Times Comments

**Kitmarlowe** · 22-05-2009, 06:39

Interesting comments in the Times

Chucks up some interesting figures. The Learning and Skills Council has a budget of Â£11.6 Billion. WTF? How come a quango has a Multi billion pound budget to do a job that really should be done by the Government Department that has the job of dealing with Education?

**Hairy_Fairy** · 22-05-2009, 06:50

Don't get me started about the LSC, I'm a training provider and you'd think they'd want to work with me. Their processes are cumbersome & awkward, making it not worth applying for the grants half the time.

I've had prospective clients who've given up on the enhancement fund and binned their training.

My prediction is that they don't spend their money and are wound up/re-organised somehow.

Absolute shambles.

**halo_jones** · 22-05-2009, 06:50

This Week mentioned this rise of unelected bodies and how they damage parliamentary process not to mention the CEO of The Learning and Skills Council resigned after spunking a mahhosive wedge of Sweet Fcuk All that hooped several educational institution's

http://www.lsc.gov.uk/news/latestnews/news-230309.htm

http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/n...996408.article

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/lif...cle5941532.ece

**lsquared** · 22-05-2009, 06:53

Oh! well, that is Â£11.6 billion of Tory savings accounted for - and a good job too.

**Kitmarlowe** · 22-05-2009, 06:56

Originally Posted by lsquared

Oh! well, that is Â£11.6 billion of Tory savings accounted for - and a good job too.

Good point. That begs the question. How many of these slush funds are doing work that is done by a Government department?

**ABrighter2006** · 22-05-2009, 06:58

Originally Posted by Hairy_Fairy

Don't get me started about the LSC, I'm a training provider and you'd think they'd want to work with me. Their processes are cumbersome & awkward, making it not worth applying for the grants half the time.

I've had prospective clients who've given up on the enhancement fund and binned their training.

My prediction is that they don't spend their money and are wound up/re-organised somehow.

Absolute shambles.

Agreed Hariy Fairy. piizup, brewery and organise are three words that spring to mind.

**Markintime** · 22-05-2009, 07:01

Originally Posted by Kitmarlowe

Interesting comments in the Times

Chucks up some interesting figures. The Learning and Skills Council has a budget of Â£11.6 Billion. WTF? How come a quango has a Multi billion pound budget to do a job that really should be done by the Government Department that has the job of dealing with Education?

A frightening piece. New Labour has achieved a revolution without even creating a ripple on the village pond. They have leached away power and sovereignty to quangos and Europe without a care for us, the people who put them in power.
Power has become so devolved, lines of communication and CoC so convoluted how can we ever seek to rein them in? Take the example given: The Learning and Skills Council a vast quango with an enormous bureaucracy which duplicates that already in place in an existing Government department. How much money can be saved by bringing such a function back in-house?
If our economy is ever going to recover (let's not forget that our international AAA credit rating is now in doubt) the next Government needs to disband these quangos (most created as 'jobs for the boys') and recoup the billions wasted on duplicate bureaucracy. When that has occurred they can look at how we deal with Europe. We seem to take EU legislation further than any other EU State, perhaps it's about time we started taking a little more pragmatic approach to EU legislation, like just about every other EU state does.

**barbs** · 22-05-2009, 08:05

The LSC, for all its byzantine complexity is funding a lot of things in Army trg that the MOD won't fund. There will be a big shock if it is taken away.

**ABrighter2006** · 22-05-2009, 09:11

Originally Posted by barbs

The LSC, for all its byzantine complexity is funding a lot of things in Army trg that the MOD won't fund. There will be a big shock if it is taken away.

Granted Barbs. The beauty of outsourcing (and the risk) is there for all to see. The last ten years have seen more military trg outsourced, at more expense then ever before. Do soldiers get more or better trg as a result?

**DozyBint** · 22-05-2009, 09:29

Originally Posted by lsquared

Oh! well, that is Â£11.6 billion of Tory savings accounted for - and a good job too.

This is good for whiling away a few moments, seeing where else non-painful cuts could be made - it's the total public spending map for 2007/2008.

**Ord_Sgt** · 22-05-2009, 10:06

Originally Posted by DozyBint

Originally Posted by lsquared

Oh! well, that is Â£11.6 billion of Tory savings accounted for - and a good job too.

This is good for whiling away a few moments, seeing where else non-painful cuts could be made - it's the total public spending map for 2007/2008.

According to that 30 billion is payed out in child benefit and tax credits - why not just cut taxes and save a bloody fortune?

17.6 billion on the department for transport - what do they spend it on our communications infrastructure is third world!!!

30 billion on servicing the countries debt - thats just scandalous.

**Blogg** · 22-05-2009, 10:09

Mrs B. used to work in a local college and at that time had to deal with the Further Education Funding Council which around 2001 got folded into the new uber-quango.

The FEFC was a complete cluster fcuk to start with.

Have a squint at the CV's of the people who supposedly run the thing and see if you can work out the common feature.

http://www.lsc.gov.uk/aboutus/organi...ouncilmembers/

**Kitmarlowe** · 22-05-2009, 10:12

Originally Posted by barbs

The LSC, for all its byzantine complexity is funding a lot of things in Army trg that the MOD won't fund. There will be a big shock if it is taken away.

Such as?

**halo_jones** · 22-05-2009, 10:21

Originally Posted by ABrighter2006

Originally Posted by barbs

The LSC, for all its byzantine complexity is funding a lot of things in Army trg that the MOD won't fund. There will be a big shock if it is taken away.

Granted Barbs. The beauty of outsourcing (and the risk) is there for all to see. The last ten years have seen more military trg outsourced, at more expense then ever before. Do soldiers get more or better trg as a result?

The very outsourcing that is always claimed to save money and deliver a better service than the in place civil servants could!

Outsourcing of the public sector if the truth be known was IMO nothing more than a band aid on the pension crisis that was known of in the mid 80's but that is another thread... Im not much taken on risk being moved from public to private sector either as i am yet to see that work.

Thus these quangos seems to be nothing more than robbing peter to pay paul

In the what you say 'Barbs' about potential loss, it seems to me that LSC providing a training gap to the MOD is no real saving as it all comes from the same single source Tax revenue, thus the MOD should run and control it.

I know that the MOD isn't perfect either but this constant sub contracting just adds to the lack of accountability i feel.

**Ord_Sgt** · 22-05-2009, 10:28

Outsourcing never gives a better product - it just looks good on some ones balance sheet. All you are doing is paying for someone else to provide the same training but chipping a bit off the budget for shareholders profits so getting a worse product. I see it all the time in my industry, it has NEVER produced a better service, ever.