Agenda, decisions and minutes

Purpose: To receive any Declarations and advise Members accordingly.

No declarations of interest were made.

            That the comments made by the Committee be submitted to Cabinet to inform their consideration of the proposals. 

The Chief Officer (Education and Youth) introduced a report to inform the Committee of responses from the statutory consultation period for the proposal to close Ysgol Llanfynydd. 

                        The Chief Officer provided detailed information on the process undertaken since the decision by Cabinet in June 2015 to enter into formal consultation on closure and other school organisation options for Ysgol Llanfynydd by September 2016.  He commented on the important role of this Committee to consider the consultation document and the responses from stakeholders and to provide comments to Cabinet to allow a decision to be made on the next stage.  Cabinet approved the formal consultation in line with criteria in the Council’s School Modernisation Strategy which provided details of the unfilled places across the primary school portfolio, diminishing resource criteria and small school criteria.  An extensive consultation exercise commenced on Wednesday 21 October and ended on Wednesday 2 December 2015 and the views of children and young people had also been sought.  The Chief Officer explained that it was no longer a requirement in Wales to hold meetings about school re-organisations but a number of events had been held to allow parents, teachers and pupils to put their views forward.  The responses received focused on the following areas of concern:-

·         Accuracy of data contained within the consultation document;

·         Impact on pupils/transition/friendship groups;

·         Education standards;

·         Capacity of other schools in the area to accommodate pupils;

·         Admissions to other schools should Ysgol Llanfynydd close;

·         Transport and traffic

The next stage was for the views of this Committee to be considered by Cabinet at its meeting on 19^th January 2016 and if the Cabinet decision was to proceed with its proposals, the Council would publish a Statutory notice providing a 28 day notice period for objections.  If objections were received, the Council must publish an objection report providing a summary of the objections and their responses to them within 28 days of the end of the objection period.  After that period, Cabinet would be asked again to implement the school organisational change for Ysgol Llanfynydd or not.  The Chief Officer reiterated that at its meeting in January 2016, Cabinet would not be making a decision on whether to implement the organisational change or not.  He acknowledged that this was a lengthy process which would generate an amount of uncertainty for those involved.  He paid tribute to the school community, staff and governors and added that the school was continuing to be a purposeful learning environment and was very much a working school.  The Chief Officer explained that at September 2015 the school population had 34 pupils with unfilled places at 57.5% and for 44% of the pupils attending, Ysgol Llanfynydd was not their nearest school.  The school population and capacity of Ysgol Llanfynydd was lower than national designation of a small school and school numbers did not meet the minimum requirements of primary school models as noted in the Council’s School Modernisation Strategy. 

            The report detailed the concerns that had been raised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

            That the verbal update be received.                     

The Senior Manager - Business Change and Support provided a verbal update for the Committee on School Governor Vacancies.  She explained that the request for further information had been made by Councillor Nancy Matthews and Mrs. Rebecca Stark.

                        The Local Education Authority (LEA) had a total of 440 LEA Governor representatives on school governing bodies and over the four year term, a number of vacancies would arise. There were currently eight vacancies that had not been filled for longer than two months and seven were due next term, which was a small number compared to the number of LEA representatives.  The Senior Manager explained the process for appointing LEA Governors and advised that any appointments were signed off by the Cabinet Member for Education and the Chief Officer (Education and Youth) under delegated powers.  Work was undertaken with the Clerk when vacancies occurred and in the short term, she would continue to work with Ward Members and intelligence from the Head Teachers to try and fill the outstanding vacancies.  In the longer term, the Senior Manager had considered whether representatives from the voluntary sector could become governors and she had also considered other alternatives which were still in line with the Council’s policies.  Details of the process undertaken by Denbighshire County Council in appointing LEA Governor representatives were also provided.  Welsh Government was considering a review of the School Governor legislation framework to streamline the regulations and also the current stakeholder model.  The Senior Manager explained that this could result in a smaller number of LEA representatives in future.  She spoke of the training that needed to be undertaken by School Governors and added that it was a credit to the Governing Bodies that the number of vacancies was low.

                        Councillor Chris Bithell welcomed the small number of LEA Governor vacancies and suggested that the role was more onerous than it had been in the past.  He asked Members to advise him if they were aware of possible LEA Governor representatives that they could not accommodate on their Governing Bodies but who would be prepared to travel as this may be a way of filling some of the outstanding vacancies.  The Chairman referred to the difficulty in identifying LEA Governor representatives who were not connected to the school that he was a Governor at.  In response, the Senior Manager spoke of the importance of carrying out a School Governing Bodies needs analysis to identify specific areas that appointments could be considered from. 

                        Mrs. Rebecca Stark thanked the Senior Manager for the update and commented on problems in the past because of the long process of appointing LEA Governor representatives.  The Senior Manager confirmed that the panel which had previously been in place to make the appointments was no longer used.  Mrs. Stark welcomed the progress that had been made for filling vacancies.  She sought further information on the total number of vacancies, not just LEA Governor representatives, on School Governing Bodies, and the Senior Manager confirmed that she would contact  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

That the Forward Work Programme, as amended at the meeting, be approved. 

The Education and Youth Overview & Scrutiny Facilitator introduced the report to consider the Forward Work Programme for the Committee. 

            The Facilitator advised that a special meeting of the Committee was to be held on 5^th February 2016 to consider the School Organisational Change for Ysgol Mornant Gwespyr Picton. 

            A joint meeting of this Committee and Social & Health Care Overview & Scrutiny had been held in previous years and the Facilitator suggested that the meeting scheduled for 24^th March 2016 be used for a joint meeting.  This would mean that the report on the Welsh Education Strategic Plan would be submitted to the 25^th February 2016 meeting and the Quarter 3 – Improvement Plan Monitoring Reports would be considered at the 28th April 2016 meeting.

            RESOLVED:

That the Forward Work Programme, as amended at the meeting, be approved. 

                        There were five members of the public and two members of the press in attendance.