Blueprint for Education Update - Closures Again - Aith

[Infiltrator]

It would be very productive if folk on this thread would give an idea of how they would like SIC to make the same level of savings in other ways

 

This attitude actually really annoys me.

 

I think what Shoogler was meaning was that the cuts are coming regardless, the council have made this very clear, and in some areas they'll be hard hitting. Picking holes in the proposals won't mean they'll abandon the proposals - they no longer have the money to dither for another few years.

It's therefore better to be part of the solution and to have some say in the future shape of local education.

 

But I think if people would like to retain all the existing schools, the solutions will need to be quite radical.

[MuckleJoannie]

Education is not the only department proposing cuts. Infrastructure ran a consultattions recently on cuts to ferries, street lighting and winter gritting.

 

Social Work seem to be keeping quiet about their cuts but I recently discovered that the summer play scheme that my daughter has been going on will not run any more. This was part of a package of cuts voted through by the last council.

[Shoogler]

It would be very productive if folk on this thread would give an idea of how they would like SIC to make the same level of savings in other ways

 

This attitude actually really annoys me.

 

I think what Shoogler was meaning was that the cuts are coming regardless, the council have made this very clear, and in some areas they'll be hard hitting. Picking holes in the proposals won't mean they'll abandon the proposals - they no longer have the money to dither for another few years.

It's therefore better to be part of the solution and to have some say in the future shape of local education.

 

But I think if people would like to retain all the existing schools, the solutions will need to be quite radical.

 

I appreciate what Trowie is saying and i am not saying individuals or communities should do the job of councillors and council directors. What I am saying is that if the SIC is not going to cut the education budget (which is by far the biggest piece of the pie) there needs to be a groundswell to stop spending on other things. I do agree that a laypersons guide to council budgets is necessary, but the way I see it right now if we don't make some level of cut in education we will have to make substantially greater cuts in other services. So, right now we are being faced with cuts to ferries and buses and winter gritting, all of wghich cost a small fraction of what education is spending. Do we cut these areas by 2 or 3 times as much to save on an expensive standard of education? Do we depopulate our smallest islands to save money?

[Carlos]

Maybe just some basic context when objecting to specific cuts would help show how different things were valued by different people?

 

Saying

"I would prefer that my local school stayed open, EVEN IF that meant cutting its budget by 20%"

or

"I would prefer that my local school stayed open, EVEN IF that meant losing 3 ferry trips per day"

would put a number on the value on particular services, without individuals having to come up with their own financial estimates on how spending/saving in one area would necessarily equate to spending/saving in another area.

[crofter]

It would be very productive if folk on this thread would give an idea of how they would like SIC to make the same level of savings in other ways.

 

If you read through some of the suggestions made in the last round of school closure consultations, there are some very good ideas. But nobody in the SIC paid any attention because the only reason the consultation was carried out was because it was a pesky legal requirement!

 

If every SIC employee took a 1% cut in pay how much would that save? Unpopular perhaps, but better than redundancy. Anybody paying 40% tax can probably afford to contribute 10%... Or how about this?

 

http://www.shetland.gov.uk/education/documents/Uyeasound215-UyeasoundParentCouncilTransport.pdf

 

We believe that the proposal to close Uyeasound School will result in a significant increase in school transport costs.

We suggest the following measures be put in place across Shetland to increase revenue funding

All school runs be service runs and open to the public. All buses be equipped with ticket machines that can record the number of pupils using the transport. The council only pay for usage in the same way ferry travel is dealt with.

That in line with Kirkwall, Stornoway and all other towns in Scotland parking in Lerwick be made pay and display. This would be the larger carparks at , the fort, Harbour Street, Hillhead, Viking bus station and Church road. We believe this would bring in a significant income for the small investment in machines. This system operates on the pier and brings in significant revenue to the Harbour Trust.

This would spread the burden across Shetland and would encourage use of public transport and car pooling so would have environmental impact

 

Alternative 2. Develop the school as a centre of excellence and work with the community to provide training courses. This is not some wild dream – there has already been a short course on leadership development which we estimate brought £4000 worth of spending into the local community in less than a week. Other courses which could reasonably be offered – and where Uyeasound School’s excellence is recognised – include outdoor learning, school self-assessment, dialect and cultural studies, including music. Accommodation is available at all levels from budget to luxury through the Uyeasound Youth Hostel, Saxa Vord Resort and the newly re-opened luxury Belmont House. This could be a valuable learning centre for the Shetland Islands Council itself, as well as for external participants. There are potential savings to Shetland Council of having more Shetland-based training, using Shetland-based tutors.

 

etc etc.

 

But let's just rumble on and close more schools, imagine how much will have been saved by the time there are none left!

[Spinner72]

Education is not the only department proposing cuts. Infrastructure ran a consultattions recently on cuts to ferries, street lighting and winter gritting.

 

Social Work seem to be keeping quiet about their cuts but I recently discovered that the summer play scheme that my daughter has been going on will not run any more. This was part of a package of cuts voted through by the last council.

 

The cuts are across all departments, education is just the one currently on the table, as you note infrastructure is further ahead, others such as social work will come. I remember seeing a timetable somewhere but it may have been lost in the SIC website revamp.

 

It's not the council who are focusing on school closures, its the media and the public in general, and this is perfectly natural. Cuts to waste collection, roads, building maintenance etc have all happened without most people caring or noticing (yet).

 

Schools like Ferries and Care Centres are headline makers, and much more emotive for obvious reasons.

[crofter]

I can assure you that the figures for Uyeasound are being mis-stated.

Can the rest of us see the accurate version then?

 

I note from the live coverage of the meeting on the Shetland News website that James Gray has said

 

"I am absolutely confident in the figure we have to date. We have not just stuck our finger in the air, we have gone through this line by line. This detailed work done with detailed numbers."

 

Uyeasound figures below are from the original proposal paper, (Appendix 4); The revised savings figures (Appendix E) and the recent "Actual" savings claimed (Appendix D) I know they are hard to read, but if you do not believe me, go and check for yourselves.

 

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj4/crofterpics/blueprint%20appendices/AppendixA.jpg

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj4/crofterpics/blueprint%20appendices/AppendixE.jpg

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/jj4/crofterpics/blueprint%20appendices/AppendixD.jpg

 

Originally, in Appendix 4, it appears that there are costs of 35,303 to transfer to Baltasound School or other Council Departments. Interestingly, the savings at this point are reckoned to be 109,876 a very similar figure to the "actual" savings now being claimed in Appendix D, which are 109,780.

 

Next we see that projected savings are reduced to 96,692 with costs to transfer of 45,084. We also see here the requirement to transfer 7,107 - "Cost of Kitchen Staff (based at Baltasound Junior High School) and meal supplies budget would transfer to Baltasound Junior High School"

 

Except they are not transferred. We see instead in Appendix D a figure of 0

 

Similarly for Learning materials; 0 is transferred.

 

Also "share of central costs transferred to Baltasound" 0

 

School dinners in Baltasound should be free for Uyeasound Bairns!

 

Next we read that

 

QA Recharge is a saving to Uyeasound Primary School though costs would be recharged across remaining School Cost Centres

and

Recharges in relation to Quality Assurance, and Statutory Building Maintenance functions which would transfer elsewhere within the school estate

 

Except they don't. In fact we see that somehow costs of only 24,781 are moved.

 

So however accurate James Gray thinks his projections are, the actual figures for Uyeasound (transport costs doubled and transferable costs about halved) show that you could take pretty much any number from the current report and either double or halve it and it is as likely that you will be correct.

[crofter]

Now I see that Jonathan Wills has said

 

The consultation is not a charade, it is real and we will listen.

 

http://www.shetnews.co.uk/news/5525-live-shetland-school-closure-debate

 

Well. How odd. Jonathan has already told parents in Unst that he is going to vote to close Baltasound Junior High School, and the consultation hasn't even begun!

[stilldellin]

Well as far as I can see one good thing is going to come out of all this. It would seem that travel sickness has become a thing of the past !

[Urabug]

I don't think they pee any more either !

[paulb]

i was there at that meeting. just what you can expect from this council. there were some good comments from some but what really needs to be remembered is who wants the schools closed,

 

one west side council leader that lives in lerwick needs to reflect on the fact that he needs us to vote for him for his nice pension to continue. at this moment i doubt he has many fans.

[The Cheesemaker]

Paul - well done for getting to the meeting - I was reliant on the Shetland News feed.

 

Its a real shame that as you say, a certain councillor, who was elected on a save rural education mandate, has amnesia when it comes to forging their own political careers. I'm sure that many of the electors who put him where he is will not have such amnesia when judgement day comes around.

 

I hope that he will have time to reflect on this before next weeks vote

[Kavi Ugl]

Well, I mentioned yesterday/day before about the utter waste of money that's being done painting yon red squares on the roads.

 

It now turns out that they've plastered it on two areas of Knab road too and a mate from work who innocently noticed it asked me if it was anti-skid stuff but when I said not as far as I know, it's just some meaningless mark that they put on to show a "build up area" he just looked at me blankly while trying to make sense of it......

 

Ask your councillors why the Roads Dept are wasting money on this while the SIC is closing rural schools.....

[Spinner72]

^^ Road markings etc are subject to the The Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions legislation. The money for this sort of thing comes from central govt, it can;t be used for anything else.

 

This highlights one of the things I believe the council should make clearer, as despite it being common knowledge to most, it was made apparent recently even one newly elected councillor didnt know what the Islands Allowance was!!

 

The council can only save money by trimming back on what it does over and above its statutory duties for which it receives funding. Cutting below that level achieves nothing as the funds must be returned and funding is likely to be reduced the next year.

 

To steer more back to the topic, it is quite surprising that things have reached this stage with no specific mention of trying to find additional funding for education, hopefully the full council will take a wider view.

[paulb]

with them allowing the unst junior high to remain open. The same argument must also apply to whalsay if it right for one it must be right for the other. The skerries school is shut until half term at least if this temporary model works why not keep it that way.

 

So who does that leave just Aith and Sandwick. Hey look on the bright side they can cut their plans for a 1500 place school down to a 1000. that would save a load in building costs.

 

I loved the way they have hidden 4.5 million of costs in none attributable costs. what's the betting that a large amount of those relate to the Anderson.