SCRUTINY COMMITTEE (LIFELONG
LEARNING)
MINUTES of a meeting held at Llantwit Major
School on 19th March, 2007.
Present: Councillor A.D. Hampton
(Chairman); Councillor E. Hacker (Vice-Chairman); Councillors J.
Clifford, Mrs. V.M. Hartrey, F.T. Johnson, G.C. Kemp, A.G. Powell,
A.C. Williams and E.T. Williams.
Co-opted Member: Mr. G.
Beaudette.
Also Present: Councillor N.J. Gibbs -
Cabinet Member for Education and Training.
955
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE -
These were received from Councillors Mrs.
M.E.J. Birch, Ms. R.M. Birch, Miss J. Cole, Mrs. A.J. Moore, Mrs.
S.I. Sharpe and B.I. Shaw.
956
MINUTES -
RECOMMENDED - T H A T the minutes of the
meetings held on 19th February and 6th March,
2007 be approved as a correct record, subject to Mrs. S.I. Sharpe’s
name being deleted from Minute No. 841 - 19th February,
2007 as she was not a Governor of a school.
957
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST -
There were no declarations received.
958
WELCOME -
Dr. Browne, Headteacher of Llantwit Major
School welcomed all present. Dr. Browne was a recently
appointed Headteacher and he informed the Committee that there was
a good team of teachers at Llantwit Major and that the Education
Service, in his opinion, could be one that the Committee could be
proud of. The school had recently negotiated new courses for
pupils who had different learning styles,e.g. health and beauty
courses. Laptops were also available throughout the school
revolutionising the way the school curriculum was being
delivered. The school was also working well with the
community. However, he advised the Committee that in October
2006, he attended, along with other Headteachers the Scrutiny
Committee meeting which discussed the Council’s Investment Strategy
for Schools and he had requested that Headteachers be kept informed
and regularly updated on the progress being made within the
Investment Strategy. The Director of Learning and Development
advised the Scrutiny Committee that he would continue to regularly
update on progress within the Investment Strategy and that a report
was also shortly to be submitted to the Cabinet updating on
progress. The Cabinet Member Councillor Gibbs, confirmed that
approval in principle had been granted in October 2006 for the
Investment Strategy and that the report on 28th March
should also include an update in relation to the capital
receipts.
RECOMMENDED -
(1) T H A
T Dr. Browne be thanked for inviting the Committee to the premises
and providing an update on the current education being provided at
the school.
(2) T H A
T the Committee receive a copy of the report to Cabinet on
28th March at its next meeting on 23rd April,
2007.
959 VALE LEARNING
NETWORK’S LEARNING CHALLENGE FUND PROJECTS -
Mr. D. Prosser, Head of Service, introduced
the report, the purpose of which was to inform Members of the
impact and outcomes of the Vale Learning Network’s Learning
Challenge Fund Projects and also introduced Mr. D. Giles to the
Committee who provided further information and an update on the
progress made to date. In June 2004, the Vale Learning
Network, a partnership of learning providers in the Vale, had been
successful in securing £909,000 through the Welsh Assembly
Government’s Learning Challenge Fund and the European Social Fund
to deliver five projects throughout the Vale. The projects
being:
·
Basic Skills in the Workplace - helping those in employment with
their basic skills needs;
·
Basic Skills for the Unemployed - helping the long-term unemployed
with basic skills to ensure they received the help they required to
return to employment;
·
Extending Entitlement - helping various groups of disadvantaged
learners to receive enhanced and additional provision;
·
Widening Participation - extending the provision of a wide-range of
adult and community education to new learners, in existing and new
community settings;
·
Learning Challenge Fund - developing the Vale Learning Network’s
capacity to provide high quality adult and community learning
through the furtherance of collaboration and partnership
working.
Throughout the presentation Mr. Giles referred
to the excellent team work that existed within the partnership in
order to deliver the projects. Mr. Giles was the Vale’s
Learning Network’s Co-ordinator and detailed that to date, £736,000
had been spent which had resulted in 1,630 new learners
participating in adult and community learning. The partnership
consisted of over 100 partners, which included the Vale of
Glamorgan Council itself, Barry College, Surestart, YOT and
NCH. As a result of the work, 7 Community Centres had been
upgraded and improved and it had had an impact on learners who had
been disadvantaged and difficult to reach. Overall, it was
noted that adult and community learning had benefited significantly
from the funding and the partnership working. Quality
standards had been improved and the Estyn Inspectors had been
testing how successful the Network had been during its
investigation which had taken place over the previous two
weeks. Feedback was expected from the Inspectors by Thursday,
22nd March.
Mr. Giles further advised that the partnership
had had a positive response; new funding streams were due to become
available from the Lottery and for areas that were classed as
“deprived areas status”. The St. Athan Development would also
have a significant impact on the Network as it had been reported
that large numbers of people were due to arrive and live there,
which could increase the demand on adult and community
learning.
Mr. Giles expressed the commitment of the
learning providers to continue to work in partnership to meet
future challenges, and their support for the proposed
rationalisation of other strategic partnerships under the remit of
the Director of Learning and Development.
Members expressed their disappointment that
the Estyn Inspectors who had advised would be at the meeting were
not present.
RECOMMENDED - T H A T the progress made by the
Vale Learning Network be noted and Mr. Giles be thanked for a most
informative presentation.
960
SCHOOL PERFORMANCE -
Jeff Loxton the Vale’s Secondary Advisor for
Data, informed the Committee on school performance within the Vale
of Glamorgan. Some information presented in respect of
schools is detailed as follows:
|
Type
|
Number
|
|
Nursery
|
3
|
|
Primary
|
47
|
|
Secondary
|
8
|
|
Special
|
3
|
Average class sizes were reported as
follows:
|
2005-06:
|
Vale
|
Wales
|
|
Primary
|
24.7
|
24.6
|
|
Secondary
|
21.6
|
20.6
|
Absenteeism from Schools for 2005/06 was
reported as:
|
|
Vale
|
Wales
|
|
Primary
|
8.70%
|
9.80%
|
Mr. Loxton reported that overall the schools
in the Vale had been extremely successful but that there were some
areas that improvements could be made and use of the data
information could highlight to schools their problem areas.
The three most deprived areas within the Vale were noted as
Castleland, Court and Gibbonsdown. However, under Welsh
Assembly Government statistics, the Vale was described as
relatively advantaged. In order to provide comparisons
between schools and Unitary Authorities, WAG continued to use the
proportion of pupils taking free school meals as a proxy indicator
of deprivation.
Members questioned if the information could be
forwarded to all Governors in order that they could be apprised of
the strengths and weaknesses of schools. The Head of Service
advised that the information was forwarded to Headteachers and it
was for the Headteacher to decide how to disseminate the
information to their staff and the Governing Body. In
relation to absenteeism, Members requested that they receive a copy
of the leaflet that had been devised by the Department in relation
to attendance at school.
RECOMMENDED -
(1) T H A
T the leaflet “Attendance Matters” be forwarded to all Members of
the Scrutiny Committee as soon as possible.
(2) T H A
T Mr. Loxton be thanked for his excellent presentation and advice
to the Committee.
961
REVENUE AND CAPITAL MONITORING FOR THE PERIOD 1ST APRIL,
2006 TO 31ST JANUARY, 2007 -
The projected outturn for the 2006/2007
Revenue Budget was shown in comparison with the amended Revenue
Budget which was attached at Appendix 1 to the report. It was
noted that the current forecast was for a balanced budget for the
Directorate. The budget was expected to balance for schools
but the report highlighted that maternity costs for school staff
which were a statutory responsibility of the Authority, were
expected to be higher than previously reported although it was
anticipated that the overspend would be contained within the
existing budget. The Library Service was also projected to
outturn on target. However, under the category Lifelong
Learning as had previously been reported, it was anticipated that
there would be a deficit of £120,000 at the year end due to income
generation problems in the Training section and Job Shop Extra,
together with the running costs of the Heritage Skills
Centre. The deficit would, although, be offset by savings
identified from within the Education budget.
Appendix 2 to the report detailed the
financial progress on the Capital Programme as at 31st
January, 2007 and Appendix 3 provided the Committee with
non-financial information on Capital Schemes.
The Director confirmed that the work had been
completed at Cadoxton School but that the work at Llangan was
ongoing.
RECOMMENDED - T H A T the report be noted.
962
IMPROVEMENT REVIEWS 2007/08 (CX) -
The Scrutiny Committee was requested to
endorse the suspension of Scrutiny Reviews that would normally be
undertaken by the Improvement and Development Team from the Forward
Work Programme in order to support the actions for which the team
members had a role in the Social Services Change Plan. The
impact of the significant overspend on Social Care Services had
affected all other service areas within the Council and there was
an urgent need to undertake the work outlined in the Change
Plan. The report stated that the Forward Work Programme would
still have regard to the following:
·
Annual budget process;
·
Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports;
·
Service Planning;
·
Monthly Revenue and Capital Programme Monitoring;
·
Emerging strategies from the Corporate Plan and Community
Strategy;
·
Cabinet Forward Work Programme.
Members were further advised that the
Committee’s Nursery Provision Review was due to be completed
shortly and that other scrutiny activities could be organised, i.e.
workshops or the setting up of Task and Finish Groups to deal with
suggested topics of the Committee.
During discussion of the report, Members
raised concerns in relation to the scrutiny function and that the
Improvement Development Team had previously significantly serviced
the Committee in respect of this function. Members considered
endorsement of the recommendation would have a detrimental effect
on scrutiny itself, although they were fully aware of the urgent
need to reduce the Social Services overspend.
After due consideration of the report the
Committee
RECOMMENDED - T H A T the proposal to suspend
Scrutiny Reviews until May 2008 be not accepted.