Agenda and minutes

Members of the public are welcome to attend our meetings to watch them in person at any of the venues across the County. Publicly accessible meetings held in County Hall will be webcast, which means they are available to be watched live or recorded on our website. Please see our webcasting notice here. The Committee may, in certain circumstances, resolve to hold part of the meeting in private. If this is the case, you will be required to leave the meeting.

Venue: CH1:13 - County Hall, Preston. View directions

Contact: Gary Halsall  Tel: (01772) 531466, Email:  gary.halsall@lancashire.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

Also in attendance:

 

Ms L Brewer, Solicitor, Legal and Democratic Services;

Mr G Halsall, Complaints and Appeals Officer, Legal and Democratic Services; and

Mrs I Winn, Complaints and Appeals Officer, Legal and Democratic Services.

 

1.

Disclosure of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

Minutes:

None were disclosed.

2.

Minutes of the meeting held on 3rd October 2016 pdf icon PDF 237 KB

Minutes:

Resolved: That; the Minutes of the meeting held on the 3rd October 2016 be confirmed as an accurate record and be signed by the Chair.

 

3.

Urgent Business

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency. Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member's intention to raise a matter under this heading.

Minutes:

It was noted that the paperwork for appeals 4070, 4096 and 4153 had only been finalised after the agenda had been circulated. As a result, the Chair had been consulted and had agreed that these appeals could be presented to the meeting under urgent business in order to avoid any delay in determining them.

 

Resolved: That, appeals 4070, 4096 and 4153 as circulated to the Members of the Committee, be considered alongside other appeals at the meeting.

 

4.

Date of the Next Meeting

The next scheduled meeting of the Committee will be held at 10.00am on Monday 12th December 2016 in Room B15b, 1st Floor), County Hall, Preston.

Minutes:

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held at 10.00am on Monday the 12th December 2016 in Room B15b, County Hall, Preston.

 

5.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The Committee is asked to consider whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, it considers that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972 as indicated against the heading of the item and that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Minutes:

Resolved: That the press and public be excluded from the meeting under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, during consideration of the following item of business as there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972, as indicated against the heading of the item.

 

6.

Student Support Appeals

(Not for Publication – Exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972.  It is considered that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interests in disclosing the information).

 

Please note that due to the confidential nature of the information included in this report it will not be published on the website.

 

Minutes:

(Note: Reason for exclusion – exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1 and 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972. It was considered that in all the circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information).

 

A report was presented in respect of 36 appeals against the decision of the County Council to refuse assistance with home to school transport. For each appeal the Committee was presented with a Schedule detailing the grounds for appeal with a response from Officers which had been shared with the relevant appellant.

 

In considering each appeal the Committee examined all of the information presented and also had regard to the relevant policies, including the Home to Mainstream School Transport Policy for 2016/17, and the Policy in relation to the transport of pupils with Special Educational Needs for 2013/14.

 

 

Appeal 4144

 

It was reported that a request for transport assistance had initially been refused as the pupil would not be attending their nearest suitable school, which was 2.5781 miles from their home address and was within the statutory walking distance, and instead would attend their 9th nearest school which was 4.8363 miles away. The pupil was therefore not entitled to free transport in accordance with the Council's policy or the law. The family were appealing to the Committee on the grounds that they had extenuating circumstances to warrant the Committee in exercising its discretion and award transport that was not in accordance with the Council's policy or the law.

 

In considering the mother's appeal the Committee noted that the pupil was attending the secondary school due to their previous primary school being one its main feeder schools. The mother advised that a diagnosis was awaited from the Council's SEND Team in relation to the pupil's difficulties and that the pupil had regular CAMHS appointments. In view of this the mother explained that preparations for the transition to secondary school had been taking place for a number of months with the school now attended presenting an opportunity for a smooth transition alongside many of their former classmates. The mother explained that when choosing schools for transfer she did not feel it was made clear that the distance from the family home to school was a factor in deciding if support would be offered. The mother was a single parent in receipt of universal credit and the pupil was entitled to free school meals. In addition the mother reported that she received no maintenance support from the pupil's father. The mother also confirmed that she was looking to start full time employment in the near future and was unable to fund the cost of school transport relying on the support of friends to ensure the pupil gets to school and back – a position that increased the pupil's difficulties. The mother was therefore appealing for a bus pass to be granted for the pupil in an attempt to minimise the difficulties.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.