To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2008 (including whipping declarations)

None.

To receive for approval the minutes of a meeting of the Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committee 1 of the 04 July 2017

RESOLVED:                That the Minutes of a meeting of the Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committee 1 dated 4 July 2017 be approved as a true and accurate record, subject to Reverend Canon Evans being added to the list of attendees at the meeting.

Invitees:

Lindsay Harvey, Interim Corporate Director - Education and Family Support;

Cllr Charles Smith, Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration;

Michelle Hatcher, Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement

Catherine Lewis, Chair of Third Sector Additional Needs Alliance

Denise Inger, Chief Executive Director SNAP Cymru

Dr Stephen Beyer, Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, Cardiff

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to inform Committee of the developments of the ALN reform in Wales and how as a local authority the Council were preparing for its introduction; the status of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill, and information regarding career pathways for pupils with ALN.

The Scrutiny Officer gave an introduction to the report, following which the Invitees were invited into the meeting.

The Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration advised that he was excited about the above changes that were proposed, and the aims of the new Bill, particularly the single legislative system relating to the support given to children and young people aged between 0 to 25 years who have ALN.

The Chairperson then called upon the Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement to give a power point Presentation on the above topic and the work progressed to date in respect of this.

Following the conclusion of the Presentation, the Chairperson opened up the meeting for questions.

A Member referred to page 12 of the report and one of the aims of the Bill, where it stated that currently only 2.7% of children and young people in Wales have a statement of special educational needs, whereas the new system provides a statutory plan for around 22% of learners with an additional learning need aged between 0-25 years. She asked if this was realistic in terms of being achieved, and/or would the proposal be more of a box ticking exercise that would merely generate increased paperwork.

The Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement, advised that there was a considerable amount of good work ongoing with regard to this aim of the Bill. The Bill would provide local authorities with the opportunity to re-focus on and improve even further, early intervention and prevention measures presently in place, regardless of the proposed statementing increase. The proposal she added may in fact lead to an increase in Individual Dependant Plans (IDP’s) as opposed to an increase in Statements, as was indicated in the report.

The Chairperson of Third Sector Additional needs Alliance added that there was a fear over the increase in numbers of Statements and IDP’s and the obvious increase in work that this would generate. The IDP’s would cover all those young people on School Action and School Action Plus currently. There would be a standard template, and the content of the IDP would be dependent upon the individual needs of the child in question.

The Chief Executive Director SNAP Cymru was of the opinion that there would not necessarily be any more paperwork in view of the projected increase in Plans under the new system, though the IDP’s would be more targeted in terms of their content than that of Statements which were compiled under the present regime. Resources would be targeted through outcomes for children she added.  All in all, she felt that the new process would build confidence in schools for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Corporate Director – Operational and Partnership Services submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to present arrangements for strengthening democratic accountability and scrutiny of the school improvement function in the Central South Wales Consortium.

By way of background information, the report confirmed that the Central South Wales Consortium is responsible for school improvement on behalf of five local authorities, namely Bridgend, Cardiff, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Merthyr Tydfil and the Vale of Glamorgan. The Consortium is accountable to the local authorities through a Joint Committee comprising the relevant Cabinet Member for each Local Authority.

The Scrutiny Officer advised that the Consortium Officers have met regularly with the five Scrutiny Committee Chairs in the Central South Consortium as a group. Officers representing/working for the five local authorities have also attended. Part of the discussion had revolved around developing a ‘regional’ element to scrutiny work in addition to the current individual local authority scrutiny programme as outlined in the report.

The group’s discussion included consideration of the findings from a Cardiff Business School study on co-ordinated Scrutiny, as well as the Erw model of co-ordinated scrutiny, and further details of these were included in paragraph 3.7 of the report.

The Scrutiny Officer added, that using the Erw model, the group proposed to establish a formal working to consider regional performance and share best practice and information.

Appendix A to the report, provided detail of the proposal, including how many meetings to be held and the standing items to be considered by the group, as were detailed in paragraph 4.2 of the report.

Paragraph 4.3 of the report contained proposed further items for consideration in addition to the suggested standing items. The group would also report annually to each relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee in each local authority, as well as provide recommendations to the Consortium’s Joint Committee.

It was further proposed that the document attached to the report containing the group’s approach and Terms of Reference be presented to each  participating Local Authority for agreement, following which it will be presented to the Central South Consortium Joint Committee for final approval, at its meeting in December 2017.

RECOMMENDED:           That the Committee:-

(1)    Agreed the proposal attached at Appendix A to the report, to establish a Scrutiny Working Group to consider regional performance and share best practice and information.

(2)   Further agreed to forward the attached proposal to Council for approval, prior to submission to the Central South Consortium Joint Committee.

The Corporate Director – Operational and Partnership Services submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to present the items prioritised by the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee (COSC) including the next item delegated to Subject overview and Scrutiny Committee 1(SOC1); to present Committee with a list of further potential items for comment and prioritisation, and to ask the Committee to identify any further items for consideration using the pre-determined criteria form.

The report firstly gave some background information, following which the Scrutiny Officer referred Members to Appendix A attached to the report, which was the overall Forward Work Programme (FWP) which included the topics prioritised by the COSC for the next round of SOSC’s in Table 1, as well as a list of topics that were deemed important for future prioritisation at Table 2.

The Committee were being asked firstly to consider the next topic they have been allocated by the COSC in Table 1, and determine what further detail they would like the report to contain; what questions they wish Officers to address, and if there are any further Invitees they wish to attend for this meeting to assist Members in their investigation.

The Scrutiny Officer also stated that the Committee were further requested to prioritise up to 6 items from the list in Table 2, to present to the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee for formal prioritisation and designation to each SOSC for the next round of meetings.

The remainder of the report referred to Corporate Parenting obligations, and to remind Committee of the Criteria form that Members could use to propose further items for the FWP which the Committee can then consider for prioritisation at a future meeting.

RECOMMENDED:           Subsequent to the Committee’s discussion Members determined the following in relation to the Overview and Scrutiny Forward Work Programme:-

That the items below were highlighted by the Committee as priorities for the next set of meetings to be presented to the COSC for formal prioritisation.

·         Schools Strategic Review – proposed for 10 January 2018

·         School Standards Report – proposed for 8 February 2018

·     The Economic Prosperity of BCBC – The Committee proposed that this be considered early in 2018, as the detail of the Revenue Support Grant will then be known.

                                         It was also agreed that the following items were important, and needed to be prioritised for later in the FWP.

1.            School Modernisation – The Committee agreed to add this to the overall FWP, and proposed that it be considered in March 2018.

ALN Reform – The Committee also agreed that the subject of ALN should be put forward for next year’s FWP, so that it can be reconsidered at an appropriate time when Scrutiny are able to monitor the implementation of the Bill.

To consider any item(s) of business in respect of which notice has been given in

accordance with Part 4 (paragraph 4) of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

None.