Report on County Council Matters to North Nibley Parish Council

1^st July 2019

County Council Meeting 26^th June

Four motions were on the agenda. Unusually the time limit was sufficient for them all to be debated and equally unusually, with amendments, all four were approved unanimously. They were:

Every Child Matters (Labour)

This motion, recognising that every child in Gloucestershire deserves the best

education possible, and that some schools do not meet the required standard to deliver a high quality education, called upon the cabinet member to report back on the attainment and achievement of students living and educated in the county, providing an analysis by home district and county division. This would form the basis of the County Council’s response to the changing needs for schools across the county.

Terminally ill employees (Labour)

The Council to note that terminally ill employees are not always protected under

national disability legislation and can therefore be dismissed if they are no longer able to conduct their role with reasonable adjustments. This can mean that terminally ill people can be subjected to stressful assessments, subsequent dismissal and the loss of death in service benefits.

The Council resolved to:

- Review sick pay and sickness absence procedures, with specific reference to those with a terminal diagnosis.

- Make a commitment not to dismiss a member of staff with a terminal illness, other than by agreement, due to their condition.

- Ensure that the Council has a competent programme with the capacity to provide support to any person with a terminal diagnosis.

- Provide staff training on dealing with terminal illnesses

- Ensure that Human Resources have procedures in place to make necessary adaptations to work arrangements for staff with a terminal illness.

- Sign and adopt the TUC’s dying to work charter.

Gloucestershire Youth Council (Lib Dem)

There are nearly 40,000 young people, aged 11-18 in Gloucestershire, representing a significant proportion of the county’s population. It was agreed to work with Leadership Gloucestershire to establish a Youth Council to give young people a voice on the issues that affect them. The original motion wanted the Youth Council set up by 2021 with the intention of establishing it at the same time as the Gloucestershire County Council elections. A Conservative amendment removed the date, saying it should be done sooner, but not proposing a specific date.

SkillZONE (Lib Dem)

I seconded this motion. The SkillZONE centre is an interactive learning environment in Gloucester which, amongst a range of other life skills, teaches road safety to school children. In two previous years as a result of Lib Dem budget amendments free transport was provided to the SkillZONE for children mostly in Year 5 of their primary education. When this was removed, the number of pupils attending almost halved. The motion asked the Cabinet to explore opportunities to reinstate this from September.

John Cordwell

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