Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies for lateness were received from Cllr Rice.

The Chair will consider the admission of any of any late items of urgent business. (Late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with at items 2 & 9below).

This being a special meeting of the committee and in accordance with Part 4, Section B paragraph 17 of the Council’s Constitution there were no items of urgent business considered.

A member with a personal interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered must disclose to that meeting the existence and nature of that interest at the commencement of that consideration, or when the interest becomes apparent.

A member with a personal interest in a matter also has a prejudicial interest in that matter if the interest is one which a member of the public with knowledge of the relevant facts would reasonably regard as so significant that it is likely to prejudice the member's judgment of the public interest and if this interest affects their financial position or the financial position of a person or body as described in paragraph 8 of the Code of Conduct and/or if it relates to the determining of any approval, consent, licence, permission or registration in relation to them or any person or body described in paragraph 8 of the Code of Conduct.

The Assistant Chief Executive signalled to the committee that the report on the schedule of staffing (Item number 7) made reference to his post, and that of the Head of Human Resources. He advised that should the committee wish to discuss these roles then they would individually leave the meeting at the required point to allow a private discussion.

Cllr Wilson declared a personal interest in agenda item 5 by virtue of his position as a primary school governor.

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, paragraph 29 of the Council’s constitution.

There were no deputations or petitions.

NOTED

Report of the Director of Children and Young People’s Service  - To propose the unit closure of the Education ICT Team

We were asked to consider proposals for the closure of the Education ICT team. The primary reason being that the unit was no longer able to be funded by external Government grants or by the Council. The current cost of funding the unit was £516k, it had an overspend of 35k and its overheads were funded by the Council. The team of 9 staff had been formed over a period of 10 years and provided traded ICT support to schools.  They had been funded by a range of ICT Government grants and initiatives, core Council revenue budget and income from schools. It was strongly anticipated that the main Harnessing Technology Grant would no longer be available from 2011/12. We noted that the option of maintaining the service but increasing the charges made to users of the service, schools, had been explored with head teachers.  However, there had not been a strong indication given from schools that they were prepared to increase payments to continue use of this service. This was understandable as school budgets were as yet unconfirmed and only likely to be finalised at the end of March .Confirmation could only be provided in July of the services to be purchased by schools which meant funding the unit at a loss with no guarantee of income. It was widely felt that due to the economic climate and cuts in public spending it would be unlikely that schools would have the extra income to continue to purchase this service at a required increase of 28% in cost and it was unclear if there would be a ready market for the provision of this service. In essence, there was a financial risk to the Council with the continuation of the service.

In terms of responsibility for the employees and clients  that would be affected by the closure of this service, we  noted that ,since the compilation of the report , six of the total nine staff ,of the unit, had been granted voluntary redundancy. Some of these staff were contemplating setting up their own enterprise and offering private ICT support services to schools and would obtain advice and support from the directorate on this. Information on alternative providers for this service would also be provided to schools to assist them in this transition period.

Concern was expressed by some members about the withdrawal of this support service to schools when there was felt to be a need and market for this provision. Clarification was sought on what had been done previously to address the financial viability of the service and whether any benchmarking exercise had been undertaken. Also understanding was sought on whether the service could continue to be provided and the ways in which this could be achieved.   The level of communication with head teachers was queried and information sought on whether the impact of withdrawing this service had been fully acknowledged by them. In replying to the committees concerns the context around the proposals to cease this service were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72.

The following item is likely to be subject of a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as it contains exempt information as defined in Section 100a of the Local Government Act 1972; namely information relating to any individual, and information which is likely to reveal the identity of an individual.

Report of the Chief Executive

Following consideration of the Chief Executive’s report on the reorganisation of the Council, which was considered on the 25 January 2010, the committee had asked for further details on how senior manager posts would be affected. This information was enclosed  and noted.

The Chief Executive’s report on the reorganisation of the Council, was currently subject to staff consultation.  The report was due to be adopted at Full Council on the 24 February and the General Purposes committee would be responsible for agreeing the final report after the staff consultation process.  Members agreed that there was a need to have early consideration of the likely equalities impact issues before final consideration of this report. It was agreed that the Assistant Chief Executive provide, for information purposes only, the first part of the equalities impact assessment completed on the staffing changes and submit this information to a forthcoming meeting.

RESOLVED

1. That the contents of the report be noted.

2. That an information report be received by the committee   on the first phase of the equalities impact assessment conducted on the staffing changes.