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would track who’s attending lectures whilst up-to-date student records would track immigration issues.


From: Adrian R Subject: ‘Academics call for end to national pay bargaining in the public sector’


I don’t doubt these Professors can support their proposal with lots of theory – economists always can, and usually find at least two completely contradictory theories to tell us what we should do at any time. That’s half the fun of being an economist.


But their theory seems to leave out three things.


One, that public-sector pay doesn’t leak out of the economy, it provides customers for the private sector who then pay taxes to fund the public sector. Cut pay and you cut demand. So the second people to suffer if this is put into practice will be the shops and businesses in areas where demand is already so low they can only afford to pay themselves less than more prosperous parts of the UK.


And, two, businesses large and small report that the single biggest block to a full-scale recovery is a lack of confidence in the market. Further demoralising a large group of consumers already suffering from


widespread


institutional PTSD after constant reorganisation and widespread job-losses is really going to help that, isn’t it?


Finally, ‘public-sector’ pay isn’t


homogeneous but ranges from council receptionists and benefits administrators to hospital consultants and head teachers; the cost in time, money and energy to individually negotiate salaries across that mix would be enormous, and in my experience of analysing local authorities the majority of people are already earning well below national average salaries.


Back to school, please, professors, and think again.


From: Bridget Stidworthy, customer services director, Chorus HR


Subject: Immigration issues


London Metropolitan University’s alleged inability to keep track of its students’ permissions to stay in the country once again sheds light on a thorny subject; the procurement of IT systems (or lack of them) by publicly funded bodies, and the country’s apparent inability to get IT right.


With 28,000 students, you would think that London Met might have an excuse for not being able to keep tabs on everyone. This is no longer the case. Affordable software exists that would allow London Met, universities, colleges and other bodies to keep compliant and keep track of people’s movements and accreditations.


Time and attendance systems


The cost of this efficient way of operating is not expensive; in fact it can be purchased for a monthly fee per person of less than the price of a travelcard on the London Underground. So other institutions have no excuse for falling into the same trap. The cost of ignoring the problem is clearly significant to everybody. Take immigration and HR matters more seriously.


From: Ann Bradley Subject: Sport in schools


Having read the article, I strongly believe more should be done with our schools – not just in primary, as these schools tend to have far better facilities than the high schools.


My son attended a school here in Lincoln that did not even have a proper long jump facility. He excelled in triple jump and represented his school at national level, however he couldn’t continue with the school as they did not have the facility or funding to invest in these young adults who could have gone on to do much greater things.


In order for my son to have continued with his athletics, we would have had to join a private club, and as we all know in these hard times, that is something we just couldn’t afford at the time.


I luckily went to a school in Lincoln that had every sports facility available as it was close to our local swimming centre, but not every school has this. It is here, first and foremost, that we should be investing in, for the young adults of today to motivate and encourage them. My son was left feeling very despondent at the lack of investment in his own school, which was producing some real


public sector executive Sep/Oct 12 | 13


talent that couldn’t be nurtured and encouraged.


[Getting] every school up to scratch with just the basics would be a start.


From: Name supplied Subject: Sport in schools


I totally agree with the Olympic article. In my child’s junior school, PE is just an add-on with various teachers who aren’t actually skilled/trained PE teachers, and it seems to be ‘seasonal’: they only get 1x swimming lesson for a term and that maybe only for six weeks, as the whole school have to take their turn at the local swimming pool. Three hours over months is not good enough.


6-12


Don’t get me wrong; the school do try, as they put on ‘after school’ clubs, which I don’t mind ‘paying’ for, but this should be more part of the day-to-day curriculum, but if after school, it should be additional training to complement.


We also seem to be on the lower end of the scale when it comes to world surveys on health and wellbeing: we need to do something…


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