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Minutes

Proposed venue: remotely via Skype for Business

Contact: Democratic Services 

Note: Continuation of the adjourned combined meeting of all Overview & Scrutiny Committees of the 21st January 2021 

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Items
No. Item

208.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

Councillor T Beedle declared a personal interest in agenda item 4 as he was Chair of Bridgend Governors Association.

 

Councillor A Williams declared a personal interest in agenda item 4, as a Committee member of Heol-y-Cyw RFC who were involved in the CAT process.

 

209.

Medium Term Financial Strategy 2021-22 to 2024-25

Minutes:

The Senior Democratic Services Officer - Scrutiny advised that as this combined meeting of all Scrutiny Committees was a continuation of the adjourned meeting from Thursday 21st January, Cllr Cheryl Green would continue as Chairperson for the meeting.

 

Education and Family Support

 

A Member referred to ESF2 and the tenders received for school transport and asked for reassurance that there was robustness around the selection process and how the Local Authority achieved value for money.

 

The Corporate Director - Education and Family Support explained that he was very happy to offer the Member assurance it would be a very robust process. Officers within Education and Family Support would be working very closely with Legal and Procurement Officers to ensure compliance with all processes around the tendering procedure.

 

A Member commented that Home to School transport had been under review for a long period and appealed that this was progressed.

 

The Corporate Director - Education and Family Support agreed with the Member and stated that it had been a concern for some time. There had been a considerable amount of work that had gone into the review, for the last year or so. The Local Authority hoped to see the WG review of several of the issues, which was due to come to fruition at the end of March. Hopefully this information, in combination with the intelligence secured, would enable the Local Authority to move this on at pace.

 

A Member referred to SCH1 and stated that the efficiency saving should be reconsidered to stop cutting central services as it damaged all schools.

 

A Member also referred to SCH1 and expressed that while no one wanted to make cuts, he felt that the burden needed to be shared equally and that there should be some cut this year.

 

The Registered Representative, Church in Wales also referred to SCH1 and that for the last number of years Bridgend had been at the lower, if not the bottom end in the amount that was spent on education per pupil.  He advised that any cut to the schools’ budget would be particularly disastrous, not only in the current year, but in future years.

 

A Member explained that she had been in a meeting with the Minister for Housing and Local Government and challenged her about the settlement. The Minster had said that while it wasn’t a growth budget each Authority should not be losing or proposing to lose any staff, because it should be a standstill budget. She said that if any Authorities stated they were going to lose staff then WG wanted to know immediately because they had said that wouldn’t be viable going forward.

 

The Corporate Director - Education and Family Support explained that he really appreciated Members’ comments and it was a very challenging picture for the entire organisation. All the areas identified were difficult; none of them were easy and had been reached after significant work. There was a balance to be had with supporting schools, and the points  ...  view the full minutes text for item 209.

210.

Urgent Items

Minutes:

None

 

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