Was Douglas Hendry the third man driving Bloomer on school closure proposals?

In the article we published on the revelations from Keir Bloomer’s communications with Argyll and Bute Council – obtained under Freedom of Information by the Scottish Rural Schools Network – we highlighted a hitherto unknown political management of the situation.

The papers released contained an email of 30th March 2010, outlining the main players in driving the school closure initiative forwards. They were listed as ‘Director, Chief Executive and Council Leader. The named triumvirate were to give ‘steer on how they wish to progress matters’.

As we pointed out,  there is no mention of a role in this axis of power for the Education Spokesperson, then Bute Councillor Isobel Strong, Depute Provost, a member of the ruling coalition and of the council’s Executive Committee.

In the long experience of the Scottish Rural Schools Network team, it is unheard of in Scottish Local Authorities for the education convenor not to front all initiatives in education.

Argyll and Bute’s private arrangements were highly unusual and, it goes without saying, highly undemocratic.

As we said in the article, two of the triumvirate are immediately identifiable – Dick Walsh as Council Leader and Sally Loudon as CEO. The third person – described as ‘Director’ was not known to us, although it would have been the senior manager to whom the Head of Education was answerable before Executive Director, Cleland Sneddon, arrived in May 2010.

We inquired of the council as to the identity of this person in the reporting structure and this morning have received the following answer:

‘The current Head of Education would previously have reported to the then Director of Community Services who you will remember was Douglas Hendry,  however she would, prior to the heads of service being reorganised last year,  have been Head of Primary Education.’

So now we have it.

The evolution of these school closure proposals was driven not by the Education Spokesperson, who was kept out of the loop (why?)  but by Dick Walsh, Sally Loudon and Douglas Hendry.

And we know that whatever they were cooking was deemed inadequate by Cleland Sneddon when he arrived – and started the process of identifying a new list of schools to close. And what are the proposal papers for the latest effort like? ‘Mince’ has been mentioned.

What a crew.