To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Miss S. Peate.

Apologies were also received from Mrs C. Woolley, the newly appointed Parent Governor Member for the Secondary School sector.

To receive any details of Members nominated to attend the meeting in place of a Member of the Committee.

There were no named substitutes.

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

Agenda Item 5 - Councillor R. M. Manning declared a prejudicial interest, however, under the terms of the Code of Conduct relating to scrutiny committees he was eligible to take part in the meeting.  Mr J. D. Griffin and Rev’d. I Terry both declared personal interests in view of their professional role on the Committee.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the former Education Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 14th March, 2005.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting of the former Education Scrutiny Committee held on 14th March, 2005 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider the decision on the Review of Denominational Transport, which has been called in by three Members of the Committee.

The Committee considered Cabinet’s decision on 23rd June, 2005 on the Review of Denominational Transport, which had been called-in by three members of the Committee, in accordance with the Scrutiny Committee Rules.

The stated reason for calling in the decision was: “establishing the criteria for low income families”.

The Cabinet Member – Children’s Services, outlined the decision of Cabinet.  The draft decision notice (Ref No 2005 CAB 057) together with the report to Cabinet by the Director of Children’s Services was contained in the agenda.

The Head of Policy and Resources reported that a supplementary report had been issued subsequent to the agenda, which set out the proposals to ensure fair and effective implementation of the new policy, especially in relation to low income families.  He highlighted that the Council had the choice of using either a set of criteria that it would have to define and administer or, as recommended, a set of existing national criteria, which had already been defined and were widely used.  The Council had, however, to use its discretion in selecting which of the existing eligibility assessments was the most appropriate to this particular issue.  The application of the new policy was clarified to the Committee, which would take account of the needs of larger and/or low income families as follows:

·                     Contributions towards the cost of the first two children attending any denominational school from any one family (at the same address), toward denominational transport, with any subsequent children having a denominational place entitled to free transport, so long as those other children remain in receipt of transport under this scheme.

·               Contributions being set at 3 levels reflecting the income level and family situation. The levels would be:

a)                  Full rate - Equivalent to the payments made under the Vacant Seats Policy (The Vacant Seats Policy allows parents to take up spare seats on transport provided to those pupils who are outside the statutory walking distance).

b)                  Free transport for those entitled to free school meals, free prescriptions (on income related criteria), and full housing or Council tax benefit;

c)                  A 50% contribution would be sought from those not entitled under b) above but who would be entitled to housing and or Council tax benefit at a level to be determined.

The following are the principal issues or comments arising from the ensuing debate:

·                     The Committee agreed that the policy needed to be easily understandable by parents;

·                     That the policy needed to be easy to administer and enforce;

·                     Having considered the pros and cons of various options for a local system of entitlement, the Committee agreed that the method of assessing low income families should be based on the eligibility criteria for state benefits (i.e. the use of Council Tax and Housing Benefits and Free School Meals entitlements).  Variations within state benefits criteria would mean that the implementation of a three tier banding scheme of entitlement for denominational transport would introduce an element of flexibility to the Council’s policy.

·                     The Committee debated at some  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.