Decision details

Councillor Tamoor Tariq presented the report on behalf of the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, presented the report regarding a change of approach for recruitment to the Educational Psychology Service, seeking approval to build on the successful partnership developed with Salford Council and extend this arrangement more formally to enable Salford to recruit additional staff to meet the needs of both Councils. In response to Members’ questions regarding shared services, it was noted that there were lots of opportunities, particularly in Children’s Services, for shared services and these would always be explored to see if better outcomes could be achieved.

Decision:

Cabinet:

1.    Approved the Council entering into a formal partnership arrangement with Salford City Council to recruit, employ and train Educational Psychologists to work across both local authority areas; and

2.    Approved the additional costs of establishing the formal partnership on the basis of shared costs across the two Councils, with those costs being met from the permanent Education Psychology service budget (EY58000), plus additional capacity from the partnership charged initially to Project Safety Valve (EG10021) and in future covered from the core Education Psychology budget through reduction of Agency spend.

Reasons for the decision:

To enable the Council to put in place appropriate arrangements to recruit suitably qualified educational psychologists in order to fulfil its duties in respect of statutory assessments for Education, health and care plans for those children with Special educational Needs.

Other options considered and rejected:

Bury could provide this service directly however these posts have been difficult to recruit to and has led to a reliance on the use of agency staff. This option has been rejected by officers.