To record any apologies for absence received.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors W Clements, A Hodson, M Hornby, A Leech, C Muspratt and S Williams and Mrs H Shoebridge.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any disclosable pecuniary or non-pecuniary interest which they have in any item of business on the agenda no later than when the item is reached.

Members are reminded that they should also declare whether they are subject to a party whip in connection with any item(s) to be considered at this meeting and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

Councillor P Hayes, Lead Member and signatory to the Called-in decision, declared a personal interest because of this and by virtue of being a Director of Overton Community Centre that ran a Nursery.

Councillors B Berry and L Fraser declared a personal interest by virtue of them being signatories to the called-in decision.

It was noted that no Member of the Committee was subject to the Party Whip.

A report by the Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources is attached.

The Committee had before it for consideration a report by the Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources that included the relevant documents in relation to the called-in key decision of the Cabinet following the Early Years and Children Centre Review.  (Cabinet Minute No. 54 refers.)

Appended to the Strategic Director’s report were the following documents:

Appendix 1 -  Call-in Procedure which included the names of the witnesses provided by both the Lead Member and Signatory to the Call-in and the Decision-Taker.

Appendix 2 -  The Call-in Notice.

Appendix 3 -  The Cabinet Report.

Appendix 4 -  August 2014 – Wirral Early Years & Children’s Centre Review.

Appendix 5 -  An Extract from the Minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 11 September 2014.  (Minute No. 54)

The Committee was reminded in the report that the Call-in Procedure had been agreed by at its meeting held on 24 June 2013 and subsequently revised at a further meeting held on 15 October 2014.

The Call-in Procedure had been revised to ensure that:

(a)  witnesses to a called-in decision, who attended the meeting had the flexibility to read out a written statement to the Committee within a timescale not to exceed five minutes; and

(b)  the relevant Cabinet Member and the Lead Member and Signatory to the call-in could be questioned once they had made statements to the Committee.

The Committee noted that the decision had been called-in by Councillors P Hayes, J Green, G Watt, l Fraser, J Hale, G Ellis, L Rennie, T Anderson, S Williams, B Berry, A Sykes and E Boult.  It was also noted that the Signatories had raised the following four significant points:

‘We are concerned that such a huge reduction in service provision will have a real and adverse impact on those communities who have come to rely upon the valuable services offered through our Children’s Centres.

A decision so crucial to the Council’s provision of early year’s services should be subject to further member scrutiny.

Mindful of the concerns raised over alleged deficiencies with the consultation on the closure of the Lyndale School, we require further details as to how future consultations to ‘progress’ the recommendations will take place and its format.

We are concerned that the Leader of the Council is reported to have said that the plans mean the Council will retain the buildings and “hopefully have a new government next year and we can build these services back up”. Is the mothballing of buildings in the hope of a change in government conducive to a well thought through Early Years policy? Is the Leader confident a different government would allow for the ’building up’ of these services and what is the evidence of this? These are questions which should be further explored.’

Chair’s Opening Remarks

The Chair on opening the meeting asked Members, Officers and Witnesses in attendance to introduce themselves and they duly obliged.  The Chair then proposed that the Call-in Procedure be varied so that the Leader of the Council, Councillor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.