APPENDIX
QUESTIONS AND RESPONSES TO GENERAL QUESTIONS TO COUNCIL: 15DECEMBER 2015
QUESTION 1 TO THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL FROM COUNCILLOR EADES
“What assurances can the Leader of the Council give to employees of Tricuro who would be forgiven for feeling nervous reading the public minutes of the Tricuro’s Board’s meeting of 11 September which, in response to a confidential discussion, record in public that
6.3 In response to questions the Interim Finance Manager explained that a 1% uplift had been included within the budget to cover costs, although these would be kept to a minimum, and that an actuarial review had concluded that 16.2% should be included for staff TUPE’d to Tricuro in relation to pension costs.
Can the Leader confirm that no employment terms and conditions of the more than 1,000 employees TUPE’d across from the three unitary councils to Tricuro will be changed?”
Cllr Phil Eades
RESPONSE
Cabinet has not been asked to consider any changes to existing staffs terms and conditions of employment.
Employees transferred from the three local authorities can be reassured, as the minutes referred to state, that Tricuro are preparing their 2016/17 budget fully taking into account the current costs of employment, including pensions. Those budget preparations are based on the current terms and conditions of TUPE’d staff.
Councillor Janet Walton
Leader of the Council
FOOTNOTE
Staff transferred for 3 LAs are protected under the transfer undertaking protection of employment ie TUPE regulations.
QUESTION 2 TO THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL FROM COUNCILLOR LE POIDEVIN
“An item in the current edition of Poole News outlines possible changes to governance in Dorset, including the 3 options of county-wide unitary, cross-conurbation super-council and status quo. The equivalent article in BH Life tells Bournemouth residents only about the super-council for Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch and East Dorset. Could the Leader please clarify which of these publications most accurately reflects the current position?
Councillor Le Poidevin
RESPONSE
I thank Councillor Le Poidevin for her question and would respond as follows:
As Members will be aware, discussions have begun involving all nine Councils in Dorset over the possible future shape of Local Government structures.
I would refer Councillor Le Poidevin to Item 15 on tonight’s agenda which clearly sets out the three options which are being worked on as alternatives: a pan-Dorset Unitary Council; a Unitary Council for South East Dorset; and no change.
Councillor Janet Walton
Leader of the Council
QUESTION 3 TO COUNCILLOR MRS WALTON - LEADER OF THE COUNCIL FROM COUNCILLOR DAVID BROWN
“At the Council meeting on 23 June 2015 in a debate about Raising Aspirations in Communities, this Council:
RESOLVED that Council endorse and support the principles of Community involvement in the delivery of services so that the Officers be encouraged to facilitate and support such opportunities when reporting to Members on service reviews and developments, where appropriate, bearing in mind the nature and scale of services involved.
Could the Leader of the Council update us on progress which has been made on this policy and any examples of where it has been enacted.”
Councillor David Brown
RESPONSE
There are a range of ways that Borough of Poole has been encouraging community involvement in service delivery. Here are some key examples:
From Culture and Community Learning
- They host “Culture Volunteers Poole” – a volunteering service that supports the council's cultural services in partnership with community volunteers. Based at Poole Museum, they have over 500 active volunteers, some of whom helped steward last week’s Christmas lantern parade and supported a recent Spirituality in Art event.
- Poole Museum Service is to set up a charitable fundraising foundation, whichwill allow it to fundraise from supporters who are not able to donate to local authority museums, such as many charitable trusts. This fundraising will allow the Museum to develop its offer and deliver a better value service for the people of Poole, for example through an enhanced exhibition programme. Community members who are committed to fundraising and providing financial support will be recruited as trustees of the new charity.
- Poole Libraries are working with 200 volunteers who donated 7150 hours last year. They support the service by, for example, delivering craft & reading based activities; computer buddies providing one to one IT support for members of the public; and promoting library services through social media.
- They also work in partnership with the Royal Voluntary Service with 38 volunteers delivering library books and other resources every three weeks to 149 housebound library customers.
- The service won Cabinet Office funding to recruit 47 young Summer Reading Challenge volunteers, who contributed 300 hours between July and Aug 2015 to encourage children to carry on reading throughout the 2015 school Summer holidays in all Poole Libraries.
- They have also been working closely with local communities to set up community libraries as part of an on-going programme, in addition to the 10 static libraries in Poole. Community libraries have been launched at Bearwood Community Centre and Bearwood Primary and Nursery School. A community library at Talbot Primary School will launch in February 2016 as part of the National Libraries Day celebrations. A community library has also been introduced at Upton House Tea Rooms and two community swap boxes have been installed in Wallisdown.
From Children’s Centres:
- Poole Children’s Centres are supported by a pool of approximately 110 trained volunteers, with approximately 45 actively volunteering.
- Parent Forums are facilitated in Children’s Centres where parents have an arena to share ideas about future service delivery in the Centres. These parents are members of their local communities.
- The governance of Poole Children’s Centres aims to encourage involvement not only from parents in the community but also members of the community that have a good knowledge of local need i.e. church representatives, community workers, early years settings, elected members etc.
From Adult Social Care:
- The service is increasingly integrating their work with Dorset HealthCare and local GPs, with a focus on those people with greatest dependency and at highest risk of unplanned hospital or care home admission. For this model to work, the integrated teams rely on a network of voluntary sector providers, collectively known as the Poole Wellbeing Collaborative, to provide a range of support, advice and services.
- These services either work alongside health and social care provision or are directed at people who may not be eligible for statutory services, but need a lower level of support tohelp maintain independence and wellbeing. The involvement of the Poole Wellbeing Collaborative not only provides support to vulnerable people that would otherwise be unavailable but removes some of the demand from local authority and NHS services, allowing those to better focus on people who are in greatest need.
From ECPS:
- Community involvement is a well established and integral part of all open spaces improvement projects, both encouraging people to have their say or to get physically involved in a space. All projects involve appropriate public consultation on the options and the effect of any works.
- Increasingly we are working with community groups to encourage them to raise funds, attract residents to help on a project, or to work with specific groups, such as schools, friends of groups and local businesses. There are numerous recent examples like:
-Using volunteers to set up and run the ‘new to you’ shop. They have involved COAST, a Tricuro team with moderate to severe learning difficulties, charities and businesses including Faithworks, Two Saints, ASDA and Tesco, and the local universities.
-Operating a community toilet scheme, in which local businesses participate, offering their facilities to the public
-Fundraising for Bourne valley skate facility, a project initiated by a local community group, working in conjunction with a Borough officer
-Tree planting at Tuckers field with the local junior school
-Extensive public consultation and activities as part of the Poole Park Life project
-Close working with concessions and friends group at Hamworthy Park.
Councillor Janet Walton
Leader of the Council
QUESTION 4 TO COUNCILLOR MRS DION - PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR ECONOMY, CULTURE AND LEISURE FROM COUNCILLOR DAVID BROWN
“At the Cabinet meeting on 14 July 2015, when considering the future of the Mobile Library Vehicle, you reported that:
“The gaps in library provision were being addressed …. and also Merley First School was keen to provide a community library.”
Could you update us on progress in library provision in Merley?”
Councillor David Brown
RESPONSE
“The potential of doing something with the local School had been mentioned in passing and we continue to pursue discussions with the school. Currently we have not had a conclusive response but we continue to explore the option.
An extensive review and consultation was carried out earlier this year and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Cabinet and Council devoted a lot of time to the decision regarding the mobile library. Arrangements are in place so that residents who are housebound can access library services through the housebound readers scheme in partnership with the RVS. We have expressed an on-going commitment by the Council to the establishment of community libraries should suitable venues arise. Two have been successfully established and a third will commence operation early in 2016 and we welcome approaches from other residents who want to work with us to establish community libraries in other locations. It is well known that use of the mobile library had been declining, needs have changed and it was too expensive to continue the service for such a small number of uses. Our existing library service with 10 public libraries, augmented by our online services, our housebound readers scheme and the new community libraries fulfils our statutory and our service needs and we provide excellent public library services in Poole. There was never a guarantee or even assumption that each existing mobile library stop would have its own Community Library but we remain hopeful that more people will come forward to get involved.”
Councillor Mrs Xena Dion
Portfolio Holder for Economy, Culture and Leisure
QUESTION 5 TO COUNCILLOR MRS HAINES - PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR FINANCE, OPERATIONS, CUSTOMER SERVICES AND BENEFITS FROM COUNCILLOR DAVID BROWN
“At the Council meeting on 24 February 2015, as part of the MTFP this Council approved a Fleet Replacement Strategy for 99 Vehicles from 2015 to 2018, costing £1.608m in 2015/16, £3.065m in 2016/17, and £0.201m in 2017/18.
In light of the continuing budget pressures, could the Portfolio Holder for Finance update us on any savings which have been made in these costs?”
Councillor David Brown
RESPONSE
The use of vehicles is fundamental to the effective delivery of a significant number of frontline council services. Failing to have the right vehicle available at the right time not only impacts upon customers it drives up costs.
The Fleet Replacement Strategy position is subject to frequent reviews due to changes in policy, alterations in fleet life expectancy and selection of alternative options.
The Council’s fleet management is organised by a single team in Streetscene. This team continuously monitor existing vehicles for condition and usage, reporting back where there may be any deviation in terms of under or over utilisation and of condition relative to projected life. They carry out regular reviews of the replacement strategy, using this information to amend replacements as required.
Over the previous 12 months we have extended the life of a good proportion of the fleet, sometimes as much as two years – this is only done where there is no perceived detriment to service provision in terms of vehicle availability.
On the rare occasions that vehicles are being underutilised, taken proactive steps have been taken to either re allocate the vehicle into areas where there is a new demand, such as new projects.
Due to the impact of these matters in 2015/16, the latest forecast figures for expected purchase costs is £1.296m for 2015/16, £3.117m in 2016/17 and £0.186m in 2017/18. These figures will be continually updated but are currently £275,000 lower than those set out in the question.
Year / Forecast (£M) / Revised/Actual (£M) / Variance2015/16 / 1.608 / 1.296 / 0.312
16/17 / 3.065 / 3.117 / (0.052)
17/18 / 0.201 / 0.186 / 0.015
0.275
Councillor Mrs May Haines
Portfolio Holder for Finance, Operations, Customer Services and Benefits
QUESTION 6 TO THE PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR CHILDREN’S SERVICES FROM COUNCILLOR MIKE BROOKE
“Since the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services was unable to answer the supplementary question at last Full Council will he now inform members how many schools he has visited to discuss Key Stage 2 performance following his appointment in May this year and up to 17th November.”
Councillor Mike Brooke
RESPONSE
I havebeen very pleased to be invited by a number of head teachers to visit their schools and have visited several primary phase schools since my appointment.
It has been extremely useful in these visits to discuss with school leaders their perspective on school improvement and also to see first hand the improvements in teaching and learning being made in our schools. I shall continue to welcome the opportunity to visit schools.
Councillor Mike White
Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Capital Projects
QUESTION 7 TO THE LEADER OF COUNCIL FROM COUNCILLOR MIKE BROOKE
When the Leader of the Council was Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services she regularly took attention away from the poor Key Stage 2 outcomes by referring to 85% of Poole schools as either good or outstanding. A significant number of these schools were in the Secondary sector so could she please inform members of any issues that she was aware of that permeated through the whole of this sector?
Councillor Mike Brooke
RESPONSE
I refute the allegation as stated in the Questioners first sentence, as this is merely his opinion not fact.
Incidentally the current figures supplied by the National Consortium for Examination Results (NCER) show that 78.4% of primary aged pupils in Poole attend a good or outstanding school. Of our primary schools 88.5% are currently graded Good or Outstanding by Ofsted.
As regards the last part of the Question these issues were the subject of many Overview and Scrutiny, Cabinet and Ofsted Reports and are therefore published documentation. I would encourage Cllr Brooke and other interested Members wishing to avail themselves of the issues permeating this Sector to consult this documentation.
Councillor Janet Walton
Leader of the Council
QUESTION 8 TO COUNCILLOR WHITE – PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR CHILDREN, YOUNG PEOPLE AND CAPITAL PROJECTS FROM COUNCILLOR MARK HOWELL
"Please could Cllr White list the main reasons why only 68% of Poole's secondary schoolchildren are in good or outstanding schools (according to OFSTED's Annual Report), and how our neighbour Bournemouth was able to achieve a figure of 100%".
Councillor Mark Howell
RESPONSE
“I would like to thank Councillor Howell for his question and appreciate the opportunity to comment on our Secondary School performance.
To put this in context I would like to remind Members that there are 8 Secondary Schools in Poole and of these 6 are Academies.
It is important to understand that Academies and their Trusts are responsible for standards in their schools and are overseen by the Regional Schools Commissioner.
At this point, we have a mixed picture of Ofsted ratings with 5 of our schools rated Good or Outstanding.
Each school has its own individual story and journey in terms of outcomes. to understand the reasons behind the Ofsted ratings it is important to understand what is happening in each school.
I would encourage colleagues to read the most recent Ofsted reports and letters for each school if they want to fully understand this.
What is clear overall is that for every school to be high performing needs effective leadership and governance and quality teaching and learning.
I would remind Members that as a council we have set an objectivein our new Corporate Strategy to ensure all our young people can attend a school which is good or outstanding. all our schools support this ambition.
We have also produced our new strategy for school improvement and are recruiting a new part-time secondary advisor to take forward our work with secondary schools.
We have also set up an all Member Working Party and an improvement board to monitor school improvement.
However going back to the Ofsted results…they only tell a part of the story as they simply reflect Ofsted ratings over a twelve month period.
The actual results for Poole in 2015 tell a very different story….
GCSE results for Poole showed a significant improvement this year rising six percentage points from 2014. Poole is the second most improved authority nationally for GCSE results and now ranks 22nd out of 152 in the country in terms of overall results for five a* - c including English and Maths. we are 2nd overall in the whole South West Region…coming second only to the Isles of Scilly.