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 in respect of the business on the agenda. No interests were declared.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on  Wednesday 20 March 2013.

Members discussed the minutes of the previous meeting of the Learning and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 20 March 2013.

With regard to Minute 42 (Attendance of Cabinet Member for Leisure, Culture and Tourism – Update on Priorities and Challenge) some Members felt there was insufficient detail as to what questions the Cabinet Member was asked and what responses were given and asked that the minute be expanded to include this information.

With regard to Minute 46 (Presentation of Parks – Recent Developments and Future Plans), some members expressed the view that the majority of the final paragraph was not necessary (and not completely accurate) so asked that this be removed so the final paragraph is left to read “Ward Councillors for Hull Road, who were at the meeting, confirmed that they had received many representations from the public about the future of the park in general”

Members agreed that they had all shared concerns regarding the removal of the hedgerow along Alcuin Avenue and asked that the second resolution be amended to reflect this by removing the word “some”.  

Members noted that due to the additional information which they had agreed should be added to the minutes, these minutes could not be agreed at the present time but would need to be brought back to the next meeting for approval.

RESOLVED:             That the changes detailed above be made to the draft minutes of the meeting of the Learning and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 20 March 2013 and the minutes be brought to the next meeting for approval.

REASON:                  In order that the minutes provide an accurate record of the meeting.

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 30 April 2013.

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

Members are to receive the York Museums Trust (YMT) revised Collections Development Policy in response to the recommendations arising from a previously completed YMT Scrutiny Review.

Members considered the York Museums Trust (YMT) revised Collections Development Policy in response to the recommendations arising from a previously completed YMT scrutiny review.

YMTs Head Curator introduced Members to the revised policy and made the following points:

·         The policy replaced the former Acquisitions and Disposals Policy

·         Section 1 sets out the vision, mission and strategic objectives of the policy

·         The policy is organised to reflect the staff structure in the museums. It details the collections by subject (History Collection, Archaeology Collection, Science Collection, Fine and Decorative Art Collection, Numismatic collection, Libraries and Archives)

·         A new curator of Numismatics Collections has just been appointed

·         Handling collections – all the collections are open and accessible for anyone to handle subject to receiving the required training

With regard to the issues of security of the collections, the Head Curator confirmed that a small number of objects had been stolen from public galleries during the last 10 years but all had either been returned or recovered. It was important to weigh up the risks of exposing the objects to the public and allowing them access to the collections.

With regard to who had responsibility for disposal decision making, officers advised that they did not ratify a decision to dispose of an object but that they had the right to veto a decision to dispose of an object if they felt it necessary.

Members acknowledged that they had been given the opportunity to consider the revised Collections Development Policy early on in the process and that the policy was likely to change and develop further. Members agreed that it would be beneficial to receive a regular update which would highlight further changes to the policy.

RESOLVED:             (i)         That the revised Collections Development Policy be noted.

                                    (ii)        That the Committee be provided with further updates on the policy in the future.

REASON:                  To keep Members updated on the outcome of recommendations arising from the recently completed YMT Scrutiny Review.

Members will receive a report providing an update on YMT Development Plan.

Members received a report which provided them with an update on the City of York Council and York Museum’s Trust and Art Gallery Partnership Development Plan 2013-2018.

Members expressed concerns that due to the papers being circulated late, they did not feel they had had sufficient time to read them in order to enable meaningful discussion of the Partnership Delivery Plan at the meeting. They agreed that consideration of the report should be deferred to the next meeting.

RESOLVED:             That the York Museums Trust Partnership Development Plan update be deferred until the next meeting.

REASON:                  In order that Committee Members have time to read the report prior to its consideration.

Members will receive the draft final report arising from the Libraries Scrutiny Review.

Members considered the draft final report of the Libraries Scrutiny Review. Information gathered by the Task Group during their visits to libraries as well as the highlight report on the findings of the 2012 Library Consultation were included as annexes to the report.

Members suggested the following changes to the draft final report:

·         Objective (i) (para 1.) should be strengthened to be more specific to say “To increase the number of people using the libraries for (what purpose)”.

·         Expand recommendation (c) re increasing the number of volunteers and volunteer roles to include the wording “over and above paid staff”.

·         During the visits to libraries, some staff had asked for the provision of basic facilities to enable tea/coffee to be made for meetings etc.

The Cabinet Member commended the report and confirmed she had discussed the contents with the Head of Libraries, Information and Archives. She assured Members that their recommendations would be fed into future plans for the library service.

Members noted that the final report of the Libraries Scrutiny Review would be presented to Cabinet at its meeting on 4 June ahead of the Cabinet considering a report on the Future Delivery Arrangements for Library and Archive Services on 2 July.

The Committee commended the Task Group for their work on the review.

RESOLVED:             That the draft final report be agreed subject to the changes detailed above.

REASON:                  To complete the work on this review in line with scrutiny procedures and protocols.

Members are asked to consider the Committee’s workplan.

Members were asked to consider a list of possible topics for review and for overview in advance of the Scrutiny Work Planning event to be held later in the month.

Members agreed they would like to receive briefings on the following, to fulfil their overview role, and agreed they should be added to the draft work plan for 2013-14:

·         Forthcoming changes to SEN management in schools

·         Academies in primary schools

·         Services from Danesgate – becoming a maintained school

Members agreed that the following topics be put forward at the Scrutiny Work Planning Event for review:

·         Investigate ways of promoting the take up of school dinners (look at what individual schools can do to encourage the take up of school meals, including free schools meals, look at other activities available at lunchtimes which may impact on take up of school meals, look at quality in terms of nutrition.)

·         Biodiversity in planting (wider than just issue around parks – this could include planting schemes in planning applications)

·         Impact of the removal of the EMA  (topic proposed by Cllr Aspden)

·         Look at how to improve the quality of the heritage and arts offer in the city (reference paragraph 5 of YMT Partnership Delivery Plan 2013-18).

RESOLVED:            That the work plan for 2012-13 municipal year be noted and the topics detailed above be added to the 2013-14 work plan.

REASON:                  To keep the Committee’s work plan up to date in accordance with scrutiny procedures and protocols.

Members are asked to consider a draft work plan for the next municipal year and to consider possible topics for review ahead of the Scrutiny work planning event to be held in May.

Members considered the committee’s work plan for the 2013-14 municipal year and agreed the following changes:

12 June 2013             Add York Museums Trust Partnership Delivery Plan 2013-18 (deferred from this meeting)

Add York Museums Trust – Partnership Delivery Plan Bi-annual report (and delete from 17 July  2013 meeting)

17 July 2013               Add York Theatre Royal – SLA Performance Bi-annual Update Report (and delete from 18 Sept 2013 meeting)

                                      Add CEIAG Scrutiny Review – Draft Final Report

18 September 2013   Invite Chair of York @ Large to attend meeting

22 November 2013    Add York Museums Trust – Partnership Delivery Plan Bi-annual report (and delete from 22 Jan 2014 meeting)

22 January 2013        Add York Theatre Royal – SLA Performance Bi-annual Update Report (and delete from 19 March 2014 meeting)

Members agreed that the topics agreed in minute 55 be included in the work plan for the forthcoming year.

RESOLVED:               That the draft work plan for 2013-14 be updated to reflect the changes agreed above.

REASON:                    To keep the committee’s work plan up to date in accordance with scrutiny procedures and protocols.