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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Roger Croft Room Council Offices Market Street Newbury. View directions

Contact: David Lowe / Charlene Myers / Rachel Craggs 

Items
No. Item

4.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 122 KB

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Commission held on 5th April and 19th May 2016.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting held on 19 May 2016 and 5 April 2016 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman.

5.

Declarations of Interest

To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any Personal, Disclosable Pecuniary or other interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received.

 

6.

Actions from previous Minutes pdf icon PDF 46 KB

To receive an update on actions following the previous Commission meeting.

Minutes:

There were 3 actions followed up from previous Commission meetings:

2.1       Councillor Emma Webster advised that she would confirm the Conservative Member volunteers for the Annual Target Setting meeting.

2.2       Members agreed that the topic (To review the existing income generation of the Council) would be directed to the Resource Select Committee Work Programme.

2.3       Members agreed that the topic (Delivery of Council Strategy – Priority 3: Enable the completion of more affordable housing) would return to the next Overview and Scrutiny Management Commission in December 2016.

 

7.

West Berkshire Forward Plan 25th May 2016 to 31 August 2016 pdf icon PDF 48 KB

To advise the Commission of items to be considered by West Berkshire Council from 25th May 2016 to 31 August 2016 and decide whether to review any of the proposed items prior to the meeting indicated in the Plan.

Minutes:

The Commission considered the West Berkshire Forward Plan (Agenda Item 5) for the period covering 25th May 2016 to 31 August 2016.

Resolved that the Forward Plan be noted.

8.

Overview and Scrutiny Management Commission Work Programme pdf icon PDF 67 KB

To agree and prioritise the work programme of the Commission and Select Committees for the remainder of 2016/2017.

Minutes:

The Commission considered a report detailing the new arrangements for Overview and Scrutiny (Agenda Item 6).

David Lowe advised that the report expanded on the new arrangements made at the Council meeting in May 2016. The structure introduced three Select Committees which focused on work according to the Directorates within the Council: Communities; Resources and Environment. Members were invited to consider topics for the respective Committees Work Programmes’ which had been outlined within point four of the report.

Councillor Alan Macro suggested that the Environment Select Committee should review the outcome of the Library Needs Assessment. Members agreed that it would be beneficial to include the topic in the Work Programme. David Lowe suggested that the sequence of meetings could be altered in order to accommodate deadlines.

Councillor Richard Somner proposed that it would be beneficial to conduct a review into the provision of Key-Workers Housing but it was not clear where this topic would sit within the new structure. David Lowe advised Members that the structure was flexible and Members should be encouraged to consider capacity of each group when allocating work. In light of the proposed topics assigned to the Resources and Communities groups, it appeared reasonable to assign the Key-Worker Housing review to the Environment Select Committee.

Members discussed the new scope of the Commission and concluded that it would consider strategic issues and assign items for further consideration to Select Committees where necessary.

Resolved that:

1.    The Chairman of the Environment and Communities Select Committee would confirm whether the existing meeting dates could be swapped in order that a review in to the Libraries Needs Assessment could be carried out in a timely manner.

 

2.    The following items would be assigned under the new Overview and Scrutiny arrangements:

Date

Meeting

Proposed Topics

12 July 2016

Resources Select Committee

·         Income Generated by the Council

6 September 2016

Communities Select Committee

·         Ofsted Inspection Plan

1 November 2016

Environment Select Committee

·         Libraries’ Needs Assessment

6 December 2016

OSMC

 

17 January 2017

Resources Select Committee

 

28 February 2017

Environment Select Committee

·         Waste Service

11 April 2017

Communities Select Committee

·         Health and Social Care Integration

 

 

9.

Items Called-in following the Executive on 26 May 2016.

To consider any items called-in by the requisite number of Members following the previous Executive meeting.

Minutes:

No items were called-in following the last Executive meeting.

10.

Consideration of Urgent Items

To consider any items which an Urgent Decision is required to be taken by the Executive, in exception to the requirements of the Local Authorities( Executive arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

Minutes:

There were no urgent items to consider.

11.

Councillor Call for Action

To consider any items proposed for a Councillor Call for Action.

Minutes:

There were no Councillor Calls for Action.

12.

Petitions

To consider any petitions requiring an Officer response.

Minutes:

There were no petitions received at the meeting.

13.

Delivery of the Council Strategy - Priority 1 & 2: Close the educational attainment gap & Improve educational attainment. pdf icon PDF 81 KB

To monitor the progress made against the priority which had been set within the Council Strategy.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Commission considered a report (Agenda Item 11) concerning Quarter 3 In Depth Performance Report – Council Strategy Priorities 1 – ‘Improve educational attainment’ and 2 – ‘Close the educational attainment gap’.

Catalin Bogos introduced the report to the Commission, explaining that there were 12 measures in relation the Council Priorities 1 and 2.

Of the 12 reported measures, outturns were available for 10. A total of 8 measures were reported as ‘green’ and 2 measures were reported as ‘red’. The exception report provided comments against items below target to outline remediation actions underway/planned.

Catalin Bogos advised that point 2.8 of the report explained how, due to a technical error, the wording ‘To reduce the GCSE educational attainment gap to 22 percentage points’ combined elements that related to two performance measures. Therefore, the Executive had approved a recommendation to use both performance measures:

1.    Reduce the attainment gap at KS2 (Level 4+ Treading Writing Maths combined) between disadvantaged and other pupils. (target 14/15 – 22 percentage points)

2.    Reduce the attainment gap at GCSE (5A*-C including English and Maths) between disadvantaged and other pupils. (Target 14/15 -30 Percentage Points).

Catalin Bogos concluded by stating that Appendix 3 had been included to illustrate West Berkshire School and Pupil achievements for 2015 against national benchmarks.

Ian Pearson advised that the Education Service operated within a highly regulated area of the Council’s responsibility and all elements of scrutiny (including Ofsted) were considered highly important.

Members heard that the current statistics referred to performance from 2015 exam results and that the service was looking forward to receiving the 2016 results in due course. Furthermore, Members were advised that the basis for comparability had changed over the past years and this presented challenges in terms of monitoring performance year on year; Appendix 3 had been provided to set the wider context for monitoring performance.

Councillor Mike Johnston suggested that comparability was a national issue and that, therefore, it was still possible to compare West Berkshire performance against national benchmarks. Ian Pearson agreed and stated that the overarching challenge related to year on year performance monitoring where the method for attaining results had changed.

Elaine Ricks-Neal stated that it was important that teacher assessed results accurately reflected the student’s capability because results were used as the basis for monitoring performance during a child’s education. Members heard that teachers conducted an assessment of a child aged 7 years old and that a child’s performance was later measured through formal tests, independently marked, when 11 years old.

Members heard that the current attainment level for 11 year olds in mathematics in West Berkshire was just below the national average but that the Education Service was looking forward to seeing the results for 2016. However, these results will be linked to a new test which cannot be compared with previous years. Elaine Ricks-Neal also stated that, due to the size of the Local Authority area, education performance could be easily affected by a few schools which reported lower results.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.