Minutes:
(a) Although unable to attend the meeting, a welcome was given to Mr Chris Dark, Head of Matravers School, who replaced Mr Gerard McMahon as the Committee’s Secondary Schools Headteachers Representative.
(b) Welcome to Mrs Alice Kemp who was elected as this Committee’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) Parent Governor Representative following a ballot of parent governors in Wiltshire. Mrs Kemp is a parent governor of St Nicholas Special School in Chippenham. She will also have membership of the Schools Forum and the Admissions Forum.
(c) Thank you to all who attended the 13-19 Strategy Seminar given by Julie Cathcart and Mike Perry in December.
On 1 April 2010, statutory duty for the planning and commissioning of 16-19 learning will pass from the Learning and Skills Council to the Local Authority as part of legislative changes. This is a huge area of work and Julie Cathcart has agreed to bring a report to March’s meeting, providing an overview of what the Department is doing in preparation for taking on this new function.
(d) Due to the length of the agenda for this meeting, the following non-urgent items were deferred until the next meeting in March:
Annual Report of the Local Safeguarding Children Board
Update on the Multi-Agency Transitions Protocol
(e) At the November meeting an overview of pupil performance was considered. Some revised performance marks were not available at the meeting and members requested to receive these figures at the meeting today.
As there has been little change other than some upward adjustment to the Key Stage 4 and Post-16 results rather than a full report the updated figures have been circulated. A copy can be found attached to these minutes.
(f) Henry Powell, Senior Scrutiny Officer supporting the Children’s Services Select Committee, is currently on leave. Ashley Matthews will be supporting us for this meeting.
(g) We were joined at the last meeting by members of the Trowbridge Youth Parliament. They have forwarded on some further questions for members. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman will co-ordinate a response and a copy of the questions will be circulated to all members of the Committee.
(h) At its meeting on 14 January, the Health and Adult Social Care Select Committee considered some proposed changes to the arrangements for Burns Care for Children and Young People in Wiltshire. Cllr Pip Ridout provided a brief update as follows:
The Committee considered the proposals to rationalise Burn Care for Adults and Children for Wiltshire people, introduced by Jeff James, Chief Executive NHS Wiltshire.
In summary, the proposals are that Salisbury will provide burns care for all residents (adults and children) except for the very severe burns where care will be provided at Frenchay for children, and in Swansea for adults.
Burn care for children is quite different to that for adults and so the services are allocated separately. The numbers of Wiltshire residents experiencing severe burns is very low (less than 10 adults and less than 5 children in any three year period) so the vast majority of care will continue to be provided within Wiltshire.
The Committee was satisfied with the proposals made and supported the plan for the designation process to be completed by March 2010, allowing all four services to be fully functioning in their roles by April 2010.
(i) The Special Joint Overview and Scrutiny meeting to consider and comment on the Cabinet’s budget proposals will take place on 16 February at 10.30am in the Council Chamber, Trowbridge. Councillors are encouraged to attend where possible.