint decision of the Scottish Government and the Comhairle.

The (previous Labour) Government defined the scheme as being one that needed to go out as one package to attract the best price.  The Comhairle agreed in outline to the terms as it was the only way that it could be afforded under the finance made available.  A scheme was drawn up to bridge the gap, which led to the need for school closures and savings in the education department budget.

I could never get detailed financials, as the cost of running them through the model that we weren't allowed to understand was prohibitive.  But all these costs (£2m for accountants alone IIRC) were paid by the Government .... when they could have gone to funding the gap and keeping schools open. (This was a significant factor in my decision not to stand again in 2007, as colleagues will confirm)

The incoming SNP Government made clear that the financial package was the same, by which time the Comhairle were almost committed to the project and the single (non-island) contractor by virtue of the timescale, project size and financial complexity.

It could have been parcelled out - we had those discussions - but the Government set the parameters that prevented this and the Comhairle never fought that corner as hard as it could.

I would have more respect if the Comhairle made this position clear, rather than claiming nebulous benefits spinning off FMP, whilst the Economic Development Dept try to encourage the circulation of cash in the local economy.

Of course, there is the issue of delivery on time; build quality; and other construction factors that won't be evident until long after the buildings are complete, and we must factor that into the equation.

But the gratuitous insults to the local construction industry and the short-term damage to the local economy will take a long time to be recovered from.

And the smell of BS from the White House reaches across the Atlantic and poisons my nostrils.

On May 5 remember that it's not this Government or the last Government or the Comhairle, but all three together, that have created the financial maelstrom that has closed businesses and schools. 

Staying on the education theme....

Stoneybridge School has apparently reopened.

Normally, this would be the source of some joy in the local community, but I understand that it has been opened to accommodate one young pupil from Lionacleit.  That is one young, but very disruptive, pupil.

To meet the needs of this pupil, 4 adults are required on site to provide the education and provide security for each other.  Plus the cost of the building.  This must be probably the most expensive pupil in the UK.

Assuming that neither the entire cohort of teachers in Lionacleit, nor the very expensive management can control this child, then whatever happened to good old-fashioned suspension or expulsion?

Are the inevitable social workers demanding that the child be pandered to, rather than being made to face up to the result of his actions?

Either way, isn't all this attention going to encourage the other children to do one better?

There are rarely easy answers in education, but there seem always to be lots that could should be more easily resolved.

Castlebay School

And still the problems mount up.

I was told last week about another subject where exam results were very, very, much less than satisfactory. 

It surely cannot be true that the prelim results in music were so bad, that the school have decided to claim that none of the pupils actually sat the exam. 

I understand why they have done so - because a very poor mark won't help any children with borderline results in the final exam.

But, was is the root cause of the succession of educational failures in this school?  And what is being done to resolve them?

It could be your kids next, in another school, and I am sure that you would want the Comhairle to urgently take serious action.... 

School closures; a different way

My visit to Uist resulted in lots of very useful information, pointers and general rumour. 

Sometimes some facts come my attention that were quite unexpected.

With all the conflict in Lewis over the closure of schools on a scale that hasn't been seen since a similar exercise happened in Uist, it was intriguing to hear about about a parental view that was just that bit more nuanced.

Normally the pupils at Carinish would go to Paible school for their secondary education.

I am told, by one of the parents, that all P7 pupils have elected to go to Sgoil Lionacleit instead, effectively precipitating the closure of Paibleas there will only be one pupil in Secondary 1 in the coming year.

The reasons are many, but appear to focus on the large class sizes and the opportunities to mix.  Apparently some of the pupils have had the same teacher - and only the one teacher - for their entire primary education, which cannot be good when the rest of us have had to appreciate and endure the teaching vagaries of the excellent, the vague, the criminally insane and the dangerously neurotic occupants of the staff room.

The parents believe that a bigger school will deliver more opportunities and will secure the future of Sgoil Lionacleit with bigger and better facilities.

Are they right, or are the Lewis parents who reject that view right?  I suspect that in the long run the Uist parents are right, painful as that might be for the local communities.

Life is never that black and white, and making difficult decisions is never easy, but you have to appreciate that parents can sometimes take a seemingly perverse view for all the right reasons.  Kudos to all the parents for doing the best for their children.

How little does a school weigh?

Sources close to the schools project have told me that the recycling rate on the entire project is even higher than you might have thought.

The table below is, I am very, very, reliably informed is the current recycling rate on the schools project.

School	Waste Material (Tonnes)	CnES Landfill (Tonnes)	Recycle Rate
Nicolson Institute	39349	73	99.8%
SES	13604	64	99.5%
Balivanich PS	2.3	0.3	87%
Point PS	10164	0	100%
West Side PS	-	-	-

These figures are much more than impressive and hopefully the hard work - and detailed planning - will be noticed and appreciated by the wider public.

How much does a school weigh?

Sometimes there is amazing good news to break, and the answer to the question contains surprising information that requires wider dissemination.

In the case of Springfield South - the Pink School - the answer is 2,500 tonnes.

Astonishingly, I am told that the contractors have managed to recycle all but under 50 tonnes of the rubble; with less than 2% going to landfill.

The rest - slates, window frames, steel and old maths jotters - have all been reused in one form or another.

That is an astonishing rate of recycling, and I understand that some of the other schools may actually have a HIGHER reuse rate.

This deserves wider publicity, loud plaudits and sincere hopes that local contractors can absorb the methodology and up their performance accordingly.

How the trickle down effect works. In reality.

The local construction industry met with the Comhairle last week to discuss the projects that were to be put out to tender in the coming 12 months.

The list of £17m of construction works, errrr, not ready for the meeting, so the Council representatives read out parts of the list.  Which, as was vocally pointed out, was largely the same list as last year that never actually emerged.

The very dissatisfied construction representatives were very (to put it mildly) unhappy, and in the absence of the "good news"  they were summoned to hear, they turned their fire on the Council and the new schools project.

"Every Councillor", they were assured, "Wants to see as much work as possible coming to local contractors", said the Leader.

However, practical advice from a Director was rather blunter.  "Concentrate on trying to win work for the 30-year management contract."

As one contractor bluntly put it:

£50 million of capital expenditure yet to be spent on the buildings, and we are being told by the Comhairle not to even bother trying to win this work, as we aren't going to get it.

School (non-)closures

The campaigners in Sheilibost, Carloway, Lionel and Shawbost will rightly be very, very, pleased at the decision to stop the planned closure.

I, however, have much more ambivalent feelings towards the decision, and particularly the context in which it has been taken.

The Council was encouraged, nay instructed, by the current and previous Scottish Governments that the only way forward for new educational provision in the islands was to have the associated closures which justified, and funded, the new build programme.

We now have the situation where we are paying for new empty school buildings that are currently being built, as well as for the maintenance of the existing schools, as sum supposedly of around £1m extra per annum.

I'm not going to play the game of "the schools were saved, but we have had to close an old folks home",  but with the sums involved, I suspect that any reprieve will be temporary.

So why do we have the situation where one arm of Government drives the juggernaut that is the schools programme forward under certain conditions, while another part of the Government Education Department imposes differing and contradictory conditions?

It's a mess, it's a shambles, and we are the ones paying for it.

School closures (or not)

As I predicted some of the school closures have been called in, and as I also predicted, the terms of the call in are vague and offer little hope to the campaigners.

Look at the thrusting leadership from the Minister:

Mr Russell said closures must always be taken by those with the best knowledge of local circumstances.

But he added: "My role is not to retake a democratically-taken decision but to ensure that a robust consultation process was properly followed and the educational benefits of these decisions are clear."

In other words, look at the process again and have another vote before coming to a decision.  No threat or promise of a veto, just a series of iterations of the consultations until they are acceptable to the Minister.  Acceptable process that is. 

And this is likely to happen just before the Holyrood elections, if my timetable is right.

This would give the Council the opportunity to give a good kicking to the MSP for his failure to engage in the process, and his support of the SNP ahead of the best interests of the Western Isles on a number of issues.

Which will be fun to observe.

But let us again stand back on this whole issue and look at the calamitous failure to have a rural policy that delivers anything.

The new schools were given the go ahead only on the back of the Council finding it's share of the funding gap by closing a series of schools.  This was approved by the Minister, and all the funding was calculated, approved, paid and celebrated in numerous Government press releases over the past 5 years.

Now the Government is trying to backtrack on the implications of its decision when it realises what it has done.  Only to find that it doesn't actually have the power to stop what it has set in train.  Only delay it slightly.

And when you look at specific areas, you will see that the West Harris Trust have received large sums of Government money to buy the estate and develop the area.  All acclaimed by large and numerous Government press releases.  A large part of the rationale behind the buyout was the retention of children, at Sheilibost School, to grow the population in the area.  A school that the Government has already tacitly agreed must close to justify the new school in Tarbert.

Ooops, anyone see the logic in what is being done?

Actually, I think that Sheilibost might just survive because the buy-out having happened so recently, but I'm not holding my breath.

Now, would anyone like to remind us what the MP and MSP promised us about education provision in the islands and in the rural communities?


(I would normally, but I'm away and haven't got the time at the moment)

Education funding

If you want to understand the impact of the cuts in front-line educational services, then you need look no further than Stornoway Primary today, where the school did not have enough money to provide Christmas crackers for the kids' Christmas lunch today.

Over 40% of the Council's revenue budget goes on Education, and yet there is still not enough money for such a minor item.

Education is not underfunded, but front-line teaching definitely is. 

The biggest single cost - staffing - is largely outwith the control of the Council and solely the remit of the Scottish Government, and this is not being addressed.  The consequence is almost unsackable staff - however incompetent - conserved salaries even where there isn't any need for staff; and a staffing structure that prevents new teachers gaining jobs. 

Ally this to an administrative structure that seems to be there to administer the administrative system and make endless statistical returns to Government, and you should be able to make significant savings.  If the political will was there.

And the Headteachers have to manage inadequate sums, that are being cut to fund the administrative demands.

Nicolson Institute problems

I've had nothing but negative comments about the school, or more accurately the education system in the Western Isles, since I raised the issues about the quality of education in the Nicolson.

I am now told, by someone who should know, that there is a major drugs problem in the school that is not being addressed by the teachers or management.  It is unclear whether that is due to their ignorance of the situation, or their unwillingness to tackle the principle principal offenders, or indeed whether it is being deliberately ignored in the hope it would go away.

Irrespective, there appear to be a smallish number of pupils with seemingly unlimited access to anything and everything, operating unfettered just below the surface.  Whilst their fellow pupils seem to aware of what is happening, there seems to be no restrictions or secrecy around their activities.

Thankfully, the vast majority of pupils seem to be unaffected by this.

Perhaps I am overstating the extent of the problem, but there clearly is a problem that needs to be dealt with.

Schools and education

I have a long term interest in Education in the Western Isles for the very simple and selfish reason that we have three children using the system, and we want to see the best for them at every level.

As regular readers will know, I have been disturbed by some aspects of current and future educational provision in the islands.  That's not just about teaching methods, subject choices or physical structures, but about how all these elements and more fit together to give every child the best possible chance in life.

Some of the fixtures in the Council offices have preferred to interpret this as personal criticism, because that's easier to ignore, whilst others have tried to actually find solutions.

Sitting here in Edinburgh, with our children unable to reach their school and nursery, I have had a chance to reflect on the overall provision in the islands.

I am not happy to have been proved right about Castlebay School, where I was the only one to give voice to concerns of pupils, teachers and parents, but in classic gagging mode, the Council tried to shoot the messenger rather than respond to the message, until it was way too late.

It can't be a matter of resources - as 42% of the Council budget goes on Education - but is obviously one of management, direction and guidance from on high.

At this point, let's pause to consider how this is going to improve if all the schools earmarked for closure and the new schools and the increased number of teachers have less and less of the pie to actually provide education, without some fundamental changes to the way education is organised and delivered. Or alternatively, if our MSP can get some more very large sums of money from the Government.  Something that doesn't appear to be on any agenda at the moment.

It is with great disappointment, worry and concern for the future, that I am starting to receive reports that parts of the Nicolson Institute may be suffering from exactly the same problems that have beset Castlebay, and that there is a failure of management to respond or deal with the concerns of parents.

I'm starting to get the feel of a dysfunctional organisation slowly collapsing under the weight of it's own consultations were ticking boxes, developing courses that pupils aren't able to attain and with no clear strategic approach.  All the decisions are giving the impression of being knee-jerk reactions to immediate events.

This is not being helped by the lack of clear, consistent, support from Councillors.  The hokey-cokey of closure-retention by some of our representatives is nothing short of disgraceful.  How Morag Munro has kept her sanity is beyond me.

Of course, the SNP Group might be able to find the funds to keep some of the rural schools open, but all this will do is put a very expensive elastoplast on a festering sore.  It is not the time for easy decisions, but it is the time for the right decisions to ensure that the pupils are being educated, and not simply attending schools.

A void in search of a policy

Remember way, way back in 2009 when the bill to protect rural schools was launched to great fanfare?

The SNP Government has today launched plans to protect Scotland's rural schools from closure. [...]

Dr Allan, who has campaigned successfully against rural school closures in the Western Isles (I think that this might be a fib) said; “I believe that access to a local school is particularly important in rural communities, not least in places like the Western Isles, where schools are at the very heart of a community.

"This bill will help enshrine that principle in law and I am pleased that it is an SNP Government which is delivering this policy.

 Roll forward to a fortnight ago when the protection offered by the bill was unveiled to an unsuspecting public.

Alasdair Allan MSP said he would back the community’s submission asking the Scottish Government to call-in the Carloway closure.

So, the protection of the "heart of the community" now extends to backing a letter asking the Government to do something.  Is this what passes for successful campaigning?

It certainly isn't leadership.

Today, we see the press releases which talks up what was actually written (if anyone has a copy of the original, please send it on);

Western Isles SNP MSP, Alasdair Allan, has written to Education Secretary, Michael Russell, to ask him to consider whether he has legal grounds to "call-in" any of the school closure decisions recently made by the Comhairle.

Not - one should note- asking Mike Russell to actually call in all the decisions.  Not asking the Minister to meet with the Comhairle to discuss the wider issues of education provision in the Western Isles.  Not asking for more money to allow some of the schools - Carloway, for instance? - to stay open.

In case you were unsure of the serious and intensive lobbying going on on our behalf, the press release - and remember, this is putting a positive spin on the whole matter - continues:

“I accept that some schools will close..."

Argument lost, presumably on instructions from his former boss Mike Russell.

Which schools does he accept will close?  Carloway? Lionel?  I'm sure the parents are interested to know.

Mike Russell's reply will be that HMIE have studied the reports and will either agree that the consultation was correct and the schools will close; or, that the consultations were flawed, and that there should be new consultations before the schools close.

That's all the power the wonderful and hugely trumpeted bill gives to schools.

Alasdair Morrison and Calum MacDonald were defeated at the elections in a large part because they misinformed the public about their non-existent right of veto over any windfarm decisions.  The same ignorance of the legal position is evident here.

It's not just that, but the decisions were taken a long time ago, and the time to protect the schools was when the new schools project was being negotiated, and the consequent rural school closures approved by, err, the SNP Government.

Leadership would be demanding meetings between the communities and the Minister.  Leadership would involve looking at funding packages jointly with the communities, the Comhairle and the Government of which he is a member.  Leadership would be discussing with the Comhairle how the policy will be implemented.

Writing banal, pointless, and useless letters is the mark of a lapdog and party political place-man doing what he is told is best for the party, not the community.

The real cost of living

Fascinating analysis by the Joseph Rowantree Foundation and the Commission for Rural Communities on the cost of living in rural areas.


Anyone who lives outside the big towns will know that the financial impact of rurality is quite severe, and that costs are loaded on individuals and public services.

Assuming life in the Western Isles needs 20% more income to give a standard of life equivalent to the cities, and on the basis that actual income levels are 66% of the Scottish average, then income per head in the Western Isles needs to rise by 81% for us to be on a par with Glasgow or Edinburgh.

The real failure of all Governments - Westminster and Holyrood - is that income levels in the Western Isles have not risen over the past decades, and that economic decline has been allowed to continue with seemingly no interest in reversing depopulation and poverty.

Perhaps the Council should grab hold of these statistics and use them as a big stick to beat Holyrood to argue that sparsity of population has now been better quantified and that further support is necessary to keep schools and communities alive and active.

Let's hear the outcry from our elected representatives.......

Oh! For a coherent rural policy

I've spent the past few days trying to help various relatives who are affected by the schools closures to work out how they can oppose, reverse or just object to the closures.

My message to them has been quite blunt: the battle was fought a few years back, and you lost.  You just didn't know or realise it.

Of course, I'm not quite that heartless, but I'm not giving false hope, as I am most definitely not in a position to do so.  But it is still quite difficult telling people that they are almost certainly going to lose.

Some years back the Council made a strategic decision based upon class numbers, depopulation and a big bag of money dangled by the Government.  The Council was offered two choices (a) brand new shiny schools part funded by Government, or (b) find your own money to maintain dilapidated and largely-empty schools.

An invidious choice, but such is the nature of politics.

And time moves on and the new SNP Government pledges that no rural schools will close with the approval of the Minister and only after proper consultation.  Which has the effect of dragging out the process, rather than actually changing the outcome.

And all the time the Government(s) came the major changes in land ownership and the absolute support for rural communities to grow thrive and, er, educate their children in far off places.

Why are crofters being encouraged to buy their own crofting estates to regenerate their communities, when with the other hand the Government is forcing - through financial mechanisms - the closure of the schools in the area?  And the care units will follow shortly in the name of rationalisation.

Now, I am not one to back limitless public spending, but you cannot deliver on a policy that you deliberately undermine.  That is not a policy, it is a press release.

A Councillor gave me some insight into the issues.

Moves to try to keep some of the rural schools open - in exchange for modifications to the centralising impact of the new schools project - were stymied when the MSP refused to get involved in negotiations with the Government.  As the Education Minister is his former boss, the tone of the MSPs banal, and utterly hollow, press release decrying the closure decision betrayed a total lack of interest in the issue.

I am told that three years ago he was asked by the Council to help broker a deal that would have saved some rural schools.  The MSP declined, and backed the Government financing and closure package against the Council.

Hence where we are today.

Good to know who your friends are.