Agenda, decisions and minutes

The agenda and reports associated with this minute can be located at the following link:-

http://committees.aberdeencity.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=504&MId=3820&Ver=4

Please note that if any changes are made to this minute at the point of approval, these will be outlined in the subsequent minute and this document will not be retrospectively altered.

The Convener and Vice Convener advised the Committee as to a number of good news stories as follows –

• Middleton Park School

Middleton Park School had received an unprecedented excellent in 11 out of 12 quality indicators, which determined the success in meeting the Curriculum for Excellence.  The school had been hailed as one of the best in the country after its pioneering Head Teacher, Jenny Watson, transformed its curriculum for the modern age.  Outdoor learning, multi-media courses and film-making were all part of the curriculum for youngsters at Middleton Park School.

The Head Teacher had been praised for her forward-thinking approach to education and for putting technology and creativity at the heart of the school's vision for learning.  Innovative initiatives such as 'Live Learning' saw pupils create feature films and animations using the latest digital technology.  One feature in particular – Macbeth in Mandarin - was shared with their partner school in China last week.

The report released was a testament to the leadership and vision of Jenny Watson and also showed that not only were pupils striving academically – but confirmed how well-adjusted, confident and happy the children were.  The emotional well-being of pupils in schools was as important as their academic achievements – and this glowing report reflected that.  The education of young people remained a top priority and the Council was committed to delivering and replicating the outstanding work being done at Middleton Park School across the city.

• Hazlehead Academy

Hazlehead Academy was the first secondary school in the city to have been awarded Cycle Friendly Secondary School status.  The Cycle Friendly School Award rewarded secondary schools, teachers and volunteers who were committed to increasing cycling to, from and around schools.

By enabling young people to cycle to school in a safe manner with proper equipment this encouraged them to be active and aware of their own health and fitness.  Cycling was a fantastic mode of transport which also helped to reduce traffic congestion on the roads and decreased the carbon emissions count.

To achieve the award, schools had to show commitment to cycling by providing facilities such as bicycle parking, changing facilities and Bikeability Scotland cycle training.  Hazlehead Academy  implemented measures such as creating a school travel plan, including creating safe routes to school from each of the Academy's four feeder primary schools.  In addition, S3 pupils had taken part in the Go Mountain Bike programme, with the help of Adventure Aberdeen, while safe cycle parking was put in place, including a special cycle rack commemorating the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

• Greenbrae School Extension

On 19 February 2015 myself, the Vice convener and the Convener of Finance Policy and Resources, along with local Councillors, attended the turf cutting for the £5 million pound extension at Greenbrae School, Bridge of Don.  The extended school would provide 330 more places for primary pupils as well as offering an additional 80 nursery places.

The ground floor of the extension would include classrooms, a games hall, a medical room  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

The Convener proposed that item 10.1 (Procurement of Furniture for the Extension of Greenbrae Primary School) of today’s agenda (article 20 of this minute) be considered with the press and public excluded.

The Committee resolved:

in terms of Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, to exclude the press and public from the meeting during consideration of the aforementioned item of business (article 20 of this minute refers) so as to avoid disclosure of exempt information of the classes described in paragraph 8 of Schedule 7(A) of the Act.

The Committee had before it the minute of its meeting of 28 January 2016.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the minute as a correct record.

The Committee had before it a statement of pending and outstanding committee business which had been prepared by the Head of Legal and Democratic Services.

The Committee resolved:

(i)         to remove items 5, first section, (GIRFEC/Children and Young People Act - Update), and 7 (Early Learning and Nursery Admissions Policy);

(ii)        to remove items 1 (Knowledge Transfer Partnership), 3 (System of Risk Management), and 6 (Joint Inspection of Children’s Services Action Plan) subject to the decision taken; and

(iii)       to otherwise note the updates contained therein.

The Committee had before it a list of motions prepared by the Senior Democratic Services Manager.

The Committee resolved:

to note the list.

With reference to article 7 of the minute of the meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee of 28 January 2016, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education and Children’s Services and the Head of Finance which advised members of the current year revenue budget to date for the Education and Children’s Service, and outlined any areas of risk, and management action being taken in this regard.

The report recommended –

that the Committee -

(a)       note the projected variance of £349K less than budget;

(b)       instruct officers to continue to review budget performance and report on service strategies;

(c)        approve the virements outlined in section 5.3.1 of the report; and

(d)       approve the ring fencing of the Developing Young Workforce monies from Council underspends.

The Committee resolved:

(i)         to approve recommendations (a), (b) and (c) as contained in the report;

(ii)        to support the ring fencing of the Developing Young Workforce monies from Council underspends and to refer this matter to the Finance, Policy and Resources Committee for approval;

(iii)       in relation to out of authority placements, to request officers to submit a report detailing: (a) the Council’s current position in respect of such placements; (b) what actions the service was taking to address such placements and mitigate the impacts; (c) the cost per child, regardless of location, and how this was calculated; and (d) what improvements were envisaged from the development of the Centre for Excellence and inclusion review, to a future meeting of the Committee; and

(iv)       to request officers to supply the energy management usage figures across the service to Councillor Yuill.

With reference to (1) article 11 of the minute of its meeting of 3 September 2015 and (2) article 5 of the minute of its meeting of 28 January 2016, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education and Children’s Services which provided a summary of quarterly Education and Children’s Services Directorate performance outcome data up to and including 31 December 2015 and other most recent performance measures information. The Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 Implementation Action Plan update was appended to the report.

The report recommended –

that the Committee  note the Education and Children’s Service Directorate performance report for the quarterly period to 31 December 2015.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the recommendation;

(i)         to request officers to include baseline figures for performance indicators in future Directorate performance reports;

(ii)        in relation to table 15 (Total Number of Library Visits – Person/Virtual), to request that the figures on the number of visits by person or virtual be reported separately for future performance reports;

(iii)       to request officers to provide details of the impact of the change in library opening hours on visitor numbers to Councillor Hutchison by email;

(iv)       in relation to table 8 (The Number of Referrals of Children’s Cases in a Quarter), to request officers to detail the actual number of referrals which proceed to being processed as a children’s case in future performance reports; and

(v)        in relation to table 24 (Average Number of Days Lost Through Sickness Absence), to request officers to review the longer trend for this performance indicator and include this in the narrative of the next performance report.

With reference to article 10 of the minute of the Audit and Risk Committee of 26 June 2014, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education and Children’s Services which advised on the review of the Education and Children’s Services business continuity arrangements.

The report recommended –

that the Committee to note the information provided in the report.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the recommendation.

With reference to article 10 of the minute of the meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee of 3 September 2015, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education and Children’s Services which reported the outcome of the most recent ALEO Governance Hub Committee meeting in relation to Sport Aberdeen.

The report recommended –

that the Committee note the contents of the minute of the ALEO Governance Hub Committee meeting of 14 December 2015 in relation to Sport Aberdeen.

The Committee resolved:

(i)         to approve the recommendation;

(ii)        to request officers to clarify with Sport Aberdeen the actual posts created and the resulting 8% increase in payroll costs and that this information be emailed to Councillor Sandy Stuart; and

(iii)       to request officers to clarify with Sport Aberdeen the position in relation to procurement arrangements, including the rationale for the approach taken, and that this information be emailed to Councillor Hutchison.

With reference to article 9 of the minute of the meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee of 3 September 2015, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education and Children’s Services which reported the outcome of the most recent ALEO Governance Hub Committee meeting in relation to Aberdeen Sports Village.

The report recommended –

that the Committee note the contents of the minute of the ALEO Governance Hub Committee meeting of 7 December 2015 in relation to Aberdeen Sports Village.

The Committee resolved:

(i)         to approve the recommendation;

(ii)        to request officers to clarify with Aberdeen Sports Village the current position in respect of the action proposed that it scale back or terminate services currently delivered as a risk and that these be included into their risk register and risk management strategy and that this information be emailed to Councillor Hutchison;

(iii)       to request officers to clarify with Aberdeen Sports Village the position with Sport Scotland funding provided to the Aberdeen Sports Village for the development of football pitches and that this information be emailed to Councillor Noble.

With reference to article 10 of the minute of the meeting of the former Education, Culture and Sport Committee of 27 March 2014, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education and Children’s Services which provided an update on the progress to date of the Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) between the University of Aberdeen and Aberdeen City Council (Data Observatory Project).

The report recommended –

that the Committee –

(i)         note progress and evaluation of the KTP project to date; and

(ii)        approve the continued partnership arrangements with the University of Aberdeen to develop the Aberdeen City Council Data Observatory and continuing the employment of the KTP Research Associate post, graded at G13.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the recommendations.

With reference to article 3 of the minute of the meeting of the former Education, Culture and Sport Committee of 7 February 2013, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education and Children’s Services which advised on the outcome of recent statutory consultations on the proposals to create new school zones at Countesswells and at Loirston / Cove, in preparation for the creation of new schools which were planned as part of forthcoming housing developments in these areas of the city.

The report recommended –

that the Committee –

(a)       agree to implement the following proposals:

1.         For the Countesswells rezoning proposal:

(a)     to create a new primary school zone to serve primary education provision in the Countesswells development, with effect from August 2016;

(b)     to create a new secondary school zone to serve secondary education provision in the Countesswells development, with effect from August 2016, and to include the zone of Kingswells School within the zone of the new secondary school, with effect from the time of opening of the new school; and

(c)     to put in place arrangements for interim education provision until a primary school and a secondary school were constructed within the Countesswells development. For secondary pupils from Countesswells this would involve the use of Hazlehead Academy until a new secondary school had been constructed. For primary school pupils from Countesswells the arrangements would be as follows:

·            pupils living in the new Countesswells primary school zone would be registered at a new school from the outset;

·            whilst the number of pupils registered to the new school remained at 25 or below, the new school would operate from a separate classroom within the Airyhall School building;

·            when the number of pupils registered to the new school exceeded 25, all of these pupils and any new pupils subsequently moving into the new Countesswells primary school zone would be educated from the Braeside School building, until a new school building at Countesswells has opened; and

·            whilst the new school was operating from the Airyhall building and subsequently from the Braeside building, places at the new school would be reserved entirely for children living within the new Countesswells school zone.

(d)     in the unlikely event that the Countesswells housing development did not go ahead, then the existing school zone arrangements would prevail;

2.         For the Loirston / Cove rezoning proposal:

(a)     to create a new primary school zone to serve primary education provision in the South-East of the City, including the new housing development in the Loirston / Cove area, with effect from August 2016;

(b)     to amend the existing Charleston School, Kirkhill School, and Abbotswell School zones to contribute to the proposed new school zone;

(c)     to rezone an area of the existing Kirkhill School zone, east of the A956 trunk road, to the Loirston School zone; and

(d)     in the unlikely event that the Loirston / Cove housing development does not go ahead, then the existing school zone arrangements would prevail; and

(b)       instruct  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

At this juncture the external members of the Committee departed.

With reference to item 12 of the minute of the meeting of the Education, and Children’s Services Committee of 28 January 2016, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education and Children’s Services which provided an update on the progress made on implementing the Action Plan resulting from the joint inspection of services for children and young people in the Aberdeen City Community Planning Partnership area.

The report recommended –

(a)       that the Committee –

(b)       note the update on the multi-agency Action Plan; and

(c)        request a final report back on progress against actions in the Action Plan in June 2016.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the recommendations and to request that officers again review the information contained in the Action Plan to ensure that sufficient detail was provided.

With reference to article 1 of the minute of the meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee of 28 January 2016, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education and Children’s Services which provided an update on progress made on implementation of the Reclaiming Social Work programme.

The report recommended –

that the Committee -

(a)       continue to support the implementation of Reclaiming Social Work with no substantive changes to the plans originally submitted;

(b)       agree to be updated by bulletin reports on a regular basis on the implementation of Reclaiming Social Work;

(c)        agree to extend the review of Residential Children’s Services until the November Committee to allow full consideration of the Scottish Government announcement in March 2016 on the SCQF Level 9 qualification for the residential child care sector as this would impact upon the proposed structure and grading of posts.

The Committee resolved:

(i)         to approve the recommendations; and

(ii)        to request officers to submit a report detailing the number and cost of outside agency staff used by Children’s Services, as well as the % of staff turnover and comparator figures from other councils for each of the aforementioned indicators to a future meeting of the Committee.

The Committee had before it by way of referral, a report from the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee of 9 March 2016 relating to payment controls in Children’s Social Work.

The Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee had resolved:

(i)         in relation to a question from Councillor Yuill regarding when the urgent notice was issued to budget holders and the time that had passed before a further notice was issued, to note that the Performance and Delivery Manager from Education and Children’s Services would provide details to Councillor Yuill and the Committee;

(ii)        to refer the audit report to the next meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee for their consideration; and

(iii)       to otherwise note the content of the report and endorse the recommendations for improvement.

The Committee resolved:

(i)         to note the report submitted to the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Committee on 9 March 2016;

(ii)        to note the new Head of Services contribution in identifying Children’s Social Work only had a limited number of services on a formal contract which in some cases were historical. The remainder of the services were being provided on the basis of a long expired contract, or simply with no contract in place, providing an unacceptably high level of organisational risk to the Council;

(iii)       to note that the Service had a detailed project plan with 7 work streams addressing each of the areas of improvement identified by internal audit and ourselves and had set up a programme board to provide the necessary governance; and

(iv)       to agree that an updated report detailing the 13 recommendations and their implementation dates be submitted to Committee’s meeting on 17 November 2016 in order to provide Members with progress on how the service had implemented the recommendations within the Audit, Risk and Scrutiny report.

With reference to article 14 of the minute of the meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee of 28 January 2016, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Adult Health and Social Care which provided information relating to the performance of the Adult Social Work Service against its agreed indicators.  Appended to the report was an update on associated performance measures.

The report recommended –

that the Committee –

(a)       approve the Adult Social Work performance report; and

(b)       note that a Health and Social Care Partnership Integration Performance workstream was in place developing a suite of indicators (including social work performance indicators) which would be reported through Audit and Systems Performance Committee from 1 May 2016.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the recommendations.

With reference to article 13 of the minute of the meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee of 28 January 2016, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Adult Health and Social Care and the Head of Finance which advised members of the current year revenue budget to date for Adult Services, and outlined any areas of risk, and management action being taken in this regard.

The report recommended –

that the Committee –

(a)       note the report on the forecast outturn on the revenue budget and the information on areas of risk and management action that was  contained therein;

(b)       instruct officers to continue to review budget performance and report on service strategies; and

(c)        approve the virements outlined in section 5.3.1 of the report.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the recommendations.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Adult Health and Social Care which reported on the future requirement by Adult Social Work Services of the property at 258 North Balnagask Road (Torry Youth Café), Aberdeen, AB11 8RX.

The report recommended –

that the Committee –

(a)       note the content of the report;

(b)       declare 258 North Balnagask Road, Aberdeen surplus to Adult Social Work Services’ requirements and confirm its removal from the Adult Social  Work Services account portfolio; and

(c)        instruct the Head of Land and Property Assets to review the property and in conjunction with the SIP and Capital Review Group to determine its future use.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the recommendation.

With reference to article 20 of the minute of the meeting of the Education and Children’s Services Committee of 3 September 2015, the Committee had before it a report by the Chief Officer – Adult Health and Social Care which reported the outcome of the most recent ALEO Governance Hub Committee meeting in relation to Bon Accord Care.

The report recommended –

that the Committee note the contents of the minute of the ALEO Governance Hub Committee meeting of 8 December 2015 in relation to Bon Accord Care.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the recommendation.

At this juncture the Convener advised that Aberdeen City Health and Social Care Partnership (ACHSCP) would be launched on 1 April 2016, bringing NHS and Aberdeen City Council services together to benefit local communities.  The new Partnership would deliver adult primary health care and adult social care to the people of Aberdeen.

The Partnership would be overseen by an Integration Joint Board (IJB), made up of representatives from the local authority and the NHS, along with voluntary sector, carer, patient and service-user representatives.  Therefore, this Committee would no longer consider reports on adult services matters.  She commended Judith Proctor, ACHSCP Chief Officer and Tom Cowan, ACHSCP Head of Joint Operations and wished them well on the launch on 1 April 2016.

EXEMPT INFORMATION

In accordance with the decision taken at article 2 of this minute, the following item of business was considered with the press and public excluded.

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education and Children’s Services which sought approval to proceed with the procurement of new furniture for the extension of Greenbrae Primary School.

The report recommended –

that the Committee authorise officers to carry out a mini-competition exercise with an estimated expenditure of up to the value detailed in the report, under the Scotland Excel Framework Agreement for the supply, delivery and installation of education and office furniture (Schedule 03/12), in order to procure appropriate classroom furniture for the new classrooms to be created at Greenbrae School.

The Committee resolved:

to approve the recommendation.

- COUNCILLOR ANGELA TAYLOR, CONVENER