Allegations of major fraud and exploitation in welfare to work schemes have hit the headlines in recent months with businesses such as A4E and Working Links being investigated. Now there has been adverse publicity about stewards’ work placements at the Jubilee river pageant. Various media reports claim that some unpaid security staff had to work in appalling conditions. 

These apparent problems are set against even bigger issues about the overarching Work Programme and welfare to work schemes.

The Work Programme’s model is one of payment by results. Organisations working with unemployed people are only paid after their clients have completed a specified period in a job.  Many experienced charities and community organisations with proven track records of moving people into work are squeezed out of the process as they can’t deal with the cash-flow problems and risk. Ironically the charity Groundwork South West took the gamble of taking on a Work Programme contract but ended up making 130 of its own staff redundant (according to the Guardian, Saturday…

There have always been good reasons to become a school governor, but in these times of change with schools being bullied into giving up control to private sponsors, the looming threat of our schools being run for profit and the consequent loss of education as a public good, it has never been so important.

Becoming a school governor is a significant commitment, but is a great way to ensure you have a say in the future of your local school. You don’t need to have a family member at a school or college to become a governor. Enthusiasm, commitment and an interest in education are the most important qualities.

You can apply to be a school governor:

• directly to your school
• through your local authority
• by filling in the application form on the School Governors’ One Stop Shop (SGOSS) website

Find out more about who can become a governor, what…

Staff and parents at West Heath Primary are strongly against the proposed academy.

Parents are holding a public meeting  on Thursday 14 June at Oddingley Hall, Oddingley Rd, West Heath, B31 3BS.

Parents were understandably outraged to discover a few weeks ago that plans to convert are at an advanced stage and negotiations with a sponsor, The Elliott Foundation,  are in the process of being finalised, despite parents not having been consulted at all on the future of their community school.

The Elliott Foundation is a brand new enterprise with no previous experience of running schools, having been formed just this Spring to take advantage of a perceived ‘gap in the market’ as a result of the Government’s forced academy programme.   Read more here

Despite apparently brokering the deal with the Elliott Foundation against the wishes of staff and without consulting parents, it is understood that the headteacher Mr Duggan…

UPDATE: Parent-campaigners Cormac Loane and Karen Shurrock who are fighting for a parent vote on academy conversion at Waseley High School were interviewed on BBC Hereford & Worcester this morning (19th June) – about 65mins in.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p00t23gt

Parents of Waseley Hills High School, concerned about the lack of open and democratic consultation on proposals to convert to academy status, have organised a public meeting and vote on Waseley Hills High School academy conversion.

• This meeting may be the one and only opportunity for parents to hear full information on this vitally important issue, and to express their views to School Governors through a vote.

•  Speakers will include parents and experts on academy conversion.

•  It will be a fair and balanced meeting, with both sides of the argument being invited to speak

The meeting will take place on  Wed. 20^th June,  7.00pm at the Beacon Church …

Following the decision in October 2011 not to proceed with academy conversion (read more here), Bournville School and Sixth Form Centre in Birmingham is consulting on Foundation Status.

A meeting for parents and carers to participate in the consultation is to be held on Wed 13th June, 2012. Governors will be available in the PPC, in the Bronte building, from 6 pm.

A Q&A document about Foundation status has been made available on the school website http://www.bournvilleschool.org/

Parents are being asked ‎to provide comments in writing to the Clerk to the Governors, Karen Seleshe either by email (governors@bournville.bham.sch.uk) or hard copy, care of the school by 22nd June.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, has blamed leading Euro 2012 football championship players – particularly Germany’s and France’s – for the UK’s double-dip recession and for “killing off” Britain’s prospects for economic recovery.

In a stark message to the leaders of the 16-nation football championships, the chancellor said the Euro 2012 players were facing a “moment of truth” if they were not ready to accept the blame for the financial mess he has brought to the country’s economy and he voiced his exasperation at the repeated failure of European footballers to find a permanent solution to the economic crisis facing the continent.

The shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, however said Osborne should not blame Europe’s sportsmen for his own mistakes in handling the economy:

The Chancellor urgently needs a change of course and a Plan B. If we fail to act now over his countless own goals, we will pay a very heavy…