Agenda and minutes

Venue: Via Microsoft Teams

Items
No. Item

1.

Chairs Announcements

Minutes:

The Committee was informed of a change to the following report on the Cabinet Board Agenda:

 

·        Agenda Item 8 – Capital Programme Monitoring Report 2020/2021 – The Implementation of Decisions was to be changed from ‘3 day call in period’ to ‘immediate implementation’

 

Following the update, Members were happy with the changes, therefore chose not to scrutinise the report.

 

 

2.

Declarations of Interests

Minutes:

The following member made a declaration of interest:

 

Cllr. M.Harvey  -                                          Re. Item 11 – Revenue Budget 2021/2022 as he works for South Wales Police.

 

3.

Minutes of the Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 82 KB

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting which took place on 3 February 2021 were approved.

4.

Pre-decision Scrutiny

·        To select appropriate items from the Cabinet agenda for pre-decision scrutiny (cabinet reports enclosed for Scrutiny Members)

Minutes:

The Committee scrutinised the following cabinet items:

Education through Regional Working Consortium Developments

Members were updated on the Education through Regional Working (ERW) consortium developments.

It was highlighted that ERW had provided various training courses and information to educational practitioners such as teachers, teaching assistants and school governors; Members asked what had replaced that provision, since the Council had withdrawn from ERW. 

Officers explained that the Council provided its own school improvement services to schools within the County Borough; some examples of the arrangements included:

·        The core visit, to which chairs of governors were invited, was undertaken by the Councils Education Support Officers (ESOs);

·        The support for curriculum development was also provided by the school improvement staff. There were opportunities for schools to share practice to ensure they benefitted from each other in terms of learning, and there were a number of pioneer schools who had been involved in the development of the curriculum since the outset;

·        The Education department were involved in running governor support programmes;

·        The Council bought in a number of national leadership programmes from ERW, such as the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH), as well as programmes for middle leadership etc.

Following on from this, Officers stated that it was important to ensure that the quality of what was being delivered to pupils was in line with the aspirations. Members were informed that a curriculum advisory group had been developed in which school practitioners were involved in along with other individuals for example, people in the community who run their own businesses and Officers from the Environment Directorate; this enabled Officers to gain an understanding of how the skills that had been developed at school level, were benefitting young people in terms of their future work prospects and the skill demands that will be in place over the next 10-15 years, to ensure that those young people were equipped with those skills as well as being made aware of work opportunities. It was added that staff in the Education Directorate had been completing work around the creative industry; a very successful curriculum convention was held in which local companies, involved in production programmes such as S4C, attended.

The Chair of the Education, Skills and Culture Scrutiny Committee assured Members that the Education, Skills and Culture Scrutiny Committee had been and would continue to receive updates in relation to ERW; the Chair stated that Members who were interested in the subject matter had the opportunity to attend the Scrutiny Committee if they wished to be informed further.

A discussion took place in relation to Swansea and Carmarthen’s withdrawal notice, to which Officers confirmed that the notices to withdraw were rescinded as they were unable to complete the legal processes within the timescale that they were originally looking at.

Detailed within the circulated report it highlighted that Officers had requested details of the redundancy liability, however were yet to receive a response; it was asked if Officers had any idea as to when they would receive an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Forward Work Programme 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 61 KB

Minutes:

The Committee noted the Cabinet Scrutiny Forward Work

Programme 2020/21.