A local authority officer has told Central Bedfordshire Council’s schools forum he was sorry for the lateness of an agenda report and promised action has been taken to prevent any repeat of the problem.
Papers for these meetings are usually available when published on the council’s website, but occasionally reports have to be submitted late to be as up-to-date as possible or because of unavoidable circumstances.
But the schools forum is made up mostly of outside representatives, rather than CBC councillors, making it more imperative that these are produced on time.
The headteachers, governors and educational experts who sit on the forum depend on being able to study reports in detail, well in advance of their meeting because of their busy schedules.
Sandy Secondary School headteacher Karen Hayward, who chairs the forum, raised the issue at its March meeting.
“I stress this again, and headteacher of The Academy of Central Bedfordshire Paul Green sent in an email regarding this and I totally back him, papers are going in and coming out too late”, she said.
“We should have seven days at least to read those papers and that isn’t happening. Our (CBC) committee officer has taken it up with his line manager and I’m going to be taking it further because this isn’t good enough from officers.
“We’re supposed to be able to read and digest those papers, and then be ready to discuss and question them.
“So please be aware that I’m on to that and I acknowledge Paul’s email regarding that frustration and also mine. I think the rest of us probably feel the same, so I’ll continue to represent that.”
CBC’s service director for education and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), Dan Newbolt began his presentation to the forum on the high needs block educational finances by acknowledging the committee’s concerns.
“I’d open with an apology to your first point about the lateness of this paper,” he explained.
“I’ve made some amendments to our own internal systems to the flightpath of sign-off, which I felt would benefit from some further clarity.
“I’m confident from this end there won’t be late papers in relation to certainly high needs block and probably others too. Apologies for that, but I’m confident the issue as to why this paper was late won’t happen again.”
By Euan Duncan
Local Democracy Reporter
