The report, presented to the Education and Libraries Scrutiny Committee, concluded that East Sussex County Council and the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) listened, responded and made changes where possible to points raised during the consultation process. Any problems which arose during that process had been addressed.
The report studied the three different consultation phases: preparation and planning, the informal consultation December 2002-February 2003 and the formal consultation since February 27th when the documents were published and stakeholders and the public invited to comment.
Its main criticism concerned a breakdown of trust at a very early stage between the LSC, the Local Education Authority (LEA) and the Hastings schools responsible for 11–18 year olds, partly due to a decision to keep confidential a key report designed to identify the main issues and establish options for the way forward. The effect of this was that the case for the importance of change was seriously diluted.
Once the formal consultation started the Scrutiny report pointed out some problems with the distribution of documents and the readability of some of these. It also expressed misgivings about the atmosphere at the public meetings and the behaviour of some of those involved. This put officers under ‘unacceptable’ pressure and made constructive debate impossible.
The Scrutiny Committee questioned whether the public meetings had been valuable in the consultation exercise. The Director of Education and Libraries, Denise Stokoe, said that the LEA had argued for the meetings because they were important in terms of accountability and transparency.
Welcoming the Scrutiny report, the Committee Chairman Councillor Brian Gadd emphasised its importance. "The value of this report from an independent group of dedicated people cannot be under estimated. The reorganisation proposals sparked considerable controversy locally and it was vital that the consultation process was handled correctly. This well balanced and carefully considered report shows that the consultation was undertaken in a proper manner with attempts to address the problems that arose at every stage.”
Reference:
04/208/RK
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