17th January 2017
We’ve heard over the last few days, from the BMA leader, that NHS Scotland is ‘near breaking point.’ Indeed, in Sunday’s interview (15.1.97) with Gordon Brewer, he and the Tory MSP interviewed used the phrase about ten times. Neither, of course, offered any evidence but merely anecdote. The claims from a highly partisan trade unionist in pursuit of 4% extra funding, or ‘we’re all emigrating’, and that’s all they were, claims, were then plastered all over the Unionist media.
Have you noticed that in Scotland it’s always worryingly ‘near’ for viewers and readers but not here yet? That means you can make sensational claims about SNP incompetence and then conveniently forget about them when they do not come to pass. NHS Scotland’s ‘near’ crisis did not materialise and the media gaze seems to have turned away already, looking for other ‘might-happen-crises’ in other sectors of SNP responsibility.
Today, in all the same media outlets, we had the news that the relationship between Scottish teachers and the Scottish Qualification Agency (SQA) is just as strained:
‘Teacher and Scottish exam board relations ‘near breaking point’ (Scotsman, 17.1.17)
My fourth and last child is in Year 6 locally. I’ve never heard any of her teachers complaining about the SQA or CfE. Here’s the source for these dramatic claims:
‘The evidence our committee [Education] received was nothing less than eye opening about some of the problems faced by those working so hard on the front line of education.’
Now, the Education and Skills Committee meets tomorrow, 18th January 2017 and the Committee’s report on the performance of Education Scotland and SQA will be published on Tuesday 17th January. Yet, the claims in the media were published on the 16th. I’m puzzled. Maybe they brought it all forward. Either way, this is not my main criticism of the headlines.
http://www.parliament.scot/S5_Education/Meeting%20Papers/ESCtteePublicPapers20170118.pdf
You, see, we don’t know what kind of survey this was. If you do a self-selecting survey of any profession (GPs, nurses, social workers and especially teachers who I know from personal experience incubate discontent and infect each other daily with it) then the disgruntled will be straight in there to moan and the majority will not be heard. If you really want to know accurately what is going on you have to do proper research with a representative, anonymised and randomised sample and have it carried out by an independent research agency with no axes to grind. I’m pretty sure the report presented to the Scottish Parliament’s Education committee, whenever it is, will be of the former unreliable kind loved only by the bad news merchants in the Unionist media.
I could be wrong. I cannot find the actual full report with methodology. If I or any of you find it and it is a piece of ‘proper’ research, I’ll eat something.
Four papers, all dated vaguely ‘January 2017’, have been tabled prior to the meeting and are available at:
http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/102822.aspx
They are from the EIS, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scottish Government and Education and SQA. I’ve had a look at them all. THE EIS report mentions no survey and certainly no ‘breaking points’ and is, in fact quite positive:
‘In our submission to Scottish Government’s Review of Educational Governance, the EIS highlighted a social partnership approach as being one of Scottish Education’s greatest strengths.’
http://www.parliament.scot/S5_Education/Inquiries/20170109EISCfESub.pdf
The Royal Society of Edinburgh paper is merely a set of question for the Education Committee’s management board and makes absolutely no statements suggesting evidence of any crisis nor does it mention any ‘breaking points.’
http://www.parliament.scot/S5_Education/Inquiries/20170112RSECurriculumfEIN.pdf
The Scottish Government and Education paper is largely descriptive but notably contradicts the media suggestions that the OECD’s research was critical of the SQA’s Curriculum for Excellence:
‘14. The OECD review, Improving Schools in Scotland: AN OECD Perspective (2015) specifically discussed Curriculum for Excellence governance. It states that “the CfE Management board, comprising a wide range of representative stakeholders in Scottish education, occupies a central position in directing Curriculum for Excellence. This arrangement has been well fitted to the task of implementing CfE as a Scotland-wide curriculum programme. That task required consensus and managing processes so that implementation, including of assessment and qualifications, would happen as smoothly as possible.”
http://www.parliament.scot/S5_Education/Inquiries/20170113SGEdScotSubIN.pdf
Finally, the SQA report itself does not identify any problems, as you might expect.
So where is the ‘eye-opening’ evidence of a system at ‘breaking point?’ Did some at the actual meeting express such views? Oh, no, that’s tomorrow. I know, some disgruntled individual, either of the Unionist parties or in some way induced by them to do so, has been interviewed by the Unionist media and dished the dirt, knowing that the committee itself will be less ‘newsworthy.’ The agenda does list some likely candidates for a bit of stirring. See them at:
http://www.parliament.scot/S5_Education/Meeting%20Papers/ESCtteePublicPapers20170118.pdf
Talking-up Scotland 
Remember our flood defences were not up for the expected flooding this year? https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2017/01/03/the-met-office-predicts-more-dry-weather-for-ballater-and-deeside-jackie-bird-does-a-raindance/
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” Is everything in Scotland at breaking point”. That’s what you’d think if you get all your news from the papers or televis
ion Would it be fair to label such people as victims of propaganda.
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Yes victims
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I really appreciate the time and effort you put into these eye-openers, sir. Kudos.
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Cheers. Encouragement is appreciated.
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Did you spot the classic Misreporting Scotland on BBC 1 tonight regarding NHS Scotland’s A&E Waiting Time performance? Target missed during week ending 3rd January 2017 and down from previous week.
Contrast this with the Herald’s report today: “Weekly figures show that 92.7% of patients were seen within the four-hour target in the week ending January 3, down from 96.1% the previous week and up from 86.1% for the same week last year.”
BBC misreporting of course did not tell us about the marked improvement this year over the same week last year!
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No, missed that. Was it def that week?
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Got the url for the Herald piece?
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She says on RepScot: ‘the first week of this year’ – does that mean week ending 10th not 3rd?
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Try this:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/14198957.A_E_departments_miss_waiting_time_target_in_Hogmanay_week/
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Looks like different sources referring to different weeks. Here are the source stats: http://www.isdscotland.scot.nhs.uk/Publications/index.asp
The following extracts show how online things were reported and point up the volatility of the stats:
1) From The Herald, published on 12 January, 2017:
“Scotland’s core accident-and-emergency (A&E) departments failed to meet a key waiting-time target over Hogmanay.
Weekly figures show that 92.7% of patients were seen within the four-hour target in the week ending January 3, down from 96.1% the previous week and up
from 86.1% for the same week last year.”
2) From Holyrood Magazine (https://www.holyrood.com/articles/news/ae-performance-dips-scotland), published on 18 January 2017:
“The performance of Scotland’s core A&E departments dipped to one of its lowest levels at the start of January.
Against a target of 95 per cent of all emergency patients being treated and discharged within four hours, 87.9 per cent were seen across Scotland in the first week of 2017.
This is slightly down on the first week of 2016, when it was 88 per cent.”
3) From BBC Scotland News website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-38649592 ):
“The A&E performance statistics for the first week of January showed 87.9% of patients were seen and subsequently admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours.
The figure for the same week last year was 88%.”
My recollection is that Reporting Scotland did not give the comparison with the same week last year in its broadcast.
Apologies, John, for any confusion caused over the weeks being reported: its a minefield.
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Thanks very much for this clarification. Appreciated. As you say, they’re picking the worst they can report.
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My mother, a retired teacher, was constantly disgruntled by the state of education in Scotland but that was always in the shape of ‘things would improve for the kids if the bureaucrats got out of the way’ rather than a sense of impending disaster. This is a woman who had taught for several decades in New Zealand, England, Scotland, NZ (again) & finally Scotland (again) so had something to compare her experiences against. Her comment to this day is that she views the Scottish education system as among the best in the world.
I have my own parallel experiences in the police. I served in Grampian & left before Police Scotland came into being. It is a highly stressful job that ultimately got the better of me & we were constantly at a point of being two major incidents away from complete disaster so of course things could be better. But ultimately the Scottish public are generally very well served by the police here & we should be celebrating that fact rather than being constantly fed a line of impending doom.
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Thanks Hugh for these encouraging comments.
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Let me offer my thanks in return for your excellent & continuing work on these matters.
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