Lyndale School | A blog about Wirral Council, Wirral Council's councillors & officers

Youtube censors 4th September Wirral Council Cabinet video about Lyndale School closure consultation

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, Cllr Bernie Mooney and Lyndzay Roberts — Councillor Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services) at the Special Cabinet Meeting of 4th September 2014 (the public meeting Sony Music Entertainment won’t allow you to watch the first part of) 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

Interest declarations: The author of this piece filmed the Cabinet meeting of 4th September 2014 referred to in this piece. The author of this piece works for an organisation that receives royalties from Youtube/Google for videos he films of Wirral Council. The author is in dispute with Sony Music Entertainment over the filming of a video shown at the Cabinet meeting of the 4th September 2014.

As if the piece about blog comments being censored wasn’t bad enough, Sony Music Entertainment have chosen to stop you viewing video of the 4th September meeting of Wirral Council over the decision to close Lyndale School (which includes contributions from parents and those associated with the school).

However it was viewed 88 times (and called in and then a minority report was written on it decided at Council a week ago), so I suppose many people who want to see it have seen it by now.

Why have Sony Music Entertainment done this? Well they claim to have a licence to the track created by Icelandic musician Jonsi “We Bought a Zoo” [2011] which was used in the video about the school shown at the meeting. I’m not disputing that this track wasn’t used as background music in the video.

However both British and American law allows for “fair use” of copyrighted materials for the purpose of news reporting and the music is only incidental. These exemptions written into both British copyright law and American copyright law. This is a point I’ve repeatedly pointed out to Sony Music Entertainment and Youtube over the past month and two weeks. A bit like dealing with Wirral Council I’ve been ignored.

There was another copyright claim made on the video (not by Sony Music Entertainment but by another organisation), but once it was explained to them the fair use claim they released their claim.

Here is the video (which you now can’t see):

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So the battle for Lyndale School takes an unusual turn as an American multinational, based on the work of an Icelandic musician Jonsi insists Youtube not show the world what happened at Wirral Council’s Cabinet on the 4th September 2014.

Don’t you just love American culture who trumpets constitutional protections to “freedom of speech” (but seemingly for fellow Americans and not for foreigners)?

Also Youtube have told me that until it’s all sorted out (which at this rate could be forever and a day) I’m not allowed to upload new clips of over 15 minutes (there aren’t many Wirral Council meetings that are shorter than this). Yes I can re edit video clips of Wirral Council down to shorter than fifteen minutes before uploading, but it’ll just take more time and hastle to do so.

I have submitted a counter notification, whether Sony Music Entertainment bother to pay any attention to it is anyone’s guess! My guess is that Sony Music Entertainment have a policy of going after everybody (fair use or not) to try and take down possibly infringing works.

This is making me seriously consider alternatives to Youtube for uploading videos of Wirral Council. I’ve been considering a podcast for a while, so will seriously consider Apple and other alternatives.

In the meantime this is another issue to do with Lyndale School that cheeses me off. Many people know that American multinationals seem to put profits ahead of people but in censoring a meeting about Lyndale School Sony are showing disrespect to children, the press, the public and the disabled community.

As long as this dispute lasts, I won’t personally be buying any music (or other media) sold through Sony Music Entertainment and suggest readers boycott them too as perhaps that is the only way Sony Music Entertainment will actually listen?

Before you leave a comment the total revenue earned on this particular video over the last two months I estimate at a grand total of 6 British pence (or if you’re Sony Music Entertainment an American dime).

Personally if I was Sony Music Entertainment I’d be wondering whether this is all worth it for what they’re going to get out of it. Perhaps they’re trying to make a political point about greed and Lyndale School, but I seriously doubt it! 🙂

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the above, so please leave a comment below.

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4 week consultation on closure of Lyndale School starts: does Wirral Council really know how many pupils are there?

Councillor Phil Gilchrist explains his amendment on the minority report on Lyndale School to councillors, officers and the public 2nd October 2014 Council Chamber, Wallasey Town Hall (c) John Brace — Councillor Phil Gilchrist explains his amendment on the minority report on Lyndale School to councillors, officers and the public 20th October 2014 Council Chamber, Wallasey Town Hall (c) John Brace

Following the Council meeting on the 20th October 2014 when Labour councillors voted to go ahead to the next stage on closure of Lyndale School, Wirral Council started on the 22nd October 2014 its four-week consultation on closure which finishes on 19th November 2014. After this consultation is finished, the results of this consultation will be reported back to Wirral Council’s Cabinet.

Proposal to cease to maintain the Lyndale School

Complete Proposal

You can also ask for copies of the proposals by calling 0151 606 2020 during office hours or writing to:

Julia Hassall
Director of Children’s Services
Hamilton Building
Conway Street
Birkenhead
CH41 4FD

The above files I’ve linked to are the new files in this current consultation.

You can respond to the consultation in one of two ways, either by email to specialreview@wirral.gov.uk or by mail to:

Julia Hassall
Director of Children’s Services
Hamilton Building
Conway Street
Birkenhead
CH41 4FD

I am unsure at this stage which Cabinet meeting the outcome of this four-week consultation on the closure of Lyndale School will go to. At the time of writing the following Cabinet meetings are scheduled for after the end of the consultation:

Personally as the 27th November is a special meeting and occurs exactly one week and a day after the consultation ends, I would guess that this will be the public meeting at which the outcome of the second consultation and a further decision will be made. As agendas and reports have to be published at least a week before holding a Cabinet meeting, 27th November 2014 would be the earliest date it could be held.

However if this matter is called in after the Cabinet decision after the consultation and there are more delays in the process taking it past February 2015, it would make setting the 2015-16 Schools Budget problematic.

The reason is that if a final decision on closure is not made before February 2015, a contingency of funding Lyndale School from the proposed date of closure (January 1st 2016) to the end of that financial year (March 2016) would have to be added to the schools budget for 2015-16 of ~£140,000.

There are legal limits on when the 2015-16 Schools Budget has to be decided by and as there were delays earlier this year, I can see the next stages moving as fast as is humanly possible at Wirral Council (which when you do things as fast as you possibly can inevitably leads to mistakes).

However I would like to point out that the current consultation has at least one contradictory fact in Surjit Tour’s letter to me of the 30th September 2014 (although Mr. Tour obviously has to rely on what he’s told and take it at face value as I seriously doubt (although I could of course be wrong) that Mr. Tour visited Lyndale School and started asking children how old they are). I’ll explain what I mean (with references):

Here is the 13 page response from Mr. Tour. In it he states:

“8. Background

8.1 Lyndale School is a special school providing specialist educational provision for primary aged pupils, the majority of whom have Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (“PMLD”). There are 21 pupils currently on the roll, nine of whom will be transitioning to secondary school by the end of the 2015/16 academic year. The declining number of students admitted to Lyndale over recent years has drawn into question The Lyndale’s financial viability for the future.”

When I read Surjit Tour’s reply a few weeks ago, I thought it a bit odd that out of the eight year groups at Lyndale School, that almost half the school (nine out of twenty-one) would be in the final year and therefore leave to secondary school in September 2015 and not be affected by the proposals to close it. It seemed unusual at the time.

Mr. Tour repeatedly states throughout his letter that I have not provided evidence of my facts. However the evidence that proves him wrong on this was in fact published by Wirral Council on the 22nd October 2014 as part of the current consultation. Here is the table published as part of the Complete Proposal. The table is Pupil admissions and numbers.

	F1	F2	Y1	Y2	Y3	Y4	Y5	Y6	Total
October 2014 Boys Girls	3 2 1	1 0 1	3 1 2	2 2 0	3 3 0	1 1 0	6 2 4	2 1 1	21 12 9
December 2015 Boys Girls	0 – –	3 2 1	1 0 1	3 1 2	2 2 0	3 3 0	1 1 0	6 2 4	19 11 8

Number in each year group in December 2015 assumes that all current pupils remain on roll, that no new children are admitted to F1 (Nursery) in September 2015, and that no further children join or leave other year groups from October 2014 onwards.

As you can see from the table above there are two children (one boy and one girl) in year 6 at Lyndale School who will start at a secondary school in September 2015, not nine as claimed by Surjit Tour in his letter.

This then has an effect on other numbers used in his letter.

According to Surjit Tour 21-9 = 12 (twelve pupils left in September 2015)
According to Julia Hassall 21-2 = 19 (nineteen pupils left in September 2015)

So who do I trust to give the correct figure for pupils at the Lyndale School? The Head of Legal and Member Services (Surjit Tour) or the Director of Children’s Services (Julia Hassall)? They can’t both be right, can they?

On the balance of probabilities because:

a) Julia Hassall actually works in the area of Wirral Council with responsibility for schools
b) that it seems highly unlikely that nine of the twenty-one pupils at Lyndale School (spanning eight year groups) would be in the last year group

I’m veering towards believing Ms Hassall (although I never really relish taking sides when two people in Wirral Council’s senior management team are giving out contradictory information).

There is also the point that someone could have misread the table above and used the total number of girls presently at the school (nine) instead of the number of pupils in year six (two) and given that information to Surjit Tour to use in his letter.

Isn’t it weird though that when Wirral Council makes a mistake like this, it always coincides with their world view of a “small school” (in this case seven pupils less than it actually is)?

If Wirral Council can’t get basic facts such as how many pupils of what age are at Lyndale School right, is it any wonder that there are problems of trust between those associated with Lyndale School and Wirral Council?

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Cllr Foulkes uses phrase “shambolic” to describe Wirral Council’s decision making on Lyndale School

Below is the text of the amendment submitted on Monday evening to the minority report from Cllr Paul Hayes. It was not circulated to the public gallery, so myself and another went downstairs during the adjournment to get a copy.

Despite the Chief Executive’s assertion that it was a “private paper”, this will form part of the minutes of the public meeting on 22nd October 2014.

It is a shame committee services officers aren’t instructed to circulate copies to the public gallery too during the adjournment. However this would cost Wirral Council the extra labour costs of sending someone up the stairs and the extra photocopying costs of a further ten or so sheets of paper, so I am happy in these straightened financial times to decrease the labour costs of Wirral Council!

So this Lib Dem amendment gets a wider audience (and I got told off a bit by the Chief Executive on my way out of the Council Chamber for being in the Council Chamber as he made some point about “private papers” and a “private meeting” that to be honest I didn’t understand at the time as we were both tired), it is below. I’ve linked from it to the documents referred to in it. It’s also interesting to hear the Mayor’s comments on an attempt to make councillors vote on an amendment they hadn’t received a copy of yet!

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The item on Lyndale School starts at the 3 minute 40 second mark, lasts for a further six minutes then the meeting is adjourned.

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This is after the meeting resumed after the adjournment and continues below at the next clip.

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The item on Lyndale School is for about two minutes at the start.

===================================================================================================================

COUNCIL 20 OCTOBER 2014

Proposed: Cllr Phil Gilchrist
Seconded: Cllr Dave Mitchell

Amendment to the Minority Report from Cllr Paul Hayes

It be noted that the SEN Improvement Test as set out on Page 87 as Appendix 3 in the Consultant’s Report did not fully set out paragraph 40 as set out in the Guidance Document, namely that:

“….Decision-makers should make clear how they are satisfied that this SEN improvement test has been met, including how they have taken account of parental or independent representations which question the proposer’s assessment”.

…was not included and that, therefore, the matter should be referred back to Cabinet so that they can fully set out how they have undertaken this assessment in the light of the guidance.

===================================================================================================================

Of course, the question is therefore, did Wirral Council’s Cabinet (and Coordinating Committee) actually have to consider the guidance before reaching a decision? It would seem from the legislation they do have to have regard to it. For the purposes of clarity LEA stands for Local Education Authority:

Section 72 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 c.40 states the following:

“72. Duty of LEA to have regard to guidance

A local education authority must, in exercising their functions under this Part, have regard to any guidance given from time to time by the Secretary of State.”

Note the use of the word must, the decision makers must have regard to any guidance (which was issued on the 28th January 2014). It’s not optional to do so. The current guidance introduced in January 2014 is in four parts (and hasn’t been included in the papers for the meetings so far in full):

School organisation (maintained schools) (23 pages) issued 28/1/14

School organisation: annex A (16 pages) issued 28/1/14

School organisation: annex B (23 pages) issued 28/1/14

School organisation: annex C (14 pages) issued 28/1/14

In other words, when making the decisions on 5th February 2014, 25th February 2014, 27th February 2014, 4th September 2014, 2nd October 2014 and 20th October 2014 can those over sixty councillors all prove they had regard to the guidance when the seventy-six pages of government guidance wasn’t included in the papers for those meetings?

Not even four weblinks were included, so they could read it in their own time was included.

The guidance that was quoted, wasn’t for the right time period and after new guidance was issued on the 28th January 2014, Wirral Council just kept using the old version as the first Cabinet meeting to discuss Lyndale School was held on the 16th January 2014.

Why don’t people bother to check these things at Wirral Council before including them in meeting papers? Should the Labour councillors accept some responsibility for not asking officers whether required guidance was not included with the papers or do Labour councillors assume that Wirral Council officers don’t make any mistakes (unlike the rest of us)?

During the adjournment I happened to pass Julia Hassall (Wirral Council’s Director of Children’s Serivces) leaving the Council Chamber and she didn’t look very happy by this development. However it’s been known for some time (although apparently Wirral Council officers and politicians are the last to know it seems).

It’s just one of many unresolved anomalies about how the decisions surrounding Lyndale School have not been made as they should have done.

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An update on what’s been happening at Wirral Council about Lyndale School (and other matters)

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.

The draft minutes of the call in meeting on 2nd October 2014 about Lyndale School go to tonight’s Council meeting to be approved (agenda item 10 (Matters Referred from Policy and Performance Committees)).

There are also many different minority reports tabled to do with recent call ins that have been heard. The minority report from the Conservative Group about Lyndale School is here.

In addition to the minority report on Lyndale School there are a further three minority reports about matters unconnected to Lyndale School:

Lib Dem Group (about the call in to do with concessions for the Armed Forces at leisure centres) proposed by Cllr Phil Gilchrist.
Conservative Group (about the call in to do with concessions for the Armed Forces at leisure centres) proposed by Cllrs Chris Blakeley, Wendy Clements, Mike Hornby, Steve Williams and Gerry Ellis.

Lib Dem Group (Health Homes/Forest Schools call in) proposed by Cllr Stuart Kelly.

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.

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The 6 “missing” pages of Cllr Tony Smith’s expenses claims shed more light on Lyndale School matters

As part of the 2013/14 audit of Wirral Council, I exercised a legal right to a copy of the councillors’ expenses forms. I have published what I received last month (which attracted much public interest), but a lot of pages were still not provided at that point. You can read the earlier nine pages for Councillor Tony Smith here.

The internal processes seem to be that the finance side of Wirral Council ask for these from Human Resources. Human Resources then ask for legal advice. The legal side of Wirral Council then recommend to redact officer names, registration numbers of councillors’ cars, payroll numbers, signatures and other information on these forms. Quite why that whole process takes over two months I’m not quite sure.

As many readers of this blog will know there was a call in of the Cabinet decision of September 4th on Lyndale School which happened during a five-hour public meeting on the evening of October 2nd 2014. The six pages of the Cabinet Member for Education’s expenses (Cllr Tony Smith) I requested in August 2014 but were only supplied to me this morning (17th October 2014).

It shows some meetings which may be of interest to the continuing public debate on Lyndale School. The last meeting with Alison McGovern MP is education related due to its location, however whether it is connected to Lyndale School or a different education matter I am unsure at this point. I include the original six pages below.

Wirral Council also provided me today with a further dozen or so pages of councillors expenses for other councillors that had also been missing from what I had been supplied with. I plan to publish these in the near future.

17.5.13 | Visits to Foxfield and Elleray Park School – in role of Cabinet Member | Home | | 10 | 0.40p
9.8.13 | Meeting re Lyndale School with Director + Officers / Hamilton Building | Home | Hamilton | 10 | 0.40p
13.9.13 | Meeting ?? ?? M.P. Alison McGovern and officers / Hamilton | Home | Hamilton | 10 | 0.40p