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  • Agenda and minutes
  • Agenda and minutes

    Venue: Darent Room, Sessions House, County Hall, Maidstone. View directions

    Contact: Christine Singh  01622 694334

    Media

    Items
    Note No. Item

    10.00 am

    21.

    Membership

    To note that Mr M J Vye has replaced Mr I S Chittenden as a member of this Committee and that Mr Critchley has been appointed as a Parent Governor Representative. 

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    RESOLVED that Mr M J Vye had replaced Mr I S Chittenden as a member of this Committee and that Mr B Critchley had been appointed as a Parent Governor Representative be noted

    22.

    Declarations of Interests by Members in items on the Agenda for this meeting

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Mr M J Whiting declared an interest in Item B6 as his employer was a sponsor of the Spires Academy, Sturry, Canterbury. Mr Long made a declaration of interest in Item B1 as a Director of the Integrated Services Programme.

    23.

    Minutes - 19 November 2009 pdf icon PDF 154 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2009 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

    10.10-10.20 am

    24.

    Financial Monitoring Report pdf icon PDF 416 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (Report by Mr K Abbott, Director, Resources and Planning Group and Mr G Ward, Director, Capital and Infrastructure Group)

     

    (1)         The Committee considered the fifth report on the forecast outturn against budget for the Children Families and Education (CFE) Directorate for 2009/10 financial year, which was based on the third full quarterly monitoring report that had been presented to the Cabinet on 29 March 2010.

     

    (2)         The Chairman asked Mr Abbott and Mr Ward to introduce the report.

     

    (3)         Mr Abbott highlighted the key issues in the revenue budget, which included that the Directorate predicted an underspend of £2,001k (excluding Schools and Asylum), which was a movement of £1m since in the last report to the Committee.  The two key factors for this was; SEN Transport where a lot of transport runs were cancelled due to the prolonged period of heavy snow, and the impact of the contract negotiations being carried out by the Passenger Transportation Unit.  There was an increase in the underspend of over £½m, which reflected the continuing difficulty to recruit Social Workers.    Although the Asylum funding was not reflected in the £2m underspend of the Directorate there was the significant change on the position of Asylum funding. The forecast shortfall had been reduced by just over £1m, which was a direct result of the conclusions in the negotiations with the UK Border Agency (UKBA).  UKBA had agreed to payback £2.3m, in respect of the additional costs incurred in 2008/9/10, half of that was reflected in the 2009/10 financial year was now reflected in the forecast.  He concluded that the final figures for the schools reserves would be submitted to the Committee in the Summer.

     

    (4)         Mr Ward then spoke on the key aspects reflected in the capital budget advising that the figures reflected the position statement at the end of December 2009.  The figures also reflected the cash limit adjustments that were made as part of the County Council Budget, which left a figure that suggested a £99k overspend on the capital programme, which was covered by the revenue contribution, this did mask the previous levels of slippage which had been adjusted as it moved along the formal approval process for the new capital programme.  One of the challenges now until the end of the year was the impact of the adverse weather and what it had done to a significant number of the building schemes, whilst special schools were being rolled out the delay had caused in slippage in expenditure but more challenging the impact it had on planned openings of schools.  He advised that colleagues in Corporate Property and some schools had to work through new time lines to ensure the schools could open at the start of the academic new year.

     

    (5)         Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments which included the following:

     

    (6)         In response to questions by Mr Tolputt, Mr Abbott advised that; the figure of £6m was the forecast of the reserves that schools would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.

    10.20-10.40 am

    25.

    Deputy Cabinet Member and Service Directors' Update

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (Verbal report by Mr G Cooke, Deputy Cabinet Member, Resources Capital Programme and Infrastructure, Mr K Abbott, Director, Resources and Planning Group and Mr G Ward, Director, Capital and Infrastructure Group)

     

    (1)         The Chairman asked Mr Cooke to give his verbal update.  Mr Cooke advised the Committee of the visits he and the other Deputy Cabinet Members had made to various Kent primary and secondary schools, including schools that were part of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF), moving into special measures or struggling.  He stated that he had visited primary schools that had a great need but with a limited primary capital programme.  He felt that there was a missed opportunity as there seemed to be an unlimited resource in BSF.  The work of BSF was understood but the work with children began with early years and at primary school, through the quality of the teachers.  He took the opportunity to advise that Ms Andrea Chapman Headteacher of Lydd Primary School had been reinstated.   The Committee agreed that a letter being sent to Ms Chapman regarding her reinstatement.

     

    (2)         Mr Cooke then spoke on school admissions and advised that 94% of primary and secondary school children had been offered a school of their choice and 80% were going to their first school of choice. 

     

    (3)         Mr Abbott referred to the three Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) publications that were published in March 2010 for consultation, in particular publication 1 - School Funding and publication 2 - The Distribution of School Funding, which he felt would be tricky to respond to as the closing date for comments was a month after the date of the general election and he felt that the outcome of the general election would effect what was in some of the proposals. He stated that there was more concern with the consultation on the Distribution of School Funding as the DCSF was looking to change the methodology and how it effectively distributed the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) between the English local authorities at the same time looking to no longer allocate specific grants and mainstreaming them by taking the grants and adding them into the DSG so that there was more flexibility in spending the money and less ring fencing.  This authority had always pushed for this but there was concern about the national redistribution of schools funding that happened at the same time as mainstream specific grants as Kent schools always lost out on both counts in terms of the national distribution as they tended to move away from the South and South East and if the specific grants were included they would be caught up in this process. This would be closely monitored.  Mr Abbott added that the papers set out the five key items that the DCSF wanted to base the distribution on, there was no indication in the proposals as to the proportion that those five elements made up the distribution, so it would be difficult to gauge a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

    10.40-11.40 am

    26.

    Home to School Transport pdf icon PDF 73 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (Report by Mr G Ward, Director of Capital Programme & Infrastructure, Mr

    K Abbott, Director of Resources & Planning and Mrs S Hohler, Cabinet Member for Children, Families & Education)

     

    (1)         Members received a report produced in response to a request for a factual overview of the CFE Directorate’s transport budget, excluding the Special Educational Needs (SEN) transport provision, which was being reviewed by the Informal Member Group for SEN Transport established by this Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

     

    (2)         Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to make comments and ask questions which included the following:

     

    (3)         In response to a question by Mr Vye, Mr Ward advised that there were figures available on children from low income families, which he would provide to the Committee outside the meeting.

     

    (4)         In reply to a question by the Chairman, Mr Abbott advised that the number of children with freedom passes had made a saving of £1m against the mainstream budget, which was built into the budget last September 2009.

     

    (5)         RESOLVED that:

     

    (a) the figures available on children from low income families be forwarded to the Committee; and

     

    (b) the responses to questions and comments by Members and the report be noted.

     

     

    11.40-12.00 am

    27.

    CFE Strategic Action Plan for Equalities pdf icon PDF 87 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (Mrs J Wainwright, Director, Commissioning and Partnerships, Mrs R Turner, Managing Director, and Mrs S Hohler, Cabinet Member for Children, Families & Education)

    (Mrs A Agyepong, Equality & Diversity Manager and Mrs J Wainwright, Director, Commissioning and Partnerships were present for this item)

     

    (1)         The Committee discussed a report that outlined the aims of an updated draft Equality and Diversity Strategic Action Plan 2010-2013.

     

    (2)         The Chairman asked that Mrs Wainwright introduce the report.  Mrs Wainwright explained that it was important that this report was produced and before Members now as KCC was committed to equalities and diversity and there was a need for a Strategy to plan and implement the work across the Directorate.  Reports of this kind were also essential in the inspections that apply across the County Council and as part of the Comprehensive Area Assessment and other inspection processes.  KCC had made a commitment to achieve excellence, under the Equality Framework for Local Government during 2011, a higher rating than currently held across the County Council. The Children, Families and Education Directorate was working toward providing the necessary environment to achieve excellence.  The report gave a series of examples and a strategic action plan over a number of years on how this would be achieved.

     

    (3)         Mrs Agyepong highlighted the five key areas of performance within the strategic action plan and gave examples of work being carried out in those areas as follows:

     

    ·         Knowing your community and equality mapping;

    ·         Place shaping leadership, partnership and organisational   commitment;

    ·         Community engagement and satisfaction;

    ·         Responsive services and customer care;

    ·         Modern and Diverse Workforce.

     

    (4)         Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments which included the following:

     

    (5)         In response to questions by Mr Critchley, Mrs Agyepong advised that measuring best practise would be carried out by looking across KCC and across several partners to see how new ways of working were being developed, which could then be implemented across the County.  She gave the example of colleagues based in a Children’s Centre in Ashford who were developing a framework for questions that needed to be asked for children who came from families where English was a second language as they began to enter the education system.  They had been doing this piece of work just for their Centre and had not thought about other parts of Kent that were experiencing the same issue  that they could share that practise to produce good outcomes for the children.  Mrs Agyepong said that she had worked with them to pull the framework together and linked them back to the Early Years Team so that once this was piloted the practise could be shared more widely and the impact it had measured. 

    (6)         Mrs Agyepong said that work was being undertaken to look at the Customer Impact Assessments to ensure that the people who needed our services could access them taking into account the equality measure.

     

    (7)         In response to a question by Mr Vye, Mr Abbott stated that for future meetings the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27.

    12.00-12.15 pm

    28.

    Informal Member Group on SEN Transport - Verbal Update

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (Verbal update by Mr G Ward, Director of Capital and Infrastructure Group)

     

    (Mr G Horne, MBE, Chairman of Informal Member Group for Special Educational Needs Transport (IMG SEN) was also present for this item)

     

    (1)         The Chairman asked Mr Ward to begin with his presentation to the Committee.  Mr Ward advised the Committee of the work that had been carried out by the IMG, which included interviewing Mr Harlock, Commercial Services Director on contract letting and Mr Myers, Parent Governor Representative on the Children, Families and Education Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committees and the parent of a child attending Valence School, Westerham. The IMG had also been looking into a scheme run by Manchester City Council for independence training as an alternative to a child with Special Educational Needs being taxied to and from school and problems arising when the child left education and was not as independent as they could be.  Three officers from KCC were presently visiting Manchester City Council to speak with parents and officers on how the scheme was working.  The outcome of this visit would be reported at the next meeting.

     

    (2)         The IMG was also making enquires on schools that arranged their own school transport contract such as Goldwyn Special School, which seemed to produce a consistent service through having the same drivers and escorts, which from the evidence seemed to improve attendance and attainment, and whether this would be an option for other special schools.  Mr Tolputt added that another advantage of the schools arranging their own transport was the pupils would not be restricted by time, under the constraints of taxis, allowing them in attending after school activities.

     

    (3)         Mr Horne added that the IMG had agreed to observe the transport arriving at a special school to see the transport requirements in practical terms.  He felt that the review was not about saving money it was to ensure that the right support was in place by looking at all the options, giving young people with a disability their rightful share of educational opportunities.

     

    (4)         Mr Critchely requested that the time of transition of contracts be specifically looked at as there had been serious issues that had occurred during the times of transition which could have been thought about within the contract eg knowing the routes.  Mr Ward said that this was noted and would form part of future contract renewals.

     

    (5)         In response to a question by Mr Whiting, Mr Cooke advised that there was an ongoing Special Schools Review, which looked to ensure that the appropriate provision was made for children with special needs.  The IMG was set up to look at the budget for SEN Transport and whether there were ways of, whilst maintaining the service, making savings.  There were issues that had been drawn out by the IMG including supporting independence, which could have implications for the whole Council.

     

    (6)         RESOLVED that:

     

    (a)   the responses to comments and questions made by Members be noted;

     

    (b)   the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 28.

    12.15-12:30 pm

    29.

    Future visits to Building Schools for the Future sites and Academies- Verbal report

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (Verbal update by Mr G Ward, Director, Capital and Infrastructure Group)

     

     

    (1)         Mr Ward remind Members that at the last meeting there was a discussion where Members had indicated that they wished to visits  some of the new schools facilities.  He urged the Committee when arranging a schedule of visits to have a cross section of schools not just those in the Building Schools for the Future Programme.

     

    (2)         The Chairman suggested, and the Committee agreed to, the Deputy Cabinet Member and the Chairman drawing up a list of schools for the Committee to visit.

     

    (3)         In response to comments by Mrs Rook and Mr Smith, Mr Ward felt that the visits were necessary as a lot of funding had been committed to schools and Members needed to be clear about what they wanted, had been delivered. The Chairman said that Mrs Rook and Mr Smith had made valued comments as resources needed to be considered and duplication of visits with other Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committees avoided when arranging the visits.  He envisaged that the list of schools would be short and varied to give Members comparisons throughout Kent.

     

    (4)         RESOLVED that:

     

    (a)   the Chairman and the Deputy Cabinet Member draw up a list of schools for the Committee to visit be noted; and

     

    (b)   the responses to comments and question by Members and the verbal report be noted.

    12:30-12:40 pm

    30.

    Select Committee - Update pdf icon PDF 50 KB

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    (Report by Mr P Wickenden, Overview, Scrutiny and Localism Manager)

     

    (1)   The Committee considered a report that detailed the progress to establish the Select Committee on Extended Services and sought suggestions for future reviews to be included on the Select Committee Topic Review Programme during the period of November 2010 and January 2011.

     

    (2)   RESOLVED that:

     

    (a)   suggestions for Select Committee Topic Reviews be forwarded to  the Democratic Services Officer; and

     

    (b)   the report be noted.