Letter - CEHA to Minister for Children and Education - Government Plan Review -10th November 2022

States Greffe

Deputy Inna Gardiner

Minister for Children and Education

BY EMAIL

10th November 2022 Dear Minister,

Thank you for attending the public review hearing yesterday, together with your Assistant Ministers and Officers, your time is much appreciated. During the hearing you committed to follow up with the following details:

• A detailed breakdown of the £6.1 million allocated to Education Reform – Inclusion Review' for 2023.

• A detailed breakdown of the £6.5 million allocated to Children's Social Care Reform' for 2023.

• Details of whether any themes have come out of the exit interviews with social workers leaving the employment of the Government. How are exit interviews reviewed?

• Confirmation of the number of pupils the Virtual School supports.

As we came to the end of the time allocated for the hearing you kindly committed to respond to the Panel's additional queries in writing, and I set these out below, for your attention:

School Meals

1. The Panel has been fortunate to visit some primary schools who have shown us how they are adapting spaces for meal preparation and serveries as part of the new school meals provision. Have any schools identified significant challenges with the adaption of physical space in order to deliver the school meals programme?
   1. If so, how are the challenges being addressed?
2. In your written response to us on 8th November 2022 you did not confirm whether the £2.50 price cap for the pay-per-service users of school meals would continue. Please could you clarify whether there are plans to change that price?
3. In the Government Plan Appendix (page 98) the funding for school meals appears in the reserves' rather than the allocated' funding. Please could you outline why and confirm if this this will impact the timeline for the delivery of the programme?

Inclusion

4. Is there any support provided for children with additional needs who want to be (or whose parents want them to be) educated at home, rather than in a school environment?

Staffing in CYPES

5. The number of FTE employees for CYPES is projected to stay fairly consistent over the next 4 years (page 11 & 12 of the annex). Do you anticipate that there could be changes to those FTE numbers in the next Government Plan?
6. The Panel has compared the number of full time equivalent (FTE) roles that were anticipated in the previous Government Plan, with the numbers that are provided in this plan. For 2023 there appears to be an increase of 18 FTE in the Directorate / Office of the Director General from 7 to 25. Please could you outline the reasons for the increase?

1. What is the job title and grades of the additional FTE roles?
2. In your letter to the Panel on 8th November 2022 you reference that there are

23.84 FTE roles currently in the Office of the Director General, however a headcount of 2 employed and 3 open vacancies. Please could you clarify why there is a large difference in those numbers?

7. The most significant change in FTE roles in CYPES appears to be an increase of 616.5 within Education between the 2022 and 2023 Government Plan estimates. Please could you provide a summary of what those FTE roles are?
8. The Panel was unable to reconcile the changes of FTE numbers in the annex from what was Young People, Education and Skills' (in last year's GP) to both Young People' and Skills and Student Finance', however, it appears that there might be a reduction in overall numbers. Please could you clarify this?

a.  What is the position of the staff roles in Student Finance?

9. There is an increase of 82.5 FTE for Children's safeguarding in this year's Government Plan (344 FTE), compared to last year (261.5 FTE). Please could you provide some detail about the new FTE roles?
10. There is an increase of 79.2 FTE for Integrated services and commissioning in this year's Government Plan (129 FTE), compared to last year (49.8 FTE). Please could you provide some detail about the new FTE roles?

General

11. Please could you provide a breakdown of the £250,000 of Replacement Assets and Minor Capital' required by CYPES in 2023?
12. The proposed Government Plan now forms part of the wider Government Programme'. What is your assessment of this new approach?

a.  Could future Government Plans be clearer about where Ministerial portfolios are the same as (or different to) Department budgets?

13. The Panel has previously asked for a full list of programmes and projects for 2023, however, you advised in the letter dated 8th November 2022 that this would not be available until January 2023. Why is the States Assembly is being asked to approve the Heads of Expenditure for departments without that information?

a.  We understand that the Government's Delivery Plans' will be available from early 2023. Will those plans contain more detail about specific programmes within the Government Plan or, alternatively, be focussed on the Common Strategic Policy (CSP) and Ministerial Plans?

Further questions resulting from the hearing:

14. The Panel refers to Summary Table 5ii of the Proposition (as set out on page 94 of the Government Plan). This table details the Head of Expenditure for Feasibility' (a breakdown of which is provided on page 54 of the Government Plan) and the 2 new Heads of Expenditure, namely New School and Educational Developments' and Upgrade to CYPES Estate'(details provided on page 57 and your recent letter to the Panel, dated 8th November). Our understanding from this is that certain projects are listed in more than one Head of Expenditure, for example the VCP School and Mont a l'Abbe works. Please can you clarify what the separate work under each Head of Expenditure is?
15. During the hearing the Panel was advised that the £688k value for money savings are incorporated into the Department's Head of Expenditure budget. Please could you clarify how this is accounted for when the savings are yet to be identified?

The Panel looks forward to your formal response and would request this is received on Thursday 17th November 2022. Please direct any response or queries to the Panel through our Committee and Panel Officer, Katherine de Carteret by email at k.decarteret@gov.je or telephone on 01534 441041.

Yours sincerely,

Deputy Catherine Curtis

Chair, Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel