AQW 19579/11-15

Mr Danny Kinahan
Ulster Unionist Party
South Antrim

Tabled Date: 07/02/2013
Answered On Date: 20/02/2013
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Education, pursuant of AQW 19038/11-15, to detail the findings of the (i) Deloitte assignment on the Education and Skills Authority (ESA) delivery models and location options; and (ii) Price Waterhouse Coopers assignment into the provision of an assessment centre for ESA.

Answer:

The Deloitte assignment produced recommendations for an organisation structure for the Education and Skills Authority (ESA) to Head of Service level. Their recommendations were designed also to help inform the development of locations options for ESA, including ESA headquarters (HQ), sub-regional offices and other related accommodation. The document is detailed and so I have arranged for a copy of it to be placed in the Assembly Library.

Under the same assignment Deloitte also produced a paper on ESA location strategy. This was completed in April 2010 and suggested a decentralised model with the clustering of relevant services for purposes of efficiency.

The Price Waterhouse Coopers assignment in question was to design and manage a recruitment process for the appointment of seven Directors to ESA. The process was consistent with the four principles set out in the NICS Commissioner’s Code, including the design and implementation of an assessment centre. The recruitment process commenced on 15 June 2009 with the advertisement of seven Director posts for ESA. The initial recruitment process saw the appointment of six of the seven Directors. In October 2009 a second competition was run to appoint the seventh Director which concluded at the end of December 2009 resulting in no successful appointments being made.