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APOLOGIES To receive any apologies for absence. Additional documents: Minutes: Apologies were
received from Councillors Dewi Owen, Peter Read and Gareth A. Roberts, and Rita
Price (Catholic Church). |
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DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST To receive any declaration of personal interest. Additional documents: Minutes: (i)
Councillor Eryl Jones-Williams declared a personal
interest in Item 5 - North Wales Population Needs Assessment and that he would
withdraw from the Chamber should a specific discussion regarding home care
payments be held. (ii)
Similarly, Councillor Linda Ann Wyn Jones declared
a personal interest in Item 5 - North Wales Population Needs Assessment and
that she would withdraw from the Chamber should a specific discussion regarding
learning disability matters be held. |
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URGENT BUSINESS To note any items that are a
matter of urgency in the view of the Chairman for consideration. Additional documents: Minutes: There were
no urgent business. |
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The
Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the meeting of this Committee held
on the 17 November 2016, be signed as a true copy. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chair signed the minutes of the previous meeting of this Committee
held on 17 November 2016 subject to the following: (a) Item 2 - Statement from
the Chair Councillor Alwyn
Gruffydd reported that there was no reference in the previous minutes to his
dissatisfaction regarding the fact that members were not aware of the intention
of the Head of Education to lead on an interim period on a piece of work in
relation to recent changes / strengths and weaknesses of GwE's current
arrangements. At the previous meeting,
the Portfolio Cabinet Member noted that he was aware of the above intention but
that it was the Chief Executive's responsibility to address the matter. In response, the Senior Corporate Support
Manager reminded members that the matter had been fully discussed with the
Chief Executive at the preparatory meeting of this Scrutiny Committee on 13
December 2016, and it had been resolved at this meeting that there was probably
an intention to submit a report on the outcomes of work by the Head of
Education on GwE to the meeting of the Services Scrutiny Committee in March
2017. Whilst accepting
that an explanation had been received at the preparatory meeting of this
Scrutiny Committee on 13 December 2016, the Member was strongly of the opinion
that the matter should have been fully discussed at a public meeting so that
Members and electors were fully aware of the situation. (b) Item 4 (c) - GwE Report To correct the
second sentence in point (c) to read: "However,
one member felt that this should have already taken place and specific
reference was made to four gifted head teachers who had been lost to GwE over
recent months within the catchment area of one school". - (and not within
his Ward as noted in the previous minutes). |
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NORTH WALES POPULATION ASSESSMENT DRAFT REPORT Cabinet Members: Cllr. Mair Rowlands – Children and Young
People Cllr. W. Gareth Roberts – Adults, Health and
Welfare To consider
a report by both the Cabinet Members on the above. (Copy
enclosed) 10.00 a.m. –
10.45 a.m. Additional documents: Minutes: Submitted - a draft report of the North Wales
Population Needs Assessment produced in accordance with the requirement of the
Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. The Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and
Well-being provided the background. He was of the opinion that people needed to
be encouraged to take responsibility for their health and future early enough
in order to make life easier and more comfortable should their health
deteriorate. He explained that this
could involve moving to smaller houses, moving closer to family etc. in order
to receive support whilst living independently. He emphasised that steps needed to be
tailored to individuals' needs but that people should think about the future
whilst they were still healthy and independent. In response to the above, a Member disagreed
with the above observation. Another
Member added that the main problem was the difficulty for individuals to accept
that their health was deteriorating and some suffered with dementia with
everyone wishing to retain their independence. Members were given an opportunity to offer
observations on the content of the report and the following points were
highlighted for further consideration: (a)
This type of assessment was welcomed but there was
concern about the influx of individuals who had retired to European countries
who could come to Gwynedd, in light of the European referendum result. Should this happen, it was asked whether or
not any provision for this was being considered. (b)
Learning Disabilities - it was welcomed that the
provision was being supported but there was no reference in the document to
collaboration with the mental health service.
(c)
Emphasis and assurance should be placed on the
language needs of service users (ch)The value of volunteers' unpaid
contributions should be recognised (d)
Schemes to develop services and support to tackle
loneliness were welcomed but there was concern about the continuation of such
schemes in relation to funding them in future.
Specific reference was made to the Ffrindia' Scheme which appeared to be
a success but it was coming to an end; as a result, it would affect those
people who had taken advantage of the scheme. (dd)In terms of increasing extra care
housing provision, an appeal was made for the Service to share information with elected members
about future plans. (e)
In relation to future
needs, there was a need to empower communities and as a result that there was
an important role to identify ageing individuals. The need to be confident to contact
individuals in their communities was added as rural areas did not often receive
services from the third sector. (f)
Engagement - a request was made for details
regarding who contributed to the questionnaire that had been sent to users. (ff) It should be recognised that provision for children and young people with severe and complex needs was costly. Reference to the needs of the autism spectrum disorder was welcomed and attention was drawn to the need to collaborate with relevant services in this context in terms of provision. Attention ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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SCRUTINY INVESTIGATION - FROM HOSPITAL TO THE HOME Cabinet Member: Cllr. W. Gareth Roberts To consider
the final report of the above Scrutiny Investigation. (Copy
enclosed) 10.45 a.m. –
11.15 a.m. Additional documents:
Minutes: Submitted - a report outlining the progress made against the
recommendations of the 'From Hospital to Home' Scrutiny Investigation. The Cabinet Member
for Adults, Health and Well-being took pride in the work undertaken thus far
regarding the recommendations and that some of them had already been achieved. The observations
made by individual Members were responded to as follows: (i)
that it was premature to evaluate the Llys Cadfan
project as work was progressing in two parts and the first part was nearly
complete. A further discussion would be
held on 6 February 2017 to consider where an investment could be made and it
was confirmed that there was an intention to develop such a provision in other
locations and, without being specific, that there was evidence of demand,
especially in the south of the County. (i)
It was explained that Gwynedd did not have a dual
registration provision throughout Gwynedd, but that discussions were being held
with CSSIW about schemes to address the need that would make a difference to
the provision. (ii)
It was agreed that the language needs of the
patient was very important and that the Health Board had begun handing out
leaflets on wards asking in which language the patient wished to speak. (iii)
That work and discussions were underway regarding
collaborating with surgeries as well as extending the opening hours of
Community Hospitals and developing them as hubs. (iv)
Following a Member's recent experience of the
Concerns' Department, the system was explained and it was ensured that formal
complaints were addressed. (v)
It was assured that an analysis of the £1.3m
funding for Intermediate Care would be shared for information with Members of
this Scrutiny Committee. (vi)
In terms of sharing information with nurses /
doctors of what was available by the third sector, as part of Ysbyty Alltwen's
work, it was explained that staff gathered information but that more work
needed to be achieved in this context. (vii)
In the context of providing packages for patients
when they were discharged from Hospital, the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health
Board Regional Director - West, assured that she would soon hold a discussion
at a meeting with Matrons to verify the situation and what happened when an
area nurse was not available. In response to the
observation made regarding language needs, a number of Members further noted
that formulating a question correctly was all important and that a bilingual
service should be offered as a totally natural part of the service. It was noted that Dwyfor Surgeries worked well and the observation that
the out of hours service would be extended was welcomed. The opportunity was taken to congratulate the
Service on the implementation of the recommendations. Resolved: To accept, note and thank the officer for
the report. |
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SCHOOL LEADERSHIP ALTERNATIVE MODELS Cabinet Member: Cllr. Gareth Thomas To receive
a presentation on the above. 11.45 a.m. –
12.00 Additional documents: Minutes: A slide presentation
was received by an Area Education
Officer, and he outlined various
models for different types of schools for the future. Model 1 - with a Head
Teacher, Assistant Head Teacher, 1 budget and 1 Governing Body Model 2 - with a Strategic
Head Teacher, Assistant Head Teacher, separate budgets and Governing Bodies Model 3 - with a Strategic
Head Teacher, Assistant Head Teacher, separate budgets and 1 Governing Body Model 4 - with a Strategic
Head Teacher, Assistant Head Teacher, 1 budget and 1 governing body in a multi-site
all-through school Model 5 - with a Head
Teacher, Assistant Head Teacher, 1 budget and 1 governing
body in a single site all-through school Model 6 - with
a Head Teacher, Assistant Head Teacher, 1 budget, 1 governing body in a Lifelong
Learning school - multi-site or single
site (3 - 18 years old) Following consideration of the principles, it was noted that
no model responded to the requirements of every catchment area and that requirements
would need to be considered in the areas. The above models were
an attempt to make the role of leading a school attractive bearing in mind the pressures
on school leaders and the fact that recruiting
school leaders had recently been difficult. The Cabinet Member for Education
referred to an example of model 2 that worked successfully in the Ardudwy catchment area. In terms of timetable,
discussions had recently been held with
school staff / governors / parents to highlight the recruitment problem and to seek a solution at grass roots level. Applications from Head Teachers
to discuss possibilities in some catchment
areas had been received and the importance of holding discussions with Area Officers and
Head Teachers in order to ascertain
requirements locally per catchment area was noted. Resolved: To accept, note and
thank the officer for the presentation whilst looking forward to see the outcomes of local discussions. |
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WELSH EDUCATION SCRUTINY INVESTIGATION - PROGRESS REPORT Cabinet Member: Cllr. Gareth Thomas To consider the following: (a) Progress report on actions taken
on the recommendations of
the Scrutiny Investigation (b) A report by Mr Alun Charles, External Consultant, on implementing the recommendations. (Copies enclosed) 12.00 – 1.00 p.m. Additional documents:
Minutes: Mr Alun Charles, External consultant, was welcomed to the meeting and he
gave a slide presentation on his study on the implementation of the Council's
Language Policy in Gwynedd primary and secondary schools and he explained in
detail what had led to the recommendations within the report. During the ensuing discussion, the following observations were
highlighted: (i)
Progress Report of the Education Service on the recommendations of the
Welsh-Medium Education Scrutiny Investigation: A Member noted
that he had submitted specific questions regarding responses to tracking
progress of recommendations deriving from the work of the Welsh-Medium
Education Scrutiny Investigation, and that, thus far, he had not received a
positive response to: ·
Did the Education Service have powers to intervene
to ensure that implementation of the Language Policy was strengthened and
standardised and how many of these had been used? ·
Had all governors received training on the language
policy despite the Education Service stating that training had been programmed
for Summer 2017? ·
It was unclear whether or not steps had been taken
in relation to immersion education at Ysgol Ardudwy. ·
It was
noted that the Council, along with Welsh Government, had given full
consideration to establishing a specific Language Centre for the Bangor catchment
area; with the potential arrival of Wylfa Newydd in the context of education,
and the Welsh language specifically, it is expected that a number of the new
workforce will settle in the Arfon area. It was asked how many immersion
centres, extra teachers, language centres etc. would be required to mitigate
the impact of Wylfa Newydd on the Welsh language, how much would it cost and
who would pay? (ii)
External Study: (a) Reference was made to the fact that the percentages of Welsh language
use was higher in KS2 than KS3. It was
suggested that use of the Welsh language needed to be strengthened when pupils
transferred from KS2 to KS3, especially when considering the good work
undertaken to use Welsh in KS2 and the Language Centres which was then hindered
in KS3 when pupils chose to study subjects / sit examinations through the
medium of English. (b) A concern that 6th form colleges lost pupils and that some were willing
to travel far in order to follow courses through the medium of English which,
therefore, hindered the colleges' number of pupils. It was felt that this matter needed to be
addressed. (c) That consistency was difficult especially for schools located along the
coast and that parents tended to send their children to the private
sector. (d) A need to raise parents' awareness of the advantages of a bilingual
society and that children missed out if the Welsh language was not part of the
curriculum. (e) It was a shame that a rural school in a specific area was in the
bilingual category and that a nearby urban school was Welsh-medium. (f) Disappointment was expressed at the study as it justified the situation as it was and that an opportunity had been missed as it responded ... view the full minutes text for item 8. |