Issue - meetings

That the Committee confirms that it had received an appropriate level of assurance regarding the work of the Education & Youth Portfolio in supporting schools to tackle the impact of poverty and disadvantage on their learners. 

            In presenting the report, the Senior Manager (School Improvement) explained that the report provided an overview of the impact of poverty and the achievement gap for learners across Wales between those from more affluent households with those from more disadvantaged backgrounds.  This had been a challenge across Wales for many years and had been highlighted since the pandemic with Tackling Poverty and Disadvantage a key theme for the portfolio in the Council Plan for 2023/28. 

The Senior Manager referred Members to section 1 of the report which highlighted the national indicators which measured progress and the key findings from the recent research on the impacts of educational inequalities.  Point 1.07 in the report provided information on the national focus and the research from the impacts of the pandemic, with points 1.08 and 1.09 providing information on how schools were able to use the Pupil Development Grant to access funding to support these pupils.  Estyn were evaluating how schools used this funding and the authority had a strong profile in this regard.  The Senior Manager then reported on the examples of good practice from the Adult Community Learning Team, the Healthy Schools Team and the commitment for all primary school children to receive a free school meal by 2024.

In response to a question from Councillor Dave Mackie, the Senior Manager agreed that ensuring that correct information was available to enable the authority to undertake support effectively was important.  Comparing England with Wales was difficult as Wales had slightly different processes, outcomes, examination processes and the new curriculum.  The key theme was that both nations needed to improve with both starting from a point of disadvantage with learners having more barriers and not achieving the same levels as those learners who were not disadvantaged.   Welsh Government (WG) had revisited this and were looking at ways to accelerate progress across Wales.

Councillor Andrew Parkhurst referred to the ONS data which stated that disadvantaged children who had the same educational qualifications did not achieve the same in terms of higher wages and opportunities later in life.  The reason seemed to be the engagement with the labour market, and he wondered if more could be done with regard to work experience and engagement with industry to enable disadvantaged children to obtain the social skills together with education to enable them to succeed.

The Senior Manager agreed with the comments made by Councillor Parkhurst saying work was being undertaken to revisit all these areas, linking with colleagues across North Wales on the Regional Skills Partnership Board, the Post 16 Learning Advisor and Secondary Heads Federation.  This would enable a better understanding of the labour market,  job opportunities and career aspirations which also included the Seren Network for progression to university for more able learners.  It was also proposed to build stronger links with the Regional Skills Partnership Board to ensure Flintshire had stronger representations to work with schools. She agreed to provide an update to Committee on this work to a future meeting.

The Chief  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8