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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.
1.1 Apologies were received from Councillor Liam Cowles, Councillor Janet Jones and Victoria Horlor.
2.1 Councillor Colette Thomas declared a personal interest in agenda item 5 as she was a governor at Nant Celyn Primary School and a member of Cwmbran High School’s Interim Executive Board. 2.2 Councillor Lucy Williams declared a personal interest in agenda item 5 as she was a governor at Pontnewydd Primary School and Woodlands Community Primary School.
3.1 The minutes of the meeting held on 23rd November 2022 were confirmed as an accurate record.
4.1 The SCI&SO agreed to explore the first two items on the action sheet with the DDoE and report back to members of the Committee. 4.2 The Committee noted the action sheet.
5.1 The DDoE gave a brief introduction to the report and the roles of his fellow officers, and the HoALNT gave a presentation on the ALN Vision and Strategy. 5.2 Following Members’ questions and comments, the DDoE, HoALNI&W, HoALNT and AHoE made the following main points: • A glossary of terms would be provided in future, due to the number of acronyms used within the report. • The data collected by the Local Authority (LA) needed to be used correctly. Progress would be monitored, and targeted provision could be amended if required. Effective Individual Development Plans (IDPs) were required, with clear outcomes in place. • A lot of analysis was currently taking place around ALN standards and progress. Further developments were being considered and the LA had produced a heat map of what was working well and what needed to be improved. • The Capita One software drew together information from various service areas regarding interventions used for individual children and young people. This tool had had a lot of potential in terms of understanding the chronology of interventions used and whether any future interventions were required. • ALN lead officers had an important role to play in terms of linking Early Years to nursery / primary school settings regarding appropriate interventions. Various training packages were outlined, as was the role of the 0-3 years old pathway via SenCom. • Health services had duties around early identification of needs, and once they informed the LA of the needs that would put a duty upon the Education Service. All Early Years IDPs were maintained by the LA. • The Flying Start expansion would result in more children being seen by professionals, and therefore it was highly likely that more children would have ALN identified. • A transition protocol was in place regarding Post-16 education, and this included multi agency meetings regarding all vulnerable children, not just ALN, where monitoring and identification of support took place. The LA currently had very good links with Coleg Gwent, and the above process had been shared amongst other local authorities as an example of good practice. • A supported internship programme had existed for a few years where young people with ALN undertook work experience at Nevill Hall Hospital and had a job coach. The HoALNT believed that a similar programme involving the Council would be hugely beneficial to young people and she had recently suggested this to the Chief Executive. • The HoALNT had created a flow chart outlining the process around ALN, which was being used by schools. On top of this, various documents and leaflets existed, so there was a lot of information available to parents / carers; however it needed to be accessible via the internet. Feedback regarding the above information had been sought via the Youth Forum and SNAP Cymru, with whom the LA had really strong relationships. It was important to remember that families could find this process stressful, and the LA and schools would need to provide support to them, as well as information. • IDPs needed to be working documents in order to be successful, and they needed to be an integral part of the curriculum. Highly developmental work was currently taking place around the above and best practice was shared amongst networks and clusters of schools. • Welsh Government (WG) stated that the new reforms around ALN would be cost neutral; however WG had supplied various grants that the LA spent wisely regarding ALN. The LA was optimistic that WG was listening to the concerns of local authorities regarding the cost of implementing the new reforms. The School Budget Forum also had an important part to play in the above. • A holistic view around ALN was required in order for it to be cost neutral and successful, and ALN funding had been devolved to schools as they were deemed best placed to understand their cohorts and needs. IDPs needed to be reviewed regularly in order to make sure that the right targeted interventions were in place. • Nearly all ALN learners were educated within mainstream education; however some were better placed within specialist provision, so it was important for the LA and individuals to have options. It was also important to reduce the number of children and young people in out of county provision and keep them within their own communities. • Ensuring that schools had a good consistent standard of IDPs would be achieved by moderating IDPs (including Health and Early Years), having a regional template in place and training Additional Learning Needs Co-ordinators (ALNCos). As the above related to the quality of teaching and learning, this was an area of development for both the LA and the Education Achievement Service (EAS). • With regards to page 51 of the agenda, there was no difference between ‘vision impairment’ and ‘visual impairment’. Education Services preferred to use the term ‘vision impairment’, whereas colleagues within Health preferred to use ‘visual impairment’. • All ALN and specialist provision throughout Torfaen would need to be reviewed and monitored, in order to ascertain whether the levels were appropriate. Currently, less than 1% of the total number of pupils in Torfaen were within specialist provision. • It was important to resolve any issues between education bodies, children, young people and parents / carers as soon as possible. This explained why parents / carers attended Person Centred Planning (PCP) meetings and constant dialogue was maintained. SNAP Cymru was available to provide independent support to parents / carers and lessons were learned from any tribunals that took place regarding all local authorities. • The LA tried to limit the use of out of county provision as much as possible, as it was a costly process and children and young people needed to be part of their local community, as successful outcomes involved living independently within local communities. • The LA needed to ‘reinvest to save’ in terms of the money it spent on out of county provision, and work with Social Services and in regional partnerships in order to achieve this. Grants were available to take the profit out of care and the LA could explore the use of local or regional provisions. • Some pupils who were in Education Other Than At School (EOTAS) were within alternative provision; however it was important to monitor all of these pupils, including in terms of safeguarding, and get them back into school. The Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) was doing good work in this area. • The ALN Code placed a duty on the LA to provide advice and support to parents / carers who opted to home school their children; however the LA was only usually able to meet these needs via school settings. A grant was available to local authorities in order to provide additional resource to support home schooled pupils. • Good quality PCP meetings would highlight any barriers to learning that existed, and clear objectives would then be put in place for the individual concerned. The LA would listen to what was important to the young person and then support them in order to achieve it. The LA had a ‘Barriers to Learning’ matrix to assist school and ALNCos that had been adopted by other local authorities in Wales. • Some English local authorities used a “you said, we did” report in order to evaluate the impact of their work, and a similar approach would help the LA keep everyone informed of its good work, alongside the continued use of the Education Services regular newsletter. • Although the ALN Code stated that IDPs should be reviewed at least annually, PCP meetings could be convened earlier in order to consider IDPs. Action plans would still be in place for pupils with no IDP and one-page profiles could be shared with parents / carers in order to outline learning targets. On an LA level, half-termly heat maps were used in order to monitor a variety of indicators, including the appropriateness of school provisions. • The co-construction timetable would enable the LA to ensure that all stakeholders and partners were working effectively towards the LA’s professional promise and supporting the LA to deliver its ALN strategy and vision. • More detailed plans sat below the strategy and included local targets; however national indicators would replace them once they had been set by WG. • Officers were confident that the strategy was flexible enough to deal with and provide support to all of the categories of ALN. It was important to focus on what individuals could do and praise their achievements, and make sure the right support was in place in order to achieve the best outcomes. • The LA’s Estyn inspector had viewed the strategy and the LA’s Education consultant for the Strategic Improvement Board had stated that it was an aspirational strategy, which was very positive. • The LA had a professional learning offer in place and was undertaking research with a variety of universities. It was important that all professional learning was credible and researched, and that networks and clusters of schools were used in order to share best practice. • The LA would conduct a complete review of Special Needs Resource Bases (SNRBs), including provision maps, practices used, ALN plans, etc and a specific framework could then be used for consistency. The LA would be asking SNRBs to present to them and discuss pupil progress, with re-integration to mainstream education being the aim. • The LA needed to be more effective in terms of monitoring the progress of individuals in out of county provision and hold the providers to account via stringent criteria. Social workers and parents / carers needed a wider understanding of the ALN Code and IDPs, therefore collaboration was important. • An absence of ALN resource existed in terms of Welsh medium and WG had recognised this and were looking to invest in this area. This was an issue across Wales and had been discussed at the recent meeting of the Welsh Education Forum, and the LA was working with Ceredigion County Council and universities in order to make improvements in this area. • The ALN Code placed a duty on the LA to provide Welsh medium ALN support if requested and it was possible that value for money could be achieved by working collaboratively across the region. • The Education Service was in the process of writing team and service area plans for 2023/24. The draft plans had been submitted to Corporate Services and would be presented to Estyn on 3 February 2023. Officers were confident that a simpler way of tracking progress could be achieved and would be in line with corporate processes. 5.3 The Chair thanked the officers referred to in paragraph 5.2 for their contributions to the meeting and they left the meeting. 5.4 On completion of their scrutiny activity, the Committee concluded by offering the following comments and recommendations for consideration: Recommendation 1 – Ensure that information on ALN Strategy and new requirements are made accessible and easy to understand for parents and carers. In particular, Members recommended the inclusion of an infographic / flow chart being provided, clearly setting out the process of what parents / carers can expect. Starting right from the identification of need stage, all the way through to needs being established and support being provided. Recommendation 2 – Members requested a further update on implementation and progress against the strategy, for consideration into their 2023/24 work programme. In particular, also setting out: - What progress is being made towards the 1st year ambitions / targets, as set out within the strategy. - Cluster work being undertaken, and any best practice identified and rolled out to schools - Update on the review of out of county placements and how monitoring / reporting of pupil’s progress and outcomes has been improved. Recommendation 3 – To explore how feedback from Estyn can be reported on a more regular basis to Members of the Committee – clearly setting out targets, success criteria and intended impacts, against proposed actions. 5.5 Whilst discussing the recommendations, members also requested that they be sent the website link to the YouTube video on PCP.
6.1 The SCI&SO presented the report and invited members to review the information contained in the appendices to the report and agree an item for scrutiny at the next meeting. 6.2 The Committee agreed to scrutinise School Improvement – Post Inspection Action Plan, Estyn Recommendation 1.
7.1 The date of the next meeting was noted. 7.2 The meeting ended at 12.15pm.
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