Issue - meetings

Notices of Motion

Meeting: 19/07/2022 - County Council (Item 7)

Notices of Motion

To consider the following motions submitted by members in accordance with Standing Order 5:

 

(1)      Conservative Motion

 

           In line with Government’s White Paper on Levelling Up, this Council is committed to levelling-up and ensuring that everyone in Warwickshire gets the best start in life, no matter what their background or where they live. The Council’s approach to Levelling Up approved by Cabinet this month includes a priority around educational attainment reflecting the recent State of Warwickshire report, approved by this Council in February of this year, which highlighted the inequality within attainment in education in the county.

 

In order to further explore the reasons for this, and to establish how we as a Council can help effect positive change and reduce the present inequalities in relation to educational attainment, this Council will establish a time limited cross party Member Group.  The Group should comprise members from all five areas of the county and should report back to Cabinet on its progress by end February 2023.

 

           Proposer: Councillor Brett Beetham

 

           Seconder: Councillor Yousef Dahmash

 

(2)      Labour Motion

 

           Council notes that Joint Strategic Needs Area Assessments were carried out in 2019.  The information within those assessments was provided to the Place Based Partnerships, which provide activity updates to the Warwickshire Health and Wellbeing Board, including on prioritised activities to improve health and wellbeing and reduce inequalities.

 

The Council requests an update from the Warwickshire Health and Wellbeing Board on Place Based Partnership priorities and progress on reducing inequalities.

 

           Proposer: Councillor John Holland

 

           Seconder: Councillor Sarah Feeney

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

(1)      Educational Attainment

 

The following motion as set out on the agenda was proposed by Councillor Brett Beetham:

 

In line with Government’s White Paper on Levelling Up, this Council is committed to levelling-up and ensuring that everyone in Warwickshire gets the best start in life, no matter what their background or where they live. The Council’s approach to Levelling Up approved by Cabinet this month includes a priority around educational attainment reflecting the recent State of Warwickshire report, approved by this Council in February of this year, which highlighted the inequality within attainment in education in the county.

 

In order to further explore the reasons for this, and to establish how we as a Council can help effect positive change and reduce the present inequalities in relation to educational attainment, this Council will establish a time limited cross party Member Group.  The Group should comprise members from all five areas of the county and should report back to Cabinet on its progress by end February 2023.

 

In proposing the motion, Councillor Beetham illustrated the notion that children and young people in Nuneaton and Bedworth, and in North Warwickshire, were academically disadvantaged with statistics that established that over 40% of children in these areas were not meeting the required basic standards for reading, writing and maths and that these were the only areas in Warwickshire which were consistently below the national average for English.  He noted that whilst not everyone was academically minded, and whilst there were high levels of trade apprenticeships in Nuneaton and Bedworth, there were also high levels of people without qualifications despite vocational qualifications being increasingly important within trades.  He pointed to the differences in disposable income between people living in Nuneaton and Bedworth and those living in Warwick to demonstrate the result of educational inequality.  He noted that residents were not lacking in drive or ambition and urged Council to support the motion and agree to set up a working group to investigate the reasons for the disparity and what could be done to level up education in the county.

 

Councillor Yousef Dahmash seconded the motion expressing the view that education was a driver of opportunity and as the Council held influence over the bodies involved in education, it had a responsibility to set the right tone.  Whilst the Council was working to improve educational opportunities, the proposed Member Group could explore what more could be done.  As Chair of the Children & Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee, he considered that challenging school performance had been problematic as only limited success had been achieved in bringing together key stakeholders for discussions.  He considered that there was more that could be done to address longstanding disparities and welcomed the proposals to involve all areas of the County in this work.

 

Debate

 

Councillor Isobel Seccombe expressed her support for the motion, which was timely as it dovetailed with the levelling up paper which had recently been considered by Cabinet.  Education was a key aspect of the levelling up  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7