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Question
1 – What are
your views on whether Welsh in Education Strategic Plans are
contributing to the outcomes and targets set out in the Welsh
Government’s overarching Welsh Medium Education Strategic
Plan?
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The progress made
by Denbighshire County Council against the key outcomes
demonstrates that the plans are contributing to the outcomes and
targets set out in the Welsh Government’s Welsh Medium
Education Strategic Plan.
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If you believe that WESPs are not contributing
sufficiently, how do you think this could be resolved?
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More impact could
be achieved if the WESP was less prescriptive and therefore focused
on priority areas to meet the key outcomes.
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Question 2
– What are your
views on whether WESPs are (or have the potential) to deliver the
required change at a local authority level (for example delivering
provision to meet any increased demand for Welsh medium
education)?
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The
21st Century Schools Programme requires a significant
capital commitment at a Local Authority level therefore has a
higher profile than the WESP. Denbighshire County Council’s
WESP influences our 21st Century Schools Programme and
therefore is delivering change through increase provision for Welsh
Medium education.
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If you believe that WESPs are not, or
don’t have the potential, to deliver change, how do you think
this could be resolved?
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Question 3
– What are your
views on the arrangements for target setting; monitoring;
reviewing; reporting; approving; and ensuring compliance with
delivering the requirements for WESPs (and the role of the local
authority and the Welsh Government in this regard)?
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The annual process
of reviewing the WESP is more time consuming than
necessary.
The Strategic
Plans in their current forms are very prescriptive and restrict the
Local Authorities Strategic Groups actions. Strategic Groups
should be able to respond to changes and prioritise
accordingly.
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If you believe there are problems in this area,
how do you think they could be resolved?
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WESP need to be more focused on local priorities
to meet the key strategic outcomes and be flexible to respond to
changes. There should be a clearer scrutinising, reviewing,
prioritising and monitoring role for each Strategic Group rather
than the Welsh Government.
The Welsh Governments role should be to challenge each
WESPs performance against the strategic outcomes rather than
scrutinising individual targets.
Using the peer review model may be more
beneficial than the current arrangements.
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Question 4
– What are your
views on whether WESPs evidence the effective interaction between
the Welsh Government’s Welsh-medium education strategy and
other relevant policies and legislation*?
(*for example school transport policy; 21st Century Schools
programme; A living language: a language for living – Moving
forward policy statement; Flying Start; planning policy)
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There are clear
links in the WESP with 21st Century Schools Programme
with capital investment in Welsh medium education provision to
respond to an increase in demand. Key outcomes in the WESP
relates to sustaining and increasing the number of pupils learning
through the medium of Welsh and continuing studying through the
medium of Welsh. This assists the objective of “A
living language: a language for living” of increasing the
number with Welsh language skills in the workplace.
There is also a
link between increasing Meithrin provision and Flying
Start.
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If you believe there are problems in this area,
how do you think they could be resolved?
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Many people reading the WESP would
not recognise any links to the policies unless the Local Authority
specifically states it in their plan. Revamping the format of the
Strategic Plan would assist the reader in identifying the work
undertaken to meet policy objectives.
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Question 5
– What are your
views on whether the outcomes of WESPs deliver equal outcomes for
all pupils, including for example, primary/secondary pupils or
children from low income households.
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The WESP is one of
the key plans that ensure provision of a full education
offer.
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If you believe that the outcome of WESPs do not
deliver equal outcomes, how do you think this could be
resolved?
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Question
6 - If you had to
make one recommendation to the Welsh Government from all the points
you have made, what would that recommendation be?
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Welsh in Education Strategic Plans need to be
less prescriptive and more focused on local priorities to meet the
key strategic outcomes and be flexible to respond to
changes.
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Question
7 - Do you have any
other comments or issues you wish to raise that have not been
covered by the specific questions?
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Currently the timeliness of monitoring
arrangements is not aligned with the timescale of the
targets.
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