Minutes:
Report: See page 31 of the main agenda
Councillor Catherine McDonald, seconded by Councillor Patrick Diamond, moved the motion.
Councillor Rosie Shimell, seconded by Councillor Graham Neale, moved Amendment A.
During the debate (Councillors Peter John and Columba Blango), Councillor Peter John made a point of personal explanation. Thereafter the debate continued (Councillors Richard Livingstone, Renata Hamvas, Mark Gettleson, Lewis Robinson, Gavin Edwards, Anood Al-Samerai, Andy Simmons, Victoria Mills, Nick Dolezal, Lisa Rajan, Helen Morrissey, Mark Glover, Adele Morris, Right Revd Emmanuel Oyewole and Michael Mitchell).
A procedural motion to put the question to the vote was moved and seconded. The procedural motion was put to the vote and declared to be carried.
Amendment A was put to the vote and declared to be lost.
Councillor Cleo Soanes, seconded by Councillor Helen Hayes, moved Amendment B.
A procedural motion to put the question to the vote was moved and seconded. The procedural motion was put to the vote and declared to be carried.
Amendment B was put to the vote and declared to be carried.
Following debate (Councillor Veronica Ward), the substantive motion was put to the vote and declared to be carried.
RESOLVED:
1. That council assembly notes that over 20,000 young people in Southwark have benefitted from the educational maintenance allowance (EMA) which provides financial support to young people from financially disadvantaged backgrounds and enables them to afford to remain in post-16 education.
2. That council assembly also notes that before the 2010 general election both the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties promised to retain the EMA.
3. That in the circumstances council assembly bitterly regrets the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government’s decision to withdraw the EMA to new students from January 2011 and existing students from July 2011.
4. That council assembly believes that the withdrawal of the EMA will have a significant and disproportionately adverse impact on the educational and life chances of thousands of young people in Southwark and will result in many more young people leaving full-time education at the age of 16.
5. That council assembly also notes and regrets the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government attacks on young peoples’ education through increasing university tuition fees, ceasing Bookstart and the withdrawal of the sport in schools programme and calls on the government to reconsider its approach and to invest in our young peoples’ future rather than reduce services to them.
6. That council assembly also notes and regrets that the government’s Adviser on Access to High Education, Rt Hon Simon Hughes MP, avoided the chance to prevent this attack on young people’s education by voting with the government to abolish the EMA and by failing to vote against the trebling in university tuition fees.
That council assembly calls upon the cabinet and the relevant cabinet members:
7. To oppose the abolition of the educational maintenance allowance by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government from the 1 January 2011.
8. To lobby the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government and the newly appointed advocate for access to higher education, Simon Hughes MP, to reconsider the abolition of the education maintenance allowance.
9. To secure the support of the three Southwark Members of Parliament to oppose the abolition of the education maintenance allowance.
10. To use all appropriate means to publicise the withdrawal of the EMA to young people in higher education in Southwark, particularly those from low-income families who rely on the allowance to remain in education and to ensure Southwark’s young people are informed of any alternative financial provision in place to help them to continue in post 16 education.
Note: This motion will be referred as a recommendation to the cabinet for consideration.