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City of York Council |
Committee Minutes |
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Meeting |
Decision Session - Executive Member for Economy and Culture |
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Date |
22 October 2024 |
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Present |
Councillor Kilbane (Executive Member) |
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Officers in attendence |
Angela Padfield - Head of Adult Learning Service, York Learning Pauline Stuchfield – Director of Housing and Communities |
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4. Declarations of Interest (11:02am)
The Executive Member was asked to declare, at this point in the meeting, any disclosable pecuniary interests, or other registerable interests he might have in respect of business on the agenda, if he had not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests. None were declared.
5. Minutes (11:02am)
Resolved: That the minutes of the previous meeting held on 24 September 2024 be approved and then signed as a correct record by the Executive Member.
6. Public Participation (11:03am)
It was reported that there had been one registration to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.
Flick Williams spoke on item 4, regarding language contained in the report and links to culture related to the Social Model of Disability.
7. York Learning Strategic Plan 2024-2025 (11:06am)
The Executive Member considered a report presented by the Head of Adult Learning Service - York Learning, which highlighted strategic aims, and requested his approval.
The Executive Member praised the work that York Learning did, noting that it was externally funded to the City of York Council budget, and he commended it as an essential life-enhancing service, suggesting that the Combined Authority may be able to provide some financial relief to the service going forward. He concurred with the report that further venues needed to be sought for the service to operate.
Further to a suggestion raised in the public participation, the Executive Member agreed that language does matter, requesting care be taken to exclude any ablist language from this report and specifically a change be made to a sentence in paragraph 17 of the report, which improperly used the term “the disabled”. He said that this alienating terminology put the emphasis on individuals concerned rather than on society as a whole. He further suggested that “Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)” was a potentially problematic term, as various people learn differently and there is arguably nothing “special” about requiring a differing approach.
The Executive Member suggested further work could be done with the Job Centre to make it feel less punitive and more of a place that helps people. The Head of Adult Learning Service responded that York Learning were sending people into the Job Centre every week to work with people on skills, and that they worked closely with the Job Centre on setting up job fairs to catch people who are unemployed as well as recent graduates.
Resolved: To approve the York Learning Strategic Service Plan for 2024-2025, subject to any suggested changes.
Reason: This helps monitor the service, provides sound governance arrangement for York Learning Services and agrees that the received funding aims to meet residents’ needs.
Cllr P Kilbane, Executive Member
[The meeting started at 11.01 am and finished at 11.24 am].