Submissions - CEHA Review of the Proposed Government Plan 23-26 – Minister for Children and Educatio

19-21 Broad Street | St Helier Jersey | JE2 3RR

Deputy Catherine Curtis

Chair, Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel

BY EMAIL

17 November 2022

Dear Chair,

Thank you for your letter of 10th November requesting follow up information from our recent Government Plan Review public hearing. Please see the below responses which I trust provide all the information you need, but please do not hesitate to contact me again if you need anything further.

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

The inclusion funding formula establishes the funds required to address unmet needs in the education system, with particular focus on children with special educational needs (SEN).

Inclusion – other reflects the estimated implementation costs of other recommendations of the nasen inclusion review where implementation will start in 2023. The financial implications of recommendations due for implementation after 2023 will be considered in future Government Plans.

Early years inclusion encompasses the cost of provision for targeted support for 2-3 year olds with SEN along with an increase in portage and special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) roles.

Recruitment and retention includes resources to support growth in school workforce capacity.

Further detail on all these items can be presented in the private briefing on inclusion to be arranged with the Panel.

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?

All those leaving a Government of Jersey Department or transferring to another service area, school or department are asked to complete a survey. The survey is designed to seek feedback on what it is like to work for the Government of Jersey in order to make improvements where we can. Most leavers should complete a survey before their last working day. The leaver has the option of asking their line manager for a face-to-face meeting if they prefer. Leaver surveys are reviewed by P&CS and any concerns are raised with Departments. Completion rates of leaver surveys are generally low across CYPES and this means that we are unable to determine any themes from the survey around social workers leaving employment. I am grateful to the Panel for raising this issue and we will look to improve completion rates and identification of themes going forward.

Confirmation of the number of pupils the Virtual School supports.

We are currently supporting 166 children on and off island from pre-school nursery age through to care leavers. This includes children who are looked after, children who have been previously looked after and care leavers.

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?

Officers continue to assess the appropriateness of existing space within primary schools for the creation of food serveries, which will enable the facilitation of primary school meals. In some schools this will require capital works to create the right size and type of space to enable food to be served. Other schools may only require simple adaptions to the space, for example to an existing storage cupboard, to create the servery area.  

a. If so, how are the challenges being addressed?

Further details will be made available to the panel in the new year following the completion of the assessments of all primary school sites.

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?

There are no current plans to change the price, we want to ensure that School Meals are accessible to as many children as possible. As previously advised, the funds allocated to this initiative are based on the premise of 100% uptake among families eligible for free meals. Any surplus funds resulting from lower than 100% uptake are reinvested into the service to subsidise the cost of meals for paying parents/carers. The programme will continue to work in this way.

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?

This is because the project is still in the detailed policy, design and logistical planning phase, scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. Following the carrying out of sufficient due diligence, a preferred option for progression will be established and documented in an agreed upon final business case that builds upon the initial business case submitted to the Government Plan 2023 process. This then enables the project's funds, currently agreed in principle and held in reserves, to be drawdown and allocated' to the department to progress along the cost intensive execution phase of the delivery timetable.

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?

We now have a dedicated Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) for the Elective Home Educated (EHE) community and offer support from the Education Psychology service for annual reviews of young people with a Record of Need (RON).

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?

The tables on pages 11 and 12 of the annex reflect the proposals in this Government Plan in each of the four years from 2023 to 2026 both in terms of budgeted expenditure and FTEs.

However, this is an annual process and, on that basis, I do anticipate changes for 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?

For 2023, the Business Support Function, which had previously been located in Integrated Services and Commissioning' will move to the Office of the Director General'. This explains the main reason for growth in staff numbers for this area.

1. What is the job title and grades of the additional FTE roles?

All roles within this function have been funded from approved growth for Integrated Services and Commission, and the re-organisation of other roles which were funded in base budgets. They do not require additional budget or FTE in the 2023 – 2025 Government Plan.

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?

The actual headcount at 31st October 2022 for the Office of the Director General is 24 and not 2 as previously reported.

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?

The FTEs published in GP22 were the same as GP20 in line with central instructions for compiling GP21 and GP22 at the time. However, new growth allocations were approved for both 2021 and 2022 primarily through the Education Reform Programme and Demographic business cases in 2021 and 2022, which were not reflected in the Government Plan until this year. In the intervening period joint working has taken place between T&E and P&CS to create an agreed staff model through the Zero-Based Budgeting exercise. The figures in GP23 agree with the 2023 staff model.

A full reconciliation is provided in Appendix A below.

In respect of the Education Directorate the changes since GP2022 are:

• 2021 – 79 FTEs - growth posts associated with the Education Reform Programme and Demographic growth – these resulted in additional staff

• 2022 - 95 FTEs - growth posts associated with the Education Reform Programme and Demographic growth – these resulted in additional staff

• 2022 - 50 FTEs to allow conversion of zero hours/additional hours roles to contract appointments - no additional staff or expenditure is associated with these – contract changes so far have only been made in the Jersey Music Service

• 2023 – 219 FTE Net service transfers into the Education Directorate (Further Education)

• 2023 - 174 FTE new growth posts proposed in this Government Plan. 90 FTEs are associated with the ERP/Inclusion Business Case and these will result in additional staff over the course of 2023/4.

The table overleaf summarises these movements, with the new roles for 2023 highlighted in yellow.

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?

The Directorate of Young People, Education and Skills was restructured in 2022. Further Education (219 FTE) has transferred to the Education Directorate, with Skills and Student Finance transferring to a new heading of Skills and Student Finance. This is shown in the table below.

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

3 out of the 4 roles that were in Student Finance in the 2022 Government Plan were transferred to CLS in June 2022. CLS are now administering the payments as a bureau service for CYPES providing greater resilience as part of a larger team. The budget for the grant payments remains in CYPES.

The 4th role has transferred to SPPP to provide dedicated policy support for this area.

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?

There is some information provided in the table above detailing the anticipated FTE included in Social Care Reform Programme. These posts include senior management posts proving robust management, leadership and oversight of services and practice, social workers, training officers, staff to drive quality assurance and standards, residential staff including managers and residential childcare officers and family partnership workers.

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?

There are no new roles proposed for 2023. These changes reflect the growth posts for which the funding was agreed in the Government plans of 2021 and 2022, net of the planned move of business support functions to the Office of the Director General.

There were 31 FTEs new or ratified in 2021 but many were approved during the previous MTFP. 60 FTEs were new in 2022 and are now in post. These were mainly relating to the CAMHS Service Redesign, Early Interventions and Children's Change programme.

The table below shows the movement. Please see Appendix A for the full list.

General

11. Please could you provide a breakdown of the £250,000 of Replacement Assets and Minor Capital' required by CYPES in 2023?

I will shortly be identifying how capital funding to schools and other services will be allocated. Once this work has been completed, I will be happy to provide the panel with a list of projects which I will be concentrating in for 2023, including replacement assets.

12. The proposed Government Plan now forms part of the wider Government Programme'. What is your assessment of this new approach?

The Government Programme' has ensured a more joined up approach as the new Council of Ministers developed the Common Strategic Policy and this Government Plan in accordance with strict timelines. Due to the later elections held this year it has been challenging for us all to meet the timeline and I would support a continuous improvement approach to how we deliver these major initiatives in future years.

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

I believe this information has been collated and shared with the Scrutiny Panels now and would agree that it is useful for this information to be provided.

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?

I am focussed on ensuring capital money is spent efficiently and effectively and in the areas of most need. Following work to be undertaken with Officers and Head Teachers, I will identify the list of projects which require funding for next year. I anticipate the list of projects will be lengthy and would cover a number of areas, including air conditioning and air filtration, improving disability access, undertaking improvements to maintenance, addressing health & safety and fire requirements and improving outside space.

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?

The delivery plan will identify the activities officers will undertake to deliver the priorities set out within the Ministerial Plan. This will include more detail about specific projects and actions.

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?

Project costs relating to preparatory works prior to construction are contained in the Feasibility' section. Project costs relating to construction and building improvements are contained in the two CYPES capital heads of expenditure (New school and educational development, and Upgrade to CYPES estate).

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?

This is an unallocated savings target held centrally whilst a plan is being developed for its delivery.

Yours sincerely,

Deputy Inna Gardiner

Minister for Children and Education D +44 (0)1534 440152

E I. Gardiner @gov.je

Appendix A

Analysis of change in budgeted FTEs

between

Government Plan 2022 to 2025 and Government Plan 2023 to 2026

16. Summary - Reconciliation by Service Area

17. Summary – Reconciliation by Staff Type

18. Detailed Reconciliation by Service Area

19. Detailed – Reconciliation by Staff type