Issue - meetings

The report of the Director of Children and Family Services invited the Panel to consider revisions to the appointments procedure.  The procedure had been drafted during the transitional year and had been based on the former County Council procedure. It was now timely to review the procedure and a proposed revision was submitted.  Members commented as follows:

·         Panel Membership:  Membership of the Panel was a decision made by Council, not the Constitution Committee, as noted in the report.

·         The Council had recently been invited to appoint a Councillor to Sir John Deane’s College, Middlewich, through the outside bodies appointments process.  This college provided sixth form education, not only to Northwich and the surrounding area (in Cheshire West and Chester Borough), but also to Middlewich and Holmes Chapel in Cheshire East.  In view of this, the procedure should be amended, at to add the words “…..and to those schools to which Cheshire East Council appoints…”

·         The application form (at page 17) to be expanded to a two-sided A4 sheet to allow more space in the box ”the reasons for becoming a governor” and additional space in the “home address” box.

·         The application form made reference to faith school preferences, but only included “Catholic Schools” or “Church of England Schools”; an additional tick-box should be added to allow preferences to be expressed for other faith schools.

RESOLVED:

(a) That the draft Procedure for the Appointment of Authority Governors, as amended at the meeting, be approved; and

(b) That the Constitution Committee, at its January 2011 meeting, be informed that Members had unanimously agreed the revised procedure.