Agenda item

As detailed in the recommendation.

Prior to introducing the report, Councillor Roberts expressed his apologies for the error in the appendix to the report which indicated that the Council’s intention was to amalgamate Ysgol Terrig and Ysgol Glanrafon onto the Glanrafon site in Mold and close the provision in Ysgol Terrig.  The report should have outlined the need to review the Welsh medium provision in those areas and try and address underutilised places in Yegol Terrig and oversubscription in Ysgol Glanrafon, both of which presented their own challenges.  He thanked the Head Teacher and Chair of Governors at Ysgol Terrig for accepting the Council’s apology and their confirmation that they wished to work constructively with the Council to secure Welsh medium education in the area.

            Through the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP), the Council was committed to increasing the numbers of pupils accessing Welsh medium education to help Welsh Government (WG) achieve its ambitious target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050.  Band B included a proposal to build a new school for Ysgol Croes Atti.

            The report outlined the projects contained within the Council’s Strategic Outline Plan (SOP) submission to WG.  It explained the principles used and assumptions made to deliver a programme with as minimal impact on future revenue budgets.  Details were also provided on the Mutual Investment Model (MIM).

            Band B provided the Council with another exciting opportunity to build more new schools and radically improve the facilities in others.  This would ensure that many more Flintshire pupils had access to ‘state of the art’ facilities which would improve the quality of learning.

            For traditional projects funding would be split 50:50 between WG and the Council.  However, under the new MIM funding mechanism, WG would fund 75% and the Council would fund 25%.

            The SOP was the first stage of a long process to draw down the funding stream from WG and was the Council’s statement of intent.  Each individual project would be considered by Cabinet.

            Councillor Thomas asked for information on the consultation process, on the provision of Welsh medium education and sought reassurance on the MIM model.  The Chief Officer (Education and Youth) explained that the proposals were considered initially by the Education and Youth Programme Board and the Capital Asset Programme Board.  The report and recommendations were then before Cabinet today and if approved, a detailed public consultation exercise would commence as defined in the School Organisational Code.  On MIM, she explained that this was WGs new form of Private Finance Initiative with any MIM projects resulting in a two tier education estate in terms of quality and intensity of the maintenance regime deployed.  MIM took into account and learned from previous issues with PFI.  Work would be undertaken with key partners in communities to ensure that communities were aware that Welsh medium education was a choice for them.

            The Chief Executive added that there would likely be some movement within the proposals but the criteria for bidding was specific. 

            Councillor Attridge welcomed the report and the MIM funding.  It was now important to listen to the views of the communities once the public consultation exercise had ended before receiving a further report to Cabinet.

            Councillor Shotton also welcomed the report and gave details of achievements that had been made through Band A of the 21^st Century Schools Programme.  He concurred with the Chief Executive that the list was not definitive, explaining that there were a numbers of projects included in the Band A proposals that did not progress. 

RESOLVED:

            That the content of the report be noted, including the observations from the Education and Youth Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.