Items
No. |
Item |
1. |
Apologies
To receive apologies for absence.
Minutes:
Apologies for absence were received from
County Councillor - Gwynfor
Thomas, as on other Council business.
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2. |
Disclosures of interest
To receive any disclosures of interest by
Members relating to items to be considered at the meeting.
Minutes:
There were no declarations of interest from
Members relating to items for consideration on the agenda.
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3. |
Declarations of Party Whip
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:
The Committee did not receive
any 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.
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4. |
Minutes PDF 134 KB
To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of
the meetings held as follows as a correct record: 15th
January 2024 and 9th February 2024.
Also to note the minutes of the Joint Scrutiny
Committee meeting in relation to Q3 Performance 28th
February 2024.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Documents
Considered:
·
Minutes of the 15th January 2024 &
9th February 2024
Minutes agreed by Committee
members present as a true and accurate reflection of the meetings
and ratified accordingly by the Chair.
Committee also noted the
minutes of the Joint Scrutiny Committee meeting of the
28th February 2024.
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5. |
Joint Leisure Working Group Recommendations to Cabinet Report PDF 111 KB
To receive the Recommendations to Cabinet
report, presented by Cllr Gareth E Jones, Chair of the Joint
Scrutiny Committee Leisure Working Group.
Minutes:
Background
Chair of the Joint Scrutiny Working Group Cllr Gareth E Jones
thanked those Members of Learning and Skills Scrutiny Committee who
were part of and assisted in the Working Group.
An
outcome report was attached within the agenda for the Scrutiny
Committee for comment, whilst it was noted the paper had been
presented to Cabinet earlier this week.
Cllr D Selby thanked the Working Group for the thorough, well
researched and fair approach, and believed that this process had
assisted in collating the necessary data to be considered in the
review.
Cllr P Roberts echoed sentiments by Cllr Selby and added that
the Working Group had given the Cabinet the confidence that the
data is sound and has been thoroughly reviewed.
Points
raised by the Panel:
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Responses received from Officers or Cabinet
Members.
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When was the Leisure Review expected to conclude, which would
enable schools to plan for the future.
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The answer is quite complex as
the Review falls under the Sustainable Powys work. Small pieces of
outstanding work will continue, however there is not a final date
as other decisions from Sustainable Powys work may affect the work
of the Leisure Review.
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There were budget savings predicated on the Leisure Review
outcomes as well as the Bro Hyddgen development, assurance was
requested that as work progresses, opportunities would not be
missed through the lack of thorough and quick decisions being
made.
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Another complication was the savings that the Schools Service
were making on the particular element of the contract. Collation of
data was being progressed to allow for decisions to be made, whilst
not officially part of the Leisure Review, it would affect the
future of the service moving forward.
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In terms of transportation to
and from leisure centres for swimming, had this been reflected in
the School Funding Formula.
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No, not at all.
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A recommendation from the Joint
Scrutiny Working Group was for a figure to be identified in
relation to transport costs incurred.
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In Wales it is not compulsory that children learn to swim, as an
LA it was felt this was an essential life skill. We have tried to
determine the amount of swimming time with the Leisure team, but
the autonomy sits with each individual school for planning the
curriculum and the travel to and from centres.
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6. |
Committee Discussion in relation to School Visits and Deep Dive work
Committee Members to discuss undertaking
school visits, and to consider deep dives on particular areas of
concern.
Minutes:
Points
raised by the Panel:
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Responses received from Officers or Cabinet
Members.
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PRU
working group or a deep dive given the significant savings within
the budget, and to understand the impact on the provision provided.
How the potential plan of working closer with schools and on
schools sites would work in practice and it was important to have a
clear plan before changes were implemented.
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Visits to schools that have provided Trochi immersion education,
either through the Trochi Working Group with invite extended to
other Committee Members.
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Officers were happy to support
in arranging this as felt would be beneficial for the working group
to see first-hand the Trochi provision, and report findings back to
the Scrutiny Committee.
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There have been some new build all-thru school across the border
in Carmarthenshire, would be beneficial to discuss pro’s and
cons of the design, to ensure similar issues or problems were not
made and give assurance to the well-being and safety of our
learners.
The
Committee need to have assurance and understand the impact that
tight budgets had on the options that were available through the
Transformation programme, a separate session or deep dive on this
would be appreciated.
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It would possibly be helpful
for Members to see conditions of some of our School estate
buildings, to compare the learning environments to our new builds.
The additional challenge and pressure this presents not only to
teaching staff but to those who were managing budgets in the
current financial situation, alongside the transformation
agenda.
The Offer post 14 moving
forward could have potential impact on funding whilst also need to
ensure that the service and curriculum was meeting demand of the
learner.
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Aware Members of the group had
in previous meeting expressed concern on Early Years provision,
especially with links to the ALNET Act.
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A National agenda item is the
Community Schoos agenda, what a Community School looks like and
what role does it play. The Schools Services has used grant funding
to employ Family Liaison Officers to support our Community Schoos,
agenda which forma part of the WH National Review, with Powys being
used as a case study. The Committee may wish to contrast and
compare our Community and non-Community schools
provision.
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Committee may also like to have a working group on the Multi
Site schools, the problems and challenges they had faced over the
4-6years they have been operating, especially if the Council were
to be considering establishing more.
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It has been a year since we had
a very positive presentation in respect of the Music plan in Powys,
to boost the instrumental music played in schools, was there any
further update available.
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Lynsey MCCrohan, the Strategic Lead for Music and Expressive
Arts would be happy to come back to Scrutiny Committee and inform
of the significant progress made through presentations to WG and
other LA’s.
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Need to look at the current
funding formula in particular across ALN students.
There still remain major issues
with the funding formula which cannot be ...
view the full minutes text for item 6.
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7. |
Progression and Learning PDF 97 KB
To receive and consider the report on
Progression and Learning from Senior Managers for Secondary and
School Improvement, Cressy Murphy and Eurig Towns.
Minutes:
Points
raised by the Panel:
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Responses received from Officers or Cabinet
Members.
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Teaching was a main theme under the recommendations.
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Agreed it was a significant
area, 13 out of the 27 recommendations across all of our schools
highlighted teaching as requiring improvement. For this reason, the
service focussed on teaching for the Autumn term visits, the
quality of teaching at those schools and input support where
required. For most schools they were able to evidence that the
quality of teaching was good. Where inconsistencies in teaching
were identified, support processes had been input. SIA support was
deployed to schools where analysis had not been thoroughly
undertaken. The Service is now in a much stronger position to
understand the quality of teaching, following the recommendations
received from Estyn last year, which should have a knock-on effect
on the standards.
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Has
the focus of Estyn inspections changed over the last year in
comparison to previous years from results to teaching.
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No, there was not a National
issue that teaching came out as inconsistent, which was mainly
around the self-evaluation process which wasn’t picked up in
Powys as being an area of significance.
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The
point has been made that if teaching was deemed satisfactory, the
same would be reflected in standards. There were 5 inspection
areas, would they all have the same weighting, even for those
peripheral elements i.e., wellbeing that were not the core like
teaching. Was there any suggestion that the peripheral elements had
sufficient staffing, yet teaching did not.
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Estyn have all areas of an inspection as equal. Since Covid
Schools have placed an emphasis on wellbeing, which has to remain
so that the children can learn in that environment. Would a greater
emphasis on the wellbeing of the child mean that teaching was not
in place that we would want it to be. We have evidence of good
teaching practice within the schools of Powys; however we would
have to go back and examine reasons why this has
happened.
An
issue raised by Estyn was around whether there was enough challenge
to push learners on, and this has been challenged by the Service to
schools.
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In terms of Leadership, was
this in relation to schools without permanent Leadership staff in
place.
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This point was not specifically
about acting or new leadership it was more in terms of the quality
of leadership. What was the impact inside the school, was the
school and strength of the school understood, if area of
improvement were required were these realistic and in
place.
Estyn picked up that in some
cases school had not been specific enough and at times were over
generous in their judgements.
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The literacy and numeracy point
score of Powys was closer to the Wales average compared to that of
the eFSM LA average and the all-Wales eFSM score, was there a
reason for this greater disparity.
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There are quite marginal differences in the of scheme of things,
we must be aware that Powys’ eFSM pupils compared to all
Wales ...
view the full minutes text for item 7.
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8. |
The Offer for Key Stage 4
To receive and consider a presentation on the
Offer for Key Stage 4.
Minutes:
Background
·
The purpose of the report was to examine the current
provision of qualifications on offer in schools across
Powys.
·
Aim to highlight strengths and areas where provision
was strong, but also sought to identify areas where development was
required.
·
To support schools in preparing for the changes
being made to the 14-16 qualifications in Wales.
Points
raised by the Panel:
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Responses received from Officers or Cabinet
Members.
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Question raised as to why Welsh Literature was, and English
literature was not noted on the list, both subjects are surely
equal, also why were the GCSE’s shown for the 4 core subjects
but the Welsh equivalent was not. Whatever the language medium they
should be treated equally throughout.
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Welsh literature is an option,
even in the Welsh medium settings. Colleagues in the WESP were also
consulted as to the best way to present the information. There is a
full list which could be shared.
The curriculum offer of
subjects including vocational subjects was being presented, the
Core subjects are those taught regardless of the medium through
which a young person is taught. There could be an argument for
Triple Science to be included as not an option as such.
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Could the report show just one figure for the number of pupils
siting GCSE’s in one year.
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Yes, the data is available and
could be shared.
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Had provision been made for the
more able and talented pupils, the expectation until recently was
that schools provided for those pupils.
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The more able and talented pupils have access to the Seren
programme which had recently re-commenced. The Level 2 additional
Maths has not had a great uptake recently as a bridging
qualification between GCSE and A Level.
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How can there be equity in
subject offer across Powys, in both financial terms and staffing
resource.
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It was an incredible challenge, particularly in the present
financial climate. However, work would continue to be aspirational
in what could be offered, ensuring a broad balanced and inclusive
range of qualifications.
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In terms of the Welsh Medium
Provision why were there numbers of pupils who were following
courses through Welsh medium or bilingual, as these could be
included with the English stream information.
Bilingual classes do not
experience a Welsh medium education as the teacher may not be able
to complete the class or provide necessary resources.
The table gave the impression
that Welsh Medium education was catered for. It would be beneficial
to know exactly what subjects were taught through Welsh Medium or
taught Bi-lingually.
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The Service would be more than happy to look at a better way of
capturing the data which would satisfy Committee Members
requirements.
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Delivery was key, throughout
the Secondary phase, how many options do learners have at that Key
Stage. In addition, would the number of options or choices vary
across the Sector and what was the average cohort within a school
or class size required to provide that provision within a
school.
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In terms of viability it would be great to offer
...
view the full minutes text for item 8.
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9. |
Work Programme PDF 56 KB
To note that future meetings of the Committee
are scheduled as follows:
Minutes:
Items to be included
in 2024-25:-
PRU
Working Group.
School Visit Programme – including Trochi Working Group
visits.
Community School comparison Visits plus non community
schools.
Condition of School Buildings visits.
Music Plan update.
Data Analysis member session.
School budgets / Funding Formula – ALN /PRU.
New
National 14-16 Qualifications (Vocational Certificate Secondary
Education) – Sept 2027.
Estyn reports to be a standard agenda item quarterly (where
available).
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