Venue: Siambr Hywel Dda, Council Offices, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL55 1SH
Contact: Annes Siôn 01286 679490
No. | Item |
---|---|
APOLOGIES Additional documents: Minutes: Cabinet Members and Officers were welcomed to the meeting. No apologies were received. |
|
DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST Additional documents: Minutes: There were no declarations of
interest. |
|
URGENT ITEMS Additional documents: Minutes: There were no urgent items. |
|
MATTERS ARISING FROM OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY Additional documents: Minutes: There were
no matters arising from overview and scrutiny. |
|
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 12 MARCH PDF 80 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Chairman signed the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held
on 12 March 2019, as a true record. |
|
RESTRUCTURING OF GWYNEDD LANGUAGE CENTRES PDF 157 KB Cyflwynwyd gan: Cyng. / Cllr Gareth Thomas Additional documents: Decision: Resolved
i.
To implement a
teacher and assistant staffing structure pilot, increasing the teacher : pupil
ratio at one Language Centre for a year, and to monitor it closely to identify
whether it affects the quality of the education and the children's attainment.
ii.
To remove the
TLR allowance for teachers at every Language Centre, and incorporate the
after-care as part of the core Language Centres provision, thus abolishing the
existing after-care post.
iii.
To enable more
time to consider the pilot findings, to approve funding to bridge the gap that
will continue to exist after implementing ii above until the findings of the
pilot are known. Minutes: The
item was submitted by Cllr GarethThomas
RESOLVED Resolved to:
i.
Implement a teacher
and assistant staffing structure pilot, increasing the teacher : pupil ratio at
one Language Centre for a year, and to monitor it closely to identify whether
it affects the quality of the education and the children's attainment.
ii.
Remove the TLR
allowance for teachers at every Language Centre, and incorporate the after-care
as part of the core Language Centres provision, thus abolishing the existing
after-care post.
iii.
Enable more time to
consider the pilot findings, to approve funding to bridge the gap that will
continue to exist after implementing ii above until the findings of the pilot
are known. DISCUSSION Submitted - the report noting there would be a need to
decide how the Council would address the need to reduce the Language Centres'
budget by £96,000. Attention was drawn to the fact that the language centres
were achieving outstanding work. It was added that an internal consultation had been held
with staff, unions and at various Council meetings. The background of the
Language Centres was explained noting that they had been funded by a grant from
the Welsh Language Board, with the Council providing match funding. It was
expressed that when the Welsh Language Board had been abolished, the Welsh
Government's Welsh in Education Grant had gone on to fund the Centres. It was
added that Welsh Government had brought 11 of the education grants together
under the heading of the Education Improvement Grant (EIG) and this included
the Welsh in Education Grant. It was expressed that the Education Improvement
Grant had been cut every year since 2014/15, and by taking inflation into
account, the cut was 34% in real terms, but it was added that over the years,
the Language Centres had received full protection throughout all of these cuts.
It was expressed that in 2018/19 that a cut of 10% had been made to the Welsh
Government's Education Improvement Grant, leading to a £61,000 deficit in the
Welsh Language Centres' budgets. It was noted that the Council had been able to
bridge this deficit for this year. Attention was drawn to the Foundation Phase which had seen a
reduction of 32% since 2014/15 which equated to £1.2 million or approximately
70 classroom assistants. It was expressed that the work of immersing Foundation
Phase children in the Welsh language was outstanding. It was expressed that the
Welsh Government's settlement for this year was neutral, however it was a cut
in real terms given inflation in salaries and pensions. Consequently, it was noted that the
reorganisation was needed in order to be cost efficient. It was expressed that an internal consultation had been carried out, in line with Human Resources guidelines. A list of organisations and individuals the Cabinet Member and the Education Department had received correspondence from in relation to the Language Centres was noted, namely Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, Cylch yr Iaith, Popeth Cymraeg, CYDAG, RhAG, Town and Community Councils, Merched y Wawr ... view the full minutes text for item 6. Awdur: Garem Jackson/ Debbie A W Jones |
|
REVIEW OF THE GWYNEDD STANDING ADVISORY COUNCIL ON RELIGIOUS EDUCATION CONSTITUTION PDF 132 KB Cyflwynwyd gan: Cyng. / Cllr Gareth Thomas Additional documents:
Decision: To
change the membership of Group A in the constitution as follows: -
Group A - Christianity - keep at 6 Propose to invite one
representative from the Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism,
Sikhism and the Humanist beliefs -
Group B - Representation of Teachers and Headteachers - keep at 5 -
Group C - Elected Members - keep at 7 -
Co-opted - SACRE Committee to retain the right to co-opt members -
there are 3 votes, namely 1 for each Group - the Co-opted members do not
have a vote It
was resolved to approve the Humanists’ request to join Group A on the Gwynedd
SACRE committee. Minutes: Submitted by Cllr Gareth Thomas DECISION To
change the membership of Group A in the constitution as follows: -
Group A - Christianity
- keep at 6 Propose
to invite one representative from the beliefs Buddhism,
Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Sikhism and the Humanists -
Group B -
Representation of Teachers and Headteachers - keep at 5 -
Group C - Elected
Members - keep at 7 -
Co-opted - SACRE
Committee to retain the right to co-opt members -
There are 3 votes,
namely 1 for each Group - the Co-opted members do not have a vote It was
resolved to approve the Humanists' request to join Group A on the Gwynedd SACRE
committee. DISCUSSION The report was submitted noting
that the Council had not considered the SACRE constitution since 1996. It was added that a letter from the Education
Minister in May 2018 had confirmed that it was possible to appoint
representatives from non-religious belief systems to Group A to ensure that
SACRE reflected the beliefs of the community.
It was expressed that a request had been received from Bangor Humanists
to join as member(s) of Group A on the Gwynedd SACRE Committee. It was expressed when considering
the request of the Humanists to join as a member of Group A, that it was timely
to give consideration to other beliefs to cover the variety of beliefs in
Gwynedd on the SACRE committee. Observations arising from the
discussion -
Attention was drawn to the fact that the number
of beliefs outside Christianity that were members of SACRE was very low, but it
was expressed that SACRE reflected the situation across the county. Awdur: Garem Jackson |
|
BEGIN LOCAL DISCUSSIONS ON OPENING A NEW PRIMARY SCHOOL IN CRICIETH PDF 510 KB Cyflwynwyd gan: Cyng. / Cllr Gareth Thomas Additional documents: Decision: Resolved a)
To approve the right to commence local
discussions in order to identify options for the construction of a new primary
school in Cricieth, due to the poor condition of Ysgol Treferthyr's existing
buildings. b)
To approve the inclusion of Ysgol
Llanystumdwy in the local discussions. Minutes: The report was submitted
by Cllr Gareth Thomas DECISION Resolved a)
To approve the right to commence local discussions
in order to identify options for the construction of a new primary school in Cricieth, due to the poor condition of Ysgol
Treferthyr's existing buildings. b)
To approve the inclusion
of Ysgol Llanystumdwy in the local
discussions DISCUSSION The report
was submitted noting the need to approve the right to commence local discussions in order to identify
options for the construction of a new primary school in Cricieth, and to authorise including Ysgol Llanystumdwy in
the discussions. It was expressed
that the Ysgol Treferthyr building was in poor condition and the surveys had identified several issues in terms of significant
defects in the construction which had designated the school in category C in
terms of its condition. It was added that Welsh Government had now commenced its second
phase of the 21st Century Schools Programme (Band B) which would begin
in April 2019. It was expressed that the Council had submitted an application following the prioritisation exercise noting that improving primary provision in Cricieth had been identified in this
application.
It was noted that
the department had learnt from the first wave of the 21st Century Schools Programme (Band A), that after constructing
new buildings for schools, their
numbers tended to increase. Consequently, it was noted that the number of pupils included in the applications would be based on the pupil
numbers of the school catchment rather than the numbers
at the school when the application was drawn up. It was noted
that Ysgol Llanystumdwy was attended
by a number of children from the Cricieth catchment-area
and it was noted that initial discussions had been held with
the Governing Body, Staff
and Parents to discuss the possible impact of building a new school. As a result of these discussions, it was expressed that the Governors had noted they were eager
to be part of the discussions.
Observations
arising from the discussion It was asked whether including
the catchment-area schools in the discussions added to the statutory process.
It was noted that holding the discussions with Ysgol Llanystumdwy would add to the work, as there would be a need to follow the Schools' Organisation Code. Councillor Gareth Thomas was thanked for
his work in his role as the Cabinet Member for Education and the Education Department's staff were also thanked. Awdur: Garem Jackson |
|
FURTHER EFFICIENCY SAVINGS 2019/20 PDF 50 KB Cyflwynwyd gan: Cyng. / Cllr Ioan Thomas Additional documents: Decision: Resolved to utilise £1,666,560 from the
Transformation Fund to repay the loan used to carry out the LED lamps saving
scheme and to bridge the period for delivering the scheme to take the whole of
the £184, 5000 saving into account in 2019/20. Minutes: Submitted
by Cllr Ioan Thomas DECISION Resolved to
utilise £1,666,560 from the Transformation Fund to repay the loan used to carry
out the LED lamps saving scheme and to bridge the period for delivering the
scheme to take the whole of the £184, 500 saving into account in 2019/20. DISCUSSION Submitted
- the report noting that the matter being discussed today was a relatively technical matter. It was expressed that he was eager for
the Cabinet to agree to utilise
£1,666,560 from the Transformation
Fund to repay the loan used to carry
out the LED lamps saving scheme and to bridge the period for delivering the scheme to take the whole of the £184, 500 saving into account in
2019/20. It was expressed
that the Council’s
Financial Strategy was based
on delivering a series of savings to limit the Council Tax increase
to 5.8%. It was added in order to limit this increase the strategy envisaged the need to find further
efficiency savings of
£500,000. It was expressed that
changing the procedure for repaying the scheme to install LED lamps in the remainder
of the county's street lights was one way of finding further efficiency savings. It was noted that the intention for the time being was to obtain a loan from Salix to fund the work and to repay the loan from the savings that would be realised. It was expressed that there was a difference between the savings that would be delivered and the repayment profile and it would be possible to realise £45,900 from next year's saving in light of this difference however it would increase significantly after repaying the loan in full in 2032/33. It was reiterated that the Scheme would be realised over a three year period and there would be a need to bridge the delivery phase to obtain the saving in full from 1 April 2019 and £1.39m would therefore be required as repayment and £0.28m required for the bridging period Awdur: Dilwyn Williams |
|
CAPITAL PROGRAMME 2019/2, 2020/21 AND 2021/22 PDF 60 KB Cyflwynwyd gan: Cyng. / Cllr Ioan Thomas Additional documents: Decision: The schemes shown in Appendix A were included in
the capital programme for the three year period 2019/20; 2020/21 and 2021/22. Minutes: Submitted by Cllr
Ioan Thomas DECISION The schemes shown in Appendix A were included in
the capital programme for the three year period 2019/20; 2020/21 and 2021/22. DISCUSSION The report was submitted noting the need to set the schemes for the Council's capital programme for the next three years.
It was expressed that the Council had adopted an Assets Plan for the next 10 years on 7 March. It was reiterated that normally, the capital programme was included in the report on
the budget but as the Council had not yet adopted the Assets Plan, it was
had not been possible to do
this in detail.
It was noted that consultation
had taken place with the departments to establish the likely profile for the individual schemes within the Assets Plan, and therefore it was recommended that the Cabinet approved including the schemes in the programme in the next three
years. It was expressed that the amount for 2019/20 did not correspond to the £11.728m noted in the report for
the budget. It was added that the reason for this was that
the schemes were not advanced enough to commence until 2021/22. Consequently, it
was noted that re-profiling work had been done to coincide
with the spending and the budget will be amended. Awdur: Caren Rees Jones |
|
CABINET FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME PDF 61 KB Cyflwynwyd gan: Cyng. / Cllr Dyfrig Siencyn Additional documents: Decision: The
Forward Work Programme included with the meeting papers was approved. Minutes: The item was submitted
by Cllr Dyfrig Siencyn DECISION The Forward
Work Programme included with the meeting papers was approved. |