Select committee meets to review Early Help decision
On Friday 2 February at 10:30 am, Buckinghamshire County Council’s Children’s Social Care and Learning Select Committee will hold a special meeting to examine the recent Council Cabinet decision to change the service provided to support families with difficulties and the provision of Children’s Centres. The meeting was scheduled after four backbench County Councillors triggered the ‘call-in’ procedure for challenging council decisions.
The public are welcome to attend the meeting in person to observe, or to watch the live webcast.
Link to agenda for the select committee meeting of 2 February:
https://democracy.buckscc.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=788&MId=9924&Ver=4
Link to webcast page:
https://buckscc.public-i.tv/core/portal/home
The Cabinet decision on Early Help was made in a meeting on the 8 January.Link to details and webcast for the cabinet meeting:
https://democracy.buckscc.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=124&MId=9518
The decision of the Cabinet was subsequently called in by four backbench County councillors: Julia Wassell, Chaudhary Ditta, Martin Farrow and Niknam Hussain.
The call-in procedure, established by the Local Government Act 2000, is part of the Council’s democratic scrutiny process, enabling non-executive councillors to challenge any decision made by or on behalf of the council’s executive and have it examined by the relevant council select committee. Because the decision being called in relates to children’s services, it is to be reviewed by the Children’s Social Care and Learning Select Committee, which has convened the meeting on 2 February specifically for this purpose.
At the meeting, the Select Committee will have the option of either rejecting the call-in request, or referring the Early Help decision back to Cabinet for further consideration.