Agenda and minutes

Apologies had been received from Councillor Peter Curling.

No interests were declared by Members present.

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2019 were agreed as a correct record.

To confirm that the items of business marked Part I will be considered in public and that the items marked Part II will be considered in private.

Items were considered and public and private as set out on the Cabinet agenda.

To undertake the statutory scrutiny role of executive decision-making by the London Borough of Hillingdon, and in particular to review decisions made by the Cabinet prior to this meeting. Members should consider any other decision taken by a Cabinet Member(s) or key decision taken by an Officer published in the five working days before this meeting.

Members gave consideration to the Cabinet reports of the 14 February 2019 meeting and the decisions made by Cabinet on them earlier that evening.

It was noted that the Council’s Budget could not be called in, as this was a policy framework document and automatically referred by Cabinet to full Council for consideration on 21 February.

Furthermore, it was noted that the call-in period on the Schools Budget 2019/20 had been waived by the Chairman of the Executive Scrutiny Committee, as requested by Cabinet, due to the short timescale for submitting the relevant school budget figures to the Education and Skills Funding Agency. Labour Members present expressed some concern over the use of the call-in and sought further clarification over the waiver process, which was duly provided by the Senior Democratic Services Manager and other Members present. Other matters raised on the Schools Budget included the effect on individual school budgets of the transfer of funds to the High Needs block to set a balanced budget. On this matter, Members noted that the pressures on high needs budgets had resulted from changes in legislation and a lack of Government funding, and in Hillingdon, irrespective of the transfer of funds, overall individual schools budgets would still increase from the previous year.

Members considered the report into academic attainment and concurred with the comments made by the Residents, Education and Environmental Services Policy Overview Committee. The ethnicity of those in receipt of home education was discussed and Members sought further figures on this. Clarification was sought on the proportion of Hillingdon students taking ‘A’-level and technical education compared to national figures. Finally, Members asked for an explanation on why Key Stage 2 combined Reading, Writing and Maths had worsened in Hillingdon since 2016/17.

RESOLVED: – That the decisions made by the Cabinet at their meeting on 14 February 2019 be endorsed and that no call-in be made.