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There is no summary of this meeting yet. Summaries are written once the council publishes the minutes, which are its official record of what a meeting decided. They usually appear a few weeks after the meeting.
Apologies were received from Cllr. S Thomas, A Anil, H O’Neil, J Beard and K Lewis.
No declarations of interest were made.
The minutes of the meeting held on 17th November 2025 were approved as accurate, subject to 2 corrections: · R Thompson amend to R Thomson in both ‘Present’ and ’19. Declarations of Interest.’ · Merthyr Tydfil Heritage Society amend to Merthyr Tydfil Heritage Trust – ’19. Declarations of Interest.’
1 outstanding action: · Send a letter to Welsh Government regarding funding for EHE pupils. The Chair apologised for the delay and informed Members that a letter would be sent this week from the Chair and Cabinet Member.
Cllr. Gareth Lewis introduced the report. In response to the questions from the committee members, officers, confirmed: · Additional data was circulated to members today on bullying and racist Incidents in schools. · Safeguarding Training is aligned to new National Safeguarding Standards (Levels A, B, C replacing 1, 2, 3). · Schools use the EVOLVE system to risk assess school trips and overseas/adventurous trips require independent sign-off. · There has been no increase in knife crime within Merthyr schools, however we arelooking to develop a model policy for schools. · Schools practice full site and partial site lockdowns procedures on a termly basis and we are updating the training matrix. · Going forward we are sourcing additional training for school leaders on updating lockdown plans and testing lockdown procedures (dummy events) and working towards compliance with the forthcoming Martyn’s Law. · School have secure external doors, and each school would have designated areas detailed in their lockdown plans and processes in place to support vulnerable pupils. · Safeguarding is wider than child protection and includes, safety of the school site, lockdown procedures, safety of the school building, safety of the curriculum and sits under the guidance ‘Keeping Learners Safe.’ · Officers clarified there have been no knife crime incidents in schools. · Members requested clearer statistical information on safeguarding audits, bullying, racist incidents and exclusions in future reports. · Officers agreed to provide additional data/information after the meeting to members ‘audit on a page.’ · Members noted safeguarding workshops have been previously held with the Social Services (Healthier MT Scrutiny) on safeguarding and going forward this will continue to ensure a joint scrutiny committee approach to safeguarding. · Officers advised that ‘safeguarding’ will now be on every termly governing body agenda.
The chair referred to the Forward Work Programme. Members noted/agreed: · Workshop on the 9th February 2026 at 4:00 PM - Planning of School Places and Service Risks · Consider a joint scrutiny workshop on Safeguarding for the next FWP.
None received.
Workshop held on 17th November to discuss the Ty Dysgu visit and ALN feedback from the Governors Association Meeting. The Chair advised that the ALN report scheduled for March meeting would address the discussion points raised at the workshop.
• Noted 3 vacancies for co-opted members, the Chair asked members to consider this and to forward any suggestions to the Scrutiny Support Officer. • Members requested that consideration is given to include an annual report on schools performance for the next FWP, report to include data on school outcomes and safeguarding and health and safety audits etc.
Councillors must say when they have a personal link to something being discussed, such as a job, a property or a family member. A prejudicial interest is one strong enough that the councillor usually leaves the room and takes no part.
Declarations are read from the minutes once they are published.
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