Agenda, decisions and minutes

At this point Members are asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on this agenda.

At this point Members were asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they had in the items on the agenda. The following general personal non-prejudicial interests were declared.

Councillor Runciman:            Governor of Joseph Rowntree School

                                                Trustee of the Theatre Royal

Councillor Aspden:                      Governor of Knavesmire Primary School.

                                                Member of National Union of Teachers (NUT)

Teacher at Norton College, Malton, North Yorkshire

Councillor Bradley:                      Governor of Poppleton Ousebank School

Councillor Cuthbertson:            Governor of Headlands Primary School

                                                Governor of Burnholme Community College

Councillor Kind:               Governor of Burnholme Community College

                                                Governor of Haxby Road Primary School

Councillor King:               Governor of Burton Green School

Councillor D’Agorne:            Governor of Fishergate School

                                                Employee at York College

Mr J Bailey:                            Governor of Huntington School

Dr D Sellick:                          Governor of Derwent Infant & Junior School

Ms F Barclay:                        Teacher at All Saints School

                                                ATL Branch Secretary for City of York

Mrs J Ellis:                             Governor of Burton Green Primary School

                                                Governor of Canon Lee School

Ms B Reagan:                     Teacher at Joseph Rowntree School

SENCO Secretary of York association of the National Union of Teachers

The following interests were also declared.

Councillor Runciman declared a general personal non-prejudicial interest, as she was a principal examiner and moderator for Edexcel.

Councillor D’Agorne declared a prejudicial Interest in agenda Item 9 (Young People’s YorKash Fund: 2006/07) and left the room and took no part in the discussions.

Geoff Green a Non-Statutory Co-optee Substitute declared a general personal non-prejudicial interest in that he held various positions with AQA.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 7 December 2006.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 December 2006 be approved and signed as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered their wish to speak regarding an item on the agenda or an issue within the Panel’s remit can do so. Anyone who wishes to register or requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer on the contact details listed at the foot of this agenda. The deadline for registering is Friday 19 January at 10am.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

This report provides information about the current position with regard to vacancies for Local Authority seats on governing bodies, lists current nominations for those vacancies, as detailed in Annex One, and requests the appointment, or re-appointment, of the listed nominees

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

That the Executive Member note the report.

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED:    That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:         To update Members.

Members considered a report which provided information about the current position with regard to vacancies for Local Authority seats on governing bodies, lists current nominations for those vacancies, as detailed in Annex One.

Officers said that there were 11 vacancies for Local Authority Governors. The appointments had been delayed due to the fact that all prospective candidates were going to be meeting with the Head Teacher of the schools in question. This was taking more time than originally anticipated.

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

That the Executive Member note the report.

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED:    That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:         To update Members.

This report is to update members on developments that have taken place in preparation for the introduction of specialised diplomas in September 2008 and to seek support for changes planned. 

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

The Executive Member is recommended to approve the plan for the introduction of specialised diplomas.

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED:    That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:         To work towards requirements which will be statutory in 2013

Members considered an update report on developments that have taken place in preparation for the introduction of specialised diplomas in September 2008.

Officers said that the bid had been submitted but it would not be known until the end of March whether the bid had been accepted or not. Officers brought to Members attention the possible financial and legal implications that may arise. The Lifelong Learning Partnership was committed to finding £150k contribution if the capital bid was successful and the City of York Council could be required to underwrite this from the schools’ formula capital budget.

Officers said that there was a legal requirement for Local Authorities to ensure that in 2013 there was adequate provision across the city for all 14-19 year old learners to access one of the 14 new diploma lines. There were risks in introducing the new diploma lines but these were being managed.

Members queried the definition of ‘small numbers of students’ and ‘larger numbers of students’ as mentioned in paragraph 2 of the report. Officers confirmed that small means about 20 across each level apart from the construction diploma which would give access to about 12. The larger number would be about 100.

Members asked how well the specialised diplomas would be received by employees and Officers responded that there was still a big job to be done but they were working alongside employees regarding this.

Members asked that if one of the five bids failed would this effect the others and Officers responded that they were all separate and could fail or succeed independently of each other.

Members said that moving from offering 5 to 14 specialised diplomas in approximately 5 years was very challenging; Officers agreed with this but stressed that it was a challenge worth taking.

Members queried the credibility of the specialised diplomas in the eyes of the Higher Education establishments, especially universities, and asked how would the Council convince them to accept the diplomas as entrance qualifications. Officers said that the Government wanted to see 50% of young people in Higher Education and that there was a willingness from the Higher Education establishments to take this on board.

Members queried how the diplomas would fit in the light of the Government aiming to raise the school leaving age to 18 by 2013 and Officers stated that the diplomas could help with this, as it would be essential to offer different forms of education and qualifications to achieve this.

Members asked how work based learning would be developed and the Officer said that, locally, the two week work placement could not be sustained in its present form. There would be some amendments made to the guidelines and at levels one and two of the diplomas simulation and workshop experience may replace work-based learning.

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

The Executive Member is recommended to approve the plan for the introduction of specialised diplomas.

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED:    That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49.

This report reviews the progress of the Building Schools for the Future and Primary Schools for the Future (BSF) programmes and recommends to members criteria for prioritisation of the order in which schools should enter the programmes.

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

The Executive Member is advised to approve the criteria for prioritising the order in which the schools should enter the programmes.

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED:       that the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:            to have a strategy for prioritisation in place that would allow DfES to release the funding as it becomes due.

Members considered a report that reviewed the progress of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programmes and recommended to Members criteria for prioritisation of the order in which schools should enter the programmes.

Officers explained that the main concept of the report was about setting criteria rather than the production of a list of schools and their building needs. They were hoping to bring a list of schools to an early summer meeting of the Executive Members for Children’s Services and Advisory Panel. These would be updated annually to reflect any change in needs and circumstances that may occur.

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

The Executive Member is advised to approve the criteria for prioritising the order in which the schools should enter the programmes.

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED:       That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:            To have a strategy for prioritisation in place that would allow DfES to release the funding as it becomes due.

This report details the results of the bidding round for capital support for Extended Schools. The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) have awarded new additional capital funding of £1,010,743 over two years to support schools to extend their services, so that all can provide a minimum of  the five core offers by 2010.

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

That the Executive Member:

1. Give approval for the supported bids to go ahead
2. Recommend that all successful bidders undertake to deliver the outcomes described in their bids with their funding allocation
3. Give approval for the conditional bids to go ahead, providing that schools agree to meet the additional conditions relevant to their project.
4. Recommend that projects currently below the line are further developed with Directorate staff and, if a higher score can be achieved and funding is available, these projects come forward for approval in the quarterly Capital Monitoring reports.

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED: That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:                  To enable the DfES funding to be spent on appropriate projects within the required timescale, to mitigate the risks of overspending against this cash-limited budget, to ensure that DfES and corporate objectives are fulfilled and to ensure that funding is spent within the time limits and best value is achieved.

Members considered a report that detailed the results of the bidding round for capital support for Extended Schools.

Officers drew Members attention towards the fact that they were going to work with those schools whose bids were not successful in this round to work up to a stronger bid should further funding become available.

Members stressed that it was very important that if an area had several of the same kind of facility then one should not lose out over another. Officers said that they were also seeking sensible community agreements so that premises worked together to the best advantage of everybody.

Members expressed concerns that question 10 (Will the monies be used according to the principles of Best Value) on the proforma at Annex 1 of the report was not very useful as few people were going to answer no to the question and a yes response did not tell one very much. Officers said that further guidelines had been issued with the proforma to stop this from happening.

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

That the Executive Member:

1. Give approval for the supported bids to go ahead
2. Recommend that all successful bidders undertake to deliver the outcomes described in their bids with their funding allocation
3. Give approval for the conditional bids to go ahead, providing that schools agree to meet the additional conditions relevant to their project.
4. Recommend that projects currently below the line are further developed with Directorate staff and, if a higher score can be achieved and funding is available, these projects come forward for approval in the quarterly Capital Monitoring reports.

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED: That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:                  To enable the DfES funding to be spent on appropriate projects within the required timescale, to mitigate the risks of overspending against this cash-limited budget, to ensure that DfES and corporate objectives are fulfilled and to ensure that funding is spent within the time limits and best value is achieved.

This paper sets out how the Council may apply for Children’s Play, Big Lottery Funding.  It seeks endorsement of the process followed to identify projects, approval to work up the identified projects for inclusion in the portfolio to be presented to the Big Lottery Fund, approval for the reserve projects and approval for use of the Council’s top-sliced funding.

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

The Executive Member is recommended to:

·           Endorse the process followed to identify projects.

·           Give approval for Officers to work up the identified projects for inclusion in the portfolio to be presented to the Big Lottery Fund.

·           Approve the list of reserve projects

·           Approve the approach set out for use of the Council’s top-sliced funding

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED:             That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:                  To ensure that York delivers a successful portfolio to the Big Lottery to enable our play sector to benefit from the funding on offer.

Members considered a report that set out how the Council may apply for Children’s Play; Big Lottery Funding. It seeks endorsement of the process followed to identify projects, approval to work up the identified projects for inclusion in the portfolio to be presented to the Big Lottery Fund, approval for the reserve projects and approval for use of the Council’s top-sliced funding.

Additional information in the form of an update report was circulated to Members after the agenda had been published. This material was also available for viewing at the meeting. A copy is attached to these minutes.

Officers said that this was a very exciting time for play as the Government was allocating £150 million of funding for projects. York had been allocated just over £320k of this.

Members welcomed the idea as a whole but said that the Council needed to build a comprehensive picture of play areas in order to avoid the same areas getting the funding every time.

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

The Executive Member is recommended to:

·           Endorse the process followed to identify projects.

·           Give approval for Officers to work up the identified projects for inclusion in the portfolio to be presented to the Big Lottery Fund.

·           Approve the list of reserve projects

·           Approve the approach set out for use of the Council’s top-sliced funding

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED:             That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:                  To ensure that York delivers a successful portfolio to the Big Lottery to enable our play sector to benefit from the funding on offer.

This report presents the recommendations of YorKash Panel of young people for distribution of the £170k YorKash Fund.

This year there is £170,000 available for projects for young people in the City. £25k of this comes from Lifelong Learning, and Culture section of City of York Council, £90k comes from the Youth Opportunities Fund (YOF) and £55k from the Youth Capital Fund (YCF), which are both central governments funds. The criteria for the distribution of the funds were based on those agreed at the Leisure and Heritage Committee Meeting of May 2002, but adapted by the YorKash Panel to incorporate the requirements associated with the YOF and YCF as well.

 Advice of the Advisory Panel:

That the Executive Member be advised to approve the proposals from the YorKash Fund as detailed in Annex 1.

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED:    That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:         In order to support young people’s participation and involvement within the City and increase the range of activities and spaces that are open to young people.

Members considered a report that presented the recommendations of YorKash Panel of young people for distribution of the £170k YorKash Fund.

Two panel members from YorKash spoke to Members. They said that there had been a good response to the project and they had met many times to discuss issues ultimately leading to 34 of the applicants receiving funding. The panel of young people had developed the funding criteria, the application form and the publicity for the scheme. The group also organised a press event in the City Centre distributing fortune cookies to young people.

Members expressed their thanks to the panel of young people for their hard work and congratulated them on the wide range of projects funded as well as the geographic cover of the projects chosen.  They said that the application form had obviously been very well designed as the right information appeared in annex 1 of the report.

Members queried the rejection of the application from York Ebor District Scouts on the grounds that it would only benefit a small number of people. They expressed the concern that small groups will often grow into much bigger groups if funding is provided.

Officers and YorKash panel members stated that York Ebor District Scouts had put in more than one bid for funding and had actually been awarded funds for a different project.

It was also announced that Sarah Nicholson was to cover for Carole Pugh whilst she was on maternity leave.

Advice of the Advisory Panel:

That the Executive Member be advised to approve the proposals from the YorKash Fund as detailed in Annex 1.

Decision of the Executive Member:

RESOLVED:    That the advice of the Advisory Panel be accepted and endorsed.

REASON:         In order to support young people’s participation and involvement within the City and increase the range of activities and spaces that are open to young people.