Agenda and minutes

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Items
No. Item

27.

Declarations of Interest

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest or an Affected Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

28.

Minutes from previous meeting pdf icon PDF 152 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 14 December 2016.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 14 December 2016 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

29.

Restructure of the School Improvement Service pdf icon PDF 153 KB

The Employment Committee is asked to note the restructure and to authorise the redundancy process associated with the restructure.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee was asked to note the restructure proposed for the School Improvement Service and to authorise the redundancy process associated with the restructure.

 

It was reported that the current staffing structure could not deliver on the priorities that had evolved for the team as not all staff had the range of skills required. Government policy was moving at pace towards greater autonomy for schools and moving resources toward being able to deliver a school-driven school improvement system.

 

The current staffing structure included staff with specialisms in PE/sports/PSHE, music/arts and Design and Technology. Whilst these specialisms undoubtedly had an educational value, in the current financial context there was no justification for maintaining these staff in post when the consequence was that support could not be provided in core curriculum areas of maths or meet the needs of disadvantaged pupils.

 

The Council’s budget position, reduction of education grants and the financial impact of schools becoming academies, all add weight to the policy rationale, supporting the case for working towards a new approach for the LA in delivering school improvement.

 

The new structure included two additional posts an EYFS Standards and Effectiveness Partner and a Data Manager.

 

Implementing the new structure would:

·      reflect the Council’s new narrative of prioritising service provision of statutory duties

·      ensure the local authority was reflecting national educational policy and financial requirements to better meet the needs of schools

·      encourage establishing more Teaching Schools who would be brokered to provide subject specific support through the Standards and Effectiveness Partners

·      provide the financial flexibility to respond to needs through the commissioning of additional services as and when required

·      reduce the risks to the organisation of maintaining permanent staff in post for whom there is insufficient work

·      ensure that if redundancy costs need to be met from existing budgets, there is sufficient funding available to achieve this.

 

The new structure will have sufficient capacity to ensure all current statutory duties can continue to be delivered as well as actively providing support to primary and secondary schools in key areas. Statutory duties with regard to monitoring secondary school performance will be conducted through a desk-top exercise as in previous years and where schools cause concern adviser support and challenge will be provided. It will also better position the school improvement service to make a transition into a more commercial delivery model which is currently being scoped through the School Support Services Transformation Project.

 

In response to Members queries, the following points were made:

·         It would be crucial for the new structure to have staff that were credible leaders and could provide effective leadership to schools, this could for example include head teachers.

·         Consultation had begun with trade unions last year and redeployment opportunities for staff would be considered.

·         The local authority would maintain a statutory function for academy schools and would engage in opportunities to sell services to academies.

 

RESOLVED that the Employment Committee agreed that subject to any redeployment opportunities offered to those affected, that the three post holders be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

30.

Exclusion of Public and Press

The Committee RESOLVED that pursuant to Regulation 4 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2012 and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of minute 31 which involved the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972:

 

(3)        Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person.

31.

Urgent Items of Business

Any other items which, pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent.

Minutes:

The Chairman notified the Committee that there was an urgent item that required the Committee’s consideration and that an exempt paper had been tabled for the Committee to consider.

 

The Committee asked that an update be submitted to them in September 2017 on this postponed redundancy.

 

RESOLVED that the redundancy of the Chief Officer: Older People and Long Term Conditions be postponed for a period of no more than 12 months.   

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk