Agenda, decisions and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

In accordance with Procedure Rules Nos.11 and 35 a period of 10 minutes is allocated for members of the public to address the meeting on any matter relating to the work of the body in question.  Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes but the Chairman or person presiding will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned where there are a number of speakers. Members of the public are not required to give notice to use this facility. However, as a matter of courtesy, a period of 24 hours’ notice is encouraged.

Members of the public wishing to ask a question at the meeting should provide at least three clear working days’ notice in writing and should include the question with that notice. This will enable an informed answer to be given.

Katharine Newman attended the meeting to speak in on behalf of fellow parents and pupils at Ivy Bank Primary School, Macclesfield, regarding the effects of changes to the Schools funding formula.  She detailed the difficulties being experienced in the light of recent changes which had resulted in reductions in overall financial support and also to ongoing uncertainties surrounding the total available; the position had been made especially difficult because of the particularly wide range of provision available at the School in comparison to the national average.

The Portfolio Holder welcomed the comments made and also the invitation for Officers and Councillors to visit the School for an open discussion.  She was particularly concerned that the School might not have yet received information on the final financial position and undertook to investigate this further.  She confirmed that the changes had been made in the light of guidance from the DfT and that at the time the guidance had been received and was being worked on she and others had visited a large number of Schools to discuss the changes; also there had been meetings with and between the Dft and Schools, and that the Schools Forum had been involved in the decision making process. 

The Portfolio Holder undertook to ensure that the School received full details of the up to date position and also that she would respond further and in greater detail to the submission made at the meeting.  In addition she would take up the invite to attend a meeting at the School if it was still their wish after having received the detailed information.

To consider a report on the Foster Carer Capacity Scheme Policy.

That Officers be authorised to take all necessary actions to implement the Foster Carer Capacity Scheme Policy Set out in Appendix 1 of the report.

Consideration was given to this Policy which would support the local authority’s requirement to provide sufficient and suitable accommodation to promote the best interests of cared for children.   The Policy would enable a number of skilled and able foster carers to extend the number of places they were able to offer, or to maintain existing placements, or offer additional placements, whilst complying with national statutory requirements.  In addition it was expected to provide longer term cost savings to the Council.

At the meeting the Portfolio Holder reported an amendment to the report whereby the words ‘or recruiting new foster carers’ were removed from line 3 of paragraph 7.4 of the report.

The Portfolio Holder welcomed the input from the Scrutiny Committee which had endorsed the policy it being in line with one of the recommendations made following its earlier scrutiny of the Fostering Service. 

RESOLVED

That Officers be authorised to take all necessary actions to implement the Foster Carer Capacity Scheme Policy Set out in Appendix 1 of the report.