Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Prosperous Staffordshire Select Committee held on 18 December 2014 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record subject to amendment that the reference to Needwood Forest on page 2 should read Newborough.

Report of the Cabinet Member, Children and Community Safety

The Cabinet Member summarised the work that had been undertaken over the last twelve months to adapt and reposition the library service to enable it to remain a sustainable, relevant and valued part of the community and to deliver £1.325m savings.  The Cabinet Member acknowledged the feedback from consultations with the public, staff and Trade Unions, petitions and debate in full Council.  Proposals which emerged from the consultation were assessed against criteria and following evaluation by an evaluation panel which included two independent evaluators.  The proposals which were valid have now been incorporated into the development of new proposals.  The consultation process had also highlighted the opportunity for further exploration of a number of themed suggestions that can be developed in parallel to the proposed model.  The Commissioner for Tourism and the Cultural County summarised the key changes in a presentation to the Committee:

All libraries will remain part of the County Council network of libraries.

The terms ‘Extra’ and ‘Core’ have been removed.

All libraries which were initially proposed as ‘Extra’ or ‘Core’ are all part of one category - Staffordshire County Council Managed/SCC Delivered libraries where the County Council will continue to manage and deliver the full library service, sharing space, where possible, with a wide range of partners to facilitate access to extra services. 

Community organisations in several locations have expressed an interest in managing their local library.  The Council will work with those organisations using the agreed criteria to propose to Cabinet how the Council will contract with and support community organisations to manage and deliver their local services.  These libraries that will be known as Community Managed/Community Delivered libraries.

Finally, where no community group has currently expressed an interest in managing there local library, these libraries will be SCC Managed/Community delivered libraries where the Council will retain responsibility/leadership for the library building and library offer and the service will be delivered by the community.

Community Managed/Community Delivered and SCC Managed/Community Delivered will have access to paid members of support staff.

Training and support to volunteers and an online portal to support volunteers will be established and an enhanced Library Plus (online service) is also being investigated.  The mobile and travelling library service will be subject to a review in 2015.  The schools library service is a fully traded service and the prison library service is a fully funded service by the Ministry of Justice.  With Cabinet’s agreement the functions that County Council must ensure it can provide as a commissioner of a library service will be translated into organisational structures and job roles as part of the transition process.  All aspects of the library service will be reviewed and reduction in the number of roles and redundancies may result.   Consultation with Trade Unions will continue. Library opening hours will also be reviewed. The process will begin next month with procurement commencing in June 2015.  In June-September 2015 work will take place with community organisations, with further decisions on procurement in September.  In October 2015 Community  ...  view the full minutes text for item 29.

Report of the Cabinet Member, Learning and Skills

The Cabinet Member introduced Jim Tarpey, interim Director of Education, Trudy Pyatt, Senior Commissioning lead for School Improvement – School Improvement and Tim Moss, County Manager for Education.  

The Cabinet Member summarised the overall educational achievement of, and work that had been done on school improvement in, Staffordshire during 2013/14.  The Cabinet Member acknowledged that Staffordshire schools are improving in a number of key areas and levels of attainment and progress in the Early Years Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 are excellent.  The focus in 2014/15 will be at Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4 where Staffordshire schools need to accelerate improvements and there are variations in attainment between districts and for different pupil groups, such as those eligible for Free School Meals and Pupil Premium. The responsibility for school performance lie with school governors and head teachers and the wider local authority education team support them.  Some schools in Staffordshire are now working in formal networks to support each other and there is increasing emphasis on the performance of those networks. The Council has adopted a policy of intervening earlier to provide commissioned support through our school partner Entrust (or other partners) to schools and this is having some impact.  The Cabinet Member acknowledged the importance of educational attainment, of which results are one indicator, but stated the importance of ensuring that pupils are happy, healthy physically, mentally and spiritually.  He would be working closely with public health colleagues on well being and doing more to help pupils and parents make an informed careers’ choice.  Bright Futures (a parents’ guide to careers) had been set up and briefings on this service had begun.

The Senior Commissioning lead indicated her intention to focus support and advice to school leaders at KS2 and KS4 in response to the results detailed in the report.  The County Manager explained the attainment summaries in the report drawing attention to the fact that there had not been compulsory national collection of teacher assessments at KS3 in 2014, and so there were no national or statistical neighbour results for comparison.  At KS4 there had been changes introduced by the Secretary of State that had impacted on what qualifications counted toward key measures. The interim Director of Education added that there were not enough outstanding schools in Staffordshire and he would be working with schools in Cannock to move them from ‘Good’ to ‘Outstanding’.  Enabling more National Leaders of Education would help.

Members asked if the trend for schools to transfer to becoming academies impacted on results at KS4, noting that some results in Tamworth were disappointing.  The Cabinet Member acknowledged that results in Tamworth (and Cannock) were a focus of his attention.  Strong leadership and embedding aspiration were fundamental.  Some academy schools were doing well, however some were doing poorly.  The results of pupils in academies were taken seriously, but the local authority was not represented on governing bodies and cannot apply the same level of encouragement.  He was pleased that Regional Schools Commissioners  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

There were no comments on the Work Programme.

The Chairman to move:-

“That the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business which involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the paragraphs of Schedule 12A (as amended) of the Local Government Act 1972 indicated below”.

Part Two

(All reports in this section are exempt)

That the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business which involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs of Schedule 12A (as amended) of the Local Government Act 1972 indicated below.

RESOLVED – That the exempt minutes of the Prosperous Staffordshire Select Committee held on 23 January 2015 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman.