The deadline for questions to be submitted to the Monitoring Officer is Monday 2 February 2026.
Minutes:
Upon request from the Chair, Council agreed that Members would receive written replies to their submitted questions.
Voting: Nem. Con.
Question from Councillor Duane Farr
Has Children’s Services carried out any safeguarding triage, Section 47 assessment, or Continuum-of-Need classification in response to concerns about filming at school sites raised since October 2025?
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People, Education and Skills, Councillor Richard Burton
CSC has not undertaken any safeguarding triage, Section 47 assessment, or Continuum-of-Need classification in response to concerns about filming at school sites since October 2025, as no specific child’s details have been provided indicating harm or risk. Without such information, CSC is unable to initiate an investigation or assessment in accordance with established procedures.
Question from Councillor Mark Howell
When I was in the changing room of the Dolphin Pool recently, I heard a BCP employee who was showing a potential new member around apologise for the state of the facility. He said it was due a refurbishment soon.
The Leader has previously committed to the facility’s renovation, having reneged on the previous Leader’s public commitment to build a new facility.
What is the timescale for renovation and when will the extent of the renovation be made public?
Response from the Leader of the Council, Councillor Millie Earl
The delivery of a new council leisure centre is a multi-year, multi-million-pound project. Despite the financial challenges and rising costs, if a funded solution could be found this would achieve immense social value and health benefits which often outweigh purely financial considerations in the long run. A funding strategy was investigated to support this ambition through use of the nearby car parks. After substantial due diligence, three refurbishment options and two residential development options were considered and evaluated against the set financing parameters.
Currently the development options do not provide a sufficient return, to fund the refurbishment or replacement of the leisure centre. The size and shape of the available development site limits design options. Available grant funding options are insufficient to bridge the viability gap and other local authorities delivering leisure centres, have seen costs double at build from concept stage. In 2024, three leisure centres were insourced, this included the Poole Dolphin Leisure Centre.
By taking full control back the Council has been able to establish the condition of the building and current facilities to inform a longer-term investment strategy. The Leisure team are reviewing the whole BCP Leisure portfolio to establish an investment strategy which will include options for sustaining the facilities. This reflects our priority in balancing the Council’s budget for 2026/27, whilst supporting the ongoing operations of this facility.
Question from Councillor Patrick Canavan
Given the government’s new commitment to end the placement of families with children in B&Bs beyond six weeks and its wider child-poverty strategy, can the Council set out our current position in relation to these issues?
Specifically, how many children in BCP are currently living in temporary accommodation, including B&Bs beyond the legal six-week limit and what actions are being taken to reduce reliance on unsuitable accommodation?
Recognising recent initiatives, what further steps will be taken to ensure that BCP aligns local policy and resourcing with the government’s stated aim of reducing child poverty and making childcare more accessible for families on Universal Credit?
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Housing and Regulatory Services, Councillor Kieron Wilson
In terms of the use of B&Bs for families with children, BCP Council are committed not to use such accommodation for children and families.
The Council currently has 317 families in temporary accommodation, representing 726 children – most of which are staying in self contained homes managed by the Council.
We’ve worked hard to significantly reduce families in B&B from well over one hundred families and today we have just one family and one child who have stayed in B&B one night. You may have seen we have recently celebrated the past year by having no families with children in B&B for longer than 6 weeks.
To support our approach, an updated Homelessness & Rough Sleeping Strategy will be coming to Cabinet in the Spring, this details our strategic approach which further strengthens our approach to homelessness prevention and reduces dependency upon unsuitable temporary housing.
We have some families with children where there is no duty under Housing legislation to house. For these families with children, they may be supported by Children’s Services due to social care needs. We currently have one family accessing a B&B through Children’s Social Care- has been for less than 6 weeks.
Response to part 2:
We are continuing to expand the availability of childcare places across our area. Using national funding streams from the Department for Education—including the Childcare Expansion Capital Grant and the National Wraparound Childcare Programme—we are supporting schools, early years providers and childminders to grow their provision. This includes helping them develop sustainable business models and offering tools and resources through the Childcare Works programme. These measures increase capacity across the sector, ensuring more families can access the places they need.
We are strengthening wraparound childcare. Through the wraparound programme, we are helping schools and providers to expand before? and after?school childcare, which is vital for working parents, particularly those claiming Universal Credit who must balance work requirements with caring responsibilities.
We continue to provide clear and accessible information to families through our Family Information Directory and SEND Local Offer. These platforms help parents find local childcare options, understand eligibility for funded entitlements, and navigate the support available to them, including how national Universal Credit childcare support can be used alongside local entitlements.
Through the delivery of national childcare entitlements—such as 15 hours for all 3? and 4?year?olds, and the growing offer of 30 hours for working parents from nine months to four years—we are helping to reduce the financial burden on families. These funded hours can be combined with Universal Credit childcare support, which reimburses up to 85% of eligible childcare costs. Together, these measures significantly reduce the cost of childcare for low?income working families.
This will continue to be developed as part of our Best Start in Life local plan, due to be published in March 2026.
Question from Councillor Sharon Carr-Brown
There are more than a million young people classed as NEET nationally. Could the Leader of the Council / Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services / relevant Cabinet Member please provide an update on the situation in the BCP Council area? Specifically:
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People, Education and Skills, Councillor Richard Burton
Currently, our NEET figure in Year 12 and 13 is 201 (16- to 18-year-olds), which is a reduction on previous years.
Our NEET figure for young people with an EHCP is 97 (16 to 25 years), which is a reduction on previous years.
Across BCP, there is a combination of pressures that often overlap. These include:
· Mental health challenges and high levels of anxiety, which have become much more common since the pandemic.
· Specific barriers for young people with SEND, who often face more barriers to access courses, work experience or post?16 provision.
· Family and socio?economic pressures, which can make it harder for young people to attend consistently or stay motivated.
· Some young people experience transport barriers, especially those living further out.
Our young people who are NEET face a complex mix of health, personal, educational and practical challenges. And our response has to reflect that complexity.
We are working with Dorset Chamber, local employers, and education providers to deliver the Local Skills Improvement Plan, ensuring training meets local workforce needs.
We have recently strengthened our Education, Employment and Training Forum, to enhance partnership working. It provides strategic leadership and oversight for improving participation in education, employment and training for young people aged 14–25 across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.
A small 16–18 education grant enables Skills & Learning to support around 30 young people each year who are not ready for college or apprenticeships, including creative arts and barbering programmes. The funding also provides flexible English and maths to help young people without GCSEs re?engage in learning or work.
The Dorset & Somerset Training Provider Network continues to publish Your Future Sorted, helping young people and families understand local education and training options.
This spring, we will launch Connect to Work, a new Supported Employment Service for adults with disabilities or complex barriers, offering tailored support and working with employers to create suitable job opportunities. A new Youth Hub is also being set up with Jobcentre Plus and Bournemouth & Poole College to provide dedicated employment coaching for young people.
The Get Dorset and BCP Working plan highlights wider partnership activity, including work to reduce turnover in the social care workforce and to expand opportunities in local health and care.
Careers and Coffee sessions across town centres have been well attended, and in March we will host the major Careers and Apprenticeship Show with over 60 employers and a supported employment zone.
This means our young people now have more ways to re?engage, more ways to build confidence, and more supported routes into paid work than ever before.
We monitor our NEET performance monthly, comparing it with regional and national data. There is a focus on young people with vulnerabilities. This is tracked and reported at different levels, such as the Education Quality and Performance Board and SEND and AP Improvement Board.
Locally, via our work with the Careers and Enterprise company, we have developed a destination data platform which our schools can access, allowing them to track the destinations of their young people. This work has been highlighted by Ofsted in several inspections as strong practice and has also been recognised by the DFE.
Key Performance Indicators and progress of the collaborative Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) are monitored by The Dorset Skills & Workforce Board, including BCP Council and impact reports and employer survey data helps shape the local training and skills offer.
We are ensuring that young people across BCP have equal access to high?quality, meaningful employment opportunities in several ways:
We have expanded Supported Internships and now have a well?coordinated network across the conurbation. 73 young people are currently accessing supported employment pathways.
Our Careers and Apprenticeship Show and Careers and Coffee events are providing direct routes into jobs and apprenticeships.
We are opening up work experience opportunities for young people with SEND through new pilot programmes, which are being supported by education and third sector partners.
In addition, Dorset Careers Hub Work Experience Directory is supporting schools to link with employers and new modern work experience for KS3 is being piloted.
Opportunities for Apprenticeships, Small Medium Enterprises and employer engagement is being expanded in schools through the work of Dorset Careers Hub, for example, via Employer Encounters and other grant-funded programmes such as Hospitality Connect. These opportunities give schools access to a variety of providers, including Sunseeker and JP Morgan, and are further supported by the flagship Dorset Chamber Apprenticeship Awards.
Bournemouth and Poole College are developing a new post?14 skills?based pathway, which will give younger learners earlier access to vocational, practical and applied learning. This upstream offer will help keep students engaged in school, build confidence before KS4, and ultimately reduce the risk of those young people becoming NEET at 16 by giving them a clearer sense of purpose and direction.
And finally, we are aware that transport is a barrier to equality of opportunity. We are working on solutions such as improved travel training and closer alignment of learning provision with local communities.
The Government’s Post?16 Education and Skills White Paper sets out a new skills system that is more closely aligned with employers and guarantees every young person a place in education or training. For BCP, these reforms reinforce the approach we are already taking: earlier identification, stronger employer partnerships, and more accessible skills?based pathways, all of which help us re?engage vulnerable young people and reduce NEET locally.
Our commitment is that every young person, wherever they live, and whatever challenges they face, should have a meaningful, supported route into the world of work. And through the partnerships we have built, the data we are using, and the reforms we are leading, we are better placed than ever to make that a reality.
Question from Councillor Peter Cooper
Given the Government’s introduction of a “use it or lose it” funding model for pothole repairs—under which councils may lose up to 25% of additional highways funding if sufficient progress is not demonstrated—and the implementation of a traffic-light performance rating system, can the Portfolio Holder advise:
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Climate Response, Environment and Energy, Councillor Andy Hadley
Councillor Cooper,
The council has already secured the 25% incentive element for the current financial year. The DfT wrote to the Council on 19 December 2025 stating :
I am writing to confirm that your authority will receive its full share of this year’s £500 million funding uplift for local highways maintenance, following your compliance with the new reporting requirements introduced this year.
Your commitment to transparency and best practice is greatly appreciated. The funding withheld from non-compliant authorities has been redistributed equally among all compliant local authorities.
In January the DfT advised that for 2025/26 the council has been rated as
- green for network condition
- amber for spend
- amber for wider best practice
The council was therefore rated as amber overall.
Of the 154 local authorities with Transport responsibilities, the breakdown for 2025/26 is as follows:
Progress on repairing potholes and improving Road condition:
We are doing all we can in accordance with Best Practice, within available resources, on both reactive pothole maintenance, and structural maintenance based on road condition surveys, and focus our pothole prevention treatment programmes where they will have the most positive effect.
Improvements to the condition of the Highway Network can only be achieved with a significant increase in funding.
A recent life cycle planning exercise by our road condition survey contractor, highlighted that the LTP Maintenance Block allocation equates to about 30% of the level of resource required to keep the Highway Network in a reasonable condition.
Whilst we are pleased the allocations from DfT are increasing over the next 4 years they still fall far short of the £14M a year required to maintain steady state.
This is a legacy of decades of under funding for structural Highways maintenance, more heavier vehicles, increased congestion and climate change.
Potholes can be reported via the BCP website.
How do we ensure that the Council gets a green rating?
I am assured by the responsible officers that they are taking targeted action to improve the rating ahead of the next annual update.
The items flagged as being amber were
Long term preventative maintenance strategies:
Once a defect has been reported, the team act swiftly to assess and where necessary implement a temporary repair.
BCP Council take a pro-active approach to the prevention of potholes following asset management principles. Programmes of micro surfacing and asphalt preservation are undertaken on an annual basis with a programme of surface dressing also due to be implemented in 26/27. This work is focused on some sites that are showing early signs of deterioration, treated to keep them in a good condition to slow the rate of deterioration.
In the coming year (26/27) we will be treating 28.5km of our carriageways with pothole prevention treatments with details to be shortly announced.
As a result of this good practice BCP Council has one of the best Highway networks in England, evidenced by its ‘GREEN’ RAG status relating to Condition in the recent transparency report.
In summary, we will seek to ensure that we receive the full allocation, it is not enough to keep the highways in good condition, we could do more with increased resources.
Question from Councillor Anne-Marie Moriarty
Will the Council review and reconsider the use or promotion of content hosted on the platform X in Council or affiliated communications, given growing concerns about the platform’s role in amplifying far-right narratives, the circulation of pornographic and misogynistic material (including content generated via Grok), and the widespread use of inappropriate and exploitative images, all of which appear inconsistent with the Council’s commitments to equality, safeguarding, and democratic values?
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Customer, Communications and Culture, Councillor Andy Martin
Thank you for your question which is in fact timely as we have been indeed been looking at options regarding this platform.
I am sure all members even those not on social media will be more than aware of the increasing concerns about X.
Just for some context in 2024 BCP had 38,650 followers with 18,274 engagements. In 2025 we had 37,587 followers with 4991 engagements (that is likes/comments/shares).
That is a significant downward trend compared with other platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn which have seen growth.
We have looked at three options for BCP. Remove all accounts, take no action or retain one corporate account on X but for limited purposes only.
This third option is our current position.
All BCP Council X / Twitter accounts are to be closed the exception of one BCP Council corporate account which retained for the following use only:
This position
The council has already taken mitigations around use of X including
We intend to keep this under review and continue to monitor government guidance, updates on policy, what other public sector organisations are doing and indeed how X is being run.
Question from Councillor Duane Farr
How many public questions or statements have not been accepted to be heard at Full Council meetings since May 2023?
Response from the Leader of the Council, Councillor Millie Earl
Councillor Farr, thank you for your question.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to answer your question with a definitive number. The Democratic Services team communicate with many members of the public wishing to ask questions or make statements, typically via email.
Questions and statements may be rejected upon receipt by Democratic Services for technical failures (e.g., exceeding word limit or received too late) or ruled out of order by the Chair of the relevant meeting.
Correspondence relating to public questions and statements is not structured and would require significant officer effort to trawl through historic emails. Even if this took place, it is not possible to guarantee all rejections would be identified.
However, in response to your question, the team have implemented a new process and will in future register all received questions and statements and capture if the submission is valid or rejected, and if rejected, capture the reason.
Question from Councillor Peter Cooper
A resident has reported being instructed at the Nuffield recycling site to place a hard-plastic crate into the general waste stream because it is “no longer economically viable” for the council to recycle that material.
Can the Cabinet Member explain whether hard-plastic recycling has been withdrawn at Nuffield, on what financial and environmental evidence this decision was based, and how this aligns with the council’s stated climate and sustainability commitments?
Further, what assessment has been made of the long-term environmental and land-use costs of sending hard plastics to landfill, and what options are being explored to reinstate a responsible and sustainable recycling route for these materials?
Response from the Portfolio Holder for Climate Response, Environment and Energy, Councillor Andy Hadley
Councillor Cooper, thanks for your question.
Hard Plastic items such as buckets, crates, garden furniture and pipes form a very small part of the overall waste streams at our three BCP recycling centres including the Nuffield site in Poole.
The council have to retender waste and recycling contracts on a regular basis to show transparency and to follow the market and economic trends.
At the end of last year we issued a tender for the treatment of hard plastic recycling from all of the Council recycling centres, but unfortunately this did not receive any suitable bids for this particular contract due to the very high price that was being asked for.
As a result, the Council temporarily removed the separate collection of hard plastic recycling whilst we monitored and assessed the market, with a view to retendering as soon as practically possible.
I must emphasise that this does not affect the kerbside recycling collection of plastic bottles, pots, tubs trays and lids.
During January 2026 our waste team have engaged in a pre market engagement exercise that has targeted local and national companies to develop industry interest, and with the feedback we have received we are now confident a new tender that will be released shortly will find a contractor with whom we can start this service again at all of our three recycling centres in the Spring.
Our recycling centres continue to collect PVCu frames, and any plastic item that contains electrical components (WEEE). Residents should let staff know if they have any hard plastic items still in good working order and condition, as these may be suitable for reuse via or ‘New to You’ store.
Only 11% of our waste now goes to landfill sites and this is reducing all of the time. The vast majority of residual waste is now sent to Energy from Waste Facilities located in the South West.
I do hope we can resume recycling of hard plastics soon.