Venue: By Teams. View directions
Contact: Wyn Richards, Scrutiny Manager and Head of Democratic Services
Items
No. |
Item |
1. |
Apologies
To receive apologies for absence.
Minutes:
Apologies for absence were received from Dr C.
Turner (Chief Executive) and L. Lovell (Interim Chief Education
Officer)
|
2. |
Declarations of interest
To receive declarations of interest from
Members.
Minutes:
There were no declarations of interest from
Members relating to any matters to be considered on the agenda.
|
3. |
Declarations of Party Whip
To
receive disclosures of prohibited party whips which a Member has
been given in relation to the meeting in accordance with Section
78(3) of the Local Government Measure 2011.
(NB: Members are reminded that under Section 78 Members having
been given a prohibited party whip cannot vote on a matter before
the Committee.)
Minutes:
There were no disclosures of prohibited party whips which a
Member has been given in relation to the meeting in accordance with
Section 78(3) of the Local Government Measure 2011.
|
4. |
Scrutiny of the School Transport Policy PDF 150 KB
To scrutinise the School Transport Policy and
to make observations / recommendations to the Cabinet for
consideration.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Documents
Considered:
·
Draft Cabinet Report
·
Revised Home to School Transport Policy
Issues
Discussed:
·
As part of the transformation process, various
policies such as this being reviewed. The areas of change were
highlighted in the draft Cabinet report.
·
Policy (para 1.3 / 1.4) – SEN / ALN –
there is no change to provision. Less detail has been included in
the document.
·
Questions:
Definition of catchment school
– this is still not clear. What is the closest catchment
school and how are distances measured?
|
Measured by the nearest
available route i.e. highway or byway to the school gate, not as
the crow flies.
|
In terms of catchment this does
not make sense. There is a need to make this clearer in the
document as parents will be concerned about this.
|
The catchment area is an
education definition, the transport just provides transport to a
school. This is not a change to the current policy. Some primary
schools flow into individual Secondary Schools, others flow into 1
or more schools. Until the transformation has been sorted out the
existing practice remains in place.
|
There needs to be clarity about
what is the catchment and what school pupils can attend in Powys.
There is an absence of information about what routes are being used
and what this means on the ground. How is this information being
made available to parents.
|
This can be reviewed. There are
details in the admissions process regarding which school a child
can attend, and what might be required is where transport is
available to which school.
|
The concern is that as
transformation progresses, the information becomes more confusing.
Can the GIS (Geographical Information System) information be made
available on the Council's website?
|
The admissions policy should be
driving the transport policy. Any decision on this policy will not
be implemented until September 2021 and the policy will be reviewed
on a regular basis during the transformation process. There is a
need to review that information to parents is accessible and the
policy will come back to scrutiny as transformation
progresses.
|
Is transport provided for LAC
pupils who have moved paid from the education or Social care
budgets? Previously there was an issue where a child moved by
Social Services, taxis were provided paid by the education
budget.
|
From April 2019 the transport
budget was moved from Education to the Transport Section. For
Social care, no transport is arranged without appropriate budget
codes. If urgent it can be provided but there is reconciliation of
budgets later. Para 1.3 of the document also means that where a
child has to be moved for a number of
reasons, the child can be moved to a school outside of the criteria
if it meets their welfare needs.
|
Scrutiny needs more clarity on
the interaction between the transport and social care
budgets.
|
The interest of the child is
always paramount and there is a need to fund any policy
correctly.
|
Social care needs to be mindful
of costs wherever they place a child. ...
view the full minutes text for item 4.
|
|
5. |
Work Programme
The
next meeting of the Committee will be on:
15
June 2020
|
1.00 p.m. to 2.00 p.m.
|
Item: ALN /
SEN
|
Further meetings will be held on:
22
June 2020
|
1.00 p.m. – 2.00 p.m.
|
Item: Briefing on School Transformation
|
6
July 2020
|
1.00 p.m. – 2.00 p.m.
|
|
20
July 2020
|
1.00 p.m. – 2.00 p.m.
|
|
Minutes:
The Committee noted the schedule of meetings
and work programme
|