South West Locality

Meeting Details

Braidburn School 107 Road north Date of Meeting: 5 February 2019 Location: EH14 1ED

Meeting Attendees Present

Name: Position Held:

Maria Plant Senior Education Manager

Alex Ramage Parent Representative

Gareth Oakley Primary School PC

Fred Bell High School PC

Kevin Kealy Nether Currie Primary School PC

Kirsten Johnstone Nether Currie Primary School Head Teacher

Marion Milne Balerno High School PC

Naomi Barton PC

Apologies Received

Andrea Brewster Balerno High School PC

Richard Imlach Oxgangs Primary School PC

Juniper Green Primary School PC

1

1.Introductions

Maria Plant (Chair) welcomed all to the meeting and introductions were made.

Maria confirmed the CCwP remains scheduled for 28 February 6-8pm in the City Chambers. 3 representatives from each locality are invited (2 from Special Schools) and Maria stressed the importance of attending.

2. Minutes of Previous Meeting

Delegates discussed Wi-Fi in schools noting that the trial had been slow to start in James Gillespie’s, the intention of the trial was to fully understand the “Equity” issue and how to solve it. Alex Ramage noted that James Gillespie’s do not provide devices.

Marie advised delegates that following further discussion regarding School Lets there will be no charge for Lets prior to 31 December 2018 and any hours used from the 32 allocated hours will be discounted. Charges will apply from 1 January 2019.

Alex Ramage noted that the School Lets generic e mail address is in the Lets Handbook.

Delegates agreed to work together with the Lets team to sort out any remaining glitches.

Naomi Barton noted that previous minutes (AOCB) stated she would attend the CCwP on 8 December 2018 - this was incorrect. Naomi was unable to attend.

2

3. Feedback from Parental Engagement Conference 30 November 2018

This conference was a joint venture hosted by Fife, Midlothian, East Lothian, Scottish Borders and Edinburgh Councils.

Parent Council Representatives had attended and whilst the attendees were in the main from the teaching profession all attendees were welcomed.

The conference hosted two “Keynote Speakers” – Morag Trainer and Janet Goodall. Maria noted that both, albeit from different angles had given excellent thought-provoking talks. Delegates agreed both speakers had complimented each other.

Gareth Oakley felt it had been a positive experience.

Following the given talks “Break-out Sessions” were held.

Delegates agreed they would like to see the conference repeated.

Details of the conference are available on the following link:

www.seicollab.org.uk

4. Information Paper - Localities

Information papers were tabled which explain the various aspects of involvement in Parent Councils including FAQs, terms of reference, a summary of Parental Engagement in Edinburgh and additional information pertaining to engagement Groups.

This paper had been prepared by Billy Samuel, Melissa Wilson and Alex Ramage as an explanation/over view for Parent Council Chairs or delegates.

Delegates agreed this would prove to be most useful.

Alex noted that some years ago a pack for Parent Councils/Chairs has been produced and delegates agreed this should be updated

Alex suggested registering on the PC Google group which is a very informative forum and advised that if anyone requires any assistance to contact him: [email protected].

3

Alex also advised representatives that the Scottish Government prepared a pack for Parent Council Chairs which included a constitution for Parent Councils. This is available on the Scottish Government website.

Delegates noted that Connect can also offer support.

Maria confirmed that Parent Council Chairs/Members do not require a PVG as this is not “Regulated Work”

5. AOCB

Maria discussed the Extra Special Budget Meeting held on 4 February at which Alistair Gaw had summarised the City of Edinburgh Council’s position which was to save 150 million over 3 years.

The budget will be set on 21 February 2019.

Following the talk from Alistair Gaw delegates took part in an exercise designed to tease out where priorities lie.

It was noted that following the Scottish Budget, Edinburgh has been granted a further 9 million pounds, however there had not been enough time to work on a strategy of how to share this.

Delegates briefly discussed other issues coming from the Scottish Budget including the Transient Visitor Levy (Tourist Tax) and workplace parking charges and the possible future positive impact on available funds.

Maria advised that Alistair is happy to continue these discussions at the next CCwP (28 February as previously stated). The agenda planning meeting will take place on 19 February at 4pm in Waverly Court

Both Maria and Alex re-iterated the importance of the full complement of Parent Council Representatives attend if possible.

Gareth Oakley, Kevin Kealy and Naomi Barton will attend.

Delegates discussed the data base held which contains details of Parent Council Chairs’ e mail addresses. Alex noted that there appears to be two sets of e mail addresses; one held by community Services to which Maria’s department does not have access. Delegates felt that Maria/Anne Mitchell should hold a central list but agreed this should be refreshed.

4

Kirsten noted that she had been unaware that this meeting was taking place until advised at a Head Teachers’ Cluster meeting.

Fred Bell raised the issue of teacher recruitment, Alex advised that under “Freedom of Information” he had established that from the request arriving at Disclosure Scotland the process took 3.5 days with a further 2.5 days if other agencies were involved. Maria advised delegates that HR was being reorganised and Business Managers in schools can now send directly to Disclosure Scotland. This will go some way to reducing the time taken in the recruitment process of teaching staff. Maria advised that the “pack” of information must be completed before a request can be sent to Disclosure Scotland noting that a wide variety of anomalies can cause delay including waiting for references.

Naomi Barton noted that due to absence several classes had to be taught by one teacher and also noted that a special needs child had on an occasion no 1-2-1 support however the parents had not been informed until during the day and were therefore unable to prepare their child.

Naomi voiced concern that when a crisis occurs there appears to be no flexibility.

Alistair Gaw had previously advised that these issues were the Head Teacher’s responsibility, but this was not a satisfactory answer to this type of problem.

Maria noted the difficulty in finding a supply teacher.

Maria advised that all schools are allocated appropriate funding for staff at the beginning of the school year however if the roll increases the funding remains the same. Maria noted that it is the Scottish Government that sets teacher numbers.

Further discussion centred round budgets for schools including sickness cover costs which, for a number of weeks, a temporary teacher’s cost comes from the school budget. If there is an overspend due to sickness the overspend must be clawed back. Maria noted that Head teachers are being encouraged to be solution focused.

Alex noted that this can be discussed further at the forthcoming CCwP.

Naomi raised the proposed staffing changes within nursery schools. Maria advised that no decision has yet been made.

There being no other business Maria closed the meeting and thanked delegates for their attendance.

5

Next Meeting Date Venue Time 30 April 2019 Wester Hailes 6.30 - 8.30pm Education Centre

6