Minutes

Councillor Chris Evans asked:

The Leader of the council said at full council over a year ago that she would look at the appointments to outside bodies, particularly in split wards. Rogerstone for example  as 1 Con, 1  Labour and 1 Independent but it appears we're still appointing governors along party lines and a nod and a wink.. which surely isn't good for the schools and is bad basic management. I'm aware a governor was appointed to Mount Pleasant recently simply because he was a member of the labour party and that a governor at Rogerstone Primary as stepped down and the head as allegedly named  his successor -  this surely is wrong... and defies the very principal of a governing body holding the school leadership team to account, personally I'd rather no political appointments to school governors and would gladly step down to make room for a parent or carer, will the cabinet member follow the lead of other councils in simply recruiting the best people in a open, transparent and accountable process regardless of which political party they may or may not happen to be members of.

Will the cabinet member also adopt this process for all outside bodies?

Councillor Debbie Wilcox responded:

I have reviewed the current policy for nominations of governors and other outside bodies, and determined that the status quo should remain as the fairest and most transparent way of identifying nominees. 

The appointment of local authority representatives on governing bodies and other organisations is a matter reserved for full Council. 

In Newport, we operate a policy that any vacancies on school governing bodies are offered to local ward councillors first, whatever their political persuasion, up to a maximum of two governing bodies per councillor.  Further nominations are then based on names put forward by the Business Managers. 

All governors are suitably trained through the Education Achievement Service’s mandatory and additional voluntary development courses.  Attendance at meetings is also monitored to ensure local authority representatives are meeting their commitments.