Agenda item

Leader's Report

Minutes:

The Leader of the Council reported that, as Members were aware, the Council had been working with the recognised trade unions to undertake a joint review of the roles, responsibilities and job descriptions of teaching assistants.  To ensure the joint review could be undertaken and completed within the timescales set out at the beginning of the process all previous proposals were suspended.

 

The joint review commenced in December 2016 with a project structure being established that included teaching assistants and head teachers.  A Project Board which consisted of the Council and recognised trade unions would complete the review as quickly as possible while ensuring all views of the project team and the individual work streams were considered.

 

As part of the review, job records for teaching assistant roles and the grades that were in place across the teaching assistant workforce were being considered as well as the weeks and hours worked by teaching assistants.  This was a thorough, detailed and robust process which continued to be a significant commitment by all involved.

 

The Leader announced that, as a result of regular meetings and a great deal of hard work and goodwill amongst the partnership involved, the Council was extremely close to confirming new grading proposals which would mark a sea change from where the Council was previously.  Details of the new proposals would need to be communicated to schools and individual teaching assistants as quickly as possible.  There would be a full and thorough consultation process and the project board anticipated this next phase would commence in the coming weeks.

 

It was important to note there had been a real pace to this work and the commitment by all parties involved continued.  The original timeline for completion of the full review process remained on, or even ahead of, schedule.  Looking ahead, the Council would need to work closely with each school to ensure their individual teaching assistant roles were correctly matched to proposed new job descriptions which would allow the Council to confirm the position for every individual teaching assistant when consulted on the new proposals.

 

Arrangements were being made to visit individual schools and the project board anticipated this part of the process would commence in the next few weeks.  It was only thanks to very significant hard work and goodwill that such significant progress had been made and the Leader thanked officers, trade unions, the teaching assistants work stream and head teachers work stream for their support and hard work.

 

It was very positive that such notable progress had been made and the revised proposal that would be offered to teaching assistants through their trade unions, once the school consultation had concluded, would demonstrate the commitment made by the Council to resolve this matter.

 

The Leader then outlined the following events and initiatives by the Council:

·         Big Spring Clean had been launched across the County and many colleagues had been involved in the litter picks which had taken place;

·         The Council was proceeding with a Public Space Protection Order which would include a range of enforcement powers over stray dogs and dogs in fenced off designated play areas to add to exiting powers to enforce cleaning up after dogs.  The new powers would come into effect on 1 June 2017 and had met with overwhelming support in public consultation;

·         At the end of February a ceremony had been carried out to mark the start of the latest extension to NetPark at Sedgefield.  The Explorer buildings would expand the site and attract more jobs to County Durham and would build on the County’s reputation for cutting-edge technologies;

·         The first tenants had been welcomed to Salvus House and the Finance Durham Initiative would be launched to support new and expanding firms in Durham;

·         Two County Durham schools which had benefitted from substantial investment in new buildings, Sedgefield and Wolsingham, were officially opened by HRH the Duke of Gloucester last week.  The new DLI collection gallery at Palace Green had also been opened and a new home for the library in Newton Aycliffe town centre, which was in the same building as the leisure centre, had seen an increase in use.

 

The Leader thanked everyone involved in these initiatives, not least officers from across the council who worked hard despite the challenges faced.  Despite continued deep austerity cuts from government the council continued to demonstrate that it worked hard on people’s priorities, including cleaner neighbourhoods, job creation and helping young people.

 

Councillor R Bell referred to a government announcement the previous week of an allocation of an extra £2bn into social care funding and asked the Leader to confirm that Durham would be receiving an extra £25m from this.

 

Councillor Henig replied that Durham was expecting to receive an extra £25m.  However, how this extra funding was spent would need careful consideration because it would taper away after 2019/2020.  The Leader hoped that the awaited Green Paper on Adult Social Care would ensure that future funding was more sustainable.  Government guidelines on how the extra funding could be spent were awaited.

 

Councillor Temple informed the Council that while he welcomed the Leader’s announcement regarding the teaching assistant dispute, which he hoped would be resolved in an amicable and fair way, he was disappointed that the Council had gone down the route it had.  He had wanted to put a motion to the meeting but this had been declined and asked whether any developments or statements on progress would be issued before 4 May 2017.

 

The Leader welcomed the comments of Councillor Temple.  The Council would enter purdah on 23 March which would limit what Councillors could say publicly.  The decision to decline Councillor Temple’s motion had been reached by the Head of Legal and Democratic Services with no input from Members.

 

Councillor Hopgood welcomed the extra Adult Social Care funding the Council would receive and asked the Leader to consider establishing a cross-party working group to examine how this may be spent.  The Leader replied that although Government guidelines on how the extra funding could be spent were awaited, the comments made would be considered.