BRACKNELL FOREST GOES BACK TO SCHOOL (Bracknell Liberal Democrats)

Bracknell Liberal Democrats <info@bracknelllibdems.org.uk>

BRACKNELL FOREST GOES BACK TO SCHOOL

August 10, 2010 11:08 AM

Council spends over £1m sending staff on training courses

A Liberal Democrat FoI request to Bracknell Forest Council has revealed that the council spent £1.348 million on internal training courses for staff in 2009/10. This figure, however, accounted for only about one-third of the total training provided.

Excluding special training events and individual management requests (figures for which were not available), council staff attended 163 different internal training courses during the year. Health and safety led on 32 different courses, followed by 31 courses on management development and 25 courses on social care.

The total number of attendees was 4,309, of which 968 attended social care courses, 840 H&S courses and 551 management development courses. This compared with a total of only 1,343 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff employed by the council during this time.

The courses offered included those dealing with the safe handling of ladders, dealing with difficult situations, keeping cool under pressure and personal safety. Other courses included VDU risk assessment, asbestos awareness and 'coaching in action'!

Commenting on the plethora of courses on offer, former Lib Dem PPC for Bracknell, Ray Earwicker, said ' it was questionable whether training on this scale was either appropriate or necessary for a council the size of Bracknell Forest. Obviously staff neede to be properly trained for the tasks they were expected to do but the range of courses on offer seemed excessive and there must be some scope for rationalisation.

The full picture on the resources alloted to training would not emerge until next year, when more information on the other training provided would be available but in the current economic climate maintaining front-line services must be the key priority and the training budget needed to reflect this.'