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No. | Item |
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APOLOGIES To receive
any apologies for absence. Additional documents: Minutes: Apologies
were received from Councillor Rhys Tudur, Colette Owen
(The Catholic Church), Gwilym Jones (NASUWT), Councillor Nia Jeffreys (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for
Operational Economy Matters) and Councillor Beca Brown (Cabinet Member for
Education). |
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DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST To receive
any declarations of personal interest. Additional documents: Minutes: No declarations
of personal interest were received. |
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URGENT MATTERS To note any items that
are a matter of urgency in the view of the Chair for consideration. Additional documents: Minutes: None to
note. |
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The Chair shall propose that the minutes of the previous
meeting of this committee held on 9th November, 2023 be signed as a true
record. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair
signed the minutes of the previous meeting of this committee held on 9 November
2023 as a true record. |
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GWYNEDD ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROJECT PDF 318 KB Cabinet
Members – Councillors Nia Jeffreys and Dyfrig Siencyn To submit a
report on the above. Additional documents: Decision: To accept the report and note the
observations. Minutes: The Leader and officers from the Economy and Community Department were
welcomed to the meeting. Submitted - the report of the Deputy Leader and Cabinet
Member for Economy Operational Matters invited the committee to scrutinise:- ·
The contents of the project
under the 'Prosperous Gwynedd' priority area in the Council Plan, which
aimed to create the best possible circumstances for businesses and community
enterprises to thrive, and support the people of Gwynedd into work; and ·
The progress of the Economy
and Community Department in implementing the project to trigger growth in
Gwynedd's economy. The Leader set the context and the Head of Economy
and Community Department outlined the content of the report and the Economic Development Manager /
North Wales Shared Prosperity Fund Manager elaborated on the specific steps in
terms of support for businesses. Since the time of writing the report, it was noted:- ·
That the process of
selecting projects that would receive funding from the Shared Prosperity Fund
had ended, and that over £3m would be distributed to businesses. ·
This was far below the 185
applications worth £10m that had been received, and should the Council have
more time and resources, then many more could certainly have been supported. ·
That the £1m available
through the Arfor programme had been distributed to 20 businesses and, once
again, the demand was much higher than the resources available. Members
were then given an opportunity to ask questions and submit observations. It was
noted that the UK Government's method of distributing funding from the Shared
Prosperity Fund was very defective. Specific
reference was made to the lack of regional and national projects, the lack of
strategy on a level higher than county level, the urgency to spend substantial
funding in a short period of time which meant prioritising projects that could
be realised quickly and the great uncertainty regarding what would happen after
April 2025. In response, it was noted
that some things were better provided on a national level, some on a regional
level, some on a county level and some on an even more local level, but that no
model was ideal. There was a need to
plan on which level allocations and decisions should be made, but there had
been no opportunity to do so in this case due to the timetable. It was
enquired whether some proposals were funded in their entirety and the rest were
being refused, or whether there was an element of partially funding some
schemes. In response, it was noted that
it had been decided not to fund some proposals in their entirety to be able to
support more businesses, and that all of the partially funded businesses had
confirmed that it was possible for them to deliver their project within the
timetable with less funding. It was asked whether the cost to the fund of employing additional officers to administrate the scheme included redundancy costs? A request was also made for information about the background of those officers and what would they be ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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EQUALITY OBJECTIVES CONSULTATION DOCUMENT 2024-28 PDF 35 KB Cabinet
Member – Councillor Menna Trenholme To submit a
report on the above. A lunch break
is planned for 12.00pm – 1.00pm Additional documents:
Decision: To accept the report and note the
observations. Minutes: The Cabinet Member for
Corporate Support and officers from the Corporate Support Department were
welcomed to the meeting. Submitted
- the report of the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support explaining that the
Council had a specific duty, as part of the Equality Act 2010, to review its
Equality Objectives by the end of March 2024, and she invited the input of the
scrutineers to the draft objectives. The Cabinet Member set out the context and thanked
the officers for all their work in this field. Members
were then given an opportunity to ask questions and submit observations. It was
noted that the most important thing to remember in terms of equality was that
the starting point was not the same for everyone and that sometimes the
starting point needed to be moved so that people with barriers which prevented
them from being equal in society could move forward. With that, it was asked which steps the
Council were taking, for example, to give jobs to people with those
inequalities and to give them an opportunity to step forward. In response, it was noted:- ·
That the intention of the objectives of the Strategic
Equality Plan was to try to move things forward for those people who
experienced inequality and that four objectives were working towards action
points on this. ·
That the first objective was involved with employment
and that this was in accordance with the guidance. ·
Consideration had also been given to what else that
needed to be done. The staff had been
asked to complete a questionnaire noting their characteristics, but many did
not do so for various reasons, but without this information, it was not
possible to know what the situation was within the Council and who needed the
most encouragement. As a result, it was
decided that actions points were required which would move this forward. ·
That the Council had a legal duty to be a welcoming
employer to all, and the right attitudes were needed within the organisation
operating in a manner that was welcoming to all and encouraged everyone to come
and work for us, e.g. it was possible to undertake reasonable adaptations to
the workplace for people who felt that they needed support to come and work for
the Council. ·
That there was room to improve this again and that
part of the Plan on employment set an ambition to undertake specific steps
towards ensuring that Gwynedd was the chosen employer for all. It was
enquired how more women could be attracted to senior managers' posts. In response, it was noted:- ·
That the Women in Leadership field was a priority
field within the Council and that a project working on changing the culture had
been in place for many years and making great progress. ·
That a pilot scheme was underway examining how job
application forms were being screened to ensure that there was no type of
unnecessary bias. · In terms of other characteristics, that an equality core group met on a quarterly basis and included ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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EDUCATION ANNUAL REPORTS Additional documents: Decision: To accept the report and note the
observations. Minutes: Officers of the Education Department and GwE were
welcomed to the meeting. |
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EDUCATION ANNUAL REPORT 2022-23 PDF 120 KB Cabinet
Member – Councillor Beca Brown To submit the Education Annual Report for 2022-23. Additional documents: Minutes: Submitted - Education Annual Report 2022-23. The Head
of Education Department set out the context noting his desire to facilitate the
scrutiny work by moving towards producing reports that would give more to
scrutineers in terms of what we faced, but less in terms of the bulk of
reports, which would also give more prominence to the challenge facing the
schools, the staff and supporting services. Members
were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. Disappointment
was expressed that there was no reference to special schools in the report. It
was noted that the report referred to the problem of recruiting classroom
assistants in the mainstream, but there was no mention of the special schools
where the problem was much worse. Although the work of assistants at the
special schools was very intense, it was also noted that they received the same
salary as mainstream assistants. In
response, it was noted:- ·
That no specific part of the report dealt with special
schools, but that services referred to encompassed the primary, secondary,
all-through and special sectors.
Possibly, this could be re-examined and the special sector could be
explained at the next annual report. ·
The problem of recruiting assistants was not unique to
Gwynedd. Should individuals work
full-time hours all-year round, it could be argued that they were on a fair
salary, but as they worked less than a usual working week, and during term time
only, it was difficult to attract people to the role. ·
There was work to be done to promote the jobs and
profession including a campaign on social media sites and discussions with
Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor with the aim of holding an event with the schools. ·
In terms of the special schools, there was a piece of
work to be undertaken in terms of evaluating jobs within those schools and
structures within the school which would, possibly, reflect the intensity of
the work faced compared to the mainstream. ·
There was also room to examine the duties carried out
by assistants on levels 1-4 in the schools to see if there were higher roles,
but below a teacher, that those individuals could undertake, such as covering
lessons and undertaking supply work as required. It was
enquired whether every school had now been informed of its linguistic category
and what exactly was intended to ensure that the new categorisation system
developed and embedded to deliver Gwynedd's ambition in this field. In response, it was noted:- ·
That work was already being undertaken in the
background in terms of commissioning an external consultant to work with the
Department in respect of the Language Policy, and that a timetable was in place
to get everything ready by the end of the current financial year. ·
That there would be an opportunity for members to be
part of the process of formulating the Language Policy, and it was intended to
report back to this committee in March on progress against the recommendations
of the Gwynedd Category 3 Secondary Schools Scrutiny Investigation. · What was ... view the full minutes text for item 8. |
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GWE ANNUAL REPORT 2022-23 PDF 569 KB To submit
the GwE Annual Report for 2022-23. Additional documents: Minutes: Submitted - GwE Annual Report 2022-23. The Senior Regional Leader -
Primary and Special Schools gave an overview of the contents of the report. Members
were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. It was
noted that it was wished to recognise and thank the classroom assistants for
giving their time to attend training and for giving their all when undertaking
the role at work every day. In response,
it was noted that it was agreed with the observation and that effective
assistants added substantial value to a school. It was
noted that it was heartbreaking that experienced assistants with many years'
experience and knowledge in the field were leaving to other jobs that paid a
better salary. It was
noted that the report was full of complimentary adjectival language and that
the first paragraph of the Executive Summary on the first page of the report
was repeated word for word under the Introduction and Context heading. In response, it was noted that the initial
paragraph that appeared in the Executive Summary and in the report, itself was
a quote from Estyn's findings on the service, not only locally in Gwynedd, but
consistently across the 6 authorities in north Wales authorities. It was
noted that there was no disagreement with the main improvement priorities, but
it was asked for assurance that the list of priorities would appear in the next
annual report and that any progress against those matters would be
reported. In response, it was noted:- ·
In terms of the reporting system, that the elements
identified as ones that needed developing would be incorporated in the business
plans. ·
That these improvement priorities were included in the
business plans that were currently operational, and when there would be an
opportunity to report again within a year, these would be the grounds to show
progress against the identified matters. It was
noted that there was no reference in the report to PISA tests and it was asked
how GwE intended to respond to the test results. In response, it was noted:- ·
That PISA tests were one of the Government's national
indicators as something that showed how effective the education system was, but
there was a risk in making statements on international tests. ·
If PISA tests would become a national indicator that
was counted and measured against, that a clear national strategy needed to be
in place which was supported from a government level for services such as GwE,
and also to a school level to ensure that our most able pupils received the
opportunities to show their ability. It was
asked how important good governors were for a school to progress and what were
GwE's expectations of governors. In
response, it was noted:- · That the role of a governor was to be a critical friend who worked in ... view the full minutes text for item 9. |
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POST-16 EDUCATION PROJECT IN ARFON PDF 214 KB Cabinet
Member – Councillor Beca Brown To submit a
report on the above. Additional documents: Decision: To accept the report and note the
observations. Minutes: Submitted – the report of the Cabinet Member for Education
detailing the journey of the Post-16 Education Project in Arfon over the past
five years and she invited observations from the scrutineers. Members
were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. Disappointment
was expressed about the report on the grounds:- ·
That there was no mention of reconciling post-16
education across Gwynedd. ·
Although the report referred to the academic side,
there was no reference to the vocational side and it was believed that
separating the two cohorts of children when they were 16 years old was a huge mistake. ·
That the advantage of a tertiary college was that it
kept learners together until they were 18 years old and it was sad that
children in Arfon did not get the same opportunity as children in Dwyfor and
Meirionnydd. In
response, it was noted that it was currently possible for pupils in Arfon to
study academic and vocational subjects through the sixth form in schools. Further
information was requested regarding the Iaith Cyf company which had been
commissioned to carry out research in the field on behalf of the Education
Department. In response, it was noted
that the Iaith Cyf company was an external company with several decades of
experience in linguistic planning and also experience in the field of education
and training. RESOLVED to accept the report and to note the
observations. |