Agenda and draft minutes

Councillor Peter Black from Swansea.

None.

The minutes and letter arising from the meeting on the 18 November 2025 were accepted.

Partneriaeth Lead Officer

The Lead Partneriaeth Officer outlined the outcomes from the Partneriaeth Joint Committee meeting on the 21 February 2025, including:

·        The letter from the last meeting of the Councillor Group was received by the Joint Committee.

·       Audit enquiries, those charged with governance and management. The Joint committee considered and approved the response to audit Wales in respect to audit enquiries.

·       The audit plan for 2024 from Audit Wales and again Joint Committee received the this which outlined the work to be undertaken by Audit Wales in in line with their statutory duties, and that detailed focus on financial statements, any financial risks.  This was approved.

·       There was a financial update to the end of quarter three. This was noted by the committee. 

·       The draft budget for 2025/26 was considered and endorsed in principle.  updating the.

·       Current provisional position at the end of the autumn term in line with funding
Expectations and current risk register both form part of the Councillor Groups agenda for discussion.

The Councillor Group asked:

·       In terms of the collaborative work with local authority officers, do you find that works well? Do you know? Are there any tensions there or do you sort of complement each other well?  They heard that it works much better than it has previously, the collaborative approach and working across the three LAs is much clearer.  Any documents such as our strategy documents essentially are collaborative documents and Partneriaeth try to not write anything in isolation and the the mantra from all directors is avoid duplication.  It is essential that we are open and transparent with each other.  We also do an awful lot of joint delivery now with local authority officers as well. It is also much clearer line of sight in terms who is delivering what for them.

·       When are you likely to get the confirmation of funding from Welsh Government?  The next strategy meeting with directors is later this month they will have conversation. In terms of what the national body will be delivering and how that will look, some of that information may not emerge until much later on in the summer term. There are therefore clear challenges in terms of the full budget for 2025/26.  It is quite unclear at the moment.

The Councillor Group were concerned about the uncertainty, once again, for Partneriaeth and its staff, as well as the impacts on future delivery given these expected developments.  The Panel were keen to see this reflected in the risk profile moving forward.

Termly Report – Autumn Term 2024

Outline of Business Plan priorities and Governance of Partneriaeth moving forward

The Councillor Group heard from Lead Partneriaeth Officer that:

·        They are currently offering a good range of support in line with expectations from local authority partners.  They have provided a range of high quality professional learning through specific professional learning events, but also a range of bespoke and tailored support in your schools across those two priority areas of curriculum, support and career pathways. 

·        This has been assessed through evidence from stakeholder groups and also through strong collaborative working with each local authority.

·        There is bespoke and tailored support for schools and clusters, and again, all of this delivered in collaboration with your LA officers.

·        Each piece of work is evaluated.

·       All is detailed in the Business Plan and associated action plan.

 (The Legal Agreement says the Councillor Group to review, scrutinise and assess the Joint Committee’s risk management, internal control and corporate governance arrangements and review and assess the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which resources have been used).

The Lead Partneriaeth Officer gave an overview of current finances and risk profile.  He told the Councillor Group that they are in line with expected expenditure for 2024/25 and he also noted the continued reliance on grant funding moving forward, this will result in a lack of clarity moving into the summer term. This is something noted in the risk register. He also said that there will be some additional risks moving forward in terms of what the national body will deliver and how, but this is not clear yet but so is not linked to the current delivery risks. If the functions of Partneriaeth are going to change slightly from April onwards, there will be another job of work to be done with schools and partners, so it is as clear as possible to them. He believes the line of sight between schools and the organisation is probably clearer than ever at present, but said that any changes will mean that there will be a change in messaging.  Another risk is a potential of high impact if local authorities receive insufficient funding from Welsh Government to then support the running costs and the staffing costs of Partneriaeth. He told the group that the risk register will be updated to reflect changes moving forward from 1 April and that this will be a standing item on strategic group also, so that directors are appraised of any of those risks.

Scrutiny of the work of Partneriaeth from April 2025 was discussed and the Group agreed that each local authority should include the Partneriaeth Business Plan/Action Plan progress in their Scrutiny Work Programmes on at least an annual basis.

The Cllr Group agreed to include their views on today’s agenda in a letter to Chair of Partneriaeth Joint Committee.