To present an update on progress to date.
Minutes:
Gwynedd Council’s Senior Inclusion Manager updated the joint-Committee on the position with regard to taking the new agreed ALN Partnership forwards.
The Officer reported as follows:
• That agreement has been reached between the two authorities as regards most of the services on which they would wish to work collaboratively and these have been set out in a comprehensive Strategy document and include aspects of inclusion such as the Education Welfare Service, Attendance, and Children in Care etc. The document will be modified and refined as the Partnership evolves.
• That both authorities have discussed staffing levels with a view to adopting a new staffing scheme by September, 2016. The Strategy document has been subject to consultation with staff and schools and presentations have been made to the two strategy groups with one also being planned for primary head teachers next month. Both Gwynedd and Anglesey’s HR services will discuss the processes and time table for implementing the changes.
• That there have been joint discussions on the governance model and a number of possible models have been considered. The new service on behalf of the two authorities is to be domiciled in Gwynedd.
• That one of the next steps will be to consider how the Joint-Committee can be part of the change process; how it can support the transition and how the new Partnership and the services it encompasses will be incorporated within the two councils’ democratic structures.
• That the objective subsequently once the governance arrangements have been agreed and are in place, is to move forwards on the basis of one service at a time commencing with those that are easier to address e.g. the Schools Counselling Service.
• That it is intended to commission a simplified version of the Strategy document which will distil within a summary paper, the main objectives of the Strategy and how these are to be achieved.
The Joint-Committee noted the information and was agreed that it should be provided with a copy of the draft Strategy document and given a presentation in order to help clarify and explain the services that will be delivered by the new Partnership, how they will be delivered and the processes for assessing their effectiveness.
The Officers confirmed that the Strategy document is very clear and detailed as to who is responsible for what thereby reducing the possibility of misinterpretation and improving accountability. Whilst both authorities have been working to improve inclusion and the quality of provision, there has been less clarity as regards evaluating the effectiveness of the provision in terms of the outcomes achieved for the children provided for. Under the new arrangements all the services will have a set of indicators and there will be a process for collating the information and feeding it through to scrutiny committees. A strategy on what is to be measured has been agreed with the model allowing for modification to reflect the priorities and needs of the two authorities. As regards scrutiny some of the services lend themselves to joint scrutiny better than others; there is a need to establish a model for scrutiny to reflect what services may be scrutinised on a joint basis and what services are best scrutinised separately.
It was resolved to note the update and the information presented.
ACTION ENSUING: the Joint Committee to be provided with a copy of the ALN and Inclusion Partnership draft Strategy document and that a presentation be made on the Strategy to the next meeting.