Agenda item

Notices of Motion

Meeting of Council, Monday, 24th July, 2017 2.30 pm (Item 13.)

Motion A :Proposed by: Councillor Clucas Seconded by: Councillor Whyborn

Cheltenham has many visitors arriving by coach to visit friends, festivals, family, study, shop or just to enjoy our beautiful town. We want those travelling to Cheltenham by coach to be safe.

In September 2012, a devastating coach crash caused three innocent people to lose their lives, with many more seriously injured, as they travelled back from a music festival. The crash was caused by 20-year-old, second-hand tyres. 18-year-old Michael Molloy, a talented musician, was one of the victims of this horrific crash and since his death, his mum, Frances, has campaigned to have the law changed so that no other families will endure the loss and suffering as hers have.

Many travellers would never imagine that tyres as old as 20-years could be legally used to transport children, families and the elderly on UK coaches every day. This incredibly dangerous practice must stop.

Council requests the Leader of the Council to raise the issue both with the LGA and with Cheltenham's MP. The law needs to change to ensure that all coach companies follow the best and use quality, age appropriate tyres when carrying members of the public.

Further, that Council's support is notified to the Tyred Campaign.

Motion B Proposed by: Councillor Clucas Seconded by: Councillor Jeffries

In view of the damning Ofsted report into GCC Children's Social Services, which highlights catastrophic failings, together with the Domestic Homicide Reviews, (DHR) and Serious Case Reviews (SCR) all of which concern Cheltenham families and children, it has been proposed that Cabinet Member group be set up.

The Cabinet Member working group will be serviced by the Head of Paid Service, and include the Leader of the Council, Safeguarding Champion, Cabinet Member Healthy Lifestyles, together with other members of the Council who may have a relevant interest.

It is envisaged that the initial scope of this executive led group will be to provide constructive scrutiny / oversight of the proposed LGA review and the GCC children’s services improvement plans, in the role of critical friend thereby providing healthy, positive challenge. Central to this would be open and transparent engagement from GCC.

Council resolves that the Leader of the Council write to the Leader of the County Council and to GCC Chief Executive to inform them of the Cabinet’s intention to set up the Cabinet Member working group and asking for an assurance that officers from GCC will be expected to cooperate and, to appear before the working group should that be required, also that reasonable requests for information will be responded to within appropriate time scales.

Motion C Proposed by: Councillor Willingham Seconded by: Councillor Clucas

This Council notes that the National Autistic Society have an on-going campaign called “Too Much Information”, which is aimed at raising public awareness of the issues suffered by people with autism and challenging the myths about autism.

This Council further notes that as part of this campaign, in the week of 2^nd October 2017, they are asking shops and businesses to organise and participate in the National Autistic Society “Autism Hour” and to take simple steps for 60 minutes that lead to a more autism-friendly world: http://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/tmi/autism-hour.aspx

This Council believes that we should be supporting Autism Hour in Cheltenham.

Therefore this Council resolves to:

a) Show our municipal support for this by signing up on the National Autistic Society website http://www.autism.org.uk/autismhour/ .

b) Support Autism Hour at 10am on 2^nd October 2017 in all publicly accessible municipal offices under our direct control or influence.

c) Actively encourage our partners and contracted service providers, with public spaces to also sign up for Autism Hour.

d) Through the Chamber of Commerce and the BID, seek to work with the business community in the town to encourage them to sign up and participate.

e) Publicise our support for this event, including details of others in the town that we know are participating.

f) Request the Cabinet Member Healthy Lifestyles to work with the relevant officers to take these actions forward.

Minutes:

Motion A – Tyred Campaign

The following motion was proposed by Councillor Clucas and seconded by Councillor Whyborn:

“Cheltenham has many visitors arriving by coach to visit friends, festivals, family, study, shop or just to enjoy our beautiful town. We want those travelling to Cheltenham by coach to be safe.

Further, that Council's support is notified to the Tyred Campaign”.

In proposing the motion Councillor Clucas provided more details of the crash referred to in the motion and advised that the coroner in this case had been so concerned that he had written to the Department of Transport urging them to change the law to require tyres to be no more than 10 years old. The DoT did not change the law but only amended the recommendations and gave no further reasons for not following the coroner's recommendations.

She was aware that events at the Racecourse brought in 6000 staff to work, transported by 50 coaches from across the country. The reputation of these coach companies and their attitude to safety would be unknown to people in Cheltenham. The Council does have an influence via the LGA and the local MP could be instrumental in passing suitable legislation. She assumed this would be secondary legislation as the primary legislation was already in place. She concluded that this one death had been avoidable and she urged colleagues to support the motion.

In seconding the motion Councillor Whyborn said he had no concerns about the local coach operators in Cheltenham but there were many companies that brought people into Cheltenham where they could not have the same degree of comfort about the safety of the vehicles. There was always the danger of a knee-jerk reaction to any health and safety incidents so he suggested seeking advice from a material scientist and he could provide a suitable contact. He was aware that central government had an aim to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy but in this case he was concerned about their lack of action to put suitable measures in place.

During the short debate that followed members were supportive of the recommendations. There was a suggestion that the same requirement should apply to all public transport including buses and taxis. The Cabinet Member Development and Safety advised members that taxis were regularly checked by enforcement officers within the Council. The vice-chair of Licensing Committee added that no taxi vehicle could be older than 14 years and any vehicle over 8 years would be subject to more regular checks. A review was currently underway of Licensing policy so any member would be welcome to contribute to the review.

The Mayor concluded the debate by saying this was an important campaign which would help keep the citizens of Cheltenham and its visitors safe.

Upon a vote the motion was carried unanimously

Motion B – Ofsted Report into GCC Children’s Social Services

The following motion was proposed by Councillor Clucas and seconded by Councillor Jeffries:

Before the debate, Councillor Harman informed the Mayor that he had taken some advice regarding his position as a Cabinet Member at GCC and on that basis he decided to withdraw from the meeting for this item.

Councillor Clucas was invited to propose the motion as set out in the agenda.

At this point a member raised a point of order regarding a potential amendment from Councillor Mason that was discussed with the proposer and seconder of the motion before the Council meeting and wished to confirm the motion now being debated. Councillor Mason had intended that this would replace the original motion however there had been some misunderstanding that the wording was in addition to the original motion.

The Mayor called for a short adjournment and urged Members to come back having agreed exactly what was being proposed.

Following the adjournment, Councillor Clucas advised that the motion was as per the published agenda. She advised that she had assisted the Cabinet Member, Councillor Jeffries on dealing with some safeguarding issues some time before the Ofsted report had been published. The Ofsted report had been very clear in its conclusions and recommendations and she and the Cabinet Member had met with the new director of Children's Services at GCC last week. The Director had outlined the measures they were taking and had given her assurance that both officers and the GCC Cabinet Member would be happy to work with the working group suggested in this motion. She stressed that the motion was not political and the strong wording used was there to emphasise the seriousness of the situation and the lack of oversight within the GCC. Over the last two years concerns had been raised with GCC regarding child safeguarding and the council must now do what ever they can to ensure no other children are adversely affected. She proposed that the working group was chaired by the Leader of the Council with this Council’s Chief Executive being the Lead Officer. She urged colleagues to support the motion to ensure that children were given the best possible start in life.

In the debate that followed all members that spoke supported the motion.

A member said that the Ofsted report had been shocking and as a result it was reasonable to bring a motion forward with some just criticism. The services had been inadequate and there had been a failure in service leadership and a denial at GCC Cabinet level that there were any problems. Indeed county council members had been assured on several occasions that everything was OK with regard to safeguarding issues raised in previous Ofsted reports. He was impressed by the keen interest taken by key officers and Members in this council and was delighted to see the suggestion for a working group which could bring about improvements. It was very important that this group gained an understanding of the history and members should be aware that children in Gloucestershire were still facing some risks. The group should require former officers to give evidence and the former Cabinet Member who was no longer a member of the county council. The group should also consider reopening complaints from families regarding previous decisions affecting children in this borough. This should not be considered duplication of the independent LGA review that had been commissioned by GCC and this council had a mandate to set up the working group proposed in the motion.

A member was concerned about the blocking of information from front-line staff at GCC who wished to complain about their manager and references to bullying in the report and suggested that the annual anonymous staff surveys and exit interviews suggested at the GCC Council meeting could also be adopted at CBC. The Head of Paid Service agreed to confirm current practice regarding exit interviews and review circulation of staff survey results to Members.

A Member highlighted that there were only two other authorities in the country who had received two consecutively bad Ofsted reports and nobody wanted a third for Gloucestershire.

Other stressed the importance of effective overview and scrutiny to challenge the decisions that were made and to ask difficult questions. This was not political and GCC should welcome this council’s assistance. Other Members supported this view and important issues like safeguarding were incumbent on all councillors working together and partisanship was to be avoided.

Other Members highlighted other areas of concern. Some pupil exclusion rates in Cheltenham were far too high and this could result from poor management at Shire Hall. Children's Services were not encouraged to prosper and there was evidence of a lack of continuity in social workers allocated to particular cases and a high level of staff vacancies and poor management. It should be considered a failure of the service if it relied on whistleblowers to highlight issues to senior management and Members. The Chief Executive of GCC had advised staff that the people at the top had been moved on but it was essential to understand what had gone wrong and why.

A member who was also a county council member said he was deeply embarrassing and guilty on his failure to deliver on his duty to children as a corporate parent and he was asking himself whether he could have done more to scrutinise and was he too lax in believing what he had been told. All Members of this council had a similar duty of care and a need to uncover what had gone wrong in this case and help GCC to put it right.

Another member suggested that there was an issue of trust going forward as although children's services were not technically a responsibility of this council, all members had a moral obligation to investigate the issue on behalf of the people they represent.

Another Member suggested that counselling could be offered to social workers when dealing with cases that were potentially distressing. The prospects for children once in the criminal justice system were severely diminished and therefore it was appropriate that funding was better spent up front to avoid this happening.

In seconding the motion, Councillor Jeffries gave his apologies to Councillor Mason for any miscommunications regarding his suggested amendment. As Cabinet Member he had been championing safeguarding issues over the last four years and he agreed that this council should be doing everything it can to support GCC in improving the current situation, in fact this council had a long tradition of working in partnership. The forum suggested would be Cabinet led but cross party and would be a critical friend rather than lambasting or criticising for it its own sake. He included that all children need support so he encouraged all members to support the sentiment behind the motion.

Councillor Clucas urged all members to vote for the motion and learn from the past and focus on putting into practice improvements for now and in the future.

Upon a vote the motion was carried unanimously.

Motion C – National Autistic Society “Autism hour”

“This Council notes that the National Autistic Society have an on-going campaign called “Too Much Information”, which is aimed at raising public awareness of the issues suffered by people with autism and challenging the myths about autism.

This Council believes that we should be supporting Autism Hour in Cheltenham.

Therefore this Council resolves to:

a) Show our municipal support for this by signing up on the National Autistic Society website http://www.autism.org.uk/autismhour/ .

b) Support Autism Hour at 10am on 2^nd October 2017 in all publicly accessible municipal offices under our direct control or influence.

c) Actively encourage our partners and contracted service providers, with public spaces to also sign up for Autism Hour.

d) Through the Chamber of Commerce and the BID, seek to work with the business community in the town to encourage them to sign up and participate.

e) Publicise our support for this event, including details of others in the town that we know are participating.

f) Request the Cabinet Member Healthy Lifestyles to work with the relevant officers to take these actions forward.”

In proposing the motion Councillor Willingham informed Members that although he was a member of the National Autistic Society he would not receive any personal benefit if this motion was carried. There were simple ways in which those with autism could benefit and he gave examples of turning down music in shops and turning down lights.

In seconding the motion, Councillor Clucas gave an example where an ASDA supermarket had taken steps to make a 7 year old boy with autism more comfortable in going into the shop with his parents by implementing some simple measures.

Members spoke in favour of the motion and the Mayor concluded by offering her support in helping to promote this important issue.

Upon a vote the motion was carried unanimously.