Agenda item

The Joint Committee received a report supported by a verbal update from the Lead Director on the proposed arrangements for the delivery of Welsh Government programmes and Consortia services from 1st September 2021.

The report provided a brief background of the formation of ERW and that a Deed of Variation was currently being circulated amongst the 4 current partner Authorities to allow all the remaining authorities to withdraw from ERW at the same time and with the current ERW Consortium coming to an end.  The remaining partners would be required to make alternative arrangements for delivering improvements in teaching and learning to secure the best outcomes for all learners.

It was reported that discussions were ongoing between the remaining local authorities in terms of the future delivery of the agreed functions.

The Committee noted that Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire and Swansea had agreed to form a new partnership which would be operational from 1st September 2021 and Powys were making their own local arrangements which included working in partnership with Ceredigion on some aspects of school improvement.

The Chair and the Lead Director highlighted that the current ERW staffing structure had been created to service schools in 6 Local Authorities and whilst some posts were vacant, others were filled by secondments.  Some staff members had been successful in securing new posts and it was probable that moving to new arrangements would result in some redundancies, however these would be kept to a minimum where possible.

The following queries were raised:-

·      It was commented that Powys had put arrangements in place post August 2021 however, it was not made clear that there would be additional costs attributed to access services/programmes from September onwards.  Whilst the grant fund would be utilised from the Welsh Government the pressure from the additional costs from the 1^st September 2021 had not been foreseen.  It would be beneficial if there are additional costs that they be made clear and how the contributions would be made.  Furthermore, it would be beneficial to be made aware of how many staff members would be left for the new arrangements come September 2021.

In addition, it was hoped that there would be a commitment in the agreement that Ceredigion and Neath Port Talbot would also contribute to any additional cost in bringing the arrangement to a close.  These costs should be shared utilising the calculated formula.

The Chair explained that the final costs would be relevant to all partners and that the costs would be based on the previous formula of contributions.

It was reported that all parties, including Neath Port Talbot and Ceredigion had contingent liability up until the end of March 2022 where cost recovery would be sought.

The Lead Director, in terms of the additional costs, stated that he was working closely with the Section 151 Officer in modelling what the costs would be at the end of the process and that it was intended to write to all partners before the end of August to share the information.

7.1     The verbal update in regard to provision of current Consortia Services      post August 2021 be received;

7.2     the proposed approaches post August 2021 be noted.