Agenda item

The Committee scrutinised the following matters:-

 

Cabinet Board Proposals

 

8.1    Children, Young People Service – 3^rd Quarter 2016/2017

 

Members considered the quarterly performance monitoring report for Children, Young People Services.

 

Members welcomed that the Independent Reviewing Officer post had now been offered and that a start date was being agreed.

 

Members asked whether the upheld complaints were for one service area. Officers stated that they were not and were from a number of different areas.

 

Members asked for clarity on how many children have been removed from the child protection register and how many of those had been re-registered as they felt it was not clear within the report. Officers replied that 169 children had been removed from the register and 9 had been re-registered.

 

Members wished for their thanks to be recorded for the hard work undertaken by staff that had addressed the significant issues in the past.

 

Following scrutiny the report was noted.

 

8.2    Categorisation of Schools in Neath Port Talbot

 

Members considered an annual update report on how schools in Neath Port Talbot have been categorised using the National Categorisation System.

 

Officers advised that the colour a school is categorised correlates with the amount of support that is required, However, Members asked for it to be made clearer on whether the support hours were per week, per month or per term. Officers stated that this will be made clearer in any future publications but it was per term.

 

Members asked how the categorisation of schools worked in reality. Officers advised that the categorisation comes from the objectives set by Welsh Government and these objectives cannot be changed. Officers continued that it is the challenge advisors who rate the schools and come to an agreement with them that it is a far assessment. It was further confirmed that there have been no disagreements and samples of assessments are considered on a regional basis to further ensure the process is robust.

 

Officers advised that there is comparative public data available on the ERW website.

 

Members asked were the officers confident that those schools who had been categorised as red and those that had been for more than a year were all receiving a consistent level of support. Officers stated that this was the case and each school received consistent advice, guidance and support.

 

Following scrutiny the report was noted.

 

8.3    Admission to Community Schools 2018/2019

 

Members considered the report that sought agreement for the admission arrangements for Community Schools in 2018/2019.

 

Members noted their disappointment that Ysgol Gynradd Gwauan Cae Gerwen had not been included at appendix 5 with Cwmtawe school. Officers stated that this was because it was not a partner school of Cwmtawe.

 

Members continued that this was confusing for families and they were often asked whether their children could attend Cwmtawe. Officers stated that it is parental choice and if parents of children in Gwaun Cae Gerwen wanted their child to attend Cwmtawe then they could. Clarification was sought on how many children had failed to secure a place in Cwmtawe from Gwaun Cae Gerwen and whether there were surplus places available at Cwmtawe. Officers confirmed that all requests from Gwaun Cae Gerwen to go to Cwmtawe had been agreed last year and for the forthcoming year and that there were still surplus places in Cwmtawe.

 

Members noted the concerns that had been raised and asked if an annual report could be presented to the Committee highlighting any cases where parents had failed to secure the their choice of place in secondary school for their child.

 

Following scrutiny the Committee was broadly supportive of the proposals to be considered by Cabinet on the proviso that an annual report was presented to the Scrutiny Committee.

 

8.4    Home to School Transport Policy review and Consultation

 

Members considered the report on the Home to School Transport Policy following the consultation period.

 

Members welcomed the hard work that had been undertaken by officers to ensure the policy was a fair one.

 

Following scrutiny the committee was supportive of the proposals to be considered by the Cabinet Board.

 

8.5    Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (2017-2020)

 

Members considered the report that sought agreement of the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) 2017-2020.

 

It was suggested that the plan may be lacking something that would assist the Welsh Government to reach its target of 1m Welsh speakers by 2050. It was further suggested that the plan could be viewed as reactive and not proactive.

 

An alternative suggestion was put forward that the Council was taking its responsibility to Welsh in Education seriously and had invested circa £37m to improve it and that this should be welcomed. This is particularly evident at the usage of Welsh in English Medium Primary schools which has been excellent as has the number of children using conversational welsh.

 

Following scrutiny the Committee was broadly in support of the proposals to be considered by the Cabinet Board.