Help our children: show TCS some TLC

Southern Reporter, letters, Published Date: 09 October 2008

I wonder how many parents with children of school age (nursery and up) are aware of Transforming Children's Services? TCS is a major project that has been undertaken by Scottish Borders Council. It will have major implications for our children and their education.

SBC has arranged a number of meetings in order that they can "consult" with the public. There is a real danger that this could become nothing more than a box-ticking exercise so that SBC can say that they have "engaged" with us before the recommendations are imposed on us.

I attended a consultative meeting at Earlston High School last Tuesday. The officials from the council were very helpful but it was hard not to feel that they, too, were somewhat in the dark. They have got to try to sell the proposals to us.

Those who attended the meeting were relatively few in number and represented a tiny percentage of those who will be affected.

The project overview is 40 pages and is complicated enough. How any of us are supposed to fully understand the whole document, which is at least 10 times that number of pages, is beyond me.

The purpose of this letter is to urge all parents, teachers, council officials and social workers to do what is best for our children, albeit within budgetary constraints, to make sure that the outcome is in all our children's best interests.

It would be too easy just to accept recommendations that have already been made ...

James Denne

Bemersyde, Melrose

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