MINUTES of the meeting of the YOUTH CONNEXIONS HERTFORDSHIRE TOPIC GROUP held on Monday 5 October 2009 at 2.00pm
ATTENDANCE
Members of the Topic Group
D Andrews, G R Churchard (Chairman), M S Crawley, T J Price (Vice-Chairman),
C B Wyatt-Lowe
Also in attendance
Simon Gentry, Performance Improvement and Business Planning Manager
Tom Hawkyard, Head of Scrutiny
Emma Lund, Democratic Services Officer
Andy Manson, Head of Operations (East)
Andrew Simmons, Deputy Director, Services for Young People
1. / APPOINTMENT OF CHAIRMAN AND VICE-CHAIRMAN1.1 / It was noted that G R Churchard and T J Price had been appointed Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Topic Group for the duration of its work.
2. / INTRODUCTION BY THE HEAD OF SCRUTINY AND REMIT OF THE TOPIC GROUP
2.1 / The Head of Scrutiny presented the scoping document and summarised for Members the main points of the Group’s scope and remit. Members heard that:
- The Group will be scrutinising the new Youth Connexions service and how successful it has been since its establishment. The Group’s scope does not includeexamination of the service prior to 2008;
- The Group will be looking at the service from a county-wide perspective;
- Conclusions and recommendations will be identified at the end of each session and will be agreed by an e-mail process. The final report will be concise, and will focus on the outcomes of the Group (i.e. its conclusions and recommendations).
2.2 / The Topic Group noted its scope and remit.
3. / BACKGROUND INFORMATION
3.1 / The Panel received a presentation from Andrew Simmons, Deputy Director, Services for Young People. The presentation covered the areas of: background and context; structure and organisation; performance and budgets; service delivery; progress and challenges; and complemented the detailed background report circulated to Members with the papers for the meeting. Copy slides and papers may be viewed at:
3.2 / The Group thanked officers for a comprehensive and informative presentation. Thefollowing additional information was requested for consideration at the next meeting:
- A background paper detailing sources of funding
- A list of youth connexions properties and their suitability, updated from the list considered by the Education Cabinet Panel on 15 April 2009.
4. / WORK PROGRAMME
4.1 / The Topic Group considered a draft programme of future meetings which had been structured to address the questions set out in the scoping document.
4.2 / Following discussion it was agreed that given the likely number of witnesses, meetings 2 and 3 would require full-days to be set aside. Additionally, meetings 5 and 6 would be condensed into one meeting which may also take a full day.
4.3 / The possibility of holding meetings at venues other than County Hall was raised: however, in order to obtain a true picture of activities at a youth connexions centre the Group agreed that meetings to obtain witness evidence should be held at County Hall, with Members undertaking separate visits to youth connexions properties within their areas and reporting their impressions to the group at a subsequent meeting. It was queried whether Members would require a CRB check to undertake the visits: as these would be a one-off event and Members would be accompanied it was felt that CRB checks would probably not be required;Andy Manson undertook to check this point. / Andy Manson
4.4 / Members were asked to provide details of their availability for an evening visit during the 2nd and 3rd weeks in January 2010, together with the areas where they would like to make a visit, to Simon Gentry (), to enable arrangements to be made. / All to note / Simon Gentry
5. / DATES OF FUTURE MEETINGS
5.1 / These were agreed as:
- Thursday 26 November 2009, 10.00am – 4.00pm in Committee Room C
- Monday 14 December 2009, 10.00am – 4.00pm in Committee Room C
- Tuesday 2 February (likely to be morning only, but a full day to be reserved in diaries) starting at 10.00am in the Mimram Room.
Emma Lund
Topic Group Administrator
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091005 Minutes