Agenda item

Members' Questions

7.1      Questions relating to urgent business – Council Procedure Rule 16.6(ii).

 

7.2      Questions on the discharge of the functions of the South Yorkshire Joint Authorities for Fire and Rescue and Pensions – Section 41 of the Local Government Act 1985 – Council Procedure Rule 16.6(i).

 

          (NB. Minutes of recent meetings of the two South Yorkshire Joint Authorities have been made available to all Members of the Council via the following link -

          http://democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/ecCatDisplay.aspx?sch=doc&cat=13165&path=0)

 

 

Minutes:

7.1

Urgent Business

 

 

7.1.1

With the permission of the Lord Mayor (Councillor Tony Downing), Councillors Sioned-Mair Richards and Angela Argenzio asked the following questions relating to urgent business, under the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 16.6(ii):-

 

 

 

Councillor Richards – “With the recent closure of schools, there were concerns, certainly within my Ward, about the digital divide and the  lack of digital connectivity, as well as hardware, for all the school students who are now having to learn from home, and wished to ask what the Council was doing to ensure that students have access to the hardware but also to connectivity when so many parents are operating on pay as you go contracts or do not have access to wi-fi / broadband services at all?  

 

 

 

Councillor Argenzio – Following the closure of schools on Tuesday, has Sheffield Council undertaken an audit to ensure that all children entitled to support are being provided with laptops, tablets and internet connections to help children and families access remote education? If not, what action will they be taking to ensure children from disadvantaged backgrounds aren’t disproportionately affected by the latest closure?”

 

 

7.1.2

In response, Councillor Abtisam Mohamed (the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills) thanked the questioners for their timely questions given the recent announcement that schools were to close and move to remote learning with immediate effect.  She stated that the Council did recognise the issues raised by the questioners and she agreed that learning online was not just about access to hardware but was also about connectivity and digital inclusion and she recognised that there were many families struggling to ensure their children have adequate access to remote learning because of either lack of connectivity or because siblings were having to share devices.  She referred to the Government’s offer of laptops to schools, but commented that this initiative had been extremely slow to get up and running, with many schools having complained about the length of time taken between requesting and receiving the devices, and she added that this situation was not good enough, leaving students with inequitable access.  She stated that the Council believed that there should be equitable access for all students and was working hard to address this issue as quickly as possible with the aim of ensuring that children from disadvantaged backgrounds were not disproportionately impacted by the closure of schools.  Working with colleagues from Learn Sheffield, an audit of schools was to be undertaken within the next few days to establish what the current demand is in terms of unmet need, and the Council will be working, along with the city’s business sector and the campaign Laptops For Kids, to meet the hardware and connectivity needs as soon as possible, once this has been established by the audit.

 

 

7.1.3

In response to a supplementary question, permitted by the Lord Mayor, from Councillor Argenzio, Councillor Mohamed stated that schools had undertaken audits earlier in the school year based on their previous method of operation whereby pupil bubbles would be asked to learn from home for short periods of time, whereas this latest audit was being conducted on the basis of full closure of all schools.

 

 

 

 

7.2

South Yorkshire Joint Authorities

 

 

7.2.1

Questions under the provisions of Council Procedure Rule 16.6(i), relating to the discharge of the functions of the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority, were asked by Councillor Martin Phipps as follows:-

 

 

 

“Residents of North Bank flats were evacuated shortly before Christmas after a fire service inspection which deemed the flats not fit to live in.  Why did it take so long for North Bank's fire safety issues to be treated so seriously? Issues to do with North Bank were known for years before.”

 

 

 

“Are we confident that other flats in Sheffield with similar known fire safety issues, such as cladding, are fit for human habitation?  How can we be sure, given the time it took to declare North Bank unfit for humans, that those flats are fit for human habitation?  How are flats with known fire safety issues in Sheffield being supported?”

 

 

7.2.2

Councillor Tony Damms, the Council’s Spokesperson on the Fire and Rescue Authority, responded by stating that he would arrange for a detailed written response to be supplied by the Chief Fire Officer.  He stated, however, that the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority had a duty to inspect certain types of buildings, of which there were 180 such buildings in Sheffield.  He added that thorough inspections were being carried out as quickly as possible by the Fire Service and that he had recently been made aware that 59 of the 180 buildings had been inspected.

 

 

 

 

 

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