Agenda item

Consideration was given to the report of the Corporate Director of Education which was presented to provide Members with an opportunity to scrutinise the Education Directorate’s response to the COVID-19 situation, particularly supporting the schools during the emergency period.

The Corporate Director of Education spoke to the report and highlighted that verbal updates regarding the Education Directorate’s response to Covid-19 had been provided at Committee meetings to ensure that Members were appraised of the latest developments.  This report reflected on the activity for both the autumn and spring terms and covered the most pertinent up-to-date information.

The Head of School Improvement and Inclusion commented, that as a Headteacher and from colleagues’ experiences also, they all felt extremely supported by Blaenau Gwent and included in all discussions in terms of reopening schools and then the further lockdown, and also how they were going to get young people back into school safely.

The Chair thanked the officer for her comments and noted that the Committee welcomed the feedback from Headteachers’ perspective.

A Member raised a question regarding pupils taking home IT equipment supplied by the Authority and pupils using their own devices in and out of school, and enquired how the Council would ensure that the pupils using their own equipment was adequate, and with face to face learning returning, would the children continue to be supplied with the IT equipment by the LA.

In response, the Director of Education said there would potentially be components of blended learning for the foreseeable future, in particular learners having the opportunity to learn in home settings with appropriate equipment was absolutely critical to making that successful.  In relation to Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) the Directorate were working closely with SRS to ensure that any learner using equipment that it was secure and did not create any potential risks for them, this was part of the wider infrastructure and connectivity project.  There had been approximately 1,600 devices released to learners and a number of them had benefited from blended learning, he felt there were strong elements of learning that had taken place over the last year that could be built upon moving forward. 

The Service Manager - Education Transformation and Business Change added that the team had been working closely with schools looking at the needs of digitally disadvantaged learners, the current plan was for the devices that had been distributed to be retained by the learners until the summer term, this would include laptops and mi-fi units which enable connectivity.  This would be reviewed going forward but the Authority was committed to providing support for the remainder of the academic year. Currently the team were working with schools, the EAS and SRS on the development of the ICT Strategy looking at how best to enable learners to have access across the board both at home and in school.   There was approximately 1 device to every learner throughout the school estate and the aspiration was to retain and possibly increase this wherever possible.  With the Hwb Ed-Tech initiative and Welsh Government funding associated with that, this would allow the team to look at the replacement of approximately 25% of end of life devices throughout the school estate and this was being looked at as part of the sustainability planning in line with the ICT Strategy.

A Member raised a question regarding loaned devices and whether maintenance of those devices remained the responsibility of the Council.

The Service Manager explained that at this point in time they were still very much owned and maintained by the Local Authority and if there were any issues with those devices then the Authority would respond immediately, both the schools and the SRS were working with the Local Education Authority to respond to any issues, there would be a review of requirements and a plan developed throughout the summer term.  The Directorate was working with the Welsh Government to look at their plans around funding and also working closely with schools to look at their plans around delivery.  At this point in time there was no formalised plan, however, a plan would be established over the course of the summer term which would come into effect from the beginning of the autumn term which would enable learners to maintain full inclusion both at home and at school.

A Member referred to the class bubble arrangement that schools were operating within and hoped that this arrangement would not be relaxed too soon and schools regress.  The Director of Education said this had not been relaxed as the latest Welsh Government guidance had been released and it retained the same type of practices around creating class bubbles.  He felt that it was still a precarious position and relaxation of class bubbles too early would have a detrimental impact on the overall cases.

The Service Manager - Education Transformation and Business Change added that they were extremely mindful around relaxation of rules and the management of risks, bubbles had worked well to date and they hoped to retain those arrangements for the remainder of the summer with a view to undertaking a full scale review around the operational arrangements for September in line with Welsh Government and Public Health Wales guidance.

In response to a Member’s question regarding refurbishing devices, the Service Manager - Education Transformation and Business Change responded that a significant amount of work had been undertaken to build and re-purpose the devices so they could be distributed, that had been done on a staggered basis over the course of the last academic session in line with new and emergent digitally disadvantaged learners.  At this stage, the laptops and the software that was on the devices was fit for purpose, there were monitoring procedures in place whereby any issues that arose, the device could be returned.  They were working with the SRS to look at whether or not further work needed to be undertaken on those devices and if so, would be proactive in ensuring there was timely collection and redistribution of those devices.  The Directorate was aware of potential risks around further spikes but would maintain the device distribution for the foreseeable future.

The Committee AGREED to recommend that the report be accepted and endorse Option 1; namely that the report be accepted as presented.