Archived decisions

Contact: Mr J Cawthra, Education Officer (EOTAS) 01962 876537

Mr T Rath, Education Officer 01962 876457

1 Summary

1.1 The report informs members of the Policy Review Committee (PRC) that in order to ensure that issues about services provided to children, raised in the Green Paper "Every Child Matters" are fully considered as part of the Best Value (BV) Review, the team's option report will be delayed until March 2004.

2 Background

2.1 In mid-September the Government published the Green Paper "Every Child Matters" inviting comments by 1 December 2003 on a wide range of proposals to improve the coherence and quality of services offered to all children, including those most at risk.

3 EOTAS Best Value Review

3.1 At their meeting on 14 September 2003 the team reviewing the EOTAS services had the opportunity of a brief introduction to the proposals in the Green Paper. The team decided they needed to undertake further work to look at their emerging findings against the Green Paper proposals. It was recognised that this would cause the team's report to be delayed, but on balance the team judged that it would be much more useful to produce a report which took on board proposals in the Green Paper in looking at the future organisation and delivery of EOTAS services, rather than produce a report whose conclusions and recommendations could be soon overtaken by events.

3.2 The team undertaking the best value review of children's services is also proposing to delay their report until the implications of the Green Paper proposals have been considered.

4 Revised Timescale

4.1 The EOTAS Best Value Review Team has been working to produce its options report for the December Policy Review Committee meeting followed by the full report in January 2004. In order to provide sufficient time to consider the Green Paper the team is proposing to delay producing the options report to March 2004 with the final report for the next Policy Review Committee.

5 Recommendations

5.1 It is recommended that the options report for the Best Value review of EOTAS services be delayed until the March 2004 meeting of the Policy Review Committee.

Section D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extend in the preparation of this report.

NB The list excludes:

1 Published works

2 Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined the Act.