Meeting documents

Learning & Culture Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 10 September 2002

LC100902

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To Members of the Learning & Culture Scrutiny Committee

Notice of Meeting

Meeting

LEARNING & CULTURE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE

Date/Time

Tuesday 10 September 2002 at 10.00 am

Place

County Hall, Oxford

Contact officer

Geoff Malcolm
(Tel: 01865 815904; E-mail)


Chris Impey
Assistant Chief Executive

September 2002

Membership

Chair - Councillor Robert Evans

Councillors:

Andrew Brown

Bill Bryden

Margaret Ferriman

Mrs Anda Fitzgerald-O’Connor

Mrs M. Hastings

Steve Hayward

Shereen Karmali

Kieron Mallon

Jim Moley

Zoe Patrick

Rodney Rose

George Sanders

David Turner

Christine Witcher

 

 

Co-opted Members:

Revd Dr John Gay

Mr A. Graham

Dr A. Reiss

Mr S. Terry

AGENDA

  1. Apologies for Absence and Temporary Appointments

  2. Declarations of Interest

  3. Minutes

    4. To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 16 July 2002 (LC3) and to receive for information any matters arising therefrom.

  4. Petitions and Public Address

  5. Scrutiny Reviews

10:15 (a) Special Educational Needs

(Panel: Councillors Zoe Patrick, Christine Witcher;
Scrutiny officers: M Bramall & J T Hehir)

On 12 March 2002 the lead member review group was requested to arrange for a review of special educational needs to be conducted on behalf of the Learning & Culture Scrutiny Committee. Having collected evidence from a wide variety of sources the group now present a report (LC5(a))
(download as .pdf file)
summarising their findings. Constitutionally this report emanates from the entire Scrutiny Committee and as such must now be agreed (or otherwise) and signed off before being submitted by the Proper Officer to the Executive for them to consider their response.

The Executive must respond with an action plan addressing the Scrutiny Committee’s recommendations or produce written reasons for not agreeing with recommendations. If for any reason the Executive does not consider the Scrutiny Committee’s report within 12 weeks then the matter will be referred to the Council for review.

The purpose of this agenda item is therefore to request the Scrutiny Committee to either:

      1. agree the report as submitted to this meeting; or

      2. amend the report and reach consensus on such amendments.

To receive updates on the following:

11:00 (b) Scrutiny Committee Commissioned Reviews:

      1. Recruitment and Retention of Teachers and Support Staff Focusing in Particular on Schools

(Panel: Councillors Robert Evans, Steve Hayward, Jim Moley;
Scrutiny officers: J T Hehir)

The lead member of the review will report.

(ii) County Museum Service

(Panel: Councillors Alan Bryden, Margaret Ferriman, Kieron Mallon;
Scrutiny officers M Bramall & J T Hehir)

The lead member of the review will report.

11:15 (c) Executive Commissioned Review:

Bus Services

(Panel: Councillors Bill Bradshaw, Andrew Crawford, Patrick Greene, Biddy Hudson, Terry Joslin; David Turner (L&C Scrutiny Committee); By invitation: Executive Member for Strategic Planning & Waste Management; a member of the Social & Health Care Scrutiny Committee to advise on the needs of older people

Lead officer: Dick Helling (DES))

Report by Councillor David Turner.

11:30 (d) Work Programme:

Identified matters:

(i) Faith Schools

(Councillors Andrew Brown, Mrs M Hastings, Shereen Karmali, Rev. D Gay;
Scrutiny officers: M Bramall & J T Hehir)

The Head of Democratic Services reports as follows:

On 16 July the Scrutiny Committee approved the Faith Schools Scrutiny Review template (LC5(d)(i)) for submission to the Scrutiny Co-ordinating Group for inclusion in the Scrutiny Review Programme. However, the Co-ordinating Group did not feel able to agree to include the review document as currently scoped. The reasons included the absence of firm costings and a lack of focus about some of the content, in particular the methodology. Uncertainty was also expressed about the extent of the Council’s powers in relation to faith schools, and there was concern that the review might be premature in the light of anticipated government legislation.

Subsequently, the Review group felt that in order to address these concerns, members would benefit from information about current research into the subject of faith schools, and accordingly invited Professor Pring, University of Oxford, to attend the meeting in order to talk about his work and give some background. They consider that this approach will enable the Committee to decide whether or not to continue with the Review and submit the review document to the Co-ordinating Group for inclusion in the programme.

(ii) Bullying, behaviour, exclusions, truancy (Agreed, medium priority)

(iii) Rural issues including youth services, early years, sixth form, lifelong learning, community education, amalgamation of CECs (Agreed, high priority)

(Councillors Jim Moley, Mrs Anda Fitzgerald O’Connor and David Turner)

(iv) Information, communications and technology (Agreed, long term priority)

(v) School partnership visits

(Councillors Brown, Alan Bryden and Steve Hayward)

(vi) Use of school premises for community and non-school functions

(Councillors Brown, Mrs Anda-Fitzgerald O’Connor and Dr Reiss drafting early scooping document)

(vii) Learning & Skills Council - annual presentation (next in 2003)

(e) Other Matters

To identify any matters for inclusion in the future work programme.

  1. Monitoring of Education Performance

    2. 12:30 Regular reports by the Acting Chief Education Officer on the monitoring of performance:

                1. The Subject of Information and Communication Technology in Oxfordshire Schools

                  2. Report by the Chief Education Officer (LC6(a)).

                  This curriculum report is the third in a series being presented to the Learning and Scrutiny Committee. Arguably, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become the most important of all areas presently within the National Curriculum, not only for the skills and knowledge needed to master the subject, but also for its contribution to all other areas. The report indicates that standards in ICT continue to rise in Oxfordshire schools, although there is need for much improvement in Key Stage 3. Considerable funding has been devoted to improving resources for ICT at LEA and national level over the past few years and this had a positive effect overall- especially in the significant and substantial improvements in accommodation. However, the report highlights a number of concerns affecting the future development of the subject: retention and recruitment; the level of technical support now required; the "Laptops for Teachers" initiative. Plans to develop a range of curriculum content on the Oxfordshire Community Network (OCN –Broadband) are outlined.

                2. Ofsted Inspection Reports on Oxfordshire Schools to July 2002 (LC6(b)).

    Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to receive the reports.

  2. Annual Library Plan 2002

    3. 2:00 Report by Director of Cultural Services (LC7).

    The report presents the draft Annual Library Plan (ALP) 2002, forwarded by the Executive for comments after it had been approved as the Executive’s "initial proposals" at its meeting on 23 July 2002. The Executive will consider the updated draft together with any comments from this Committee, on 17 September 2002, when it will be recommended to approve the version to be submitted to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport by 30 September 2002. This version will proceed to Council on 5 November for formal ratification. The Annual Library Plan incorporates the Best Value Review Implementation Plan, and represents a comprehensive forward action plan for the Library Service.

    The Scrutiny Committee is asked to:

          1. consider the draft Annual Library Plan 2002; and

          2. forward any comments on the plan to the Executive for its meeting on 17 September 2002.

  3. Forward Plan

    4. 2:25 To identify any Learning & Culture items on the current Forward Plan on which the Committee wishes to ask the Executive to consult the Committee.

    (Members are asked to bring to the meeting the latest copy of the Plan which at the time of writing covers September-December 2002).

    (On 23 July 2002 the Executive agreed that Scrutiny Committees should be automatically entitled to an opportunity to comment on items that they might identify from the Forward Plan, subject to this not giving rise to delay where the matter was time-critical, and to the relevant Executive Members agreeing the detailed arrangements in each case through their periodic briefing meetings.)

  4. The Oxfordshire Plan 2003/04 - 2007/08

    5. Report by Director for Strategy (LC9).(download as .rtf file)

    2:30 On 23 July 2002 the Executive considered a proposal by the Leader of the Council that all Scrutiny Committees should be invited to participate in developing proposals for the Oxfordshire Plan over the summer months, and resolved that:

    1. each Scrutiny Committee should identify priorities for action which would most effectively help to achieve the strategic objectives; and that these should have regard to:

    • public/community views, in the light of an initial briefing to be received by each Scrutiny Committee to be followed with a seminar in August when details of the latest MORI research on customer views would be reported;

    • service demands, in the light of a briefing to be given by the appropriate Director(s) to each Committee;

    • the need to make better use of existing resources in order to generate headroom to fund new priorities on the basis that detailed budget information would be available in October;

    1. Scrutiny Committees be asked to report their proposals to the Executive during September.

Our next Oxfordshire Plan will clarify our expectations under each strategic objective, set priorities and outcome targets and allocate resources to support the action priorities. The first stage in this process is to develop an outline Oxfordshire Plan by October. This plan will clarify strategic objectives and highlight initial thoughts about priorities for action. Further development and consultation will then proceed alongside budget planning during October and through to February.

David Lines, Head of Performance Review, Strategy Directorate will attend to give an introduction, with briefings from relevant Directors or their representatives.

The Scrutiny Committee is invited to identify priorities for action which would most effectively help to achieve the strategic objectives; these should have regard to:

public/community views, in the light of an initial briefing to be received by each Scrutiny Committee to be followed by a seminar in September when details of the latest MORI research on customer views would be reported;

service demands, in the light of a briefing to be given by the appropriate Director(s) to each scrutiny committee;

the need to make better use of existing resources in order to generate headroom to fund new priorities on the basis that detailed budget information would be available in October.

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