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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
AGREED – That the work programme be agreed.
AGREED – (i) That an update report be submitted in 12 months and the Chief Officer give consideration to the content of the report and feedback at an earlier stage on how this might be structured. (ii) That the Chief Officer update the Committee regarding any updates from Welsh Government on this matter. (iii) That the Chair write to Welsh Government to request that information publicly available can be utilised for Scrutiny purposes.
Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillors Beryl Blackmore, Becca Martin, Jerry Wellens and Robert Ian Williams and co-opted member Sian Hatton-Jones.
AGREED – That the Minutes of the Meeting held on 18 December 2025 be signed as a correct record.
Decision as recorded
AGREED – That the work programme be agreed.
The Chief Officer Governance & Customer submitted a report (COGC/17/26s) to consider the work programme of the Lifelong Learning Scrutiny Committee. During discussion of the report reference was made to: · The Committee’s recommendation to the Executive Board in respect of school staff redundancy costs and costs relating to the increased demands of ALN provision in the financial year 2026/27. The Lead Member reported that work was ongoing with a view to seeing what funding solutions could be made to support 2026/27 redundancy costs and any announcements on this and funding for ALN costs would be made via the 2026/27 budget setting process, which was still ongoing. · Additional SEND funding in England which may result in additional funds for Wales. No additional information was available currently. · Timetabling and content of the budget monitoring reports to be received by the Committee. Scrutiny Facilitator to feed back to the next meeting following discussion with the Chief Officer Finance and ICT. · Feedback on the timing of receipt of indicative budgets by schools and how the process could be improved. Noted that indicative budget meetings were intended to be a starting point for discussions. · Reported that the School improvement Monitoring Group had met in February 2026 with another meeting set for June 2026. · Noted that the Groves Task & Finish Group met in January and a brief confidential update had been circulated to Committee members. Due to potential commercial sensitivity any subsequent report to this Committee was likely to be restricted information. AGREED – That the work programme be agreed.
Decision as recorded
AGREED – (i) That an update report be submitted in 12 months and the Chief Officer give consideration to the content of the report and feedback at an earlier stage on how this might be structured. (ii) That the Chief Officer update the Committee regarding any updates from Welsh Government on this matter. (iii) That the Chair write to Welsh Government to request that information publicly available can be utilised for Scrutiny purposes.
The Lead Member for Education submitted a report (COEEI/05/26s) to present the Estyn performance profiles for schools and the Local Authority’s headline Key Stage 4 outcomes from summer 2025. The results had been validated and set in context following the publication of the All Wales Core Data Sets (AWCDS) at both local authority and individual school levels. The report provided the committee with an overall picture of the Local Authority’s performance profile and overview of the validated external examination outcomes for Year 11 learners 2025. Presenting the report the Lead Member thanked the officer for the work undertaken in preparing such a comprehensive report given the restrictions in respect of the use of data following Welsh Government guidance. He reported that the data did show that some improvements were needed in Wrexham performance but stressed that it must be acknowledged that there was a need to understand the context in which this was being presented. He advised Committee that individual school data was available online on the My Local School website. The Chief Officer reported that she had sought clarification from Welsh Government in respect of the information that could be shared with Committee today. They had confirmed that the All Wales Core Data Sets were confidential and data should not be aggregated to make comparisons. The Officer presented an overview of the report highlighting the Estyn performance profiles of schools and the local authority headline outcomes. She reported that the outcome from inspections demonstrated a positive pattern. Furthermore Key Stage 4 outcomes for 2024/25 showed largely stable performance as schools fully return to pre-pandemic examination arrangements. The officer highlighted both positive performance and areas of challenge as set out in the report. She reported that the Local Authority’s improvement arrangements provided a robust and systematic framework for identifying, supporting and escalating schools causing concern. Members were informed that Head teachers had indicated that they would welcome the opportunity to engage with the committee about their own school data and context which would enable the committee to consider strengths and challenges and provide support. During debate the following matters in particular were highlighted and discussed: · Recognised that this was a thorough and comprehensive report, particularly given the restrictions regarding data. · Challenges in relation to speech and language in learners and the impact on pupil performance. · The implementation of the Wrexham Local Authority Literacy Approach was welcomed. · Recognised that schools were considering pedagogical approaches to ensure that children could succeed across the curriculum. · Pleasing to note that only 2 secondary schools were currently in a statutory category and there no primary schools in a statutory category. · The impact of deprivation and socio-economic disadvantage on outcomes. Noted that work was being undertaken to try to remove the barriers to learning across Wales. · Some concern expressed at the below Wales average performance in several headline measures. · Officers assured committee that both they and Head teachers were sighted on where improvements needed to be made. · Consideration to be given how progress information could be included in future reports within the constraints of Welsh Government guidance, to provide Committee with assurance regarding performance. · Recognition that a lot of good work was being undertaken in schools with some outperforming their own targets. AGREED – (i) That an update report be submitted in 12 months and the Chief Officer give consideration to the content of the report and feedback at an earlier stage on how this might be structured. (ii) That the Chief Officer update the Committee regarding any updates from Welsh Government on this matter. (iii) That the Chair write to Welsh Government to request that information publicly available can be utilised for Scrutiny purposes.
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