Agenda, decisions and minutes

Cabinet Members and Officers were welcomed to the meeting.

No apologies were received.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no urgent items.

There were no matters arising from overview and scrutiny.

The Chairman signed the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on 12 March 2019, as a true record.

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. 

 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

The schemes shown in Appendix A were included in the capital programme for the three year period 2019/20; 2020/21 and 2021/22.

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.

The Forward Work Programme included with the meeting papers was approved. 

The item was submitted by Cllr Dyfrig Siencyn

DECISION

The Forward Work Programme included with the meeting papers was approved.