Agenda a Chofnodion

The Chair Welcomed Officers and Members to the meeting. Apologies were received from County Borough Councillor  S Merry.

Derbyn datganiadau o fuddiannau personol gan Gynghorwyr, yn unol â gofynion Cod Ymddygiad y Cyngor.

Nodwch:

1.    Mae gofyn i Aelodau ddatgan rhif a phwnc yr agendwm mae eu buddiant yn ymwneud ag ef a mynegi natur y buddiant personol hwnnw; a

2.   Lle bo Aelodau'n ymneilltuo o'r cyfarfod o ganlyniad i ddatgelu buddiant sy'n rhagfarnu, rhaid iddyn nhw roi gwybod i'r Cadeirydd pan fyddan nhw'n gadael.

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct , there was no declarations of Intrest made pertaining to the agenda.

Cadarnhau cofnodion o gyfarfod Cydbwyllgor Gwasanaeth Addysg ar y Cyd Consortiwm Canolbarth y De a gynhaliwyd ar 18 Mawrth 2021 yn rhai cywir.

It was RESOLVED to approve the Minutes of the 18^th March 2021 as an accurate reflection of the meeting of the Central South Consortium Joint Education Service Joint Committee.

Ethol Cadeirydd Cydbwyllgor Gwasanaeth Addysg ar y Cyd Consortiwm Canolbarth y De ar gyfer Blwyddyn 2021-22 y Cyngor.

Members RESOLVED to elect County Borough Councillor J Rosser as Chair of the Central South Consortium Joint Education Services Joint Committee for the 2021 / 2022 Municipal Year. 

( 2 year cycle as part of the Governance arrangements 2021 - 2023) 

Penodi Is-gadeirydd Cydbwyllgor Gwasanaeth Addysg ar y Cyd Consortiwm Canolbarth y De ar gyfer Blwyddyn 2021-22 y Cyngor.

RESOLVED to appoint County Borough Councillor L Burnett as Vice Chair for the Municipal Year 2021/ 2022.

( 2 year cycle as part of the Governance arrangements 2021 - 2023) 

Members of the Central South Joint Education Service Joint Committee RESLOVED to appoint:

Ø   The Lead Chief Executive role to Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council; and

Ø  The Lead Director role to Bridgend County Borough Council.

( 2 year cycle as part of the Governance arrangements 2021 - 2023)  

Trafod y calendr arfaethedig o gyfarfodydd ar gyfer blwyddyn 2021- 2022 y Cyngor.

       RESOLVED to circulate the dates for the Calendar of Meetings of the

       Central South Consortium Joint Education Service Joint Committee for the

      2021 – 2022 Municipal Year to allow Members to check their availability for future meetings.

Derbyn cyflwyniad mewn perthynas â'r Cwricwlwm i Gymru

Members of the Central South Consortium Joint Education Service Joint Committee received a presentation from the Mr Iwaun Pritchard Head teach of Ysgol Gyfun Cymraeg Bro Edern in respect of the cluster work throughout Welsh schools in the area  to develop a forward plan to ensure that school transition to the new Curriculums for Wales. Members of the Joint Committee found the information of great interest and all agreed that this type of collaborative working would be beneficial to all local authorities for their future planning.

The Chair thanked Mr Pritchard for his time and the Committee wished him well for the future.

Derbyn adroddiad ar Strategaeth Gyfathrebu'r Consortiwm Canolbarth y De gan y Rheolwr Gyfarwyddwr.

The Deputy Managing Director provided Members of the Central South Joint Committee with the updated Communication Strategy.

Members were reminded that the whole education system continues to adapt to challenging times and education professionals in all settings and in all contexts are having to respond to policy changes and wide scale reform whilst continuing to meet new requirements and demands placed upon them as a result of the pandemic.

The Deputy Managing Director continued and explained the role of the Consortium is to meet key challenges. The Communication Strategy 2021 – 2024 provides a frame work and direction to all media, online, internal, marketing publication and public relations communication activity undertaken by the Central South Consortium.

Members considered the core aims of the strategy and acknowledged that to realise this vision, the Consortium must be able to communicate with and influence a wide range of stakeholders in a cohesive and co- ordinated way.

After consideration of the report Members RESOLVED to note the report  

Trafod adroddiad gan Ddirprwy Reolwr-Gyfarwyddwr Consortiwm Canolbarth y De.

The Deputy Managing Director Central South Consortium provided Members of the Joint Committee with the opportunity to review and scrutinise the Monitoring and Reporting report for the CSC.

Members were reminded that the traditional data will not be available for inclusion in reports to Members and so further discussion will be required on the content of future reports. Members acknowledged that Reporting will need to align to the Draft School Improvement Accountability and Evaluation Guidance Document.

Members discussed the report in great detail and RESOLVED to:

Ø  Approve the development of an annual forward planner for reporting to stakeholders;

Ø  Approve for CSC to work with governance groups to review the purpose and content of each of the reports to stakeholders to ensure the reports meet the needs of the various governance groups.

Trafod adroddiad y Trysorydd 

The Head of Finance – Education and Financial Reporting explained to Members of the Joint Committee that this is an annual report that comes before the committee each year.

 The Officer continued to explain that there are 3 recommendations to the report:

1.    Approve the earmarked reserve request set out at 3.2.

2.    Note the draft Statement of Accounts for the Central South Consortium for the year-ending 31st March 2021 (Appendix 1) and the draft outturn position for the year (Section 4 – Table 1).

3.    Approve the 2020/21 Annual Governance Statement (as incorporated within the draft 2020/21 Statement of Accounts

 The Head of Finance – Education and Finical Reporting highlighted Firstly the earmarked reserve request:

As reported in the March JC, it is requested that Members approve the request to carry forward the existing earmarked reserve of £200k into the new financial year to support re-modelling of the service in the medium term.

In addition there remains a balance of £6k on the earmarked reserve to support the delivery of a sensory project. It is also requested to carry this forward into the next financial year, 21/22 to fund the continuation of the project.

The Officer continued and explained that the second recommendation is to note the draft unaudited Statement of Accounts for 2020/21 which are at Appendix 1. These are produced in line with CIPFA’s Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting and also in line with the Accounts and Audit Wales regulations. These statutory accounts will now be subject to external audit as reported in the Audit Plan that was presented to this committee in March. And following that audit, the final version of the Statement of Accounts, amended for any audit recommendations, will come back to JC for approval. 

I would like to draw Members attention to the outturn position at table 1 in paragraph 4.7 of the covering report. This shows a small surplus of £9k which will hopefully provide members with assurance of the stability of the financial position and the robust financial management in the consortium.

The final recommendation of the report is to approve the Annual Governance Statement which is incorporated into the Statement of Accounts at Appendix 1 from page 41.

The AGS is drafted in line with the requirements of a CIPFA document called “Delivering Good Governance in Local Government”.

As detailed in section 6 of the AGS, following an evidence based review of governance arrangements, the conclusions are that the governance arrangements in Central South Consortium remain effective. Notwithstanding this view that the arrangements remain effective, it is inevitable that there are areas where improvements are required. These have been agreed by management and are set out in section 7. Progress on the required improvements will be reported to JC during the course of the year.

Lastly, Members will recall at the last Joint Committee, the previous Annual Governance Statement progress was reported. There were 4 proposals for improvement, 3 of the recommendations were completed and 1 was  ...  view the full Cofnodion text for item 11.

Trafod adroddiad gan Ddirprwy Reolwr-Gyfarwyddwr Consortiwm Canolbarth y De

The Deputy Managing Director Central South Consortium proveded Members with an update on the grants to be received by the Consortium in 2020/21, for which notifications have been received , and methords of allocation for each.

After consider of the report Members RESOLVED to :

Ø  Approve the distribution of the grants as detailed in section 5 of the report (and Annex A)

Ø  Accept the extension granted by Welsh Government (WG) for both the Regional Consortia School Improvement Grant (RCSIG) and Pupil Development Grant (PDG) that allows funding to be used by the 31^st Aughust 2021.

Trafod adroddiad gan Ddirprwy Reolwr-Gyfarwyddwr Consortiwm Canolbarth y De

Members of The Joint Committee were presented with an upadte on the grants to be received by the Consortium in 2021/2022, for which notifcation have been received and the methords of allocation.

Members considered the information contained in the report and REOLVED to approve the distribution of the grant as detailed in section 5 of the report.

Trafod adroddiad gan Ddirprwy Reolwr-Gyfarwyddwr Consortiwm Canolbarth y De

Member of the Joint Committee RESOLVED to note the Freedom of Information Requests received and responded to by Central South Consortium during 2020/20.