Wrthi'n llwytho
Y penderfyniadau fel y mae cofnodion y cyngor yn eu cofnodi. Bydd crynodeb mewn iaith glir yn dilyn pan fydd wedi'i ysgrifennu.
AGREED to note the successful conclusion of the external audit.
AGREED to note the contents of the report, and to form a Task and Finish group.
AGREED to:- · note the monitoring position for 2022/23 and the forecast surplus; · consider the initial estimate for 2023/24, noting the increased base budget costs; · DEFER the decision in relation to the Joint Authority contributions as shown in Appendix I; and · consider the medium term financial forecast.
1.1 Apologies were received from Councillor Fay Bromfield, Monmouthshire County Council; Councillor Lucy Williams, Torfaen County Borough Council and Russell Deacon.
2.1 Councillor Drewett declared a personal, non-prejudicial interest as a Member of a Newport Chartists group.
3.1 The minutes of the meeting held on 30 September 2022 were agreed as a true and accurate record. However, the audit referred to in 8.3 of the minutes was an external audit.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
AGREED to note the successful conclusion of the external audit.
4.1 The LFO presented her report, highlighting key points. Following, there were no questions from the Joint Committee. 4.2 Councillor Trollope passed on his thanks and congratulations to the team on a job well done. 4.3 The Joint Committee AGREED to note the successful conclusion of the external audit.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
AGREED to note the contents of the report, and to form a Task and Finish group.
5.1 The CA presented her report, pulling out key points. Following, she responded to questions from the Joint Committee as follows:- · 99% of remote enquiries were responded to within 10 days. When the service was emailed, the sender would receive an automated message saying that a response would be sent within 10 days. The email would then be logged, allocated and then responded to. The sender may ask for further information after the response, which would then be treated as a new enquiry. Some enquiries were more complex and took longer than the 10 days and so staff would send a holder email if they were researching more information etc. Regardless, they tried to send a full response within the 10 days but if it wasn’t possible, the enquirer would be told. The aim was to respond to 98% within the timeframe. • It was anticipated that they would be changing the way they worked in the new year to allow for people to visit the centre without booking. They would be looking at home working etc., but it would be part of a wider discussion about service provision. • There were many positives to the digitisation work that was ongoing. It meant that more records were available online as not everyone was able to visit the centre. It was used a lot more now with Ancestry and Find My Past etc. Some people just preferred to find records at home so they needed to continue to make as much as possible available online. It was important that people were engaged and by people researching from home, it allows access to the documents as well as helping to preserve them. Online presence also brought about income. • There continued to be a need to find students and academics, and to point them towards the services that Gwent Archives could provide. This was a sector-wide issue, so it was a recognised difficulty. It was a big miss for those the service could support in many ways. It was possible that grant funding could become available to look at it. There were a lot of digital requests so perhaps they were finding other ways to use the service. Gwent Archives could assist schools with transport costs. 5.2 In relation to students and academics visiting the service, the Joint Committee debated and made the following comments:- • Times had changed, people were using digital means and the centre wasn’t the easiest place to get to, especially by public transport. • The service was doing a brilliant job in its digitisation work. However, it wasn’t possible to digitise everything and reach everyone. • A change in curriculum had taken place where Welsh history would play an important part. Gwent Archives had the right tools and resources to assist teachers to deliver it. A coordinated approach needed to be taken with schools rather than have people working independently. • This was a fantastic opportunity for Gwent Archives to advertise its services, especially within the education system in Gwent, and it was important to take a proactive approach. • There were opportunities to work more with AfroSheep around social media on the subject which could include YouTube clips showing what services Gwent Archives could provide and encourage people to visit. • It was important to be realistic in which school pupils could use the archives as some could be difficult for some pupils to use; understanding handwriting, nature of language, etc. so some work perhaps needed to be done around adapting some materials into simplified versions. It was also important that the raw material was there too for them to be viewed. Some pupils possibly wouldn’t even know what the archives were so it was important that they could see the originals, how evidence was created, or not in some instances, and what it all meant. 5.3 Following the above debate, it was agreed that the Joint Committee would form a Task and Finish Group in order to work through the issue. 5.4 The Joint Committee AGREED to note the contents of the report, and to form a Task and Finish group.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
AGREED to:- · note the monitoring position for 2022/23 and the forecast surplus; · consider the initial estimate for 2023/24, noting the increased base budget costs; · DEFER the decision in relation to the Joint Authority contributions as shown in Appendix I; and · consider the medium term financial forecast.
6.1 The LFO presented her report highlighting key points and following, there were no questions from the Joint Committee. However, Members were concerned about the recommendation around the decision of an uplift in contributions as shown in Appendix I. They commented as follows:- • Local authorities (LAs) hadn’t long received their settlements and budgets were still being worked through. • It was difficult to make a decision as overall budgets hadn’t been seen by certain Members. • The Gwent Archives Service was a statutory provision and without uplifts it would fall behind. Historically, a sub-committee had been set up to look at this and budget savings had previously been achieved, it would be difficult to identify any additional saving measures. The estimates report 22/23 made reference to the fact that uplifts for pay should be provided for in further budget rounds. • The issue would need to be taken back to each relevant LA in order to check for viability. • The Joint Agreement states that the Gwent Archives budget for the forthcoming year are determined by 31 December. Members expressed concern that from their individual LA perspective WG Settlement figures were coming through later and later each year. Some LAs hadn’t had chance to consider the impact of the recent 23/24 Settlement on their budget plans for 23/24.. The statutory date for local authorities to set their budgets and council tax is 10th March. • Itv was considered that all Elected Members should agree the decision in relation to the contributions from each Local Authority . • There were varying degrees of experience on the Committee and so most were unaware of past policy and agreement. The majority of Members didn’t feel confident that they were in a position to agree an uplift without consulting their LA. • More work needed to be done in terms of seeing where each LA was in terms of their budget and the viability of an uplift in contributions. Also, it needed to be discussed what the outcome would be should the Joint Committee not agree. • The majority of Members didn’t think that they had the right authority to vote for the uplift which would affect their LA budget. . • Legal advice needed to be sought with regard to the agreement of the contributions t. and what would happen if if they weren’t agreed • It was moved and seconded that a meeting should be reconvened in January in order for Members to go back to their LA’s in order to discuss the implications of agreeing any uplifts. 6.2 The Joint Committee AGREED to:- · note the monitoring position for 2022/23 and the forecast surplus; · consider the initial estimate for 2023/24, noting the increased base budget costs; · DEFER the decision in relation to the Joint Authority contributions as shown in Appendix I; and · consider the medium term financial forecast.
7.1 No other business was discussed.
8.1 The next meeting, as agreed, would take place in January, but the one following was confirmed to take place on Friday, 17 March 2023. 8.2 The meeting ended at 11.42am.
Rhaid i gynghorwyr ddweud pan fydd ganddyn nhw gysylltiad personol â rhywbeth sy'n cael ei drafod, fel swydd, eiddo neu aelod o'r teulu. Mae buddiant sy'n rhagfarnu yn ddigon cryf i'r cynghorydd adael yr ystafell fel arfer a pheidio â chymryd rhan.
Caiff datganiadau eu darllen o'r cofnodion unwaith y byddan nhw wedi'u cyhoeddi.
Yn rhestru cynghorwyr presennol y cyngor yn unig. Nid yw aelodau cyfetholedig, swyddogion a chyn-gynghorwyr yn cael eu dangos.