Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Sanders and Leonie McCarthy

At this point Members must declare whether they have a disclosable pecuniary interest, or other interest, in any of the items on the agenda, unless it is already entered in the register of members’ interests or is a “pending notification “ that has been disclosed to the Solicitor to the Council.

Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

There were no declarations of interest

The minutes of the Scrutiny Commission for Rural Communities meetings held on 17 September 2012 and 19 November 2012 were approved as true and accurate records

This report was requested by the committee and covered the following key points:

• School Places
• Education Attainment
• Capital Improvements in Rural Schools
• Transport Policy and Rural Schools

The report highlighted the nine maintained primary schools and one secondary school within rural areas which were:

• Barnack Primary (Voluntary Controlled)
• Castor Primary (Voluntary Aided)
• Eye Primary (Voluntary Controlled)
• John Clare Primary School (Community)
• Newborough Primary (Voluntary Controlled)
• Northborough Controlled (Community)
• Peakirk cum Glinton Primary (Voluntary Aided)
• The Duke of Bedford Primary (Community)
• Wittering Primary (Community)
• Arthur Mellows Village College (Academy)

The Commission was requested to review the information presented and request any further explanation or information required to understand the delivery of education in the rural communities in Peterborough.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

• Members requested clarification on the abbreviations on page 15, Appendix 1. The Assistant Director of Education and Resources informed the Commission that:

v      FSM = Free School Meals

v      EAL = English as Additional Language

v      MENA = Minority Ethnic New Arrivals

v      SEN = Special Education Needs

• Members queried why Eye Primary School had received an Ofsted report requiring improvement if it was being monitored regularly. Members were advised that the Department for Education and Ofsted worked on the basis of published data therefore the report was based upon data from 2010/11.  Members were informed that there was a programme in place called Monitoring Support Partnership where a team of experts in school improvement visited the school on a half termly basis to monitor their performance.
• Members queried what measures were going to be put in place around the growth of Eye with regard to the primary school. The Commission was informed that the growth of Eye was concerning although the only year group that was over subscribed was year 1 and there were currently spaces in all of the other year groups. Further capacity would be introduced if required. 
•  Members queried whether the schools would have enough teachers to support the amount of pupils registering. Members were informed that the Council was working with schools to provide enough staff to support the pupils.
• Members queried whether there was much difference in performance between rural and city schools. Members were informed that the top three performing primary schools in Peterborough were all urban schools. The success of the school depended on what interventions were taking place. On average rural schools were outperforming city schools but they had different types of challenge.
• Members commented that some schools would push to get pupils to register for free school meals. Members were informed that at one stage the city was below the national average for free school meals.. The Council had also pushed to get pupils to register for free school meals and now Peterborough was above the national average.
• Members queried whether the Council supervised the Government Pupil Premiums to identify how schools had spent the money. The Commission was advised that the Government Pupil Premiums were supervised by Ofsted and the Council, schools also had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The purpose of this report was to provide the Commission with an update on Superfast Broadband within rural areas following the last report to the Commission in July 2012.

The two main aims of the project were:

1. The Demand Registration Piece
2. The procurement of Broadband and of the supplier

Since July 2012 there had been a number of campaigns that had taken place in Peterborough to increase the Demand Registration take up across the area, these included:

• E-mails sent to all Citizen Panel members (850+) and contacts at the hospital, Fire and Police Authorities, Peterborough City College, Serco, Vivacity, Enterprise Peterborough, Peterborough Environment City Trust and Perkins to add to their internet sites for their staff to view.
• Numerous press releases in the Peterborough Telegraph
• 12,100 leaflets sent to residents in white areas
• A3 posters distributed to Supermarkets, Doctors surgeries, libraries and community centres
• Adverts placed on Facebook and Twitter
• Full page articles in The Viewer, The Hampton Viewer and the Hampton Gazette
• Links added to the Council’s website to Connecting Cambridgeshire
• Links on the Council’s internal website
• Serpentine Green and East of England Showground display stands
• Mobile text messages to over 1000 Council handsets promoting the campaign
• Display stands at Business Focus group and the Parish Conference
• Display stands at the Council’s Chief Executive staff briefings
• Display stands at the Greater Peterborough Partnership Annual Forum
• Broadband Champions meeting with Fengate representatives
• Leaflet distribution to all premises within Fengate
• Posters and leaflets delivered to all primary and secondary schools in the ‘white areas’
• Resource pack containing vital information handed to all Parish Councils within the ‘white areas’ at the Parish Conference  

The final figure for Demand Registration across Peterborough and Cambridgeshire was 23,676 of which 3158 (13.34%) of the registrations were from Peterborough. The Demand Registration Campaign ran through to 31 December 2012.  The procurement process and evaluation was still underway and the preferred supplier of the Broadband would be appointed early in the New Year.

The Commission were requested to endorse the work undertaken as part of the Connecting Cambridgeshire to Superfast Broadband.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

• Members commented that the House of Lords Communications Committee had carried out an enquiry into superfast broadband. Whilst they were supportive of the Government’s initiative in trying to extend broadband they also stated that Government Policy had become too preoccupied with the delivery of high speed broadband and not that broadband was as widespread as possible. Members asked if the Council were happy that the Superfast Broadband Project addressed these concerns. The ICT and Transactional Services Partnership Manager advised the Commission that the he was confident that all concerns had been covered within the project.
• Members queried a press release that they had recently seen which reported that Cambridge had received a Government Grant for superfast broadband and asked how that affected the overall number on the Demand Register, had that been taken in to account with the current tenders and was the rural area still being prioritised.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

This report was presented at the request of the Commission to provide further detailed information relating to the current commissioned Primary Care Services in the rural area of Peterborough.

The following key points were highlighted:

·         The main GP Practices in the rural areas of Peterborough were Ailsworth and Thorney Medical Practices.

·         Ailsworth Medical Practice’s total patient list size as at 1 October 2012 was 2338.  Thorney Medical Practice’s total patient list size as of 1 October 2012 was 7531.

·         A branch of Ailsworth Medical Practice was at Newborough which currently had a patient list size of 650.

·         Castor was a small branch of Park Medical Centre which provided minimal services in Castor.

·         Eye Surgery was a branch of the Thorney Medical Practice.

·         Patients were able to access services at the main practices when the branches were closed.

·         In the event that practices wished to close they would be required to inform the Primary Care Trust of their intention and consideration would be given to the impact of the closure.

·         The rural practices currently had lists open to new registrations and there was no indication that this position would change.

·         There were community pharmacies located in Thorney, Eye and Newborough.

·         Many pharmacies provided home delivery services for patients.

·         NHS Peterborough commissioned Primary Dental Services using NHS regulations and contracts.

·         There was one dental practice located in Eye Village from which NHS Peterborough commissions dental services.

·         Patients who did not attend a dental practice and were seeking care were advised to contact PALS who held the most up to date information regarding the practices which currently had capacity.

·         There were no longer registered lists of patients attached to dental practices and it was possible for patients to access dental practices closer to where they lived.

·         In the case of patients living in rural areas they could choose to seek dental services from practices located in Whittlesey, Ely, March, Huntingdon and the Isle of Ely.

·         NHS Peterborough commissioned other dental services from Cambridgeshire Community services which included:

v      Community Dental Services for patients with special needs

v      Domiciliary Dental Services which were accessible to Peterborough patients meeting specific clinical criteria

v       Dental Access Centre in Midgate Peterborough

v      For those patients resident outside of Peterborough City, Cambridgeshire Dental Access Centres operated at three locations in Cambridge, Huntingdon and Wisbech

·         Private dentistry was not commissioned by NHS Peterborough and therefore they were, unable to provide information on the location of any Dental Practice that solely provided private dental services.

·         There were no Opticians located in Peterborough Villages although there were a number of Opticians who provided  domiciliary services.

·         For patients with access to IT, NHS Choices provided comprehensive information relating to GP’s and Dentists, which included location, opening hours and services offered.

·         There were no planned changes to the services located in the Peterborough rural areas.

·         Responsibility for commissioning Primary Care services transferred to the National Commissioning Board on 1 April 2013.

Observations and questions were raised and discussed including:

·         Members queried what action  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Committee received the latest version of the Council’s Notice of Intention to Take Key Decisions, containing key decisions that the Leader of the Council anticipated the Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members would make during the course of the following four months.  Members were invited to comment on the Plan and, where appropriate, identify any relevant areas for inclusion in the Committee’s work programme.

ACTION AGREED

The Committee noted the Notice of Intention to Take Key Decisions and agreed that there were no items for further consideration.

Members considered the Commission’s Work Programme for 2012/13 and discussed possible items for inclusion. Members requested that the Public Transport in Rural Areas item due to be presented at the meeting in March include the following three aspects of public transport:

1.      The commercial bus service

2.      The  bus service provided by the Council

3.      Call Connect

ACTION AGREED

To confirm the work programme for 2012/13 and the Governance Officer to include any additional items as requested during the meeting.

26 March 2013

Tuesday 26 March 2013