Issue - meetings

1.            Cllr Mary Douglas was unable to attend the meeting but requested that the Committee consider her report on the Children and Young People’s Trust Board.

2.            The Director for DCE was asked to provide a steer on the DCE structure, which had been circulated at the meeting. 

The Director confirmed that a newsletter had been sent to all staff in the department providing an update on the management review.  The key reason that details were not provided earlier was due to the need to conduct in excess of 150 interviews and the Director felt disclosure of the structure would not have been appropriate for those staff affected. 

The newsletter was regularly updated and would be circulated before the next Committee meeting in March.  Members of Committee would be added to the circulation list accordingly.

3.            Visit to Melksham Oak School

The Chairman and several members of the Committee visited the new Melksham Oak School (formerly George Ward) on 13 January where they were shown around by the Deputy Headteacher, Paul Kennedy.

All those in attendance were very impressed by the facilities on offer and recommended that other members of the Committee would benefit from a similar visit.

The Chairman would write to the school thanking them for the tour.

4.            Important Dates for the Diary

i)             Councillor Development event: Collecting Evidence Through Questioning

            A Councillor training event that would be particularly useful to all members of Select Committees, taking place in the Chestnut Room in County Hall on Thursday 3 February from 10:00am to 4:00pm.

ii)            Special Joint Budget Scrutiny

The Special Joint Scrutiny Meeting would take place on Thursday 10 February to consider the Cabinet’s budget proposals for the next financial year.  The meeting would commence at 10:00am and take place in the Council Chamber.  All Councillors were encouraged to attend.

The final budget would be considered by Full Council on 22 February.

iii)           Councillor Development: Community Leadership Workshop

This would be a half-day workshop to update and refresh Councillors on all of the tools and processes available to pursue local issues on behalf of their constituents. 

The event would be held at 2:00pm on 24 February at Monkton Park, Chippenham and again at 2:00pm on 2 March at City Hall, Salisbury.

Subsequent to the meeting taking place the event was postponed.  Further details of the revised date would be circulated once known.

5.            Deferred Items

Small Schools Strategy had been deferred for consideration in March.  This was predominantly due to the national policy picture for small schools which was still unclear and therefore an update at this stage would not have been appropriate.