Scottish Borders Council – an effective and improving authority

Tuesday, November 28 2006

Today HMIe published its cumulative report covering its inspections of all 32 Scottish Local Authorities in the period from 2000 – 2005.

Scottish Borders Council strongly refutes the comments made in today's Scotsman, which are 'totally misleading', says Chief Executive David Hume. "The information on Scottish Borders Council needs to be put into context as it is only a matter of history. The inspection took place in 2002 and since then the Council and the Education Department has improved immeasurablyand this has been recognised publicly by Her Majesty’s Inspectors of Education."

In May 2006 Annette Bruton, a Chief Inspector with Her Majesty's Inspectors of Education, said:

Good progress had been made overall [against the 2002 inspection]. In many instances we noted that progress has been very good, constituting significant improvement
The Council had now established their new vision for education and this was impacting positively
There has been significant improvement in the communication links with schools
The Council is now able to identify action points and to monitor progress towards agreed improvement targets
Levels of attainment in a number of areas had improved. Levels of performance at both Standard grade and Highers continued to be above national average …
the overall level of performance was now above that of comparator authorities

This reinforces comments published by Her Majesty’s Inspectors in January 2005 which said:

The organisation of the Department has improved significantly since the inspection. Improvements were evident in the ethos and quality of its work.

The new Director and his team have succeeded in encouraging a feeling of confidence and optimism.
Strategic management had improved significantly
Arrangements to ensure the effectiveness of financial monitoring had been implemented and were now operating efficiently.

More recently in a letter to the Chief Executive, Colin Mair, Chief Executive of the Government’s Improvement Service, said: "The transformation of the Education Department since 2002 under the Director and his team is a remarkable achievement by any standards. We would wish to recognise the quality of the Director’s leadership and the evident commitment and intelligence of his team."

Speaking on behalf of the Council, Cllr Andrew Farquhar, joint portfolio holder for the department said: "We have come a very long way since 2002 and we are now an effective and improving authority. With the steps we have taken and our plans for the future I am sure that when the next HMIe tables are published, Scottish Borders Council will clearly be recognised as a one of the best performing authorities in Scotland."

Reference: News-18129, Contact the Author