Council's 'overdue' accounts published

by OUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT EDITOR

The first annual accounts for a 'non-commercial' company set up by Scottish Borders Council show the fledgling SB Inspires LLP made a profit by providing professional educational development services to Glasgow's local authority.

SB Inspires failed to lodge accounts by the due date of August 3rd, 2023, according to Companies House which continues to maintain the necessary accounting paperwork is overdue. But in response to an inquiry by Not Just Sheep & Rugby last week, SBC claimed its officers had proof of postage to back its assertion the data had been sent to the Registrar of Companies before the deadline.

Now, the accounts document has emerged with a collection of reports to be considered by the council's elected members at a meeting later this week. It shows the accounts were signed off by Suzanne Douglas, SBC's Director of Finance and Procurement on June 29th.

When a partial change of use application was made in February 2022 for the premises now occupied by SB Inspires at Tweedbank, the initial design statement made it clear the Limited Liability Partnership would trade with the intention of being profitable.

However, after we reported on the planned council venture that statement was hastily withdrawn. The council stated at the time [March 2022] the original document had been substituted as it was 'factually inaccurate'. We were told: "The Business Inspire Learning is an SBC Education programme and, as such is non-commercial.”

The newly published accounts give the first indication of the purpose of and activities being carried out by the LLP.

Councillors are told: "The principal activity of SB Inspires during the period was delivering professional development training and digital education consultancy to educators in Scotland as an accredited Apple Professional Learning Provider (APLP).

The business review includes the following statement: "Scottish Borders Council have established the Inspire Learning programme, an education led digital programme to transform teaching and learning across the Borders for the benefit of all teachers, children and young people where Apple devices are given to all P4-S6 pupils and shared class sets of iPads for ELC to P3 children."

It goes on to explain that a gap in the provision of education focused digital skills nationally was identified. As a result of this, in order to mitigate any risk to the Council, SB Inspires was legally established in 2021/22 as a Limited Liability Partnership with the ambition of providing support and professional development opportunities to education technology projects and local authorities across the country and the rest of the world as an Apple contracted APLP. 

"The Inspire team achieved APLP status in March 2022, allowing the company to enter into contracts with Apple to deliver Apple Learning Coach courses and award candidate accreditation. Initially, the target market is educators in other Local Authorities and Multi Academy Trusts. SB Inspires LLP is 99.999% owned by the Council and is financed under a Facility Agreement with the Council. 

"A Project Board, supported through the Council, has been established and meets regularly to oversee the development and delivery of the initiative. A Project Team, consisting of officers from the Council, has also been established to set up the required systems and deliver the project."

A so-called Activity Summary within the accounts report notes: "Professional development in the form of the Apple Learning Coach qualification has been delivered to educators in Glasgow City Council during 2022/23, the final part of the qualification will be delivered in April 2023. Workshops on behalf of Apple showcasing Inspire Learning’s capabilities were designed and then delivered at the School Leaders Scotland conference in November 2022. 

"Discussions have been held with other local authorities in the UK to explore their visions for Apple Learning Coach and to outline how SB Inspires could support them in their objectives. A small team attended the British Educational Training and Technology conference in March 2023 where they had a stand and attended networking events at to promote the ‘Inspire Academy’ brand."

The accounts - covering the period November 2021 to March 2023 - show the LLP's turnover from providing training/workshops was £55,766 resulting in a gross profit of £15,132 after deducting the cost of sales.