Agenda item

This report advises the Committee of a notice of call-in of the Cabinet’s decision (149 – 151/2016) to agree option 1 (the South East (SE) Regional option) and the two year associated funding for the future delivery of the Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Award Scheme and the related decisions to delegate authority to grant a lease of the DofE premises at the Strand, as set out in the Cabinet report attached at Annex A.  This report also provides details relating to a petition that has been received by the Council in relation to the future of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme in Medway.

           The Committee must consider the Cabinet decisions and decide either to take no further action, to refer the decisions back to Cabinet for reconsideration or to refer the matter to full Council.

Discussion:

Members considered a report regarding a call-in received from six Members of the Council of Cabinet’s decisions (149/2016 – 151/2016 – 20 December 2016) in relation to the future of Medway’s Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) Award programme. The report also informed the Committee of a petition against the transitioning of the Medway DofE Programme, which had been received by the Council.  The officer’s response to this petition had been attached to the report at Annex B and the petitioner had decided to refer the petition to the Committee for consideration.  The Committee was requested to consider the Cabinet decisions and decide either to take no further action, refer the decisions back to Cabinet or to refer the decisions to Council for reconsideration.

Councillor Price, the Lead Member for the call-in, explained the reasons for the call-in as outlined in paragraph 2.2 of the report. In particular, he made the following points to the Committee:

·           It was believed that there were originally three options that were considered regarding the future of the DofE Award in Medway but only two options were reported to Cabinet;

·           There was a lack of clarity in relation to the activity required by the DofE South East Region, who it was proposed would take over the management of the DofE Award in Medway;

·           Concern regarding the future management of volunteers;

·           Concern the proposed model would lead to making participation of disadvantaged young people more difficult.

Leonie King, Co-Chair of the Medway Youth Panel, then spoke on behalf of the petitioners.  She explained that the Youth Panel were not in support of the proposed model and reiterated that 1109 young people had signed the petition against the transition.  It was considered that the views of the Youth Panel had not been taken into account.  Petitioners felt there was too much uncertainty about the future of the programme under the proposal and that the highly successful programme should continue to be run by the local authority as it was considered that this would be the best option to keep the scheme accessible to all young people and to maintain its performance.

Officers confirmed that the option relating to the DofE delivery being managed by the regional DofE had not been available when discussions on Medway DofE’s future first took place earlier in 2016.  Officers also confirmed that the DofE Award had charitable status and was not a private company and that the option to transition delivery to the regional DofE Award provided the best solution in terms of resilience and lowering risk to the programmes future, given the ongoing financial pressures the local authority faced.

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

·           Pre-decision scrutiny – in response to a question about why the proposals had not been brought to the Committee as pre-decision scrutiny, it was confirmed that the Committee had not requested the item to be added to the work programme when considering items on the Cabinet’s Forward Plan.

·           Support for schools with varying participation levels – The representative from The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award explained that the scheme was operated on a scalable structure to accommodate schools with varying levels of participation.  He added that the DofE worked hard to reach as many young people as possible and also had a fundraising department which looked at innovative ways to raise funds and support more young people.

·           Supporting Looked After Children (LAC) – In response to a question about how LAC would be supported to participate in the scheme, the representative from The DofE’s Award explained that he was the regional lead for engaging LAC.  He had recently met with Virtual Headteachers across the region on how more LAC could be supported to take part and there had been an agreement to write participation of the DofE Award DofE participation into Personal Education Plans (PEPs), which would then make the scheme eligible for funding from the pupil premium fund.  It was clarified that this pupil premium fund differed from that provided to schools. He also added that licences were not only provided to schools but also to fostering agencies, housing associations and Medway Youth Trust in order to deliver the programme to young people that are considered to be harder to reach.

·           Consultation with the Children in Care Council (CiCC) – in response to a question officers confirmed that the CiCC had not been formally consulted on the proposals relating to the Medway DofE Award Scheme.  However, many of the young people who were part of the CiCC were consulted through other parts of the consultation process.  Officers also undertook to invite the Regional The DofE’s Award representative to a future CiCC meeting.

·           Budget implications for keeping the scheme in house – in response to a question officers confirmed that the DofE programme would require continued funding by the local authority if kept in-house, with a projected budget of £32,000 by Year 5.  The proposal to outsource the programme to the DofE’s Award would require no budget from the Council by Year 3.

·           Concerns regarding uncertainty for the future – some Members were concerned that the proposals were too high risk for the future of the programme.  The Regional DofE’s Award representative explained that they were experienced in this transition with 10 out of 13 unitary authorities within the South East having already transitioned delivery to them. He added that the DofE Award had continued to grow year on year with more young people than ever participating in the programme.  He also confirmed that young people should experience no difference to their experience as a result of the transfer.

The Committee considered a proposal that the matter be referred to full Council to allow time for the Children in Care Council to be formally consulted and to enable the concerns raised by Members (detailed above) to be addressed and reported to all Members of the Council. On being put to the vote, the proposal was lost.

Decision:

The Committee accepted the Cabinet decisions 149 – 151/2016, as set out in paragraph 2.1 of the report, and agreed to take no further action.