Posted in Accountability, Corporate, Education Committee, Ideas on Jul 27th, 2008 No Comments »
My good friend John Connell’s blog is always worth a read and so it was this week when I came across his post about the Civil Grand Jury system in San Mateo, California.
The San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury is an independent investigative body created by the California State Constitution. Composed of nineteen citizens, the San Mateo [...]
Posted in Consultation, Corporate, Curriculum for Excellence, Ideas, Learning and teaching, Partnerships, Planning, Strategic on Jul 24th, 2008 3 Comments »
I’ve just had a very positive meeting with some senior colleagues from Queen Margaret University. The new QMU has just been built in East Lothian and has been named as one of the top 10 modern universities by the Sunday Times Good University Guide. It’s mission statement reads as follows:
To enhance the quality of life and serve communities, through [...]
Posted in Accountability, Blogging, Corporate, Education Committee, Elected Members, Integrated Children's Services, LAAC, Personal Lessons, Public Services on Jun 22nd, 2008 No Comments »
As Head of Education I had a very clear and unambiguous role, i.e. I was responsible for everything which came under the banner of education of children and young people from 3-18 years of age. In my new role as Acting Director of Education and Children’s Services I have a much wider remit which includes the oversight [...]
Posted in Children's Services, Communication, Conferences, Corporate, Early Intervention, Early Years, Integrated Children's Services, LAAC, Leadership Dilemmas, Parental Involvement, Partnerships, Public Services on May 6th, 2008 1 Comment »
We held a very successful “Corporate Parenting” Conference today at the Marine Hotel, North Berwick. .
Adam Ingram MSP , Minister for Children and Early Years gave a well informed and committed keynote address and emphasised the need for us to collectively address the needs of Looked After and Accommodated Children and to focus upon the improving [...]
Posted in Blogging, Communication, Community Learning, Consultation, Corporate, Edubuzz, Elected Members, Ideas, Learning Logs, Public Services, Social media on Apr 21st, 2008 No Comments »
We held a meeting last week where we explored the potential of weblogs to assist the community planning process - based on the edubuzz model -although not necessarily using the same platform.
Community Planning is a process which helps public agencies to work together with the community to plan and deliver better services which make a real [...]
Posted in Accountability, Children's Services, Corporate, Inclusion, Integrated Children's Services, LAAC, Partnerships, Performance Indicators on Feb 23rd, 2008 3 Comments »
I’ve become a parent again!!!!
One of the most exciting aspects of my new job is that I intend to take on the role of Education Champion for Looked After and Accommodated Children in East Lothian. The reality of the educational outcomes of this group of children in Scotland is is quite shameful:
The attendance of children [...]
Posted in Corporate, Finance, Management, Planning, Public Services, Scottish Executive on Nov 19th, 2007 5 Comments »
We are about to enter a brave new world in relation to local governn ment funding with the introduction of Local Outcome Agreements (LOAs). An LOA changes the way in which money is released to Local Authorities by the Scottish Government and has the potential to radically shift the way in which we do our [...]
Posted in Communication, Corporate, Finance, Public Services, School visits, honesty, professionalism on Oct 3rd, 2007 1 Comment »
It’s accepted practice to give anyone who works for local authorities abuse and criticism.
The picture of petty bureaucrats and people who are not good enough to get jobs in the “real world” is rarely challenged.
When I met recently with David Spilsbury, our Head of Corporate Finance, to discuss issues relating to the education budget I asked [...]
Posted in CPD, Corporate, Ideas, Leadership, Partnerships on Aug 26th, 2007 4 Comments »
I met Bill Stephen and Ollie Bray on Friday to explore how we might build upon some of the experiences I had at the Project Adventure programme in the summer.
We started off exploring how we might use some of these ideas at one of our Head Teacher conferences in the coming session but quickly extended [...]
Posted in Corporate, Culture, Culture change, Entrepreneurs, Leadership, Management, Power/influence, Public Services, Strategic on Jun 4th, 2007 2 Comments »
How would you like to work in a place which set itself out as ”A Space to Grow”?
A place where you could:
Achieve your personal goals;
Provide an outstanding service;
Fulfil your sense of vocation.
A place where your employers:
cared for your personal welfare and well-being;
focussed upon the impact of their service to users;
were flexible and willing to take decisions based upon [...]
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