The letter is included below. The gist of it is I can present my petition at the public meeting on the 16th December 2014. I’ve decided to present it myself and not through one of the councillors, considering that at least one of the Wirral Council councillors on the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority is well-known for his anti-public meeting filming views.
letter from Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority about filming petition received 6th December 2014
I also get up to five minutes to state how many people signed the paper and e-petition, what the petition is about and “further supporting remarks”. I’ve decided to not opt for the “deputation” option which would have allowed councillors (including Cllr Steve Niblock if he is present) to ask questions of me.
Whereas I could probably talk on the subject of filming public meetings for more than five minutes, this is certainly a positive step on the road to getting things changed and having a say at a public meeting on the issue thanks to the many who have signed the paper and e-petition so far and the many more who watch the videos I’ve recorded since September of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority meetings.
Moving to more local matters, tonight’s Council meeting has unusually two notices of motion on fire related matters.
The Labour motion “Government’s Fire and Rescue Service Cuts” is down to be debated tonight, I’m not sure what’s happening to the Conservative motion “No Fire Station in the Centre of Greasby” as nothing is now next to it on the agenda published on Wirral Council’s website. This is what each notice of motion states:
2. NO FIRE STATION IN THE CENTRE OF GREASBY Proposed by Councillor Tom Anderson Seconded by Councillor Wendy Clements
Council acknowledges the overwhelming public opposition to a fire station on the site of Greasby Library.
Council notes that this concern relates to the specific site, not to the policy of merging of fire stations.
Council impresses upon Cabinet:
(1) not to gift, sell, lease the land concerned at the centre of Greasby, because of the value it has for the community; and
(2) to ask officers to work co-operatively with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service in identifying and facilitating a more suitable site for operational purposes and to maintain the amenity of the local people.
=======================================================================================================
3. GOVERNMENT’S FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE CUTS
Proposed by Councillor Phil Davies Seconded by Councillor Adrian Jones
Council welcomes the announcement by the Leader of the Council to withdraw the Council-owned land in the centre of Greasby from consideration for a new fire station.
Given the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority’s obligation to maximise the protection of lives, and of property, it is inevitable that the location of Fire Stations may, from time to time, conflict with local preferences particularly where such structures may detract from the established scenic value of the MFRA’s preferred locations.
The Government’s devastating and unfair cuts to MFRA’s budget have resulted in the unavoidable need to cut the number of Fire Stations in Wirral. The Fire and Rescue Authority’s preferred location of a single Fire Station on a site in the centre of Greasby was based on its assessment of life saving response times. However, this would result in the loss of a much loved local green space.
The Council is asked to continue to work with the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority to identify an alternative site in the greater Greasby area.
Dan Stephens answers questions at 4th public consultation meeting on Greasby, Upton & West Kirby fire station plans
Dan Stephens answers questions at 4th public consultation meeting on Greasby, Upton & West Kirby fire station plans
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority consultation public meeting on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and creation of new fire station at Greasby. Greasby Methodist Church Hall 10th November 2014 starting at 7.00pm (Part 1)
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority consultation public meeting on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and creation of new fire station at Greasby. Greasby Methodist Church Hall 10th November 2014 starting at 7.00pm (Part 2)
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority consultation public meeting on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and creation of new fire station at Greasby. Greasby Methodist Church Hall 10th November 2014 starting at 7.00pm (Part 3)
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority consultation public meeting on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and creation of new fire station at Greasby. Greasby Methodist Church Hall 10th November 2014 starting at 7.00pm (Part 4)
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority consultation public meeting on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and creation of new fire station at Greasby. Greasby Methodist Church Hall 10th November 2014 starting at 7.00pm (Part 5)
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority consultation public meeting on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and creation of new fire station at Greasby. Greasby Methodist Church Hall 10th November 2014 starting at 7.00pm (Part 6)
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority consultation public meeting on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and creation of new fire station at Greasby. Greasby Methodist Church Hall 10th November 2014 starting at 7.00pm AUDIO ONLY (complete meeting 2h7m) (Part 7)
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Playlist of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority consultation public meeting on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and creation of new fire station at Greasby. Greasby Methodist Church Hall 10th November 2014 starting at 7.00pm
Dan Stephens Chief Fire Officer, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service at Greasby Methodist Church Hall, Greasby Road, Greasby on 10th November 2014 for consultation meeting on closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and merger at Greasby
The second of the meetings in Greasby (and the fourth consultation meeting overall) was held in Greasby Methodist Church Hall, Greasby Road on the 10th November 2014 starting at 7.00pm.
The main hall was packed with many people (as you can see from the photo below taken shortly before it started), so were two overflow rooms in the same building.
Greasby Methodist Church Hall 10th Nov 2014 Large numbers of the public at a Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service consultation meeting to discuss fire station closure plans at West Kirby and Upton and new fire station plan at Greasby
The purpose of the meeting was as part of the 12 week consultation on the closure of Upton and West Kirby fire stations and the creation of a new fire station in Greasby on the Wirral. This came about following a decision of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority on the 2nd October 2014 to proceed to consultation.
Chairing the meeting (which started later than the time it was supposed to of 7.00pm) on the 10th November 2014 was Peter Rushton (Director of Corporate Communications, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service). He introduced Dan Stephens (Chief Fire Officer, Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service) and stated that there were a number of senior managers of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service also present.
Peter Rushton said that there would be an opportunity during the meeting to make comments and ask questions of the Chief Fire Officer (Dan Stephens). Dan Stephens would be giving a presentation on what the consultation, however Mr. Rushton made it clear that it was not a planning consultation. He said this was the fourth public meeting and the second meeting in Greasby.
He asked anybody speaking during the meeting to use the microphone so everybody could hear and take part. There were two other rooms also full of people and he hoped as many people as possible would fill out the survey forms on the tables and they would like people to fill in. Mr. Rushton said that he intended to finish the meeting by 9 o’clock.
The Chief Fire Officer, Dan Stephens said that he didn’t control the presentation, so he would ask his colleagues to move slides on. He said that at the risk of insulting people’s intelligence he wanted to make it clear from the outset that the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority was a standalone statutory body and not Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council. He said that in the same way the Chief Constable has responsibilities for operational policing, that he as Chief Fire Officer was responsible for operational fire and rescue cover on Merseyside. That was the context in which he was speaking that evening.
An update on what’s been happening at Wirral Council about Lyndale School (and other matters)
An update on what’s been happening at Wirral Council about Lyndale School (and other matters)
Councillor Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services) at the Special Cabinet Meeting of 4th September 2014 to discuss Lyndale School L to R Cllr Stuart Whittingham, Cllr Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services), Cllr Bernie Mooney and Lyndzay Roberts
It’s time for a brief round-up on latest developments on Lyndale School.
The draft minutes of the call in on Lyndale School held on the 2nd October 2014 were published a few days ago and come to twenty-nine pages long. The meeting itself was about five hours long with a short adjournment part way through which explains the length of the minutes. They make for interesting reading.
So because of the minority report submitted by the Conservative Group there will be a further vote of all councillors on Lyndale School tonight. Whether the report will trigger a debate or not I’m unsure.
If you click on any of the buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people.
Marvin the Martian returns to try to understand the incredible Lyndale School situation and the £1 million SEN budget cut
Marvin the Martian returns to try to understand the incredible Lyndale School situation and the £1 million SEN budget cut
Marvin the Martian from Disney’s Looney Tunes
The below is a fictional interview with Marvin the Martian about Lyndale School. Marvin the Martian is trademarked to Warner Brothers Entertainment. Our legal team point out their trademark doesn’t actually cover its use on blogs but in case they try to argue this blog is an “entertainment service”, it isn’t, so no laughing! Yes I mean it, not even a smile! We also point out it’s not an infringing use of class 9 of this trademark as that refers to its use on goods rather than virtually.
JOHN BRACE: Thanks once again for agreeing to be interviewed about Lyndale School. We asked Wirral Council for a meeting about Lyndale School but they declined.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: You’re welcome. Well that is a shame I was looking forward to finally meeting people from Wirral Council that I have seen on your video broadcasts. Why do your politicians think they can get away with making decisions like this?
JOHN BRACE: They believe they’re doing the right thing in making “difficult decisions” that are “unpopular”. Also many are what’s in “safe seats”, and many of them (if they choose to do so) will not have to face the public in an election for many years to come.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: But they’re still subject to laws right, that meeting last Thursday the people making the decision didn’t have the required statutory guidance for decision makers which includes the SEN Improvement Test as part of the papers for that meeting?
JOHN BRACE: Well the politicians could have adjourned the meeting and received the correct documents but they chose not to. However you can’t expect politicians to know what they’re doing. They’re elected to look at things from the public perspective and rely on officer advice in such matters. Anyway preparing the papers for a meeting is an officer function in consultation with the Chair.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: You can’t blame this on the committee services officer Lyndzay Roberts though as she only includes in the papers for the meeting what she’s been given in time for it to be published and on that subject why do they keep picking the committee services officer who is a wheelchair user for the Lyndale School meetings?
JOHN BRACE: I’m afraid I can’t read people’s minds and would prefer not to answer that question.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Ahh the “Lynn Wright” defence eh? How much do you get paid then?
JOHN BRACE: Not enough to be answering questions from fictional characters about difficult subjects and I’m assuming your second question is a joke! I know what I got paid last year, so does HMRC. I can estimate what I will get paid this year but as I’m on a fixed amount plus an element that is related to performance, I literally could only tell you it’s above £x,xxx/year. I’m also not sure if you mean gross or net salary as a certain proportion of my earnings I don’t get as they are paid in taxes. I have income from sources other than my salary though.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Ha ha! OK, I won’t pry too much! Back to Lyndale, what was decided on Thursday?
JOHN BRACE: To uphold the Cabinet decision of 4th September 2014 on a majority 9:6 vote.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And remind me what the Cabinet decision of 4th September 2014 was?
JOHN BRACE: Following the first consultation, to have a further second (but different) consultation on closure.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: I thought they’d just had a consultation!
JOHN BRACE: This is a similar but different sort of consultation.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: OK, I never realised closing down a school was made so complicated!
JOHN BRACE: A final decision on closure has not yet been made. This is just an “in principle” decision on closure.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And how much is this all costing?
JOHN BRACE: Who knows? The school closure/retirement costs budget for this year is £326,000. However it looks like £200,000 of that will be moved to another budget heading soon.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Which budget heading?
JOHN BRACE: PFI (private finance initiative).
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Why’s that?
JOHN BRACE: Well you always have to plan for the worst and hope for the best with school closures, extra call in meetings, delays, legal challenges et cetera. Sometimes that means budget allocated goes unspent which can be used for other things.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So they’re not going to use a £200,000 underspend on the school closure budget to keep Lyndale open another year (costing ~£190,000)?
JOHN BRACE: No, pending a decision by the Wirral Schools Forum an underspend on the school closure budget will be spent instead next year on the ~£12 million a year PFI contract.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: OK, so when does this second consultation on closing Lyndale School start?
JOHN BRACE: Wirral Council officers had authorisation to proceed with implementation of the Cabinet decision of 4th September 2014, once the call in ended on 2nd October 2014. This has been delegated by the Cabinet to Julia Hassall to implement.
Regulation 8 of the Openness of Local Government Bodies Regulations 2014 will require Wirral Council to publish a notice on their website shortly after Julia Hassall implements this decision. This public notice has to contain the date of the decision, a record of the decision and reasons, details of any alternative options considered and rejected and the names of any of the Cabinet that declared a conflict of interest in the decision.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Well how likely are Wirral Council to do that?
JOHN BRACE: They probably won’t. They always have great difficulty in complying with their legal requirements (of which there are many).There have been many decisions delegated by councillors to officers taken since these new regulations came into effect near the start of August 2014 ranging from taxi licences to other types of decision. Another part of the same regulations dealt with filming of public meetings, which thankfully settles a long running industrial relations dispute with us and them. As far as I can tell no public notice has been published by officers relating to those yet?
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Why ever not?
JOHN BRACE: Some of the officers to whom the decisions have been delegated to make don’t have the authorisation to publish public notices on the website through the Modgov system. Also this change to legal requirements (which should’ve been implemented from August) would require a change to working practices which requires consultation with the trade unions through the HR department before implementation. Finally, in the vast majority of cases, there are either existing capacity issues with staffing or the decisions are so minor that nobody’s really apart from myself is paying that much attention whether internally or externally while more interesting things are happening and putting the necessary political pressure on to ensure these new regulations are implemented?
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Like what is more interesting?
JOHN BRACE: Like officers’ plan to persuade the Wirral Schools Forum on Wednesday evening to make £1 million of in year cuts this year in 2014/15 to (SEN Top Ups/Independent School Fees (£600,000), statements (£200,000) and support for SEN (£200,000)).
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And why are they proposing to cut a further £1 million from the SEN budget this year?
JOHN BRACE: So they can pay for PFI costs in 2015/16.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And why have PFI costs risen so much?
JOHN BRACE: Because a political decision was made a long time ago to take ~£2 million out of the PFI budget for 2015/16 and get schools to pay for it instead through budget cuts. Also the calculation in the contract bases yearly increases in how much is paid based on the RPI value in December of one year compared to the previous year then multiplied by ninety percent. That’s my simple explanation, the contract itself refers to the 90% as 0.9 and has a formula as to how the increases are calculated.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So if the other special schools (other than Lyndale) think they’re safe they’re not?
JOHN BRACE: Indeed, their budgets were protected this year by dropping by more than 1.5%. Based on the draft regulations circulated by the government (Schools and Early Years Finance (England) Regulations 2014) as part of the current consultation (which closes on October 17th 2014), for special school that protection (assuming the draft regulations aren’t changed) will end in 2015/16. The department for education can be emailed at 2014SchoolFinanceRegulations.Consultation@education.gsi.gov.uk about the policy side of the consultation, or consultation.unit@education.gsi.gov.uk or by telephone on 0370 000 2288 or by mail to Department for Education, Beth O’Brien, Department for Education, Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BT. Further detail about the consultation is on the DfE website here and you can respond online to this consultation here.
However for mainstream it looks like the minimum funding guarantee of at least 98.5% of last years budget will continue in some form?
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So because they can (or assume they can) Wirral Council will target more special schools for cuts in the future?
JOHN BRACE: Probably, but officers don’t decide that however they can recommend that. That’s ultimately decided by the Wirral Schools Forum/councillors.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So is the money they’re getting for schools each year, the ~£175 million they get from the government under the direct schools grant going down next year?
JOHN BRACE: No it isn’t, but a financial and purely local decision by Wirral Council has been made to withdraw the extra funding from Wirral Council that paid for the PFI affordability gap. This amounts to £600,000 this year and millions next year (2015/16). The PFI affordability gap is the total PFI expenditure minus the fixed grant minus the costs schools pay for the services under the PFI contract which is next year about £2.6 million.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So who was the Cabinet Member that originally agreed to this PFI contract in the first place?
JOHN BRACE: Councillor Phil Davies, the current Leader of Wirral Council.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Is there any way out of the contract, when does it end and can it be renegotiated?
JOHN BRACE: Yes, 2031 and yes.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So will they try to renegotiate to save money or terminate it?
JOHN BRACE: Probably not no, management were asked this at the last Wirral Schools Forum, however management only know what they’re told about the contract, they’re not managing it on a day to day basis. Terminating it would be expensive as there is still 17 years left to run, renegotiating would be the more likely option of the two if the political will is there.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So you’re saying the Wirral School Forum members asked Wirral Council officers that hadn’t actually read the contract?
JOHN BRACE: Judging by their answers probably not, managers don’t do things themselves they delegate tasks such as reading contracts and managing contracts to others, maybe not even people that are directly line managed by them but people lower down the food chain.
You can’t expect a senior manager to read such a long contract. Even if they did, it’s hundreds of pages long. It would be very hard to remember all the details unless they brought an electronic searchable version along to the Wirral Schools Forum on say a tablet computer or alternatively circulated an electronic copy to the members of the Wirral Schools Forum. I suppose as a councillor (and member of the Wirral Schools Forum) Cllr Wendy Clements could ask for a copy if she so wished.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So what does the PFI contract actually say about renegotiation?
JOHN BRACE: Wirral Council have to ask the provider (Wirral Schools Services Limited) about changes to the contract and be specific. Wirral Schools Services Limited then have a limited time period in which to respond stating (and I summarise here) whether they agree or not to the changes or not. If they agree they are implemented. However if there is disagreement between Wirral Council and the contractor there is a dispute resolution procedure that can be followed.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So are there any changes they have to agree to?
JOHN BRACE: Yes certain changes they have to agree to. For example there was a legislation change recently on free school meals for children under a certain age. As this was a legislation change, Wirral Council can ask for such changes to be implemented so that Wirral Council does not breach its legal obligations.
There are other categories of change that the contractor has to agree to too.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Indeed, so could Wirral Council’s legal department come up with similar changes which could result in the total cost being lowered?
JOHN BRACE: Wirral Council’s legal department has issues of its own. Also it in order to implement changes quickly it would require agreement of the contractor Wirral Schools Services Limited. Wirral Council would have to seek appropriate authorisation internally from sufficiently senior officers and if it had large budgetary implications in terms of costs or savings then also authorisation from politicians.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So it’s possible?
JOHN BRACE: Anything’s possible. However as the contractor is a large organisation with a turnover off the top of my head of about £62 million, although they are considerably smaller in annual yearly revenue budget than Wirral Council, Wirral Council still get scared of organisations with that sort of financial clout, as well as organisational and legal resources at their disposal.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Does current senior management at Wirral Council want to renegotiate the contract?
JOHN BRACE: If the Wirral Schools Forum and/or politicians in the administration asked them to they’d have to to look into the option (which would depending on the option and the savings/cost implication would affect budgets through to 2031). After negotiations, generally officers would bring back options to politicians/Wirral Schools Forum for a meeting. However the Schools PFI contract is complex, it is hard for anyone to understand easily.
If neither of those formally happen, senior management already have enough on their plate already and lack the current internal capacity as they are already negotiating a 7 year extension to a contract of a similar size (~£12 million a year) with Biffa Waste Services Limited.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: But Biffa is in a different strategic directorate to schools!
JOHN BRACE: Indeed but there are capacity issues at the management level and across the organisation at all levels. This is due to annual leave requirements, illness, other factors and the mere practical constraints of there only ever being so many people to keep all the plates spinning up in the air at once.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Oh dear. So what is the likely net result to be?
JOHN BRACE: Instead of renegotiating savings on a contract, Wirral Council in the absence of either strong leadership at either the Wirral Schools Forum level or political level will probably accept the status quo and instead make in year cuts of a further £1 million to special educational needs. Officers will probably point out that they have tried to make sure the cuts don’t adversely affect front line services, but they will!
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: How on Mars do you make £2 million of in year cuts without it affecting frontline services?
Councillors discuss schools, free school meals and 4 Wirral schools in special measures
Councillors discuss schools, free school meals and 4 Wirral schools in special measures
Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.
If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.
Last night’s meeting of Wirral Council’s Attainment sub-committee started off well enough. Before the hour of six o’clock had even been reached, Cllr Moira McLaughlin was chomping at the bit to be made Chair. As there was only one Conservative councillor present and many, many Labour councillors, it was hardly likely she wouldn’t become Chair.
The Labour councillors then agreed to Cllr Wendy Clements being Vice-Chair.
The Chair, Cllr Moira McLaughlin pointed out that Cllr Alan Brighouse wasn’t present, but decided to continue the meeting anyway. To be perfectly honest I’m glad as if every meeting waited until Cllr Alan Brighouse was present things would never start on time as like another councillor he has a reputation for poor timekeeping.
Apologies were given for Julia Hassall who would be late. Declarations of interest were given as some councillors were school governors.
The minutes were agreed. The Chair said that the main thrust of the meeting would be a presentation from Deborah Gornik (who wasn’t there). The Chair was informed that Deborah Gornik would also be late as she (and presumably Julia Hassall) were “at another meeting”. Were they meeting each other? What was this other meeting about? Who knows?
The one officer (apart from the one taking the minutes) that had turned up on time, Sue Talbot gave her report on standards (which is not often a word you hear at public meetings of Wirral Council).
However this was about standards of education for at the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 level, with a focus on raising standards and what happened to the education of those in local authority care (adopted or fostered). The phrase “good news story” was repeated by Sue Talbot many times.
Cllr Alan Brighouse was the first to speak and used words like “pretty fantastic improvement” followed up by a question about falls in numbers of children eligible for free school meals. The answer given was that the eligible benefits for people for apply for free school meals had changed which partly explained the drop and in answer to a further question that the officer preferred to use numbers of children rather than percentages.
The Lib Dem spokesperson (as the only Lib Dem he’s therefore the spokesperson) continued to talk about primary schools becoming academies (at this point I wondered if he was going to explicitly mention Lyndale). Sue replied that Wirral Council still had legal duties towards academies and mentioned the academy representatives on the Wirral Schools Forum and Sue went on to say the good relationship that Wirral Council has with primary schools (which if you’ve been following the Lyndale story is a matter of opinion).
Cllr Wendy Clements then asked about floor targets, the officer replied that no schools triggered all four triggers but they had banded schools (sound familiar?) and there were four schools in band four… followed up by her favourite phrase again “good news story”. Cllr Clements asked a follow up question and the answer given was that they were keen to track children who come out of care but admitted that sometimes they don’t keep an eye on those children.
Cllr Moira McLaughlin asked a question about whether children subject to care orders were monitored. The officer replied not yet, but said that once the virtual headteacher role was shared that id would help. Cllr Walter Smith asked about intervention strategies. Sue Talbot gave a detailed reply going into detail about how two of her team concentrated on early years, one on english and one on maths. She said that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate had highlighted a problem they had with British working class boys and went into detail as to what her team does.
Cllr Walter Smith asked if nursery provision had any effect on children going into primary school. The answer given was yes as long as it was good quality. Cllr Tony Norbury referred to his work as a school governor and asked how the changes to school meals in primary schools would affect free school meals? The officer answered that schools were proactive at doing this as it led to additional funding through the pupil premium for them. Cllr Tony Norbury asked two follow up questions, to which the answers were “too early to tell” and “pupil’s circumstances change”.
Cllr Phillip Brightmore asked about free school meals too. The answer given was that how they encouraged people from September could be different as all infants would get free school meals. The councillor referred to the table and referred to the Wirral West figures. Sue Talbot referred to “pockets of deprivation” in Wirral West in her answer. He then brought up the results for Pensby High. Sue Talbot said that the results might change as the school had sent the whole cohort back for remarking therefore the figures were provisional.
Cllr Tony Norbury asked about English as a second language and the strategies there. Sue Talbot referred to the Ethnic Minority Achievement Service and how they need to support schools, however kids with English as a second language seemed to be better at phonics that people who had English as their mother tongue. She referred to Polish teaching assistants and Urdu speakers.
The Chair Cllr Moira McLaughlin moved the meeting to item 8 (OFSTED reports). Sue Talbot gave a brief introduction and talked about the four schools that were being monitored by OFSTED due to previously poor inspections. One was becoming an academy so would not be in special measures due to this as special measures status disappeared when a school became an academy.
Cllr Phillip Brightmore pointed out that such things “doesn’t help the kids”. Cllr Wendy Clements referred to a “clean start” followed by a comment by Cllr Alan Brighouse.
The officer explained that new academies were given twelve months to become established. A further inspection could happen any time after twelve months. There was an academy planned to start on the 1st September, but it hadn’t happened but the school had changed its name to Kingsway Academy. The delay had been caused due to complexities caused by the PFI contract.
At this point nearly half an hour into the meeting (at agenda item 8 out of 9), the Director of Children’s Services Julia Hassall and Deborah Gornik arrived.
If you click on any of these buttons below, you’ll be doing me a favour by sharing this article with other people. Thanks:
