To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors T James, PJ Watts and Mr T Plumer. 

Councillor PA Andrews substituted on behalf of Councillor James, and Councillor PL Bettington substituted on behalf of Councillor Watts.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on the Agenda.

The following interests were declared:

To consider suggestions from members of the public on issues the Committee could scrutinise in the future.

It was noted that Mr MacKay had submitted a request that the management of the County’s recreational highways should be considered in greater detail by the Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

The Chairman of Breinton Parish Council, Mrs Morawiecka requested that the Local Development Framework (LDF) process be scrutinised by the Committee.

Ms P Mitchell asked that the Committee give consideration to considering two issues which had arisen from the Council’s report ‘Hereford Relief Road, a Study of Options:

1.  Whether the Council's case for a road is convincing, given its evidence base including its evidence on the potential contribution of sustainable transport measures;

2.  Whether statements made by the Council to the public in consultation documents (and elsewhere) were supported by the evidence the Council had at the time of making the statements.

To review Cabinet Member (Corporate Services & Education) decision Reference No: 2011.CS&E.002 KEY concerning a new sustainable model of business for the delivery of the Music Service, which has been called in by three Members of the Committee: Councillors EPJ Harvey; MAF Hubbard; SJ Robertson.

The Committee received a report to review the decision of the Cabinet Member (Corporate Services & Education) decision concerning a new model of business for the delivery of the Music Service.  This decision had been called in by three Members of the Committee: Councillors EPJ Harvey; MAF Hubbard and SJ Robertson.

Councillor EPJ Harvey introduced the Call-in on behalf of the signatories.  She reported that the conditions under which it was possible to review the decision were limited, particularly with regard to the value for money of the decision to make music teachers redundant at a cost of £350k.  She questioned whether the outsourcing of the majority of the service to the private sector was appropriate, and whether this was a suitable way of delivering the service.  The signatories were also concerned over the possible inequitable impact of the decision on rural schools.

Councillor Harvey said that the signatories were not convinced that the correct decision making process had been undertaken and whether, for instance, an impact assessment had been undertaken.  The report to the Cabinet Member (Corporate Services & Education) stated that over three thousand children used the service a week.

In reply to a question, the Head of Music Service replied that it was not possible to monitor every pupil in a given school, as the service was sold as a package to schools, not to the individual parents.  The schools monitored the numbers of their pupils involved. Work had been undertaken by the Deputy Head of Service which indicated that there were eleven instrumental areas that it was not possible to cover at the moment.  Until the Accredited Teacher Scheme was in place, it would not be possible to know where shortfalls would occur under the new system.  Under the new scheme, there were eight areas of concern.  Some of these were in the City and others in rural areas.  Some were as a result of shortages of teachers of particular instruments.

In reply to a further question, he went on to say that the Accredited Teacher Scheme would allow greater flexibility for the teacher, and would allow them to teach in their own geographical location.  The Accredited Teachers had only just been recruited, and it was not possible, at this point, to know where shortfalls might occur.  However, there was greater flexibility within the new system, which would allow for coverage of the County.

A Member asked why, despite the full knowledge of a deficit in the Service for the previous ten years, this issue had not been identified in 2010, and had only appeared on the Council’s Forward Plan in June 2011. 

The Cabinet Member replied that whilst the report and the resultant decision had been in the offing for a considerable period, the time frame did not allow for the Music Service to be externalised as outlined in Section 18 (e) of the paper.  There would be a review of the funding for the Service coming into the County from 2012.  It had been felt  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.