Scrutiny Week

This week is scrutiny week with the three main scrutiny committee's meeting this week to have an indepth look at some of the council's proposals which originate from the cabinet.

On many occasions the scrutiny process in my view is either little understood by some councillor's or abused as many questions asked are quite detailed and can only be given via a written answer and some councillor's like listening to the sound of their own voice.

My view is that councillors should ask the technical details before hand and if they are still not happy then ask follow up questions at scrutiny. This would improve and allow for a better scrutiny process as it is a very important function.

One of the scrutiny committee's I serve on is Children & Lifelong Learning. We met on Monday and had arguably the best scrutiny since I was first elected a councillor.

We had an excellent presentation from the Youth Offending Service and I have nothing but admiration for the work that they do in combating Youth Crime.

The most interesting part of the night was a report written by officers which produced the most up to date school organisational data.

Not very interesting you may think but hidden in the report was the startling fact that only 8 children from state primary schools in Shoeburyness went to a Grammar School last year, especially when more than half of the places in the town's Grammar Schools went to children outside the borough.

We have some exceptionally talented kids in Shoebury who should be competing with the best to obtain places in Grammar Schools.
It is clear that not enough preparation given to children who want to take the 11+ and this needs to be addressed immediately.

It was clear from the data that primary schools which pushed and promoted Grammar Schools had high numbers of children passing their 11+ and obtaining places.
I also think that some primary schools in Shoebury and Southend are politically motivated and do not believe in Grammar Schools, to the detriment, sadly, to some very gifted children.