To receive from Members any declarations and the nature thereof in relation to:-

(a)    personal interests in any agenda item

(b)    personal and prejudicial interests in any agenda item

(c)     any political whip in relation to any agenda item.

To consider the viability and suitability of the service reconfiguration and reduction proposals relating to the Children’s Services Directorate.

Members considered the report of the Portfolio Holder Finance, Governance and People that gave Members the opportunity to consider the viability and suitability of the service reconfiguration and reduction proposals relating to the Children’s Services Directorate.

In accordance with the Public Participation Procedure as set out in paragraph 2 of Annex 1 of Part A4 of the Constitution, the Chairman invited those members of the public who had registered to speak.  Each speaker was permitted a maximum of three minutes. 

The first speaker highlighted the views of parents with deaf and visually impaired children who would be significantly impacted by the outlined saving proposals detailed in Appendix B(i), Section CS4 – Special Education Needs – Service Reductions.

The second and third speaker referred to the saving proposals CS5 – Remodelling of Services to Young People including the Youth Service – Service Reduction.  The first speaker read out a letter from a 16 year old who had written about the help that had been provided through the youth service and raised concerns over volunteers taking over the running of such services.  The second speaker spoke of concerns about safeguarding children.

Members considered the following four savings proposals:-

CS4 – Special Education Needs – Service Reductions

The proposal for service change was to retain a small core team to discharge statutory duties with schools taking greater responsibility for provision of services to pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN).  Whilst Members reluctantly endorsed the general direction of service delivery as set out in this proposal, they also requested the Director of Children’s Services to take on board the following comments and refer such to the Executive. The Committee also requested that the Executive feedback its response to such comments to the next meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee:

(i)      the Committee found it very difficult to assess the implications of the proposal without a concise definition of the phrase “truly vulnerable” and suggested that without such a definition an informed decision could not be reached;

(ii)     it was the Committee’s opinion that there was insufficient detail contained within the proposal to assess its full consequences on service delivery;

(iii)    as a result of the two previous comments, it was the Committee’s opinion that the saving proposed in year 2 (i.e. 2012/13) of £272k should not proceed without a much more detailed report to the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, which would describe the implications of the proposal on service delivery (the Committee was content however to support the Director of Children’s Services in implementing the saving proposal of £128k in 2011/12).

Members requested a recorded vote on the above comments before recommending them to the Executive:

Votes in favour of the recommendation:  Councillors Mrs Barker, Bowater, Mrs Gurney, Hollick, Jamieson and Street.

Votes against the recommendation:  Mr Landman and Ms Copley.

Those abstained:  Councillors Blaine and Mrs Goodchild.

RECOMMENDED

that the Executive notes the Overview & Scrutiny Committee’s reluctant endorsement of the general direction of service delivery as set out in the proposal, whilst responding to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.