Agenda and minutes

Agreed.

Agreed to amend Minute 433, 29 April 2003 (Refurbishment of the Civic Centre Public and Civic Areas), to include the following decision, which was made at that meeting following consideration of a supplementary report:

4. Delegate to the Members Steering Group authority to approve capital expenditure in relation to the Civic refurbishment up to a total of £2.4m.

Received a report setting out the following urgent action taken under Article 1, Paragraph 17.1, of the Constitution:

The appointment of Councillor J Davis as the Council’s representative at a meeting of the Greater London Provincial Council on 21 May 2003.

Noted the report of the above Scrutiny Panel, which will now be submitted to the Assembly on 2 July 2003.

Received a report outlining an opportunity to participate in a Department for Education and Skills (DFES) initiative aimed at reducing the time it takes to prosecute parents who collude in the non-attendance of their children at school.

Agreed, in order to ensure that parents who fail to co-operate or who are unwilling to work with the Local Education Authority (LEA) take responsibility for their children’s attendance at school, that:

1. The Council participates in the DFES initiative to fast-track the prosecution of parents colluding in the non-attendance of their children; and

2. Access and Attendance Officers be authorised to represent the LEA and present cases at court.

Further to Minute 402 (15 April 2003), received a report providing details of the responses to the recent consultation on school admissions.  The report also outlined a number of recommendations for amending the way in which admissions for Primary and Secondary Schools in the Borough are handled. 

Agreed the following recommendations made by the Admissions Forum:

Primary and Secondary Co-ordination

1. To adopt the following proposed changes in time for the 2004 Admissions Round:

a)  to offer parents three preferences on the Primary application form and four on the Secondary form;

b)  to restrict “in-Borough transfers” to the first day of each term; and

c)  to manage all waiting lists through the Education, Arts and Libraries Department’s Admissions Section.

2. To undertake follow-up work through the press and the Council’s website so that the description “in-Borough transfer” is clearly defined for parents and schools;

3. To discuss the full detail of the Primary waiting list procedures with Primary School Headteachers before they are finalised and published; and

4. To circulate the revised Secondary waiting list procedures to all Secondary School Headteachers.

Secondary Transfer

5. To move to an “equal preference” model of allocating pupils to schools;

6. To replace the ‘Link School’ criterion with ‘Distance from home to school’;

7. To work closely with the Leisure and Environmental Services Department to maintain an up to date list of all recognised footpaths, by-ways and public highways and link with schools to investigate any other routes regularly used by parents;

8. For secondary schools with split sites, to measure distance from the home to the ‘Main site’; and

9. To phase in the removal of the ‘Sibling’ criterion (secondary transfer only).

Received a report outlining the need to replace Protected Open Space to enable the development of the Jo Richardson Community School on Castle Green to proceed.  The report set out a proposal to designate 3.72 hectares of land to the south of the Scrattons Farm Estate as replacement Protected Open Space and the financial implications for its creation and maintenance.

Agreed, in order to enable the development of the Jo Richardson Community School on Castle Green to proceed, which will assist the Council in achieving the Community Priorities of “Better Education and Learning for All”, that the land shown single-hatched on the map attached to the report as Appendix A be “appropriated pursuant to Section 122 of the Local Government Act 1972 from Housing purposes to Open Space purposes and be designated as Protected Open Space in the draft revised Unitary Development Plan”.

Received a report providing an update on the inaugural meeting of the Barking and Dagenham Joint Health and Social Care Board that took place on 14 April 2003.  The report also sought approval and ratification of the Joint Health and Social Care Board’s Constitution, Terms of Reference and Memorandum of Agreement.

Agreed, the Constitution, Terms of Reference, Memorandum of Agreement for the Joint Health and Social Care Board and reports considered on 15 April and 17 June 2003, in order to further health and social care integration.

Agreed to exclude the public and press for the remainder of the meeting, as the business was confidential.

* Item considered as a matter of urgency with the consent of the Chair under Section 100 (4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972