Richard Parry
Gerson Davies
School Places / Premises
Convenor: John Howells
The Planning of School Places group was originally established as a benchmarking club to establish performance indicators related to forward planning, school places and admissions and still fulfils this function in liaison with the Wales Audit Office.
The remit of the group gradually widened, following the pattern of groups previously established in England, to include school re-organisation and the delivery of major school building improvement and replacement projects. The Group is comprised of Local Authority officers with responsibilities in these areas, the WLGA is represented as is Welsh Assembly Government, at a senior level.
The remit of the group is to support continuous improvement, exchange good practice and provide an opportunity for dialogue between LEA's and with key partners on issues related to forward planning, admissions, school places, funding requirements and the delivery of major capital projects.
Human Resources
Chair: Kathryn-Ann Slade
Vice Chair: Kim Brookes
Convenor: Suzanne Alderman
Finance
Chair Richard Parry
Vice Chair Bleddyn Hopkins/Stuart Evans
Convenor: Bleddyn Hopkins
The Finance group was established shortly after Local Government Re-organisation in 1996. Meetings are convened every two months and are usually well attended with approximately 2/3 of LEA's present at each meeting. The group membership also comprises WLGA officers and Assembly officials.
The purpose of the group is to discuss developments associated with a broad and diverse range of financial services. These include revenue and capital budgets, grants, local management (schools), statistics and financial performance indicators / benchmarking.
Current issues include Post-16 (Assembly) funding developments, capital funding requirements to meet Assembly target of all schools being up to standard by 2010, and responding to two recent reports, namely Assembly School Funding committee and Wales Audit Office School Funding analysis.
Health & Safety
Chair Steve Futcher
Convenor: Jonathan Lloyd
- To identify and share existing best practice within local education authorities.
- To promote positive working relationships with the LEA health and safety advisers and the Health and Safety Executive through the sharing of advice, guidance and information.
- Where appropriate, develop written guidance and advice for local authorities on occupational health issues.
- To provide a mechanism for keeping members updated on new or developing initiatives relevant to occupational health issues.
- Liaise with other groups and forums to help address issues that could impact on the management of health and safety within schools and the wider education service.
There will be two all Wales meetings a year. Further discussions will take place to agree Chairing and the development of a work plan for the network.
Members will be encouraged to be involved in collaborative work outside of the formal meetings.
Student Finance
Peter Houghton
For more information contact: Pierre Bernhard-Grout