Issue - meetings

To consider adopting the brief and to elect members to undertake the work of the Task and Finish group.

a)    To adopt the brief and add that the group will look at the Autism Plan in its entirety.

b)     To elect Councillor Jina Gwyrfai to be part of the Autism Plan Task and Finish Group.

c)     To engage with all members of the Care Scrutiny Committee via e-mail in order to receive two other names to be part of the Task and Finish Group.

The draft brief was submitted as members of the Care Scrutiny Committee had decided at their meeting in April that they had not received sufficient information about Gwynedd's Autism Plan. In light of this, they were eager to receive more detail about the service on offer and, therefore, it was resolved to establish a Task and Finish Group.

It was decided that the Task and Finish Group would include members of the Care Scrutiny Committee and the Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee, as well as representation from the Children's Department, Adults Department, Education Department and the Health Board. A request was made for three representatives from the Care Scrutiny Committee to undertake the work of the task and finish group.

During the discussion, the following observations were noted:

-        It was noted that the brief was very general and although the committee's decision in April had referred to a discussion on the implementation of the plan in its entirety with the new team, there was no reference to this in the brief.

o   In response, it was explained that this was an error, and the wording should correspond with the wording of what had been resolved at the committee meeting.

-        It was proposed that the Task and Finish Group examined the Autism Plan in its entirety initially and maybe it would be possible to implement or examine specific matters in more detail following the group's recommendations. It was resolved that this would be a fair way of giving the new team an opportunity to make a difference and to implement its work programme.

-        It was noted that more representation from the adults department would be beneficial as more than one team dealt with the matter and it was argued that it was essential for the Coordinator of the Autism Services Project to be part of the discussion.

It was explained that the Task and Finish Group would not be long, approximately 2-3 meetings at most. Councillor Jina Gwyrfai put her name forward to be a member of the Task and Finish Group. As all Committee members were not in attendance at the meeting, it was resolved that an e-mail would be sent to members of the Care Scrutiny Committee to enquire who else was interested in being part of the group. Should no names be put forward, then an invitation would be extended to the rest of the Council members. It was noted that representation from the Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee would be confirmed at the committee meeting on 9 November.

RESOLVED

a)     To adopt the brief and add that the group will look at the Autism Plan in its entirety.

b)     To elect Councillor Jina Gwyrfai to be part of the Autism Plan Task and Finish Group.

c)     To engage with all members of the Care Scrutiny Committee via e-mail in order to receive two other names to be part of the task and finish group.