Committees

A meeting of the Education, Culture and Sport Committee will take place in the Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness on Thursday 15 January 2009 at 10.30 am.

You are invited to attend the meeting and a note of the business to be considered is attached.

Yours faithfully

Michelle Morris
Assistant Chief Executive

Declarations of Interest – Members are asked to consider whether they have an interest to declare in relation to any item on the agenda for this meeting. Any Member making a declaration of interest should indicate whether it is a financial or non-financial interest and include some information on the nature of the interest. Advice may be sought from Officers prior to the meeting taking place.

Business

1. Apologies for Absence

2. Feis Rois Presentation

Rita Hunter, Director of Feis Rois is retiring after more than 20 years at the helm of Feis Rois. In this connection, the Committee is invited to mark her contribution.

3. Kingussie High School Presentation – Renewable Energy

Representatives of pupils from S2-S4 Kingussie High School will make a short presentation to Members regarding a recent petition that pupils signed regarding renewable energy.

4. Successes

Recent successes in the Education, Culture and Sport Service will be tabled at the meeting.

Representatives of Lyreco and the Chairman will also present prizes to the winners, runners-up and to teachers representing the schools which took part in the annual Lyreco Design Competition.

5. Revenue Budget 2008/09 – Monitoring

There is circulated Report No ECS-1-09 by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport which sets out the Revenue Budget monitoring position for the period 1 April 2008 to 30 November 2008.

The Committee is asked to:-

i. note the budget pressures outlined in the report; and
ii. agree the corrective actions identified.

6. Capital Expenditure 2008/09 – Monitoring

There is circulated Report No ECS-2-09 by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport on the Education, Culture and Sport Service for the period 1 April 2008 to 30 November 2008 and the projected year-end estimates based upon the current approved Education, Culture and Sport Capital Programme. The report also seeks approval for a number of developments related to the current approved Capital programme.

The Committee is asked to note the report and agree:-

i.   emergency repairs to Poolewe Swimming Pool;
ii. repairs to Queens Park Athletics Stadium and Track;
iii. the multi agency development of Lochaline Primary School;
iv. the appointment of consultants to identify the future needs for pre-
     school and primary education provision within the Greater Fort William area;
      and
v.   the Major Fabric Improvement Allocation discussion and reporting process.

7. Determining Primary School Capacities

There is circulated Report No ECS-3-09 by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport setting out a framework for determining Primary School capacities that could be used both internally and externally.

The Committee is invited to agree:-

i.   the determination of educational rooms/spaces that should be taken into
     account when deciding school capacity figures, as detailed in Annex 1,
     Section A, of the report;
ii. the planning capacity figure be used for the purposes of investment
     planning, statutory performance indicators and informing decisions relating
     to developer contributions;
iii. the working capacity figure be used to inform decisions relating to placing
     requests;
iv. that individual Head Teachers, in conjunction with Area Business Support
     Officers, be responsible for completing the template exemplified in Annex 2
      of the report; and
v.   that the resultant information be published on the Council’s website
      thereby making it available to all relevant stakeholders.

8. Fourth Employee Survey 2007

There is circulated Report No ECS-4-09 by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport providing Members with an update on the actions being taken by the Education, Culture and Sport Service in response to the findings of the fourth Employee Survey carried out during November and December 2007.

The Committee is invited to approve the proposals for developing Education, Culture and Sport Service specific improvements as outlined in the report.

9. Highland 2007 Evaluation

There is circulated Report No ECS-5-09 by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport presenting the findings of the independent evaluation of Highland 2007 undertaken by the Centre for Cultural Policy Research within Glasgow University. The report highlights some of the key successes and lessons learned from managing and delivering Scotland’s first themed year.

The Committee is invited to note the contents of the report.

10. Inverness Leisure Revenue Funding

As Members will be aware Inverness Leisure receives a management fee of £900,000 from the Council for the operation of the facilities which comprise Inverness Leisure. The second three year funding agreement with Inverness Leisure comes to an end on 31 March 2009. In this connection, there is circulated Report No ECS-6-09 by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport regarding a projected deficit at the end of financial year 2008/09 for Inverness Leisure which has arisen as a result of unforeseen rising costs, primarily in utilities, despite user numbers having improved significantly.

The Committee is invited to note:-

i.    the improvement in the performance of Inverness Leisure over the past six
     years;
ii.   the challenge posed by increased utility costs;
iii. the ongoing calculations regarding income interruption insurance and the
     Council’s management fee for 2008/09;

and agree:-

iv. to relax the previously agreed criteria of the Loch Ness and Highland
      Horizons balances so that they can be used to increase this year’s
      management fee in recognition of the increased user numbers, which
      would address the deficit at the end of 2008/09;
v.   that officers continue to carry out the preparatory work for a further
      three year agreement with Inverness Leisure, based on a refreshed
      business plan for the facility and which will include reviewing the
      management fee; and
vi. to waive the rental previously paid to Loch Ness and Highland Horizons for
      the pools part of the facility, as part of the revised new three year
      agreement.

11. Minutes of Meetings

There are circulated, for noting, the Minutes of the Education Transport Appeals Committee held on 11 November and 11 December 2008.