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E-mail

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Telephone

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Postal Address

Shropshire Council
Shirehall
Abbey Foregate
Shrewsbury
Shropshire
SY2 6ND

Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Shrewsbury/Oswestry Room, Shirehall, Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, SY2 6ND. View directions

Contact: Tim Ward  Committee Officer

Items
No. Item

27.

Apologies and Substitutions

To receive apologies for absence from Members of the Committee

Minutes:

27.1    Apologies for absence were received from Kevin Turley and Peter Cherrington

 

The Chairman advised that Item 8 – Shropshire Children’s Centre Update would be taken after Members Questions

 

 

28.

Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

Members are reminded they must not participate in the discussion or vote on any matter in which they have a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and should leave the room prior to the commencement of the debate.

Minutes:

28.1There were no interests declared

29.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 112 KB

The minutes of the last meeting, held on 20 July 2016 , are attached for confirmation.

Minutes:

29.1    The minutes of the meeting held on 20 July 2016 had been circulated

 

29.2    RESOLVED:-

 

That the minutes of the meeting of the Young Peoples Scrutiny Committee held on 20 July 2016 be accepted as a true record and signed by the Chairman

30.

Public Question Time

To receive any public questions or petitions from the public, notice of which has been given in accordance with Procedure Rule 14.  The deadline for this meeting is 5.00pm on Friday 9 September 2016

 

Minutes:

30.1    There were no public questions

31.

Members' Question Time

To receive any questions of which Members of the Council have given notice.

 

Deadline for notification: 5.00pm on Friday 9 September 2016

Minutes:

31.1    The following questions had been received from Councillor Roger Evans

 

1. I have recently been sent a copy of a message sent to certain selected Councillors in July. I was not on the list and have only seen this message in the last few days.

 

I note in the message it says the LA is fully supportive of this application. Can it be confirmed if this is the case or not. If the statement is true why the “LA is fully supportive” of this application and the confirmation that the LA will “commission 50 places with an additional 10 nursery places being available”.

 

Response

 

The Children and Families Act places a duty on local authorities to ‘keep under review its education provision…. made in its area for children and young people who have special educational needs or a disability.’ (DfE. (2014). Children and Families Act 2014 c. 6 Part 3 Section 27)

 

As part of this review the LA is supportive of the Shrewsbury Academy Trust (SAT) free school bid to develop specialist provision in Shrewsbury. Working with the SAT to develop this provision will be a cost effective means ensuring that the LA is able to meet its statutory duty.  

 

It is anticipated that the LA will commission between 50 and 60 places across the 5 to 16 age range by the end of the second year of operation. The LA will keep this under review and adjust, if necessary, to ensure both sufficiency of places and value for money.  The LA will also quality assure its full range of SEND provision through monitoring of outcomes for children and young people with SEND, particularly with regard to outcomes relating to Preparation for Adulthood (PFA). This is in line with the duties placed on local authorities within the Children and Families Act.

 

Recent discussion between the LA and SAT has meant that there are currently no plans to develop nursery provision at this stage.  The LA does not believe that there is a need for centralised specialist provision for this age group with this level of need. The LA are seeking to place children aged between 0 and 5 years within mainstream nursery/early years provision within local communities where possible.

 

The Parent and Carer Council (PACC) are supportive of this application and have been informed of, and are involved in, the initial planning of this development. This is in line with the duty placed on local authorities to involve parents (and young people) in strategic decision making when planning provision for SEND.

 

The provision is intended to meet the needs of children with complex SEN. It will cater mainly for children with a moderate to severe learning difficulty whose needs cannot be met appropriately in a mainstream setting. This may be because of very low levels of cognitive functioning and/or because they have additional needs that mean that they are not able to function independently within a mainstream environment. These pupils require a curriculum that provides opportunity to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

32.

Shropshire Children's Centres - 2016 /17 update pdf icon PDF 193 KB

The report of the Service Manager is attached

Additional documents:

Minutes:

32.1    The Committee received the report of the Commissioning Service Manager which provided an update on Children’s Centres in Shropshire covering current developments and the future direction of travel

 

32.2    The Commissioning Service Manager reminded members that there were currently 12 Children’s Centre Areas across the county.  She outlined the services provided and reminded Members that the Children’s Centres played a key part in the delivery of the priorities set out in the Early Help Strategy

 

32.3    The Commissioning Service Manager introduced Chris Reeves, Chair of the South Shropshire Children’s Centre Advisory Board and Adam Roberts, Chair of the North West Shropshire Children’s Centre Advisory Board who updated Members on developments within their areas.

 

32.4    The Commissioning Service Manger then introduced Mrs Jackie Griffin who gave an account of her experiences of using Children’s Centre Services.  Mrs Griffin commented that the help she had received from staff had been invaluable and that she did not know how she would have coped without it.

 

32.5    A Member asked for further details of partnership working.  The Commissioning Service Manager advised that there were currently a range of arrangements which included: -

 

·         Co-facilitation where staff worked alongside staff from other agencies

·         Joint Commissioning

·         Joint use of Volunteers

 

32.6    A Member commented that he had been involved in the development resilient community in Oswestry and asked for an update on how it was working.  The Commissioning Service Manager informed the meeting that feedback had been very positive and that the opportunity to work with partners to develop a “one stop shop” had been key to this.

 

32.7    The Chairman thanked Mr Reeves, Mr Roberts and Mrs Griffin for attending the meeting and relating their experiences.

 

32.8    RESOLVED:

 

            That the Scrutiny Committee note the contents of the report

33.

Impact of Budget Cuts on Services

To receive a presentation from the Director of Children’s Services

 

Minutes:

33.1    The meeting received a presentation from the Director of Children’s Services (copy attached to the signed minutes) which set out the budget proposal for the financial year 2016 – 17 and the saving that were being proposed.

 

33.2    In her presentation the Director of Children’s Services reminded Members of the savings that needed to be made, the principles underpinning the decisions that were being made and the key areas for savings and the potential impact on services.  She also outlined the main pressures which may mean that the savings are not achieved.

 

33.3    In response to a question regarding how the Council could continue to monitor and influence school performance the Service Manager Education Improvement & Efficiency advised that this would become increasingly difficult as capacity to support schools was reduced and there was a move for Councils to step away from school improvement.

34.

Proposed Recoupment of Academy Conversion Costs pdf icon PDF 123 KB

The report of the Director of Children’s Services is attached

Minutes:

34.1    The meeting received the report of the Director of Children’s Services which set out proposals for the introduction of a charge to converting schools to cover Council costs, to be charged against the Government grant they receive for costs relating to the conversion process.

 

34.2    The Director of Children’s Services advised Members that a report was being taken to Cabinet proposing the introduction of a charge of £5000 to schools that were converting to Academy status to cover the Councils administrative costs, which previously had been borne by the relevant department.

 

34.3    In response to a query the Director of Children’s Services confirmed that the charge would be paid out of the grant that a school receives from the DfE to cover costs relating to the setting up of the Academy and would not affect the school budget.

 

34.4    RESOLVED:

 

            That Members support the proposal to introduce a charge to recoup the Council’s costs in relation to the academy conversion process.

 

35.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 61 KB

The current Scrutiny Work Programme and Cabinet Forward Plan are attached.

 

Members are asked to consider whether there are any other items they wish to be added to the work programme

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

35.1    The current Scrutiny Committee Work Programme and Cabinet forward Plan had been circulated.

 

35.2    A Member suggested that in item on Education Access be added to the work Programme

 

35.3    The Director of Children’s Services suggested that following the item on Children’s centres Members may like to receive one of the interactive sessions on Understanding Your Child.  This was welcomed by Members

 

35.4    The Chairman asked Members to let her know if there was any other topic that they wished to be added to the work programme

36.

Date of Next Meeting

Members are reminded that the next scheduled meeting of the Committee will be held on Wednesday 14 December 2016

Minutes:

36.1    Members were reminded that the next scheduled meeting of the Committee would be held on Wednesday 14 December 2016

 

 

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