Agenda and draft minutes

The Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services (also the Council’s Monitoring Officer) explained the legislation which determined the chairing arrangements for local authority scrutiny committees.  As the Labour Group had already announced that they would not be taking up Cabinet positions and were going to be in ‘Opposition’ the Group was automatically entitled to chair one of the scrutiny committees, they had opted to chair Partnerships Scrutiny Committee.  Confirmation was still awaited on whether the Plaid Cymru Group would take-up their seats on Cabinet, because of this the position was still unclear on which Cabinet groups would be entitled to appoint chairs of scrutiny committees.  He therefore advised that the Committee may wish to appoint a chair for the meeting in the absence of an official appointment.  Committee members nominated and seconded Councillor Mark Young to chair the meeting.  The Committee:

Resolved: that Councillor Mark Young be appointed to chair the meeting.

Members to declare any personal or prejudicial interests in any business identified to be considered at this meeting.

Councillor Huw Hilditch- Roberts and Councillor Huw Jones declared a personal interest in item 6 on the agenda- Denbighshire’s Learner Transport Policy because they were school governors.

To elect the Committee’s Vice-Chair for the municipal year 2017/18 (see attached copy of the role description for Scrutiny Member and Chair/Vice-Chair)

11.15am – 11.20am

The appointment of Vice-Chair was been deferred until the meeting of Communities Scrutiny 20 July 2017. 

Notice of items which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency pursuant to Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There were no urgent matters raised.

To receive the minutes of the Communities Scrutiny Committee held on 23 March 2017 (copy enclosed).

11.20am – 11.25am

The minutes of the Committee’s meeting held on 23 March 2017 were submitted, there were no matters arising.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 23 March 2017 be received and approved as a correct record.

To consider a report by the Head of Education (copy attached) which seeks the Committee to consider the responses received to the recent public consultation on the draft Learner Transport Policy, and to recommend to Cabinet that the policy be adopted.  

11.25am – 12pm

The Lead Member for Children and Young People introduced the report (previously circulated) which presented members with the responses received to the recent public consultation on the proposed new policy.  In his introduction the Lead Member informed members of the background to the review of the current policy and the development of the new policy, its journey through scrutiny during the term of the previous Council, and the decision to change its name from the ‘Home to School Transport Policy’ to the ‘Learner Transport Policy’ in order to reflect that it encompassed all school transport from ages 4 to post 16..

During the review process it became apparent that the policy’s application had far wider implications than just the transportation of pupils to their nearest suitable school.  For certain school catchment areas there were community implications, as children who had attended the same primary schools throughout their primary stage education could have been required to attend different secondary schools when the rules of the ‘home to school transport policy’ were applied.  This could potentially affect the well-being of individual pupils at the crucial transition stage of their education.  One primary school which had negative experiences as a result of the stringent application of these rules was Ysgol Pantpastynog, Prion, whose pupils had until the policy’s strict application generally transferred to Ysgol Glan Clwyd, St. Asaph.  Due to the distances from individual pupils’ homes to the nearest suitable school some pupils were only deemed to be entitled to qualify for free transport to Ysgol Brynhyfryd, Ruthin.  Consequently, this had caused some concern to parents whose children would be expected to attend a different secondary schools to their friends, or even in some cases their siblings. This anomaly highlighted the need to recognise the importance of feeder school relationships within the new policy.  Another issue which came to light during the development of, and the consultation on, the new policy was the lack of flexibility within the present ‘school cluster’ arrangements to permit schools to switch clusters if the secondary school into which they fed was deemed to no longer meet the pupils/parents’ expectations.  This issue was raised by parents, governors etc. at Ysgol  Bro Cinmeirch.  Officers proposed to develop a procedure for schools wanting to amend current cluster arrangements and report back to scrutiny in due course.

Another aspect that had been strengthened under the proposed new policy was the appeals process against the refusal of free school transport.  This would now be a two stage process.  The first stage would entail officers assessing the appeal, this would be followed by an Appeals Panel which parents/carers would be welcome to attend to present their case.

Responding to members’ questions Lead Members present and officers explained the 2 and 3 mile rule criteria to qualify for free school transport to primary and secondary schools respectively.  They also explained the term ‘hazardous route to school’ and the process followed to determine the safety of school routes.  School routes would always be re-assessed if a new development was built along a route or changes to traffic flow occurred.  

In addition they advised that: 

·         the proposed new policy had regard to parental preference with respect to the category of education they wanted for their child i.e. transport to the nearest ‘suitable’ school, based on language and/or faith preference, including transport to cross-border schools if the nearest suitable school was located in another county.  Parents have the right to express parental preference; however, the policy explains when free transport would be available in-line with the requirements of The Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider a report by the Scrutiny Coordinator (copy enclosed) seeking a review of the committee’s forward work programme and updating members on relevant issues.

12pm- 12.30pm

A copy of a report by the Scrutiny Coordinator (SC), which requested the Committee to review and agree its forward work programme and which provided an update on relevant issues, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

A copy of the ‘Member’s proposal form’ had been included in Appendix 2 the SC requested that any proposals be submitted to herself.   The Cabinet Forward Work Programme had been included as Appendix 3, information and a table illustrating Service Challenge Groups was included as Appendix 4. The SC informed members that, for each of the 9 Service Challenge group’s, a representative from Communities Scrutiny was sought to serve on the groups. In addition a representative was sought to serve on the Strategic Investment Group (SIG).  Following discussions the Committee appointed the following:

The Committee considered its draft Forward Work Programme for future meetings, Appendix 1 and made no amendments

Resolved that, the Forward Work Programme as set out in Appendix 1 to the report be approved and representation to serve on the 9 Service Groups be delegated and confirmed.

The meeting concluded at 12:45 p.m.