Agenda item

This report advises the Committee of a notice of call-in received from six Members of the Council of a Cabinet decision (2/2016) to commence consultation on reconfiguring services, including the proposal for significant changes to the management and staffing of Medway’s 19 Sure Start Children’s Centres, and a reorganisation of the authority’s early years services.  The Committee must consider the Cabinet decision and decide either to take no further action or to refer the decision back to Cabinet for reconsideration.

The Chairman has agreed that this matter is both urgent and cannot be reasonably deferred until the next meeting on 3 March 2016 given the intention to consult on the proposals and for the results to be reported back to Cabinet on 5 April 2016 to enable full implementation by 1 January 2017.  The report could not be despatched with the agenda as these decisions were called in following the Cabinet meeting held on 12 January 2016, after the despatch of the agenda.

Discussion:

Members considered a report regarding a call-in received from six Members of the Council of a Cabinet decision (2/2016) to commence consultation on reconfiguring services, including the proposal for significant changes to the management and staffing of Medway’s 19 Sure Start Children’s Centres, and a reorganisation of the authority’s early years services.The Committee was requested to consider the Cabinet decision and decide either to take no further action or to refer the decision back to Cabinet for reconsideration.  An addendum report was circulated at the meeting which informed the Committee of a further call-in of this decision which had been received from a further six Members of the Committee.

Councillor Royle, the Lead Member for the first call-in, explained that they had called in this decision in order for the Committee to be better informed about the proposals.

Councillor Price, the Lead Member for the second call in, explained their reasons for calling in the decision, which related to :

·           Concerns about the proposals cutting across an imminent review by Central Government on Children Centres

·           Concerns about the detrimental impact the budget reduction and proposals would have on the service itself and on Key Stage 2 results in the longer term.

The Head of Early Years reported that trade journals were suggesting that the Ministerial review of children’s centres had been further delayed with no date set   He then reiterated that the proposals demonstrated the intention to retain all 19 children centres and focused on reorganising staffing structures in order to maximise on frontline services.  The purpose of the consultation was to understand the practical implications and to look at the best models for staffing and centre cluster structures.

Members then raised a number of points and questions which included: -

·           Implications on children centre services – in response to a question about whether this would reduce the number of days children centres would be able to provide some services, officers confirmed that the maintenance of services would be the top priority.  It was added that the budget reduction was significant which may result in some change to the current programme of activities but it was not proposed to close any children centres on some days.

·           Impact of reduction in administrative and managerial staff – in response to a question about how significant the reduction in the level of administrative and managerial staff would be, officers explained that each of the 19 centres had their own manager and own administrative team so by organising centres into clusters it would enable there to be fewer staff in these roles duplicating work and would in fact build resilience to cope with absences.

·           Cluster alignment – in response to a question about how clusters would be aligned, officers explained that the purpose of the consultation was to look at options and the best possible structures for the clusters but that the intention was for clusters to be geographically based.

·           Consultation – in response to a question about how the children’s centres would be consulted, officers explained that individual meetings would be held with all affected staff at each centre.

·           Effect on schools with an integrated children’s centre – in response to a question about how the proposals would affect the schools attached to 18 of the 19 children’s centres, officers explained that in terms of buildings, the children’s centre part of the building was maintained by the local authority, whether that school was a maintained school or an academy.  In addition, where centres were within schools, the Headteacher or other designated member of staff acted as the centre manager.  The proposals would no longer require them to have that role.  In terms of budgets, the Council commissioned each school to manage children centre services and for some schools they may have used some of the budget to supplement salaries for additional children’s centre duties but it was made clear that neither the school budget, nor the children’s centre budget, should be used to supplement the other.

It was proposed that the Committee take no further action.  An amendment to this proposal was made, to refer the matter back to the Cabinet for consideration, which was lost.

Decision:

The Committee agreed to take no further action in respect of the call in of the Cabinet decision (2/2016) to commence consultation on reconfiguring services, including the proposal for significant changes to the management and staffing of Medway’s 19 Sure Start Children’s Centres, and a reorganisation of the authority’s early years services.