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Educational Services Standing Sub Committee
8 September 2004
IRVINE, 8 September 2004 - At a Meeting of the Educational Services Standing Sub Committee of North Ayrshire Council at 2.00 pm.
Present
Jacqueline Browne, Gordon Allison, Drew Duncan, Jean Highgate, Father Matthew McManus, Donald Reid, and Elaine Shaw.
In Attendance
J Travers, Corporate Director, B Gardner, Head of Educational Resources, L Owens, J Leckie and J Ward, Heads of Service and C Laird, Acting Head of Services (Educational Services); A Osborne and E Fisher, Corporate and Democratic Support Officers (Chief Executive's).
Chair
Councillor Browne in the Chair.
Apologies for Absence
Elisabethe Marshall and Peter McNamara.
1. Follow-up Inspection Report
Submitted report by the Corporate Director (Educational Services) on the Follow-up Inspection of the Education Functions of North Ayrshire Council.
The Sub Committee received a presentation outlining the key points of the Follow-up Inspection.
The initial inspection was carried out by Her Majesty's Inspectors in March 2002 and in accordance with the national system for the inspection of local authorities, a Follow-up Inspection was carried out two years after the initial report. Issues referred to in the Follow-up Report will be included in the Educational Services Improvement Plan for 2005. As a result of the positive conclusions of the report and the overall progress made on the main points for action, HMIE will make no further visits to the education authority in connection with the inspection.
Noted.
2. Public Performance Reporting: Statutory Performance Indicators 2003/04
Submitted report by the Corporate Director (Educational Services) on the Statutory Performance Indicators for Educational Services for the year ended 31 March 2004.
The Accounts Commission requires Councils to collate and publish a range of performance information each financial year. These figures are subject to external audit and lead to national publication by the Accounts Commission.
Performances and target information was provided for the following activities:-
Pre-School Education
Special Educational Needs
Percentage Occupancy of Schools
Primary School Class Sizes
Libraries
Museums
Leisure
The following information was provided to aid understanding of the figures and to place them in context:-
the Council's performance data for 2000/01, 2001/02, 2002/03
the average figure for all Scottish Councils up to 2002/03
a commentary providing guidance on the information the SPI is intended to convey, advice on how to interpret it, further planned action and the rationale behind future targets.
After some discussion it was agreed that the Corporate Director should (a) give further consideration to lowering the target time for completing assessment of special educational needs to 20 weeks; (b) report to the next meeting on the results of the public survey of library users which indicated general satisfaction with current library opening hours; and (c) investigate what assistance might be available to the voluntary group responsible for public access to Kilwinning Abbey Tower in respect of the costs of public liability insurance.
3. Scheme of Delegation to Officers
Submitted report by the Corporate Director (Educational Services) on the use of delegated powers within Educational Services.
Details were provided on the decisions taken under the Council's Scheme of Delegation to Officers as undernoted:-