Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to the report of the Service Manager Inclusion which was presented to provide Scrutiny Committee with an update on the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) and Tribunal (Wales) Act (2018) and the progress the Education Directorate is making in readiness.

The Service Manager Inclusion spoke to the report and highlighted the main points contained therein.

The Service Manager noted the cost pressure referenced in the report in relation to statutory duties, however, owing to managing the difficulties of running two systems and the additional capacity required within the ALN Team, the cost pressure would be closer to £100,000.

The Chair congratulated the team for all the hard work and collaboration that had been undertaken.

A Member said he welcomed the report and requested an update with a breakdown of statemented children, ALN children, dyslexic children etc.  In response the Service Manager Inclusion said he could provide a breakdown of pupils that are at School Action and School Action Plus that have a statement and their primary needs and include details around the resource base for Members information.

The Committee AGREED this course of action.

With regard to the ALN Bill coming into force in September a Member commented on the excellent work that had been undertaken and congratulated the Service Manager and the team for leading on this issue. 

A Member requested that it be acknowledged the excellent work that the officer and his team had achieved on leading this piece of work.

In response to a Member’s question regarding cross border transfers into Primary and Secondary and the delay with transfer paperwork and enquired if the new Act would help or hinder this, the Service Manager Inclusion said he felt positive that the changes would be of significant benefit in that area.   There had been issues with the current system, delays with transfer paperwork etc. and the five authorities interpreting the criteria at different stages in entirely different ways.  The new system was less bureaucratic and the introduction of the Individual Development Plan would replace statements. There would be one plan so whether there was a low level of additional learning need or significant complex needs it would be the same plan.  Work was still ongoing in relation to consistency across all five local authorities such as the type of letters sent to parents, etc.  With one plan in place there would no longer be multiple interpretations of the different stages and this would make a significant difference to the paperwork received with regard to understanding pupils needs when transferring from one local authority to another. The Service Manager felt that the Welsh Government framework provided a good basis to address the issues in the current system.

A Member referred to capacity issues and enquired what investment would the Directorate or Council make to overcome these capacity issues to meet Estyn recommendations for improvement.  He felt that with such an important issue there was a need to ensure that appropriate capacity was in place to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6