Don Ledingham’s Learning Log

I’ve been corresponding with David Jackson of the Innovation Unit who has referred me to the work the Unit has being doing in relation to what they describe as “Radical Efficiency”.
The basic premise is that it’s possible to reduce costs and improve services. As someone who’s at the sharp end of making reductions in budgets [...]

ACCOUNTABILITY IS DETACHED FROM THE FUNDING PROCESS.
FUNDING IS NOT CLEARLY LINKED TO NATIONAL OBJECTIVES, GOALS OR TARGETS FOR IMPROVEMENT
Professor Richard Teese 2008

Back in December 2007 the OECD published a report entitled Reviews of National Policies for Education - Quality and Equity of Schooling in Scotland. I’ve written previously about Professor Richard Teese - the main reporter [...]

The challenge of providing a high quality education service at a time when expenditure is growing faster than the available budget means that change, in some form, must take place.
There is a tendency in education to always reflect upon such an issue from the moral high-ground and simply state that more money must be forthcoming! As the person who [...]

 
It’s that time of year when the consequences of trying to deliver our service within the available budget require difficult decisions to be made.
Maybe I’m just kidding myself but I still believe passionately in the value of education, that teaching and learning is at the core of what we do, and that caring for kids [...]

 
No posts for over a week but life has been something of a blur.
I’m probably earning my corn at the moment with some major challenges facing us in relation to efficiency savings having to be made in the education budget.  Every meeting and piece of correspondence seems to be connected to this issue and I’ve got 100 [...]

The concordat agreed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the Scottish Government sets out how funding and outcome agreements will operate over the next three years.
The document is worth reading on a number of counts but it’s the section relating to efficiency savings that perhaps sets out the greatest challenge for education.
The text reads [...]

 
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 [...]

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 [...]

 
I had two conversations today where people made a case that other authorities were providing more resources for particular aspects of education than we do for the same aspects in East Lothian.
I must admit that this is probably one of the most challenging parts of the job as any kind of justification or explanation on my [...]

I’m attending a 24 hour conference on public service reform.
Colin Mair - CEO of the Improvement Service for Scottish Local Government set out the national context:
The comprehensive spending review of government spending will result in flat financial settlements to the public sector over the foreseeable future. The result of this will be limited real growth [...]