Issue - meetings

Item ED14038

(The RE Adviser had an interest in this item in respect of the retendering of her current post. SACRE members were in agreement with her remaining in the meeting during the relevant discussion to answer queries which were raised.)

SACRE Members considered a revised draft development plan for April 2014 - March 2015. This had been produced following a meeting of the SACRE Working Party which had been set up following the last SACRE meeting. The plan had been drawn up with due consideration to the statutory duties of SACRE, and had taken into account the reduction in the budget allocated to SACRE for the coming financial year. This would necessitate the number of RE Consultant days being reduced from 35 to 20 per year.

Nina Newell, The Head of Schools and Early Years Commissioning and Quality Assurance, introduced herself and her role as lead officer for SACRE. She had been in post since June 2013 and pointed out that prior to this time the Assistant Director for Education had looked at all contracts and some decisions had already been made.  Mrs Newell commented that the Council had to look very closely at what they had to deliver across all services and all commissioned services were being reviewed. As a public sector organisation the Council had to be transparent, and in order to fulfil the requirement of value for money, the post of RE Consultant would be recommissioned. In the past there had been competitive tendering but a new Dynamic Purchasing System was now being used. The current RE Adviser was aware of this and had completed the first stage of the process. Mrs Newell advised that they were not yet at the stage of the service specification, which would detail the skills and abilities required for the post.

Mrs Newell advised that the maximum budget available for SACRE for the next financial year was £7,000 which would mainly cover the cost of the RE Adviser.

Rachel Archer asked if the Authority would make a decision based on the cheapest bid and Mrs Newell confirmed that they would. She stressed however that there were a lot of quality checks at the outset and several stages to ensure that the service specification was met. In response to a query, the RE Adviser stressed the necessity  of employing someone with an RE background and cited the case of one local authority which had chosen the cheapest quote with adverse consequences, as the person appointed had no RE background or relevant experience. Mrs Newell said that she would ensure the specification would be robust enough to ensure that quality was maintained.

Rev Bristow asked about the timescale for the new process of appointing the RE Adviser. Mrs Newell explained that this could take place very quickly and she was confident that someone would be in post by the beginning of April 2014.

Mr Mahmood asked about the administrative cost of this exercise and if it was going to be carried  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16