Agenda and minutes

Councillor D Davies declared an interest as a Member of the Education Achievement Service Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.

The Minutes of the meeting held on the 9 January 2019 were approved as true and accurate record.

Attendees: Attendees:

-       Sarah Morgan – Chief Education Officer

-       Ed Price – EAS Challenge Adviser / Interim Service and Strategic Policy Lead

-       Hayley Davies Edwards – EAS Principal Challenge Adviser - Newport

The Committee was advised that the Strategic Director – People was unable to attend the meeting and had asked that his apologies were offered at the meeting.

The Chief Education Officer informed the Committee that the Deputy Chief Education Officer was unable to attend the meeting today and offered his apologies.

The Education Achievement Service (EAS) Advisers presented an overview of the EAS Business Plan, drew the Committee’s attention to the main points and invited the Committee to ask any questions they felt were relevant.

The Members asked the following questions;

·         A Member enquired whether the “state of flux” referred to in the report in which the education system found itself would stabilise. The EAS Advisers explained that the new range of GCSE’s would commence in 2023 following which there should be some stability. There was a high magnitude of change happening in particular around accountability and curriculum, in schools and Education Departments. While generally positive about change high up and across the region, more detail is awaited.

The Chief Education Officer explained that some of the changes included: not being able to use Level Two results for accountability purposes, or; not being able to include BTEC results for measuring progress, due to which it would be difficult to gauge the difference and measure progress between schools. She advised that there would be an Elected Member Briefing on the subject to ensure all Councillors were made aware of the changes.

·         A Member asked about the changing pressures upon schools.  The Chief Education Officer advised the Committee that Newport City schools had the highest levels of engagement in the new curriculum workshops and learning. For this reason, Newport schools came out on top of the region. The EAS Advisers added that the reduction in Stage 3 Public Accountability Measures to remove requirement for Schools from Foundation to Key Stage Three to report at a local or regional level was designed to take some of the pressures away.

·         A Member expressed concern about young people who leave primary schools that are categorised as Green with aspiration and move onto secondary schools categorised as Red or schools placed in Special Measures and asked how would the EAS improve Red and Special Measures schools over the next year.

The EAS Challenge Adviser explained that the EAS were involved in a project with Professor Waters upon the difference between Year 6 and Year 7 teaching. This work would have included collaboration between two primary schools and a secondary school to establish why there is that disconnect between Key Stage 2 and 3, and reaching the necessary foundation needed for Key Stage 4.

If a secondary school was struggling it needed to work within a Peer network to find support from its peers. Teaching and Leadership were everything when it came to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Attendees:

-       Mary Ryan – Safeguarding Manager

-       Rebecca Haycock – Manager of the Gwent Regional VAWDASV Team

-       Ann Hamlet – Lead Safeguarding Officer for Health (Head of Safeguarding Services ABUHB)

-       Robert Hartshorn – VAWDASV Chair of the Regional Partnership Board

The Safeguarding Manager presented an overview of how the six strategic priorities within the Violence Against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (VAWDASV) Strategy were being delivered in Newport, followed by the Attendees presenting upon the strategic priorities that aligned with their specific areas of expertise. 

The Committee asked the following questions;

·         A Member expressed concern that the VAWDASV training had only been delivered to 14% of school staff, whom they believed should have been a priority and asked what happened if school staff saw something that concerned them.

The Safeguarding Manager explained that the training to date had been successful and an unforeseen, but positive, result was a quarter of recipients had disclosed incidence of domestic violence. The set of national indicators provided a percentage of the number of people trained but did not highlight the quality of the training provided. With regard to school staff, the ‘Keeping Learning Safe’ document which was part of the national learner framework was used to ensure teachers were aware of their duty of care for the young people they worked with.

The Safeguarding Manager informed the Committee that the Local Authority’s Safeguarding Champions had been launched the previous month. These individuals would be taking the training back to their own team meetings. The Champions were nominated by their peers, or volunteered during Safeguarding week. The Champions would be receiving full training in the summer, from which they would be able to support people in their teams to seek and reach out for support needed.

There were a number of places where an individual or someone with concerns for the welfare of another could seek support or make a referral. These included a national helpline and a number of Third Sector organisations, including Newport Women’s Aid and the Newport City Council Safeguarding Hub. The Police could be contacted for high risk cases. 

The Safeguarding Manager explained that the e-learning Training would be rolled out to all Members over the summer of 2019. The upskilling of people in the community was also on the agenda, the hope would have been that by doing this there would have been more people to ask the right questions and to then appropriately deal with the information. 

The Committee agreed that all Members would benefit from training.

·         A Member asked about the methods of communication used by the VAWDASV team, particularly on social media and what joint working opportunities the team had pursued?

The Attendees explained that the Act was still relatively new and that they would focus on public sector organisations first, then private organisations and then the Third Sector. The VAWDASV team had been researching the options for communicating with the public and other professionals and the reach and impact of the options.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Chair presented a brief verbal update to the Committee upon the second meeting of the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee which took place on 5 February 2019.  Links to the Agenda, reports and Previous Minutes had been provided in the Background Papers of the Report and a link to the Minutes of the latest Meeting would be circulated when available.

He advised that Members of the JOSC had attended a visit to the Semi- Conductor Site on the morning of the meeting, followed by the Joint Committee meeting in Beechwood House, Newport in the afternoon for the consideration of reports upon: CSC Foundry Building Report; the Joint Working Agreement Business Plan, and; Forward Work Programme, Training and Schedule of Meetings.

Members discussed whether the resources provided were sufficient to provide assurance that the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal was being scrutinised effectively.

Conclusions:

1.      The Committee noted the update provided by the Chairperson following the

meeting of the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 5 February 2019.

2.    The Scrutiny Adviser agreed to circulate the Minutes of the Joint Scrutiny Committee to Members of the Committee once they became available.

3.    The Committee would continue to receive updates following future meetings of the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

a)       Forward Work Programme Update (Appendix 1)

b)       Action Sheet (Appendix 2)

c)       Information Reports (Appendix 3)

d)       Scrutiny Letters

Attendee:

-     M Lawrence (Scrutiny Adviser)

a)         Forward Work Programme Update

The Scrutiny Adviser presented the Forward Work Programme, and informed the Committee of the topics due to be discussed at the next Committee meeting:

3 April 2019:

·         Regional Area Plan 2018-19 Update - Gwent Regional Partnership Board

·         Shared Resource Service Update

The Committee agreed the topics for the next meeting, as above.

b)        Action Sheet

The Scrutiny Adviser presented the Action Sheet and advised the Committee that as indicated in the table, the item had been actioned.

c)         Information Reports

The Scrutiny Adviser advised that the following report had been circulated to Members of the Committee as an Information Report and that no comments had been received:

-       WAO Service User Perspective Review, Flying Start – Newport City Council.

d)        Scrutiny Letters

The Scrutiny Adviser informed the Committee that a Scrutiny Letter had been sent to the Public Services Board scheduled for 12 March submitting the comments the Committee had made upon the Well-being Plan Mid-Year Update at the 9 January meeting.  The Minutes of the that Public Services Board meeting would be circulated to the Committee for information when available.