Conservatives Refuse to Face Criticism

5.15.00pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 10th Sep 2008

The Tories were so afraid of a Lib Dem motion on education for 14-19 year olds that when it came to Council in June they talked so much that the meeting ran out of time before the motion was taken. "There was a deliberate attempt to extend earlier business quite unnecessarily," said Jean Fooks, Liberal Democrat Shadow Cabinet member for Children & Young People, who tabled the motion. "A named vote was requested on a totally non-controversial motion, thus wasting a lot of time, and so my potentially embarrassing motion was postponed."

At yesterday's Council meeting the motion was on the agenda again, and this time the Conservatives protested that the motion was now out of date, as all necessary action asked for in it was being already being done. They ended up voting against it.

The motion raised the inspection of Children's Services by Ofsted in 2007. The inspection showed that, although some aspects of service were judged adequate, good or even outstanding, the progress with providing the new 14-19 education strategy was 'inadequate'. This led to external intervention to ensure that the Council improved in this area.

The motion asked the Cabinet to publish its Action Plan to remedy this situation and to report progress to Scrutiny (originally July) and Full Council in September.

By yesterday's Council meeting - six months' later - Scrutiny had still not yet seen or discussed the Ofsted report or the Action Plan. Jean said, "There are still failures in the county's 14-19 provision. There is insufficient work-based learning, too many young people in employment without training, no countywide transport plan to enable young people, especially those with disabilities, to access education or leisure activities. It is vital that the Action Plan to deal with this is published and properly discussed."

The judgment on the 14-19 provision contributed to the county's losing a star for its services - which the Tories were loath to admit. "It is not right just to blame the schools for poor GCSE results," said Jean. "The Council should be providing more support to the teachers and to the vulnerable children, so that every pupil is able to reach their potential, in whatever area of study is appropriate."