Agenda item

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 15^th June 2023.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 15^th June 2023 were agreed as a correct record.

It was agreed that the information that had been circulated to members at nos. 12,13 and 14 on the Minutes Action Addendum would be shared with Cllr Hussain who had recently rejoined the Select Committee.

ACTION: Scrutiny Manager

The Chairman invited the Cabinet Member, Cllr Anita Cranmer to make a statement at the start of the meeting in connection with the recent RAAC concrete issues in schools, which had been reported in the national press.  The Cabinet Member reported that there were three schools in Buckinghamshire which were impacted by the concerns about the safety of RAAC concrete – Waddesdon Church of England Secondary School, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary and St Michael’s Catholic School.  Fortunately, none of the three schools had serious or widespread issues. For example, at Waddesdon the problem was restricted to the school’s restaurant area, so children have not been significantly impacted. Whilst the Council was not responsible for the maintenance of academy or faith school’s buildings, the Council was responsible for ensuring that children can access education so officers had been working with schools to try and ensure that remote learning would only be implemented as a last resort.

The Cabinet Member ended by thanking all the officers and headteachers who had been working hard to resolve these issues ahead of term starting.  Committee Members had some questions for the Cabinet Member and the main points were as follows:

• A Member who represents the ward where St Michael’s is located noted that there had been ongoing issues with a planning issue at the school over the past year and they were disappointed that officers had not kept them informed of developments, as both a local member and a corporate parent.
• Gareth Drawmer explained that as a voluntary aided school of the Catholic Diocese of Northampton, St Michael’s Catholic School was responsible for the upkeep of its estate, although in the past year the school had transferred into a Catholic Academies Trust.  Surveys had shown that there was a structural issue in part of the school, which was closely monitored until it reached a stage, in the autumn term, where it was considered to be unsafe. At that point, the Council liaised with the school, the Trust and the Diocese to ensure that the education of the children would be able to continue and fortunately Stokenchurch Community Centre was able to offer a space at short notice which enabled children to have their lessons there.  The school’s own Communications Officer liaised with local members at the time.
• Officers were thanked for their support to the Headteachers concerned.  It was noted that there may be other schools who might be affected in future and a member asked if all schools had been surveyed and the survey results shared with the Council.  It was reported that all maintained schools had been surveyed and that there were a small number of Academies that had not yet submitted their audits to the Department for Education (DfE) and these schools would be chased up to encourage them to submit their data.
• Members reiterated that it was important that parents were reassured about their children’s safety because even though many schools were academies and responsible for their own school estate, parents would look to the Council for reassurance.  Gareth Drawmer reiterated that statutorily, academy schools should be communicating with parents about any safety concerns on their school site.
• A Member commented that this should be seen as an opportunity to assess Council maintained schools and put a maintenance plan in place.  Whilst it was recognised that there wasn’t a vast budget to undertake all repairs swiftly, it would be helpful to have a comprehensive and up to date list of maintenance needs.
• Gareth Drawmer explained that in schools some budget was devolved for elements such as painting and decorating but more structural issues, such as windows or roof replacement schemes, would be the responsibility of the Council and Property Services had a comprehensive list of works that were needed.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member and officers for this update.