Chaired the [LGC] Conference today on what June’ White paper means for local government. Greatly comforted to hear that the Government is abandoning long held beliefs that only “top down” school improvement strategies work. From now on, it will be “bottom up”: school improvement will be lead by schools, supported by their local authorities. Hurrah!!!…
At first glance the LGFF can claim a partial victory on our work with the Floods and Water Management Bill. Published today, the Bill not only recognises the leadership role of local authorities in managing flood risks but also seems to give them the power to do this. The issue of funding is still not…
The Queen’s Speech today addresses some of the big issues that LGiU has been highlighting, including the need for real reform in adult social care, action on flooding and local energy, freeing up teachers from Whitehall prescription and bureaucracy, and reforming the political system. The problem is that many of the solutions proposed in these…
Readers of this blog and people who come to LGiU events will know that over the past six months I have been highlighting the educational under achievement of children in care. It is great to see today’s announcement from Ed Balls on the Care2Work programme. Ball’s acknowledges that many children are let down by the current system…
On Friday, the LGA published new research compiling scorecards for 11 of the UK’s largest quangos rating them on value for money, accountability and decision making. We’ll pass over the irony that many people would see the LGA itself as a similar quango and wonder how well it would come out of such an exercise.…
I’ve been a bit slow on the blogging front in the last few weeks. I should definitely have followed up on our social media conference last week #smc09. One of our great speakers, Ingrid Koehler (No 1 in my Top 10 local government Twitter users) did a brief summary on her blog and posted up…
Good state schools are in theory free. But many parents in fact spend a significant amount of money to secure a place at the school of their choice. Academics from the Cranfield School of Management found that parents are paying up to £20,000 to live near a good school. Some parents who can’t afford –…
It was an early start on Day Three of the marathon Children and Adult Services conference in Harrogate this week, but the leaders of people services were still wide awake. And with good reason. Secretary of State for Children, Ed Balls was first up that morning and got short shrift for his refusal to reduce…
Much has been said and written about Barnet councils emerging new approach, officially the ‘ Future Shape’ project, better known as ‘Easy Council’. I have talked to the Chief Executive, Nick Walkley, and the lead Director, Max Wide, about it and I agree with much of their analysis of both the scale of change needed…
The most eye-catching items in the Cambridge Review of the Primary Curriculum are the proposals that children should not start formal learning until they are six and that testing at 11 should be scrapped. It argues that the early imposition of academic strictures results in permanent alienation from learning. Instead the Cambridge Review argues that…
