Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member – Councillor Beca Brown

To submit a report on the above.

To accept the report and to note the observations and receive a progress report on the response to the recommendations in 9 months’ time.

The Cabinet Member for Education and officers from the Education Department and GwE were welcomed to the meeting.

The Cabinet Member's report on the Estyn report on education services in Cyngor Gwynedd was submitted requesting the committee to provide observations on the content of the report and to consider any scrutiny arrangements on the progress against the recommendations in the report in a timely manner.   

The Cabinet Member set out the context and thanked the Education Department and GwE for their thorough work supporting schools over the years, especially during the challenging post-Covid period.  She also paid a tribute to the work of teachers and staff in schools, and to the children and young people for all their efforts despite the pandemic and its intense side-effects.

Members were then given an opportunity to ask questions and submit observations. 

It was noted that the report was very strong and authority officers and GwE officers were thanked for all their support.

It was asked how the Authority intended to act on the Estyn recommendations in terms of improving monitoring, evaluating and promoting pupil attendance and strengthening provision to respond to the needs of pupils with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and ensuring monitoring arrangements and improving the quality of that provision. The following was noted in response:-

·         That the decline in pupil attendance was a trend seen nationally.

·         The accompanying grant for this field was used to appoint 3 officers in the Welfare Team to look at continuous absences, more frequent absences or significant attendance difficulties in school, freeing up the usual welfare officers attached to schools to target absences such as taking holidays during school term or missing the same day over a period of time along with looking at the codes schools use in terms of the registers.

·         That detailed reports were provided in terms of monthly attendance, and that there was also weekly data that looked at the trends, targeting specific schools and working with families in a bid to increase attendance.

·         That attendance was a duty for everyone, and not just the welfare officers, and an attendance campaign was planned over the year to raise awareness about the importance of attending school regularly and how not attending had an impact on school and pupil outcomes.

·         In terms of inclusion, Mrs Caroline Rees, who produced a report on the service in 2019-20, would conduct another inspection in December, specifically on inclusion, and make recommendations on how to strengthen provision.

·         That steps had already been put in place to strengthen monitoring processes around the secondary hubs, etc.

It was noted that the report recognised that the multimedia resources used in the immersion centres to reinforce language and vocabulary patterns were valuable and questioned whether there was a proactive all-Wales effort to promote and disseminate them. In response, it was noted that this was certainly something to consider.
 

It was noted that a comment had been made in the Audit Wales Report that the scrutiny committees did not scrutinise items/projects in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5