Gove is getting it wrong..

The Coalition Government has already done a lot that traditional Liberals like me would welcome, and not just from the Liberal Democrat side of the Coalition. Theresa May's cancellation of the ID card scheme and Ken Clarke's utterances about the effectiveness of short prison sentences compared to community sentencing demonstrate that this will be a genuine Liberal Government in terms of extending and defending our liberties.

Michael Gove's rush to introduce a new cohort of Academies, converting existing community and voluntary aided schools by September, is foolish, unnecessary, and undemocratic. I attended a meeting of the Education Law Association on 14th June shortly after the Academies Bill was published and I have to say that the Education lawyers were shocked by the minimalist detail contained in the bill, and were privately rubbing their hands with glee at the possibility of making money out of judicial review proceedings to question the first few school applications.

The Bill lacked sufficient detail on the transfer of staff to the school's governing body when a community school converted, no detail about the level of financing that was guaranteed as a minimum funding level for the new institution, and no requirement for the school's governing body to consult either staff, parents or pupils before making their applications. All that was required was a single resolution of the governing body to say yes.

Under existing school government regulations there are requirements for governing bodies to consult parents and staff on forming a Soft or Hard Federation from existing schools, including the publication of the proposed size and make up of the new governing body.

There are no such requirements to consult in the Academies Bill. It would appear Gove does not understand that schools are learning communities in which all voices should be heard and indeed that the best schools are those that have open and interactive forms of communication between all those who make up the school.

Pushing through a status change with so little information immediately available (or now being made up "on the hoof") does not bode well. And pushing it through half way through the financial year is fraught with difficulties for both schools and and their local education authorities. They need to extricate their accrued spending, their bank accounts, and future funding arrangements straight after a summer break. Well that will mean chaos, and quite a few school staff will no doubt not get paid properly and in time for the first month under the new regime. That will be good for morale!

It is not surprising that only a tiny number of schools have broken cover in either Brent or Camden to even register any interest in becoming Academies. I don't blame them. Until we see the detail no school headteacher or governor should respond to Gove's kind invitation to join his silly revolution.

I am afraid both New Labour and now the new Conservatives have become obsessed with structures, believing that by changing these you drive up standards. No, it is the quality of school leadership, the quality of the teaching in the classroom, and the adequacy of the facilities available that have the biggest impact on learning outcomes. Who funds the schools and by what formula, who holds the cheque book for schools' spending, and who oversees the quality of the service provided, are all secondary to the what happens in the classroom.

Leave the existing structures alone and provide a loosened grip on the curriculum from the centre, and cut the number of mind-boggling initiatives and circulars from the DFE, and heads and their staff might just come up with the goods.

The Liberal Democrat contribution to the Coalition Government's education policy is to insist on the pupil premium to give extra to schools providing for disadvantaged pupils. That in itself will do more good in Brent and Camden than any structural change offered by the Academies Bill.

In praise of lists

One of my most annoying, or perhaps comforting, attributes is my persistent time planning and list writing. Some people are obviously baffled, some irritated, and some in awe at my pride and persistence in writing lists of tasks in my diary (colour coded of course).

My time planning is often done three months in advance, once my school meeting dates are settled. For example now all governing body and main Council meetings are in place for the autumn term I will soon be working through the days on which tasks are performed to prepare for each meeting - when I make contact with the school to set up an appointment to meet the headteacher, when to prepare the draft agenda and other papers, when the ideal day for the agenda-setting meeting will be, the day of printing and posting the completed agenda, and the post-meeting tasks of writing action sheets, minutes and follow up letters on behalf of the governing body. In the middle of any term there are about six meetings in some stage of this planning and post-meeting process so it makes sense to spread out the tasks in manageable chunks on each day.

But my lists also include the days I will set aside time for reading Council meeting papers, cleaning the flat, buying stuff and packing bags for holidays. I today made an entry for "holiday shopping" which will include a bulk buy for suntan lotion and mosquito repellant. It is somewhat satisfying when you know you are close enough to a break to even put this into your diary!

Of course I also have on my computer packing lists for every holiday and weekend break I have taken in the last ten years. This allows me to have a list template that only requires a little tweaking to have a ready made list for the next jaunt. Sections are set aside for the main suitcase, my hand luggage, and (yes I know this is sad!) what I will be wearing on the journey. This is because you need to juggle the space in suitcases for shoes which are an awkward shape to fit around clothes and books, so I often choose to wear trainers to travel in and put squashable sandals into the case. If you take a further pair of proper shoes you need to pack socks inside the shoes to save space.

I revealed my system for packing lists to Nick and Liz recently in the new local. Nick thought it was a bit nerdy (that's rich coming from him!) but Liz was most impressed. You can tell who is the organised one in that partnership.

I devised some time ago my own business spreadsheet for tracking all my spending, and associated with this a monthly personal budget profile that takes account of my likely spending totals against different types of expense (mortgage, Council Tax, household bills, health club subscription, credit card standing order and so forth), plus my income from the business and the Council. This profile includes a calculator which provides a weekly "pocket spending" figure which covers supermarket spending plus cash in the pocket for day to day expenses. I can adjust the predictable spending totals and my known income to set my personal spending target. And can then plan for different income scenarios in the future too.

This process has been applied to my eventual retirement. I have been juggling my possible retirement date for some time, but sadly the prospect of copying my sister in retiring early has been fading in recent years. The critical facts are when I will pay off my mortgage (currently when I am 63) and when my various private pensions can be started to make sure of a basic income before my state pension will kick in. Two decisions of the Coalition Government and TfL have come into play. Last Saturday I was reminded during the drinking session after the CCLSC AGM that my official retirement date has been moved to my 66th birthday, and today I read in an article from TfL that a decision was made earlier this year to move the date for receiving my freedom pass until I am 65.

Both these decisions are sort of reasonable given the ever aging population and the budget crisis we have, but it proves yet again that those born in 1949 (like my sister) had the best of the post-war rise in opportunities and public spending which those who were born later will miss out on. And it means my retirement planning has to change again. Now where did I store that spreadsheet...

A diary entry of random musings

It's been a tough couple of weeks since I last got round to updating my thoughts here. I notice my last blog was about the misery of following my home town team, and since then all England fans have experienced that Coventry City moment. England falling out of a World Cup only happens every four years, and not often with such embarrassment, but Coventry provides its fans with displays like that seemingly on a monthly basis.

The news from the home front is that our clever new manager has announced that he has brought back a fans favourite and local boy Gary McSheffrey as his first new signing. This will endear the fans to him for at least half a season, and will give a boost to season ticket sales, but if it goes pear-shaped (and knowing Coventry it will), he will have to come up with something else to maintain positive reviews after Christmas.

Work wise I have been extremely busy, and there is one new phenomenon that has occurred this term that has never happened before in my 20+ years working with school governors. In three different schools across Brent and Camden I am aware of formal grievances being issued by staff against their headteachers.

I think it is a sign of the times that staff are falling out with their school leaders, and when the inevitable cuts dig in across the public sector, the way in which people are identified for redundancy will create a whirlwind of hearings, appeals and employment tribunal cases. Whenever there is human grief there is often work for some to be found. Employment lawyers and HR professionals are going to be extremely busy for the next two years.

On the politics front a lively although rather meaningless Council meeting took place on Monday. The new Mayor Jonathan Simpson proved he could chair a meeting although he was far too lenient with Labour colleagues and needs to balance this out in the future if he is to avoid criticism of helping the home side.

What made my night was the extremely skilful speech made by our new Deputy Leader Matt Sanders, covering for Keith Moffitt, following a plodding and amateurish opening attempt from new Council Leader Nash Ali. Matt proved to me that I was right to promote him behind the scenes to take on the Deputy role in our Group. He is a star of the future (and you heard it here first!!).

The coming weekend involves helping out at the Jester Festival, where my principal role is one of lifting things - carrying assorted goods and furniture from Flick Rea's house and then carrying some of it back again. With my wheat allergy, working on a cake stall is hardly ideal employment but Flick has found a different role for me this year. I am to provide the squash for the darling children of my constituents. Really looking forward to that....