Letter to Minister for Education re Government Plan - 21 August 2019

States Greffe: Scrutiny

Senator Tracey Vallois Minister for Education By email

21st August 2019 Dear Minister

Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel Government Plan Review

I write to inform you that the Education and Home Affairs Panel will undertake a Scrutiny Review of  the Government  Plan,  specifically  project  areas  within  the  Panel's  remit  (the Terms  of Reference for the review have been appended to this letter).

By way of background, a Review Panel has been established which has co-ordinated the overall scrutiny  of  the  Government  Plan.  All  five  Scrutiny  Panels  will  be  reviewing  a  number  of programmes, capital investment projects and actions contained within the Plan and the Review Panel has allocated a number of these projects to each Panel.

The following projects have been allocated to this Panel which we understand come under your portfolio:

• Higher Education (CSP1-2-01)
• Improving Education Outcomes (CSP1-2-02) – made up of 8 individual projects
• Les Quennevais School IT equipment (CSP1-2-03)
• Primary School Meals Feasibility Pilot (CSP1-2-04)
• Digital Jersey Academy (CSP3-2-04)
• Skills Jersey (CSP3-4-01)
• Jèrrias (CSP3-5-03)

Request 1: We would be very grateful if you could provide as much information as possible on each of these projects, and let us know whether there is a crossover with other Ministers.

The information we are seeking includes, but is not limited to:

• Full business plans/cases for each project - it is noted that summaries are provided in R.91 but the Panel would like the full cases for each project and any other supporting documents;

• Any Council of Ministers papers;
• Details of any external stakeholders and internal groups or boards who may have been involved in the development of the project or who are expected to be involved as it progresses;
• The underlying policy for each project.

A number of capital programmes have also been assigned to the Panel as follows:

As you will be aware, the capital projects do not have a ministerial lead. Nonetheless we would still like to question a ministerial representative on each capital project, or at least about the policy underpinning the investment.

Request 2: Please could you identify which projects, from the list provided above, you have been involved in?

Request 3: Please could you provide the full Capital Business Case submissions for each, and any other supporting documentation?

We note that part 2 of the Government Plan sets out how the government will action on each of the five priorities in the Common Strategic Policy. In that regard, the Government Plan Review Panel has also assigned each Panel a list of actions to review. The actions allocated to the Panel are:

• Implement recommendations of the Jersey Premium review
• Roll out updated Jersey School Review Framework
• Continue to develop better-integrated support for early years'
• Review the options to put future funding and structure of the school system on a long- term, sustainable basis
• Protecting and Supporting Children (Capital Project)
• Improve the educational environment (Capital Project)
• Develop and resource a new post-16 education strategy to support the Future Economy Framework
• Plan for the implementation of a new student finance system
• Develop the Digital Skills Academy
• Implement the new post-16 education strategy

Request 4: Please could you identify which actions, from the list provided above, you have been involved in? We note that some of the actions will relate directly to a project and would be grateful if you could correlate these in your response.

Request 5: If you think we would benefit from a briefing on any of the projects in the first instance, please let me know so these can be organised promptly.

As I'm sure you can appreciate, this is a huge piece of work and will require thorough planning in order to cover all aspects under our remit. We would therefore like to use the scheduled quarterly hearing on Friday 13th September to discuss some of the projects and actions detailed above. As with all hearings, our Officer will communicate the areas to be covered a week prior to the hearing. Should the Panel require additional hearings, then these will be arranged to take place during late September to early October and we would appreciate you availability during this period.

We look forward to working with you and thank you in advance for your assistance on this issue. Yours sincerely

Deputy Robert Ward

Chairman

Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel

 Scrutiny Office | States Greffe | Morier House | St Helier | Jersey | JE1 1DD Tel: 01534 441080 | Fax: 01534 441077 | email: scrutiny@gov.je

Appendix

Terms of Reference (Generic) Government Plan 2020

Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel

The terms of reference for the review are as follows:

1. Note that sections/projects of the Government Plan will be allocated to Panels by the Government Plan Review Panel (GPRP) on a best fit' basis.
2. Undertake an in-depth review of the allocated sections/projects of the Government Plan 2020, considering:

• Whether funded projects meet the Ongoing Initiatives, Common Themes and, ultimately, Common Strategic Priorities?
• Ensuring that the projects and amendments to be lodged are consistent with the requirements of the Public Finances (Jersey) Law 201-
• The level of resourcing, of all forms, allocated to projects and whether this is sufficient or excessive in enabling the project to meet its stated aims.
• If project resource allocation is appropriate in relation to overall departmental budgets?
• Whether funded projects align with Departmental objectives? [NB: if and where they exist]
• Whether or not there are clear lines of accountability for each project?
• The ongoing sustainability of projects.

3. Provide the GPRP with a report and any amendments by the date agreed.