Local government reform and the future of education in Scotland

Local Authority Education in a Democratic Scotland

“…And in so doing they added technical arguments to the already powerful campaign for Home Rule: the local government reform needed to be accompanied by a new Parliament or Scotland would simply be 'under-governed', with too few elected institutions and politicians relative to population and compared with most of Europe. As a by-product of the restructuring which took full effect in 1996, the Conservatives completed the historical task of council was a designated education authority, and education was the largest service and concern of each council (Fairley, 1995a). This made education central to local government in a new way, and at the same time brought education into councils which were stronger because they were responsible for all services and had the sole electoral mandate for their area (Lang, 1994).…”

Scottish Local Government Reform and Instrumental Music Instruction

“…Ever since it was first proposed during the early part of the last decade, the concept of Scottish local government re-organisation has acquired extensive analysis (see for example : Fairley, 1995a;Lang, 1994;McCrone, Paterson and Brown, 1993;McVicar, Jordan and Boyne, 1994;Midwinter, 1993;Midwinter and McGarvey, 1994). This comprehensive deliberation is entirely justified, as the creation of 32 unitary authorities by the Local Government etc.…”

“…This comprehensive deliberation is entirely justified, as the creation of 32 unitary authorities by the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 represented a momentous transformation of Scotland's local government system, bringing numerous implications for the most prominent public services that were to be administered by the new local authorities (Fairley, 1995a). The education sector was not spared a degree of disruption in this process of re-organisation.…”