Agenda and minutes
Venue: Chamber Meeting Room - Civic Centre, Swansea. View directions
Contact: Michelle Roberts, Scrutiny Officer
No. | Item |
---|---|
Declarations of Interest Minutes: None |
|
Readiness for Schools Scrutiny Inquiry Impact and Follow-up Report PDF 68 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Inquiry Panel
reconvened to look at the impact of and progress made with the recommendations
arising from the Scrutiny Inquiry into Readiness for School. Cllr Mark Child, Sian Bingham and Sharon
Jones attended the meeting to discuss progress. The Panel are pleased to hear that their work and the resulting
recommendations have made an impact in many areas and that substantial progress
had been made. They are keen to hear about that changes that have occurred at
operational and strategic levels. That
the strategic changes will ensure a longer term commitment and strategy is in
place, whilst at an operational level services are becoming more widespread,
aligned and linked across different organisations. They were interested to
hear about the work being done to utilise resource in
those areas not covered by Flying Start by developing that ethos, where
possible, within other early years setting within these areas. Councillors are
happy to hear about the success of the multi-agency Jigso Project and the
extending of Childcare Offer Pilot. The Panel is
particularly pleased that the Public Service Board has agreed that early years
should continue to be one of their key priorities moving forward. The Panel is therefore
satisfied with progress made on recommendations 1, 2, 4 and 9 and will not
follow up on those any further. They heard about those recommendations that are not yet complete but
that there has been progress with a number of these recommendations including
for example: ·
Significant
progress made with responding to specific requirements of the Additional
Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act in relation to early years. ·
That
the Pupil Deprivation Grant is now mapped and data collected so that the type
of spend is monitored and good practice can be highlighted. The panel are keen to see the good practice
found shared across schools. ·
That a
working party comprising of all key stakeholders has been established to share
recommendations and develop a united understand of the actions to be taken to
develop a Foundation Phase Profile baseline.
The Panel were keen for this to progress to help develop and ensure
consistency and robustness. ·
The new
Foundation Phase Strategic Lead is starting to build working relationships with
relevant people and will start to share good practice. The Panel are keen to see minimum standards
in relation to transition to school from day care settings to be fully
developed. Councillors recognise that some of the recommendation made will have a
longer term development timescale. They will therefore refer those outstanding
recommendations, namely 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 to the Schools Scrutiny Performance
Panel to follow up upon in 12 months’ time.
A letter will be written to the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing and Children, Education and Lifelong Learning reflecting the Panels views. |
|