Agenda and minutes

To elect a Chairperson for the Joint-Committee for the next year.

(The Joint-Committee’s Constitution states that a member of one authority shall be appointed Chairperson and a member of the other authority Vice-Chairperson – these posts to be alternated the consecutive term so that the chairmanship and vice-chairmanship alternate between the two authorities)

(The Chairperson as up to May, 2013 was elected for a 2 year period in October, 2012 from among the elected representatives of the Isle of Anglesey County Council on the Joint-Committee. The Vice-Chairperson was elected at the same time from among the elected representatives of Gwynedd Council).

It was noted that the Chairperson until May, 2013 had been elected for a period of two years [in accordance with the Joint-Committee’s Constitution] from among the Isle of Anglesey County Council’s elected representatives on the Joint-Committee. The Vice-Chairperson was elected at the same time from among the elected representatives of Gwynedd Council on the Joint-Committee. The Constitution states that a member of one authority shall be appointed Chairperson and a member of the other authority Vice-Chairperson and vice versa the following term.

Councillor Gwilym O. Jones was selected Chairman of the Joint Committee for the forthcoming year.  Councillor Jones thanked his fellow members for their confidence in him and he extended a warm welcome to all members and officers present.  He thanked his predecessor in the Chair, former Councillor Dylan Jones of Anglesey County Council for his service as Chair.

To receive any declaration of interest by any Member or Officer in respect of any item of business.

No declaration of interest was received.

To receive a presentation on the role and function of the Special Educational Needs Joint-Committee.

Mr. Gareth Payne, Principal Educational Psychologist gave a presentation to the Members and specifically to those Members who were new to the Joint Committee’s work regarding its functions, the work of the Special Educational Needs Provider Unit and the role of Joint Committee’s Members in holding the Provider Unit to account.  In his presentation the Principal Educational Psychologist referred to the matters noted below –

·         The background to establishing the Joint Committee in 1996 and how its administration has been shared between Gwynedd and Anglesey.

·         The main duties of both Councils in the field of Special Educational Needs –

·         Developing and implementing an inclusive SEN strategy

·         Planning provision to meet the needs of pupils who have SEN in mainstream schools or where appropriate and when parents so wish, in special schools.

·         Having regard to the SEN Code of Practice for Wales 2002.

·         Ensuring that special educational needs are identified and assessed at an early stage so that the pupil receives suitable early intervention.

·         Managing the statutory assessment procedure, and producing and monitoring statements.

·         The services of the Provider Unit including the Education Psychology Service, Specialist Teachers and the Administrative Department which manage the assessment procedure and provide data.

·         That arrangements are implemented through a Service Level Agreement and the day to day operational contact with the two Councils is through the client officers.

·         Termly reports are given on the work of the Provider Unit to the SEN Joint Committee for scrutiny purposes and to ensure the prudential use of resources.

It was resolved to note the information as presented and to thank the Officer for the report.

To submit for confirmation, the minutes of the previous meetings of the Joint-Committee held on the dates noted below –

·        16 October, 2012

·        29 January, 2013 (extraordinary meeting)

The minutes of the previous meetings of the Special Educational Needs Joint Committee held on 16 October 2012 and 29 January 2013 (extraordinary meeting) were presented and they were confirmed as being correct.

Matters arising from the minutes of the meeting on 29 January 2013 –

The Head of Education of Gwynedd Council reminded the Committee that the extraordinary meeting held on 29 January, 2013 had been called to consider a summary of Gwynedd Council’s Education Services Self-Evaluation in preparation for Estyn’s inspection of those services during March 2013. He said that Estyn’s inspection report has been published and that he wanted to inform the Members of the findings of the Inspectors regarding the support given for Additional Learning Needs through the services of the Joint Committee.  He referred to some of Estyn’s comments in connection with the Joint Committee’s work as follows –

·         The Authority is working effectively with partners to identify and assess the needs of children with additional learning needs at an early stage.

·         That it has clear criteria [through the Joint Committee] for access to additional support, and schools understand their responsibilities as regards giving attention to the needs of pupils who have additional learning needs.  (The Officer explained the procedure for access to additional support through the moderation panels in both counties).

·         That schools are required to provide strong evidence of the interventions that they have put in place, and the effect of these on pupil results.

·         That the percentage of the statements completed within the statutory time scales were consistently high.  (The Officer explained that the Joint-Committee’s scrutiny function in connection with monitoring assessment and statement statistics is a core part of the work).

·         The number of appeals to Welsh SEN Tribunals has been low during the last 3 years.

·         The Authority is working well with partners to provide effective specialist support to pupils with additional learning needs, including support for children with complex needs from the established outreach services.

·         Schools and parents appreciate these services greatly.

·         The Authority is working well with partners to provide a comprehensive training programme for schools.  (The Officer reported that training is implemented through the work of the educational psychology service and the specialist teachers service).

·         The authority is using ALN data effectively to track pupil progress, to monitor the effect of interventions on pupil results and to challenge schools.

·         The authority satisfies its statutory requirements well in relation to pupils with additional learning needs.

The Gwynedd Head of Education reported that Estyn had said that the support given for Additional Learning Needs is good in general.  The Officer spoke about the request by the Joint-Committee in its meeting on 29 January for information on Gwynedd Council’s Strategic Review of ALN and Stage 1 of that progress.  He explained that Stage 1 of the Review had now been completed and that it had entailed developing options for taking the discussion forward.  Stage 2 of the review involves stakeholder engagement, including the Joint Committee, and in the Joint- Committee’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To present a report on the work of the SEN Provider Unit during the Autumn term, 2012 and the Spring term, 2013.

The Principal Educational Psychologist presented a report describing the work of the Joint Committee’s Special Educational Needs Provider Unit during the Autumn Term 2012 and the Spring Term 2013.  The Principal Educational Psychologist referred to the following –

·         Administration of assessment and review processes and changes in arrangements and staffing of the administration team.

·         The work of the Specialist Teachers Service and the consideration given by the Liaison Group to ways of extending and developing their service into the future.  A plan was arrived at which entails increasing the present team as regards teachers and employing a number of assistants in addition.  Although it will not be possible to fully implement the changes, it was possible to consider making some temporary additions within the budget of the Joint Committee, and it was decided in principle to do so.

·         The work of the Educational Psychologist Service and the schemes and projects that psychologists had been concerned with during the period.

·         The results of the school questionnaires.  The response from schools to the services provided again this year was generally good.  However, there was 4 indicators where the response from schools was not as good as last year and where no improvement was noted namely those in relation to the effectiveness of the service regarding pupils with behavioural difficulties; the effectiveness of the service as regards pupils who are emotionally vulnerable, children with complex difficulties and with pupils with low attainment.

·         Statistics in relation to attainment against performance indicators regarding the number of final statements within 26 weeks in Gwynedd and Anglesey.

·         Service delivery within the Administrative Service, the Specialist Teachers Service and the Educational Psychology Service during Spring Term 2013 as the results of absences and staff leaving for other posts.  At the beginning of the Spring Term the Educational Psychology Service was working with 3 fewer psychologists and, as a result, the level of service for schools had to be adapted.  Advertisements were placed for replacement psychologists and even though an appointment to the 0.4 post was made it was not possible to make an appointment to the other posts.  Due to this and also due to the sickness absence of another psychologist, providing a sufficient level of service has been challenging.  However, the service has succeeded in visiting every school where needed and it has responded to any problems that arose.

·         Statistics regarding the statutory processes.  The data showed that the number of final statements of SEN issued for the first time in Gwynedd from 2008 to 2012 were consistent other than an upward spike in 2010 with the data showing a downwards trend in Anglesey.  On the other hand, the number of statutory assessments in progress has increased considerably in Gwynedd and Anglesey.

The Chairman thanked the Principal Educational Psychologist for the report and invited the members of the Joint-Committee to make observations on the information presented.  The main subjects of discussion included the following –

·         Whether the transfer to the GwE of the advisory service previously provided  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

·                    To present the SEN Joint Committee’s final accounts for the year ended 31 March, 2013.

·                    To present an Annual Governance Statement for the SEN Joint-Committee.

·                     The Special Educational Needs Joint Committee final accounts for the financial year 2012/13 were presented, including an income and revenue expenditure report for 2012/13 and a statement of accounts in statutory form certified but without having been audited.

The Gwynedd Council Head of Finance reported that there were new reporting requirements regarding accounting and auditing the Joint Committee’s accounts.  Section 12 of the Public Audit Act (Wales) 2004 declares that a Joint Committee of two or more (local) authorities is a local government body and Section 13 of the Act requires  such bodies to keep accounts which must be audited by independent auditors approved by the Welsh Audit Office.

The Officer reported that the Joint Committee, despite not being an independent legal entity, for the purposes of keeping accounts, comes under the same regulations as other local authorities.  The Accounting and Auditing Regulations (Wales) (Amended) 2010 states that all Joint Committees must prepare annual accounts i.e. income and expenditure accounts and where the turnover is more than £1m, a statement of accounts must be provided in accordance with the CIPFA code for the Joint Committee.  The Statement of Accounts will be audited separately by the Welsh Audit Office. 

The Senior Education Accountant then referred to the Joint Committee’s financial background and the division between the two authorities as regards maintaining the provision. Last year the budget of the Joint Committee was £1.2m with staff costs being the largest expenditure.  Due to staff turnover in the last year there was an underspend of around £93k which suggests a healthy budgetary situation where the provision is being provided more cheaply.  However, the situation has put pressure on the present staff and has influenced the provision that schools are receiving.  The officer proceeded  to elaborate on some of the key areas where an underspend was seen as follows -

·         Psychologists                                     - £ 56,813

·         Teacher Support                                - £ 19,440

·         Administrative                                    - £ 18,682

·         Travelling costs                                  - £ 5033

·         Resources / stationery                       - £ 7031

·        Phone                                                - £ 6237

The net underspend during financial year 2012/13 was £93,767 which, added to the reserve balance of the Joint Committee on 31 March, 2012 gave total balances on 31 March 2013 of £165,062. Although the situation appears to be quite healthy it reflects staffing difficulties over the past year.

The Gwynedd Council's Senior FinanceManager reported on the Statement of Accounts and referred to the following elements of the statement -

·        Statement of Movement in reserves

·         Comprehensive Statement of Income and Expenditure 2012/13

·         The Balance Sheet

·         Cash Flow Statement

·         Notes on the Accounts

Members were given the opportunity to raise questions on the accounts. It was emphasised, that in light of the underspend for 2012/13 and the main reason for it being staff, it is important to make every effort to resolve any difficulties in recruitment and to ensure that posts are filled.

It was resolved to accept the Income Account and Revenue Expenditure Report 2012/13 together with the Joint Committee’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

10:30 a.m., 20 September, 2013 in Llangefni (extraordinary meeting to receive the Joint-Committee’s accounts)

10:30 a.m., 22 November, 2013 in Llangefni (ordinary meeting)

10:30 a.m., 14 March, 2014 in Caernarfon (ordinary meeting)

It was noted that meetings of the Joint Committee for the coming year will be held on the following dates and times -

10:30 a.m. on 20 September in Llangefni
10:30 a.m. on 22 November in Llangefni
10:30 a.m. on March 14, 2014 in Caernarfon