Chamber and committees

I was really interested in what Hugh Hall said a couple of moments ago about the relationship between Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish Funding Council. Recently there was a pretty scathing report about how dysfunctional that has been. You seemed to be suggesting a merger of those two organisations because of that overlap, which would create quite a large public body.

To clarify, are there specific functions of SDS that you think would sit better within the SFC, or vice versa? Or, are you proposing that both organisations and all their responsibilities—everything from the national careers service to apprenticeships and university and college funding—should sit under one public body?

Do you have a timescale for when you hope to reach a resolution?

Can I briefly follow up something that Derek Smeall said?

I am interested in your experience as an NJNC negotiator. Would you change anything about the structure of the NJNC, accepting that the Government’s response to the lessons learned exercise has yet to be published?

That deserves further exploration in Parliament, whether by this committee or by the Economy and Fair Work Committee.

I have a couple of questions about industrial relations. I would appreciate it if everyone could answer the first question, which is for clarification. A couple of years ago, there was an NJNC agreement about getting each college to agree on a local dispute-resolution process. That agreement was made with the EIS and there was a separate situation for support staff. I think that most, but not all, colleges have now agreed a local process and have put it in place. I would like each witness to say what the status of that is at their institution. We could hear from those who are here in person and then go to Angela Cox.

Yes, thanks.

I found Derek Smeall’s evidence on the role of the Glasgow Colleges Regional Board interesting. I acknowledge that Sue Macfarlane is in quite a different situation in UHI, but I would be interested to hear Ann Baxter’s perspective on what the Lanarkshire regional board does that individual institutional boards cannot do. I accept that it does stuff that individual boards do not do at the moment, simply because it exists, but does it do anything that it would simply not be possible for individual institutions to do?

My next question is also for Angela. I am interested in your perspective because you have been elsewhere and are now in the Scottish sector.

There has been national industrial action in seven of the past eight years. Industrial relations in the college sector are clearly not what anyone would want them to be. I am interested in your reflections on how that compares to your experience elsewhere. Is there something that is unique to the Scottish sector that we can resolve, or have we ended up where we are because of the time that we are in and wider public finance constraints?

That was a politician’s answer.

Yes.

I have just one additional question on industrial relations. In seven of the past eight years, we have seen national strike action, which has sometimes come about because of individual educational disputes escalating and sometimes because of national bargaining disputes. Could each of you say briefly why disputes have so regularly escalated to national action? After all, there is no other sector in Scotland where we have seen national strike action almost every year in the past decade.