Agenda item

With reference to Article 17 of the minute of its previous meeting, the Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport which detailed the outcome of her review of the circumstances which had led to the decision to provide transport for pupils at Kaimhill School.  

The report advised that there had been much discussion about the requirement for buses to transport children to school during the decant.   Policy dictated that given the distance in question, pupils would be required to walk to Braeside.   However, it was felt by some members of the public and some Elected Members that the terrain was unusual and unsafe and that buses should be provided.   However, the policy on walking distance meant that no funds had been set aside at that time for the provision of transport.   

The report noted that officers appeared to be receiving conflicting views on the matter and that some were working under the assumption that they had received instructions from Elected Members, although no formal Committee decision had been taken.   Officers also took instruction from a sub group which did not appear to have any formal governance remit for resource allocation.   The report advised that officers had prepared detailed options for the provision of transport, and that although they had noted on several occasions that the policy meant that no transport should be provided over this distance, their continued work on costing the transport options had led to the communication of mixed messages.  

It was also noted that the links between the resource management and operational management were not clear and had led to a lack of communication.   Officers were unclear as to whether their roles and responsibilities lay with regard to a number of aspects of completing the transfer to the new 3Rs school, such as transport and IT.   As a result, there was a lack of consistency in each of the three Areas.  

It was noted that there had been no clear strategic lead to oversee the work on transport options, and therefore no Committee papers were prepared, and the work had simply been undertaken on the tacit understanding that some parents, the public and some Elected Members wanted transport to be provided.

The report advised that the organisational shift in structure, the handover between officers and the lack of proper governance through a Committee decision all contributed to the lack of clarity and poor communication, and led to expectations being raised with no policy or budget to support to decision.  

The report outlined factors to be considered on projects to ensure the situation did not arise in future, namely:-

• project plans should identify all aspects of the build, temporary arrangements, risks and potential additional costs at the outset of the project; 
• a clear lead officer at a senior level should oversee all of the operational work of the project; 
• policies should be adhered to.   Any proposed changes to policy should go to the relevant Committee to consider the implications of changing that policy;
• any potential unforeseen costs not identified in the project plan should be communicated immediately to the Director of the relevant service and discussed by the relevant Committee before any decisions are made or options are offered; 
• communications should be clear and through the appropriate channels;
• governance arrangements should be unambiguous and should be adhered to;  and
• regular reports on all aspects of such projects should be communicated to the project team and/or board and to the relevant Committee.

The report recommended:-

(a)       that the Committee note the content of the report and the lessons learned;  and

(b)       instruct officers to ensure that in future projects these lessons are taken into account in project planning and finance forecasting.

The Committee resolved:-

to approve the recommendations in the report, with an additional recommendation to instruct the Monitoring Officer to investigate the matter fully and prepare a report for the Audit and Risk Committee.