Issue - meetings

Report by Mr Mark Dance, Cabinet Member for Operations, Resources and Skills, Mr Leyland Ridings, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Educational Achievement, Dr Ian Craig, Interim Managing Director for Children, Families and Education and Mr Keith Abbott, Interim Managing Director for Children, Families and Education)

(Joanna Wainwright of CFE was present for this item)

(1)       This report sought agreement on a model of delivery to be evaluated as part of the pilot phase of the Unit Review and provided a general update on the progress of the implementation of Lead School provision.  Mr Dance spoke about the importance of the County Council working with its partners in order to take this work forward.  He spoke about the work which had already been undertaken during the pilot phase and a working group had now been established to manage the evaluation of the pilot and focus on testing out the key elements of the Review Strategy.  Joanna Wainwright spoke about the successes which the review had brought about and the fact that children now had more ready access to facilities local to their home.  She also spoke about the role of the lead school in helping to provide advice and support to other schools in their area.  The timetable now was that following the evaluation of the pilot phase, a report would be submitted to Cabinet in Autumn 2010 and at the same time, proposals would be presented in respect of Phase 2.

(2)       Cabinet resolved that progress on the Unit Review be noted together with the timetable detailed in paragraph 6 of the Cabinet report.  Cabinet also noted the funding arrangements for the pilot phase and agreed the draft Policy Statement as a working document to be evaluated during the pilot period as detailed in Appendix A to the Cabinet report