Web Agenda/Minutes Summary Document

Meeting Name:
Children's Services and Leisure Overview and Scrutiny Panel

Meeting Date:
10/02/2007 Pick

Meeting Time:


Location:


Sub Committee / User Forum etc (if required):




Members Present:

Non-Members Present:

Confidentiality: Part I


Document Type: Agenda


Document Status: Final

ITEM	SUBJECT	WARD	PAGE NO
1	APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE To receive any apologies for absence.
2	DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST To receive Declarations of Interests from Members of the Panel in respect of any item to be considered at the meeting.
3	MINUTES To confirm the Part I minutes of the meeting of the Panel held on 1 August 2007.		i-iv
4	BRUCE WALK, DEDWORTH, WINDSOR - PETITION To comment upon the report being submitted to Cabinet on 25 October 2007 on a petition relating to Bruce Walk, Windsor.	All	1
5*	APPOINTMENT OF LEA REPRESENTATIVES TO GOVERNING BODIES OF SCHOOLS IN THE ROYAL BOROUGH To comment upon the report being submitted to Cabinet on 25 October 2007 on the Appointment of School Governors	All	4
6*	SCHOOL FUNDING CONSULTATION 2008-2009 TO 2010-2011 To comment upon the report being submitted to Cabinet on 25 October 2007 on the School Funding Consultation.	All	15
7*	SERVICE MONITORING REPORT CHILDREN’S SERVICES & LEISURE To receive the latest service monitoring report in respect of Children’s Services and Leisure services.	All	53
8	COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION REPORT 2007 To comment upon the report being submitted to Cabinet on 25 October 2007 on Community Participation.	All	65
9	WORK PROGRAMME The following items are scheduled for discussion at the meeting of the Panel to be held on 20 November 2007: · Appointment of School Governors · Annual Consultation on School Admission Arrangements · Service Monitoring Report · Fees and Charges · Schools' Budget Formula Consultation	All	-
10	LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 – EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC To consider passing the following resolution :- “That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on item 11 on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act"	-	-

	Option	Comments
1.	Do nothing	This is not a tenable option
2.	Work with multi-agency professionals and the residents of Bruce Walk, to develop a range of solutions to the problems	This option should meet the needs of the local residents

	Relevant? Yes / No
Key Themes:
getting about.
learning for life
being safe and secure	y
caring and health
living and working in a good place.	y
Guiding Principles:
working together	y
leaving no one behind
involving people	y
safeguarding the young	y

To present to Members a revised Code of Practice that is based on the School Governance Regulations (2007).

2. MEMBERS’ RECOMMENDATION :

2.1.1 That the following appointments be made in accordance with the borough’s Code of Practice from the names of those persons listed in the table below and appendix A of this report.

2.1.2 The attached revised Code of Practice is being recommended to ensure greater robustness and transparency of the appointment process.

3. SUPPORTING INFORMATION

3.1 Applications were received for the following vacancies:

School	Ward	No. Vacancies
Braywood C of E First	Bray	1
Churchmead C of E School	Datchet	1
Dedworth Green First	Clewer North	1
Holyport CE Primary School	Bray	1
Kings Court First	Old Windsor	1
St Mary’s Catholic Primary	Furze Platt	1

This represents a vacancy rate of 0.6% of the total number of governors or 4.2% of LEA governors.

Ward Councillors for these vacancies have been notified via an e-mail.

Applications have been received for one of the vacancies listed above and Members are invited to consider making the following appointments:

School	Ward	Name
Holyport CE Primary School	Bray	Sandy Slattery

School	Ward	Representative seeking Reappointment

School	Ward	Term of Office	Ee-submitting
			3.4 Options Available and Risk Assessment

Under the Authority’s Code of Practice, nominations will only be considered if submitted on the appropriate application form prior to a published closing date. Appointments to fill any of the vacancies in this report can only be made from the nominations listed in the schedule at Appendix A.

Members may also choose to defer one or more appointments to a future meeting, although the DfES recommends that appointments should normally be made to fill vacancies within three months.

We recommend that the amended Code of Practice is adopted without modification. Members have the following options:
1. Adopt this as presented
2. Adopt with modification(s)
3. Not to adopt the revised Code of Practice

Under the authority’s Code of Practice, schools have the right to advise the authority of their governing body’s needs in terms of balance of skills, gender or any other consideration for the good of the school, and to submit names for consideration.

If the person appointed does not match the specified needs of the governing body and/or the governing body’s preferred candidate is rejected, the governing body may request the authority to give its reasons.

Candidates have the right to decline an appointment if it does not meet their preferences.

However, the DCSF has now issued guidance on the governance constitution regulations mentioned in paragraph 5.2 below.

3.7 Relevant Council Policies / Strategies

The Royal Borough has agreed and published a Code of Practice for the Appointment of Education Authority Governors. All appointments are made under the terms of this Code, which is given at Appendix B.

The appointment of school governors contributes to the Community Strategy in the following ways: it supports the three guiding principles of working together, leaving no-one behind and involving people. Those appointed as school governors can support schools to address three of the five key themes, namely learning for life, being safe and secure and caring and health.

4. CONSULTATION CARRIED OUT

4.1 Governing bodies are invited to comment on candidates’ suitability for re-appointment and to submit nominations to fill these and any casual vacancies that arise. Where a school has expressed a view, this is noted in the candidate’s details, as listed in Appendix A.

4.2 Following the closing date for receipt of applications, those applicants who have not requested one particular school are matched to current vacancies, taking account of a variety of factors including any expressed requirements or preferences of both schools and candidates, and the proximity of a school to a candidate’s home or business address. As far as possible, schools and applicants are then contacted to discuss the options available and to ascertain that they have no objection to the recommendation proposed.

OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY PANEL COMMENTS.


5. IMPLICATIONS

5.1 Financial
There are no additional financial implications in this report.

5.2 Legal
The composition of governing bodies is set out in the Education Act 2002, the School Governance (Constitution) (England) Regulations 2007. School Governance (Federation) (England) Regulations 2007 and School Governance (New Schools) (England) Regulations 2007. If a school has concerns with the LEA governor appointment, which are not satisfied by the provision of Cabinet decision notes on the appointment, the school may:

1. Make a complaint to the Local Government Ombudsman
2. Submit an application to judicially review the decision
3. Direct their concerns to the Secretary of State under Part IX Education Act 1996

SANDY SLATTERY HOLYPORT CE PRIMARY SCHOOL ONE APPOINTMENT	Previous Experience	Volunteer for the National Childbirth Trust, and previously worked for Langley Play Leadership as a play school teacher.
	Reasons for Application	Due to now only working part time, Mrs Slattery is in a position to give something back to the community and would like to take this opportunity to work with children to help teach children to respect themselves and others, and encourage their development.
	Other relevant information
	Notes from the Chair / Headteacher	Awaiting notes.

· Strategic leadership of the school
· Providing support and challenge for school leadership and management
· Public accountability for all aspects of the school’s impact on pupils

The appointment of LEA governors is made by Cabinet. The Cabinet will appoint LEA governors on the basis of the contribution they are able to make to a specific school and are encouraged to appoint high calibre governor candidates to the schools, which need the most support irrespective of their political affiliation or preference. Whilst encouragement to appoint high calibre governors is not given in the statutory guidance for federation schools, it is still suggested this ethos is followed for federation schools. LEA Governors, once appointed, fulfil the duties, as any other governor would do. In the same way that parent governors do not represent the views of all parents at a school, i.e. they are representative of the parents, so the LEA governors do not represent the views of the Local Authority; they are representatives of the wider community. The Local Authority does not mandate its appointees with the role of promoting the Local Authority’s views and recognises that a governor’s first loyalty is to his or her schools and the communities it serve.

It is the responsibility of local members to keep abreast of current vacancies which will be posted monthly on the RBWM website and to put forward their applications to the Strategic School Leadership Team, if they feel they would make a positive contribution to the governance of schools and meet the selection criteria. Information will also be available in the Customer Service Centre (CSC).

The Strategic School Leadership Team receives LEA Governor application forms from a variety of sources;

· Councillors, Headteachers, and Governors
· Prospective candidates who apply directly to the Strategic School Leadership Team
· The School Governors’ One Stop Shop (SGOSS) – a charity that provides a school governor recruitment service

The Application Process for Becoming a Governor

One of the significant changes within school governance that has occurred in recent years is that:

‘The governing body’s own contribution to the school’s leadership will be assessed through the inspection.’ (OFSTED & DfES 2006, A New Relationship with Schools: Next Steps)

· Strategic planning	· Financial management
· Decision making	· Buildings and maintenance
· Project management	· Basic understanding of statistics
· Team working	· Theories and methods of teaching
· Human resources	· Key areas of the curriculum
· Communications and marketing	· Special needs
· Law	· Behaviour management
· Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

Potential governors can locate RBWM application forms through the Strategic School Leadership Team (governors@rbwm.gov.uk or 01628 796960) or by following this link: http://www.rbwm.gov.uk/web/ed_gov_school_gov_home.htm

Appointment Process

The Strategic School Leadership Team monitors all governing body vacancies, including LEA governors, and will update them on the RBWM’s website on the first Friday of each month, to ensure that all interested parties are able to make their applications. Each vacancy will show the school’s needs in terms of experience and skills. Closing dates for application forms to reach the Strategic Leadership Team will also be posted on the RBWM’s website alongside the vacancies. The closing date will be one week before Scrutiny Panel Meeting. Where a federation includes schools, which are maintained by more than one LEA, the LEAs must agree amongst themselves who shall appoint the LEA governors and in what proportion.

Criteria for Appointment of LEA Governors

1. Applications will only be considered from individuals who have submitted a completed RBWM LEA Governor application form to The Strategic School Leadership Team by the date specified on the RBWM’s website (see application form attached).
2. Using the schools’ needs analysis the Strategic School Leadership Team will set up meetings for all speculative LEA governors whose skills and experience outlined on their application forms meet the needs of the schools. For specific applications (where a prospective governor has made a targeted application for a specific school), the Strategic School Leadership team will automatically set up a meeting with the school.

1. Have a genuine interest in education and school improvement
2. Have a good knowledge of the local community and its need
3. Are able to commit their time, skills and energy to the school
4. Are willing to undertake training related to the ever changing nature of the governance of schools

1. Cabinet receives ‘Appointment of LEA Representatives to Governing Bodies of School in the Royal Borough Windsor and Maidenhead’ application forms.
2. Objective consideration of the applications for current vacancies for LEA governors with reference to the identified needs of the schools and the skills and experience of the applicants (Appendix A on the report contains a synopsis of skills and reasons for each prospective governor).
3. Consider the report in terms of future vacancies for LEA governors in order to fulfil their responsibility to identify suitable prospective applicants.
4. Cabinet should not appoint where applicants cannot meet the identified needs of the school.

· Conduct or bias that is clearly not in the best interest of the school.
· Serious failure to co-operate with the LEA, governors or the governing body as a whole.
· An irretrievable breakdown in relationship between the governor and the governing body.
· Disqualification, as provided in the Constitution Regulations

 Meetings 071002 Cslosp Appointment School Governors Process Map

· Repairs and maintenance
· Threshold funding
· Infant class size funding
· Deprivation funding

	Option	Comments
	Recommnedation 2.1
1.	Accept proposed consultation proposals	Recommended, in accordance with Schools Forum view
2.	Amend, delete or postpone consultation proposals	It is too late to make major amendments due to the tight timetable, however items could by omitted this year and revisited next, or deleted altogether.
	Recommendation 2.2
3.	Accept proposal to delegate	Recommended
4.	Not to accept proposal	Tie up cabinet in detail of consultation proposals, and commit schools, members & officers to a very tight timetable.
5.	Amend delegation	Officers would work on this in the light of member’s comments.

	Relevant? Yes / No
Key Themes:
getting about.	No
learning for life	Yes
being safe and secure	No
caring and health	No
living and working in a good place.	No
Guiding Principles:
working together	Yes
leaving no one behind	Yes
involving people	Yes
safeguarding the young	Yes

 Meetings 071002 Cslosp School Funding Appendixa

 Meetings 071002 Cslosp School Funding Appendixb

CLIFF TURNER, HEAD OF CHILDREN & YOUNG PEOPLES SERVICES;
DAVID SCOTT, HEAD OF COMMUNITY SERVICES;
ALAN ABRAHAMSON, LEARNING & CARE GROUP ACCOUNTANT;
JENNY BAILEY; COMMUNITY SERVICES GROUP ACCOUNTANT.

	£'000
REVENUE BUDGET
Original budget	18,512
Net changes previously reported	24
Changes since last report	0
Current approved revenue budget	18,536
CAPITAL BUDGET (Gross)
Original budget	12,702
Net changes previously reported	2,061
Changes since last report	229
Current approved capital budget	14,992

	Option	Comments
1.	Accept the report	The Local Government Act 2003 requires the Royal Borough to monitor its financial position and bring this to members the attention. Cabinet considered and approved the revised programme at its October meeting.
2.	Reject the report	The Overview and Scrutiny Panel has the option of asking for more detailed analysis of specific areas of the budget.

 Meetings 071002 Cslosp Service Monitoring Appxa

 Meetings 071002 Cslosp Service Monitoring Appxb

 Meetings 071002 Cslosp Service Monitoring Appxc

Ø Members note the progress of the SMILE project to date and agree a £15k revenue budget for 2008/09 financial year
Ø Members note the attendance records for the 13-19 programme and the under 13s programmes
Ø Members note the continued success of the GP referral scheme and THROB sessions
Ø Members note the support of target communities by the Get Active programme

· The percentage of adults participating in at least 30 minutes moderate intensity sport and active recreation (including recreational walking) on 3 or more days a week.

· 85% of 5-16 year olds engaged in 2 hours a week minimum of high-quality Physical Education and school sport within and beyond the curriculum by 2008, and then a further target of 4 hours a week by 2010.

Ø The SMILE programme originally started in 2003 as an LPSA (Local Public Service Agreement) to promote activities for older residents within their communities and at home.
Ø The project started with 12 different locations attracting over 100 users per week. In September 2007 the programme expanded to 35 groups with over 500 regular users per week
Ø The physiological improvements recorded by attendees shows an average reduction in blood pressure from 142/81mmHg to 122/78mmHg, an average reduction in resting heart rate of 11bpm and an average increase in height (due to improved posture) of 4cm.
Ø The Smile social club has held its second AGM and continues to expand the range and number of social activities it supports, the committee are in the process of registering the group as a charity
Ø The SMILE programme is currently supported by £27k from the LAA (Local Area Agreement) fund and £30k from Tick Tock funding, to enable the programme to continue to expand it is recommended that a £15k revenue budget be allocated to the SMILE programme from 2008/9 when Tick Tock funding ceases.
Ø Case studies from the programme can be found in Appendix A.

Ø This is the 4th year the 13-19 programme has operated, offering over 30 different activities throughout the borough, specifically targeted at the teenage age group.
Ø This year there were athletic opportunities offered at TVAC (Thames Valley Athletics Centre), dinghy sailing training at Datchet lake, football sessions at the new Multi-Use Play Area [MUPA] at Oaken Grove and cycle proficiency sessions at Magnet and Windsor leisure centres.
Ø Over 27,500 young people took part in the sessions, be it fishing, golf, swimming working out in the BodyZone gym, skate boarding or canoeing - full details are found in Appendix B
Ø Events were held at Osgood Park, Flip style at the skate park in Vansittart Park and the opening sports session was held in Kidwells park, Maidenhead.
Ø The Parish tour travelled each week to Cookham, Sunningdale, Holyport, Horton and Eton Wick.
Ø Targeted programmes for young people were held in conjunction with local youth and community staff and one residential trip visited Tirabad. Additional football and basketball sessions were held at MUPAs (Multi Use Play Areas) in Osgood and Desborough Parks, mobile skate parks were offered at Cox Green and Charters Leisure Centre and a new SHOKK(not an acronym) gym opened at Cox Green School.
Case studies from the programme are in Appendix C
Ø RBWM Community Wardens and Thames Valley Police [TVP] were involved in the planning and implementation of the sessions (Wardens ran a successful Wednesday evening football session at the Braywick ATP (Artificial Turf Pitch)) and the Community Nuisance and Disorder Information System [CADIS] system was used to monitor recorded Anti-Social Behaviour [ASB]. The results from the comparison to the same summer period in 2006 were an overall reduction in the number of incidents by 18%.

Ø The borough was one of the first authorities to operate a referral scheme with the local PCT which began in the early 1990s.
Ø All the local GP surgeries in RBWM are now members of the scheme and actively refer patients to the 3 leisure centres.
Ø Over 299 patients were referred in the past 12 months most suffering from high blood pressure or obesity.
Ø Qualified staff at the BodyZone gyms at Charters, Windsor and Magnet leisure centres take patients through an approved set of training modules which have a proven track record of success.
Ø Results from the scheme over the past 12 months include significant improvements in blood pressure, resting heart rates and weight loss and over 70% of referral patients remain in some form of active participation after their referral period.
Ø The GP scheme has developed to include specialised services for cardiac rehabilitation at the 2 main leisure centres and the GP Referral Manager co-ordinates over 26 training sessions a week for THROB (The Heart Rehabilitation Organisation of Berkshire, this a voluntary organisation comprising cardiac rehab.patients) which offer heart patients a specialised training session to continue their healthy lifestyle.
Ø The same staff team also run a stroke rehabilitation service by referral, enabling many stroke patients to improve their condition in a mainstream gym environment.

Ø The three Leisure Centres and the Borough’s Sports Development Team have a twenty year history of providing the broadest range of supervised and coached activities for under 13s.
Ø Most of the summer programmes are linked to regular term-time sessions and these in turn are linked to voluntary sports clubs enabling young people to progress into competitive sports once they have been coached and qualified.
Ø Programmes this year include average weekly attendances totalling 7,255 including such sports as swimming, netball, football, basketball, trampoline, squash, tennis, badminton, gymnastics, ballet.
Ø In addition all three Centres offer Ofsted registered childcare facilities during school holidays for children aged 6-12, these holiday camps offer up to 120 places per week (600) mainly to working parents, with trips to the zoo, Odds Farm, Wellington Country Park, Braywick Nature Centre, Slough Ice Arena etc.
Ø The Leisure Centres hosted over 2,500 birthday parties during 2006/07 for the under 13 age group and offered 500 Ofsted registered crèche places per week
Ø Cheeky Charlies – the indoor adventure play area – has hosted 16,424 users since the start of April this year at Magnet and over 5,000 users at its smaller partner at Windsor, whilst the Roller Disco has seen 3,500 children through its door with its busy season of Sept – March about to commence which should see 400 attend each week at Magnet.
Ø Additional weekly classes include Ballet, Capoeira, Kung Fu and Karate as well as music & dance/co-ordination classes in the form of Action Kids, Mad Academy, Baby Massage, Baby Clinic, Drama Club and Tumble Tots which caters for a further 500 children across both sites.

Ø The Get Active team, an externally funded group of 3 staff provide targeted activities to the very hardest to reach communities for 8-13 year olds, they have been working in Ascot, Datchet, Old Windsor and Eton Wick with up to 200 children a week.
Ø They organise regular weekly sessions of exercise and nutritional advice as well as sleep-overs at museums and day trips to Bournemouth, Chessington Zoo, Natural History Museum and Twickenham Rugby Ground to watch a Harlequins rugby match. (The Get Active scheme is currently funded until March 2008).
Case studies from the programme can be found in Appendix F.

	Option	Comments
1.	Reduce the support for these specialist populations and the initiatives, which encourage increased participation and encourage and support well being.
2.	Note the report and support the Recommendations outlined and the continued support for the specialist populations which benefit from the programmes described. – Recommended	The current programme has been very successful at increasing participation and encouraging those less active than the recommended activity levels to become more active.
3.	Consider an alternative series of support mechanisms to provide support and advice to the specialist populations that these programme currently support.

	Relevant? Yes / No
Key Themes:
getting about.	Y
learning for life	Y
being safe and secure	Y
caring and health	Y
living and working in a good place	Y
Guiding Principles:
working together	Y
leaving no one behind	Y
involving people	Y
safeguarding the young

In terms of the Council’s Equality Impact Assessments the recommendations in this report have no negative equality and diversity implications.

SMILE clubs have been established in many smaller communities and most social events are free and offer free transport, which makes the programme very inclusive. Charges for sessions of 50p ensure all residents can afford to attend. Home workout packs are also available for those who are unable to attend sessions in a hall. The new LAA will help address some of the access inequalities that residents face.

Get Active is targeted at very difficult to reach communities who live in areas removed from easy access to public transport and leisure provision. The programme includes arrangements for transport, qualified coaches and nutrition as well as art and cultural input.

13-19 programme is targeted in communities and parishes with mobile facilities offering a range of activities to groups who find difficulty assessing leisure centres. Prices for activities are either free or significantly reduced (50p for a swim, £1 to use the gym) which widens the affordability to all.

 Meetings 071002 Cslosp Community Participation Appendix