Press Release from Standards Not Tiers. Ed
Standards Not Tiers have reacted with disbelief at the School Organisation Cabinet Paper to be presented to the Cabinet of the Isle of Wight Council on the 24th November 2008 by Keith Woods, Director for Children and Young People.
Chairman of SNT Chris Welsford said: “There are so many things that we believe are either misleading or untrue that it is hard to know where to begin. I have spent much of the weekend and today discussing the paper and its many appendices with our members and supporters.
“Everyone is stunned by the arrogance of the Council.
“It is as if they want this to go to court.
“The only concessions that they appear to make are to Yarmouth and St Helen’s, both of whom are financially strong and legally well prepared and equipped. The weak are offered nothing meaningful.”
SNT believe that the so called independent panel is a meaningless ploy designed to drag out the process and make a referral to either the Local Government Ombudsman or the High Court in the case of Yarmouth and St Helen’s virtually impossible, until a final decision is made in February next year.
Two examples of misleading information in the paper are the claim that “”¦all meetings reminded respondents that they could still make representation in respect of the policy move from a primary, middle and high system to that of a primary and secondary system”¦” and “Appropriate recordings and/or notes were taken of the process and audience comments”.
Chris Welsford said “In both cases we have evidence to the contrary. This calls into considerable doubt the efficacy of the process and opens the Authority up to serious challenge. Their paper is littered with statements that we know to be incorrect.”
SNT are now working on a full response to the paper that will be forwarded to the Council before their cabinet meeting. The SNT Executive is meeting on Wednesday to discuss their response and a further statement will be made later in the week.
