Agenda and minutes

Any county councillor may, by giving notice to the Proper Officer by 9 am on the working day before the meeting, ask a question on any matter in respect of the Cabinet Member’s delegated powers.

The number of questions which may be asked by any councillor at any one meeting is limited to two (or one question with notice and a supplementary question at the meeting) and the time for questions will be limited to 30 minutes in total. As with questions at Council, any questions which remain unanswered at the end of this item will receive a written response.

Questions submitted prior to the agenda being despatched are shown below and will be the subject of a response from the appropriate Cabinet Member or such other councillor or officer as is determined by the Cabinet Member, and shall not be the subject of further debate at this meeting. Questions received after the despatch of the agenda, but before the deadline, will be shown on the Schedule of Addenda circulated at the meeting, together with any written response which is available at that time.

Councillor Larry Sanders posed the following questions to Councillor Michael Waine:

Q1.      What does Councillor Waine think the effect on parents, staff and community of the decision the Oxford IEB hold its meeting in private?

Q2.      Has a date been set for the winding up of the IEB and its replacement by a properly constituted Governing Body?  If not, what are the factors which will determine when it will be wound up?

In response to question 1 Councillor Waine reported that that Oxford School IEB would be no different from the vast majority of Governing Body meetings across the County and Country which were not open to the public.

In response to question 2, Councillor Waine read out the following extract from the IEB Application:

“Planned life of the IEB and plans for the exit strategy

It is proposed that the IEB should be in place until July 2011.

During the autumn of 2010 the IEB will aim to increase the membership with a small number of appropriately qualified and committed representatives from parents, staff and the local community. These people will be subject to stringent induction and assessment before being confirmed as full members. During this period a “shadow” governing body will also be formed with a structure in accordance with regulations for Foundation schools. This body will be developed and trained by the IEB and share in many of the IEB meetings albeit not having any right to vote or take decisions on school issues.

Towards the end of the period a substantive governing body will be formed with, hopefully, much of its membership being drawn from the additional IEB members and from the shadow governing body.

It is planned that the Chair of the IEB will be available in an advisory role as necessary to support and guide the substantive governing body through its first year of office.”

Forward Plan Ref: 2009/191

Contact: Barbara Chillman, Principal Officer School Organisation (01865 816459)

12:00 pm

Report by the Interim Director for Children, Young People & Families (CMDSI4)

The Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement is RECOMMENDED to either:

(a)              reject the proposals;

(b)              approve the proposals;

(c)               approve the proposals with a modification (e.g. the proposal implementation date); or

(d)              approve the proposals subject to them meeting a specific condition.