, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
Okay, thank you.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
Okay, thank you. And in your written evidence, you provide a timeline of the history of the data collection for the children's workforce. You've mentioned how long it has been since you've been responsible for collecting that data, since 2017, but it was four…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
So, why do so many more children's social workers work for an agency than adult social workers?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
So, those figures, at that time—
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
That would be very helpful, because obviously we keep a very keen interest on that. Your recent paper tells us that agency staff make up 11.5 per cent of all social workers who work for an agency, and back in November you sent us a letter telling us that 17.5…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
Thank you. Your paper states that in September 2023 there were 2,457 children's services social workers on your register, and your previous written evidence to our inquiry said that there were 639 vacancies in 2022. You also said that 30 per cent of the…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
We will certainly take a keen interest in following that. Just on that point, why does the minimal children's workforce data that's published on the national data portal in Wales date back to 2019?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
Thank you. On the important subject of data, we know that annual data is collected and published in England on a range of specific issues, such as data on social workers, agency social workers in post, caseloads, vacancies, sickness absence and starters and…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
Thank you, Buffy. Ken Skates now.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
Yes, you don't have to do anything.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
Absolutely. Thank you, Sue.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Scrutiny session with Social Care Wales
Croeso nôl—welcome back. We'll move on to the sixth item on our agenda today, and that is our scrutiny session with Social Care Wales. I'd like to welcome our witnesses who've joined us here today. We have Sue Evans, chief executive of Social Care Wales, and…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Thank you. And just to Members, we'll now take a short break just to bring the next witnesses in.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Thanks very much.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
I'd just like to thank you very much for taking the time to come in to give evidence. It's been incredibly helpful to the work that we're doing. We really do appreciate it, and you've given us a lot of food for thought and some really good evidence, so thank…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Okay, that's great. I am going to just, if you're okay, bring Heledd back in—the 'finally, finally'. [Laughter.]
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Just going back to the fairer and more transparent system, do you know if parents are being routinely informed that the availability of the disagreement avoidance and reduction arrangements does not affect their rights of appeal to the tribunal—for example…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Okay, that's really helpful. I said 'finally', but I've got another one. This is the 'finally' bit.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Thank you, Laura. Just finally from me, just around the fact that the Welsh Government consulted last year on proposals for a Bill to reform the tribunal system for Wales, how might that proposed legislation impact on the tribunal's work on the ALN system?
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Thank you, Ken. Laura Jones.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Absolutely.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Thank you, Heledd. Questions now from Ken Skates.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Absolutely.
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Thanks, Buffy. Just before I move on to questions from Heledd Fychan, I'd just like to welcome the young people who have joined us in the public gallery. Nice to see you. Thank you for joining us. Wonderful. So, we'll just move on to questions from Heledd…
, Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Implementation of education reforms - evidence session
Thank you. Back to Buffy.
