Archive for June, 2009
Harrogate secondary school admissions
Today I have seen a letter from Cynthia Welbourn, Director of North Yorkshire’s Children and Young People’s Service, confirming that the Council’s intention is to consult on changes to its admission arrangements for the September 2011 entry.
This is based on the contention that, having received the revised decision on the 2009 complaint on 3 June and with the decision on the 2010 complaint expected in July, there is insufficient time to consult and introduce new criteria in time for the 2010 entry.
So Harrogate children will remain firmly at the end of the queue until at least 2011.
North Yorkshire’s prevarication and quibbling has been deeply disappointing and I am saddened to learn that they are taking this approach. Had they listened to the view of Harrogate parents from the start instead of constantly putting up barriers to change, we would be much further down the road.
We look to the new executive member to bring about the change that Harrogate parents and their representatives have been demanding for many years.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )School admissions update
There’s good news today from the County Council meeting where a Harrogate councillor, Jim Clark, has been appointed as Executive member for education. This – I trust – signals that the Council has now accepted that Harrogate secondary school admissions need overhaul. Cllr Clark told the County Council that he had publicly called for consultation nine months ago and still believes that consultation is required.
Time is short because the Adjudicator has indicated that the new arrangements should be in place for the 2010 entry:
28. In determining the admission arrangements for Harrogate’s community schools for 2010 I note that the LA will need to have complied with the requirements of the Code and will need to have consulted with parents and others on those arrangements.
Cllr Clark will have to move fast because too much time has been wasted already. I and my Liberal Democrat colleagues look forward to helping him achieve a more equitable outcome for parents and children from Harrogate.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Infertility treatment – North Yorkshire
On Saturday, over a quick lunch in M&S, Phil and I chatted about our children and the joy that they bring to us.
It was therefore very poignant to receive a letter this morning from a local woman who cannot have the fertility treatment that she and her husband desperately want because of the financial restrictions applied by the North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust. I have been very concerned for a long time that our local PCT has adopted what appears to me to be an unnecessarily heartless approach to the problem of infertility. The North Yorkshire and York PCT funds one cycle of IVF treatment only, for patients between the age of 39 years and six months and 40.
In other words, they will allow one chance when it is virtually too late.
Not only is this not in line with NICE and government guidelines which recommend NHS funding for up to three cycles of treatment for women between 23 and 39, but the cynicism that lies behind the age limits they have set strikes me as astonishingly callous for a public service. If they are not going to fund IVF and other fertility treatments, then they should come out and say it. Adopting a policy that ticks the box of one cycle of treatment, but restricting it until it is too late in almost every case is in my book just plain wrong.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )School admissions – adjudicator decision
An early decision for the new North Yorkshire County Council will be to consult Harrogate parents about changes to the secondary school admissions system that has disadvantaged children living in the town for many years. A second schools adjudicator has come to the same conclusion as the first who considered the complaint and the parents who have been campaigning for a change have been vindicated.
North Yorkshire’s Cabinet Member for Education must now accept the inevitable and conduct a full consultation on how the system can be adapted to make it fairer.
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Claire Kelley's Diary 