Coordinating Committee meets to discuss Early Years/Childrens Centre call in for 2nd time Part 1

Coordinating Committee meets to discuss Early Years/Childrens Centre call in for 2nd time Part 1

Coordinating Committee meets to discuss Early Years/Childrens Centre call in for 2nd time

                           

Coordinating Committee 12th November 2014 Childrens Centre call in L to R Shirley Hudspeth,  Surjit Tour, Cllr Moira McLaughlin (Chair) &  Michelle
Coordinating Committee 12th November 2014 Childrens Centre call in L to R Shirley Hudspeth, Surjit Tour, Cllr Moira McLaughlin (Chair) & Michelle

Ed – 13/11/2014 Added video of first twenty-five minutes of meeting.

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Above is footage from the start of the Coordinating Committee meeting who met in Committee Room 1 at Wallasey Town Hall on the evening of 12th November 2014 (the first 25 minutes) to discuss the Early Years/Children Centres call in.

On 12th November 2014 starting at 6.00pm in a packed Committee Room 1 (standing room only for some) at Wallasey Town Hall the Coordinating Committee met to consider the call in of the Cabinet decision of 11th September 2014 (Early Years and Children’s Centres).

The Coordinating Committee had already met on the 15th October 2014 at 5.00pm for eight and half minutes to consider the same call in. That earlier meeting had decided (video of that earlier meeting is below the decision of the meeting on the 15th October 2014):

(1) the meeting stand adjourned until 6pm on Wednesday, 12 November 2014 in Committee Room 1 of Wallasey Town Hall;

(2) the Call-in Procedure be revised to enable:

(a) a witness to a called in decision, who attends the meeting, to have the option of reading out any prepared written statements to the Committee (within a timescale not to exceed five minutes); and

(b) the relevant Cabinet Member and the Lead Member to the call-in to be questioned by the Committee, once they have made their opening statements;

(3) the revised Call-in Procedure note be presented to the Committee at its reconvened meeting on 12 November 2014 for adoption.

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So, moving on to the meeting of the 12th November 2014 under the revised Call-in Procedure.

Unfortunately the revised Call-in Procedure agreed on the 15th October 2014 for the meeting on the 12th November 2014 wasn’t included in the agenda and reports published a week before the meeting on 12th November 2014.

However the meeting started with item 1 (Apologies for Absence).

1. Apologies for Absence

There was an apology for the absence of Councillor Anita Leech (Labour). Deputy Cllr Rob Gregson (Labour) was sent in her place.
There was an apology for the absence of Councillor Andrew Hodson (Conservative). Deputy Cllr Leah Fraser (Conservative) was sent in his place.
There was an apology for the absence of Councillor Wendy Clements (Conservative). Deputy Cllr Chris Blakeley (Conservative) was sent in her place.
There was an apology for the absence of Councillor Mike Hornby (Conservative). Deputy Cllr David Elderton (Conservative) was sent in his place.
There was an apology for the absence of Councillor Christina Muspratt (Labour). Deputy Cllr Irene Williams (Labour) was sent in her place.
There was an apology for the absence of Councillor Steve Williams (Conservative). Deputy Cllr Bruce Berry (Conservative) was sent in his place.

This meant the Coordinating Committee on 12th November was was:

Councillor Moira McLaughlin Chair (Labour)
Councillor Paul Doughty Vice-Chair (Labour)
Councillor Phillip Brightmore (Labour)
Councillor Rob Gregson (Labour) deputising for Councillor Anita Leech (Labour)
Councillor Irene Williams (Labour) deputising for Councillor Christina Muspratt (Labour)
Councillor Walter Smith (Labour)
Councillor Michael Sullivan (Labour)
Councillor Jerry Williams (Labour)
Councillor Janette Williamson (Labour)
Councillor Leah Fraser (Conservative) deputising for Councillor Andrew Hodson (Conservative Spokesperson)
Councillor Tom Anderson (Conservative)
Councillor Chris Blakeley (Conservative) deputising for Councillor Wendy Clements (Conservative)
Councillor David Elderton (Conservative) deputising for Councillor Mike Hornby (Conservative)
Councillor Bruce Berry (Conservative) deputising for Councillor Steve Williams (Conservative)
Councillor Phil Gilchrist (Liberal Democrat spokesperson)

Councillor Chris Blakeley asked the Chair Cllr Moira McLaughlin why Cllr Anita Leech had sent a deputy when she was present in the room the meeting was being held in? The Chair said she was in the audience and that one of the reasons that Cllr Anita Leech had absented herself from the process was because Cllr Anita Leech was on the board of one of the Children’s Centres. Cllr Moira McLaughlin explained that Cllr Anita Leech didn’t have to declare this as an interest as she had sent a deputy [Cllr Rob Gregson] in her place on the Coordinating Committee.

The meeting then moved to agenda item 2 (Code of Conduct – Declarations of Interest Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012, Including Party Whip Declarations).

Cllr Tom Anderson (Conservative) declared a personal interest as a signatory to the call in and also a director of a community centre.
Cllr Bruce Berry (Conservative) declared a personal interest as a signatory to the call in.
Cllr Leah Fraser (Conservative) asked if she had to make a personal interest as a signatory to the call in.
The Chair answered no. Cllr Leah Fraser (Conservative) declared a personal interest as a signatory to the call in.
Cllr Tony Smith (Labour Cabinet Member for Children’s Services) declared an interest as a director of a nursery.
The Chair said that Surjit Tour had told her that as Cllr Tony Smith wasn’t part of the Coordinating Committee he didn’t need to declare such interests.
The Chair asked if anyone was subject to the party whip? No one replied that they were.

The meeting proceeded to agenda item 3 (Call-in of a Delegated Decision – Minute No. 54 – Early Years and Children’s Centres).

The Chair explained that the Coordinating Committee were to re-examine a decision by the Executive [Cabinet] as it had been formally challenged by councillors through a procedure known as call in. The decision was made on 11th September and was about Early Years and Childrens Centres. The decision had asked for a 6 week public consultation and the signatories to the call in had raised four points. She asked people to introduce themselves. She introduced herself as Cllr Moira McLaughlin who was Chair of the Coordinating Committee.

Here is a list of the others who introduced themselves (* indicates member of the Coordinating Committee):

Surjit Tour (legal adviser to the Coordinating Committee, Wirral Council employee)
Shirley Hudspeth (committee services officer taking the minutes of the meeting, Wirral Council employee)
*Cllr Tom Anderson (Conservative)
*Cllr Bruce Berry (Conservative)
*Cllr Chris Blakeley (Conservative)
*Cllr Leah Fraser (Conservative spokesperson)
*Cllr David Elderton (Conservative)
*Cllr Phil Gilchrist (Lib Dem spokesperson)
*Cllr Jerry Williams (Labour)
*Cllr Irene Williams (Labour)
*Cllr Mike Sullivan (Labour)
*Cllr Phillip Brightmore (Labour)
*Cllr Rob Gregson (Labour)
*Cllr Walter Smith (Labour)
*Cllr Paul Doughty (Labour, Vice-Chair)
*Cllr Janette Williamson (Labour)
Michelle ??? (support to the committee, Wirral Council employee)

To be continued…

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Wirral Council breaches expenditure limit by £741,000 and loses out on over £1 million of funding

English: Wallasey Town Hall, Wirral, England a...
Wallasey Town Hall, Wirral, England where the Schools Forum will be held. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In a report going to Tuesday’s School Forum (Agenda Item 13) Wirral Council admit they breached an expenditure limit by £741,000 in 2012/2013 (which relates to the Children and Young People’s Department, which has democratic accountability through the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and Lifelong Learning, Labour Cllr Tony Smith (Upton)).

In addition to this £741,000 needed, a further £333,000 is needed for the “Private Finance Initiative Affordability Gap”, £32,000 needed for “Other” (which is probably a knock on effect of these other changes) and £71,000 extra needed for the Carbon Reduction Budget which brings the grand total required to £1.177 million.

This’ll (assuming the Schools Forum agrees to the change) be made by reducing the Schools Contingency Budget, the Early Years Contingency Budget and the Academy LACSEG central budget.

Basically when a school converts to become an Academy (as some have this year), the new Academy receives what it would before from the Local Authority (in this case Wirral), plus the local authority share of the grant Wirral Council receives from government (this covers the Academy’s costs of things they now have to pay for like assessing eligibility for free school meals, special educational need support services, certain staff costs etc).

However the transfer to the new Academies follows a long process that Wirral Council’s Children and Young People’s Department should have known about at the time of setting the 2012/2013 Schools Budget (earlier this year), which begs the question, why weren’t assumptions that certain schools would become academies factored into the Budget when it was set earlier this year (or is this too much crystal-ball gazing to expect of Wirral Council)?

This means the Indicative Schools Budget will be reduced by 18% to factor in Wirral Council’s overspending and faulty Budget assumptions. Certainly while one expects minor in-year budget adjustments to reflect unforeseen circumstances (usually using reserves set aside for this), these Academy changes have been “on the cards” for some time! If some of Wirral Council’s departments continue to overspend in this fashion (as they have for many years), eventually the cuts in 2013/2014 will have to be more severe, to make up for any 2012/2013 overspend. As we’re already halfway through the 2012/2013 Financial Year, some of that 2012/2013 Budget has already been spent.

P.S. And as if the above wasn’t bad enough Wirral Council lost out on ~£1.6 million of education funding (agenda item 4) because they gave the Department for Education the wrong numbers for Early Years learners, from the report this happened because “this was not identified at the time due to a breakdown in validation checks in Wirral” .

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