Sharing Responsibility
| Date | 01 March 1962 |
| Author | Kathleen Ollerenshaw |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1962.tb01110.x |
| Published date | 01 March 1962 |
Sharing
Responsibility
DR KATHLEEN OLLERENSHAW
Dr
Ollcrenshaw, a Councillor on the Manchester
Cip
Council,
is
Chairman
of
ils
Further
Education Sub-committee.
Her article
is
based on an address
to
the
Education Administrative Ojicers’
Coursr,
under the auspices
of
the West Midlandi Advisory Council
for
Further Education
at Attingham Park, Shropshire,
from
29thJune to nndJuly,
I
96
I
I
chose
as
my title ‘Sharing Responsibility’ because this sharing
is
essential
in our kind
of
democracy. The quality of the relation between officers and
the elected representatives in local government has as great an effect on
the quality
of
administration
as
the relation between teachers and children
has on the quality
of
education itself.
I
might well have chosen ‘changing responsibilities’, for the growth
of
central and local administration over the past ten years, even over the
past five years, has brought great changes at every level and in all
departments; most markedly of all, perhaps, in the work of local education
committees. Education is of increasing importance both nationally and
locally. The future well-being
of
the country as a whole depends
on
the
quality of education and on our ability
to
provide more and better education
for more people and for longer. The increasing magnitude
of
the more
mundane administrative problems would alone tend to alter the relation
between officer and member. The more there is to do, the less possible
it is for committee members to find the time to give the same proportion
of
support, and inevitablymore decisions have to be made by officers without
consultation. This means that officers must have increased judgment and
an increased sensitivity towards the needs
of
elected members if members
are to be enabled to fulfil their roles with proper responsibility.
There is
a
statutory requirement to have co-opted members on education
committees who are persons with experience in education and acquainted
with local conditions and educational problems affecting the locality.
Co-opted members make
a
big contribution to the work of education
committees; without them much of the work could not be accomplished
satisfactorily. If
I
concentrate almost exclusively on council members,
referring to aldermen and councillors equally as ‘councillors,’
I
hope that
I
shall not be misunderstood.
I
began as
a
co-opted member myself and
there are advantages in being able
to
concentrate solely on the work of
the education committee. But council members are ultimately responsible
for
expenditurc and it is with them that
I
am here mainly concerned.
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