NOTES OF SEN HR SUB GROUP 4th MEETING

1	Apologies were received from Matt Burghardt, Keith Fair and Diane Metcalfe.
2	Minutes of last meeting (01 October) were agreed.
3	Matters Arising
3.1	Mary Winter said she had been unable to access the minutes on the website. (Thanks to Jason, this was rectified after the meeting and everyone now had full access).
3.2	FSM confirmed that Phil Green had sent a letter to all the staff at Temple Bank on 14 October.
4	Feedback from SEN Steering Group 10 October
4.1	FSM had reported the group’s concerns regarding communication and this was being addressed by Phil Green writing to all special school staff (with the exception of Temple Bank and Thorn Park) this week. Separately, a bulletin would also be issued to special schools, generally on a half-termly basis outlining progress.	PG
4.2	FSM advised that the report on the consultation exercise would be submitted to the Education Policy Partnership meeting on 23 October, to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and 05 November and to the Council Executive on 18 November and that the report would be issued to the O/S Committee and Council Executive a week prior to each meeting.
4.3	FSM reported that the Steering Group had asked sub groups to notify members that special schools will be part of a large raft of capital expenditure in Bradford and it was hoped that the local community could gain maximum benefit from such projects.
5	Reports/issues from schools
5.1	It was noted that both teaching and non-teaching trades unions had visited some schools and staff had found this helpful.
5.2	Group members expressed concern regarding EB staff working in schools, but based in EB support services and enquired how they might be affected by the reorganisation.	FSM/SP
5.3	Group members enquired about training programmes, particularly for accredited courses for autism and PMLD, they were advised to refer this to Clive Halliwell at EB (tel, 385970) who was leading the training sub-group.	CH
6	Issues to take to SEN Steering Group 24 October
6.1	Support for staff appointed to Designate Headships additional to current H/T responsibilities. If transition managers were to be used it was felt this should be during the run up to implementation rather than post implementation as per the mainstream reorg experience.	PG
6.2	Would an officer be identified to work with closing schools to deal with admin, furniture issues etc.
7	Summary of talk by John Hesketh, (JH) Governor Support
7.1	JH explained that Temporary Governing Bodies (TGB’s) would comprise Governors from discontinuing schools in the four current categories (parents/staff/ LEA/community). There would be a Governors’ Panel established to make the appointments, which would take into account the most appropriate match to the new school. Legally, Governing Bodies could have between 9 and 20 members, in practice they tended to be between 10 and 12. Temporary governors could be appointed following formal publication of the proposals with their appointments process taking approximately six weeks. Thereafter Headships would need to be advertised (which could now be ringfenced to current special school H/T’s following legislative changes). Any declarations of interest (eg from staff Governors) would have to be submitted to the TGB and H/T Governors would be excluded until H/T appointments had been made. An Advisor from EB would be present to support the Governors during this process. Thereafter TGB’s and Designate H/T’s would need to agree a staffing structure, the recruitment/appointments procedure for that was currently under discussions with trades union representatives. The TGB would continue until the school opened but a permanent Governing Body had to be appointed during the first term of the new school’s operation. JH confirmed that the clerking of TGB’s would be a centrally funded cost. This outlined the earliest process, there was an alternative of having all staff in place ready for September 2006, however it was generally felt that earlier placement would be beneficial for everyone involved.
8	Date of next meeting
8.1	12 November, Conference Room, 1^st Floor, Jacobs Well.
8.2	Offers of meeting accommodation at Wedgewood and Bolling were gratefully received. Meetings were unlikely to be able to be accommodated in City Exchange or in Jacobs Well in future.
8.3	Accommodation was required for the meetings on 26 November and 10 December.	All