Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any Declarations and advise Members accordingly.

The Chair referred to the Match Funding for play areas proposals and asked if he should declare an interest as a Community Councillor.  All Members in attendance, apart from Lynn Bartlett and Councillors Tudor Jones and Martin White declared a personal interest in agenda item 4 – Play Sufficiency Assessment.

The Chair referred to the Match Funding for play areas proposals and asked if he should declare an interest as a Community Councillor.  All Members in attendance, apart from Lynn Bartlett and Councillors Tudor Jones and Martin White declared a personal interest in agenda item 4 – Play Sufficiency Assessment.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meetings held on 20 December 2018 and 31 January 2019.

That subject to the amendments listed above, the minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The minutes of the meetings held on the 20^th December 2018 and 31^st January 2019 were submitted.

20 December 2018

Councillor Heesom referred to the second recommendation as shown on page 7 pf the minutes and asked if a workshop on the repairs and maintenance of schools had been arranged.  The Facilitator confirmed this had been arranged for the 12^th April at 10.00 am.  An email invitation had been sent to all Members and it was agreed to re-circulate this to Councillor Heesom.

Councillor Dave Mackie referred to his comments on page 7 of the minutes and asked that the following wording be included at the end of the 3^rd paragraph:-

‘which is a form of PFI and an in-depth study, conducted by the National Audit Office of the United Kingdom concluded that the private finance initiative model had proved to be more expensive and less efficient in providing hospitals, schools and other public infrastructure than public financing.   There was now only a 10% difference in the cost to the Authority of capital vs MIM funding and urged that MIM not be considered.’   Previously there had been a 50% difference but in the report at 3.10 in the report it had changed to 35% so there was only a 10% difference at this point which is why he had asked for this amendment.  The Chair thanked Councillor Mackie and felt that his point should be minuted but invited the Cabinet Member and Chief Officer to update Committee on this.

The Cabinet Member for Education provided an update on the MIM model information received from the WLGA and clarified that 81% of the cost would be met by Welsh Government and 19% by Local Authorities on the MIM model.  

Councillor Ian Smith asked if there was any information on interest rates charged with regard to the Council’s borrowing.  In response the Chief Officer explained the situation was constantly changing with uncertainty from Welsh Government on the detail regarding the MIM route for funding together with the Band B and 21^st Century Schools Programme.

Councillor Dave Mackie proposed that subject to the amendments listed abovethe minutes be approved as a correct record.  This was seconded by Councillor Geoff Collett.

31 January 2019

The minutes of the meetings held on the 31 January, 2019, were submitted.

Matters arising

The Chair referred to page 12 of the minutes and asked for an update on the contribution from Welsh Government on School Pensions Costs.  In response the Chief Officer confirmed the costs had been met by Central Government 85% of which had been passported to Welsh Government who would be providing the other 15%.  It was confirmed the schools would receive the full amount of the pensions increase for the next financial year but there was still uncertainty for the future.  The Chair commented this was good news and that he hoped in the future pay deals could be funded nationally.

On page 16 Councillor  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

(a)       That the Committee support the draft Play Sufficiency Assessment 2019 and draft Action Plan 2019/20, which will be sent to Welsh Government at the end of March 2019; and

(b)       That the Committee support the continued development of a strategic Flintshire Play Sufficiency Implementation Group to provide a multi-agency forum to monitor the Play Sufficiency Assessment Action Plan 2019/20.

The Chief Officer (Education & Youth) introduced the Flintshire Play Development Officer, Marianne Mannello (Assistant Director for Play Wales) and the Play Design Officer – Aura Leisure & Libraries and invited them to present the report.  The report provided an overview of the Flintshire Play Sufficiency Assessment 2019 and the draft Action Plan 2019/2020. The local authority had a statutory duty under the Children and Families Measure Wales 2010 to report to Welsh Government and a draft document would be presented to Welsh Government shortly.  The Flintshire Play Sufficiency Assessment was a live document with the Action Plan published annually.  This was a statutory requirement and the local authority outlined in the action plan how it was intending to address deficiencies and maintain current levels.   The Play Development Officer explained the Council would be able to access funding via action plans towards such schemes as the County play schemes and that a universal service could be provided across the county for all children.

In response to a comment on the successful bids for funding, the Assistant Director of Play Wales explained that national lobbying continued to try and secure funding but this was still reliant on the money available at the end of the financial year.

Councillor Mackie congratulated the Play Development Officer for her dedication saying she was enthusiastic, determined and caring and that the report was exceptional. 

Councillor Patrick Heesom asked for information on the Strategy which linked play areas which were part of Aura.  In response the Play Development Officer said the council was connected to Aura with the Play Sufficiency Assessment and that play areas was a huge part of this. 

Councillor Heesom then raised a number of questions regarding the 106 agreement funding for play areas which was provided by developers into the School provision and asked if some of this money could be used for youth provision which would be very beneficial.  The Play Design Officer responded to say that Section 106 Funding had two components, the education contribution and the public open space contribution, which were not the same. He outlined the decision process for the allocation of the funding whether on sports pitches or play areas for example, public open space facilities, and the consultation undertaken with Local Members and Town and Community Councils.  

Councillor Heesom stated the 106 Agreement funding was a very significant amount of money and asked how the funding was monitored.  The Play Design Officer said that a survey report to assess the condition of all playgrounds was carried out and published.  The Assistant Director Play Wales reported on discussions being held across Wales regarding the Section 106 Agreement funding to look at all areas of open space where children could play.  This was not an easy process but with the national template there was potential to look at where the Section 106 money had been spent in schools and the possibility of extending the schools opening hours of the facilities to make it more of a community benefit which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

(a)       That the progress made in both the Healthy and Sustainable Pre-school Scheme and the Welsh Network of Healthy Schools Schemes in Flintshire, be noted;

(b)       That the overview of key issues for children and young people in Flintshire, which may impact their ability to reach their full potential at school, be noted; and

(c)        That the Committee wish to highlight a need for further education and preventative measures, and the need for all agency partners and parents/carers to work together to educate and deliver change.

The Learning Advisor – Health, Wellbeing and Safeguarding presented the report which provided an update to Committee on the outcome of the School Health Research Network.  The report detailed progress made with the Healthy Schools Scheme, Healthy Pre-School Scheme which all our school participated in and School Holiday Enrichment Programme (SHEP).   The Healthy Schools Programme had been active for 17 years and provided a whole school approach to well-being and had now extended to the Healthy Pre-School Schools.  She provided an update on the training carried out within the last 12 months and referred members to the targets shown at Section 1.04 of the report which had been met and she was pleased to confirm that 10% of schools had met the national quality award status.

She continued to provide information on the School Holiday Enrichment Programme (SHEP) which provided breakfast, lunch and physical and cooking opportunities on two sites with proposals to extend this to Flint High and Queensferry Primary School.   She referred Members to the School Health Research Network (SHRN) in partnership with Welsh Government policy makers, Cardiff University, Public Health Wales, Cancer Research UK and the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods to obtain data on well-being.  All secondary pupils took part in the study in the Autumn of 2017 with 82% of all pupils taking part in the survey.  The survey covered food, fitness and physical activity, emotional health, substance use and misuse and sex and relationships. This was an achievement getting schools to take part especially because of the importance of the data.  In the Spring of 2018 every school had received their individual report and in November 2018 the first county report was finalised. There was an embargo on national data from Welsh Gov until April.  There were Action Plans in all schools which were pupil led in all High Schools and a County Action Plan was being developed which would be shared once national data was released.  Representatives from the University of Cardiff had visited two school events and she then provided information on the highlights.   Flintshire was within the national average and this was 4 year action plan and with another survey taking place this autumn.  The data would be used as evidence and ensure parental engagement opportunities in the action plans.

Councillor Kevin Hughes said that this was an excellent report but that it did not make pleasant reading when it came to the figures on alcohol at 51% and drugs at 31% commenting that Cannabis was a gateway drug which should not be underestimated.  He raised concerns with the figure 22% of 13 years or younger who were sexually active when the age of consent was 16 years, which were very worrying statistics.  Society was failing these children and that parents needed to be more involved.  As regards to the figure of 41% of bullying he asked how much was online bullying.  He also asked how confident the Council was on accuracy of the figures.

The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

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.

(a)       That the draft Forward Work Programme as amended, be approved; and

(b)       That the Facilitator, in consultation with the Chair of the Committee be authorised to vary the Forward Work Programme between meetings, as the need arises.

            The Facilitator presented the current Forward Work Programme for consideration.  During discussion the Committee agreed the following changes to the Programme:-

• The Chair referred to the 16^th May meeting and wondered if a representative from Secondary Heads Association should be invited to explain how they see the impacts on schools of the post 16 proposals.  The Cabinet Member commented that the vast majority of post 16 pupils which could be affected were from Coleg Cambria and that a representative from the Coleg should also be invited to attend.

• The Chief Officer then referred to the joint meeting with Social & Health Care on the 7^th June and reported that Estyn would be holding an inspection of the Council on the week commencing 3^rd of June.  There was a lot of work for Officers prior to this Inspection and asked Committee if the joint meeting could be re-scheduled in the light of this.

Councillor Glyn Banks asked that the best wishes of the Committee be passed to Councillor Sian Braun as she had broken her fibula and tibia.  He also asked that a letter of congratulations be sent to Mr. David Hytch following his recent wedding.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the draft Forward Work Programme as amended, be approved; and

(b)       That the Facilitator, in consultation with the Chair of the Committee be authorised to vary the Forward Work Programme between meetings, as the need arises.

There was one member of the press in attendance.

There was one member of the press in attendance.