Members of the public may ask questions or make statements at this meeting if they have given notice (including the text of the question/statement) to David Smith of Democratic and Scrutiny Services and supplied the text (contact details below) by midday on Monday 11 December 2023, three working days before the day of the meeting. Each speaker should limit themselves to 3 minutes on any item. Members of the public who have given notice will be invited to speak:-
· at this point in the meeting if their questions/statements relate to matters which are not otherwise on the Agenda (subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes);
· when the relevant Agenda item is being considered if they wish to speak on a matter which is on the Agenda for this meeting.
If you are exercising your right to speak at this meeting, but do not
wish to be recorded, please inform the Chairman who will instruct anyone who
may be taking a recording to cease while you speak.
Minutes:
A public question
was submitted by Tony Serjeant regarding the 72 Skipton – Grassington bus
service. The question was as follows:
In the light of publicity
that indicates that northern councils will be given increased funding for
public transport priorities due to the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2,
will the Council confirm that it is going to seek funding to improve rural bus
services in North Yorkshire? If it is the case that the authority will seek new
funding for public transport, how much will it bid for and upon what will the
money be spent? Will the area committee undertake to explore what it can
do to restore the No 72 bus service so that it runs as least as many daily
buses between Skipton, Grassington and intervening villages as it did prior to
cuts to the timetable that came into force in May 2023?
The following
response was provided by Andrew Clarke, Public and Community Transport Manager,
North Yorkshire Council:
The government
has published indicative funding allocations for 2024/25 only from the
redirected HS2 budget and North Yorkshire Council has been given an indicative
allocation of £3.5M. The Department for Transport (DfT) expects us to use the
funding to maintain existing bus service levels and also on other measures to
improve public transport consistent with our published Bus Service Improvement
Plan. These have to be agreed through the statutory Enhanced Partnership that
each council has in place with bus operators and passenger representatives
after which DfT will confirm the final allocation to be made by the end of the
financial year. Our Bus Service Improvement Plan includes measures to maintain
and improve bus services in rural areas but with only one year of funding
currently being made available, and at very short notice, it will be difficult
to introduce wholly new bus services and develop them to the point of longer
term sustainability in a single year. This is something we, and other councils,
have raised with DfT as longer term funding is needed to deliver the
improvements to public transport we want to see.
Regarding
Service 72, the changes to the timetable earlier this year were in reaction to
commercial bus service withdrawals across the Skipton network and part of a
plan to ensure that services could be retained on all routes, albeit at a lower
frequency. The contract for Service 72 is currently out to tender and we have
included options to increase the service frequency. Given the additional
funding likely to be available next year we would hope to be able to introduce
a more frequent timetable from Easter 2024.
Members requested
that an item on this be added to the work programme before the subsidy runs out
in November 2024.
A public question
was submitted by Ashley Gatecliffe regarding the leadership of the Upper
Nidderdale Federation. The question was as follows:
I’m here to
formally request an independent investigation into the leadership of the Upper
Nidderdale Federation.
Fountains Earth
School is part of the Upper Nidderdale Federation. My son attended the school
and we had planned for his brother to join in September. However, last summer
we, along with other parents in the school, took the difficult decision to
remove our children. The decision was difficult because we knew that closure of
the school was inevitable, and we knew the consequence of this on the upper
dale community.
I am not here
today in the hope that the school remains open. I’m here because it is not
clear how North Yorkshire County Council is effectively monitoring its school
Governing Boards, and, in particular, the Governing Board and Leadership team
for the Upper Nidderdale Federation.
I first wrote to
the Council in Autumn 2022 with concerns after a string of events led me to
raise a formal complaint. My concerns centred around the decision making of the
Governors and Leadership team, including recruitment practices and
accountability. Despite requesting one, I was NOT given an impartial hearing
and my complaint was heard and dismissed by members of the very Board that my
concerns were addressed towards.
Over the last
year parents tried to work with the school for the best interests of our
children, but the leadership was not engaged. Instead - it chose to silence or
take an opaque stance to our questions and concerns.
Those children
who have moved from Fountains Earth, including my own, have been deemed ‘behind
where they should be’ and, despite requests, there has been NO documentation
sent to their new schools. Our fears have been proven - the educational
provision was not consistently good enough at Fountains Earth, and the school
was made the ‘poor relation’ with a conscious intention to close it.
It is my belief
that the Governing Board of the Upper Nidderdale Federation is not doing its
job in holding the leadership team to account and from what I am aware of,
there have been serious conflicts of interest in relation to recruitment of
both governors and staff as well as questionable practices in relation to the
process by which governors are appointed.
A petition
requesting an independent investigation now has over 1000 signatures, 570 of
which are from the local area and 3 of which are from current and former Federation
governors.
What brings me
here today is that since the petition has been circulating, a number of former
federation staff have contacted me with information about their personal
experiences that should raise serious questions and warrant a full
investigation.
It is my sincere
hope that you will now take these matters forward, act appropriately and see
that a thorough investigation does take place.
The following
response was provided by Children and Young People's Service Officers, North
Yorkshire Council:
With regard
to an independent investigation:
The governing
board hold strategic responsibility for the performance and quality of
education in their schools and this includes holding leaders to account for
performance. The Local Management of Schools (LMS) Scheme sets out the
relationship between the Council and the maintained schools it funds, and this
is approved by the North Yorkshire Schools Forum. Headteachers and Governors of
locally maintained schools must determine – at school or federation level – how
to achieve effective management of resources and value for money, to optimise
the use of their resources, and to invest in teaching and learning. Under LMS,
the costs of operating a school, or schools, are borne by the school from a
delegated budget. This includes all staffing, premises and resources costs.
Governors are responsible for recruitment within their schools.
The education
system is complex. The Council retains many duties and responsibilities with
regard to its maintained schools and for example, its role alongside all
schools in relation to safeguarding of children. Diocesan bodies have a
distinct role in church schools. There is overlap with all of these parties and
the Department for Education’s (DfE) Regional Directors who take key decisions
delegated to them by the Secretary of State for education, and therefore it is
unclear who would conduct an ‘independent investigation’ and what authority it
would hold.
With regard
to complaints raised about the school:
In accordance
with Section 29(1) of the Education Act 2002, all maintained schools must have and
publish procedures to deal with all complaints relating to their school and to
any community facilities or services that the school provides, for which there
are no separate (statutory) procedures. The duty to establish procedures for
dealing with complaints lies with the governing body and not the council. Only
complaints outside of the scope of the school’s policy would be considered
elsewhere by either the DfE or Ofsted.
About one year
ago North Yorkshire Children’s Services did receive correspondence about the
school and signposted the writer towards the school’s complaints policy. The
council also provided information at that time about how to escalate the
concerns to other organisations if required.
If parents,
staff or community members have new concerns about the school, officers would
advise them to raise these using the appropriate schools complaints procedure.
As stated, it is rare that a complaint involving a school falls upon the
Council to investigate it.
With regard
to the query about pupil information being passed from school to school:
Schools hold detailed
information about pupil progress and schools involved in pupil transfers work
together, with parents and other agencies as required, to pass required and
relevant information on as part of the transfer process.
With regard
to school performance:
Ofsted inspected
the school in June 2022 and reported that the school continues to be a good
school. The report provides more information about leadership, curriculum and
safeguarding.
The Council is
currently undertaking the required process regarding the proposal that
Fountains Earth School should close. Unless advised otherwise by the writer,
both today’s public statement and the response of the council officers would be
included in the consultation feedback which is scheduled to be reported to the
Council’s Executive on 23 January, following the end of the consultation
period.
Members suggested
that the speaker asks for a written response from North Yorkshire Council, saying
that the complaints procedure has been exhausted. The speaker may then approach
the ombudsman.
Resolved –
a)
That an
item looking into the 72 Skipton – Grassington bus service be added to the work
programme.