EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE'S MINUTES.

Glasgow, 17th April 2009.

Executive Committee.

Present: Steven Purcell (Chair), James Coleman, Aileen Colleran, Stephen Curran, Alex Dingwall, Frank Docherty, James Dornan, Jonathan Findlay, Archie Graham, Allison Hunter, Matthew Kerr, Elaine McDougall, Jean McFadden, Hanzala Malik, Dr Christopher Mason, , Irfan Rabbani, George Redmond, David Ritchie, George Ryan, Alison Thewliss and Martha Wardrop.

Also present: Danny Alderslowe, Ruth Black, Philip Braat and Euan McLeod.

Apologies: Kenneth Elder, Graeme Hendry, Billy McAllister, Tom McKeown and James McNally.

Attending: N Lyttle (Clerk); G Black, Chief Executive; M Doran, Executive Director of Children and Families; S Inch, Executive Director of Development and Regeneration Services; R Booth, Executive Director of Land and Environmental Services; D Crawford, Executive Director of Social Care Services; and M Johnston, Assistant Director of Financial Services.

Review of Nursery Admissions and Charging Policy in Early Years Establishments approved – Instruction to Executive Director of Children and Families.

1 With reference to the minutes of 12th September 2008 (Print 4, page 410) approving the Vision and Strategy for Early Childhood Services and Extended Services for 2008-13 and noting that a pilot project would be underpinned by a revised admission and pricing policy, with the conclusion of the pilot being reported to this committee, Councillor Findlay, Executive Member for Education, presented a report regarding a review of the nursery admissions and charging policy in early years establishments, advising

(1) of a proposed revised policy to support the assessment of priority for nursery admissions and the allocation of extended hours’ provision;

(2) of the key features of the proposed revised policy;

(3) that the proposed nursery and charging policy had been piloted in a number of early years’ services as part of an employability initiative supported by Community Planning and funded through Fairer , and the initial outcomes had been generally positive; and

(4) the pilot project had brought to light some administrative issues particularly around the importance of clerical support within nurseries, the administration of adjustments to payments and the calculation of any arrears payments and

Glasgow City Council, City Chambers, Glasgow G2 1DU a Service Reform Project Group was working on the detail of streamlining the systems and processes for the collection of income and revised systems to be put in place for the start of term in August.

After consideration, the committee

(a) approved

(i) the revised nursery admissions and charging policy as detailed in the report, subject to the amendment agreed at the meeting in relation to the paragraph entitled “No Response to Placement Offer”; and

(ii) the re-investment of income generated by the revised charging policy into early years’ services with a view to supporting the long term sustainability of the additional childcare placements created by the pilot and further developments in line with the Early Childhood and Extended Services Strategy;

(b) noted the initial outcomes of the trial of the policy with the employability pilot; and

(c) instructed the Executive Director of Children and Families to report back on the intended outcomes of the policy and how the achievements would be assessed.

Glasgow City Council, City Chambers, Glasgow G2 1DU