Agenda item

The Committee considered the 2015 update of the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) which was originally approved by the Welsh Government in September 2014. The Committee was reminded that local authorities were required to prepare and submit a Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) for approval or modification by Welsh Ministers and that these were to be reviewed on an annual basis. Members noted that there had not been any changes to the original seven outcomes other than to integrate the needs of the local economy into the Plan. 

The Committee was informed that in complying with the requirement of the Welsh in Education Strategic Plans and Assessing Demand for Welsh-medium Education (Wales) Regulations 2013 to review its Plan annually (i.e. a review of progress against the targets set out in the Plan), there had been some confusion in respect to the requirement to consult on the revised WESP. Welsh Government officials had subsequently advised that the revised Plan was also required to be subject to consultation and therefore, the Authority undertook a period of consultation between the 29th March and 12th May 2016. A total of 16 responses were received and analysis was included in the attached report.

The following issues were discussed during consideration of the revised Plan:

Progress in relation to meeting the targets outlined in the original Plan was welcomed but in light of the many challenging targets and tight timescales, it was asked how much further progress could be achieved. The Director of Education & Children’s Services welcomed the comment and acknowledged that the targets were indeed challenging and often influenced by other factors. For instance, changing school language categories required the Authority to adhere to statutory processes and these often took place over a longer period of time. He also added that there were 10 dual-stream schools in Carmarthenshire and not 6 as outlined in the Action Plan (Section 2).

It was suggested that in general, WESP progress across Wales had been quite disappointing and that the requirement for another strategy and the WESP’s format might have contributed to the slow response by other local authorities in developing their own plans. It was proposed that the Executive Board Member (Education & Children) lobby the newly established Welsh Government and request that WESPs be incorporated into local authorities’ existing corporate strategies, rather than being considered as stand-alone documents. The Committee agreed to this proposal.    

Reference was made to the Authority’s Language Centres and that during the Committee’s school visits earlier that week, a head teacher had suggested to members that this service was not sufficient to support learners. It was also suggested that the language stations project should ensure that not only was Welsh history taught but that learners were also taught about the struggle that the Welsh language had faced over the years. The Challenge Advisor informed the Committee that officers were continuing to consider other models used in other counties by modifying the Carmarthenshire set-up to be more flexible and adaptable to local challenges. One current option was to encourage schools to work in local clusters due to the geographical nature of the county. However, costs of associated with the service (e.g. transport) were a problem and adopting the Ceredigion / Gwynedd models would require significant investment. She also confirmed that the history of the Welsh language was included in the language stations project.

In response to a question on the development of a booklet to promote the benefits of bilingualism, the Challenge Advisor confirmed that these had been published and were available on the County Council’s website. 

Reference was made to the Census Working Group which had recommended that ‘the County Council ensured that Welsh medium primary schools were part of a secondary school family that could provide appropriate linguistic continuum from the primary sector to KS3 and KS4’. However, it was suggested that this was still not possible for some pupils leaving Welsh-medium primary schools and moving to secondary schools in the Llanelli area. The Challenge Advisor noted that the Plan ‘expected’ rather than ‘demanded’ that secondary schools offered this provision. This had been a challenge and following an initial decrease in the number of pupils entering Welsh streams, this number had been increased once more. In response to a further comment, the Challenge Advisor informed the Committee that much work had been undertaken with pupils and parents and that the Schools Language Charter had been particularly successful and activities related to this were popular amongst younger aged children.  

It was asked whether schools with empty places could change their age categories to 3-11 from 4-11 in order to boost numbers. The Director of Education & Children’s Services stated that officers would welcome this but that unfortunately, it was not possible in all schools with building and financial constraints being the main two barriers. The schools that were currently having their age categories changed were located in areas that were in receipt of national programmes such as Flying Start. 

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that:

8.1       The revised Carmarthenshire’s Welsh in Education Strategic Plan be endorsed for consideration by the Executive Board.

8.2       That the Executive Board Member (Education & Children) be requested to lobby the Welsh Government and request that WESPs be incorporated into local authorities’ existing corporate strategies, rather than being considered as stand-alone documents.