Issue - meetings

That the report be noted.

The Chief Officer introduced a report to present the monitoring of progress for the Quarter 3 (October to December 2018) position of 2018/19 for the Council Plan priority ‘Learning Council’ relevant to the Committee.  The following areas of the report were highlighted:-

• The Cabinet Member reported on a recent national meeting where the question of staff training days had been raised and he was delighted with this news.  Whilst acknowledging the impact on parents finding childcare for an extra day it was invaluable for teaching staff to have that day together;
• The Minority and Ethnic Achievement grant (MEAG) was still unresolved and still remained a risk;
• School Admissions for September 2019 had commenced but there remained a need for flexibility to deal with peaks in admissions; and
• A workshop on school repairs and maintenance had been arranged for 12^th April but there had been a recent announcement that Welsh Government would be making funding available for Local Authorities for schools to support their capital programmes.  Further information was being awaited.  

The Chair referred to the extra staff training day to discuss the new curriculum which was invaluable for schools to work together and consider best practices.  The Chief Officer agreed saying the Minister would like to see local authorities working regionally together to establish best practice.

The Chair welcomed the money proposed for school repairs but added the capital receipts were not there.  In response the Chief Officer confirmed that the income funding would enable the council to offset some which had already incurred around repairs and maintenance and this would then free that money to be re-invested.

In response to a question from Councillor Tudor Jones around the ability to increase capacity at a school where amalgamation with another school had been considered, the Chief Officer said that through a combination of some dedicated grant funding and the funding from Welsh Government, this could be addressed

Councillor Patrick Heesom referred to the previous shocking report and how we were dealing with young people, classroom, social and at 1.09 embedding the youth council revitalising some of the young people’s opportunities, the Youth Service was of great importance and highly valued   In response it was confirmed the Integrated Youth Provision were mobile and flexible in the front line team getting out into communities to tackle drug and Alcohol issues.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.