Council Education Executive meeting today ... main focus were the budget reports for Month 6. Several of the Council Departments are showing pretty adverse variances at this half-year stage - needless to say the Department with the most challenging situation is 'Children and Families'.
I really do think some of the problems are a direct result of success - you may think I would say that, but I do believe it to be true. There's been a huge transformation in the vacancy rate for Social Workers; and now appears to be many more referrals, partly as a result of this but probably more as a result of an increasing awareness of child protection requirements generally ... I do have to note though that the increase in Social Workers - although to the good obviously - has led to a big spike in the numbers of probationers and all the training requirements that go with that. So great progress, but big costs, more workload and more training - seems to be the perennial local government 'two steps forward, one step back'.
There were several other reports which merited quite a bit of discussion; Closing the Gap; 2020 Vision; Go 4 It; Play 4 It; Duke of Edinburgh scheme; to mention but a few - they can all be seen through Council Papers on Line by following this link and the actual agenda is here.
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