Hampshire County Council Children and Young People Select Committee Meeting

Apologies had been received from Cllrs Branson, Hayre and North – Cllr Carpenter and Cllr Reid were in attendance as the Conservative group deputy.

Apologies had also been received from Cllr Bains – Cllr Groves was in attendance as the Liberal Democrat group deputy.

Apologies had also been received from Christie Franklin, Parent Governor for Hampshire’s Special Schools.

Cllr Chadd, Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services and Cllr Forster, Executive Member for Education were in attendance.

Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in any matter considered at the meeting they must declare that interest at the time of the relevant debate and, having regard to the circumstances described in Part 3, Paragraph 1.5 of the County Council's Members' Code of Conduct, leave the meeting while the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with Paragraph 1.6 of the Code. Furthermore Members were mindful that where they believed they had a Personal interest in a matter being considered at the meeting they considered whether such interest should be declared, and having regard to Part 5, Paragraph 5 of the Code, considered whether it was appropriate to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed, save for exercising any right to speak in accordance with the Code.

No declarations were made.

The Minutes of the previous meeting were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Committee did not receive any deputations.

The Chairman congratulated everyone involved in the opening of Hockley House.

The Select Committee received a report from the Monitoring Officer, which asked the committee to consider whether or not it should exercise its powers under Section 9F of Part 1A of the Local Government Act 2000 (‘the 2000 Act’), referred to in the County Council’s Constitution as ‘Call-in’.

Members of the committee who supported the request for the committee to exercise the above powers provided their reasons for doing so. These centred around the decision made to proceed with the relocation recommendation not being in line with the community response received through the initial public consultation. In addition other concerns were raised around the decision relating to potential transportation and environmental impacts, educational need within Fareham, health concerns for parents and children, development in the local area, Welborne impacts, the effect on a disadvantaged area within Fareham and Fareham Borough Councils recent decision to invest in a new community centre site next door to Henry Cort.

In response to questions, the committee heard that the directorate had a statutory duty to consult on this issue, and were required to do so with a single proposal. Officers assured the committee that this proposal was based on a long term outlook, with the best interests of Hampshire’s young people at the forefront of Officer’s minds.

Officers also noted that consultations were always entered into with good faith, and subsequent recommendations to Executive Members would be considerate of feedback received alongside the Officers expertise.

With the agreement of the Chairman, Cllr Bryant addressed the Select Committee to share her views as the member for Fareham Town.

During debate it was established that the decision that had been called in was a decision to consult, and so no final decision had yet been made. It was also noted that if the authority did not take a decision in relation to education provision in the relevant area, educational attainment could suffer due to undersubscribed schools and the various issues this can lead to.

Following questions and debate, recommendation 2a was voted on with the following outcome.

In Favour       5

In Against      11

The Executive Lead Member for Children’s Services thanked members of the committee for sharing their views, noting that additional information had been requested to be provided alongside the consultation.

RESOLVED

That Members of the CYP Select Committee determined that they should not recommend that the Executive Lead Member for Children Services re-considers their decisions as set out in the Decision Record attached at Appendix 1.

The Director of People and Organisation presented the Committee’s work programme.

It was noted that any future decisions on significant school reorganisation would be strongly considered for pre-scrutiny by the Select Committee in future.

RESOLVED:

That the Children and Young People Select Committee discussed and agreed potential items for the work programme that can be prioritised and allocated by the Chairman of the Children and Young People Select Committee in consultation with the Director of Children’s Services.