Scottish Borders Local Association

Plain English, please

Published Date: 23 October 2008

By Andrew Keddie

COUNCIL education bosses stand accused of "hiding behind soundbites" in an attempt to push through sweeping changes to the region's schools, writes Andrew Keddie.

And a statement issued by a senior official last week in support of the Transforming Children's Services (TCS) review which, if printed out, is three inches thick, has been described as "insulting and patronising" to the teachers it will most affect.

The document, which includes an extensive overview and more than 150 appendices running to thousands of pages, has also fallen foul of the Plain English Campaign, which claims Scottish Borders Council has "forgotten who it is serving".

Among a raft of measures, expected to save around £3million a year when implemented, is a reduction in the number of primary heads and secondary depute heads. Principal teaching posts will be slashed by more than 100.

More shared headships will be introduced and heads will be relieved of all teaching duties.

A four-month consultation on the changes ends on Monday and councillors will vote next month, with implementation planned for May of next year.

On the eve of the deadline for public feedback, the EIS union, representing more than 1,000 teachers in the Borders, remains solidly opposed to many of the proposals and, particularly, to the pace of change.

EIS Borders secretary Kay Miller said scepticism had been re-enforced by a statement from an "SBC education spokesperson" which appeared in last week's Southern in response to calls by two opposition councillors for the whole package to be deferred.

Defending the timetable, that statement said: "Our staff are professionals and their focus is on helping their pupils achieve their potential … the last thing staff want is this dragging on."

Mrs Miller retorted: "The council has bitten off more than it can chew and is now hiding behind soundbites, with some faceless, nameless individual inferring that if teachers disagree with these plans and the way they are being rushed through, they are not professional. It is no wonder morale in our classrooms is being affected.

"If the rationale behind TCS is to improve education quality and increase attainment, then it is wrong to ride roughshod over teachers. Much more time is needed to assess the impact on workload and recruitment, and any changes should be phased in."

The statement also brought a sharp rebuke from Councillor Sandy Aitchison who called on colleagues to continue discussion on change until the end of the current academic year next summer.

"I have never suggested our teachers and heads are other than very professional," he told us. "Indeed, it could be argued the dual headships which already exist and are being cited as exemplars, is entirely because of the professionalism of these heads. The statement is both insulting and patronising.

"With more time, we could end up improving standards in our schools with staff on board and confident in their ability to achieve this. That confidence does not exist at this time. I have yet to meet a parent or teacher who sees this document as an improvement of services.”

The Southern can reveal the SBC “spokesperson” was Leona Bendall, head of communications and policy, who works principally from her home in Rugby and is due to leave the council early next year.

Meanwhile, a concerned parent has contacted the independent Plain English Campaign (PEC), which has previously worked with SBC’s revenues and benefits section to eradicate jargon and gobbledygook from its publications.

Claiming some of the language in the TCS review is “terrible”, the parent cites the following paragraph from the TCS document’s overview, attributed to Mrs Bendall: “We propose to maximize the capacity of our staff to work directly with children, young people and/or their families by distinguishing between those tasks which require to be undertaken by staff with a specific professional qualification and any which might be more efficiently or more effectively undertaken by other professionally qualified staff or, indeed, non-professionally qualified staff.”

Marie Clair, press officer with the PEC, told TheSouthern: “With this ridiculous piece of public consultation, yet again we have a council that has forgotten who it is serving.

“This document has also probably alienated its audience – children, young people and their families – with its indigestible list of appendices.”

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