Agenda and minutes

None.

Councillors Catherine Dann, Brian Crowe, Judith Cooper, Peter Curling, John Hensley, and Anita Macdonald declared a personal interest in all items on the agenda due to their roles as a School Governors.

It was confirmed that all items of business would be considered in Part 1.

Programme briefing for ALL MEMBERS presented by Head of Education and Children’s Services, Chris Spencer.

A short break will follow this item to allow attendees to leave if they so wish

The Chairman welcomed all Members and Officers to the meeting and requested Director of Education and Children’s Services, Chris Spencer and Project Consultant Maggie Waller to begin presenting this item to all Members.

Officers began by recapping what the Building Schools for the 21^st Century programme is. It is part of the national Building Schools for the Future programme, and Hillingdon entered Wave 6 of the programme in February 2009. The programme applies to secondary schools in the South of the borough, with schools in the North awaiting further clarification. The programme has £150 million to refurbish most schools in the South of the borough, with a further £20 million to spend on ICT. Some schools have been recently refurbished and so will not be redone, for example Barnhill and Guru Nanak schools. Abbotsfield and Swakeleys schools are in the worst condition and will be completely rebuilt. The People Referal Unit will be expanded on the Chantry school site as it is a very important school for young people with phobias or those excluded from mainstream schools for a particular reason.

Officers explained that refurbishing schools within the borough would prevent them from sending children out of the borough to study, which proves to be very expensive.

Officers said part of the funding would be spent on improving leisure services and increasing the number of services available for young people and adults in the borough. An example of this is increasing the number of specialist sport facilities available in the borough.

Officers said the next step in the Building Schools for the 21^st Century consultation would be as follows:

1. The Pre-Statutory Consultation document would be sent out to all residents of the borough by 22^nd June 2009. The consultation period would last until 21^st July 2009, during which general feedback would be sent from residents and leaflets would be sent to all schools.
2. A Statutory notice would then be published.
3. The Statutory consultation would take place during September and October 2009.
4. The programme is hoping to be completed by 2014/15.

The Chairman opened the floor to questions from the Members present.

Members enquired about whether the £150 million is enough for the project and whether it is a guaranteed amount donated to the Local Authority. Officers said due to the economic crisis at the moment no amount of funding is guaranteed, though it is thought to be enough to cover this programme. The funding is available up until Wave 6B.

Members asked Officers about Abbotsfield and Swakeleys schools transforming from two single sex schools into one mixed school. Officers explained that both schools will be merged into one building but parents will still be given the option of sending their children to the single sex school. It is very clear in the consultation that the two schools will be developed with separate identities but there would be potential for them to be flexible in the future. There would be more collaboration between the two, and this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Agreed and signed by the Chairman.

Agreed and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman asked Members to provide Officers with ideas for the Committee’s second review, due to start in January 2010. The Chairman requested Officers to write a scoping report about each of the following topics and bring them to the Committee meeting scheduled for 9^th September 2009:

1. Junior to Senior school transition: changes to the current transition.
2. Effective Support and Intervention: interventions in schools in raising standards, what have been successful types of interventions and ways in which the Council should deploy funding into intervention in the future.
3. Safeguarding Children in schools: an insight into current practice and performance, safer recruitment issues and the control the Local Authority has over safeguarding children in schools.
4. Child trafficking: what is being done to tackle this problem. The Committee agreed that, if chosen, this issue would be treated as a Part 2 item, due to the sensitive nature of the topic.

Resolved:

1. For Officers to come back to the Education and Children’s Services Policy Overview Committee Meeting on 9^th September 2009 with a brief scoping report on the above four review ideas.

2. The Committee agreed the Work Programme 2009/10.

Please find attached the draft Scoping Report for the review of Inclusion in Hillingdon Schools.

The Chairman asked Members to raise any issues with the scoping report for the Committee’s first review topic for 2009/10: The development of Inclusion in Hillingdon schools. Members requested that questions 1, 2 and 4 be removed from the scoping report and summarised in one paragraph in the report. This was due to these areas being covered in previous reviews; however one paragraph would provide sufficient background information in these areas.

Resolved:

That Education and Children’s Services officers remove questions 1, 2 and 4 from the Inclusion scoping Report and replace them with a paragraph delivering background information in these areas.