The July financial statments were also hit by the new organisational set up of Student Finance Company being the primary SpLD account manager. Already we are starting to hear how this changing in operations is creating complications and there have been processing difficulties for new students applying to university. It does not look like we will transition well in the Support sector as if they cannot get the bog standard students right how are they going to deal with complex needs. I have a feeling that old standby of paying the support agencies last will be occurring yet again. We took a hit with the Swine Flu the new academic year and the continued fall out of difficult economic conditions in the economy has every warning flag to say again we are going to have difficulties. The Swine Flu episode reinforced how a minor incident can created major hiccups that can lead to disastrous impacts. One of the key lessons from the Swine Flu has been that no matter what contingency planning you do there are problems that you do not even consider.
From this force confinement of isolation the work life balance of certain individuals has again raised itself as organisational issue that needs to be addressed. While as an organisation we conform to the Work Health and Safety regulation it appears that some individuals are putting in extra hours on their computers that are above and beyond the call of duty and what I would describe as reasonable. When speaking to staff members they all provide a similar rationale that if they don’t do it they will not be prepared for their appointment sessions and there is no one else who can do what they are doing.
Growth and managing growth in this type of organisation is difficult. We have undertaken some diversification to further the funding stream but we are still not at the point where the additional administrative support can be funded. We have hit that crisis point where we have so much work on but not enough bodies to do it but still not enough regular funding to support a part time administrator. With the current uproar about Student Finance England along with the great levels of uncertainty in the UK economy as an organisation we have decided to delay the employment of an administrator until the financial situation seems to be more stable. It always seems that in periods of change and transitions between systems that support workers and educational consultants have rely on alternative forms of funding to ensure that they receive some form of income stream. The diversification into another market sector is planned to provide funding and activity during the summer months as this is normally the university support workers lean period of the year.
