Dynamic Earth & The Sheeps Heid!

Family visit to "Our Dynamic Earth" today ... hadn't been for a considerable time and we all really enjoyed it.

Couldn't help (given its ridiculous proximity to Dynamic Earth) but to go and visit The Sheeps Heid in Duddingston afterwards ... a dreadful time had by all ;-)

Local Government conference

Local Government (Labour) conference today up near Falkirk ... was a pretty impressive turnout for a cold Saturday morning and the main speeches and break-out groups were all useful sessions.

Thoroughly enjoyed the day - only problem with these events, is you inevitably meet someone who is doing 'everything perfectly' ... and there was I thinking I delivered a huge amount of leaflets last weekend ;-((

Of course, its results (not patter) that matter!

Scouting Past

Went to speak to the departmental Community Learning and Development (CLD) Managers this morning ... thoroughly enjoyed the meeting and received a pretty warm reception. Very much hope to focus on this area of the department's work if given the chance after May!

By sheer coincidence, the meeting was held in the new Edinburgh Scouting Headquarters - now, I was a long-standing Scout in my youth and was delighted to have a good nose around the building (I did ask first of course!) and very pleased to see the obvious strength of the modern Scout movement in the city.

I'm now tempted to try and find some old photos ;-))

Elections Consultative Group

One non-Children and Families meeting that I do frequently attend is the 'Elections Consultative Group' at the City Council. Body of politicians and activists from all of the main parties which gets together with the senior electoral returning officers for the Edinburgh area ... good forum for general debate about all-things electoral. Scintillating stuff I hear you say ;-))

Well, it is actually getting a bit interesting now in the final run-up to the poll on May 3rd - with, what I consider, a crazy debate about whether to start counting national separate from local ballots or to count the whole lot in one go. What's crazy about it, is the insistence that either way counting has to start at 10pm as soon as the polls shut.

Why there is a desperate need to count 'on the night', I've never really understood. Would be better for all concerned if it was simply left to the Friday - or even more outrageous, why doesn't the UK do what most of the rest of the world does and vote at weekends??

The Educational Institute of Scotland local rep. meeting

Quarterly meeting with local EIS representative this morning.

Although no 'formal' basis for these periodic meetings, I think they are pretty crucial just in terms of building up relationships with the main stakeholders within the Children and Families department.

Council Executive meeting - Morningside and Tynecastle

Council (Education) Executive meeting this morning ... full agenda can be found here. Two significant Children and Families issues were up for discussion - both having deputations from members of the public.

First up was the South Morningside PTA - I've written on this topic recently here - and they put a very professional case over. There was no actual 'report' on this issue but the draft minute of the meeting has the decision reading thus:

Decision

1) To note that in the short-term, due to circumstances beyond the direct control of the local authority, the South Morningside Primary School Nursery required to be relocated and that significant efforts were ongoing to secure a new site for the nursery classes involved.

2) That the Director of Children and Families enter into discussions with the Church of Scotland General Trustees to explore options surrounding the site at Morningside Braid Church and report on the outcome to the meeting of the Executive on 27 March 2007; the report to also include information on the outcome of investigations detailed at 1) above.

3) To instruct the Director of Children and Families to report on the long-term options regarding the accommodation pressures facing South Morningside Primary School and nursery taking into account all the potential solutions which had been raised locally including potential NHS Lothian owned sites.

4) To agree that it was essential that the School Board and local community remained involved and were kept fully informed of progress in both these work streams.

So, definite progress and the School/Board/PTA should be commended for bringing the whole issue to the fore - still obviously a very immediate solution required, in the next few months, for the location of the Nursery but I'm confident an acceptable solution will be found.

Second up were parents from Tynecastle Nursery School - two reports refer to this debate; here and here. In essence, they deal with a fairly complex set of changes around the Gorgie/Dalry area that affect the Hearts ground at Tynecaslte, the Tynecastle Nursery and the Gorgie-Dalry Community Association.

I'm under no doubt that the long-term benefits for the area are pretty substantial, but there is significant concern (completely understandably) about the 'temporary' (for approximately 3-years) move of the Nursery before it's permanently re-housed in a new integrated Children's Centre.

There does, in particular, seem to be the confusion abounding that the land is now all sold before the public consultation on the Nursery move has finished. This is simply NOT true.

No sale goes ahead until after the consultation. Have a look at recommendation 5.4 of the Nursery report and you'll see that any sale is "subject to the satisfactory conclusion of the consultation" and the Properties report repeats this at recommendation 5.1(i) were it states again that any sale is "subject to further consultation ... as set out in the accompanying report ..."

The 'draft minute' of the meeting further repeats that no sale will take place until the consultation is concluded ... I quote (item 3 referred to is the Nursery report) ...

"The Director of City Development confirmed that no sale would take place until the consultations arising from the decision on item 3 above were concluded."


I really do hope that clarifies the situation.

I have actually got a lot of sympathy with those who are worried about these moves - I've got personal experience of using the Tynecastle Nursery and was extremely happy with the service provided to my family - and will try and do all I can over the next few weeks to reassure those who are concerned. I really do think there are very substantial, long-term benefits for Gorgie/Darly in these proposals - but fully accept they must not affect the education of children over the forthcoming 3-year period (before the permanent Nursery location is secured and opened).

The consultation now runs through until 1st March 2007, with an open Public meeting for parents on the 20th February, which I'm certain is going to be well attended!

Scrutiny Panel

Up before the 'Children and Young People' Scrutiny Panel this morning ... several items for discussion; agenda can be found here.

Quite refreshingly, several of the Children and Families reports were positively welcomed by members of the Panel ... in particular this one on Childcare Strategy monies and this one on a Review of Residential Childcare.

Falkland today

Up to Falkland (in Fife, not the South Atlantic!) for the day ... I never cease to be amazed at just how quiet it is around that part of the country? Takes less than an hour to drive there (yes, I do occasionally succumb to using the car ...) and there's wonderful countryside all around, and the village of Falkland is a delight.

Short walk around the village, before lunch at a local hostelry; followed by a bit of a walk around the grounds of Falkland House and out to the Pillars of Hercules organic farm for a coffee before returning home.

A good day had by all.

Campaigning all day today ...

Campaigning all day today ... leaflet production this morning, printing this afternoon, then hand-delivery until it was practically dark.

I do really love the Scottish winter ... honestly I do ... but freezing wind has an alarming effect when delivering newsletters ;-((

Last, formal political meeting ... for a while!

A moment to truly rejoice this evening, as attended my last, formal Party political meeting ... for a while anyhow! ... all such meetings now being suspended due to the forthcoming Scottish elections on May 3rd.

The normal, utterly compelling series of Party meetings will resume shortly after early May ...

South Morningside Primary School

Very lengthy visit to South Morningside Primary School this afternoon ... found the time spent there really, really useful. The Headteacher, the Chair of the School Board, and the Chair of the PTA all gave willingly of their afternoon - for which I'm grateful - to make sure I had a complete picture of the issues that face the school.

The whole visit was definite proof that seeing things first-hand is always better than simply reading about them in yet another official report!

Going back to the School Board on 31st January, and will hopefully have made some progress with the issues being raised. In essence, the School Nursery is being required (more information here) to vacate it's current premises later this year, and this is compounded by the already existing pressures on the main school site, pressure which of itself has led to 2 (of the 3) Primary 1 classes already being housed in a separate annexe building. So, having to move the Nursery to a new location is not going to be easy.

That said, I think there are two parts to the problem - one is very short-term, the other longer-term.

In the short-term, we do need to find a solution to the Nursery location, and pretty quickly, as it's not that long now until the Summer break. I know the prospect of housing any such temporary Nursery building in the current main playground is not looked on with much favour locally (to say the least!) - and I am determined to avoid that option if at all possible. I do though have to face the possibility that no other solution arises ... unlikely, but it would be wrong to ignore it.

In the longer-term, there clearly is a lot of pressure on the current, main building - with the Nursery and two P1's already being housed externally - and a more permanent arrangement needs to be found to house, say, all of the early-years services ... thus freeing up badly-needed space in the main building.

I'm sure that, with a bit of goodwill and cooperation, the Local Authority, the School and the local Community can resolve these problems ... it won't be easy, but nothing ever really worth achieving is.

More ramblings on devolution

Thinking more on the Newsnight debate - there IS only a few months to go until the Scottish General election ... so I've had a quick look back at my paper diaries for a similar 'four months out' period from the 1997 Referendum and the 1999 first Scottish Parliament elections. Again, accepting my bias, there really is no comparison in atmosphere between what I recall (and have written) of the run-up to those two events and today. I just can't see Independence any day soon??

And, I equally fail to see why no major political Party is arguing strongly for significantly increased powers for the current Scottish Parliament short of outright Independence - just look at what happened to the Catalan Nationalists when they did just that ;-))

300 years may indeed be a long time, but I really do think the SNP need to play a longer game than 301 if they ever want to achieve their ultimate goal.

Newsnight - An Act of Disunion?

Watched Newsnight last night - bit more information here - and unusually it concentrated on all 'things Scottish' from 10.30pm, instead of the usual cut-out at 11am through to Newsnight Scotland.

I know I'm completely biased, but they held a debate around whether the union between England and Scotland was about to end ... given the evidence of the debate, I'd say definitely not.

Putting how well, or not, the SNP will do on May 3rd to one side - there was just no real spark of passion about the issue. Alex Salmond just didn't land any killer punches on Douglas Alexander; and he didn't seem to get any real emotion going in the debate and/or amongst the audience.

To me, January 2007 feels absolutely nothing like the palpable excitement you could sense in the 'run up' to either the Devolution Referendum in September 1997 or the first Scottish Parliament elections in May 1999. Change was almost certain on both occasions, and was being talked about by all political sides/classes. That isn't the case today.

Given the (lack of real) passion in last night's debate, I think turnout will be the problem on May 3rd and not the dissolution of the Union.

Visiting two schools today and LDC tonight

Visiting two schools today ... one just a building site (!) and one not.

This morning off to Niddrie Mains Drive in Craigmillar to see the start of work commencing on the new Primary School there - see this link for a bit of general background - artists impression above (?) ...

Then this afternoon, off to Currie Primary School in the west of the city ...

... and this evening, Edinburgh Central Local Development Committee (LDC) meets - agenda can be found here. Think this may actually be the last (or at least penultimate) meeting of the Central LDC before the move to "Neighbourhood Partnerships" - more details on all of this can be found here ...

And here's a rough map showing the proposed new, Neighbourhood Partnerships

Consultative Committee with Parents this evening

Consultative Committee with Parents (CCWP) meeting this evening ... centred entirely on the upcoming budget, which does seem to be taking up an inordinate amount of time at the moment ;-(

Anyhow, you may remember that I've had a bit of a whinge about the CCWP before - see here and here - well, it was much better this evening (I felt??) with the particular emphasis on one major issue definitely keeping the debate a bit more focused.

I should hasten to add, it's not the folk on the CCWP (except the Chair possibly??) that cause my anxiety but the format of the Group - it's just so large and amorphous and I'm not certain it's the best vehicle for giving School Boards and others the desired city-wide perspective and voice.

I do think a bit of time needs to be spent on considering how to improve it's format - next meeting in March, so I've no excuse for not doing so this time round!

Monday morning blues

Bad bout of the Monday morning blues today ... had such a enjoyable weekend, not only the 79th birthday celebrations, but also went to see an Arthur Miller play - All My Sons - on Friday night, which was really, really superb.

Miller's autobiography - Timebends - is a book I'd strongly recommend to anyone ... after Alan Bold's biography of the Scots Poet, Hugh Macdiarmid, probably the second best biography I've ever read.

Various discussions about a whole host of work issues, throughout today, just didn't seem as crucial ... I know they really are, and hopefully will seem so when I get to Tuesday ;-((

Children and Families electronic newsletter

When I was rambling about what I do a few days ago; I've realised I really should have included one further link to the work I do as Executive Member for Children and Families ... to the Department's periodic, electronic newsletter. I've got a column in this austere publication - the absolute highlight of the newsletter, of course - which gives a further flavour of things I've been up to ...

There is an Archive of previous issues easily accessible if you're really interested /(sad!) ;-)

Current issue (No.37) includes a copy of the Xmas Card competition winner - Eve from Fox Covert RC Primary - who provided this fantastic picture for my festive communications this year!

Birthday celebrations

My dad is 79 years old today - went over to the west coast to celebrate a bit with him; thoroughly enjoyable day all round.

He really is in great shape, with all the statistical averages indicating he should have been dead well over a decade ago ... working class manual background, long-term heavy smoker (gave up when he was about 55 thankfully!), west coast Scottish diet (spent 22-years away in the Army thankfully!) ... but probably most important of all, he's living happily with the same partner he married nearly 54 years ago.

Poor woman ;-))