Committee

Education, Youth & Culture Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Thursday 17 October 2024

17 Oct 2024

Fran Lister

This post covers my appearance at Education, Youth & Culture Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Thursday 17 October 2024.

School Budgets

As a newly elected councillor, I believe it is vital to speak up now, during stage two of the budget process, because robust debate must happen before decisions are finalized. While I fully acknowledge the immense financial pressures and the unavoidability of difficult choices, I am passionately convinced that further cuts to school budgets are not the solution. Our schools are already operating under extreme constraints, and asking them to do more with less risks irreparably harming the future of our young people. We have a remarkable opportunity with the new curriculum in Wales to prioritize creativity and critical thinking, but this vision is at risk if we do not provide the necessary investment in technology and a workforce that currently feels stretched beyond its limits. Ultimately, my own children and the children I teach deserve an education that does more than meet basic needs—they deserve one that fully prepares them for the complex world ahead.

Transcript generated by AI from meeting audio. It may contain errors, omissions, or misattributions. Please treat it as a convenience copy and refer to the original recording for the authoritative record.

Timestamp	Transcript
00:00:00	Thank you, Chair. I don't believe I'm about to say anything that the very experienced officers in this room don't already know. It must be an incredibly difficult job to balance a passionate vision for what education could be with the responsibility of administering the finances that ultimately determine its success. As a newly elected councillor, I'm beginning to really understand that and relate to that, to that struggle. But it's stage two of the budget process and now's the time for the robust debate and not after the decisions have been passed. So we all know the financial situation we face is deeply challenging. I fully acknowledge the immense pressures on public spending and I understand that difficult decisions are unavoidable. However, I believe passionately that further cuts to school budgets are not part of the solution.
00:00:47	We must be realistic about the financial limitations. We must also be clear of the consequences of cutting funding to our schools. The report says that the portfolio has extremely limited capacity for further efficiencies. And I believe this is particularly well, I believe this is particular when it comes to school budgets and individual school budgets. Our schools are already operating under extreme constraints and asking them to do more with less will risk irreparably harming the future of our young people and therefore the future as a whole. In the next agenda item, the self-evaluation report makes reference to the Eston recommendations from the LA's previous inspection. And the first of that was to raise outcomes at key stage four. That doesn't happen when a child reaches year 10. It happens from the moment they start their education.
00:01:39	Austerity measures coupled with council cuts are inevitably narrowing opportunities for young people, especially in subjects such as designer technology, arts, sports and other vocational options. These are areas which provide vital opportunities for students to thrive in different ways, building skills and creativity that will serve them throughout their lives. And reducing these opportunities not only narrows students' education experience, but it risks narrowing their futures as well. Here in Wales, we have a remarkable opportunity with a new curriculum to place creativity, critical thinking, communication and metacognition at the heart of education. These are skills our young people need to navigate the very fast evolving complex world. However, the implementation of this curriculum requires secondary schools in particular to restructure and to innovate.
00:02:25	And this challenge demands time, resources, investment in technology and a workforce that has the capacity to deliver. Right now, it's my opinion that our educators are already stretched beyond their limits and without proper investment, the vision of the new curriculum is at risk. While we do face undeniable financial constraints, we cannot allow potentially short-term budgetary decisions to undermine the long-term future of our education system and our future in general. Our children, the children I teach, my own children, deserve more than a basic education. They deserve an education that prepares them for the world ahead. And that's why I think we should be looking into every other option to avoid future cuts to schools.

Full Session

Source page: https://flintshire.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/895163

Education, Youth & Culture Overview & Scrutiny Committee - Wednesday 6 November 2024, 10:00am - Flintshire County Council Webcasts

Timestamp	Transcript
00:00:00	to the Education, Youth, Culture, Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Thank you to all those here present and those online and those who prepared the items for today's agenda. My thanks to Kerry Shotten for my overview and scrutiny facilitator
00:00:16	and Stephen Guthrum from the Democratic Services Manager. A gentle reminder to please have your phones on quiet, better still, switched off. Please use the raised hand function if online or simply a raised hand if you're in the room should you wish to speak.
00:00:35	So without further ado, because we have a big, long agenda today, we'll go straight on to agenda item one, apologies. Thank you, Chair. I've received no apologies, but I have one substitution.
00:00:48	Councillor Dave Healey is subbing for Councillor Ryan McHugh. Do we have any declarations of interest? Agenda item two. Do you have a counter comment on that? Okay, thank you very much. My children attend a school in Flintshire,
00:01:12	so I think I have a personal interest in the budget. And I'm a governor at a school as well. I'm also a governor at a school, but I think that's covered. Sorry, there is a standard. As long as it's on your code of conduct form
00:01:30	that you're a governor, then it's covered under that. So if you're a member of this committee, thank you. Okay, moving on to agenda item three, which you'll find on pages five to 10 of the report. Now, if I just can say, there's just one set of minutes to approve
00:01:47	for the 9th of September. The purpose of this item is to approve the minutes as a correct record. Therefore, any comments should be around amendments to the minutes and not matters arising, which will be covered in the next section.
00:02:00	Okay, thank you. So I'll take it one page at a time. Page five, six. Sorry, agenda item number three, page five. My name has not been present on that page at the top. Thank you for that.
00:02:30	We'll amend the minutes to reflect your attendance. Okay, page six, page seven, page eight, page nine, and then a slight sentence over the next page, just in case anybody isn't in. Page 10, okay. Have we got any amendments to the minutes
00:02:58	that people wish to be made? Any further amendments? Okay, so can I have a mover, please, too? Thank you very much, a seconder. Thank you, Councillor Shawcross. All those in favour, please?
00:03:17	Thank you very much. Okay, moving on to agenda item four, which you will find on pages 11 to 24 of your back. This is the forward work programme and action tracking. Kerry Shotten, our overview and scrutiny for some of our presenters so far.
00:03:36	And I know that she's going to remind you, but I'll do it anyway, of the special meeting arranged for the 6th of November. And I will leave it with her, thank you. Thank you, Chair. Members will see the current forward work programme
00:03:53	on page 15 of the agenda. As the Chair has already mentioned, we have got a special meeting scheduled for the 6th of November, which is for the school improvement model report. This is just one report,
00:04:06	but it's to allow the committee to be consulted on this prior to it going to cabinet so that feedback from the committee can then be provided to cabinet when they consider it in November. There is one suggested change to the forward work programme
00:04:21	and that's, you'll see that there's a healthy schools and healthy sustainable preschool scheme report scheduled for November. We did recently have a report to the committee in July. So we are proposing to move that back to July next year as an annual update.
00:04:37	The purpose of bringing it again in November was around the case studies, but actually that's included on the action sheet anyway and is going to be provided to the committee after the October half term. So members will still get that information
00:04:53	even if we move that report back as an annual report. I'm not proposing any other changes to the items that you can see listed there. And then moving on to the action tracking document shown on page 21. I've just mentioned the case study examples there.
00:05:11	So that's ongoing. You'll see there in relation to the question from council Andrew Parkhurst on EMRT, a response has been provided there in the action sheet. A letter was sent to Ms. Stephanie Roberts-Bibby, the chief executive of the justice board
00:05:30	and hopefully all members of the committee will have seen the response that was also provided following the letter. And then we've got one action that's blank, which is the leisure libraries playing museum service update report.
00:05:44	And that was around the advice on the request for a copy of the contract. All members of the committee should have received now advice from the monitoring officer. So in terms of that action, that is completed as the advice has been sought and has been circulated.
00:06:00	I've got no further comments, chair. So come on. Councillor Preece, I saw your hand up. Are we actually going to do matters arising from the minutes first before we actually move on to item four?
00:06:17	Because we seem to have gone past that. So if we go back to the minutes, because there were matters arising on the minutes that you were actually alluding to that we would vote on the minutes and then we would go to matters arising
00:06:34	and we've seen to have missed the matters arising. Can I just ask what matters arising are you referring to? Can I just, right, so, okay, chair. On page nine of the report pack relating to the minutes item 28, the leisure libraries play museums.
00:06:54	The committee resolved three motions which you have in front of you. That were that the education, youth and culture over scrutiny committee is to be held as soon as possible before the cabinet meeting, a special one. That the committee required that a copy of the contract
00:07:13	off to order be produced. And also that pending this meeting, the education scrutiny committee strongly recommend a new agreement on reasonable terms is signed with Aura. Now, can I just put this into perspective? I won't take a minute chair.
00:07:29	So let's put this into context. Let's look at a timeline. Cabinet met on the 24th of April to discuss the future options of leisure libraries and museum services. Cabinet then requested that this committee,
00:07:43	treaty committee convenes a special meeting to consider the options to take place on the 10th of May. In readiness for this meeting, I requested access to all documents related to the Aura contract. Some documents members were allowed to view in a secure room
00:08:00	where no phones, et cetera was allowed other than, and then other documents were actually then sent by email. On the 9th of May, an email from officers were sent to me with attachments, which were a copy of the original funding agreement contract between the council and Aura
00:08:22	and copies of the two current, which was current at the time, three month funding agreement contracts. On Tuesday, the 28th of May at a special meeting, this education scrutiny committee moved a motion resolving that the committee should ask for the cabinet
00:08:41	to agree a new contract with Aura. A new agreement was agreed with Aura and Aura signed two short contracts with Aura until the 31st of December for the subsidy control assessment to be completed. It seems to me that the council has previously set
00:09:03	a presence, which means setting a rule or example that will be followed in the future when it is shared previous contract agreements It may be the view that this is because the contract previously provided to work councillors were already agreed.
00:09:23	They could be shared confidentially with councillors, but given the latest contract has been refused by Aura and the council is now actively taking steps to create and launch a local authority trading company in place of Aura, what possible justification can be provided for continuing to withhold
00:09:41	the latest contract from elected members? This raises serious questions about governance, If I could interject, we've had a great deal of communication both in this chamber and also by email. So I'm going to hand over to the governance office. Can I just finish please?
00:10:02	I've only got probably one minute left to go of what I'm saying. Okay, thank you. This raises serious questions, as I was saying about governance, democratic accountability These issues are made worse when you consider
00:10:17	there is already damaging speculation in the public domain about allocated 30 day break clauses and so on. This speculation is very damaging to the council's reputation. It is important for elected members to dispel the speculation when we do not,
00:10:34	how do we do this when we do not know the facts? Because we haven't seen the contracts. This has led to untenable situation whereby residents are questioning the actions of the council. The councillors are left without the ability to answer questions or to defend the council
00:10:52	because we simply do not possess any of the facts. Surely it is in the interest of all sides, the council residents, councillors and Aura for the contracts to be made available to councillors in order to both give us the confidence in the council processes
00:11:09	and indeed to help to put to bed speculation, which is damaging to the council. It is deeply regrettable that councillors have felt compelled to move and pass the three recommendations that we have and that it is also deeply concerning that unfortunately a president has now been set
00:11:28	in relationship to the decisions of the scrutiny meeting being ignored. Thank you chair. I will take exception with one part if that's okay with you. I think it's unfair to cast doubt
00:11:45	on the true governance of our council and the democratic process. So I would ask that you think about your words carefully when you talk about things like that. I'm still going to hand over. Thank you chair.
00:12:01	I think it's key to sort of address the first point here. The point about the minutes is to address the accuracy of the minutes. So the speech that was given there was not in relation to the accuracy of the minutes particularly. So I think that particular point
00:12:15	or points is best served for the council meeting that scheduled to take place next Thursday at 10 a.m. That's the whole point of that meeting was called. Just a point of order. I was actually saying it was matters arising from the minutes.
00:12:29	I didn't say it was a correction. I said it was matters arising. If I could just say your actions. Sorry, I'm playing microphone 10. Okay, matters arising is a separate matter and that comes under the actions tracking report.
00:12:51	So the advice that was particular about the contract has been since been given, I understand to the committee and that was issued by, was it yesterday? Carrie, that went through. So the advice about the visibility of the contract has been given
00:13:07	and that was quite clear in how it was phrased and worded. So I think that's where that point stands. In terms of the timeline, then there's a key date missing which is the Thursday of the May cabinet meeting where the decision was made and the decisions from there are being followed through now.
00:13:25	So the meeting next week is where these matters should be raised and discussed. I think that's the most appropriate course of action for those particular points. This committee is to scrutinize decisions of cabinet council, et cetera, cabinet particularly.
00:13:40	And that's what it does. The meeting next week is a chance for further debate and discussion around all of those points that you've raised and put so eloquently, I would say. And that meeting is where that should be pre-addressed. Councillor Gladys Healy, please.
00:14:04	Thank you, Chair. I'm just bringing this point up because it's matters arising. I will just ask the chief officer of education. I did ask before if the officer for homeschooling can come and give us a talk but I haven't heard anything further on this matter.
00:14:31	Councillor Healy, I believe we have added it to the forward work programme because it is something we do generally report on. I thought we had, can we? It will be on the forward work programme, Councillor Healy. I can assure you of that.
00:15:00	Yeah, just to clarify, we did discuss this when we met with the chair in the summer to go through the forward work programme. We did discuss it. It was on the list to be included. So I will double check.
00:15:09	If it's not, I'll make sure it's added on but it was a discussion we had in the summer so it should be on there. Councillor Parkhurst, please. Thank you, Chair. And just to clarify,
00:15:23	I am speaking under item four, action tracking. Like Councillor Preece, I have grave concerns about the resolution passed by this committee And the first question I'd like to ask is what are the consequences of such resolutions being ignored?
00:15:51	Because if there are no consequences, then what is the point of us in this scrutiny committee? What is the point of councillors trying to hold the council and the administration to account? The second point is that, yes, we have received advice as to what the constitution permits
00:16:10	but that advice is clearly wrong because the advice given says that section 14 of the constitution specifically prohibits them, which means the scrutiny committee, us, from seeing exempt documents. That is not correct.
00:16:32	If you read the relevant section of the constitution, it does not prohibit us seeing the document. Further, there has to be a public interest test for the exclusion of any documents. And for that public interest test, there has to be an assessment.
00:16:59	And I have asked for that assessment and I have not received it. Councillor Parkhurst, am I correct in saying that you asked for that this morning? Yes, because the advice was only received yesterday afternoon at the last minute.
00:17:29	And the constitution goes on to say that the public interest test has to be served by considering the following information, which is to further the understanding and participation in debating issues of the day, facilitate transparency and accountability
00:17:47	in and enhance scrutiny of decisions taken by the council, facilitate transparency and accountability in the spending of public money and help individuals understand the decisions made by the council affecting their lives. Those are not my words.
00:18:03	Those are the words of our constitution. So by all those definitions, all of those are relevant to this contract. And this committee ought to be able to see the wording of that contract in confidence if necessary in order that we can effectively scrutinise
00:18:28	the administration and the council. Because we know that there are serious implications in this decision. We know that there are concerns in the community about the level of services which may be curtailed. We know that there is the possibility
00:18:45	of substantially increased costs, almost half a million pounds extra in business rates, for example. Lots of direct debit payments because it's not possible to effect which... Can I just say, I understand the point you're making,
00:19:02	but I do not have expertise in this matter. So I'm going to hand over to the government. Just before Steve comes in, in terms of the comments about the recommendations of this committee being ignored, I would just point out that in the action tracking document
00:19:21	arising from those recommendations, a special meeting of this committee be arranged and the advice is sought on the contract. Both those things have been done. We arranged a special meeting for the 3rd of October, but subsequently we had a requisition
00:19:37	for a special county council on a notice of motion on Aura. So you'll have received an email from Steve Goodrum to explain that the meeting of this committee was then cancelled because obviously we were having a... So that recommendation was taken forward and a special meeting was arranged.
00:19:54	And in terms of the recommendation on asking for the contract, that's absolutely fine. The committee can do that, they can ask for it, but the advice given, it's not for us here to say that you can have it. The monitoring officers made that decision
00:20:09	and that has been given to you, that advice. I know you're questioning that advice with the monitoring officer, that's fine, but that's been given. So those two recommendations were taken forward. They weren't ignored, they were taken forward.
00:20:21	Point of order, Chair, they were taken forward. They were taken forward. However, it was after the cabinet meeting and it specified in our motion that a special meeting of the Education, Youth and Culture Overview Scrutiny Committee
00:20:38	was to be held as soon as possible prior to the next cabinet meeting, which was actually on the 26th of September. Our meeting was the 9th of September, which gave quite a good way to actually arrange a meeting. It could have been on the Monday
00:20:52	before the full council meeting, but that was not arranged and that did not take place. So the first motion was not fulfilled. Yeah, Chair, might I just sort of finish it, if I might. This very much gives the appearance that the debate on this issue due to take place
00:21:15	next week on the 24th has been kicked effectively into the long grass to the point where whilst it is just before the end date of the contract on 31st October, it is, one imagines, almost practically too late. And people watching this debate today may speculate whether that was accidental or deliberate.
00:21:39	And I think we need to ensure that the integrity of the council is beyond repute. Might I just say, I think the integrity of the council is intact and I would not wish you to say anything that is detrimental to that. All I can say is that there has been
00:22:02	a great deal of communication. We've had reasons given to us as to why meetings were canceled or moved forward. And I think we're at the point where we have to accept that. So there is going to be a meeting next week. You've had communication with Gareth.
00:22:19	If you're still not happy, I would suggest that you continue that communication. I'm not sure that he will add anything to it because I get the impression that he feels that the matter is concluded. So thank you.
00:22:34	Councillor Lister, please. I was just wondering whether we could include in the forward work programme a review of the discretionary school transport budget in light of lots of casework I've had this September of children struggling to get to their school of choice.
00:22:52	I've been speaking with Helen Telford and she advised that this committee was the one that dealt with discretion in school transports. Might be right or might be wrong. Thank you, Councillor Lister. Yes, the policy does sit within the education portfolio.
00:23:06	It's implementation is with Street C, so we'll make that. Okay, Councillor Madison, please. Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to backtrack slightly. If I could ask all councillors not to join in speculation and misinformation on social media
00:23:26	about the future of the libraries and leisure service. I'm speaking here as a veteran of 50 years in the public library service. I would lay down my life for the public library service. But in the past, I have known my staff verbally and physically attacked, yes, physically attacked
00:23:43	because of speculation and misinformation in the media and in the press. This is a personal plea. Please don't join in these debates. Unless you want to do as I once had to do, drive a member of staff to hospital,
00:23:57	a visually impaired member of staff because of a report that appeared in the newspaper in which a gentleman came into the library, accused her of whatever it was we're supposed to have done, pointed his finger at her like that, girl is visually impaired,
00:24:13	finger goes right into her eye and draws blood. And I drove her into hospital. And that was because of false speculation and misinformation on social media. So I'm asking you personally, please protect customer facing staff.
00:24:29	Don't join in this speculation and misinformation. Protect those staff. Thank you, Councillor Madison. Do we have any further questions? Yeah, referring to item four, forward work programme on attendance exclusion.
00:24:50	I've, I had a governor's meeting this week with my school and we seem to be having an issue with parents taking the children out of school for holidays abroad. And I was just wondering, have we found this to be across the county or, and if it is the case,
00:25:05	is there anything more we can do to try and, you know, change the way things are? Thank you, Councillor Schell-Cross. It's not a specific feature issue, I would say. It's actually a nationwide issue. The current guidance does allow for the authorisation.
00:25:24	Still up to 10 days, I think, Vicki, isn't it? The last time I looked of absence for school holidays. Obviously that is at the discretion of the head teacher to approve. And I know many head teachers are, you know, trying to really advise parents that that's, you know,
00:25:38	not an appropriate thing to do. Obviously, you know, two weeks out of a school's child's education is significant. You know, I think we all acknowledge the pressures on families in terms of costs of living and the price rises that happen during school holidays.
00:25:53	But obviously our preference is that parents do not take their children out of school during school holidays. So the guidance does allow it. Welsh government is currently undertaking a major piece of work in looking at all of the issues
00:26:07	related to improving attendance in its school. So until, you know, they deliberate perhaps and change the legislation, we are where we are. But again, it is at our head teacher's discretion in terms of that authorisation. But I appreciate the challenge.
00:26:25	Okay, we'll move on to the recommendations of which there are three. We'll take them on block. Can I have somebody propose them, please? Thank you, Councillor Ealy. Somebody to second them.
00:26:37	Thank you, Councillor Shawcross. All those in favour, please? Councillor Owen, did you decline? I'm sorry, again. Councillor Parkhurst, do you wish to abstain? I'm sorry, Chair.
00:26:58	I'm just trying to find your recommendations. What page are they on? No, they're not. Sorry, I'm looking at the end of the page. You're on page 11. Sorry, just turn her over.
00:27:15	Thank you, Chair. I cannot agree to approving the action tracking because I do not believe that the item regarding the contract has been completed. So I will vote against, thank you. I disagree with that as well.
00:27:38	I agree with Councillor Parkhurst. I can't agree to it either. All right, moving on to agenda item five. You're going to find this on pages 25 to 34. It's with regard to the budget for 2024-25. This is going to be led by Claire Hormod,
00:28:03	our Chief Officer for Education and Youth, Gary Ferguson, our Corporate Finance Manager, and Emma Jameson, Strategic Finance Manager. Thank you all. Yeah, thanks, Chair. As in past years,
00:28:17	the budget for the 2025-26 financial year will be built up in stages. The first stage has been concluded by the establishment of a robust baseline of cost pressures, which advises the council of its additional budget requirements for the following financial year.
00:28:32	Member workshops have been held and individual group meetings to ensure members have a full understanding of the council's concerning overall financial position. In September, Cabinet and Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee
00:28:44	received an updated position on the budget for 2025-26, which showed that we had an additional revenue budget requirement estimated at 38.42 million, which obviously presents a serious and major budget challenge for the council. Proposed solutions to bridge this gap
00:29:00	are currently being developed and will be shared with members in due course. This review by Overview and Scrutiny Committee throughout October and November is aimed at reviewing and scrutinising the portfolio cost pressures only,
00:29:12	and has to provide assurance or otherwise that they are an essential budget requirement for the 2025-26 budget and that there's no scope to remove or defer them to assist with dealing with the budget challenge. It is important that members are clear
00:29:26	that affordability is going to be key as part of this budget process, as to which cost pressures are included in the final budget proposals that will be brought before members in February. Some cost pressures we have no choice on,
00:29:39	for example, the impact of pay awards, borrowing costs for the capital programme, et cetera. These will need to be a first call for the 2025-26 budget. Where we do have a choice, they can only be included when we can evidence they have sufficient funding available,
00:29:55	whether that be through Welsh government grant and council tax, and or sufficient compensatory cost reductions elsewhere. So any thoughts from committee on areas that may be able to be deferred or removed would be welcomed and reported back to cabinet.
00:30:11	On timeline, we've got two key deadlines coming up, which aren't too far away now. We've got the UK budget on the 30th of October, of course. And then the Welsh government draft budget is scheduled for the 10th of December, with us receiving our provisional settlement
00:30:24	on the 11th of December. So as a council, we will be a lot clearer on our overall position at that point. We will be reporting the solutions identified to date during the December committee cycle. And I'm pretty certain that at that stage,
00:30:37	we will still have a gap, which we will need to fill in January and February prior to budget setting, which is in the diaries for mid-February. So President, may I hand over the Chief Officer to run through the key cost pressures
00:30:48	included in the report? Lovely, thank you, Gary. So as usual for this portfolio, we've got two sections to this report, one that relates to the core portfolio, cost pressures, and one that relates to school pressures.
00:31:03	So let's start with the portfolio ones first. So you'll find that at 105 in your report, on the table there indicating a list of cost pressures of just over 2.8 million pounds. I would like to assure the committee that as a senior management team,
00:31:18	we have really been through these cost pressures. We would not be presenting them to you if we did not genuinely feel that there are risks and that these pressures need to be accounted for. So what we've done is we have worked on the basis of worst case scenario,
00:31:33	because as you will have seen from some of the commentary against these pressures, we do currently receive grant funding to support some of these, but where we don't have certainty that that grant funding will continue,
00:31:45	we felt it was right and proper that we declared them as a potential pressure rather than obviously find ourselves in a sticky situation further down the line. So this is very much worst case scenario. I mean, all the notes there are listed
00:32:00	to provide explanations. I mean, I don't want to waste a lot of time actually just reading what is in the report to members, I'm sure members of all, or read them. So I suppose it might be helpful if at this stage, if members have specific questions
00:32:12	around aspects of these particular set of pressures, then perhaps we can try and answer them for you here, if that's a good use of time, Chair. I just like to say that the thing that struck me was the sustainability to this portfolio when it's reliant on grants for some things
00:32:33	that we offer to our young people, and it's just uncertain and it's quite worrying. To say the least. Thank you, Chair. I don't believe I'm about to say anything that the very experienced officers in this room
00:32:54	don't already know. It must be an incredibly difficult job to balance a passionate vision for what education could be with the responsibility of administering the finances that ultimately determine its success. As a newly elected counselor,
00:33:07	I'm beginning to really understand that and relate to that, to that struggle. But it's stage two of the budget process and now's the time for the robust debate and not after the decisions have been passed. So we all know the financial situation we face
00:33:21	is deeply challenging. I fully acknowledge the immense pressures on public spending and I understand that difficult decisions are unavoidable. However, I believe passionately that further cuts to school budgets are not part of the solution. We must be realistic about the financial limitations.
00:33:37	We must also be clear of the consequences of cutting funding to our schools. The report says that the portfolio has extremely limited capacity for further efficiencies and I believe this is particularly, well, I believe this is particular
00:33:55	when it comes to school budgets and individual school budgets. Our schools are already operating under extreme constraints and asking them to do more with less will risk irreparably harming the future of our young people and therefore the future as a whole.
00:34:11	In the next agenda item, the self-evaluation report makes reference to the Eston recommendations from the LA's previous inspection and the first of that was to raise outcomes at key stage four. That doesn't happen when a child reaches year 10. It happens from the moment they start their education.
00:34:27	Austerity measures coupled with council cuts are inevitably narrowing opportunities for young people especially in subjects such as designer technology, arts, sports and other vocational options. These are areas which provide vital opportunities for students to thrive in different ways,
00:34:43	building skills and creativity that will serve them throughout their lives and reducing these opportunities not only narrow students' education experience but it risks narrowing their futures as well. Here in Wales, we have a remarkable opportunity
00:34:56	with a new curriculum to place creativity, critical thinking, communication and metacognition at the heart of education. These are skills our young people need to navigate the very fast evolving complex world. However, the implementation of this curriculum
00:35:10	requires secondary schools in particular to restructure and to innovate and this challenge demands time, resources, investment in technology and a workforce that has the capacity to deliver. Right now, it's my opinion that our educators
00:35:25	are already stretched beyond their limits and without proper investment, the vision of the new curriculum is at risk. While we do face undeniable financial constraints, we cannot allow potentially short-term budgetary decisions to undermine the long-term future of our education system
00:35:41	and our future in general. Our children, the children I teach, my own children deserve more than a basic education. They deserve an education that prepares them for the world ahead and that's why I think we should be looking
00:35:56	into every other option to avoid future cuts to schools. Thank you for sharing that with us. It's obviously something very close to your heart. Yeah, thank you, Councillor Lister for your impassioned play on behalf of our schools and our education service.
00:36:15	And I know it's a subject both professionally and personally is very dear to your heart. And this is a challenging conversation I have with our teacher colleagues as well. I'm conscious we haven't talked about the particular school pressures yet.
00:36:27	These are the portfolio pressures, but we are managing a huge demand for education services in a time of unprecedented change, still dealing with many manifestations of the pandemic on our children and young people. And you can see that particularly in these cost pressures
00:36:42	around the demands for specialist provision and the number of pupils who are not able to access their school in a mainstream setting, for which we have to make alternative provision and that is costly. So there are, I say a number of significant pressures there
00:36:58	and it's about how we navigate the choppy waters ahead. Yes, the portfolio is extremely lean in terms of its management and its operation. We have taken over 3 million pounds out of the education portfolios operating budget over the last five years.
00:37:16	There is really nothing else to cut without it having a significant impact. However, as a member of the council's corporate management team, I also have a responsibility to support the chief executive and the section 151 officer
00:37:28	and to support you as elected members in getting to that position where decisions are made to achieve the holy grail that is the legal and balanced budget. And as we know, every year that gets more and more challenging.
00:37:42	So there are things there in those cost pressures for the portfolio that would be very difficult to remove. It is about the delivery of our core services really for our children and young people. There may be things in there that elected members may feel that in the current climate,
00:38:01	while morally the right thing to do actually are unaffordable. But that obviously is for members to comment. We need to continue investing in our school estates. Our learners deserve to be in school buildings that are fit for purpose
00:38:15	and allow teachers to deliver all the benefits of our modern curriculum and also to reduce the amount of maintenance pressures as well that we have still within our school estates. So if there was anything there,
00:38:28	if I felt I could take off the list, I would have taken off the list. So I am presenting this particular list to you of the genuine cost pressures that I feel we have within the education and youth portfolio.
00:38:39	And know that obviously with the discussions in the chief officer team that there are gonna be more painful discussions to be had if we are to close that gap of over 38 million pounds. So I don't know if there are any other questions from members around the particular portfolio pressures.
00:38:59	Yeah, thank you, Chair. I'd like clarification please of the 21C schools band B borrowing costs. This is on page 27. It's 804,000 pound pressure. And there's a footnote number nine,
00:39:14	which says ongoing borrowing costs relating to the previously approved 21st century schools band B program. Is that an additional borrowing cost on top of what was expected or is that what was planned all along?
00:39:28	I'm just a little confused as I understood a pressure to be something which was extra unexpected rather than something which had been planned some time ago. And I can see we've got Jenny Williams, our senior manager for school place planning on the screen. So I'm hoping Jenny can help assist
00:39:46	in answering this question for you because Jenny takes day-to-day responsibility in overseeing this area of the portfolios work. Jenny, can I call you in? Thank you, Claire. Thank you, Councillor Parkhurst.
00:40:01	Yes, it's a planned program which we are currently still working through. So we've got some live sites that we're still working through under band B. So this has all been worked through through the MTFS medium financial plan
00:40:24	with financial colleagues. So I suppose it's a pressure, but it's a planned pressure, if that makes any sense. It's not additional or unexpected, Jenny, I think is what you're saying. It's part of the programme.
00:40:41	Yeah, it's been agreed through the programme project by project and it's not beyond what we expected. Councillor Parkhurst, are you happy with that? I'm not sure, Chair, if I'm happy or not, to be honest. I think I have to think about it. If Councillor Parkhurst wants any further overview
00:41:16	actually of the programme, I'm sure myself and Jenny could provide that information to you and walk you through it, if that would help you. If there are no further questions around, oh, there are some. I do actually have a list.
00:41:34	Councillor Preece, please. Thank you, Chair. I've got to agree with yourself and Claire Hommard on this, that the situation is untenable about the grant funding that we receive and the timing of this grant funding.
00:41:50	It's year on year, we are waiting with bated breath whether we're going to receive the grant funding for these necessary services that we have. And they're very important services. And the staff, it's unsettling for the staff and it's unsettling for the county as a whole
00:42:09	because these services are necessary. Through you, Chair, and through Claire Hommard, I think this committee really needs to send another letter, I'm afraid, on behalf of this committee to Welsh government and say, this is untenable. It's a situation as it is with the climate change
00:42:30	and the pressures that are on from COVID that we really need to get a grip of these grants and be changing some of these grants to statutory funding that they supply to the county council instead of it being grant funded and the insecurity that we see year on year out
00:42:52	that we do not or we're waiting to see what the funding is. And I think it needs to be said and it needs to be said now. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for that, Councillor Preece. Councillor Healy, please. Thank you, Chair.
00:43:10	I'd agree with Councillor Preece that we certainly could do a greater certainty over future grants for services and knowing in good time. At the moment, I can see how the chief officer says that you've got to build these in as a possible pressure, as a worst case scenario.
00:43:33	And it does occur to me with some of the other pressures that we've got there. In a sense, some of them result from an increasing service demands because of the increase of the number of people requiring specialist education or what have you.
00:43:48	But there are also pressures there that stem from decisions that have been made elsewhere. And we pick up the tab for them. And I'm wondering if the chief officer would just clarify what sorts of decisions those are, whether it's pay awards or indeed reforms that come in
00:44:10	that are not fully funded, that are a concern that add to the cost price, Yeah, thank you, Councillor Healy. Yeah, the challenge is that, and it reflects partly on what Councillor Preece was saying as well.
00:44:29	Obviously, we have the main funding that comes into the council, don't we, through the RSG. But a significant amount of education-related funding comes through dedicated grants. And there is an argument that actually, sometimes that's helpful
00:44:43	because funding that goes into the RSG obviously is for determination and for allocation across the council. So there is a risk, therefore, that perhaps what the initial intention for that funding was, it may then not reach that particular provisional service.
00:44:59	Education, I think, is a good example of that because we do have a huge amount of funding that comes in as grant funding because Welsh Government have determined it is to meet a certain set of national priorities. And obviously, they want to ensure
00:45:10	that those priorities are delivered and that there is a mechanism then for monitoring the success of those priorities. But it does leave us as a portfolio. And I think, Emma, how many grants, Emma, do we have on our spreadsheet?
00:45:24	20-odd grants, the finance team have to manage with obviously different reporting requirements to Welsh Government. So I can assure you from an education director's point of view, we do regularly have robust conversations with Welsh Government about the structure
00:45:39	of the grant funding, the timeliness of the grant funding, so that we can plan and use it strategically and not be trying to make decisions at the last minute. Some of the grant funding actually comes from the Ministry of Justice, as you'll be aware, because you wrote your letter,
00:45:56	that doesn't sit with Welsh Government. So yeah, we are often at the vagaries of those grant funding mechanisms, but then the plus side is, we know that that funding is ring-fenced for that particular function,
00:46:08	and therefore we are able to protect that function to a certain degree. The other challenge, I would say, if we're looking at this list of cost pressures here, obviously Welsh Government made the decision to withdraw funding for a free school meal
00:46:24	during the holidays, post-COVID. This council made the decision to continue that funding, not obviously at the full level of entitlement, but with a fixed payment, and there were reasons that councillors felt that that was an important thing to do.
00:46:41	But again, that is a choice, and that might be obviously something that council is gonna have to look at again, looking at obviously the budget, because initially it was met from reserves, so if council choices that that should continue
00:46:55	in school holidays, it's got to be rolled into the base budget. Is it affordable? So I would say that's another example. So I think we're betwixt and between when it comes to grants.
00:47:07	There are people who think something should be hypothecated and protected, and others feel that actually it needs to come into the base budget, and I think that debate's been raging for many, many years.
00:47:21	Yeah, can I just come back? What I was trying to say is that, yes, it should come in, not be grant funding, but there is a mechanism where they can actually ring-fence it, that it cannot be used for any other purpose.
00:47:35	So it can only be used for the purpose that it's been set for under the grant funding, but it would come through as statutory and said, so it wouldn't actually disappear under the budget into other areas, et cetera. It would still be fit for the purpose
00:47:49	that it was intended to in the first place. That's my understanding. Councillor Healy, do you feel I've answered your question sufficiently? Yes, too fast, sir, thank you. Councillor Shawcross, please.
00:48:05	Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I was just looking at the additional learning needs, and I know I've been retired from Airbus for quite a while, but when I was there, we had the right to read scheme. I was just wondering, was it just Airbus that, or are there other companies we could perhaps engage,
00:48:21	because there's a lot of people out there who'd be more than happy to offer themselves to listen to children read, and perhaps free up the more, you know, the more qualified people to do more important tasks. Thank you, Councillor Shawcross.
00:48:37	Yeah, I don't think it's gonna help significantly from a budgetary perspective, because obviously we have statutory requirements, and that's what these cross pressures are referring to, but I do know that many of our schools are very creative in the way that they try to maximise
00:48:52	the impact of their paid staff, their teaching staff, and their support staff by using volunteers, and I know many governors act as volunteers as well, and will go into schools and listen to children read, or to mentor learners, as you were describing from Airbus,
00:49:08	so I would say that's a welcome addition to what schools are trying to achieve, but in no way would it dent the hole in this level of cost pressure that it's about, and I think as our schools become even more pressurised in terms of the challenges around their school budgets,
00:49:23	you know, again, I'm sure they're gonna draw more and more on that voluntary capacity within their communities to help them deliver the kind of support to pupils that you're describing. Like the high school I'm involved with, we seem to be getting more children now
00:49:38	coming to high school that lack the reading and writing skills that they perhaps should have at that level, and I've suggested maybe, you know, we could do it at a high school level as well, somebody come in and, you know, listen to them read, and whether there's an opportunity to be.
00:49:55	Yeah, thank you. Well, you'll probably have picked up from the press that the Cabinet Secretary for Education, Lynne Neagle, is very focused on a number of clearly defined priorities of which literacy, obviously, and numeracy are two,
00:50:10	attendance and wellbeing are the others, and we can expect to see over the weeks and months ahead, I think, more and more statements about how the Cabinet Secretary wants to support schools, not to narrow the curriculum, but to have a stronger focus on key aspects
00:50:27	of which, obviously, reading is essential. So I think, you know, that's certainly the direction of travel, and I think certainly, and Vicky may have a view on this as well, the work that we are doing, you know, that schools do in their clusters,
00:50:40	in terms of that progression of children from primary through to secondary, making sure that the progression of skills, such as reading, writing, spelling, you know, are actually being appropriately plotted and delivered then through the curricula
00:50:54	that are being offered to ensure that children do hit their developmental milestones, you know, at the right chronological age, because you're right, if a learner's, you know, literacy skills are not where they should be, they're gonna really struggle to access the curriculum.
00:51:09	I don't know, Vicky, if there's anything you'd want to add to that? Just so that is something that we've been talking about quite recently, actually, with schools. Transition arrangements has always been part of school processes, but I think there is a renewed
00:51:24	understanding, really, and opportunity to focus on that. Particularly coming out of the pandemic, we know children's literacy levels, you know, there was an impact, and schools are working very, very hard to try and get children back to where they need to be. We talk a lot about school-to-school collaboration,
00:51:41	and there's a new phrase now, it's called vertical collaboration, where primaries and secondary schools work together as well. That's always happened, but I think what we're seeing now under the new school improvement framework is that that needs to be coordinated
00:51:56	and really focused on improvement. Coming back to the budget, though, there is obviously a cost for schools and a cost pressure there in terms of release time, enough release time for staff to be able to do that in a meaningful way.
00:52:10	Get the children to a level when they go to high school, then we reduce the need for additional learning. Come on, we're so botches. The last other thing, where there's a cluster of several primary schools in close proximity, could we not, you know, where there's additional
00:52:26	learning needs, and there might be one or two children per teacher or whatever, is there any way we could cluster the children together and have the one person teaching them? I know you've got transport issues, but it's just an idea, you know.
00:52:40	Our schools do work very well in clusters, and, you know, we're very proud of that work in Flintshire on lots of levels, but I can actually see my colleague, Jeanette Rock, on screen, and I know this is something that yourself and your team have been working with Jeanette,
00:52:52	so I don't know if you want to add anything there, but yes, it's a good point raised. Yeah, thank you, Vicki. We do actually have specialist results provision across the county that cases for children with particular needs, and we have those bases
00:53:05	in our primary schools and in secondary schools, and they support children with a range of leads, ranging from moderate learning difficulty needs with additional complexities up to social communication. And so that model that you've described there is the model that we have in place across the county.
00:53:22	So we have a number of bases, and we're looking to extend that provision within our secondary sector. We had a report that went to Cabinet recently to look to extend that provision, and based on the model that you're describing there.
00:53:39	Councillor Bill Crease, please. You need to unmute. There we go. My question's really been, my observation's really been addressed. The chief officer explained a bit
00:54:11	about the double-edged sword nature of grants. I sat through a cross-committee earlier this week. We were at a fabulous presentation from the youth justice people, but my concern and others within that committee raised concerns about the nature of grant funding
00:54:30	for a hugely important project. That's just reflected all the way across the council, and it just makes the budget process that much more difficult. We were talking about budget pressures related to grant funding,
00:54:42	where we all hope we're going to get the grant funding, and the grant funding is needed to run these very valuable projects, but at the end of the day, it makes budgeting hugely difficult. Thank you, Councillor Crease.
00:54:57	Councillor Gladys Healey, please. Your chair, this question is on specials, on special needs, medical needs of children that cannot be taught in a school, and we haven't got the speciality outside the school. So these children are really taught at home
00:55:18	because their special needs are so much. Where do we get the funding for this? You'll see, Councillor Healey, in the report number four that we're identifying a specific cost pressure for those learners because, as you say, this is medical conditions now,
00:55:39	not additional learning needs, but medical conditions, and we've seen a huge increase in this particular area, and I think the challenge is that, once a medical practitioner has said that that young person is not fit for school, it's very difficult then to get the evidence to say,
00:55:55	perhaps, if that was a time-limited issue, and they could return to school. But at the end of the day, the local authority has a statutory responsibility to make that provision. I'm just wondering if Jeanette wanted to add anything
00:56:06	in response to your question. It is a challenge, as you refer, Claire. So we have a number of medical practitioners who can say that a child requires home tuition, which is what we're talking about here, and that goes through our EOTAS panel,
00:56:22	so education otherwise than at school, and we have a panel of officers that reflect on that. And one of the concerns that we have raised with our health professional colleagues is that, once a child is signed off, there's no process within that at the moment
00:56:37	that reflects on when they are fit for school again, and we can have children out of education for a period of time, which is very concerning for a number of reasons, because, obviously, we all recognise the value of education and the right education for a child,
00:56:51	and in the majority of cases, that education will be within their local mainstream school, and it is about getting children back into the education system as much as we can. So, as Claire has referenced there, we have got a pressure in,
00:57:04	because we have got an increasing level of demand, and also, if we look at the legislation around EOTAS, there is a duty to provide a full and balanced curriculum for children, so that's an additional cost for the council. We work at the moment on a basic level of intervention,
00:57:24	and then review that in light of individual need, but, as I say, there is something within the legislation that says that a child is entitled to a broad and balanced curriculum, and I think the challenge that we have at the moment is not only the cost of that,
00:57:39	but it's actually procuring that for children who are not able to access their education into school, which is a significant challenge to us. Do we get ground funding for this? Sorry, Jeanette, go ahead. I was going to say, we do get some ALN funding
00:57:59	at the moment, which is specific for children who have been identified with a range of additional learning needs, but we don't have money specific to support children who are not able to engage in school due to medical reasons.
00:58:17	Through the Chair, isn't it high time that we ask the Welsh Government, because this is an increasing number that's happening again, that we should have additional funding for this problem? And can I ask if the Chief Officer can write to the Welsh Minister
00:58:39	to ask for additional funding, and if I can be let known what's happening? If I might just say, Councillor Healy, I'm actually going to suggest that we add two letters to our recommendations, that being one. Chair, I think, Jeanette, I think we would both agree,
00:59:00	wouldn't we, that in all the national forums that we sit on and in our engagement with the Health Board locally, this is a matter that is under regular discussion. Very much so. Councillor Parkhurst, please.
00:59:18	Thank you, Chair. Does leisure libraries and museums fall under the education, youth and culture portfolio? I am not responsible for leisure libraries and museums. It sits within this committee structure, but no, I am not.
00:59:47	It does not sit within my remit as the Chief Officer for Education and Youth. Thank you, Chair. Might I ask as a supplementary, where will the cost pressures, which will inevitably happen
01:00:04	if the local authority trading company? I think that's a speculation, Councillor Parkhurst. May I ask where the additional cost pressures will be scrutinised then? I presume that they would eventually come back to us and this committee.
01:00:24	And CROSC, yeah. Sorry, I would assume that they're not in this report because obviously that isn't the case yet, is it, that they're not, it's not a cost pressure at the moment. So whether that, because you're right
01:00:40	that it comes under the remit of this committee. So I would assume if it's not included in the CROSC that it will come back to this committee. I think that would- But I will check that, I'll check where that's going to be reported.
01:00:55	It would probably be after the conversation that we have on the 24th in the, decisions like that and matters like that may come back to us at that point. Chair, might the Chief Finance Officer express a comment about that?
01:01:11	Because it is essential that we are given the opportunity to fully scrutinise cost pressures under- It's not an area that she's actually responsible for. No, sorry, the- Oh, sorry, the Chief of-
01:01:22	Sorry, the finance officer. I apologise, I have to apologise, Gansburg. There's nothing included at the moment within the 38.4 million. So obviously it's part of the process of transferring to an LATC
01:01:34	where we're capturing all any additional costs and cost benefits as well because there are both sides of the coin. Obviously once that's concluded, we'll be willing to feed the outcome of that into the budget process.
01:01:46	That's, I think, it's not my decision which committee that will be reported to. That'll be for the monitoring officer, I assume, to make a decision. Thank you for that. Councillor Johnson, you put your hand up earlier on.
01:02:00	Would you like to contribute to us? Thank you, I would like to contribute. Thank you, Chair. I'm just going through this. I appreciate the detail that the committee's going through here.
01:02:11	I would point the committee's attention to paragraph 1.03, which says the committee's throughout October, November, this review is aimed at reviewing and scrutinising the portfolio cost pressures to provide assurance that they are an essential requirement
01:02:27	for the 2025-26 budget and there's no scope to remove, or defer them to assist with dealing with the budget challenge. Quite clearly, some of us in the front line here. And I would be very grateful for each of the items that are set down
01:02:45	from one to 10 on this section here, because just say review and comment that this committee is happy with what has been set out, given that some of those are not choices. There's only one which does have a choice. The other thing I would do,
01:03:04	and it isn't very often mentioned, but one of the things that we have to do as a council is ensure that there is always a value for money which is taken, which we obtain. And that I would be grateful for the committee if they could assure,
01:03:20	because that's what they're asking us to do, what this report is there for, is to request assurances that each of the items here that they feel is best value for money. I noticed, for example, that when you're looking at the summer play scheme,
01:03:39	which comes later, which is down here, there's a very, very thorough report about its effectiveness and the challenges it proposed. I noticed again that with the food and fun thing, the food and fun project, again, those are listed. I would be grateful from the committee,
01:03:56	just it has been discussed by full council and whatever, that they are assured that, for example, because there's been no report presented into it, following it, that they are assured that the money that has been spent on the free school meals and is proposed for next year,
01:04:12	is going to be value for money. I think that's all I can say. I'm not going to argue the point, because I do strongly believe that a provision has to be made because there is such a thing as holiday poverty. But I think when you look at, say,
01:04:32	the two subsequent reports, you can see there's different ways in dealing with it. So my question is going to be, do we believe that the system we have in place at the moment is the one which delivers what we want it to achieve? I looked at it and I just thought,
01:04:46	well, do you know, that's 462,000 pounds is a lot. Is that giving us the value for money that we want? We are talking, we are looking at a lot of challenges in front of us here. These are difficult choices, which I think we've all got to go and do.
01:05:06	And sometimes you need to go and ask the, and I think if I wasn't sat here asking the difficult questions, then you'd be saying, why aren't you asking those difficult questions? So my question here is, of this committee,
01:05:16	so when I go back to cabinet, I can say this committee is quite happy that there's no scope to remove or defer and that they are sure that everything down here is in the century requirement for 2025. Thank you, Councillor Johnson.
01:05:29	Councillor Preece, please. Thank you, Chair. I just want to cover item eight, which Councillor Johnson has just brought up, the eligibility for free school meals. And it's the holiday provision,
01:05:42	because I don't think that Councillor Johnson made that clear, because it's free school meals in primary schools is staying, and you're talking about the holiday provision. Right, the holiday provision, I know that we haven't got an awful lot of information
01:06:00	about it here, but I have seen the knock-on benefits of this. My ward has got an awful lot of deprived families, et cetera, who are living below the poverty level. And without that additional holiday money to pay for the children's food, they wouldn't have eaten.
01:06:23	And that's where we're coming from. It's just the fact that this small amount of money that has been coming from the county council to support those families, and it is means-tested, if you like, it's gone through that process
01:06:38	with the people who would normally have got free school meals are the ones who are receiving this funding. So it isn't for all to have it, it is means-tested, and those families are in need. Speaking to the food fridges and to actually the food banks, their numbers triple or go through the roof
01:07:01	when it's any holiday period. And it is a terrible situation that we're in. We've had the heating price caps at the moment. However, the end of October, we're seeing them rise again. Sorry, people can't afford that. So we're looking at a case that,
01:07:23	yes, we haven't got a full report here, but that is needed. We cannot be a council where we do not help and support these families. That is our responsibility. That is our community responsibility towards residents in need to help as much as we possibly can.
01:07:43	And I know that we haven't got a full report on it. Perhaps we should have a full report on it, but that is one I am very passionate about that must stay. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councillor Priest. Would anybody like to reply?
01:08:02	My point, yes, I completely agree with the holiday provision. I think it has made a difference. I represent one of the poorest wards, part of my ward is one of the poorest in the county. So I appreciate very much how much this affects that. My question still is, though,
01:08:20	we have just replied, it applies from each of those positions from numbers one to 10. Are this committee assured that each of the items there represent best value for money? That's what, for me, this is what scrutiny has to be. If you want to give lots of questions
01:08:39	about being part of a budget procedure, and I think it's important all committees are, as well as not only attending all these committees. I would like to know if this committee is assured that what is down here is, as the wording down there, an essential requirement for the 2025-26 budget,
01:08:58	and there's no scope to remove or defer them to assist in dealing with the budget challenge. That's a great point, Chair. But the comments from that standard look to be absolutely clear. I don't think it would hurt you to have a deficit looming.
01:09:17	I appreciate the scale of deficit we have looming. I think that would be absolutely clear on these numbers, not fudge anything. Councillor Healy, please. Chair, I cannot sit here quietly. We have got a deficit, yet we are here talking about kids.
01:09:40	That have to go hungry. I feel a bit ashamed being the richest, six richest country, and yet we are talking of children not eating. I cannot let this go. I think this should not go.
01:10:02	This is my view. I cannot sleep in my bed at night to think of kids being hungry. I am very passionate about children. I would lay my life down for children, but I will not sleep in my bed
01:10:19	and think of children in Wales going hungry, especially in Flintshire. And I feel very passionate about this, and that's what I feel. I cannot sit here and we are discussing, should we feed children?
01:10:36	For God's sake. These are our people of tomorrow. I am sorry. I cannot sit here, and I will never vote for children to go hungry. Just to clarify, I'm not asking that
01:10:52	because I feel deeply about it. Don't get me wrong on that. I'm just asking of members' consent to say, to remind, to show us that they want the items in here. You know, and I'm gonna be on Christmas Eve,
01:11:09	I certainly won't be sitting on the fireplace and doing other things. So all I'm asking for here is that the committee is clear about what we wish, and your views are very, very clear, as we know we've had.
01:11:20	Well, my view is very clear. I say it stays. It's very clear. Councillor Lister, please. Can I just ask, have any other models of feeding children during the holidays been explored?
01:11:36	Because whilst I absolutely agree that we need to do something for the most deprive, I'm not sure that the one pound 20 that each child gets, if they fill out the forms to claim it in the first place, is reaching all the children that are going hungry. And is there another,
01:11:53	could we explore other models that have like warm hubs and things where food is available for perhaps less than that, nearly half a million that is in this, as the cost pressure. I'm sorry, Chair.
01:12:08	Could I in that case pass it to Councillor Mackey there and say that perhaps the food group could take that up? Sorry, I'm going to ask the chief officer to comment, please. There are a multitude, I know, voluntary bodies who are all contributing to this problem.
01:12:29	The mechanism that we have in Flintshire is that we are, you know, we maintain our database, our families who are entitled to the benefits of which free school meals is one of them. And that, you know, we work very closely with our schools. Our schools work closely with their communities
01:12:46	to make sure that families who are entitled to that benefit are applying for it. And that obviously we are capturing their details. Our welfare team within the council works really hard to ensure that we, you know, families are getting what they need.
01:13:02	So by maintaining that database, we are able to make, and the most cost efficient way for us to manage that is to make those direct payments. When we first had the issues around the pandemic, trying to make sure that entitled families receive them was a really complex matter.
01:13:21	You know, were they going to go to school and have to pick up lunches? We also have to accept, and it's enshrined in the legislation, that there needs to be dignity for families who are entitled.
01:13:31	So actually making yourself know, you know, that obviously undermines your personal dignity, doesn't it? In having to say, look, I'm here to pick up my meal because I'm entitled. So the system works in terms of us able to quickly and efficiently make those direct payments to families.
01:13:48	And I've really liked to play credit to the revenues and benefits team who work so hard in making sure that that information is current so that we can, at the flick of a switch, put that money directly into parents' bank accounts. That is what we did all through COVID.
01:14:03	That's what we have done in terms of this holiday provision when members made the decision that obviously they wanted a payment to be made. So I would say in terms of the manageability of the council as well, in terms of officer capacity, that is the best way to deliver that core funding.
01:14:19	But as we know, through various groups, charities, and whether there are lots of other mechanisms where families, and you'll hear obviously some about, you know, the place scheme, you'll certainly hear about the food and fund programme. That again, is additionality from Welsh government
01:14:34	around that particular programme in terms of adding to the, you know, what is, Councillor Healy, none of us in this room would disagree with you, but it is abhorrent and, you know, shocking that in the developed world, we are still talking about children in future
01:14:48	and Wales being hungry. So I just wanted to just sort of share that with you, councillor, in terms, I wouldn't want to undermine that system because that system works in terms of direct delivery. Just on that point as well, I think it needs to be said,
01:15:08	it is so important for families to apply. And it's something that we have gone on about, and I know it's part of Claire's heart as well, and myself, that people do apply for this. Yes, it's a form to fill in, but at the end of the day, there are other things that they can apply for
01:15:31	once they have filled in that benefit form. And it is so important to do that. Thank you, chair, for letting me come in. That's quite all right. Councillor Crease, please. Thank you, chair.
01:15:46	It was just really to support everything that's been said about child hunger, child poverty and holiday hunger. I think as we move forward, the idea that Councillor Lister put forward, that we need to perhaps look at transforming the way
01:16:06	the huge amount of good that's done by voluntary groups and support groups around the county and around the country, if we are to find ways of ensuring that everyone that needs is provided for and managing the costs to the taxpayer as best we can. I know there's a huge amount of work going on
01:16:29	in the background on holiday hunger, child poverty. Perhaps we shouldn't consider going forward, not removing the money by any stretch of the imagination, but find out if there are ways going forward where better value can be achieved. And by better value, I mean reducing child hunger,
01:16:49	reducing child poverty and ensuring everyone that needs the support has access to and is provided with the support. So perhaps it's under the current situation, Councillor Johnson, this is best value, the mechanisms we have to deliver to protect children
01:17:07	through the holidays and ensure they don't go hungry. It's best value at the moment, but we should perhaps all get our thinking caps on and find out if there's a way we can work together with all these other agencies, all these other bodies whose objective is identical and see if we can coordinate
01:17:24	and work together to get a better solution. I'm going to ask our chief officer if she'd like. Yeah, no, thank you. I just want to come back to Councillor Johnson's points about the purpose of this report is for members to scrutinise every line and to ask ourselves
01:17:44	these difficult questions. I think we've had a really good debate there obviously around child poverty and hunger. I think what I would say is that a number of these pressures here are related to statutory functions over which we have no choice.
01:17:58	But obviously the demand is such that we are experiencing these pressures and that some of the pressures as we've described to you here are about us providing best value because by extending provision within our own resources, resource bases and within our specialist schools,
01:18:15	actually we are trying to avoid expensive out of county placements. So again, that does provide best value because what we are trying to do is make sure we have sufficient local capacity to meet the needs of the ever-growing needs of our learners
01:18:28	who need this level of support. So in our view, that is the best value that we can present to you even though obviously it is resulting in a pressure. You've seen the value of the Youth Justice Service through the excellent report
01:18:42	that we brought to you the last time. Again, statutory function, but as that inspection report identified, our teams are going above and beyond to support a very vulnerable cohort of young people who are under that service. And similarly with our youth services
01:18:59	and the huge array of support that they provide working very closely with other partners as well. To our young people as ward members, you will be aware of some of the pressures within your own communities that young people are facing, your concerns about antisocial behavior,
01:19:15	about substance misuse. And again, if we are to protect our young people, we need to have the services that our youth services again can provide. So there's nothing here that isn't of absolute intrinsic value, as I say,
01:19:30	but and a lot of it our hands are tied because it is a statutory function. So I would hope that that would give you, cabinet member for finance, the assurance that we are only presenting these pressures to you because we genuinely feel they are necessary.
01:19:44	And we've had some very robust discussions within our senior management team. I'm going to move to the recommendations. Kerry has rewritten them. We need to talk about the school's pressures as well. Sorry, but this is the purpose of the report.
01:20:05	It's about having a full and frank discussion. So if we turn to 106, obviously in the report, there are very specific pressures that are related to the school's delegated budget and they are listed there in the table at 107. And again, you can see a significant number of those
01:20:23	are related to the pay award. And this goes back Councillor Healy to your earlier question in that obviously this isn't determined locally. Pay for staff, teachers and support staff is determined at a national level. And obviously we then have to follow that through
01:20:41	and make the funding appropriately available to schools. So the cost pressures there, as you can see for support staff and the teachers pay award have been included. We are hopeful that there will be some funding from Welsh government. They have indicated that certainly for the 24, 25 cost pressures,
01:20:59	Gary, we are anticipating some funding coming through to local authorities as a result of sort of consequential funding. The other pressures there, as you can see, goes back to the earlier conversation about us expanding our local resource provision to make sure that we can accommodate those learners that perhaps are not
01:21:19	as severely needing high level specialist provision, but neither is mainstream appropriate for them. So as Jeanette was alluding to the development of an ongoing expansion of our resource provision, particularly at secondary school, will help us do that in the most cost efficient way, but actually also make sure that our learners remain within their,
01:21:41	local communities, which obviously is very important. And as you know, we are experiencing such demand for specialist provision. Our two specialist schools, Pencroch and Mice Hoverdell, are already full. We have children on waiting lists.
01:21:56	So again, we are trying to find ways to creatively expand that provision, both obviously from a capital perspective, but the pressures here again relate to the revenue costs in terms of the additional staffing, you know, we need to ensure that those extra spaces are able to be obviously appropriately staffed.
01:22:14	So again, there's nothing in there that is flexible, I would say, but again, to be assured, and I know this is something the Welsh Local Government Association regularly just, you know, say back to Welsh government and to UK government, you know, things like national pay awards, then obviously these things should be nationally funded.
01:22:35	So, and I know, Gary, through the Society of Welsh Treasurers, again, that you sit on constant pressures back to Welsh government and UK government on these issues. So I don't feel there's any manoeuvrability on those levels of cost pressures there either. Thank you, Chair.
01:22:53	Do we have any further questions? Okay, well, we will move to the recommendations. I'm going to ask Kerry to read them out because they've changed somewhat. So, given the comment from the Cabinet Member for Finance, the report is just asking for you to review and comment on the cost pressures,
01:23:15	the portfolio and the school's cost pressures. But the Cabinet Member for Finance has asked for a commitment really from the committee that you're supporting those cost pressures going forward. Just to say, in terms of the recommendation, obviously they're asking for you to comment. So the comments of the committee on this item
01:23:34	will be collated and fed back as they will for each scrutiny committee. So, recommendation A, that the committee acknowledge the education and youth portfolio cost pressures as outlined within the report and confirm that the cost pressures should be taken forward as part of the 2025-26 budget. Recommendation B, that the committee acknowledge
01:23:54	the school's cost pressures as outlined within the report and confirm that the cost pressures should be taken forward as part of the 2025-26 budget. C, that a letter be written to us government to outline the committee's concern around the challenge for the education and youth services, around the uncertainty on grant funding streams
01:24:12	and request that consideration be given to changing those grant funding streams in future statutory funding. And D, that a letter be written to us government to request that additional funding be provided for children who are educated at home due to additional learning needs due to a medical condition.
01:24:27	Go on, go on. OK, may I have a... Well, close the second, please. Thank you, County, please. All those in favour? All those in favour, please?
01:24:38	Thank you very much. Just to say, thank you. Could I just thank the committee for their clarity? It's been very much appreciated from my side. Again, from the Chief Officer's company, again, about investing for the future of all the bits and pieces.
01:24:58	Sometimes you get the ifs and buts. Today, there was none of those. Thank you, Councillor Johnson. Right, moving on to agenda item six to be found on pages 35 to 134. It's a self-evaluation report for the education services and is going to be led by our Chief Officer, Claire Homard.
01:25:22	Thank you, Chair. Delighted to be able to present to you our annual self-evaluation report of education services here in Flintshire. This is a report, obviously, you do receive every year, and you're probably quite familiar now with the structure of this report. So, because this report is retrospective,
01:25:43	it does actually reflect the local government inspection framework of 2324. You'll be aware that we had brought a report to committee that from September 24, that inspection framework has changed. So, next year's report will obviously be written in that style, but we felt it was important that we kept the structure to the framework that was in place at the time.
01:26:08	So, it is a very detailed report. I appreciate the members will have had a lot to read, but as you can see, the portfolio is extremely busy and delivers a huge range of services, both directly through its own core teams and obviously the work that it does in supporting schools
01:26:26	on their own improvement journey. I will pick up some highlights from the report, but I think, again, it will be a report that will generate lots of discussion, which we really welcome. So, you know, my position as the Chief Officer is that I am very proud of the content of this report today.
01:26:43	I think it is a strong report and I think it demonstrates to our elected members and to our parents and our families, who are obviously invested in our education services, that education services here in Flintshire are strong, they are effective in supporting children and young people
01:27:01	and that we do, quoting Councillor Johnson, continue to provide good value for money, particularly, obviously, in light of the financial challenges facing the council's budget and the knock-on effect into schools' delegated budgets. I think we're all familiar with what self-evaluation is
01:27:20	and why we do it, so I won't pick up on those. But again, just to reference that the education service here in Flintshire was last inspected in 2019 under the old framework. There wasn't any requirement for any follow-up at that time. The report was very positive. Yes, we had recommendations for improvements.
01:27:40	We had identified them as areas for ourselves and we have continued to work through those and you will know that they are embedded in our council plan and in the portfolio business plan. Now, if we look, obviously, at, in particular, two of those recommendations,
01:27:55	recommendation two around reducing exclusions and increasing attendance, well, you can see in the report we're making progress in some areas, but not as much in others. And recommendation four is a particularly challenging one for us because whilst I think I reported to you last year,
01:28:13	we've made significant progress since 2019 in reducing the number of schools that were in a deficit position. Obviously, the deteriorating position of the council and the difficult decisions that elected members have had to take in terms of taking, you know, money out of the schools' delegated budget and you saw in the report on school balances
01:28:33	that we brought to you in September that the number of schools now moving into a deficit position has increased significantly and suddenly will continue to deteriorate. So in my conversations with our local link inspector and with the chief inspector, I have raised concern that a situation that is beyond our control
01:28:54	may reflect poorly on their judgment of how much progress the portfolio has made since that recommendation was made in 2019. So I have been assured, as I say, by the chief inspector himself and the local link inspector that Estyn are very much aware of the challenges being faced within local authority levels.
01:29:15	So, you know, I just felt it was important that I reference that because the starting point for any inspection is how much progress have you made from the recommendations from the previous inspection? So as members will be aware, you know, we do not have huge sets of data now
01:29:31	that used to be the core of our self-evaluation report. You know, we do not have data really now, you know, below the national level. And the focus is very much on schools using their own data to evaluate their performance. And then it's how we, in conjunction with our school improvement partners,
01:29:50	were and the work that we do through our team here in the portfolio as supporting schools then obviously to address their own priorities for improvement. One of the main sources of evidence that we have, therefore, that is in the public domain is the outcome of inspection reports. And obviously from 105 in the cover report here,
01:30:13	you know, we give you an overview of that so that you can obviously have a sense of where our inspection outcomes are coming. So in terms of the overall report itself, you can see it's within those three sections of outcomes, the services that we provide,
01:30:28	and then the quality of leadership and management as a whole. And of course, and that includes yourselves as elected members and particularly members of this committee, you know, and your function in holding the portfolio to account. So if I look at 106 in the report, the headlines in terms of outcomes related to the school inspection focus,
01:30:49	it details there how many secondary schools and primary schools and our crew have been inspected in that last reporting year. And, you know, and overall the performance, you know, is generally strong in our opinion, particularly at primary level.
01:31:06	And the detail is captured for you there. Since this report was written and published, I am delighted to report that we do not have two schools in a statutory category of follow-up. We only now have one. Coniskey High School,
01:31:23	their report is on the Eston website that was made public yesterday. The high school has been removed from a statutory category of follow-up. So we are absolutely delighted for the school and it's testament to the good work that's gone on. So, you know, that has obviously improved our secondary performance profile. Our primary school profile has traditionally been incredibly strong.
01:31:43	And again, that's reflected for you here in the report. You know, all but one of our schools, you know, have had no follow-up at all. And as we've highlighted here, you know, a significant number of our schools are being asked to provide case studies for publication on the Eston website, which is, you know, an indicator of, you know,
01:32:02	our best practice that is deserving of being shared across Wales. So at the moment, we have only one primary school in the sort of minor category of Eston review. And that's where the Eston team identified something that if not addressed, you know, could become an issue. But it is not a statutory category of follow-up.
01:32:21	And as I say, our secondary inspection profile, you know, is improving. As I say now, with only one high school in a statutory category and one in that minor category of Eston review. And we have to report as well on our non-maintained settings because, as you know, we fund education with play groups and day nurseries. And that is statutory educational provision.
01:32:44	And again, the profile there is very, very strong with no settings at all placed into any kind of follow-up category. So that gives our learners the best possible start, you know, when they start to access their early years education. So just perhaps picking up, obviously, on some of the things that continue to be challenging.
01:33:03	We identify there in section 107 of the report, the improving picture around attendance. And obviously, we're absolutely delighted to see that this is now moving in the right direction. You will probably have picked up on recent press coverage in terms of how the council is robustly,
01:33:21	you know, using its services to support schools, to manage attendance effectively and intervene appropriately. So I believe we are now third in Wales overall, best in the North Wales region and well above the average. We are not complacent. We want to be the top.
01:33:40	So that work will continue to be done in conjunction with our schools. The challenge does remain, I have to say, in terms of fixed term and permanent exclusions. And, you know, that is clearly referenced in the report. And here we give you an overview of the challenges that, you know, our practitioners are facing at school level
01:33:59	in managing, you know, quite challenging behaviour from, you know, many of our young people. You know, and sometimes those difficult decisions have to be made, you know, in the interest of safety of pupils and staff that, you know, an exclusion is made. It's not something we want.
01:34:16	We are working very hard with our schools and that's evidenced in the main report. I work around trauma-informed practice, encouraging our schools to really think about why young people are presenting in the way that they are, why they are reacting in the way that they are
01:34:31	and ensuring that teachers are well-equipped to manage those challenging situations, to de-escalate and hopefully avoid that, you know, difficult situation where a young person is excluded. And as we've said in this committee before, one of the best routes for ensuring that learners
01:34:49	are appropriately engaged is to have the highest quality of teaching and learning opportunities in the classroom and in a curriculum that engages and excites young people so that they really value, you know, being in that school environment. I have to say the position in terms of exclusion is not unique to Flintshire.
01:35:07	Jeanette and I sit in lots of national groups and it is something that is vexing all local authorities. And again, this is something the minister, the cabinet secretary, is giving very high priority to in terms of her restated national priorities because obviously it does relate to the well-being of young people, you know, how their challenges are playing out,
01:35:28	sometimes in the behaviour that they are presenting with and again, how effectively we can work together to support our learners. I think if you look at section two of the self-evaluation report where it really gives you that detailed overview of all of the services, it does provide you through the portfolio. You know, I think it is a huge range of services across all of our teams
01:35:51	and hopefully what you're getting in as you read the report is the sense of actually how we're trying to further integrate the different aspects of the services within the portfolio because at the end of the day, all of these services are wrapped around our young people. So it's not just about the work we do in terms of school improvement,
01:36:10	supporting school leaders and teachers to deliver first-class learning in the classroom. It is about all the additional work and the support that they get through our inclusion and our progression services and our highly specialised services where children have additional learning needs. It's about the contribution of our youth services
01:36:27	and the work that they are doing with our young people in more informal settings. It's our youth justice, it's our healthy schools. Hopefully you are really getting the sense that, you know, all of the work we're doing, you know, we are trying to maximise the impact of our resources and look for that opportunity for partnership working between ourselves
01:36:46	as a, you know, as a series of services within the portfolio, but also with external partners as well. And I think that's something we do very strongly. I'll just touch on leadership and management. That, again, is a core aspect of any inspection process. And, you know, I do genuinely believe that we have strong corporates
01:37:07	and political support for education and youth services here in the council and that we work, you know, very closely together with you as elected members in terms of providing that leadership. You know, you as elected members and many of you on this committee contribute to processes that we work through our schools with, our school performance monitoring group.
01:37:28	You can see all of the other boards and forums that, you know, you all contribute to. And that is a really positive way in which we are all collectively exercising our function in terms of delivering quality services. So I think we have referenced in the report the ongoing challenges because, obviously, financial resources does sit within this section of the report.
01:37:51	You had a very detailed overview in, say, in September of the difficult decisions that schools and you as governors are making in terms of, you know, reducing the workforce. And we can't underestimate, as has already been referenced in committee today, you know, the risks, the ongoing risks to the quality of education services, both for the core portfolio team, obviously, and for schools,
01:38:14	you know, when we're facing the financial challenges that we are. So I would like to take this opportunity as the chief officer to thank all of my senior management team, I think who are all with us either in person or on screen today because everybody has contributed to the writing. I do not sit in a dark cupboard and write this report.
01:38:34	This report, I would never come out. This report is built from the bottom up. You know, all of our senior managers work with their teams. They have processes within their own services while they are evaluating the work that they do. And they all contribute then to the production of this report.
01:38:51	So I would like to extend my thanks to them all. And as I say, despite the challenges and despite the sleepless nights that this job entails, particularly, you know, with the level of financial challenge that we're facing, I am truly proud to be your chief officer for education. So I present this report to you. Thank you.
01:39:11	I would just like to commend the report as well. The thing that struck me when I read it was that there's very strong partnership working. It's collegiate. And all of that partnership working is actually raising standards within our school and our student wellbeing. And furthermore, I was delighted to see
01:39:30	that the majority of our students felt safe within their schools. And that's a great credit to the staff. You've obviously highlighted and identified your challenges. So I thank you very much. And with a leniency of the committee, I would like to add a third recommendation
01:39:48	where we give our vote of thanks to all the portfolio in the form of a letter, if that's with your agreement. So I'm going to ask Councillor Eastwood, please. Yes, there it is. I echo Claire's feelings on this. I think this is an excellent report.
01:40:11	And there are so many positive comments that can be made about it. There are some areas, yes, where we may improve, but we know where they are and plans are in place to take appropriate action to deal with them. In relation to our strategies for improving attendance rates and reducing the number of exclusions,
01:40:28	we recognise that the reasons which sit behind these issues may be complex. And our teams work to identify issues early so that our support and interventions are targeted to the needs of each child or young person. It is noticeable within the report how our teams are working with each other, with other portfolios and with partner organisations
01:40:48	in order to identify issues and streamline support for each child and young person. Trauma-informed practice is being promoted, and the golden thread of a child-centred approach is very evident throughout the report. In relation to maintaining positive inspection outcomes,
01:41:06	our processes for reviewing school performance are robust. In most cases, there is a close correlation between the council's pre-inspection reports and Estyn findings. We support schools where improvement is needed, and we have a very good track record in effectively supporting schools to be removed from Estyn categories quickly.
01:41:26	I'm delighted that Coniskey High School has recently been reinspected and removed from being in need of significant improvement, with the headteacher and staff being commended for the way in which they have implemented improvements and the swiftness in which they have come out of statutory review. I'm also delighted that our schools are being chosen
01:41:46	to submit case studies for Estyn, an indicator of highly effective practices worthy of being shared. The support of GWER and our officers continues to be highly effective, and the collaborative working which is being encouraged between schools is also having a positive impact. I think it's very important that there is a culture of working
01:42:07	with the schools on their journeys, so that support is both sought and accepted by schools, both from us and from each other. The informal use of the Welsh in all schools is a strategic priority, and I'm pleased that all the English-medium primary schools
01:42:23	have embarked on their journey with Cwmly Campus. During the last academic year, 15 of them have been verified for the Evith, two for the Arianne, and three for the Ayr, and I think that makes four Ayr, which is a fantastic achievement. Six secondary schools are now working towards Cwmly Campus Evith 2.
01:42:43	This report contains the quality of education that we deliver across the whole spectrum of pupils. There is, of course, a focus on ALN pupils with support being given and a wide range of offer for those pupils who struggle with mainstream education for whatever reason. We address the needs of children and young people from diverse groups,
01:43:03	and I also wish, however, to draw your attention to the success of the Seren programme pupils, our academically most able, who have been successfully supported to reach their academic potential. Over 12% of those pupils registering for a Seren were from a Welsh-medium provision. I also wish to highlight the provision of the Food and Fund programme,
01:43:25	which has helped alleviate holiday hunger, provided childcare, increased social inclusion for children, and had a positive impact on attendance figures. We recognise the challenges in resourcing sufficient staff for these programmes and will continue to seek solutions. Our promotion and development of trauma-informed practice
01:43:43	across services and schools has been recognised and commended, as has the fantastic work of the Youth Justice Team in the report from the HMIP following their recent inspection. It was noted that our team often filled the gaps created by other organisations, in addition to fulfilling their own responsibilities, and they must be credited for this.
01:44:05	Their work is crucial to support a cohort of extremely vulnerable children and young people who are not always the most popular. Play and Youth Services each continue to develop their teams and services in a positive and sustainable way, collaborating also to facilitate the smooth transition from one to the other by our Flintshire children.
01:44:26	I'm of course very pleased with the implementation of the Young Flintshire model, which again involved collaboration between teams and hope it delivers on its early promise to give an effective voice to our young people, so that they do have an input into the decisions we make here at Flintshire and they inform our policies going forward. We continue to invest in our schools' infrastructure
01:44:46	and recognise that in relation to school budgets, our schools are facing very challenging financial landscape and cost pressures. Lower increases in budget, increases in costs, more ALN pupils and a falling birthrate all have an impact on their ability to meet the requirements of the statutory curriculum within a sustainable budget. The number of redundancies within our schools has been kept to a minimum this year,
01:45:11	but over 450 jobs have been impacted by efficiencies the schools have had to make and we mustn't lose sight of this. This does remain a concern. Schools are having to make difficult decisions around the provision of some subject options, music being one example, so I'm pleased that we continue to work in partnership with Theatre Clwyd,
01:45:31	who adopted the Flintshire Music Service, to ensure that this discretionary service was protected in the face of significant financial challenges for the council. They have formed a subscription scheme for schools, which is more affordable for both schools and pupils alike. They are also in a position to facilitate unique opportunities for our children.
01:45:51	I will personally always remember sitting in a William Aston hall filled with primary school children all playing their instruments at the right time and in time with the BBC National Orchestra. It was a singular event and it was wonderful to watch. I was sitting there grinning like a Cheshire cat and I was so proud of Flintshire being able to provide this memorable life experience for these children.
01:46:15	And then in wrapping up, sorry, my thanks to Claire. You mentioned your senior management team, but you had it. You hold your staff accountable and you support them. And this is evident from all the reports that they present to committees and the work that they do. It's very rare that I ask you a question and you don't know the answer.
01:46:41	It's so rare. And if you don't know it, the person next to you does. So you're on top of everything that you do. Your passion is... I'm so impressed. And I just wish to record my thanks to you all. Councillor Preece, please. Thank you, Chair.
01:47:04	On the same lines, this is a wonderful report. I was going to say excellent, but we shouldn't be using the Estyn terminology, but it possibly is an excellent report. The fact that you're actually mirroring what Estyn is saying as well means that you are linked, you're coherent with Estyn and you are right there on the right lines.
01:47:27	The performance throughout, you can actually tell. I know how long these take to put together, self-assessment report. I've done them myself. And it's not a five-minute job. It's a few months. And yes, the staff have to be. It has to be. Everybody is involved at every stage
01:47:44	and they have ownership of it. And this is an obvious ownership by everybody into this report. You can be commended for the input that's gone on here and the hard work that your team do and yourself. It is a privilege to see and to read a report for Flintshire of this standard. And I just want to say, I'm very proud of you.
01:48:10	Very proud of you and your team. Thank you, Chair. I agree completely that this is an excellent report. I think it's true to say that our education service knows its schools and its places of learning extremely well. And this report that is almost like a book is so comprehensive and so thorough
01:48:38	and so tells so many positive things about what's going on in our Flintshire learning establishments. If anybody wants to handle what education is about in Flintshire, then I think we should certainly read this report. It's very thorough indeed. I'd like to pick up on some of the problems that are occurring across all counties
01:49:06	and indeed across the UK as a whole as a result of Covid. And that is to do with problems of poor attendance and poor behaviour leading to exclusion in some cases. And I know there are cases that we are improving as far as that's concerned. But an idea was put to me by one head and he felt that in his school, the fact that the school concentrated very much on the wellbeing of students,
01:49:40	he felt made a difference. And in that school, they have good behaviour and good attendance. And so I'm wondering if there is an empirical link between the two possibly. I noticed with the Eston report, the three cameo cases that they pick up and celebrate as good practice are actually schools where wellbeing has got an important focus.
01:50:12	And I'm wondering, I know the chief officer said that poor attendance and poor behaviour affects the wellbeing of students. But if we stand this on our head, it's part of the secrets of success actually that the school, if it lays strong emphasis on wellbeing, it might actually be able to address these two problems of attendance and behaviour. So that's one thing.
01:50:40	And I'm just wondering if Eston has perhaps caught on to that. And in the same way that we probably still do, celebrate the success of those schools that achieve good performance as far as boys are concerned over gender, that maybe it will become a big thing to celebrate the success of those schools who concentrate on wellbeing of students because that makes a difference.
01:51:09	I'm just wondering if that would be a big thing. I'm going to just express a little degree of cynicism over Eston's sort of promise to recognise the context of our difficulties, although they've said they'll do that. I think, I don't know if they actually write a report where they recognise things like low funding of local authorities
01:51:38	or nationally negotiated pay awards that aren't funded, the various things that impact upon what is going on. But it's a nice gesture on their part to say that anyway. Yeah, thank you. We're very grateful for your very positive comments, but please be assured we are in no way complacent
01:52:02	around things that need to continue to improve because I think this is an honest and accurate reflection of where we are and we know that there are still some very important areas to tackle. I think in terms of your comments around wellbeing, it is absolutely at the core of the curriculum and of our approach in school. All of schools in Flintshire are working through the whole school approach
01:52:26	to emotional health and wellbeing, which is the core Welsh Government strategy with Public Health Wales and the team and Claire Sinnett, who you know really well, leads that with all of our school practitioners. So absolutely, if young people do not feel safe, if they do not feel valued, if their emotional regulation is not where it should be,
01:52:49	then of course they are in no fit state to learn. So it is absolutely right and proper that our schools are investing a huge amount of time and resource in addressing those issues first so that learners are in that state of readiness to learn. As we know, there are a multitude of factors that will be affecting many of our children and young people,
01:53:09	so that integrated approach is absolutely key and that is why the Cabinet Secretary in Welsh Government is stating very clearly that that is one of her core priorities because from that other things will flow. Yes, again, Estyn are not going to get into political arenas around discussions about Welsh Government policy or funding arrangements.
01:53:31	What they are looking for when they come to inspectors is are we effectively identifying our priorities for improvement? Are we then attaching the resources that we need to tackle those priorities within the resources that we have available? And can we evidence that our strategies are having a positive impact? Audits are a part of the local government inspection team
01:53:55	that come in with Estyn and again, they spend a lot of time looking at our decision making around how we use those resources. So it is very clear about linking the resources that we have to the priorities that we are focused on to give us the best possible chance of success in achieving them. And again, as we've referenced already in this committee,
01:54:19	it's all of the other things that are happening both through our partnership working, through the voluntary sector, again, in wrapping that support around our families and our children and our young people. Councillor Madison, please. Thank you, Chair.
01:54:42	Just to say I totally agree with the remarks made by Councillor Healy and Councillor Preece. Congratulations on a self-evaluation which also comes with self-awareness. It's very difficult to pick one gem out of this glittery necklace. So I want to focus on a project. I just want to say thank you for a project that's very dear to my heart,
01:55:05	page 110, the Period Dignity Project, because I was instrumental in helping to bring this into colleague Flandersloh about 10 years ago when I was working there. Now, at that time, it was known as the Period Poverty Project. So commendations on the change of name to Period Dignity because no female should be ashamed of not being able to afford a sanitary project.
01:55:33	So commendations on the change of name. Local and national government comes in for a great deal of criticism, but I do know from the feedback that we got from the college that this little project actually made a great deal of difference to the life of our female students and actually helped them improve their educational attainment.
01:55:57	So I think, for once, council and government needs to be commended for this small but very worthy project. So thank you very much for that. Thank you, Councillor Madison. Councillor Shawcross, please. Yeah, thank you.
01:56:14	And really to Claire, I've just got to commend you on your strong leadership. And for me, I've been a governor at a couple of schools in the last 15 years, and one we had a lot of trouble with Estyn, and I can't speak more passionately about the importance of strong leadership, and it comes from the top down. So I think, you know, the shadow you're casting,
01:56:31	it is definitely affecting the schools under your remit. Positively, that's right, yeah. And, you know, I'll say, there's the importance of the governors as well. You know, when I started off as a governor, there'd be their agenda there, and there'd be a few people, and each agenda item, they'd put a big tick next to it,
01:56:52	but they wouldn't contribute, you know, and all the ticks were in place and they'd go home. But there's a lot more to it than being like that, you know, and I think now we're getting more people who are making a definite thing. You know, a word I use as a critical friend, you're not there, you're there just to point people in the right direction, not to chastise them.
01:57:10	So, you know, I'm over the moon with education in general of what's happened in my area over the last few months, so I think we're really heading in the right direction, but the hard bit is to stay there, isn't it? You know, we've just got to keep the pressure on, so thanks very much. Right, I'm going to move to the recommendations.
01:57:30	The two that are on page 36, I'm not going to read them out, and a third recommendation, which is going to try and encapsulate all the valid points that you've made today as a committee to the portfolio on your behalf. So, can I have somebody as a letter? Can I have somebody to move that, please? Thank you.
01:57:51	Seconder? Thank you. And all those in favour, please. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you to the portfolio. I'm actually now going to call a break. So, if we could come back here at 10 minutes past.
01:58:06	Thank you very much. 244. It's the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan, and this is going to be led by Claire Sinnott, our academic advisor for health. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to update you on the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan
01:58:32	and the progress that we've made today in Flint. You've been addressing some of the goals specifically for schools within that. The action plan was issued in 2022. The Welsh Government have set out some really of where they want to see Wales by 2030. So, this very much is a journey. This report summarises some of the progress we've made as a directorate.
01:58:56	So, I certainly can't take all the credit for what is in here, but it's a summary of where we are now really and where we want to go. We know we've still got a lot of work to do on this agenda. Specifically, in terms of Welsh Government's commitment, one of the starting points that you can see in section 1.02 is around the curriculum and Wales being one of the first parts of the UK to make it mandatory to teach,
01:59:22	specifically around black, Asian, minority, ethnic stories, contributions and history. So, that's been a real commitment from the outset, and we're now rolling into the third year for secondary, so year seven, eight and nine are teaching in line with the curriculum for Wales and all the primary. So, that's been a really positive development from this September, where now are specifically monitoring and evaluating the use of black, Asian and minority,
01:59:51	ethnic stories, contributions and histories that have been taught in Flintshire schools. So, I look forward to receiving an update and some feedback on that as we move forward into this school year. Looking back on last school year in terms of an analysis that we undertook in terms of Estyn inspection reports specifically focusing on equality and diversity, we were really, really pleased with what we found, lots and lots of references to addressing equality and diversity within the curriculum.
02:00:18	None of the secondary or primary school reports that we read featured any recommendations about using any black, Asian and minority, ethnic stories or contributions to be taught. So, that was really positive, and I've just pulled out just three primaries and one secondary to give you a little bit of a flavour of some of this work and what it looks like in practice and hopefully bring it to life a little bit for you. So, you can see that in Escogronant.
02:00:46	The school has valuable links with members of faith communities that deepens pupils' understanding of a range of cultures through learning experiences, visits and events. That's just one part that I'm just going to pull out a few little bits to kind of highlight to you Older pupils become aware of the importance of equality and inclusion as part of an oracy project related to the slave trade and supporting families in developing countries. Pupils take part enthusiastically in cultural events,
02:01:15	such as the annual Escoli Stedvard and support Welsh and Black History Week. For instance, older pupils write informative character profiles in Welsh about influential black people such as Betty Campbell. At the Allin, they've worked really hard to achieve the gold award for the United Nations Rights Respecting Schools Award. So, that's incredibly, you know, a strong commitment from the school
02:01:41	and a lot of hard work there to teach and embed all the rights throughout the school. So, that's been a really positive achievement to share. Moving forward, as part of these recommendations for schools, some of the goals are wide, you know, a bit wider than actually the core of the curriculum. So, we're looking about the workforce. So, in 1.04, we're looking at what professional learning opportunities are available to staff around this area.
02:02:09	So, one of the developments since this action plan has been the establishment of DARPAL, which is Diversity and Anti-Racist Professional Learning Programme. And that is a website and it's a package, I suppose, for schools to support them on this topic area. Lots and lots of training available that's coordinated nationally and training in terms of e-learning and modules on there and lots of resources for schools to access.
02:02:40	In terms of our role, signposting schools to that resource. And interestingly, we are working with colleagues to see if we can bring some DARPAL trainers up to Flintshire in the new year in March. I think we're looking to do that. And there have been other conferences in the north that you can see there that GWER have coordinated and we've supported previously. You'll see at the end of 1.04 that we've also been signposting victim support, which they've got a really broad training offer that's suitable for all different organisations,
02:03:14	but there's lots that are relevant to education as well. And this week is actually National Hate Crime Awareness Week. So, I just wanted to raise that because we are meeting within this week, which is the 12th to 19th of October. So, this week, really, it's about national action, I suppose, in terms of encouraging communities affected by hate crime, as well as local authorities and the police and other partners to work together to tackle hate crime issues.
02:03:40	So, I just want to signpost everybody to Victim Support's website. And if you are interested in understanding more about hate crime and reporting, there's a really good training offer available from Victim Support that's all free to access for anybody. So, I thought I'd highlight that. In terms of 1.5, you can see there that we've had for a few years now a reporting system in schools to let them know. It's an online reporting system.
02:04:11	We've historically collated data from schools about racist instances, but we just had a different way of doing it. But we moved that online in 2021. It was something we'd been developing since 2019, actually, but with Covid, that delayed things somewhat. And you can see there that we've recorded. I've pulled together the instances between the financial year 22-23 and then a comparison 23-24. Those incidents do appear to have been reduced, but for context,
02:04:43	I have highlighted that potentially schools are using other reporting methods in terms of monitoring their incidences. I don't dispute that they are recording everything. I know that they will be, but they also have different reporting systems and electronic ones in their own school. And our local authority one perhaps needs some more attention, really, to make it the best it can be. And that is something that we're looking at. You can see there that last paragraph I've highlighted that in order to get a true representation,
02:05:18	I think, of prejudice related instances in furniture schools, we probably do need to look at a different reporting system, which we have been and we've been looking at this for about, I think the conversations have been ongoing for a good couple of years now. And we are just about to start a pilot where we hope we will then get a much better picture, which will enable us to target our resources and energies and work with partners to support schools more effectively if we've got a truer picture of the data in our schools.
02:05:51	So that's a work in progress, as is the policy development side of things. Goal 1.7, reduce negative experience of racism by Gypsies, Roma and travelling negative experiences of schooling. So you can see that we've got a Gypsy Traveller Education Team within the local authority and inclusion that advocates for and supports all pupils and families through close home school liaison, including weekly site visits, training and cultural awareness sessions for school staff and literacy and wellbeing sessions for pupils. They've got a really strong team within the local authority working with partners to support these young people in our schools.
02:06:37	We also, you can see there in goal 1.8, there's quite a bit of detail there about a project that I've been coordinating called Leaders of Now, which is with Show Racism in the Red Card, and I'm really, really passionate about this work. I do feel that just after a year of looking at this, that we are actually beginning to see some impact in that work. So four secondary schools are working with Show Racism in the Red Card, not just for one-off training, not just for an assembly, but actually working with a group of young people, some champions from year nine and above, to really kind of get a feel of what the position is in their school around this topic area,
02:07:19	survey all their learners, engage with staff, offer training and then unpick action planning together over the course of the year to really unpick what's relevant for their school, what training do they need, what information, what resources, what's being taught in the curriculum, how are staff responding to incidences, all that over the course of the year. You know, it's not a quick fix and certainly it's a journey for those schools. And we've seen that over the last year with the four schools and we are funding to continue that support off the From Show Racism in the Red Card for this year as well to make sure that really is embedded.
02:07:55	We've also offered that to two further secondary schools this year alongside three schools from Wrexham. We're the only local authority apart from Wrexham who've just joined across North Wales. So there's nine schools across North Wales who are doing this and six of those are in Flintshire. So I'm really, really proud of the work that we've done so far with Show Racism in the Red Card. And you can see from the report that is beginning to have an impact in terms of the pupils' levels of understanding, in terms of the commitment from senior leaders in this agenda and how important it is and giving pupils a voice on these really important matters.
02:08:39	We did have, we've had training days on this with the students, we've had a celebration event. We've just had the last training day at the start of September for the new schools, if you like. And then we'll be hoping to bring together all of Flintshire and Wrexham schools that are involved with this piece of work in April. And I wondered if anybody potentially in the future might like to come along to hear some of that work. It might be an opportunity to give you a flavour of what this looks like in practice. So I'm happy to share that date in due course.
02:09:11	In 1.13, you can see there that we're going to be starting, as of this academic year, monitoring exclusion data specifically around ethnicity. So we can analyse that and pull a report together by the end of the year. And you can see that in 1.14, specifically the work around with Mentor I, Flintshire Wrexham, in terms of promoting Welsh language within our communities, accessing funding from the North East Wales Community Cohesion Fund and the work that's been underway in terms of promoting the Welsh language and culture with refugees and asylum seekers, and the development of a Welsh language promotion strategy, which is underway at a local authority wide level. I think that's probably a little, that is a bit of a whistle stop tour.
02:10:01	And I'm happy to take any questions on that. Thank you. Thank you. I'd just like to say that I actually had the opportunity to go and see the leaders now at a show races and red card event. And it was excellent. And in fact, I was so impressed that I invited them back to come and give a presentation in the chamber for Refugee Week. So if you get an opportunity to go, I would recommend it. The work that you're doing is very, it's incredible. Thank you. Right. Do we have any questions, please? Thank you, Councillor Heath. Thank you, Chair. I just want to say I am so pleased and I must say I recommend highly the work you have done, Claire.
02:10:52	And this report is excellent, excellent. And in schools, I'm happy to see that now there is training for teachers as well to learn and as well the culture and the history of the minority groups and black minority Asians and even the travellers. That that is now brought into school and their history is taught because from history you learn a lot. As well, I want to say I'm very happy to see at the bottom of the of the report, you have put all the anti-racist world action because it's ARWAP. So all those have been put that people can understand what it means because not everybody would understand what BAME means, black members on the minority groups. I must say I am very, very extremely happy that this is brought now into school and it's understand because I think this will help with racial abuse and the understanding because all these minority groups has contributed to Great Britain. And it is high time that it is learned that that that that it's in the history of our culture because we are a mighty racial country.
02:12:40	Thank you. Councillor Priest, please. Thank you, Chair. I just want to say, Claire, it's a very, very good report. Well put together, well structured and I like especially the part which is the student and pupil voice. And you've got Pacific percentages here of the ambassadors of what where senior staff have listened to them. I like the bit where it's 90% of ambassadors felt well supported by the staff leaders, despite the fact that some leaders were in significant pressure and they are under a lot of pressure. We know this 70% not as good, but it's still better than some reports that I've actually seen.
02:13:29	So that is extremely positive that the students feel that from senior staff that they are being listened to around this. The projects that have gone on, these have been going on different projects and different names for years, but seeing the data and the impact of it. That's the difference where you where you see loads of projects going on, but it's the impact that counts. And within here, you can start to see the impact of what you're doing. So well done. Thank you so much. And please thank you, team. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any more questions?
02:14:08	So I'll give you my thanks, Claire, and move on to the recommendation of which is only one that the committee confirm that is received an appropriate level of assurance regarding the progress made towards the anti-racist action plan for Wales, goals for education and Welsh language. Thank you, Councillor Preece. Thank you, Councillor Owen. All those in favour, please. Thank you very much. Thank you, Claire. Move on to agenda item eight. This is to be found on pages 145 to 168. It's the Flintshire County Summer Play scheme. It's going to be led by Darren Morris, who's the lead officer for play development, and Matt Hayes, who is our senior manager for integrated youth provision.
02:15:00	And I'd like you to thank you, Darren, for your patience. Waiting till this point to speak. Thank you. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present this update to you on behalf of the Flintshire Play Development Team. Over the last 12 months, since I last sat here, the Play Development Team have achieved all that we've wanted to achieve over the last 12 months. There's definitely more for us to achieve in the next 12 months going forward. And so therefore, I'm proud to present this report to yourselves on the expansion of the delivery for children, communities and schools throughout Flintshire.
02:15:52	This year we made great progress towards sustainability. I'm pleased to report that last year we mentioned that we were going to be changing our summer play schemes to become three or six week schemes. A, to reduce the number of staff that we need and B, to try and make it more sustainable. And that we will be also offering town and community councils the opportunity to adopt a one year yearly cycle or to take up the three year cycle. 13 community councils have taken up the three year cycle, which then gives us better working plans to be able to move forward. And I'm sure as we move forward, the other councils will continue to support their provisions within their areas also.
02:16:40	The summer play scheme, which is the biggest program that we deliver throughout the year. This year was we had 49 sites. Across the 49 sites, we had 4,312 children registered, which from what we can see since COVID is the highest that we can see so far. The highest that we saw before that was in 2019, which was at 4,009. So we've had quite an increase on there. Total overall attendances were at 15,664.
02:17:15	And actually we are quite proud of this because on the summer, this summer was one of the coolest on record since 2015. And we do know, and I use this everywhere, because we do know that actually when the weather changes, when it goes cooler, when it goes overcast or when it's raining, people don't come out. Actually this year they were coming out. So, you know, it showed the standard of the services that they were getting on their sites. One thing I did note in there as well over previous years and in a previous role, I looked after the Welsh play schemes where we've historically had two, three at the most. This year due to the recruitment and the number of Welsh speakers that we were able to recruit, we've actually been able to offer 22 bilingual sites across Flintshire over the summer.
02:18:04	Although we say bilingual sites, we will have potentially one or two Welsh speakers on sites. What we have got on all sites is staff that were confident enough to use Welsh with greetings and changing numbers and letters, numbers and colours and so on through all the games that were being delivered through all the sites. I did mention obviously we've changed from a three week to a six week, sorry, from to having three and six week sites. That significantly decreased the amount of staff that we needed, which was what we needed to look at for sustainability moving forward. Last year we needed 89 staff to run the provisions. This year we recruited 42 and we still ran the same same number of provisions, bar a few, and the numbers were higher also.
02:18:54	I think it is worth noting, and I've listened through your meeting this morning around budget constraints and things like that, that actually because of that change it has made a saving, well a significant saving, where last year it cost us £25,000 just for that recruitment process and we're just below £10,000 on this year's. So that change has made a significant difference with regards to the way we work with employment services and the hours that had to be put in for that as well. And I must note as well is that their basic costs, so there's obviously the additions on top of that as well. Now historically, as I said before, the summer play scheme has been the pinnacle of the play development team in Flintshire. What I wanted to do when I started last year and the vision moving forward was how do we play is not just for the summer, it's all year round. So how do we now start looking at offering provisions and creating more opportunities for children to have access to play.
02:19:55	We work closely with the youth service. We started running transition clubs and that transition clubs is kind of us looking at a universal model where they can come into play and then now we'll have that clean transition straight into youth services and into youth clubs as well. Currently we have four of them delivering across the county within our youth club buildings. And we also have started running some community provisions depending on where we can get a little bit of funding to deliver them as well. We ran two before the summer. We've now got seven running weekly across Flintshire.
02:20:36	At the moment we've retained 15 staff and no staff are out every night delivering across the county. Another one I wanted to mention as well is the Play Pals project. I brought that up in last year's meet last year's scrutiny committee. It is something that we did develop and we've developed it further. It was a program that went into schools and was run over six week periods with up to 30 children to upskill them with regards to their confidence and so on. Also, you know, for them to become play ambassadors, our role as a team is to be the ambassadors for children.
02:21:15	We're there to fight for their rights for access to open access play and play work in general. So we want to be able to give them that skill set to be able to do that as well. Four hundred and thirty children have benefited from that so far in the last academic year. We are now moving on to phase two, as we call it. The Play Pals project will still continue, but we've just set up now another program called Playful Progress. And this is where we will be emphasizing more around loose parts.
02:21:47	But the themes around the loose part sessions will be based on the themes that are being taught in the classroom at the time. So if it's Victorian, we will ensure that we've got them loose parts that encourages that era that they're talking about at the time. We also started working closely with the resettlement team and working with those families that have come over as sanctuary seekers or those that are refugees here already. One of the main drives that was to try and get more children from them backgrounds into our play provisions and definitely through the summer play scheme. That is at its very early stages at the moment. We are now starting to look at more bespoke work around areas where there is a need for that integration.
02:22:34	And that's something that we're doing collaboratively with that team. Since last year, we've increased our presence on the digital platform. We've now got a Facebook page and we've got the website, which has all been fully redeveloped. And there is still more work to do on that as well. But, you know, as you will have seen in the report, the website itself just over that summer period, it had 20,000 hits. So people were seeing that the site was there and our Facebook page was used daily, sometimes several, maybe more times daily, especially on them wet days when we're saying we're still going, we're still there, please send your children.
02:23:18	So there's that. Then obviously it's another part of my role is the place efficiency assessment. We are now coming to the next three year cycle. Consultation has gone out to children that they closed in the end of July. All that data is in now. We're starting to analyze all that.
02:23:34	So it gives us a mindset on how we start to write the place efficiency for the next three years. I'm meeting with Play Wales next week and we have got a meeting of the place efficiency action group in November. And then I also mentioned before that it would be good to potentially run a workshop with counselors around the place efficiency assessment because it's really vitally important that you have your input into it as well. It's not just a play service assessment. It's across the local authority as well. So I can send those information out when they're ready.
02:24:09	And one big key word that's come up a lot here is collaboration. And that's one of the big things, the big drivers of what I do. Everything that I do is around collaboration. You know, I can sit here and say Play have done this and Play have done that. Actually, that's irrelevant. What's relevant is the children that we're serving are getting something, they're benefiting something from it, regardless to who's delivering that.
02:24:31	So we have created some really strong collaborative partnerships with people such as we're working with the early years team and the Flying Start team. We're actually supporting some of their provisions with some of our staff because they want to introduce more Play within them. Obviously, I mentioned the resettlement team, the adult community learning. We're creating a program with them at the moment and some of our primary schools around language development in the early years and how we can promote that with parents and with the children through the means of Play. So they're just to name a few. And one of the other things is in a lot of the areas that we will do work in, you know, there is those levels of deprivation where there is extra support needed.
02:25:14	So we've made these collaborative partnerships now with the IAA service. Now, I've been throwing the IAA around for a while and I could never remember what the acronym was for. So it's the Information Assistance and Advice Service. So they're now working with us and in the areas where we feel that, you know, there's potentially a need for that service to come out. They'll come out and work jointly with us. So in all, that was a whistle-top tour for yourselves.
02:25:43	So I'm happy to answer any questions you've got. Councillor Preece, please. So can you listen to me today? Thank you, Chair. Again, Darren, excellent report, outstanding. I did go out in the summer to the Play schemes and saw all the hard work that your staff were doing.
02:26:10	And the actual residents, the actual whole families were turning up to these events. So it's not just so your figures are a bit out, to be perfectly honest, because you can only put down here the registered ones. They were probably double on some of the times that I went to the actual schemes and they were all engaged in different activity. Some were who didn't want to be on all of the equipment were sitting down and playing and doing activities on the ground. It was really, really good. Very, very involved, the whole thing.
02:26:49	Comments that came up were, if possible, if not, if there was sandwiches or anything available, but if there was a healthy snack that could be available because some of the children were coming up and saying, I'm hungry. Have you got anything that we could eat? And obviously they didn't have anything. And the other one was water. So if water could be available, even if you go back to the town councils and community councils and ask it's going to cost this for your town or your community,
02:27:24	could you pay this on top of what we were already asking you to pay? And I'm sure you'd probably get a positive response. But I think the projects that you're doing are excellent. Yes, I want to come and see more. Thoroughly enjoyed going out to see in them. And the staff are so engaged, so enthusiastic.
02:27:46	And what impressed me the most was they don't talk down to anybody. They actually go down to their level and speak at the same level. So they're a credit to you. So thank you very much, Darren. Would you like to reply to that, Darren? And I'm going to invite Matt to talk.
02:28:05	Yeah, I'd just like to say thank you for that, because the comments like that are really important for us to share with the team. And you're right, there was a lot more children. I think I referenced in the report that we actively encourage parents with children under the age of five to stay around this time. And although we can't capture that data perfectly because of the registration, as you say, we were actively encouraging teams to add them as additionals on the system. So, you know, we're hoping that that will develop as we go along, because it is important that it is a whole family approach as well.
02:28:40	You know, it does have to be around those children that we are offering them. They're free, freely chosen, personally directed and instinctively motivated opportunities where an adult isn't, you know, pushing into their play. But actually having that family collective, we don't have enough opportunities for that, especially free anymore. So, you know, appreciate that healthy food, healthy snacks of food is definitely something that's been, you know, as part of our reflection afterwards. It's definitely something. Water. There should have been water in every site. Every site had a pump flask and little cardboard cones.
02:29:13	So if they weren't on them, I will check them out with the teams because every site should have them. Matt, would you like to speak now, please? Yeah, thank you. Just to respond to Councillor Priest's points, I think she's raised some really pertinent and important points there, especially around the family being involved or other people around those sessions. So one of the key drives for us around sustainability is creating stronger partnerships with communities. So we really see our play in youth activities growing by having a strong community presence, a strong community partnership.
02:29:52	You know, if you think about, you know, the saying that it takes a village to raise a child, then we truly believe that. And that's the same in terms of all sustaining our provision. So, you know, perhaps there's something around that, around food, around those types of provisions where we could really create and have a reason for developing those those strong community relationships around the play and youth provision. So it's something that we've got that's developing within the service. And I think it's something that will be part of our strategy moving forward. So, you know, we'll certainly hope to to link in and to link up with community members of which you're part of.
02:30:31	So we may be calling on you to to help us, if not be involved, but to have in ways of communicating with community members that may support this aim. If I might just add a story as well. Within my ward, I have some refugees and I have a family there and I actually accompanied the two children to the play scheme. They hadn't registered, but they were made so welcome and they went every day after that. And for that, I thank you. Okay, we'll move to the recommendations.
02:31:10	There are three. And I would just like to echo what you've said there, because I took my grandchildren and they had a wonderful time. They couldn't wait. They were up at six in the morning to get ready for what? Ten o'clock, which wasn't so good, but absolutely fantastic. And the way that the staff treated all the children there and I went as also my role as a town council as well.
02:31:39	And your staff, you know, they're absolutely wonderful. All of them couldn't fault anything that was going on there. But what I would say is about the water and food, which is what I've made notes here. And I know that Morrisons are really keen to help. And I know they did income is key. And also you had an end of term barbecue where I actually went to local businesses and said, can you help?
02:32:01	So if you've got all the councillors involved, I'm sure we all know somebody somewhere that would help out feeding, you know, these kids. So thank you very much. They really enjoyed it. And especially the slide. And the swimming costumes to highlight a key play. Thank you very much.
02:32:24	We'll move to the recommendations. There are three. We'll take them on block. But I'm going to give you 30 seconds to refresh yourselves with what they are, because they're quite extensive. It's on page 146. May I have somebody to move the recommendations, please?
02:33:09	Somebody to second them. All those in favour, please. And thank you for your work. We'll let him off. We'll let you. You can go now.
02:33:27	Thank you very much. Moving to the last item on the agenda. Agenda item nine to be found on pages 169 to 182. The Food and Fun School Holiday. It's the Enrichment Programme Review. And we're back to Claire Synod again, please.
02:33:45	Our learning advisor, health, wellbeing and safeguarding. Thank you, Claire. I promise I'll keep this brief because I'm mindful that this has been quite a long meeting. But actually, it's really timely to hear about this project. I think in light of the conversations we've had around summer holiday provision, around food and nutrition and poverty, I think it is quite timely to hear about this programme. I know a lot of you present on this, I think annually.
02:34:11	So I think a lot of you will be familiar with the programme. But just a quick recap, it's WLGA funded. It offers a food and nutrition education based programme over 12 days of the summer holidays, staff by school staff. And it essentially covers nine till one. And children attending at each site can have breakfast, provision, morning break and a lunch. Also, families are invited in for a meal on a weekly basis with siblings.
02:34:49	So this year we've had 10 schools participate. Unfortunately, that is a reduction on last year. We have had three schools that haven't been able to continue it. And that is down to staffing. Interestingly, in terms of the work we're talking about, working collaboratively, I have been in discussions with Darren and his team about whether we can look at a staffing model that can support food and fun as well going forward.
02:35:18	So we are exploring that. We are also in terms of trying to increase our numbers for next year. We've identified two schools from those who are prepared to present and share their experiences with everybody that we will invite to an information session in half term, where we will be discussing the programme and providing options to schools about whether this is something that they would be willing to support and deliver for their children going forward. There are a couple of ways that the programme can be delivered, but there's 40 places essentially for £11,000. And schools can, if they think they're able to offer nearer to 80, they can offer a double cohort.
02:36:00	They can be offered to any year group, years one to six for the primaries. Mys Heavrid and Penco are able to offer it to all their pupils in terms of mixed years and not all pupils attending, but from all ages. And the secondary schools did a transition model, which is something that we are keen to develop further where the current year sixes and the existing year sevens were invited. So that's been really positive. So in terms of our attendance, the average attendance is 58 percent. In the report, I've noted that nationally it's 62, but actually we've just had that from WLGA and it's 61 percent. So there's still more work to be done in terms of maximising the attendance of those 40 children who are registered at each of those schools and throughout the summer period.
02:36:53	While they're there, they get opportunities for food education, for enrichment activities and physical activity, one hour each day for an hour, one hour each day. The food provision, again, all work in partnership. We work really closely with Nowhere's. We work closely with Aura staff and also with the community dieticians through the Betsy Cadwaldo University Health Board. So it is a true partnership approach. We could not coordinate this or deliver it on our own. And ultimately, you know, we thank schools and the staff involved because it is their summer holidays at the end of the day. Yes, they are paid. However, you know, lots of the summer holidays are, you know, when you are in a really challenging position sometimes getting to the end of term, people really want to have a summer holiday.
02:37:43	So actually, it's working with schools to see how we can maximise the amount of schools that we've got taking place in terms of meeting the staffing requirements of the scheme. And that's an ongoing challenge for us at the moment. But like I said, we are exploring all the options around that. So I think that's probably a summary of the highlights. I don't know if anybody wants to ask anything. Thank you. Thank you, Claire. I don't want to ask anything, but I was able to see the enhanced transition process, because as you said, you had Year 6 students going, meeting up with Year 7 students. And I thought that was excellent. They were forming good relationships, not only with the other students, but with the staff of that school. So it's going to help when they get there to settle them in more quickly. I thought the whole thing was wonderful.
02:38:35	And it was obvious to me that the children very much enjoyed their parents coming to have a meal with them. So thank you for all the work that you and your team have done. Thank you. I'm going to hand over to Carolyn Priest. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Claire. Fantastic programme. Really, really good. Need a massive pat on the back for you and your staff. I went along all over the place. Yeah, I did go along. I did see the provision. You missed out on your partnerships with the police because the actual police were there at the time. And they were very engaged with all of the children who were there and all different ages.
02:39:22	What I couldn't get over, some of the ones who were older, who had actually moved on to high school, came back to help. So there was actually progression there. Really, really good seeing all of that. All the staff were absolutely fantastic with the indoor activities they were doing with the children and outdoor. Some were actually guided, et cetera, for gymnastics, et cetera, if they wanted to do it. And some were just playing ball. So it was really, really interactive. The food provision, really, really good. The only criticism I've got, and it's only a small one, please don't take it to heart, was different dietary needs,
02:40:06	that they were having difficulties on some of the days where the actual food arrived and the vegetarian option wasn't there, even though they'd ordered it. They did actually speak to the New Earth about it, but there was still those ongoing difficulties there. So it may be something that you can look at going forward. But sometimes they were able to make something vegetarian out of the bits that they were given, but the actual main option wasn't there. And I think they were really looking forward to it because I think it was macaroni cheese and they really wanted that. So they were quite disappointed when that didn't turn up.
02:40:46	But apart from that, it is a really engaging, wonderful program. And the volunteers and staff who were running it, as well as yourselves, need commending for it. So it's really good today. We've been able to say really lovely things about loads of different projects that are going on. So thank you, Claire. Thank you for your feedback. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Madison, please. Thank you, Chair. I too had the good fortune. I was invited by Kerry to attend a food and fun session.
02:41:15	Mine was at Holywell High and a wonderful day. More fortunate than Councillor Priest because the vegetarian option was actually turned up for lunch that day. And I did actually have very nice macaroni cheese, actually. Excellent. Maybe maybe we took yours. Lovely, healthy breakfast. All of the activities embedded in the curriculum. Everything we did was to do with literacy, numeracy and Welsh language.
02:41:44	Wonderful outdoor activities. We were very lucky and it was a beautiful day as well. And I do commend, I was lucky that I went A, on the day when the vegetarian option turned up, and B, the day of the parents' lunch when all of the parents and children sat around the table together and we all talked together. We had conversations. How often does that happen now? The three of us at home sitting in three different rooms with three trays watching three different televisions. And the children's conversational skills during lunch were absolutely amazing.
02:42:22	They were educating their parents as well. So I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you very much. As I said before, I'm just very lucky to be there on the day when the macaroni cheese actually arrived. Thank you. Thank you. Councillor Parkhurst, please. Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Claire, for your report.
02:42:44	Clearly an excellent provision for those schools who have taken part. I suppose the only disappointing feature is that it did only reach 10 schools. So there will be many disadvantaged children outside those 10 schools. So I welcome the measures you're taking to widen the reach next year. I note also on page 173 of the report and you mentioned it yourself about the involvement of all the sports development team, which was evidently very well received.
02:43:19	And I understand that this together with other activities during the school holidays, they had over five thousand seven hundred sessions with children. So in view of the uncertainties that we now face with Aura, can the cabinet member for education, Welsh language and culture commit to providing a similar level of sports support during the next year? Thank you, Councillor Parkhurst. Yes, I can commit that the officers are working very hard to ensure a smooth transition of all services and staff to the new company
02:44:00	with the objective of everything carrying on as they have this year. OK, so sorry, Councillor. It's just and Councillor Parkhurst just mentioned that it was in only 10 schools. Is there scope and it may have been explored already. I'm sorry if I'm late to the conversation of just running them in the secondary school settings with the staff from the like neighboring primary schools so that it does reach all the that the catchment for everybody.
02:44:37	And secondly, you've used Aura for sports. Have you considered using Theatre Clwyd and the music service for performing arts and music tuition during those enrichment activities? Thank you for those questions. In terms of that model, that would be the ideal model. I would love for all secondary schools to deliver food and food and invite from their cluster primaries. That would be ideal.
02:45:03	In terms of eligibility, anybody who's delivering this program have to have free school meals. Available percentage over 16 percent, I think, was the criteria. So it depends on whether those secondaries fall within that percentage range. I'm hoping that we'll get some more secondaries on board when we do our information evening in after half term. But certainly that model is what I would be advocating. But ultimately, up until this point, even when we've had really committed head teachers who are really supportive of the program,
02:45:42	if they haven't been able to staff it from their own staff, they haven't been able to run. And unfortunately, we have had that in quite a few schools. So that's why we're looking at other staffing models where, for example, a head teacher is keen to deliver the program, but maybe they have got one member of staff from school, but they haven't got enough staff. Could that member of staff be supported by staff from elsewhere? Those kind of models are things that we're exploring.
02:46:10	What was the second question again? Theatre, music and performing arts. So the physical activity side, that is actually written into the criteria of the scheme. So they've got to have one hour of physical activity every day. So they have to have one hour of physical activity. And then there's an enrichment type of opportunities where we've worked with Aura, because they are part of our steering group,
02:46:33	is to ensure that schools will be able to offer enough variety and be able to meet the requirement of meeting that one hour physical activity each day. But what we do advocate to schools and we have got a list of all different providers who can deliver over the summer holidays, who's able to come in, what costs are involved. And certainly we're more than happy to explore more, you know, more engagement with the theatre. And ultimately, it's up to each school to populate the timetable around the core components, if you like. So the nutrition education is a core component, the eating time is a core component and the physical activity is.
02:47:13	And then everything else is up to the school to decide what they think their pupils would benefit from the most. And they've got that flexibility around that program. And we offer, you know, a range of providers that they can select. So I think that's where we can build theatre in as an option for schools to consider going forward. Thank you. Councillor Healy, please. Thank you, Chair. Yeah, I think it's an excellent scheme.
02:47:42	But can I ask Claire, where the staff involvement, whether the volunteers, whether the scheme pays them or whether the school pays them? Thank you. Thank you. So the funding pays for the staff to come in. There are volunteers who work on the program, so some schools do use volunteers as well. But essentially, every school's got to appoint a school, a food and fun coordinator and a minimum of one food and fun assistant. And those are paid. We've got we've developed a job description and personal spec for those posts.
02:48:18	And they're paid through Flintshire. And lots of schools, depending on the numbers of children they've got and the needs of the children, they'll have more than those two minimum roles. And certainly with the special schools, they were able to apply for additional funding from a separate pot still within the local government association so they could ensure that they've got enough staff to meet the ratios required to enable those young people to attend. So the staffing funding is all covered. I think it's more about whether there is staff who will want the hours over the summer or whether they really want that well deserved break.
02:48:53	And I can definitely see it from both sides. So it's just working with potentially those schools who are happy to host and staff who are happy to work. And even if it's not their school, would people be willing to, you know, work in other schools over the summer? But the real benefit is for children to get to know the staff at that school. So particularly on that transition model, we were discussing where the secondaries are hosting the primaries. The main benefit when those children are coming to the secondary is to get used to not just the surroundings, but actually some familiar faces.
02:49:24	So that's the that's the gold standard that I, you know, I've been driving. However, I feel like if we want to grow the scheme and we want more schools to take part potentially, we might have to look at some different ways of doing it. I would like to formally recommend within our report that we thank you and the team and everybody involved in this scheme for this summer. I'd like to get minuted into our notes. So thank you very much, Claire. Thank you, much appreciated.
02:50:00	What you achieved was wonderful. So we have one recommendation that members acknowledge the positive impact, which we've already said, of the Food and Fund Programme in Flintshire on learners and their family. I'd like to formally recommend. Thank you, Councillor Preece. Seconder, Councillor Healy. All those in favour?
02:50:21	And that concludes our meeting. I'd like to thank you all for your time and your efforts today.

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