How long does it take to close a school ?
Wales Business — By David Jones on August 14, 2010 10:00 amIt might be the silly season for news – but the headline revealing that a Carmarthenshire school will take 12 months to close is still shocking.
Leighton Andrews tweeted yesterday that the decision was “Bonkers”, the Council has claimed that there is a procedure which must be followed.
This raises a key question of whether the procedure gets in the way of action – which is often a fair accusation of the public sector.
Sometimes, there is a reason why things take so long – maybe because it’s the right thing to do (for instance, if you want to close a popular busy school, then it is right to hear a range of views and take a considered opinion, because the decision may not be clear-cut) or because the law states a minimum period of time.
In the case of this school, neither seems to have been the case, so the Welsh tax-payers are entitled to keep asking the same question until an answer is found : “Why ?”.
So here’s how it might work :
Inquisitor “Why is this school not closed ?”
Council “Because it takes a year to undertake the consultation”
Inquisitor “Why ?”
Council “Because we spend 3 months setting up the plan, 6 months to ask the questions and 3 months to analyse the answers”
Inquisitor “Why ?”
Council “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it”
Inquisitor “Why ?”
Council “Because it’s too difficult to change”
Inquisitor “Why ?”
Council “Can I go now please ?”
Tags: education, school
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6 Comments
Looks like another education mess by Labour.
The Assembly has had Labour Education ministers since 1999, Carmarthen is run by Labour and independents (closet Tories?). This with the totally shamefaced decision over Ysgol Treganna in Cardiff makes you wonder if Labour know how to run a council or country?
What have they been doing for 11 years … oh yeah, defering any difficult decisions till it’s too late. Waiting to see what they can do without losing votes.
At least, belatedly, Leighton Andrews seems to be admitting that Labour needs to do something on education and councils.
Another mess by Carmarthenshire County Council CEO – Mark James…education planning is down to the Council.
Look at the website of the local community council Cennarth Community Council. It’s clear from the minutes that although they expected the school to close this would not be until September 2011 because the 5 remaining pupils were expected to complete their primary education at Ysgol Iwan. Unfortunately, for the County Council the parents of the 5 decided to move their children to another school for whatever reason. Carmrthenshire really can’t win on this one. They have been criticised in the past for closing schools in rural areas and now they have followed the rules and through no fault of their own find themselves in a position where all the pupils who it was assumed would still be in the school have left before the start of the new term. Just imagine the fuss if Carmarthen had started the school closure procedure a year ago in a school where Welsh is the language of the classroom and the pupils had been forced to change schools in their last year in the primary. the very same people who now criticise the Council would be marching on County Hall proclaiming that the very existence of rurul Wales was under threat.
The rules for closure are laid down by the Assembly and can’t be ignored. No matter how frustrating it might be they have to followed in case there is a legal challenge. Anyone can challenge a school closure even if they don’t live in the catchment area of the school. Given the political sensitivity of school closure in Carmarthenshire in the past, officers in my opinion were right to air on the side of caution. If anyone is to blame then it might be the parents who should have informed the authority months ago that they intended to remove their children from the school once its numbers had been halved by those pupils leaving for the secondary education.
To argue on the basis of this unusual case that education should be reorganised in Wales is bizarre. Local government has often to wait months for the Assembly to make up its mind on school closures as the Treganna issue shows. I support reorganisation of local government but this is not the right time given the scale of the cuts required in the next few years. Any reorganisation will create real uncertainty amongst staff and make a difficult situation even worse in my opinion. The last thing required at the present time is a knee jerk reaction through the media when what is required as my former Mid Glamorgan County Council colleagues often used to argue is ‘ a cool head and a sharp mandril.’
“…officers in my opinion were right to air on the side of caution.”
Shows inflexability/inefficency of public sector -it would never happen in the private sector-called tick boxing…or jobs worth…behaviour….on taxpayers money.Gives local government a bad name.
WRT. It would never have happened in the private sector precisely because decisions by private companies can’t be challenged by judicial review. Public bodies, on the other hand, can find themselves in an expensive court case if they do not follow the rules. Just look at the badger issue which led to the Assembly losing a JR and cost the taxpayer £57,000. It would have been even more if the Assembly had appealed the decision to a higher court. It’s nothing to do with being inflexible or ticking boxes. Local government would love to be in a position where there is no appeal to another body when it comes to school closures.
The point on the private sector presumably was on efficency not judicial review (JR).
On Mr Jones’s point on JR in the public sector on school closures -an authority will only be acting unreasonably where it makes certain decisions without taking individual circumstances into account by reference to a certain policy. When an authority is given discretion, it cannot bind itself as to the way in which this discretion will be exercised either by internal policies or obligations to others. Even though an authority may establish internal guidelines, it should be prepared to make exceptions on the basis of every individual case.What happened here? I am not privy to the facts but it is either the policy or the application that is at fault.
The BBC reported today that although Ysgol Abergynolwyn near Tywyn in Gwynedd and Mydroilyn Primary School near Llanarth in Ceredigion were earmarked for closure in the future, they were due to welcome pupils back in September.Parents then went elsewhere. But surely with very little pupils and an alternative – it is bomb proof from a JR perspective.No Judge in his right mind would grant leave.Parents who have decided to send their children elsewhere as in all these cases will not take JR action.The threat of leave or successful JR is therefore remote.
In the private education sector charitable trustees of a School in this instance would be criticised by the Charity Commission – indeed keeping a school open with no prospect of pupils or very litle in number may lead to individual trustees being personally liable for the trust’s assets being wasted.