· To present the Governance Model for the Joint ALN and Inclusion Strategy.
· To present the headings within the Partnership Agreement between Gwynedd Council and the Isle of Anglesey County Council for delivering the Joint ALN and Inclusion Strategy.
Minutes:
A flow chart was circulated for the attention of the Joint-Committee which showed the governance arrangements of the ALN and Inclusion service to be provided by Gwynedd Council on behalf of Gwynedd and Anglesey Councils. A table was also presented showing the governance forums under the new Strategy, their responsibilities and terms of reference.
It was noted that the following are new forums in the governance arrangements and that they will be additional to the Education Management Teams of both Counties and the Cabinet in Gwynedd and Executive in Anglesey that exist already –
ALN and Inclusion Senior Management Team
Gwynedd and Anglesey ALN and Inclusion Monitoring and Scrutiny Board
Meetings between the Head of Education in Gwynedd and Head of Learning in Anglesey
The Isle of Anglesey County Council’s ALN Education Officer explained how the case for additional assistance will be made in line with the Strategy; she said that the process of providing assistance will be more rapid under the new arrangement. For children with acute needs, the path towards a statement or a specific number of hours of assistance with a carer will still be available to them; however, the intention is to target the child earlier so that there will be less need for intense intervention.
The Isle of Anglesey County Council’s Head of Learning said that the criteria and thresholds for access to additional assistance implemented by the Area Forums will be consistent across the two counties meaning that equal opportunities within the service as a whole will be stronger. The success or otherwise of the intervention will be assessed by collecting the outcomes for children and reporting them back to the two authorities. The quality of the service will also receive regular attention through the Monitoring and Scrutiny Board. Also, reports will be presented to the relevant scrutiny committees of both counties so that they can assess the nature of the investment in the service and the outcome of that investment in terms of the performance of this group of children and be able to evaluate whether or not the service is providing value for money. Any specific decisions regarding this shall be made by the Gwynedd Council Cabinet and the Isle of Anglesey County Council’s Executive.
Gwynedd Council’s Project Officer said that the flow chart and table of responsibilities provide a summary only and that further details are available in the partnership document. Any comments the members of the Joint-Committee would like to make with regard to the level of accountability which the new process offers would be appreciated, either in this meeting or within the next two weeks.
The Joint-Committee considered the information presented and made the following comments -
• That the Joint-Committee would like to see the continuation of the opportunity which is currently available to question the services directly such as the Educational Psychology Services and the Specialist Teacher Service.
The Isle of Anglesey County Council’s Head of Learning said that monitoring and tracking each individual service against indicators will be undertaken by the Gwynedd and Anglesey ALN and Inclusion Monitoring and Scrutiny Board on which a Member of Gwynedd’s Cabinet and a Portfolio Member of the Anglesey’s Executive will be representatives.
• That the Joint-Committee would like to see Back Bench Members also having an opportunity to scrutinise the service.
The Isle of Anglesey County Council’s Head of Learning confirmed that this would happen through the Scrutiny process in the two counties. As the arrangements and capacity of scrutiny committees can vary from county to county, the Joint-Committee is asked for its views regarding the frequency of reporting to the scrutiny committees of Anglesey and Gwynedd.
The Joint-Committee proposed that reports on the new Joint ALN and Inclusion Service should be presented to the Scrutiny Committees of Gwynedd Council and the Isle of Anglesey Council twice a year initially.
It was agreed that the presentation materials should be distributed to those members of the Joint-Committee who were not present in order to afford them the opportunity to make comments on the contents.