Monday, 9 January 2012

When to read Orwell or when is an impact an effect?

George Orwell, in his famous essay "Why I write" said "Good prose is like a windowpane". This writer is, of course, entirely unknown to the Council, who like to lard obfuscation onto euphemism at every turn.

Consider the Council's Equality Impact Assessment, published last year, concerning the forthcoming changes to the services for children with SEN:

The purpose of the work is to improve services for these groups of children and young people with SEND, and as such it is not anticipated that they will receive a negative impact as a result of this programme. However, the Programme has a £525k savings target attached, which may result in different services being provided or offered. This may have perceived or actual short term negative effects for children, young people and families. The Programme will work hard to mitigate any negative impact where it is identified. Risk management and governance has been implemented to help with this process. p5, link

In summary: the Council is not anticipating a "negative impact" brought about by the cuts, but there may be "perceived or actual negative effects". The Council will then swoop in to "mitigate any negative impact where it is identified", presumably leaving the negative effects well alone.

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