News
Belfast Telegraph Questions
March 2007
1. Is the Education and Skills Authority on schedule to take over from the education boards next April?
Ministers have set a very challenging timescale and the ESA Implementation Team is working very hard with our partners in education to ensure it can be met.
2. Where will the new headquarters be and what regional centres will there be?
ESA will have a clear focus on supporting schools and colleges in their drive to improve education outcomes. We are currently planning the structures of the organisation and decisions on the way we deliver services and the location of ESA offices will be determined by the needs of schools and young people. These dictate that many services will continue to be delivered locally. Others can be more efficiently delivered centrally. In deciding on location issues, ESA will follow agreed government guiding principles and have full regard to equality obligations.
3. How many job losses are there likely to be as a result of the rationalisation?
A key aim of the Review of Public Administration is to move resources from back office to front line services in order to support teachers and children in the classroom. This is likely to mean fewer staff employed in administration and more resources for both mainstream activities in schools and for professional support services for children with particular educational needs. It is not possible at this stage to identify the overall impact on numbers of jobs.
4. How much money will be saved as a result?
The RPA changes in education are not designed as a cost cutting exercise but as a means of changing the distribution of resources by moving funding out of administration and into the classroom and direct front line support services. I expect this shift of resources to have a significant beneficial impact on schools and young people.
5. What are the authority's main priorities?
Everything ESA does will be designed to improve education outcomes for young people. I want ESA to be a highly efficient, effective and professional organisation which delivers world class education and support services. An organisation which values and develops its staff and where people want to work.
The 2 main work priorities for the ESA will be:
- Improving education outcomes through providing support, challenge and expert advice to schools and youth organisations.
- Establishing new arrangements for planning and modernising the schools estate that will create strong, vibrant and sustainable schools that can deliver the full range of education opportunities for our young people.
6. Will all of the computer systems be co-ordinated into one in time for April 2008?
The Education and Skills Authority will inherit a number of different computer systems. A great deal of work is ongoing to gather information on these ICT systems, to identify the issues involved in bringing these together and to draw up a road map to ensure ESA has in place the ICT systems it needs. I am confident that the necessary ICT support systems will be functional from Day One.
7. Are you satisfied that staff have been kept well enough informed of the impending changes?
At a time of very significant organisational change, good communication is vital. We are currently drawing up a communication strategy to ensure that we inform staff of new developments and keep them up to date on the work we are doing. I plan to have an ESA web-site in place in the next few weeks and to have a regular newsletter. I will also continue to take every opportunity I can to speak at seminars and conferences to get the key messages across to as many people as possible.
However in many areas we do not have clear answers yet to the questions that concern staff such as: “Will I have a job in ESA?” “What will it be?” “Where will it be?” This is because we have to plan the change and consider all the issues carefully before making decisions. We also have to work through the arrangements and legislative requirements that have been put in place to protect staff – such as the Public Service Commission Principles and duties arising from employment law (such as TUPE) and equality obligations. These processes all take time but are there to ensure that decisions take full account of the rights of staff and our social and legal obligations.
8. What will happen to the current education board buildings?
All assets and liabilities of organisations whose functions are transferring into ESA, including buildings, will transfer to the ESA when it is established in law. Their future use will be determined as part of an ESA estates strategy which will be drawn up in due course.