Venue: Committee Room B - County Hall, Llandrindod Wells, Powys. View directions
Contact: Elizabeth Patterson 01597 826980
No. | Item |
---|---|
Apologies To receive apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from County Councillors G Breeze, H Hulme, A Jenner and K Laurie-Parry. |
|
Declarations of Interest To receive declarations of interest from Members. Minutes: No declarations of interest were receieved. |
|
Disclosure of Party Whips To receive disclosures of prohibited party whips which a Member has been given in relation to the meeting in accordance with Section 78(3) of the Local Government Measure 2011.
(NB: Members are reminded that under Section 78 Members having been given a prohibited party whip cannot vote on a matter before the Committee.)
Minutes: No disclosures of Party Whips were received. |
|
To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the meeting held on the 12th October 2017. Minutes: The Chair was authorised to sign the minutes of the meeting held on the 12th October 2017 as a true record. |
|
Chair's Briefing To receive a verbal update from the Chair of Scrutiny Committee B. Minutes: The Chair advised that most of the work that had been undertaken had been outlined in the update reports. A number of joint scrutiny sessions were now been held and whilst there was still some way to go it was his view that scrutiny were starting to make an impact within the authority. Scrutiny will become all the more important now that the Shire Committees have been abolished which has removed the opportunity to question Portfolio Holders and senior officers in this arena. |
|
Scrutiny of the Public Service Board To appoint one representative from the Committee to sit on the Public Service Board Scrutiny Committee together with a substitute representative. Neither of these Members can be a Member of the Public Service Board. Minutes: The Committee were asked to appoint a representative to the Public Services Board Scrutiny Committee together with a substitute representative.
Outcome: · County Councillor D R Jones be appointed as the Committee’s representative on the PSB Scrutiny Committee, with County Councillor P Roberts as the substitute representative
|
|
Children's Scrutiny Group PDF 120 KB To receive an update from the Children’s Services Scrutiny Group. Minutes: Youth Services
At the Full Council meeting on the 25th January 2018 a Notice of Motion regarding Youth Services had been considered.
Scrutiny Members reported concern at Full Council that the changes agreed at Cabinet in November 2017 would be detrimental to the provision of quality youth services. The proposals had been scrutinised in October 2017. Part of the Council resolution includes:
‘the Cabinet review the quality and accessibility of Youth Services for people with protected characteristics and in poorer communities throughout Powys within 12 months of the date of closure’.
Recommended that: scrutiny should request sight of this 12 month review and in order to be able to consider this that scrutiny should contact the Portfolio Holder and Head of Service asking for the performance indicators that are being monitored to ensure that there is a baseline from which the impact of the changes can be monitored. That this monitoring be undertaken by the Leisure/Culture Scrutiny Group to share the workload but that any members of Children’s or Education Scrutiny who wished to take part were welcome to join this group for this item.
Lead Member Cllr Rowlands advised that he had written to the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services with recommendations from the session on Safeguarding in November and was awaiting a response. Cllr Jones confirmed that he had written jointly to the Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services and Adults Services with the Lead Member for Adult Scrutiny regarding the session on Powys People Direct on 15th January. A reply was awaited.
Scrutiny Members noted that to date there had been a focus on undertaking scrutiny by way of speaking to Officers. It was necessary to seek information from other sources to get information from service users. The sensitive and confidential nature of Children’s Scrutiny meant that this will need to be sought with care. |
|
Education Scrutiny Group PDF 418 KB To receive an update from the Education Scrutiny Group. Minutes: The update from the Education Scrutiny Group was received. The Lead Member noted concerns regarding the transition between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 (where pupils moved from primary school to high school).
Recommended that primary to high school transition be considered at Joint Chairs for inclusion on the work programme.
The outcome of the request to Joint Chairs for Monitoring of the Change of Age of Admission was noted as: ‘to be added to the scrutiny work programme as a low priority’.
The Chair asked for an update on Schools Budgets.
The Portfolio Holder advised that the timescales for the budget process had been brought forward which has an impact on the savings. The authority wants to provide timely advice and a Voluntary Severance Scheme in place for which 24 primaries, 2 special and all the high schools are signed up to. There are currently two high schools that are non-compliant and both schools are working well to come to an accommodation.
The Director of Education advised that this year the funding from Welsh Government had been less than a flat line with costs rising (for example there will be an increase in superannuation costs in 2019/20). The Funding Formula is not all wrong. It is complicated and protects falling rolls but does not acknowledge rising rolls. There has been a significant decrease in secondary school rolls since 2010. A number of High schools have not made adjustments in a timely manner. This has not been helped by the authority not having enough information and/or not taking timely action. This has been tightened up. The service has shared information as soon as it has become available but in some cases the authority has yet to receive the information (for example the Education Improvement Grant has not been confirmed but schools have been advised it is expected to decrease by 11%). The service are trying to protect school by keeping central retentions to a minimum. Post 16 allocations have also not yet been received which is much later than usual.
The Funding Formula review will provide clarity and simplification of the formula so that it is not only easier to administer but can be circulated to schools so they can check their allocations.
In the case of two schools the authority is moving from support to compliance. In addition the new Mid Wales High School whilst having a balanced plan for Year 1 is projecting a deficit for Years 2 and 3 which is being worked on to ensure a sustainable offer and structure is in place.
Whilst it is accepted that only two schools are non-compliant can figures be produced regarding those schools showing unlicensed deficits. It was confirmed that this would be provided.
What are licensed/unlicensed budgets? There is no right to a deficit and for those schools which are in breach of the Scheme for Financing Schools will be in an unlicensed position. For the Local Authority to license a deficit it will have to have ... view the full minutes text for item SCB8 |
|
Leisure/Culture Scrutiny Group PDF 131 KB To receive an update from the Leisure/Culture Scrutiny Group Minutes: The update from the Lead Member for the Leisure/Culture Scrutiny Group was received. |
|
Welsh in Education Strategic Plan PDF 52 KB To receive a briefing on the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan. Additional documents: Minutes: The Senior Manager Schools Transformation gave a presentation (copy filed with signed minutes).
At present in Powys there are 11 Welsh medium primary schools, 10 dual stream primary schools and 6 dual stream secondary schools.
In 2010 Welsh Government produced a Welsh Medium Education Strategy with a requirement for local authorities to produce a Welsh Education Strategic Plan. In 2013 the School Standards and Organisation (Wales) Act 2013 provides the legal background for the production of the WESP. Welsh Ministers can approve the plan, approve the plan with modifications or reject the proposed plan and prepare a plan which will become the local authority’s WESP.
In 2017 Welsh Government produced the Cymraeg 2050 Strategy with an aim to achieve 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050.
A WESP was agreed for the period 2014-17 and the authority recently approved an updated version for 2017-2020 which includes the following objectives:
· Objective 1: To increase the opportunities for pupils to access Welsh-medium early years provision · Objective 2: To establish, and identify opportunities to establish, new designated Welsh-medium provision in the primary sector · Objective 3: To provide equitable and sustainable linguistic progression for Welsh-medium pupils from Key Stage 2 into Key Stage 3, 4 and 5 · Objective 4: To provide improved opportunities for latecomers to transfer to the Welsh-medium sector in all stages of education
The WESP was submitted to Welsh Government who made comments regarding the focus. This has been addressed and the plan will be monitored by Welsh Government on a termly basis.
One of the outcomes is for more seven year olds to be taught through the medium of Welsh. There are a number of actions relating to this including: · Establishing a Welsh medium School in Welshpool · Developing Welsh medium in mid Powys · Add more Welsh places in Ystradgynlais (the current provision is at capacity) · Develop provision in Llanidloes · Consider position in Gwernyfed where at present no Welsh medium although have already undertaken area review here · Move Ysgol Bro Hyddgen along the language continuum – at present it is a dual stream 4-18 school with 218:303 English:Welsh speakers. There is concern that appropriate standards in the English stream can be maintained.
Questions
The objectives make sense but objective 3 is outside the authorities control with no teacher training institution within the county and little Welsh medium training. The Portfolio Holder advised that there was a link with teacher training institutions and that it is important to make more use of the existing teacher cohort who are Welsh speaking but not using their Welsh language in the classroom. It is also intended to make greater use of teachers who do teach in Welsh to teach at more than one school. E-learning is a further option for providing courses on multiple sites. The Director of Education confirmed that the only way to meet the target was by way of generating and meeting demand for Welsh medium education. The speed by which this can be done is related to the workforce strategy to increase ... view the full minutes text for item SCB10 |
|
Joint Chairs Minutes PDF 83 KB To receive the minutes of the Joint Chairs and Vice-Chairs meetings held on the: · 10th October 2017 · 7th November 2017 Additional documents: Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of the Joint Chairs and Vice-Chairs Steering Group held on the 10th October 2017 and 7th November 2017 were noted.
Members expressed concern that attendance at these meetings was poor as these meetings were key to good scrutiny. |
|
To consider the draft Plans for Powys Schools which is out for consultation until 30th January 2017.
Documents include: · Cabinet report 7th November 2017 · Draft Plans for Powys Schools · Integrated Impact Assessment Additional documents:
Minutes: The Schools Manager Schools Transformation introduced the Draft Schools Policy which is out for consultation (copy filed with signed minutes).
The Portfolio Holder and Director of Education provided additional detail in response to questions and it is the view of scrutiny that it should not be necessary to question the Portfolio Holder and Director of Education to gain an understanding of the Policy. The Policy should contain sufficient detail to be standalone.
The following observations are made:
· The Policy outlines high level aspirations and is short on the level of detail which would be expected in such a policy as to how these will be achieved. It needs to be motivational. · There is particular lack of detail regarding the financial sustainability of schools and reference needs to be made to the Formula Funding review · In respect of alternative models of delivery these will need to be based on sound educational principles and research and consideration should be given to referencing this in Section 3 paragraph 4 of the Policy · Section 5 rightly includes leadership as a key consideration with appropriate aspirations. Consideration should be given to including a similar section on teaching and aspirations relating thereto · Post 16 provision needs additional detail regarding the current work which is being undertaken with providers. The document acknowledges that schools are challenged by increased competition from out of county providers and notes that joint working will be undertaken to provide a curriculum that meets the needs of learners. This will have to be considerably more attractive than at present. Learners are demonstrating that they are prepared to travel considerable distances and spend a considerable amount of time to access excellent provision on single sites, something the collaborative curriculum within Powys has demonstrably not been able to compete with. There is an urgent need to progress this part of the Policy. · There is a lack of reference to the role of Governors in supporting the aims of the authority expressed within this policy. Governors will need training and support to fulfil their role. · There is a lack of reference to early years which are intimately linked to school provision and should be referenced · The opportunities offered by e-learning should be included with an acknowledgment of what can be delivered using the current infrastructure and what would be needed to fully access the opportunities offered by this technology · With regard to Governance if the Learning and Skills Programme Board are monitoring progress on the Work Programme they should also be involved in the setting of the Work Programme
|
|
Work Programme To consider the forward work programme and whether any additional items should be put forward for inclusion. Minutes: The following items were raised:
· A request that Safeguarding was considered jointly by Scrutiny Committee A and B · That the progress of the School Transport Policy be queried given that it had been due to come to Cabinet in October
|