Agenda item

Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item.

Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum.  The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda.  Public Forum items should be emailed to democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk and please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:-

Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by 5 pm on Tuesday 13 July 2021.

Petitions and Statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting.  For this meeting this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12 noon on Friday 16 July 2021.

Attending the Meeting – Members of the public who wish to attend the meeting are asked to register their intent to attend by giving at least two clear working days notice prior to the meeting, which for this meeting is 5pm, Wednesday 14 July 2021.   This is to help ensure appropriate social distancing measures in the Council Chamber

can be maintained.

The following Public Forum submissions were noted;

Questions

Statements

Jen Smith spoke to her statement. 

Jen Smith, 1^st supplementary question:  

My Freedom of Information request, which relates to my question, was refused. It feels to me that information relating to SEND is not transparent; what could be done to ensure that this is addressed?

The Director of Education & Skills responded;

In relation to the 2016 minutes, this was a different iteration of the Group, and some of the officers involved had subsequently left, and there was no record of minutes held centrally.  There were clear guidelines with regard to releasing information as a result of a Freedom of Information (FOI) Request, including the time it would take for officers to collect the information, and the personal or group sensitivity of the information; so if there were refusals of a FOI request it would likely be due to one of those criteria.

Jen Smith, 2^nd supplementary question:

I think Bristol’s SEND parents and carers do not feel particularly well involved in co-production and we need to be heavily involved in the alternative learning provision in Bristol. How is that going to happen, and could you expand on the reference to ‘established networks’ in the response to the original question 2?

The Director of Education & Skills responded;

A broad view from children, young people and families and partners was essential in terms of co-production of alternative learning provision (ALP) and the action plan to follow the ALP review. It is important that the Council captures and understands the lived experience of young people who now are adults, who had been through the Bristol system. The Action Plan linked to the report on this evening’s agenda is the first draft; co-production needs to happen, and there is wide range of existing parent groups across the city to work with and all other established networks. We need a broad spectrum of views to create a robust action plan.

The Chair asked the Director of Education and Skills to confirm whether all minutes of internal meetings were  stored in an accessible area if required, rather than on a personal hard drive.  It was confirmed that the IT system was now different to 2016, with the utilisation of ‘Sharepoint’ for storing data relating to meetings, which provided access by authorised colleagues.

Jen Smith spoke to her statement; she told the Commission that she had attended City Hall meetings since 2018 and felt, although she had seen some strategic change with long term improvements and hope around the Alternative Learning Provision report, things had been allowed to get out of control and there had been a lack of accountability and this needed to stop.

The Chair noted the submissions from Hayley and S Smith.

RESOLVED;

·     That the Public Forum be noted.