Subject: Member Involvement – Written Questions

Date of meeting: 22 January 2024

WRITTEN QUESTIONS

The question will be answered without discussion. The person who asked the question may ask one relevant supplementary question, which shall be put and answered without discussion. The person to whom a question, or supplementary question, has been put may decline to answer it.

The following written questions have been received from Members:

1. Cllr Shanks –

Many councils are struggling to find foster placements especially for adolescents. I would like to know the number of children we are currently placing in privately run children’s homes, the cost of these and how many are outside Brighton and Hove, and the furthest away.

2. Cllr Goldsmith –

Bright Start Nursery and St Bartholomew’s Primary School both have above-average numbers of pupils from racially minoritised backgrounds. Has the administration considered the cumulative impact of the closure of both Bright Start and St Bartholomew’s on racially minoritised groups?

3. Cllr Goldsmith –

The government has launched a consultation on new draft guidance for trans children in schools, which has been criticised by many – including the government’s own lawyers – for encouraging schools to possibly illegally discriminate against trans pupils. Using its learning from Brighton & Hove’s Trans Inclusion Toolkit – which has been thoroughly checked to be on the right side of the law and used by our schools for over a decade – will the council consider submitting and publishing a response to this consultation?