Are Wirral councillors about to make another Town Hall bungle on education?

                                

Pictured above is Cllr Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services) who has political accountability to the public for education at Wirral Council.

For those with long memories, who read my article The reasons why Wirral Council’s Lyndale School call in is being delayed or the Wirral Globe article headlined Town Hall bungle means Lyndale meeting called off you will recall when I pointed out to a certain Monitoring Officer called Surjit Tour who works for Wirral Council that the call in over the Lyndale School closure wasn’t lawful. He agreed with me and the public meeting had to be postponed.

Regulations that the last Labour government brought in The Education (Parent Governor Representatives) Regulations 1999 require the education committee of a local council, to have a minimum of two and a maximum of five parent governor representatives with voting rights.

Many councils appoint three, so that if one should cease to be a parent governor at that school, die, or indeed not turn up to meetings for six months without sending apologies and therefore be removed it doesn’t drop below two.

Wirral Council next week meets at Wallasey Town Hall on Tuesday 16th May 2017, see here to appoint its committees for the 2017-18 municipal year, although the agenda and reports are here.

As previously stated on this blog, the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee (which covers education) is proposed to be split into two new committees, the Adult Care and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Children and Families Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

The People Overview and Scrutiny Committee, currently has only has one parent governor representative on it.

Below is video of Cllr Steve Foulkes explaining why Wirral Council can’t carry on with only one parent governor representative (although at the time the Committee he was referring to had none).

So why are Wirral Council seemingly ignoring this legal requirement in 2017?

Will Councillor Steve Foulkes remember next week what he stated in 2014? Or do the Wirral public just have more political fudge to look forward to next week from a council whose leadership, management and governance of education was rated inadequate by OFSTED last year?

Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 5th February 2014 Part 1 of 2

Coordinating Committee (Wirral Council) 5th February 2014 Part 2 of 2

If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this result with other people.