Random thoughts and photos of my journey through life…
The first photograph shows the south transept with what is left of the tower just behind it.
The second photograph shows one of the four transept chapels. Each of the chapels was covered with a rib vault, with an altar beneath the east window.
A view looking out from the chapel can be seen here.
18 Comments CherryPie on Apr 15th 2010
The ruins of Buildwas Abbey are situated in beautiful woodland just above the south bank of the River Severn.
The guidebook gives a brief summary of it’s origins:
In the summer of 1135, Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Chester, brought a small colony of monks to England from the Norman abbey of Savigny. He settled the brothers at Buildwas on the banks of the River Severn in Shropshire. Just 12 years later, Buildwas Abbey was to find itself part of the largest, most powerful and most widespread of all the monastic families in medieval Europe – the Cistercians.
Under the gifted Abbot Ranulf (1155-87), monastic life at Buildwas began to flourish. the abbey steadily improved its economic viability, builiding up a sizeable landed estate. Meanwhile, work had begun on the construction of a characteristic twelfth-century Cistercian abbey church, and on three principle ranges of monastic buildings grouped around a northern cloister.
The abbey met it’s demise during the first round of the suppression of the monasteries in 1536. At that time the abbey and most of it’s properties were were granted to Sir Edward Grey, Lord Powis and parts of the monastery were converted for use as a Tudor mansion.
19 Comments CherryPie on Apr 14th 2010
Myth 6 “Back-office” functions can be outsourced without impacting on front-line services
REALITY Support functions are just as important as the front-line
In a recent document called “Doing More with Less” the CBI claims that ’sharing back office functions can improve efficiency” and that ‘non-core activities are best provided by the private and third sectors unless it is essential for them to be provided in-house.’
It is wrong to describe any public sector function as non-core or back-office. Public services are characterised by an extremely complex set of processes and relationships. For example, the gradual development of multi-agency approaches, with professionals working together across different public sector bodies create overlapping responsibilities and lines of accountability. Without so-called back office functions, frontline workers would not be able to do their job. The NHS would not be able to survive without the people who book appointments, analyse blood tests, process X-rays or make sure staff get their wages on time.
The pressure on “back-office” functions is greatest in the push to develop shared services. In many cases, shared services can be an effective way of delivering services such as HR, payroll and IT across different local authorities or public sector organisations and delivering long-term efficiency savings. Unfortunately, they are also associated with pressure to cut short-term costs and outsourcing. The Treasury’s Operational Efficiency Programme which advocates the use of shared services is based by its own admission, on “proxies, estimates and assumptions” of private sector standards of delivery. The push for shared services is based on an over-reliance on economies of scale over quality.
Shared Services
“By 2016 the majority of the transactional elements of Corporate Services in the public sector will be delivered through a handful of professional shared service organisations. Some of these organisations will remain inside the public sector, but many will be outsourced. “Cabinet Office, 2006.
Southwest One
Southwest One is a joint venture between IBM, Somerset County Council, Taunton Deane District Council and Avon and Somerset Police to deliver a range of services under a 10-year contract. Southwest One is 75% owned by IBM, who will make £400m over the 10 years.
The joint venture has been strongly criticised for the lack of effective scrutiny, public engagement and secrecy – the contract has been kept secret for reasons of “commercial confidentiality.”
It offers shared services in IT, finance, human resources, property management, purchasing, facilities management, customer contact centres and services to schools. Southwest One has a framework agreement which enables other local authorities and public bodies to obtain services bypassing the procurement process.
2 Comments CherryPie on Apr 14th 2010
Some of you might remember that the last time I visited Attingham Park I saw the herd of deer being fed for the last time this winter. Here is a little video them in full action rushing around. I have been rushing around as much as they have today on more of my rescue missions.
So I will finish of with a nice spring photo and hopefully have a relaxing evening.
13 Comments CherryPie on Apr 13th 2010
Myth 5 The public sector has a worse productivity record than the private sector
REALITY Public services create public value
The CBI uses government statistics to show that public sector productivity has declined by an average of 0.3% over the period 1997-2007 and that over the same period, labour productivity in the private sector increased by an annual average of 2.8%. The CBI states that these diverging trends are “undesirable and unsustainable.”8
Productivity measures in the public sector are notoriously problematic and we need to be very careful in interpreting data on productivity. It can be seen, for instance, that increasing class sizes in schools may lead to perceived greater productivity by individual teachers, ie the ratio of teachers to schoolchildren. But it is doubtful that increasing class size would have a positive impact on the quality of education. Standard definitions of public sector productivity are a poor measure of public value and it is more important to look at efficiency, performance and outcome.
Productivity can be assessed in the private sector by looking at the balance sheet. By definition, this is not possible in the public sector. Rather, public sector productivity is centred around the notion of public value, with services that respond to the needs of citizens, that are sustainable, provide long-term value for money and are trusted by citizens. We know that financial pressures will require a sharper focus on value for money, but cost should never be the prime driver for public services. Public services are not a drag on the UK economy; but a vital part of it, delivering health and social care, crime prevention, education, fire safety and many other important services.
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8 CBI, doing more with less, 2009
4 Comments CherryPie on Apr 13th 2010
My final destination in my recent weekend in Kent was the Bedouin encampment. As you can see it is nowhere near as exotic as it sounds 
It was here that there was a bit of a saga about where to eat for lunch. Two of the party didn’t like the food that was on offer in the first cafe we tried ,which was a shame because there were lots of things that I quite fancied the look of. We moved on to another cafe where the two people that grumbled didn’t have anything to eat anyway because they weren’t hungry…
14 Comments CherryPie on Apr 12th 2010
MYTH 4 The private sector is more responsive to service users’ individual needs
REALITY Only the public sector can respond to society’s collective needs
Public sector reforms are often based on the idea that public service users should be treated as consumers. In many cases, this focus is both appropriate and necessary. For instance, the emphasis in the NHS on developing ‘expert patients’ who will know about and take responsibility for their own conditions and are able to make informed choices is a welcome development, as is the promotion of user empowerment and independence in social care.
However, in many parts of the public sector, users do not engage with services on a voluntary basis but are subject to compulsory attendance, such as with the police or mental health service. And the public’s relationships with public services are often far too complex to be classified as consumers. People do not necessarily buy the service; they may have a right to receive the service; they may be refused a service because their needs may not meet the criteria laid down. But above all, there is often a collective aspect to public services, where the benefit extends beyond the individual, to families, schools, communities, the UK and other countries.
It is this collective aspect of public services which requires them to be subject to democratic accountability and transparency. Privatisation erodes this accountability and treats vital services merely as contracts to be bundled up and sold off.
Barnet Council
Barnet Council is using the business model of budget airlines to plan a radical reform of public service provision. Unofficially dubbed “easyCouncil” the project is part of the borough’s “relentless drive for efficiency” and could see residents paying extra for some local services.
The council’s aim is to turn itself into a focal point called a strategic commissioning hub to commission public services from private and voluntary sector organisations. Barnet also plans to stop providing some services altogether – ’scaling down to a size which would mean delivering only what the local authority must deliver to achieve efficiencies’ – and to outsource the rest.
The council had also planned to save £950,000 by removing on-site residential wardens (whose tasks include dealing with health and security emergencies, organising GP visits, organising social activities, and checking on residents at least once a day) from sheltered housing scheme. They would be replaced with a ‘floating’ support service where support workers based at hubs would visit elderly people who met eligibility criteria. In December 2009, a High Court ruling prevented the plans on the grounds that they did show due regard to the need to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities.
Academy Schools
The growth of academy schools represents a transfer of assets and power to unaccountable entrepreneurs, business and religious groups. Parent power is generally weaker in academies than in maintained schools -including reduced representation on governing bodies, weaker appeals processes for admissions, exclusions and special educational needs, and reduced capacity to withdraw pupils from acts of religious worship. Under current rules, academies must appoint only one parent or guardian on governing bodies, even though parents and guardians usually form the largest group of governors at state schools.
There has also been a steady growth in the number of chains and federations of academies, meaning that a single unaccountable organisation or individual is responsible for a vast array of educational provision including the development of the curriculum, admissions and staff terms and conditions.
There are also wider accountability issues related to academy schools. Accountability in public services does not end with accountability to users, as schools play a social and economic role that goes beyond the interests of parents and guardian. Taking academies out of Local Authority control disrupts admissions arrangements within local authorities and in neighbouring authorities.
At the start of the Academy Schools project, sponsors were required to provide a one-off payment of £2million. Many sponsors, however, did not pay or chose to pay ‘in kind’. This requirement has now been dropped.
4 Comments CherryPie on Apr 12th 2010
