National ALN Steering Group meeting: 16 March 2023

Attendees included: local authority inclusion leads and directors of service, the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), the Association of Directors of Education in Wales (ADEW), the National Academy for Educational Leadership, colleges, Estyn, the Education Tribunal for Wales (ETW), SNAP Cymru, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, health board directors of service, Arad Research, and the Welsh Government (WG).

The meeting started and welcomed the group. Three members were absent.

a) Membership updates

The Group welcomed a new FE Principal member/representative.

b) Minutes of the last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were agreed. WG would share an update on actions from the 17 January meeting after this meeting.

The Group agreed to remove the existing published terms of reference and minutes from the WG website, to be replaced with an amended TOR and meeting summaries to protect members’ privacy.

WG has commissioned Arad to undertake an evaluation of ALN Reforms. Arad colleagues joined the call to give an overview of project, which aims to carry out formative evaluation of ALN system, the initial stage will see development of a logic model and consideration of data to measure ALN systems outcomes. The findings will provide insights that can be used for policy formulation and evaluation.

Welsh Government will form a sub-group to link together development of the Welsh language workforce and increasing the availability of Welsh medium resources, and assessment and diagnostic tools. The sub group will have an oversight of work to develop Welsh medium ALN provision, and to support the ALN national implementation lead for Welsh language and their programme of work, who WG will soon appoint.

Improving Welsh language provision will be embedded in Arad’s research. The information coming out it will help to identify good practice and highlight areas for improvement.

A paper has been prepared to be presented to the Distribution Sub-Group (DSG), who look at money coming in and out of the Revenue Support Grant (RSG), to consider options for transferring funding to LAs.

WG officials shared three draft formula options. Members asked WG to submit proposals to ADEW and ADEW finance prior to DSG.

WG officials discussed work with Steering Group members to develop a national document, which aims to answer frequently asked questions and address common issues around early years, EHE, LAC, in-year transfers, cross border issues, among others. The first meeting was on 3rd March, the next meeting is scheduled for 24 March.

A post-16 task and finish group took place on 2 March where members discussed workstreams and agreed action points.

The Interim National Implementation Lead gave an overview of national themes coming from visits with LAs. WG would use the information to inform decisions around grant funding for ALN and timescales for implementation.

WG would soon confirm whether the implementation timeline would be extended.

The Group discussed DECLOs participation in the task and finish groups and confirmed there are currently no plans for additional funding for health partners.

The next meeting was scheduled for 11 May 2023.