Minutes:
12.1Question to the Portfolio Holder with Responsibility for School Dinners from County Councillor Matthew Dorrance
What is the Council doing to ensure that locally grown food is used in School Dinners?
Wherever possible we like to try and use Welsh and local suppliers for the provision of school meals. Currently we use a number of Powys based suppliers, all of our sausages come from Langford’s (The Welsh Sausage Company) based in Welshpool. All of our bottled water and fruit juice for our high schools is supplied by Radnor Hills based in Knighton. We have a few suppliers for fruit and vegetables these are based in Hereford and Forden (Welshpool).
Powys County Council has a number of requirements suppliers need to meet:
· Sufficient volume i.e. be able to supply to all sites within geographical areas of Powys. Schools are supplied a number of times per week with fresh produce; the frequency depends on the size of the school and the storage facilities available. Delivery frequency needs to be 2-3 deliveries per week to all establishments.
· Good quality produce, suppliers need to meet certain criteria as part of a HACCP set up by PCC. Suppliers need to be STS audited by an external auditor to ensure food safety of produce from farm to fork, in line with recommendations from the Pennington report 2005.
· Reasonable price/ mark up (on-costs).
We are in the process of waiting for the NPS (National Procurement Service) Wales to issue invitations to tender to provide local authorities with new food contracts, this is likely to be August 2016. The catering service works with the commercial services team to ensure any new food contracts provide value for money while maintaining quality.
In response to Councillor Dorrance’s supplementary question on whether the Cabinet would undertake a review of school catering to promote local businesses and producers, the Portfolio Holder for Education confirmed that contracts were being looked at.
12.2 Question to the Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Housing from County Councillor Matthew Dorrance
The Welsh Labour Government’s ‘Welsh Housing quality Standard’ has transformed a tired stock into more energy efficient and fit for purpose homes that residents can have pride in. However, our housing estates need the Council to deal with a backlog of work - like resurfacing pathways and cul-de-sacs; fixing fences and cutting hedges; and clearing up graffiti and fly-tipping.
What is the Council’s plan for tackling these issues?
As Councillor Dorrance will be aware the council is investing considerable sums in achieving the Welsh Housing Quality Standard across the county. In the last financial year £14.1 million was spent on improving the homes of tenants and in the current financial year we plan to spend £15.2 million in 2016-17. These funds are predominantly spent on the primary elements of our homes (new kitchens, bathrooms, re-roofing, the installation of external wall insulation, rewiring, new heating systems). Whilst we have a small capital fund (£1 million in 2016-17) to improve secondary elements (works to the immediate environment of our homes) across the county, most of the items that Cllr Dorrance’s question focus on are undertaken as responsive maintenance works.
Resurfacing paths and roads - We inspect these regularly and also respond to reports/complaints from tenants, councillors and members of the public. Where areas need to be resurfaced we do this on a responsive basis. There is no overarching plan to resurface all footways and roadways in the housing stock.
Hedges that Housing are responsible for are – some hedges are included in the grounds maintenance contract and our regularly trimmed by our contractor, however some hedges are the responsibility of tenants to maintain. This contract is currently under review. If there are one off pieces of work that need to be done we look at these on a case by case basis.
Fences – there is no programme to renew fences. These are addressed as a responsive maintenance issue when problems are reported by tenants, councillors and members of the public. We have done and will continue to do the occasional environmental improvement scheme, as and when the need arises and these will from time to time include the replacement of fences.
Graffiti and fly tipping on council estates are treated as a responsive maintenance issue that need to be attended to urgently and so are done on a case by case basis following a report from a tenant, councillor, or member of the public or from an estate inspection undertaken by officers from the housing service.
In response to Councillor Dorrance’s supplementary question asking for a commitment to work with tenants and local members to produce a more robust housing management plan, the Leader advised that he would be allocating the Housing portfolio by the end of the week and that he would arrange for the portfolio holder to contact Councillor Dorrance.
12.3 Question to the Portfolio Holder for Education from County Councillor Gareth Ratcliffe
As you aware Estyn monitors progress in all schools and this ranges from special measures for schools in difficulty, to a light touch regime for the best schools with the majority being in a middle group that are inspected on specific issues. On the 16 March Estyn announced that Gwernyfed High School would no longer be in that middle group but because of the progress made and instead will join High Schools such as Welshpool, Maesydderwen and Crickhowell that do not need any additional monitoring (not special monitoring as had been reported). Can I invite the Cabinet to offer its congratulations to Gwernyfed High School on this achievement?
In response to Councillor Ratcliffe’s question, I can confirm that Estyn carries out an inspection in schools with all schools inspected at least once in a seven year cycle. The level of monitoring depends on the outcome of the inspection. There are five outcomes which are:
· No monitoring
· Monitoring by the Local Authority
· Estyn monitoring which involves a visit by a team of HMI approximately 12-18 months after the original inspection. The purpose is to make a judgement of progress against the core inspection recommendations.
· Significant Improvement with a similar monitoring procedure to schools judged to require Estyn monitoring.
· Special Measures which involves a visit of HMI on a termly basis.
In its core inspection of 2013 Gwernyfed was judged to require Estyn monitoring. The monitoring visit took place early in the Spring Term with the outcome being that Gwernyfed had made sufficient progress to require no further monitoring in relation to the 2013 inspection outcome. This is a pleasing outcome for both the school and the Council and is the result of a great deal of work by the school with support and challenge by the School service and ERW.
The Cabinet congratulates the school on this outcome.
In response to Councillor Ratcliffe’s supplementary question asking for confirmation that the schools modernisation process was for educational purposes only, the Portfolio Holder for Education advised that the process was aimed at improving standards and subject choices to ensure viable education provision for the future.