Minutes:
The Cabinet Member – Education and Regeneration opened the debate, which he considered was presumably intended to offer advice to cabinet and officers on the priorities affecting the education and family support across the county.
It is presumably not a substitute for another council procedure, such as questions to the executive. Similarly, it is not a substitute for ward-by-ward member referrals.
After hearing the debate, he would sum up, and then invite the Corporate Director – Education and Family Support to comment and make some closing remarks.
In general terms, at this stage our high-level priorities are as follows:-
We will (as a Council):
A Members stated that he would like to concentrate on the provision of Welsh language education in the east of the County Borough and the lack of equality of opportunity and parity of choice for those parents who would like to access Welsh language education for their children.
In his view, there is a strong argument to say that a town the size of Pencoed should have a Welsh language primary school and he wondered whether the Cabinet Member would agree with this long term ambition given the proposed expansion of the town in the Draft Local Development Plan?
However, given the unlikelihood of a primary school springing up by September, I’m given to understand that section 3.5 of the School Admissions Code allows for Cabinet to relax the published admission number of pupils at a particular school if there is a proposal to expand the school as is the case at Ysgol Bro Ogwr in Brackla.
After speaking to the Corporate Director – Education and Family Support at some length, he informed me that this would not only compete with Welsh Government legislation on reducing class sizes below 30 pupils, with a potential clawback of Welsh Government funding as a result, but that it could open a further can of worms in that other over-subscribed schools could ask for a similar relaxation in expanding capacity. I acknowledge the difficulty of this situation.
However, the overall strategic question remains when it comes to Welsh language education here in the east of BCBC. While there was an acknowledgement that non-statutory free home to school transport is provided to other Welsh language schools such as Ferch o’r Sger in North Cornelly, Calon y Cymoedd in Bettws or Ysgol Cynwyd Sant in Maesteg, all of these schools are in the West of the County so where is the fairness when it comes to the provision of Welsh language education for residents in the East, and should parents in Pencoed have to choose between sending their young children up to 12 miles across the county or sacrifice their choice of Welsh language education by opting for English language education instead?
Therefore, will the Cabinet Member liaise with the Headteacher of Ysgol Bro Ogwr and revisit the suggestion that the school can accept more children for this coming intake in this isolated case?
Finally, is there also a case to define catchment areas for Welsh language education provision in BCBC. For example, at the moment, with parental choice, we have parents from Bryncethin applying for a position at Ysgol Bro Ogwr whereas they could easily go to Calon y Cymoedd in Bettws.
In this case, the policy of parental choice is actually serving to squeeze out children in the east of the county from accessing Welsh language education at their closest school and only serving to add to the significant pressure on the already highly stretched Home to School Transport service because children from Pencoed have to travel across County to access Welsh language education.
I would be very grateful on behalf of my constituents and others in the east of the County if BCBC could urgently revisit this matter.
A Member stated that he was really pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to this afternoon’s topical debate and wanted to focus on the equality impact on learning through and beyond the pandemic.
He recognised and appreciated the tremendous efforts of all our teaching and support staff in schools and in the local authority over the past 15 months.
Being married to a secondary school teacher, he had a special insight into the difficulties faced by schools and those working in and around them. They have risen to the challenge, adapted to the most difficult of circumstances and put our learners front and centre of everything. He was aware that there is nowhere a teacher would rather be than in front of learners in a classroom, understanding and soaking up each and every nuance of what’s going on around them in a proper learning environment.
At the onset of the pandemic, some UK politicians referred to coronavirus as “the great leveller.” Far from levelling out anything, it has laid bare and worsened the deep-seated inequalities that have existed in this country for too long.
From an education perspective, it’s all too similar and the inequalities have been laid bare there too, whether it was initially issues with access to resources (laptops and tablets for example) or access to a decent internet connection; the capacity of parents and carers to support learning at home, or there being no quiet and suitable space to learn. Finally, even for some, the home environment not being safe. Added to that, the concept of lockdown is something many adults have struggled with, without trying to explain the curb on ordinary life to younger learners.
Let’s set out the stall, education is generally thought of as the main engine of social mobility in most corners of the world. And whether we like it or not, income levels and educational attainment are inextricably linked. Broadly, the greater the level of your education, the more income capacity you have. At the bottom of that scale, we have families and learners who are all but destitute because of a grossly unfair and complex welfare system.
In a survey commissioned by Welsh Government and carried out among learners earlier this year, some 61 per cent of respondents said that they agreed or tended to agree with that the statement that they were “concerned with the future of their education or training prospects as a result of COVID 19”. That’s a stark a figure and a huge amount of confidence lost in the system and the sector, through an event it had absolutely no control over.
Behind each response is an individual with hopes and with dreams to achieve their own successes and clearly for too many, they feel those hopes and dreams are all but dashed.
While he broadly welcomed the new curriculum, he was disappointed to see Welsh Government hasn’t taken the opportunity to pause its introduction in order that schools have one full-year (we hope!) to recover somewhat from the past 15 months. He also wished to use this opportunity to point out that, away from the political hype and hysteria, Welsh Government has been presented with an opportunity to make free school meals a universal benefit. Well-fed learners go on to achieve so much more. Despite the finger-pointing, both east and west of Offa’s Dyke, we will still have learners here in Wales going hungry.
He wished to end his submission by issuing a plea, which he had no doubt is recognised, understood and probably to a certain extent, already underway here in Bridgend. That plea is that we work with and support our school staff to the ninth degree in taking time to specifically understand the changing or changed needs of our learners. On top of slowly introducing and teaching a brand new curriculum, this is a huge ask and some may think it’s part and parcel of the day job, but the building of a picture like this takes time and effort.
The cumulative impact of being away from the classroom and all its ancillary support may not be known for some significant time yet and so teaching and support staff are in it for the long haul.
It’s a lost generation versus a determination to put things right. Whether we’re talking about Foundation Phase or through to A levels and apprenticeships, we need to do everything we can to dust down the hopes and the dreams our learners held. We must demonstrate that, while there has been a big blip in the road, the system and the people within it will do everything it and they can to help get them where they want to be. We owe them nothing less.
A Member raised concerns with regards to lack of overall primary spaces at schools in the County Borough. An example of this, being at Coity Primary where 25 in catchment area children could not gain admission to the school this year, with 32 children being in the same position last year. This year, this has had a knock-on effect at other schools in the vicinity, such as at Coychurch, Litchard, Penyfai and Pencoed Primary schools. All these schools are also full to capacity, so children are being refused admission to these schools as well, due to lack of spaces there. This meant that families were therefore seeing their children not only refused admission at the first choice of school, but their 2nd choice school as well. This highlighted the fact that there were whole neighbouring communities developing now, where schools simply could not accommodate the children of families who resided there. This meant that children were being sent away in dribs and drab to different schools throughout the County Borough, on some occasions quite far away from their family home. She also had significant concerns that despite schools being built too small on new estates, site developers were still extending their housing developments further that was attracting added S106 monies for school places, however, this money was being used elsewhere rather than to alleviate the above pressures on local schools where the money was intended to be allocated. Whilst there plans to resolve this process, these were years down the line, so the S106 allocation was now being committed to build a new welsh school, with the result being that the mop-up places for the above primary schools that are full, being allocated in the old Bro Ogwr building that was several years away from completion. The children that eventually have places there, will then also have to walk past 2 new schools en route, where they could and should have been educated if things had been planned out more effectively. Added to this was the ongoing issues with the pandemic and this was a grave concern also, as the wellbeing of children was key in terms of their potential education attainments going forward. So she was therefore looking for assurances from the Cabinet Member – Education and Regeneration and the Corporate Director – Education and Family Support, that young people’s wellbeing going forward is classed as being paramount, particularly in respect of being educated at a preferred school of their choice, as opposed to this being about money or the provision of welsh medium schools. The fuller picture needed to be looked at, she felt.
A Member had some sympathy, in that we could only do what we could at schools in terms of their financing and this was difficult as children in Wales had much less capita per head when compared to their counterparts in England. It wasn’t always straightforward either, for children to be educated in their first choice of school, for sometimes a number of reasons. However, often transport was provided to take children to school and take them home, should they be placed at a school a certain distance or above, from where they resided. On occasions families did find themselves in the difficult position of having children being educated at different schools, which put a strain on the families time and commitments. She considered however, that BCBC had done extremely well maintaining free school meals as part of the breakfast club as well as at lunchtime. Meals had also been delivered to children and these included also frozen meals. Children were also given healthy nutritious meals, which was important for their health and wellbeing. In fact, other Councils were following the lead set by the Authority. However, the main stumbling block always came down to an overall lack of resource, that had to be spread amongst all schools in the County Borough regardless of whether these be primary or secondary, etc, including for their curricula. These continued to be unprecedented times, but she hoped these would improve at sometime within the future.
A Member advised that there were 42 articles of the Rights of a child as defined by the United Nations. She wished to highlight 5 of them.
ARTICLE 1 The rights set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child apply to everyone under the age of 18.
ARTICLE 2 The rights apply to every child whatever their race, colour, gender, language, religion, ethnicity, disability or any other status.
ARTICLE 3 In all decisions and actions that concern children, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.
ARTICLE 4 The state must do all it can, through passing legislation and creating administrative systems, to promote and protect children’s rights
And ARTICLE 23 Disabled children have the right to enjoy a full life, with dignity, and to participate as far as possible in their community. The government should support disabled children and their families.
She was pleased that there are schools in Bridgend County Borough Council which have received recognition for being a ‘Rights supporting school”. Indeed, she was pleased that this local authority has always been meticulous in hearing the voice of the child when it comes to changes about their education.
She was also delighted with future plans for Bridgend’s Super - Special School, Heronsbridge. She recognised the value of this type of provision, and the cost of not having such provision outweighs the cost of providing it. She congratulated the leadership and looked forward to it being delivered, on time, on budget and with the capacity it needs for our growing borough.
There were 4 main towns in the County Borough. Bridgend, Porthcawl, Maesteg and Pencoed.
She remained disappointed that there is still a lack of SEN unit in the Porthcawl cluster. If the LDP gets the go-ahead from her fellow Councillors for growth in Porthcawl, there are children who will not be able to be offered a place in a school in Porthcawl. Every child with a MLD or a sensory disability, including autism, who is not capable of learning in a mainstream class has to be taxied out of the town, at taxpayers expense, to be educated in another town, away from any friends that they could look to grow, away from siblings, stopping parents being able to build a relationship with the class teacher and the wider school. In other words, out of their community.
She was not referring to the children whose needs are so great that they need the specialist centralised provision of a school like Heronsbridge.
She was referring to the children who would attend one of the Obs units and MLD classes across the Borough.
Fantastic schools, where great things have happened with children whose parents so often hear the words, “I don’t know” as a clinical prognosis.
Porthcawl, a growing town, doesn’t have a single MLD class or a single Obs Unit.
Whilst she once more sympathised with the issue that schools are, in effect, independent organisations, this is something on which the local authority can effect, influence and lead change.
Further to the UN on the rights of the child.
Disabled children have the right to enjoy a full life, with dignity, and to participate as far as possible ‘in their community’. The government should support disabled children and their families.
The Local government should support these children, where possible, to be educated ‘in their community’ and lead change, which is inclusive and non-discriminatory.
The Cabinet Member – Education and Regeneration then in his summing-up advised of Bridgend priorities and national priorities, as follows.
BRIDGEND
As education and family support progresses beyond the current crisis, the following policies and projects will be prioritised (not necessarily in this order).
BCBC will:
NATIONALLY
BCBC will continue to engage positively in national debate with Welsh Government, the UK government, the WLGA, Central South Consortium and other regional bodies.
We will continue to be actively involved with wider educational issues, such as:
The Corporate Director – Education and Family Support, confirmed that last year had been unique and extremely challenging, with Covid-19 having had an extremely detrimental effect on both learners and education staff. He stressed however, that Officers had worked tirelessly over the last 16 months to ensure services continued to be provided both safely and effectively. An example of this commitment was in the meeting at this moment in time, where he had all his Senior Leadership team present in support of the debate, as well as the leadership team from Central South Consortium (CSC). He was also indebted to Members for their support during these very difficult times and in contributing to today’s debate.
In relation to some of the points made by Members, he commented as follows.
There was a statutory requirement to increase the number of welsh speakers and as part of this, it is key that we work with all stakeholders in order to achieve this objective. There were challenges in terms of rolling this out, particularly in the east of the County Borough. Strategic proposals in respect of this objective were due to be rolled out in January and at this time, the local authority would set out its stall on how we extend welsh medium in all areas of the County Borough as far as is possible, in terms of the provision of welsh medium education opportunities at schools in different locations.
We also needed to learn lessons as a result of the pandemic going forward and the Corporate Director – Education and Family Support agreed with a previous Members comments that we must focus upon the physical and emotional wellbeing of learners moving forward, including the challenges we face in respect of school admissions and school places. A Task and Finish Group had been put in place to look at how best we meet and endeavour to overcome such challenges. When new schools are being built these come with challenges in their own right, until such time they are completed. Examples of these have been shared today as part of the debate. The Council would continue to focus on learners and their needs and we will be committed to that he added, while new schools were going through the construction process.
There were some critical issues also highlighted by a previous Member, one of which was our commitment to the UNCRC and the five areas referred to earlier in the debate. The Authority had an ambition to ensure that the new Special School in Bridgend would be the best in Wales. It was very important to establish local provision, especially for those children with learning needs, so that they are able to avoid facing long taxi journeys to a school out of their area which was a challenge for them in terms of their wellbeing. Improvements to this end had been looked at for the last 2 years, by developing more specialist schools and in classes to overcome the above and more cater for the needs of these young individuals. Finally, he added how important funding was for schools, particular within the areas of curriculum and ALN Reform.
Finally, the Managing Director of CSC reassured Members that CSC would continue to work closely with Education Officers in BCBC, in order to ensure that all schools across the County Borough have the best possible quality provisions for its children and young people. The new curriculum would put a huge amount of stress on schools and its staff, so it was extremely important to ensure that they had sufficient resources in place to adequately deal with the challenges of this. She assured that CSC would work with all schools in order to ensure that happens.