Agenda and minutes

The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor King with no substitute.

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on Monday 13 January 2020.

The minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 13 January 2020 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Personal Interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

Councillor Clifton declared that, in relation to Agenda Item 7, Work Programme – Scrutiny of Proposals for the Next Municipal Year, he had a personal interest in that he organised Firework Displays.

Councillor Miles declared that, in relation to item 6, Education, Economy and Skills, she had a personal interest insofar as she was a School Governor.

Subject to providing two working days’ notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

On this occasion no Councillor had submitted a notice of a question.

The Committee would normally receive the updated Recommendations Monitoring Report, outlining any recommendations the Committee have sent to Cabinet, however on this occasion there is no such report.

The Committee was aware that it would normally receive the updated Recommendations Monitoring Report which outlined any recommendations that the Committee had made to Cabinet but on this occasion there was no such report.

Rebecca Morton (Executive Projects Manager) will be in attendance to provide the committee with an update on the Education and skills agenda within the District.

Debianne Messenger (Work Based Learning Manager) will also be in attendance to provide the Committee with an update regarding vocational opportunities and skills training available for young people in the District.

The following Officers from Essex County Council have been invited to attend the meeting to provide the Committee with information on Education, Economy and Skills:

Clare Kershaw (Director of Education)

Stephen Chynoweth (Head of Education & Early Years)

Kevin Wilby (School Organisation Officer).

The Council’s Work Based Learning Manager (Debianne Messenger) gave a presentation on Apprenticeships which included information on “What is an Apprenticeship”, Education and Skills Funding Agency, Ofsted Monitoring Visit and current successes.

Following Members questions, the Work Based Learning Manager was thanked for her presentation and the Committee congratulated the team for their successful apprenticeship provision.

Claire Kershaw (Director of Education), Stephen Chynoweth (Head of Education and Early Years) and Kevin Wilby (School Organisation Officer) all from Essex County Council also attended the Committee and gave a presentation to the Committee which included an analysis of the performance of schools in the District of Tendring against other Districts in Essex and England Averages.  This also included statistics on Early Years (Good Level of Development at 5 years old), End of Primary School (KS2 RWM outcomes for 11 year olds) and End of Secondary School (KS4 English and Maths 16 years old).  The Committee looked at the statistics for Tendring against the rest of Essex and England.  The Director of Education explained the reasons behind those figures.

There was also information was also provided regarding the South Tendring Primary Partnership, the Harwich Education Partnership, the Mid Tendring Education Partnership, the Colne Cluster (East Tendring) and the Stour Education Partnership, where schools were grouped into areas and worked in partnership with each other in order to lead their own improvements.

Further information was submitted regarding school organisation in respect of school places and about the way that the County Council was dealing with expanding schools where needed.

It was also noted that the current 6^th Form at Clacton County High School would be moving to the Tendring Education Centre (former Bishops Park School) in Jaywick from September.  This would then create room at Clacton County High School for expansion.

Members asked questions regarding extra school places being needed in areas of the District where house building was prolific, especially in the Kirby and Walton-on-the-Naze areas and were assured that the Education Team had undertaken a study whereby they could gauge what provision would be needed going forward and that they were already planning for expansion in various schools across the District.

Following questions and discussion, Clare Kershaw, Stephen Chynoweth and Kevin Wilby were thanked for their presentation and their time.

The Council’s Executive Projects Manager (Rebecca Morton) then provided an update report to the Committee on the Education and Skills agenda within the District.

Members were aware that the Council’s Corporate Plan 2020-2024 placed Community Leadership at the heart of everything and within that context a number of projects were being undertaken by the Council to support children and young people and their families in the District.  Whilst Essex County Council had the statutory responsibility for Education, the report aimed to summarise key work supported by the Council which included work undertaken/supported by officers in the People, Performance & Projects, Health, Community Safety and Regeneration teams.

Education

The priority had been to ensure that partnership working continued to be effective and that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 93.

To present to the Committee a draft detailed Work Programme 2019/20, to consider the detail and ordering of the Work Programme.

The Committee had before it a draft detailed Work Programme for 2019/20.  It was aware that Scrutiny must be Member led and as such the Committee were asked to consider the detail submitted and confirm or amend the scope of the reviews for the remainder of the municipal year.

The Committee considered the Work Programme and it was decided that the Leisure and Tourism Portfolio Holder (Councillor Porter) be invited to the next meeting of the Committee on 6 April 2020.

The Committee also had before it a document detailing the scrutiny already undertaken by the Committee during this municipal year.

The Committee had a discussion and it was AGREED that:

(a)     Once the list of scrutiny proposals for the next municipal year, the item on rail fares includes buses and

(b)     the item in respect of Mitigation Measures for the Impact of Public Fireworks Displays have a separate sub-group of the Committee which could look into this item in detail and report back to the Committee on its findings. 

In respect of (b) above, Councillor Clifton agreed to contact the Head of Democratic Services and Elections (Keith Simmons) to discuss setting up this sub-group.