Agenda and minutes

Councillor R Bailey – Cabinet Support Member.

Fintan Bradley

Mark Nedderman

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 22 March 2010.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 22 March 2010 be approved as a correct record.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any personal and/or prejudicial interests and for members to declare the existence of a party whip in relation to any item on the agenda.

Councillor D Flude declared a personal interest in respect of item 5 - Work programme the ground that she was a Director of EIPC Ltd and a Governor of Pebble Brook School Crewe.

A total period of 15 minutes is allocated for members of the public to make a statement(s) on any matter that falls within the remit of the Committee.

Individual members of the public may speak for up to 5 minutes, but the Chairman will decide how the period of time allocated for public speaking will be apportioned, where there are a number of speakers.

Note:  In order for officers to undertake any background research, it would be helpful if members of the public notified the Scrutiny officer listed at the foot of the agenda, at least one working day before the meeting with brief details of the matter to be covered.

There were no members of the public present who wished to address the Committee.

To consider a report of the Borough Solicitor.

The Committee considered a report of the Borough Solicitor setting out a process to approve the work programme for 2010/2011.

            Corporate Scrutiny Committee at its meeting held on 19 April 2010 had approved a paper entitled ‘Strengthening the Scrutiny Function’ which proposed a more formal approach to the work programme setting process in 2010 to enable the views of Cabinet to be fed into the process. This approach had also been considered and endorsed by the Scrutiny Chairs Group. The main aim of the new approach was to share work programmes with colleagues in Cabinet and Corporate Management Team (CMT) at the outset, so that Overview and Scrutiny became an integral part of the corporate business planning process of the Council.  Work programme items would subsequently be linked to relevant Corporate plan targets, and where appropriate, Performance Indicators and LAA targets.

            It was intended that emerging work programmes of all five Overview and Scrutiny Committees would be presented to Cabinet informally in June, and then each Committee would formally endorse its work programme before the summer recess. It was suggested that this Committee would approve its work programme on 29 June 2010. (Note: since the meeting it has transpired that the work programme will not be approved until July 2010 because of changes to the consultation arrangements with Cabinet)

            The committee was reminded that it needed to ensure that there was sufficient leeway to allow for additional activities throughout the year.

            A schedule attached to the report, set out all existing items in the work programme together with a number of suggestions provided by the former portfolio holder and members of the Committee.

Members were also requested to have regard to the emerging Corporate Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy, both of which were currently in consultation stage and expected to be adopted by Council in July.

The Committee reviewed each work programme item and made the following comments

To note the current Forward Plan, identify any new items and to determine whether any further examination of new issues is appropriate

The Committee considered the Forward plan as it related to Children and Family Services.

RESOLVED – That the forward plan be noted.

The Services Manager Improvement & Achievement, Children Services, to provide an oral update on the impact within Cheshire East of the recent boycott by some schools of this years SAT’s

The Services Manager Improvement and Achievement Children’s Services reported upon action taken by NUT and the National Association of Head Teachers in respect of the boycotting SAT’s in some primary schools within Cheshire East. Over the period 10-13 May 2010, 36 schools out of a total of 136 in Cheshire East had taken part in the boycott.

RESOLVED – That the report be received and noted.

To note any consultations referred to the Committee from Cabinet and to determine whether any further action is appropriate.

There were no consultations from Cabinet.