March 19: KCC's academy doubts and is KCC heading for see through government?
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IT is no secret that Conservatives at County Hall are
going distinctly cool on creating more school academies.
The programme was
enthusiastically embraced by the authority’s former education
director Graham Badman but it is abundantly clear
many Conservatives at KCC feel that it is time to draw a
line.
Misgivings came to the fore
rather subtly at a meeting of KCC’s Schools Organisation
Advisory Board this week, where councillors were asked to
approve the creation of a new academy for the Wilmington Enterprise
College in Dartford, a school that has been on special
measures.
The meeting gave an interesting
insight into why KCC is beginning to have reservations about a
concept that has been the cornerstone of Government education
policy.
Canterbury Conservative
Cllr Michael Northey pressed education chiefs to
say how it was that academies could sustain, over a long time, the
intensive teacher support for pupils in a way that "would make all
the difference" to classroom standards.
Underpinning this is the
perception that academies, thanks to the government funding
arrangements that mean they get even more direct control of their
budgets have been able to do two key things that might be to the
detriment of other schools - namely, pay staff more and employ more
of them.
Simon Webb,
KCC’s education officer for north Kent, rather gave the game away
when he explained that academies could have up to seven per cent
more in their overall budgets for this kind of thing, thereby
allowing them to recruit more able teachers. That could, for an
average academy, provide an additional £200,000 for staffing
costs.
To be fair, he did say this was
an issue he was "mildly concerned" about.
Fellow Conservative Cllr
Gary Cooke was rather more frank, claiming that there was
anecdotal evidence that academies were "poaching" the best staff
from other Kent schools and it was "something the authority needed
to be mindful of".
Speaking to him after the
meeting, he stressed that he had only heard of one such case but
told me he was worried about the potential for it to happen more as
academies joined forces to cut their "back office" costs such as
payroll services.
The irony is that it is
Conservative policy – nationally – to encourage greater
independence and autonomy for schools, a philosophy that began with
Margaret Thatcher and her decision to allow schools to opt out of
council control back in the 1980s and whose latest manifestation is
being seen in the party's commitment for "free" schools that would
be set up by anyone who wanted to.
The prospect of free schools
being set up could lead to very similar problems.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
MIGHT the appointment of the new managing director
Katherine Kerswell herald a welcome new era of
openness and transparency at County Hall?
Commendably, Ms Kerswell
recently broke ranks with some of her colleagues in similar jobs
and opted to voluntarily disclose full details of her £197,000
remuneration package, as well as her expenses, in her role as chief
executive of Northampton County
Council.
Speaking about her decision, she
said councils should not be waiting for legislation forcing them to
do so: "I believe we must act to show we are committed to full
transparency on the costs of these roles and provide information to
allow full understanding of the values of these roles. Indeed, we
should all be looking at other ways to improve our transparency and
play our role in rebuilding faith in government at all
levels."
Read
the story about how Katherine Kerswell published remuneration
details and expenses here>>>
She even held talks with
representatives of the lobby group the Taxpayers’
Alliance – regarded with deep misgivings at KCC - to
consider what other ways the council might become more accountable
over the way it spent public money.
See through Government>>>
If this open approach is to be
adopted at KCC, we can only say it will be a good thing. It might,
however, just cause a few tremors of apprehension in the corridors
of power at County Hall, where the Freedom of Information Act is
still regarded by some as a rather pesky piece of
legislation.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ashford council leader
Paul Clokie has come in for a fair bit of stick
over his suggestion that residents might consider "sponsoring"
potholes in memory of pets.
It's not that much of a surprise
that KCC has proved rather lukewarm about the idea. Still, at least
Cllr Clokie has done something to stir up a debate, even if he has
been roundly ridiculed for his efforts.
Friday, March 19 2010
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