Agenda item

Cabinet Member – Councillor Beca Brown

 

To submit the Education Annual Report for 2022-23.

Submitted - Education Annual Report 2022-23.

 

The Head of Education Department set out the context noting his desire to facilitate the scrutiny work by moving towards producing reports that would give more to scrutineers in terms of what we faced, but less in terms of the bulk of reports, which would also give more prominence to the challenge facing the schools, the staff and supporting services.

 

Members were given an opportunity to ask questions and offer observations. 

 

Disappointment was expressed that there was no reference to special schools in the report. It was noted that the report referred to the problem of recruiting classroom assistants in the mainstream, but there was no mention of the special schools where the problem was much worse. Although the work of assistants at the special schools was very intense, it was also noted that they received the same salary as mainstream assistants.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That no specific part of the report dealt with special schools, but that services referred to encompassed the primary, secondary, all-through and special sectors.  Possibly, this could be re-examined and the special sector could be explained at the next annual report.

·         The problem of recruiting assistants was not unique to Gwynedd.  Should individuals work full-time hours all-year round, it could be argued that they were on a fair salary, but as they worked less than a usual working week, and during term time only, it was difficult to attract people to the role.

·         There was work to be done to promote the jobs and profession including a campaign on social media sites and discussions with Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor with the aim of holding an event with the schools.

·         In terms of the special schools, there was a piece of work to be undertaken in terms of evaluating jobs within those schools and structures within the school which would, possibly, reflect the intensity of the work faced compared to the mainstream.

·         There was also room to examine the duties carried out by assistants on levels 1-4 in the schools to see if there were higher roles, but below a teacher, that those individuals could undertake, such as covering lessons and undertaking supply work as required.

 

It was enquired whether every school had now been informed of its linguistic category and what exactly was intended to ensure that the new categorisation system developed and embedded to deliver Gwynedd's ambition in this field.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That work was already being undertaken in the background in terms of commissioning an external consultant to work with the Department in respect of the Language Policy, and that a timetable was in place to get everything ready by the end of the current financial year. 

·         That there would be an opportunity for members to be part of the process of formulating the Language Policy, and it was intended to report back to this committee in March on progress against the recommendations of the Gwynedd Category 3 Secondary Schools Scrutiny Investigation.

·         What was being said regarding the pressures in terms of the language, the language categorisation etc. was understood and the Head of Department would work with the team to put this together.

·         That the schools were aware of their category.

·         That the categorisation was currently non-statutory guidance, but it would be statutory in the Welsh Language Education Bill. 

·         That the categorisation was not necessarily going to drive our ambition in Gwynedd, but rather the policy and provision within the schools.  With that, it was believed that the work being carried out in terms of policy and working with schools and stakeholders was more important than the national categorisation system which, in essence, was a comparatively administrative system.

·         That the Department collected data on the current provision that schools had and also asked every school to share priorities in terms of developing, maintaining and increasing the Welsh language provision.

·         That the Department also scrutinised the Welsh language priorities with the GwE Supporting Improvement Advisor, who was responsible for the Welsh language, and also worked with GwE to provide guidance and support for specific schools on the priorities of their school development plan.

·         With regards to the Welsh Language Education Bill, that the Department also examined the financial implications of transferring to the new system and how much the provision and support would mean to us financially as an Authority when it would come into force.

 

⁠The importance of seeing the linguistic data was emphasised.  In response, it was noted that the data was being collected annually and shared with several stakeholders.

 

Concern was expressed that the Authority had little supervision of the implementation of the Welsh Language Charter and the Secondary Sector Language Strategy and, by speaking to some schools, it appeared that they did not have a charter scheme, and that they only completed an annual questionnaire.  In light of this, it was recommended that a priority be added to the report that the Authority would have more supervision of the implementation of the Welsh Language Charter and the Secondary Sector Language Strategy in our schools, and also produced a report for each school.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That the Welsh Language Charter would be relaunched in its new form at the Urdd Eisteddfod this year, and there were plans to promote it on a national scale.

·         Following the relaunch, it was intended to recommence the accreditation process so that schools could apply for a gold, silver or bronze award to recognise their efforts.

·         That a Welsh Language Charter Coordinator and Secondary Sector Language Strategy Coordinator were providing support to the schools and also worked very closely with GwE to ensure that grant funding of the Language Charter was being spent specifically to meet the linguistic needs of the different catchment areas.  Very good work was being undertaken in the catchment areas in terms of providing experiences, and also developing staff training regarding the values of using the Welsh language socially.

·         That the Catchment Language Coordinators coordinated the feeding of information to the Welsh Language Charter Coordinator and that the work was being monitored and ongoing.

·         That children in every school responded to questionnaires about their social use of the Welsh language and that this then presented a Language Web to the school so that it was possible to identify strengths and areas for development in the context of the Welsh language socially. 

·         That the School Council, alongside teachers, was drawing up an action plan to develop the specific areas that needed to be addressed and that the Authority monitored this work, and also worked on a national level to ensure that this occurred across Wales.

·         That the Language Web and actions within the schools would be scrutinised even further as a result of reintroducing the accreditation process.

 

It was noted that there was no foreword to the annual report recognising the support and contribution of governors, or the learners either, when implementing educational strategies.  In response, it was noted that this was something of an omission and that children, young people, governors and the entire community that supported the education sector should have been thanked.

 

It was suggested that the report was lacking in evidence, e.g. figures / percentages, to support and justify what had been noted.  In response, it was noted that it was intended to move away from the idea that reports did not always highlight a weakness, by providing reports that also underlined the challenges to strike a balance.  Along with the intention to provide a timeline on targets when setting future priorities, this meant that it would be much easier to report to scrutineers next years in the annual report.

 

A request was made for an update on the situation in terms of recruiting educational psychologists as this was a matter of priority.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That the situation had not improved and it was intended to send a joint letter to the Government between Gwynedd, Anglesey and Conwy Councils drawing attention once again to the concern regarding the training method and the difficulty in recruiting bilingual psychologists.

·         It may be possible for the Department to recruit individuals who were finishing their training for the next academic year.

 

Concern was expressed that the increase in the number of children with profound needs and very challenging behaviour attending the ABC centres could put more pressure on the two special schools in the county which were nearing, or had reached, full capacity.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That the Early Years Additional Learning Needs Team included teachers who supported the cylchoedd meithrin as well as a small team that supported children with additional learning needs in the early years.

·         That children were now identified early and that comprehensive individual development plans were being prepared for them before they started school.

·         That considerable increase had been seen in recent years in the number of children with additional needs as the Service had intentionally proceeded to look for children, or to provide for children with needs in the early years, but the numbers had now reconciled.

·         Although the numbers were fairly consistent in terms of early years referrals, that the density was higher and the Service responded to this.

·         That the purpose of the ABC centres, if they worked effectively, was to prevent children from reaching special schools by equipping them with the social skills etc. they needed to be able to cope with mainstream education.

·         This did not always work and it was true to say that there was a pathway from the ABC centres to the special schools. 

·         That the Service also examined how to up-skill the mainstream schools in terms of young children being admitted with more complex difficulties, and to develop the collaboration between the special schools and the mainstream, by sharing good practice.

·         That the capacity of the special schools was a problem and that the Authority was looking into this.  There was no short-term solution but a discussion needed to be held with the special schools regarding the best way to release space in the classrooms.

 

Concern was expressed regarding the waiting times for neuro-developmental assessments and a request was made for further information about the collaboration with the Neuro-developmental Team to try to address the issue.  In response, it was noted:

·         That considerable investment had been made by the Government, not as much in the education sector, but in other services in terms of supporting learners with neuro-developmental difficulties.

·         That a lot of children were referred but that not all of them would ultimately get a diagnosis.

·         In terms of the education system, the diagnosis was not examined, but rather the needs being reported.

·         That the work undertaken jointly with other teams in the field included mapping out what everyone provided as support, ensuring that no efforts were duplicated and making the best of the resources that everyone had, and also perhaps examining what training was required and the input to families.

·         That everything needed to be simplified across the children, health and education services to make things easier for families so that they received key input.

 

It was asked what the Department was doing to try to get more teachers and assistants to apply for the vacant posts in some schools.  It was noted that children's behaviour towards teachers had substantially worsened as a result of the Covid period and this was why the presence of an assistant in the class was so important.
  It was also noted that it was difficult to recruit Welsh speakers to schools in the Tywyn area, and it was asked how it was intended to find the people with the best qualifications to come to work at the new Language Centre that would open in Tywyn.   In response, it was noted:-

·         That we had a real challenge in Gwynedd in terms of inclusion and behaviour in the schools and that this had been highlighted in Estyn's report.

·         That the Department was currently giving priority to Estyn recommendations and examining plans that would ensure better provision across the primary and secondary sectors for children with increasing challenging behaviours.

·         That these challenging behaviours, as well as the increased workload, were certainly having an impact on recruiting staff to the profession.  It was also noted that it was becoming increasingly difficult to recruit headteachers and that several current headteachers were teaching for 3-4 days a week on top of the responsibility of being a headteacher.

·         There was possibly a need to look at creating some sort of campaign to recruit teachers and assistants for Gwynedd, and the best people to sell the profession were the teachers and headteachers themselves.  Although there were challenging behaviours, there were much more positive than negative experiences in the classroom, and this needed to be promoted.

 

It was noted that the recruitment issues were not unique to Gwynedd and that pressure should be placed on the Welsh Government for more funding for teachers' pay, or otherwise, we would potentially be looking at the closure of rural schools due to a teacher shortage.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That the financial situation in our schools was difficult with 38 schools in a situation of over-staffing, and this with a 3% cut over three years.

·         That there was a reduction in the number of children across the county which further contributed towards the deficit and made headteachers' situation difficult as they would have to make difficult decisions over the next few weeks and months in terms of staffing structure and how to proceed in the future.

·         ⁠That this was the most challenging period ever seen in the world of education and it appeared that several people who had the ability to step into a headteacher's post had decided to wait until the wave had passed before taking that step.

 

It was noted that the pay and work conditions made it difficult to recruit teachers and that the actual hours teachers worked made the pay per hour relatively small.

 

It was enquired how it was intended to cope with the lack of headteachers over the next few years.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That the new Education Strategy would be an opportunity to discuss this with the schools.

·         That the potential solutions included working with headteachers in other schools and encouraging people who hold back from applying for a headteacher's post to step forward to fill the gap, even if this was only on a temporary basis, accepting that maintaining this type of administration, which was not resilient, would place additional pressure on the Education Department and GwE.

 

Reference was made to the difficulties of recruiting technicians in schools and it was asked what different ways were available to support schools in terms of IT provision.   In response, it was noted:-

·         That there was a problem in recruiting science technicians, as well as IT technicians.

·         As well as sharing technicians with other schools, that the Council's central technicians had been providing an outreach service to support technical work in schools that could not appoint a technician, but that a technician was required there and then for the majority of tasks.

·         That the Department had been working with Bangor University to see if there were students who would be interested in undertaking this type of work, but unfortunately, the salaries did not attract these type of individuals.

·         That the Department had also been working with Coleg Meirion Dwyfor and schools, e.g. to see if anyone would be interested in taking a gap year after A Levels to do this type of work, and although it was managed to get a few names, those individuals had not followed on with the offer.

·         That the Digital Strategy was aiming to increase the skills of learners so that they left school with digital skills that would enable them to deliver these posts in due course.

·         There was a need to try to reduce the demand for technicians initially by upgrading the devices currently in schools, although, it must be borne in mind of course that the increase in the number of devices across the county would lead to more demand for technical support.

 

It was suggested that the result of cuts in school budgets would be larger classes and it was asked to what extent it was anticipated that the curriculum would need to be limited to do right by the core subjects by assigning more hours for them as classes would be larger, and to what extent this would then militate against the type of developments that were part of the new curriculum.  In response, it was noted:-

·         When drawing up lesson timetables, that schools always started with the core subjects and built on this.

·         As the new curriculum comes into force, it was anticipated that it could become more difficult for smaller schools to strike the balance across the five areas of learning and experience due to the need for all of the expertise and staffing variety, but in terms of class size, schools should have viable classes that can learn.

·         That the inclusion system and all of the available support should ensure that a school never reaches a point of having to assign more hours for the core subjects.

·         That it was not anticipated that the new curriculum would be limited, but schools would certainly face challenges in moving forward.

 

It was noticed that there was no reference in the report to the system of returning children who attended the language centres to the mother school on the fifth day of the week.  In response, as the immersion system in Gwynedd in its new form had now completed a whole year cycle, it was noted that the Service had proceeded to consult and engage with stakeholders about an evaluation of that system.  Once the observations would be collated and the process completed, the matter would be brought before this committee for scrutiny.

 

It was noted that there was great concern in one area of the county in particular that returning children from the language centres to the mother school for 1 day a week was affecting the language used on the school playground.  It was noted that a member had intended to submit a question about this to the last Full Council meeting, but it had been refused.  In response, should an evaluation of the system prove that the system needed to change, it was noted that the Serious would examine this seriously.

 

In response to a question, it was explained that there would be a review of the immersion system in an internal review, but it would include all voices.

 

It was asked how many children with English as an Additional Language were there in Gwynedd, especially in the primary sector.  In response, it was noted that the exact figure could be provided for the member.

 

It was asked about the Language Policy situation in terms of children who did not speak English or Welsh, and it was asked why they were not, at least in the primary sector, proceeding to learn Welsh immediately.  It was also asked which lessons could be learnt by examining the English learning system, which was also a specialist linguistic field.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That children who did not speak English or Welsh were being admitted immediately to the language centres, and that they also learnt English as an additional language. There was no policy stating that children had to learn English first.

·         That 4% of the children in the language centres last term were children who had arrived without any Welsh or English.

·         That the Service and the English as an Additional Language Team shared immersion values and principles, and also held training with schools that had seen a substantial influx of children who did not speak English or Welsh.

·         It was attempted to ensure that children did not receive input from both teams at the same time and that they initially attended the language centres and then received support from the English as an Additional Language Team.

 

It was noted that:-

·         The Youth Service had been located in three different Council departments over the past two years, and it had also been through quite a substantial restructuring process.

·         The report mentioned looking at new budgetary opportunities, and it was enquired what was meant by this.

·         That a questionnaire shared with young people before Christmas was very complicated and that this raised concern regarding the reliability of the consultation.

·         Would a review of the Service involve undertaking a full consultation or only providing a questionnaire?

 

In response, it was noted:-

·         The Youth Service would be welcomed to the Education Department and it was believed that this was its natural home within the Council given the special work the Service carried out with schools.

·         Good work was also being undertaken with young people leaving schools, and who possibly, needed support to move on in terms of their working life and training etc., and this fitted in well within the education system.

·         The community youth work was being funded by different financial sources and grants etc., and it was wished to examine the consistency of provision across the areas.

·         The youth support in terms of schools was consistent and available for all schools and that the work, which was undertaken on a multi-agency basis, was praised.

·         The exceptionally good work in terms of post-16 learners was being undertaken in accordance with the framework to support learners who left education and training.

·         In terms of the observation regarding the complexity of the questionnaires, that the Service would examine this and ensure that the content was clear and coherent for all.

·         In terms of financial implications, although there was a cut to the Youth Service in terms of the cuts highlighted, that the Service had been fortunate to some extent that empty posts etc. meant that it was possible to cut without losing key individuals from the service.

 

It was noted that:-

·         It was disagreed that the Education Department was the perfect place for the Youth Service and that it should be a separate service that bridged several departments given that the Council Plan for the next five years referred to the importance of providing leisure and socialising opportunities beyond an education establishment for children and young people. 

·         That an increase had been seen in the number of young people finding it difficult to be part of normal education since the pandemic period, and that the Youth Service was very important, almost as a preventative service, so that young people did not get into a difficult situation.

·         That the work currently carried out by the Youth Service with scarce resources was unbelievable.

·         That the excellent provision offered by the Porthi Dre charity in Caernarfon did a massive different to the well-being of young people.

·         That the report mentioned that 1,300 accreditations had been completed by young people and, although this was a success to the young people, a serious question should be asked in terms of the ultimate value of these accreditations.  It was asked whether the Service contacted those young people who had completed accreditations in the past to enquire if those accreditations had helped them to find work or training.  Although the priority was for young people to get the opportunity to interact and socialise, it was also noted that the need to complete accreditations could also be a stumbling block for young people to engage with the Youth Service. 

·         That the report noted that the Youth Service had engaged with 65% of young people from Tier 1 and 2 (Number of Gwynedd's most vulnerable young people), which meant that it had not been managed to engage with the other 35%.  While recognising that it was not possible to reach everyone, and that there had been a great increase in demand, it was asked what advance planning was being undertaken to ensure that the demand could be better reached.

 

In response, it was noted:-

·         That the answer in terms of how to get more to engage with the Youth Service could be seen in the fact that the Service worked with children within the schools, and work with them in a different way to teachers and assistants.

·         It was agreed that the need to complete accreditations could be a stumbling block for young people to engage with the Youth Service, and this needed to be examined.  However, some young people, such as individuals who did not engage as well in school, received real value from the accreditations as they allowed them to have better access to further education etc. that they would not have had through the school curriculum alone.

·         In terms of encouraging more young people to be part of the Youth Service, a strategy on promoting the Service was underway and, possibly, visiting Porthi Dre would be one way of getting young people to better engage with the Youth Service.

 

The teachers' unions representative noted that she had questions for the Head of Education and GwE Managing Director but, unfortunately, she had to leave the meeting. GwE's Managing Director asked her to e-mail him the questions so that he could respond directly.

 

It was noticed that the report noted that 99.16% of school staff had an up-to-date DBS, which was a very high percentage, but it should be 100%, and it was asked whether the fact applications were being processed etc. was the reason for this.  In response, it was noted:

·         That the percentage should clearly be 100% and that the Department was working towards this.  Despite this, reaching 100% was nearly impossible, especially if individuals had been suspended from work and, therefore, failing to process their DBS, but still on the payroll until the investigation was ongoing.  Also, there were supply teachers, who did not teach any more but had remained on the Authority's list, and one or two individuals awaiting their results etc. in terms of the DBS.

·         That the Authority had a list noting in which schools and services the individuals without a DBS were based and that a Safeguarding Officer would contact each one of them on a monthly basis to ensure that the number was as low as it could be.

·         That the number of staff without an up-to-date DBS had reduced from 96 to 26 in 3 months.

 

It was asked whether or not it could be clear if the number of children receiving school meals was on the rise, and whether campaigns to get children to eat healthily affected this.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That the offer of free lunch for primary sector learners from Reception to Year 6 had been operational in Gwynedd since the beginning of last September, and although the provision was available for children, that work still needed to be undertaken in terms of completing the installation of kitchen equipment etc.

·         An increase had been seen in the number of children receiving school meals since September, although, possibly, that this increase had not been as much as expected in some schools, and there was room to promote the offer a bit more.

·         Some still thought possibly that the offer was not open to all and that the sense of stigma surrounding free school meals remained.

·         That it was intended to submit a report to this committee in March on the Free School Meal Project and, by then, the Department would have gathered headteachers' opinions about what increase they felt they had seen in their schools, whether it had improved the healthy eating element by children and whether or not it had positively affected the behaviours or education of the children during periods after lunch.

·         That the Department also worked with two schools on a pilot scheme to find out to what extent more intensive work could be carried out with some families to try to encourage them to take advantage of the offer.

 

It was noted that the school day could be expensive for parents, and it was asked whether work was underway to assess if there were children missing school as their parents could not afford everything that was required.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That work was currently being undertaken to specifically examine the cost of sending a child to school in Gwynedd.

·         That parents' response so far to the questionnaires sent to stakeholders had been good, explaining the frustration, not only in terms of the fact that there were costs, but that those costs tended to occur at the same time.  The Department would also examine whether there were comments about attendance in particular when responses would come in.

 

It was enquired what was the reason for the gap between what was in the budget and the actual cost of school transport.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That the transport budget in Gwynedd had been overspending for many years and that this had to be examined over the next few weeks and months.

·         That the situation was complex and the transport budget was difficult to manage for several reasons, including children moving schools, children moving in and out of care, some children with special needs that were being met outside the local area, the need to transport children to a range of different establishments, including ABC centres, language centres and special schools, the fact that contractors were a combination of bus and taxi companies and that some contractors gave up the contract and re-tendered for the contract for a higher price.

·         That it was intended to appoint a Transport Manager for the Education Department in the next few days so that one person within the Department took responsibility for transport.

·         That the demand and provision had to be examined to see if there was a more cost-effective way of transporting a child from A to B, but this was a task in itself given that, maybe, there was only one company in the market for the contract in some rural areas.

 

It was enquired whether the Authority had provision to ensure that equality plans were put into place in the schools.  In response, in light of updating the model policies and schemes as a result of the new guidance, it was noted that the Department would provide the best tools for schools to develop their own individual equality plans.

 

It was asked if there was a process in place to ensure that looked-after childrenattended school as much as possible and whether the Department had the capacity to meet every statutory requirement in terms of looked-after children.  In response, it was noted:-

·         That we had the capacity but there was an issue in terms of accessing data so that looked-after children could be targeted in a timely manner as children went in and out of care before it was possible to provide anything for them in terms of the schools.

·         That the Department was specifically looking at this and that the data extended further than attendance alone, and was also involved with the attainment of looked-after children.

·         It was very difficult to obtain data that indicated where a looked-after child should be in terms of educational attainment and to reach an opinion regarding the effectiveness of the provision.

·         That the Data Team examined the attendance of looked-after children compared to other children and found very imaginative methods to solve several barriers in terms of collecting information within the schools.