Agenda 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 in the meeting Members were asked to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda or any other general interests they might have within the remit of the Committee.

Councillor Crisp declared a general personal interest as she is a Director of Visit York.

Councillor Looker declared a general personal interest as she is a Member of the York Museums Trust Board.

Councillor Aspden declared a general personal interest as he is a governor of St Oswalds Primary School.

Councillor Taylor declared a personal interest in agenda item 6 (Young People’s Services in York) as the Basements Multimedia Project is based at the City Screen, where he works.

Councillor Potter (in attendance) declared a general personal interest as the Chair of Governors at Tang Hall Primary School.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 5 October 2010.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the meeting of the Learning and Culture Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 5 October 2010 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 onTuesday 7 December 2010.

With the agreement of the Chair, Councillor Brian Watson spoke in relation to agenda item 5 (York Museums Trust Partnership Delivery Plan: 2010/11 Half Year Performance Update) He expressed concerns that there had been a lack of councillor involvement (other than Members who sit on the Museums Trust) 

in work undertaken and decisions made by the Museums Trust. He raised concerns in particular regarding plans to alter the military gallery at the Castle Museum, which would impact on the display of the military collection, and questioned why Members had not been consulted on this. The Chief Executive of the York Museums Trust responded to Councillor Watson’s concerns as part of her update under agenda item 5 (Minutes 23 refers).

This report analyses the latest performance for 2010/11 and forecasts the outturn position by reference to the service plan, the budget and the performance indicators for all of the relevant services falling under the responsibility of the Director of Adults, Children & Education and the Director of Communities & Neighbourhoods.

Members considered a report which analysed the latest performance for 2010/11 and forecast the outturn position by reference to the service plan, the budget and the performance indicators for all of the relevant services falling under the responsibility of the Director of Adults, Children & Education and the Director of Communities & Neighbourhoods.

The Head of Finance updated Members on the financial position within the directorates for the second quarter of 2010-11. He stated that both directorates were predicting financial pressures within their budgets and explained the reasons for this. He responded to Members’ queries in relation to particular issues raised and stated that work on both essential and non essential spending was taking place in both directorates with the aim of bringing both budgets back in line by March.

Officers responded to queries raised by Members regarding performance indicators detailed in the report and agreed to provide the Committee with further information on how much funding was going into the Sporting Giants Project ¹ and clarification of national performance indicator NP157 (Young People aged 5-16 participating in at least 2 hours of high quality PE in school)^{2 .}

The Assistant Director (Integrated Commissioning) gave a presentation on the City of York 2010 Key Stage results and circulated handouts to the Committee for their information. He reported a positive picture overall and provided further details on the Key Stage 1, 2 and 4 results in turn. With regard to the Key Stage 4 results, he explained that if a proposal by the new government to change the way results were counted was agreed, non vocational subjects would not in future be included in these statistics and he agreed to provide Members with further information on how this was likely to impact on the results of individual schools in York, as requested by Members.³

This report updates members on the current progress of the York Museums Trust (YMT) towards meeting the targets agreed in the Partnership Delivery Plan.  The York Museums Trust’s full report is at Annex 1.

Members considered a report which updated them on the current progress of the York Museums Trust (YMT) towards meeting the targets agreed in the Partnership Delivery Plan (PDP). The report set out how the YMT had  addressed the issues in the PDP (namely stabilising visitor figures, delivering new income streams, new exhibitions and interpretative service, creating an education strategy, increase use and involvement by residents, achieving high visitor satisfaction and ensuring the cataloguing of the collection) over the past six months and provided an outline of what would be done to move forward.

The Chief Executive of the YMT drew Members’ attention to the impact of the comprehensive spending review cuts but confirmed that they had been  building up income schemes in anticipation of public sector cuts and in advance of the MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives) being abolished in 2012.

She responded to issues which had been raised by Councillor Brian Watson under agenda item 3 (Minute 21 refers). She explained that an internal staff consultation document, the intention of which had been to gauge views of staff on some ideas for possible changes to the museum, had been leaked. She stressed that the document was not a statement of their plans but instead an internal early stages consultation document.

She provided an overview of changes which had taken place at the Castle Museum over recent years. She explained their thoughts were to reorganise and make better use of the use of space on the first and second floors, with the intention that the second floor could be used as an education space for visiting groups with space for staff use leaving the more accessible first floor for exhibition space and explained the reasons behind these suggestions.

With regard to the military collection, she explained that their hope was to be able to integrate the military collection into the context of everyday living, part of a more holistic approach to social history which was currently being explored. Members raised concerns about losing the impact of the military collection which was a key part of York’s military history. The Chief Executive of YMT acknowledged Members’ views on the subject and agreed to pass their comments back to her colleagues.

Members discussed the use of volunteers at the Observatory, options for signage at the Castle Museum and the siting of the wheel.

RESOLVED:             That the performance of the York Museums Trust be noted and Members comments be taken into consideration.

REASON:                  To fulfil the Council’s role under the partnership delivery plan.

This report allows members of the Scrutiny Committee a further opportunity to consider the future of Young People’s Services in York in the light of the Executive’s decision to merge it with the Youth Offending Team, and in anticipation of challenges that are likely to arise from the reductions in central government support.

Members considered a report which provided them with a further opportunity to consider the future of Young People’s Services in York in the light of the Executive’s decision to merge it with the Youth Offending Team, and in anticipation of challenges likely to arise from the reductions in central government support.

The Assistant Director (Integrated Commissioning), introduced the current Head of Youth Offending Services (YOT) to the Committee. He explained that the role of the Head of YOT would be deleted when the two teams were merged but that he would play an important role in the future of the joint service.

Officers advised Members that although the financial settlement was still not yet known, it was clear that the amount of funding they would receive would not enable them to maintain the youth service in its current form and some services may need to be withdrawn very quickly. They stated that it was important to determine where the Local Authority fits in respect of youth provision, whether providing direct provision or in conjunction with other partners, look at how to engage with partners and consider how best to go about rebuilding/reshaping services.

Members were asked to consider if they wished to formally scrutinise funding of young peoples services, as put forward by Councillor Watt, or instead take an overview of youth services and receive regular reports on changes taking place within the service. The scrutiny officer stated that, if the Committee decided to proceed with a review, there could be an opportunity to enter into dialogue with external providers but that Members would need to recognise the challenges around funding facing the service.

The Chair thanked officers for the opportunity to become involved from an early stage and be able to contribute to major changes taking place to the youth service.  Having previously agreed in principle to undertake a review of Youth Services,  Members agreed to receive an update at a future meeting in March 2011 in order to help them identify aspects which they could have an input, and with a view to entering into dialogue with partners in the new municipal year.

RESOLVED:             (i)         That a review not be undertaken until the new

                                                municipal year.

(ii) That a further update on changes taking place within the youth service be provided to the Committee at a future meeting in order to enable Members to decide what involvement they wish to have.

REASON:                  In order to progress the work of the Committee.

Members are asked to consider the workplan for the Committee for the
2010-11 Civic Year.

Members considered the Committee’s workplan for the remainder of the 2010-11 civic year.

Members agreed to receive an update on youth provision at their meeting in March 2011.

In response to a query from Members with regard to completed scrutiny reviews, the scrutiny officer agreed to investigate if there were any outstanding recommendations from completed scrutiny reviews which needed to be brought before the Committee before the end of the civic year.

Members noted that at present there were no items listed on the workplan for the meeting scheduled to take place on 9 March 2011 and that this meeting may not be required. However they acknowledged that if this meeting was needed, the date may need to be changed as the Chair would not be available on the scheduled date.

RESOVLED:             That the workplan be updated to reflect the changes above.

REASON:                  To progress the work of the Committee.