Agenda and minutes

At this point, Members are asked to declare:

·        any personal interests not included on the Register of Interests

·        any prejudicial interests or

·        any disclosable pecuniary interests

which they may have in respect of business on this agenda.

At this point in the meeting, Members were asked to declare any personal interests not included on the register of interests, any prejudicial interests or disclosable pecuniary interests which they might have had in respect of the business on the agenda.

No interests were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 21 November 2012.

Discussion took place in relation to Minute Item 29 from the last meeting of the Committee held on 21 November 2012.

Members of the York Museums Trust Scrutiny Review Task Group (Councillors Fitzpatrick, Taylor and Watson) made comments about the outcome of the decision made by the Cabinet about the Review’s Final Report.

It was noted that the Cabinet had decided that the recommendations from the York Museums Trust Review Final Report should be delegated to be made by the Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism.

Members agreed that the decision on whether to accept the Final Report’s recommendations should be made by the Cabinet Member at a public Decision Session meeting.

RESOLVED:                That the minutes of the meeting of the Learning and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 21 November 2012 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting, members of the public who have registered their wish to speak on an item on the agenda or an issue within the committee’s remit can do so.

Anyone who wishes to register or who requires further information is requested to contact the Democracy Officer for this meeting, details of whom are listed at the foot of this agenda.

The deadline for registering to speak is 5.00pm the working day before the meeting, in this case 5.00pm on Tuesday 22 January 2013.

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

The Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture & Tourism will be attending the meeting to provide a progress update on her priorities and challenges for this municipal year.  An extract from the minutes of the last meeting she attended, providing information on those priorities and challenges is attached for Members information.

Due to the non attendance of the Cabinet Member, full consideration of this item did not take place at the meeting. The Chair suggested that if Members of the Committee had any questions that related to the extract from the minutes from the previous attendance of the Cabinet Member in April 2012, which were attached to the agenda, that they might wish to email the Cabinet Member.

Members are asked to consider the scoping report for scrutiny review of Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance for young people in schools and colleges and decide whether or not they wish to proceed with a scrutiny review of the topic proposed by Cllr D’Agorne.

Members received a scoping report into a proposed scrutiny review of Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) for young people in schools and colleges.

Officers highlighted to Members a  forthcoming report of an OFSTED thematic review into CEIAG. They reported that OFSTED had visited two schools in York and had been impressed on the collaboration between the schools and the Local Authority, in relation to CEIAG.

Officers reported that following the release of the OFSTED report they would report feedback received from schools to Members. Some Members pointed out that if the provision of careers education differed between all schools in York, then Officers should be wary of using conclusions from the OFSTED report.

It was noted that Councillor D’Agorne who had submitted the scrutiny topic, approved of the suggested areas of enquiry set out in the Officer’s report, and that he would like to be involved in the review.

Having considered the suggested review scope detailed in the report, Members agreed that it might also be useful to look at:

·        How teachers could be provided with the most up to date guidance and information on careers and education, as due to time constraints, they were often unable to provide a consistent level of CEIAG.

·        The role that employers could play in providing information and guidance to young people.

Members set up a Task Group to carry out the review on their behalf and agreed the following remit for the review:

‘To assess the standard of CEIAG for young people in York, and where appropriate identify improvements’

RESOLVED:       (i)      That the report be noted.

(ii)      That a Task Group be formed with the following remit;

“To assess the standard of guidance for young people in York and where appropriate identify improvements.”

(iii)     That the membership of the Task Group be comprised of the following Members;

·        Councillor Fitzpatrick

·        Councillor Scott

·        Councillor Reid

(iv)     That Councillor D’Agorne be called as an expert witness by the Task Group as required.

(v)     That the review be added to the Committee’s work plan.

REASON:            To ensure compliance with scrutiny procedures, protocols and the Committee’s annual work plan.

This report, jointly prepared by the Assistant Director for Children’s Specialist Services and the Chair of City of York Safeguarding Children Board [CYSCB] updates the committee on national and local developments over the past six months

Members received a Bi- Annual Safeguarding Update report from the Chair of the City of York Safeguarding Children Board. It was noted that as a result of a number of Serious Case Reviews, the Police had established a major specialist enforcement agency to investigate cases of Child Sexual Exploitation and other associated issues. The Committee were pleased to learn that the Police’s Vulnerable Persons Unit would be based in West Offices alongside Council officers.

Discussion took place around the early intervention work of the Family Support Service to prevent the escalation of emerging problems in families, in an effort to reduce the number of children and young people requiring higher levels of specialist intervention.

The Committee agreed that:

·        Safeguarding was a key political issue, in that it affected everyone.

·        There was a need for greater information sharing between all agencies.

·        A Member Training Session on the results of Serious Case Reviews and the work undertaken by the Vulnerable Persons Unit would be beneficial.

·        Although York had been praised for its excellent partnership working on safeguarding in its last OFSTED report, all involved in safeguarding in the city should not get complacent.

RESOLVED:       (i)      That the report be noted.

(ii)      That a high level summary of key lessons learned from case reviews be included in a future Safeguarding briefing to the Committee.

(iii)     That feedback and emerging practice implications from the Neglect Conference be presented to a future meeting of the Committee.

(iv)    That the CYSCB’s revised monitoring and performance framework be presented in a future briefing to the Committee.

(v)     That as part of future safeguarding briefings, the Committee receive an update on the impact of the Integrated Family Service.

(vi)    That future Member Training or Awareness Sessions take place on safeguarding issues, in particular surrounding recommendations from Serious Case Reviews and the work of the Police Vulnerable Persons’ Unit.

REASON:                     For Members to be fully informed on key children’s safeguarding issues in York.

Members are asked to consider the Committee’s workplan for the 2012-13 municipal year.

Members discussed the Committee’s work plan for the remainder of the 2012-13 civic year.

For the meeting in March 2013, it was agreed that:

·        the item on the York Theatre Royal-Service Level Agreement Bi-annual Update Report be removed

·        the Cabinet Member for Leisure & Culture be invited to provide an update on her progress against the priorities and challenges she identified to the Committee in April 2012, and her priorities and challenges for the next municipal year

·        the CEIAG Scrutiny Review Task Group provide a verbal update on their work.

In regard to the May 2013 meeting, that the following items be added to the workplan:

·        Attendance of Cabinet Member for Education, Children & Young People re priorities & challenges for 2013-14.

·        Presentation of revised YMT Acquisitions & Disposal Policy.

·        Draft Final Report from Libraries Scrutiny Review.

RESOLVED:       That the work plan be agreed subject to the above changes and additions.

REASON:           To keep the Committee’s work plan up to date.

Any other business which the Chair considers urgent.

This report informs the Scrutiny Committee of the progress and performance of the York Theatre Royal under the current Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the City of York Council and York Citizens’ Theatre Trust Ltd.  It covers the period from September 2012 to January 2013 with an update of delivery on quantitative measures from the start of the financial year in April 2012. For this reason, it is considered that this information should be presented to Members at this meeting rather than delaying it to a future meeting.

Members received a report which informed them of the progress and performance of the York Theatre Royal under the current Service Level Agreement (SLA).

The Chief Executive and Artistic Director of York Theatre Royal provided details of the theatre’s performance during the last six months as outlined in Annex 1 to the report and responded to particular issues raised by Members.

The Chief Executive informed Members that current figures showed that there was attendance from every ward in the city. It was noted new people were attracted to visit the theatre as a result of the varied programmes across the year.

Further discussion took place around the following issues;

·        Take up numbers for programmes offered to Young People and Children by the Theatre.

·        Other programmes offered alongside the Youth Theatre, given that the Youth Theatre was oversubscribed.

·        Who was responsible for encouraging young people to engage in the arts in general?

·        Older People’s Activities offered by the Theatre.

The Chair requested that details for access to the various programmes and the numbers of schools that took part be included in the next report presented to the Committee.

RESOLVED:       That the report and Members’ comments be noted.

REASON:           To fulfil the Council’s role under the Service Level Agreement.