At last night’s three-hour Full Council meeting, Labour councillor for Newport East, Geoff Lumley, took the opportunity, during Cabinet Members’ question time, to comment on the joint letter by Cabinet member Cllr Richard Priest and Conservative representative for education, Cllr Chris Whitehouse, that appeared in the Isle of Wight County Press last week.
The letter sets out how the pair share a determination to “deliver school improvement” on the Isle of Wight.
Cllr Lumley asked,
“Given the dreadful legacy of the last Conservative administration with regard to children’s services and with no aspersions cast on the new Conservative spokesman for children’s services, can you reassure me that this joint arrangement with the said person is not a little like putting Billy Bunter in charge of foodbanks.”
Cllr Priest, misunderstanding the suggestion made, replied that he’d never been compared to Billy Bunter before.
It’s all “positive”
He continued,
“I recognise that. What I think was important is that the comments [in the letter] reflect the comments I’ve shared over the last six months with colleagues around this chamber – there is a commitment now and I welcome the support across the chamber.
“I think Scrutiny under your leadership (Geoff) has recognised the need to make sure there is thorough scrutiny of this process, that’s really positive and I think that’s reflected in the development made. Working with Cllr Whitehouse and colleagues across the chamber we’ve made really strong positive progress.”
“Need to draw a line”
He went on to say,
“Some of the comments I’ve received over the last couple of months from schools and social workers is that there’s a frustration about the ongoing negative perception of these areas because of what happened a year or so ago.
“We need to draw a line and give support to our agencies, as Cllr Stubbings said, there is a huge amount of positive stuff going on within our teams on this Island. I went to three schools today with councillors within this room, really positive strengths there.
“Island grown, Island talent that are going to be part of that response.”
Visit from DfE
He went to talk about a meeting the day before with civil servants from the Department for Education.
“They spoke positively about the whole council commitment to doing the right thing for young people on this Island going forward. I shared the frustrations with what’s happened before, but we really do need to draw the line now, do the right thing going into the future.”
£2.5m overspend in Children’s Services
Cllr Priest went on to advise members of a £2.5m overspend this year due to the situation with children’s services having to be dragged out of a status of Inadequate.
Cllr Lumley not reassured
After hearing the long response from Cllr Priest, Cllr Lumley replied that he wasn’t convinced with what he’d heard.
“At length you’ve explained why you think you can work with him.
“I’m a pretty forgiving bloke, but so many children’s lives on the Island have been spoilt because of a mis-managed school reorganisation from the last administration and so many children’s lives have been dreadful on a personal level because of the mis-management of safeguarding of young people on the Island.
“I’m sorry Richard I’m not convinced.”
Image: © BBC
