Agenda, decisions and minutes

Following advice from the Chief Officer (Governance) in line with the Member Code of Conduct Paragraph 12, Councillors Helen Brown, Derek Butler, Kevin Jones, Billy Mullin and Aaron Shotton declared a personal interest in agenda items 3 and 4 (minute numbers 54 and 55) as they were School Governors. 

As detailed in the recommendations.   

Councillor Chris Bithell, Cabinet Member for Education, introduced the report to inform Cabinet of the responses from the statutory consultation period on the sustainability of John Summers High School and options for future educational provision in the area.  The report also informed Cabinet of the outcomes from the Education and Youth Overview and Scrutiny Committee and invited Cabinet to determine whether to proceed with a statutory proposal for school organisational change. 

                        In February 2015 Cabinet had agreed to open consultation on how best to secure resilient high quality education for the local area and its learners following consideration of the risk posed by low current and projected pupil numbers for the John Summers High School.  The consultation, which included a proposal to close the school, ran from 5 June 2015 to 17 July 2015 and involved statutory stakeholders and meetings were also held with school governors, parents, staff and pupils.  The main concern was the current low numbers of pupils at the school and the projected continuation of low numbers; the Council’s requirement for a secondary school to be sustainable was 600 pupils in total, or 120 per 11-16 year group.  Councillor Bithell explained that there were currently 2,113 surplus places in secondary schools across the County and that the Council had a duty to deal with the surplus places and therefore spending money on John Summers High School, which did not have enough pupils, was unsustainable.  The need to deal with the issue was now more urgent due to cuts to funding for local government and the substantial challenges that this brought. 

Discussions had taken place on the future projections of pupils from the Northern Gateway development and it had been suggested that this would make the school sustainable. This was not the case and therefore retention of the school could not be supported.  It had been hoped that John Summers High School would attract 85% of pupils from local primary schools but for the previous two years only 60% of children attended from local primary schools with 40% choosing to attend other schools.  The Northern Gateway development could take up to 13 years to complete and based on the current formula would only generate an estimated 200 secondary school pupils. Councillor Bithell said that it had been claimed that parents had chosen to send their children to other schools because of the uncertainty over the school but even when there was the possibility of the Council building a new campus on the site, the pupil numbers did not increase and the downward trend had continued. It was reported that pupil numbers had been falling each year since 2006 which was before any suggestion of the school closing and the consequences of retaining the school were included in the report that had been considered by the Education and Youth Overview & Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 30 July 2015. 

School budgets were based on pupil numbers and to enable John Summers High School to meet its curriculum requirements, a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

As detailed in the recommendation.

Councillor Chris Bithell, the Cabinet Member for Education, introduced the report to inform Cabinet of responses from the statutory consultation period for the proposal to change the age range at St. David’s High School, Saltney and to seek approval to proceed to the next stage of the process as defined in the School Organisational Code.

                        The proposals were to reduce the age range at the school from 11-18 to 11-16 and in February 2013 Cabinet resolved that approval be given for the commencement of consultations which received one response.  Following a recent judicial review of a contested school reorganisation decision in South Wales, it was decided to re-run the consultation and this was undertaken from 5^th June 2015 to 17^th July 2015.  It attracted two positive responses from Coleg Cambria and Estyn and their responses were detailed in the report.  The North Flintshire consortium was no longer viable and the Council had successfully progressed post 16 proposals for Connah’s Quay and Holywell and was currently progressing proposals for both St. David’s and John Summers High Schools.  St. Richard Gwyn and Flint High Schools had also formed their own consortium for post 16 provision.  It was expected that the new hub would open in 2016 which would effectively allow the continuation of the consortium arrangements.   

                        The Chief Officer (Education and Youth) welcomed the work that had been undertaken by the Leadership at the school on the development of the new centre and to facilitate the changes even before the proposals had been agreed.  He added that the implementation plan was being carried out in line with proposed timescales and budget.   

                        Councillor Derek Butler, the Cabinet Member for Economic Development, said that the proposals were supported and that approval of the change to reduce the age range from 11-18 to 11-16 was the way forward.        

            RESOLVED:

            That Cabinet resolve the continuation of the proposal and process, resulting in the proposal being submitted to the Welsh Minister for determination. 

As detailed in the recommendation.

RESOLVED:

            That the press and public be excluded for the remainder of the meeting for the following item by virtue of exempt information under paragraph 15 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

As detailed in the recommendation. 

Councillor Chris Bithell, the Cabinet Member for Education, introduced a report to seek the final approval of Cabinet for implementation of the new senior management structure in Education & Youth delivering reductions in costs, providing opportunities for career development and meeting organisational design objectives. 

                        The Chief Officer (Education and Youth) explained that the Education and Youth Overview & Scrutiny Committee had been supportive of the proposals at its meeting on 30^th July 2015.  He provided details of the savings that would be made if the restructure was agreed by Cabinet. 

                        Councillor Bernie Attridge, the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Environment, sought clarification on the proposed savings and the Chief Officer (Education and Youth) provided details and explained that the proposals were in line with the business plan. 

            RESOLVED:

            That Cabinet approve the proposed changes set out in the report for implementation following the completion of workforce consultations. 

                        There were 49 members of the public and three members of the press in attendance.