Council's Annual Report 2024-2025

In Summary 

Children and Families Services across Wales are under pressure to respond to unprecedented demand. This has coincided with national workforce shortages, a collapse in the availability of placements for children, and a reduction in funding to the Local Authority. To address this, the service has seen an unprecedented investment in workforce, prevention, and care costs. 

Responding to this is vitally important and a Transformation Programme for Children and Families Services has provided £7.5 million additional revenue funding for improvements and efficiencies, alongside £2 million in capital investment in new children’s homes. The Programme’s workstreams focus on the areas identified for investment. This will help achieve the vision for Children and Families Services and provide support to ensure sustainability in the future. The focus for this year has been delivering the first year of this transformation programme.

In recognition of the importance of being active at a young age, we have implemented a range of health initiatives aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles and preventing the development of chronic diseases later in life. This includes a focus on health education to raise awareness of the importance of preventative health measures and early intervention.

Collaborative and partnership working has seen the development of comprehensive health services and support to the community. There has also been a focus on increasing access to mental health services, including counselling and support groups in response to growing demand.

 

How are we Doing? 

• Despite a 36% increase in the number of looked after children in Carmarthenshire between 2022/23 (190) and 2023/24 (259), we continue to have the lowest number of looked after children per 10,000 population under 18 years of age in Wales with 70.60. This is well below the Welsh rate of 116.10. At the end of 2024/25, this increased slightly to 269. The comparative data for this per 10,000 population will not be available until late 2025, but we have been low in the context of other local authorities for many years.
• There were 205 looked after children in foster placements as of 31 March 2025, compared to 208 the previous year. There continues to be a shortage of foster carers both locally and nationally, which impacts on placement stability. The department works collaboratively across the region with Foster Wales, and a national foster carer recruitment campaign received significant media attention.

Progress Against Outcomes

Outcome: Reducing the inequalities faced by children from disadvantaged backgrounds which may affect their later life chances. 

Our focus is on early intervention and prevention. This includes reducing inequalities faced by disadvantaged children, supporting families in challenging situations to create safe and stable home environments, and helping families to access local health and well-being services.

 

Children’s Homes

This is an area with multiple complex challenges and holds considerable risk, all of which change quickly and require urgent, creative responses.
Our key achievements over the past 12 months include:

• A commitment to ensure all residential care is provided within Carmarthenshire by 2026.
• Our Placement Commissioning Strategy sets out our strategic intent and a detailed plan for implementation, including forecasting costs for each element of the plan.
• Recruitment at our new children’s homes progresses well with 75% of posts filled and team managers appointed. The use of agency staff has dramatically reduced.
• Maximising our in-house capacity by ensuring both Hafan and Ross Avenue children’s homes are fully occupied.
• The design for a new-build children’s home has been agreed. Two designs (for one and two storey buildings) provide templates for the whole region and will assist in the implementation of the elimination of profit policy. A clear timeline of two years for our new build children’s homes has also been established. A feasibility study is underway and will be completed by June 2025.

 

Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking (UAS) Children and Young People

We are currently supporting 62 UAS children and young people: 19 in-county and 43 out-of-county. We have 27 under 18s and 35 over 18s. The number of over 18-year-olds is increasing faster than under 18-year-olds, resulting in reduced income from the Home Office. This places more pressure on our budget. Our key achievements include:

• Creating a specialist team of social workers, support workers, and personal advisers.
• Five properties in Carmarthenshire were set up from scratch, with 10 young people living in them.
• No commissioned placements being used for any new referrals from the national transfer scheme. This has been an enormous challenge, but our teams are delivering.
• Practice guidance and processes are in place to support the work of the teams.

 

Disability Service

We continue to work with partners to ensure young people, including disabled young people, are supported to remain connected with their families and reducing the need for supported accommodation where it is safe to do so.
Since January 2025, a multi-agency pilot is in its second phase of implementation by locating the team within our Early Help Hub. Finding ways to reach young people and their families at an earlier stage, helping to avoid breakdown in relationships, and preventing homelessness for young people. 

 

Neurodevelopmental (ND) Pathway

Carmarthenshire has been actively developing and implementing a Neurodevelopmental (ND) Pathway to support neurodiverse young people in accessing suitable and inclusive education. This initiative involves assessment, training, and direct intervention with young people, their families, and colleagues across Education, Children, and Family Services. The Portsmouth Model has been a significant part of this development and emphasises the importance of providing the right support at the right time, without the need for a diagnosis to get needs met.
An ND conference was held which focused on the complexities of neurodiversity and the importance of inclusive classrooms. The conference highlighted the challenges faced by neurodivergent children, particularly in relation to school attendance. The conference also included discussions on the importance of a psychological lens in understanding and supporting neurodiverse children.
We have established a departmental ND delivery group which will oversee the implementation of the ND pathway. We are in the process of recruiting to the three new Disability Intervention Workers and an Exploitation Worker who will provide the additional capacity to deliver this.

 

Sport and Leisure Initiatives

Actif Anywhere for Schools

The Actif Anywhere for Schools project has significantly boosted physical activity engagement across Carmarthenshire, with 4,677 pupils participating in 288 activity opportunities through both live-streamed and on-demand sessions. A festive roadshow, livestreamed from leisure centres and led by Young Ambassadors, created 45 volunteering opportunities and enhanced youth leadership skills. Overall, the project has made meaningful strides in promoting physical activity and youth development across the County.

 

Actif Sport and Leisure

Offer and facilitate access to a wide range of opportunities for children and families to improve their health and well-being. Our household membership adds huge value with two adults and up to four children being able to access all leisure centres. We have received an additional £169,000 funding from the Shared Prosperity Fund to continue the excellent work being undertaken in the community, particularly in rural/hard to reach parts of Carmarthenshire, to give everyone the opportunity to be active. 2024/25 saw attendance in leisure facility-based programmes for young people increase to 357,420 visits, up from 331,357 – a growth of 8% year-on-year.

 
Splash Phase Swimming Programme

Targeting children unable to progress in school swimming lessons, this free 6-week Splash programme supported 24 learners, most from disadvantaged backgrounds. Over half advanced to the next level, with some continuing into the ‘Learn 2 Swim’ programme. By addressing gaps in access to essential life skills like swimming, the initiative helped reduce health and safety inequalities, building confidence and resilience that can positively influence long-term outcomes for these children.

 

Support for Llanelli Athletics Club

Through Actif Places, Llanelli Athletics Club expanded its provision to include jumping events, previously inaccessible due to limited resources. This support has increased junior participation, particularly among children from disadvantaged backgrounds. By removing financial and structural barriers to sport, the project promotes equal access to physical development opportunities, helping to level the playing field and support healthier, more active lifestyles that benefit children’s prospects.

 

Youth Empowerment Initiative

With funding secured from Hywel Dda University Health Board, Actif Sport and Leisure launched the Youth Empowerment initiative – an early intervention programme aimed at supporting young people aged 11–14 who are at risk of substance misuse. This preventative project was delivered in collaboration with key partners including Swansea Foundation, Scarlets Community Foundation, NHS nurses, Choices, and People Speak Up. The 16-week programme engaged 39 pupils from across Carmarthenshire, offering them meaningful opportunities for self-discovery through engaging and challenging experiences. The sessions focused on personal development using a child-centred approach. Participants were encouraged to reflect on their choices, build self-motivation, set personal goals, and develop self-esteem. The programme also aimed to enhance overall well-being by creating a supportive environment where young people could grow in confidence and resilience.

 

Outcome: Families from disadvantaged backgrounds are able to access health and well-being provision within their local areas.

 

Early Help Support

We have been developing an effective offer of Early Help Support across Carmarthenshire for our Families over the last year. This has seen the development of an Early Help Hub bringing existing teams together to work together effectively to offer support to families at the right time and in the right place. We have also undertaken a systems review to identify areas where we can improve our offer. We have developed our Early Help Strategy that clearly sets out the vision that underpins our work. We are continuing to embed the Early Help approach across all our partner agencies and statutory teams; and continue to find ways to reach families at the earliest opportunity to help them find their solutions and make the changes that they want to make.

The Family Information Service (FIS) has been actively updating families and professionals on services, resources, and developments. The FIS website has been enhanced with new functionalities like a Family Notice Board, an Accessibility button, Feedback forms, and a Calendar of Events. This has led to increased user engagement. During the year, FIS responded to 2,193 enquiries.
FIS has promoted community events through its Facebook page and participated in countywide outreach events with various Local Authority and third sector partners. During the summer holidays, FIS supported National Play Day and Summer Play Day events, as well as the Food and Fun programme in eight Carmarthenshire primary schools. FIS also engaged in a Tackling Poverty pilot project in the Aman-Gwendraeth area, offering support and information to families in need. FIS also supported two successful ‘Hey Come Play’ events during February half term and collaborated on a West Wales Neurodivergence Support drop-in day, which had 170 attendees.

 

Play Sufficiency Action Plan

• Food and Fun 2024: 8 Primary Schools successfully ran ‘Food and Fun’ across 12 days of the summer holidays. These schools were Y Bedol, Pontyberem, Pen Rhos, Burry Port, Betws, Old Road, Myrddin and Llanmiloe. Approximately 331 pupils ages 5 to 11 benefitted from attending. A further 11 primary schools (covering 12 cohorts) have committed to run the programme during the summer of 2025.
• People Speak Up has been funded via the Playworks Holiday Grant to run open access play sessions across the County. They have delivered sessions during school holidays and some weekends. 17 sessions ran across six locations for 58 individual children during October half term. During the Christmas holidays, there were nine locations each held a session, with 37 individual children benefiting. 63 individual children participated in sessions on weekends during term time across four locations.
• A ‘Stay and Play’ project has been piloted in Ysgol Ffairfach, running every Tuesday 3.30pm to 4.15pm during March 2025.
• Andi Pandy Day Nursery was supported in undertaking a Play Audit of the resources within two of their rooms.
• During August 2024, the Family Information Service Childcare and Play Team proudly hosted a series of free family events across the County to celebrate National Playday. 38 services were attended by approximately 400 children.
• Ludicology were commissioned to support the Play Team in completing the Play Sufficiency Assessment. A combination of desktop research, focus groups, and consultations took place during the year. All information is collated and used to inform the assessment and Play Sufficiency Action Plan, due for submission to Welsh Government in June.

 

Actif Llanelli Summer Family Sessions

In collaboration with five local family centres, Actif Llanelli delivered inclusive weekly activity sessions during the summer holidays, engaging 810 participants. These sessions provided free, accessible opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to develop physical, social, and emotional skills in a safe, supportive environment. By enabling siblings and families to play together, the initiative fosters stronger family bonds and helps reduce barriers to participation in structured physical activity. This contributes to improved wellbeing and future life chances.

 

Is Anyone Better Off?

A Foster Child’s Journey in Carmarthenshire

To celebrate Care Day 2025 on the 21st of February, a 10-year-old boy who has been in foster care in Carmarthenshire for just over two years has shared his poem about his moving journey.

Titled ‘My Foster Life’, the poem gives a powerful insight into G’s experiences, from the uncertainty of entering care to finding stability, joy, and belonging in a caring home.

Care Day is a celebration of children and young people with care experience.

My Foster Life

"I’m nervous, I’m anxious, everything’s strange,
My sisters are with me, but it’s still a change
These people are strangers, I feel so scared,
I wouldn’t be here if only they cared. 

The rules are different, this life is new,
Things used to be bad, but it’s all I knew,
It seems to get easier every day,
Here, for a football team I get to play. 

In foster care I don’t have to move school,
And I think the food is really cool,
I don’t have to move, and I love the days out,
At Christmas time, they went all out.

One year later, its decision time,
And we will stay in care full time,
They found a family for us all,
Altogether we had a ball.

Foster care is scary, but you need to stay strong,
Eventually you will find where you belong,
I love my new family, and they love me,
Each day is awesome and filled with glee.”

How can we do better?

We will strengthen our approach to supporting children and families by developing a new Corporate Parenting Strategy, ensuring everyone in the Council understands their role in helping looked after children and care leavers thrive. Our early help services will be enhanced so families can access support sooner, helping more children stay safely at home. We will implement the Fair Allocation to Resources Policy for disabled children and their families, giving them greater choice and control over the support they receive. Alongside this, we will increase the capacity of our fostering service, improving recruitment and retention to ensure a sufficient supply of in-house foster placements to meet the diverse needs of children in Carmarthenshire.

 

In Summary 

During the year, progress was made across Early Years services: 

• A key policy shift was the formal removal of the Rising 4s policy following a review by the Education and Children Scrutiny Committee. This change prompted engagement with non-maintained providers and discussions with seven schools to expand their age range to accommodate the resulting demand. This will be effective from September 2025.
• Childcare provision also saw growth, with an increase to 218 registered providers offering 4,502 places by May 2025. The Flying Start programme completed its second expansion phase and began rolling out phase three, with a focus on promoting Welsh language and culture.
• Family Support Services were strengthened through a redesigned structure and new roles to enhance fostering practices.
• Efforts to support Special Guardianship Orders (SGOs) included aligning allowances with foster carers and integrating SGO carers into the Foster Wales Carmarthenshire structure.
• Collaborative work with Hywel Dda University Health Board and the voluntary sector advanced the Maternity and Early Years Strategy. This included the development of an e-learning package.
• Community engagement was fostered through events funded by the Tackling Poverty Grant, benefitting a number of children.
• The Families First programme supported 9,701 individuals through 2,704 referrals, with high success rates in parenting interventions and positive outcomes on the Distance Travelled Tool.
• Despite rising demand and complexity, early intervention services continued to provide quality support, though some projects reported waiting lists for specialised services such as domestic violence and therapeutic support. These are being actively managed to ensure timely assistance.

 

How are we Doing? 

• 9.7% of children in care in Carmarthenshire during 2024/25 had to move three or more times during the year. This equates to 26 out of the 269 children, compared to 8.5% (22 out of the 259) in 2023/24. There was a further increase in the number of Children Looked After on 31 March 2025 to 269 compared to 259 the previous year.
• There are 218 registered childcare providers, offering 4,502 childcare places delivered by childminders, day nurseries, cylchoedd meithrin, Flying Start, after school clubs, and holiday clubs.
• 84.3% attendance rate within allocated Flying Start free childcare placements for eligible 2 to 3-year-olds to prepare for school readiness, an improvement of the 2023/24 result of 78.1%. With the lowest levels of unauthorised absence recorded to date at 0.88%. It is encouraging to see families reporting absence and engaging with childcare settings in reporting absence.
• 179 families with additional social welfare needs living in a Flying Start area received time specified interventions from the wider Flying Start Team e.g. Social Worker, Family Support Officer, Domestic Abuse Project Worker, or Midwife. This is 98% of those families referred and an increase on 2023/24, where 149 received time specified interventions.

 

Progress Against Outcomes

Outcome: Improved availability of early years education and childcare settings across the County, particularly in rural areas; with a particular focus on providing and strengthening Welsh-medium childcare.

 

Rising 4s Policy

In 2018/19, the Education and Children Scrutiny Committee completed a Task and Finish Review of the current provision for early years education, childcare, and play opportunities. 
One of the conclusions identified was that that the Authority’s ‘Rising 4s’ policy is markedly different to other neighbouring local authorities’, and that the ‘Council undertake a formal review of its current admissions policy for full time education for 4-year-olds (the rising 4s policy).’
After due consultation, it was decided to remove said policy and the removal of the Rising 4s policy will come into effect in September 2025. We have engaged with the non-maintained sector and several providers have expressed an interest in providing non-statutory nursery education either within or close to some of our 4-11 schools. This will meet a projected demand created by the one term delay in entry to full-time reception classes under the Rising 4s policy. In other areas, we have begun discussions with seven schools to change their age range from 4 to 11 to 3 to 11 where gaps in provision remain. Both processes should be complete by September 2026.

 

Childcare

There is an increase in the number of childcare providers and places as of May 2025, with 218 registered childcare providers offering 4,502 childcare places delivered by childminders, day nurseries, cylchoedd meithrin, Flying Start, after school clubs, and holiday clubs. In June 2024, there were 213 providers and 4,214 places. Our Statutory Childcare Sufficiency Assessment summary report continues to be shared with prospective childcare providers and is also available on the Family Information Service website. 

 

Flying Start Childcare

The Flying Start childcare’s second phase of expansion is now complete. New areas were targeted, ensuring the childcare providers are commissioned to register eligible children for childcare. Eligible families are informed through targeted postcard mailing shots and then they are invited to complete a self-registration form. All expansion areas are now fully enrolled into Flying Start. Our Welsh Language officer has started to work with all childcare providers across Flying Start to promote Welsh language, culture, and environments. Work has been ongoing with visits to support the childcare providers in new areas to promote Flying Start Carmarthenshire. 
Phase 3 of the Flying Start childcare only expansion is now being rolled out during 2025/26. We anticipate eligibility being taken up from June 2025.

 

Outcome: Keeping children at home with their families whenever possible.

Our aim is to prevent the need for statutory involvement and for children and young people to remain with their families and communities whenever it is safe to do so. Should statutory support be needed, protecting children who are at risk of or are experiencing abuse, neglect, or other harm is a priority.

 

Family Support and Resources

This area is on track to deliver a set of co-ordinated, responsive services that provide an effective resource for Social Workers to draw on. Key achievements include:

• The new structure for the Family Support Service has been designed through the completion of the Systems Thinking Review.
• New posts created and people appointed to improve our fostering practice and performance.
• We continue to perform well against national targets for foster carer recruitment, although there is still a significant shortage of foster placements.
• The fostering marketing strategy has been developed and is being implemented. A recruitment campaign is currently underway.

 

Special Guardians

We have sought to improve early permanence arrangements by establishing parity of fees and allowances for Special Guardian (SGO) carers with foster carers to promote connected carers becoming SGO carers. This keeps children with their families, out of care, and are now accepted into and assessed within Foster Wales Carmarthenshire Fostering structure.

 

Maternity and Early Years

We have implemented key priorities in the Maternity and Early Years Operational Plan, and Regional Maternity and Early Years Strategy. We are moving towards an integrated delivery model in partnership with Hywel Dda University Health Board and the voluntary sector.

 

Early Years Integration Team

There are currently 42 families receiving one-to-one support from Family Support Workers. This is for a range of needs, including complex social needs, development delays, infant feeding, parental mental health, housing support; or common parenting issues such as toileting, behaviour management, sleep management, or fussy eating. A further £15,000 from the Regional Investment Fund (RIF) was received to aid in completing the childhood obesity project. This funding facilitated the creation of an animated character named Gwen, designed to convey key messages in the voice of a child. The e-learning package will be available in both Welsh and English.

 

Maternity and Early Years Transformation

Two events were held during February half term for families of early years children. These events were funded by the Tackling Poverty Innovation and Supporting Communities Grant. 66 children attended with their families, and 20 stallholders attended each event. Evaluations from families show that they value these community-based events as ways to access information, meet other families, and have access to free activities for their children. Stallholders found the events useful for engaging with families. In total, 468 children have benefited from activities developed as part of the Tackling Poverty Grant.

 

Outcome: Families facing difficulties are supported to provide stable, safe, and secure home environments for their children.

Early intervention and preventative services continue to provide high quality support that achieves good outcomes for families despite the challenges around rising demand and complexity of need.

In 2024/25, within the Families First programme:

• 2,704 referrals were received.
• 9,701 individuals were supported, of which 5,140 (53%) were new individuals.
• 693 new single agency Joint Assessment Family Framework Forms (JAFFs) were opened.
• 574 single agency JAFFs were closed with a forward movement of 518 (90%) on the distance travelled tool.
• 19 single agency cases were stepped up and accepted by Social Services, and 127 cases supported were stepped down from Social Services.
• 97% of parents benefitted from a parenting intervention.

The projects have reported challenges, including an increased demand for support and more complex referrals with multiple issues that require support over a longer time frame. As a result, some projects are reporting waiting lists for specific types of support, including support for children affected by domestic violence, parenting, and therapeutic support (Art and Play therapy). Waiting lists are monitored and actively managed by projects. Families are contacted to acknowledge that a referral has been made and support whilst they are waiting is discussed, where appropriate. Reassurance is given that support will be provided as soon as possible.

How can we do better?

To give every child the best start in life, we will continue to review school admission dates and age ranges across the county, following the removal of the Rising 4s policy from September 2025. We will address gaps identified in the Childcare Sufficiency Assessment 2022–27, including promoting and developing Welsh-medium childcare. In line with Welsh Government guidance, we will roll out Phase 3 of the Flying Start childcare expansion during 2025/26, ensuring more families can access high-quality early years education and childcare wherever they live.

In Summary

Over the past year, Carmarthenshire’s Education department made notable progress in promoting inclusive, high-quality education despite facing financial pressures and the ongoing effects of the pandemic. 

This has been achieved in the context of significant challenges such as falling pupil numbers and substantial financial pressures across our education system. It has also been at a time where there is an increasing demand for services, especially post pandemic and with wider societal changes. The increasing levels of complexity and needs of children and young people, whether that is Additional Learning Needs, Elective Home Education, attendance, behaviour etc. requires a very different response and is creating significant pressures not only in our schools but within the Education department.     

The Inclusion Service led the rollout of the Welsh Government’s Additional Learning Needs (ALN) reforms, broadening specialist support, particularly for Welsh medium and secondary age pupils with autism spectrum disorder. Schools were guided in assessing pupil needs, tailoring learning plans, and involving families, with Estyn commending the Authority’s work. 

Bilingual education remained a priority, with equal access to Welsh and English provisions, the development of internal Welsh language resources, and bilingual delivery of professional learning. 

Initiatives like the Young Sports Ambassador programme enabled ALN pupils and staff to lead inclusive physical activities. 

Attendance, however, was a persistent issue, with Carmarthenshire recording the lowest rates in Wales. In response, the Council have launched targeted strategies to highlight the importance of regular attendance and are working closely with schools. The numbers of Electively Home Educated (EHE) pupils also continued to steadily rise in line with the pattern across Wales over the recent decade. At the end of 2024/25 there were 694 EHE learners registered with Carmarthenshire Council.   

Support for vulnerable learners was enhanced through improved multi-agency collaboration. 
Curriculum development has aligned with the Curriculum for

Wales, promoting inclusive, community-based learning with a strong emphasis on literacy, numeracy, and digital skills. 
Whilst GCSE and A-level results dipped slightly below pre-pandemic levels, they remained nationally competitive. 
Key appointments were made at the end of 2024/25 to progress the Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) and a strategic partnership with National Centre for Learning Welsh was re-established. School infrastructure also saw improvements with investments made through the Modernising Education Programme (MEP), including new facilities for Welsh-medium and ALN education.

 

How are we Doing? 

• The Council maintains 1 nursery school, 94 primary schools, 12 secondary schools and 1 special school. These provide education for over 27,000 pupils.
• At the end of March 2025 school budgets had an overall £1.8m net deficit despite relative protection for school budgets over the past decade. These budget pressures are forecast to increase further.
• Our 2024 residents survey received just over 3,500 respondents. Overall, there is an agreement from respondents that local schools provide children and young people with a good education with a score of 0.27. Although the score has decreased significantly on the previous year (0.41), with 20% of respondents disagreeing.
• The number of Year 11 leavers Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) during 2024/25 has increased again with 2.4% (51 out of 2,083) compared to 2.3% (46 out of 1,987) the previous year. 

 

Progress Against Outcomes

Outcome: Pupils with Additional Learning Needs (ALN) are fully supported.

Education

The Inclusion Service is an integral part of the Local Authority’s front-line service to children and 
young people. It is a service which has statutory responsibilities and provides support and 
intervention where necessary.

The Council has implemented the Welsh Government’s ALN transformation to support a new ALN system that is person centred and supports learners with personalised learning to achieve effective outcomes. However, this is against a backdrop of austerity and covid recovery. The Council’s central support team ensure that schools build capacity to identify needs early, make the correct provision, and then monitor and review this provision. Schools have required significant support by the ALN Department to fulfil this expectation due to budgetary cuts and new expectations on ALN Coordinators and class teachers. Increased and unforeseen demand for autistic placements necessitated the use of departmental resources identified for growth to provide a timely response to develop new specialist provision. The new provision filled identified gaps in both Welsh medium and secondary autism spectrum disorder (ASD) specialist provision. This situation has meant that resources to support the building of capacity in our mainstream schools for meeting the needs of learners have been directed to specialist provision, thus impacting the department’s ability to meet targets for strengthening inclusive practices.

The Council’s strategy on ALN states that inclusive education means providing all children and young people with an appropriate personalised curriculum and networks of support. We are committed to the belief that ‘inclusive learning’ is the best practice in teaching and learning. We place a strong emphasis on supporting schools within the following key areas:

• Accurate assessment of strengths and needs;
• Planning effectively to build on strengths and address areas of need;
• Adopting pedagogical approaches to optimise individual learning;
• Involving children in setting their learning goals and evaluating their progress towards agreed targets;
• Engaging with parents to inform them of their child’s progress, and to involve them in supporting their child’s learning;
• Evaluating individual child’s progress and the progress of groups and classes;
• Refining the approach to teaching and learning considering evaluation;
• Maintaining systematic records to report progress and to enable reflective practice.

Success is evidenced as schools are making correct statutory judgements in relation to ALN and working well with families and learners. This results in very few requirements for the Council to reconsider decisions.

Estyn produced a Thematic Report on the ALN system in Wales in November 2024, highlighting good practice in ALN in Carmarthenshire schools.

“Carmarthenshire is a bilingual local authority, with both Welsh and English having equal legal status and parity. When considering provision for pupils whether in bilingual or Welsh-medium schools there is an agreement that both languages will be considered in line with the needs of the child.

The local authority provides specialist provision through the medium of English, Welsh or bilingually. They have recently opened three primary specialist classes for pupils with autism within Welsh-medium primary schools, who deliver provision through the medium of Welsh and/or bilingually.

A significant proportion of pupils with ALN attend Welsh-medium education in Carmarthenshire. This includes pupils from first language Welsh, bilingual, non-Welsh speaking, and multi-lingual homes. To ensure that the local authority clearly identifies the language profile and the needs of children and young people, all pupils undertake a baseline assessment to ensure that the starting point of their learning journey is correctly aligned to language and learning needs of the child. 

This assessment is undertaken in Welsh and English. The local authority provides ALP through the medium of Welsh or English, meeting the language needs of individual pupils. 
As is nationally the case, the local authority notes that access to Welsh language resources and assessments is an ongoing barrier. However, Carmarthenshire has overcome this successfully, by creating resources internally or translating resources to support schools and other educational settings. Over many years it has developed a library of resources and advice/guidance documentation to support schools to deliver provision through the medium of Welsh.

All professional learning is delivered bilingually by the ALN and inclusion department. Where external services deliver training that cannot be presented bilingually, they provide translation services, and all associated documentation and slides are translated into Welsh. 
Carmarthenshire has increased its specialist classes from 38 places to 62. Most specialist settings have staff who can offer support if required through the medium of Welsh or enhancement to the support offered can be considered through additional funding. Pupils within their specialist classes are not disapplied from the Welsh language, they receive a differentiated pupil centred approach in line with the teaching of all subjects.”

 

Sport and Leisure Initiatives

Physical Literacy Programme

Over the past year, Actif’s Active Young People Team has continued its impactful work supporting Primary ALN Units, whilst also expanding into Secondary ALN Units. This initiative adopts a whole-school approach to enhance staff confidence and competence in delivering inclusive physical activity sessions through the Physical Literacy Programme. Through a combination of training and mentoring, school staff have developed the skills and assurance needed to tailor physical activity sessions to the diverse needs of their pupils. As a result, an additional eight ALN units have benefited from this support during the year.

One of the supported units shared their appreciation:

“Thank you for your input and resources which have greatly improved our PE sessions.”
— Canolfan Amanwy

This feedback highlights the programme’s success in empowering educators and enriching the physical education experience for learners with additional needs.

Young Sports Ambassador Programme

Actif’s Active Young People Team has launched a new, inclusive leadership initiative designed specifically for pupils with ALN across Carmarthenshire. The Young Sports Ambassador (YSA) training programme provides ALN students with equal opportunities to take on leadership roles in sport, promoting confidence, responsibility, and inclusion. This bespoke programme is tailored to meet the diverse needs of ALN pupils, offering varying levels of responsibility and practical, hands-on training in leading physical activities. The approach is designed to empower students by building their confidence and enabling them to contribute meaningfully within their school communities. The initial rollout has already shown promising results. At Queen Elizabeth High School’s Elfed Unit, two students completed their YSA training in January 2025. Since then, they have taken the lead in organising and delivering sports sessions, including table cricket events, and have initiated inclusive football games during break times. Their involvement has not only enhanced their leadership skills but also fostered empathy, teamwork, and a sense of belonging among their peers. These early successes highlight the programme’s potential to create lasting impact. With ongoing mentorship from Actif staff and growing enthusiasm among participants, ALN Young Sports Ambassadors are emerging as positive role models within their schools.

Looking ahead, the goal is to expand the programme to include ALN units from all primary and secondary schools across the county, ensuring that every pupil can lead, inspire, and thrive through sport.

 

Physical Literacy Training

Actif’s Active Young People Team has continued to strengthen the confidence of primary school staff in delivering high-quality PE and school sport through Physical Literacy Training. Since the programme’s launch, it has expanded its reach by an additional 20%, with 70% of schools now benefiting from tailored training and mentoring. This support has played a key role in enhancing both staff capability and the overall provision of physical education and sport within schools.

Looking ahead, the focus will be on sustaining this progress by offering ongoing support through updated resources and refresher training opportunities.

Outcome: Increased school attendance rates and access to education for vulnerable pupils.

Attendance

Attendance levels in Carmarthenshire schools remains a key concern. We are currently placed 22 out of 22 local authorities for rates of attendance. A range of strategic approaches are in place, aiming to support schools to improve their rates of pupil attendance. 

 

School Safeguarding and Attendance Team

Significant support is provided for schools, pupils, and families, targeted towards those who are most vulnerable. Family Engagement Officers work directly with families ensuring that all ‘early help’ required is in place. 

 

School Based Youth Work

Schools report that the impact of the youth workers is significant in supporting learners to engage in school life. This grant funded service impacts significantly on preventing children and young people from entering the justice system also. However, the service is at risk due to cuts in grant allocations. 

 

Pastoral Focus

Progress in reviewing pastoral systems is ongoing, aiming to generate an improved sense of belonging amongst learners. Professional Development training is being developed, focussing on the accuracy of registration systems, as well as on the ethos of pastoral routines to engender the sense of ‘belonging.’ The behavioural support team continues to provide a range of support based on trauma informed and restorative approaches. All secondary headteachers have had the opportunity to engage directly with the team lead to outline concerns and support required. In addition, the Team around the Parent Pupil and Setting (TAPPAS), a multiagency response to strategic or individual pupil need, continues to strengthen in line with the priorities of individual schools. A working party reflecting on the use of mobile phones within schools continues to build momentum, creating a toolkit for schools to utilise when addressing concerns regarding social media and the use of mobile phones.

 

Learner Engagement

Curriculum opportunities aiming to engage learners continues to evolve, strengthening community-focussed work. The impact on participating pupils is positive. Broader curriculum development work led by the Council, which includes working in the outdoors, is highly valued by teachers and continues to strengthen learning experiences and pedagogical approaches. Sharing events, encouraging school to school peer learning, remains a key aspect of this strategy. 

 

Learner Voice

A strategic working party led by the Youth service has been established, aiming to engage directly with children and young people to understand their views on school attendance and non-attendance. Their views will be considered when developing supportive actions and strategy.

 

Marketing Activity

The Education Department ran a campaign Miss School: Miss Out at the start of the Academic Year in September. Designed to underline to parents the importance of school attendance, the campaign’s messages included:

• To remind and encourage children, young people, and their families that not attending school on a particular day, or for a set period, is not acceptable.
• There are many reasons why a child should attend school, including meeting with their friends, building relationships, and maximising opportunities to learn and develop.
• Excellent school attendance allows a child to develop as an ambitious, capable learner, ready to learn throughout their life.
• Going to school will help a child become an enterprising and creative contributor, ready to play a full part in life and work; and will allow them to mature as an ethical, well-informed citizen of Wales and the world.
• Children and young people are also more likely to become healthy and confident individuals from attending school, ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society.
• The Council understands that some children have complex needs and particular reasons why, on occasion, attending school is difficult. Every one of our schools can support a child and parent(s) or guardians to address those difficulties.

Carmarthenshire’s school attendance is not yet as high as it was before COVID. Through the ‘Miss School: Miss Out’ campaign, the Council will continue to work with parents and guardians, schools, teachers, and support staff to improve school attendance for the future prosperity of Carmarthenshire, and our children and young people. 

 

Vulnerable Learners

Whilst all schools are supported to review the progress made by all pupils, the Council has robust systems to identify and measure the progress made by specific groups of children. These are reviewed regularly.

During the year, work has been ongoing to develop a more effective way of being able to consider use of the Vulnerability Assessment Profile to assist in the identification of relevant 'vulnerable' learners. Discussions have included senior managers across the Education and Children's Services Department. 

The Vulnerability Assessment Profile is central to Carmarthenshire implementing the Youth Engagement and Progression Framework. There is a designated Engagement and Progression Co-ordinator who works closely with partners and stakeholders e.g. Careers Wales, schools, and work-based learning, to collate and verify monthly data to identify relevant 16 to 18-year-olds who require support into employment, education, and training. This early identification method is designed to support and assist learners who may present with a range of needs. The aim being to work as partners to seek to address support needs (health, family, relationship, attendance, etc.) towards more favourable outcomes.

 

Behaviour Support Community Team (BSCT)

The BSCT have established links with their designated schools, each having a link specialist teacher and link specialist teaching assistant. Through TAPPAS and joint consultation meetings with our Educational and Child Psychology colleagues, schools plan and identify the training and support that they need. Schools also have direct access to discuss new or emerging needs throughout the year. Data collection and quality assurance processes are now in place. This allows analysis of training needs and demand across the County to ensure that the team can plan and deliver training and support, having considered emerging trends in advance. Exclusion advice and guidance is well received by schools via our Phase 2 Behaviour Support Services Manager. In turn, this role has the support and guidance from a newly established panel of senior officers and managers – the Exclusion Advice Panel. They provide guidance in terms of the exclusion itself and support options available to safeguard those involved to mitigate any future risk. The BSCT continue to work closely with schools on the implementation of Individual Risk Assessments and Pastoral Support Plans. 

 

Education and Well-being

The Education and Well-being Team ensure children and young people can access appropriate education in a setting where they are safe, and their needs are being met. The Team have delivered training to 205 individuals, including: school staff, school governors, foster carers, Emotional Literacy Support Assistant’s (ELSA’s), and social workers, to develop understanding of the impact of trauma on learning and giving practical strategies to support CLA (Children Looked After) learners in school. The team provide weekly support to schools, upskilling and supporting staff who directly work with our CLA learners to help them with strategies to manage better in the classroom setting, organise their work, and understand their emotions. Through the summer term, we identified learners who would transition from primary to secondary school, and ensure that these children had extra visits, met with new staff, and felt safe and confident in their new setting. We link closely with the leaving care team and meet regularly to share information about our learners who are approaching the end of their compulsory schooling. We ensure they all have an individual plan and a well-matched personal assistant to support them with the next steps in their learning and work journey. The School Safeguarding and Attendance Team support the pupils to overcome barriers when their attendance at schools falls below 80%. They also work directly with the young person, arranging meetings between parents, the pupil, and school, supporting families with routines and structure, all whilst addressing the attendance concerns. 

 

Electively Home Educated (EHE) Learners

The number of electively home educated children in Wales has grown significantly from 1.6 per 1,000 pupils in 2009/10 to 13.0 per 1,000 in 2023/24. Carmarthenshire currently has 694 registered EHE learners.

• The ‘Elective Home Education’ strategy is currently being updated by the Schools, Students, and Teachers (SSAT) team.
• Local authorities are mandated to ensure that children not registered in schools receive a suitable education, assess the suitability of education provided by parents, and collaborate with other departments for support.
• EHE advisors maintain contact with families to ensure quality education and address concerns. No School Attendance Orders have been issued in the last three years, indicating cooperation from families.
• Various classes and resources are provided to support EHE learners, funded by the Local Authority Education Grant. This includes qualifications and learning materials to enhance educational experiences.
• Flexi-schooling allows children to attend school part-time whilst being home educated. However, this arrangement is at the discretion of the headteacher and is not guaranteed.
• The Welsh Government provides annual grants to support EHE advisors and assist families with educational costs, ensuring flexibility to meet the diverse needs of EHE learners.

 

Outcome: Deliver a rounded curriculum raising educational standards.

Curriculum

• Co-designed by teachers and pupils, a learning curriculum that is based on the Curriculum for Wales is now established across Carmarthenshire. Learning experiences in our schools are inclusive and purposeful, successfully aiming to reduce the impact of poverty.
• Increasingly, learning experiences are purposefully linked to the local community, ‘our cynefin’, ensuring that pupils develop a rich understanding of their locality and their heritage.
• We have established strong links with the Carmarthenshire Museums Service and Oriel Myrddin. This collaborative, cross-departmental support includes sharing information with schools on upcoming education programmes and directly connecting with education officers at Carmarthenshire Museum and Carmarthenshire Archives.
• Our schools effectively support children and young people to become ambitious, capable learners who are ready to learn throughout their lives, whilst effectively developing their Welsh and English bilingual skills. A broad range of learning experiences ensure that our children and young people develop their enterprising skills and creative thinking, making sure that they are well informed about Wales and the world.
• Engaging learning experiences and activities ensure that our children and young people develop as healthy confident individuals, maximising the opportunities to learn in school, outdoors, and within our local environment.
• The areas of learning and experience include a focus on languages, literacy, and communication; science and technology; mathematics and numeracy; expressive arts; humanities; and health and well-being.
• The curriculum also develops pupils’ knowledge of human rights, developmentally appropriate relationships and sexuality, diversity, and respecting differences, as well as providing opportunities for pupils to develop their skills and knowledge of careers and the workplace. 

Schools are supported to strengthen their teaching practices and ensure that the needs of all learners are met effectively. As a result, the quality of teaching is sound or better in many schools, ensuring that pupils’ progress is in line with teachers’ high expectations. Pupil progress and standards are monitored collaboratively, with schools receiving support to ensure that they are well equipped to address their developmental priorities. Key areas of focus continue to be pupils’ skill development in literacy, numeracy, and digital skills, including their application of these skills across a broad range of subject areas. The progress of individual pupils remains the key focus, with person-centred planning underpinning learning experiences across many schools. Most pupils, including those with ALN and in specific groups, achieve good progress in their early years’ skills development, numeracy, literacy, and digital skills over time.

Our revised priorities for 2024/25 were: 

• Strengthen pupil progress and engagement through effective pastoral systems, teaching, and an engaging curriculum, particularly in the secondary sector;
• Develop leadership skills at all levels in evaluating pupils’ skills progression, and in planning for and delivering pupil progress;
• Professional development of Newly Qualified Teachers, Teaching Assistants, and future leaders;
• A significant focus by the School Improvement Team on self-evaluation and monitoring professional learning.

 

Outcomes

The School Improvement Team, including Education Support Advisors and the Associate Education Support Advisors, work alongside head teachers, senior leaders, teachers, and school governors during their self-evaluation processes. This develops a strong understanding of the school’s strengths, areas of development, and the impact of teaching on pupils’ progress and learning.

 

Estyn Inspection Summary

Summary of Estyn Outcomes 2017-2025

Estyn introduced a new inspection framework in March 2022 and no longer provides summative judgements for individual inspection areas. Inspectors can still place a school into Estyn Review if they judge that the school would benefit from a short period to improve some aspects of their work. The two statutory categories of follow-up remain unchanged. This is when schools need significant improvement or require special measures.

We want to reduce the proportion of schools requiring follow-up activity following Estyn inspection.

• In March 2022, Estyn restarted school inspections following the pandemic. Many of our schools have had no follow-up, with few in a category. In nearly all cases, there is close alignment between Estyn's outcomes and the department’s understanding of the school’s strengths and areas of improvement. 
• An additional school was inspected in March 2025, but the report was not published until May 2025. 
• Four good practice case studies were identified in our inspections between September 2024 and March 2025.
• The school placed in Significant Improvement in September 2023 is judged to be making good progress but remains in category due to instable leadership. The three placed in Special Measures in 2023/24 remain in category but are judged to be making good progress in relation to their recommendations.

 

Attainment

Many pupils make good progress over time. The level of challenge in Carmarthenshire has increased significantly. Here are the 2024 exam data outcomes.

In 2024, the Free School Meal (FSM) level for Carmarthenshire is 6.1 percentage points higher than it was in 2019, where across Wales there has been an increase of 3.9 percentage points only.

 

GCSE

• In 2024, outcomes in Carmarthenshire are higher than Welsh national outcomes at A* to C grades, and only slightly lower than national outcomes at A* to A grades.
• 66.9% of grades were awarded A* to C grades in 2024, reflecting a slight decrease of 0.9 percentage points in comparison to 2023. This is less than the Wales decrease of 2.8 percentage points. However, outcomes at A* to C are lower than in 2019 (pre-pandemic).
• 20.2% of grades are awarded at A* to A which is only slightly lower than 2019 and that of the current national data, 20.6%. This reflects well when considering the additional FSM challenge in Carmarthenshire.

 

A Level

• Grades across all indicators have decreased. This reflects the national trend. National grades are lower than in 2023, broadly returning to pre-pandemic outcomes. Results are slightly lower than when compared with 2019 (pre-pandemic), which should be our benchmark.
• The biggest decrease is seen in the A* to A grades, with the decrease slightly higher than the national decrease. Results compared with Wales are slightly lower, like the pattern observed in 2019. However, there is a 7-percentage points gap between A* to A, where pupils across Wales seem to be performing better.
• The decrease at A* to C is lower than the national decrease.
• Nationally, there was no decrease in outcomes at A* to E. In Carmarthenshire, the decrease was 1.1 percentage points.

 

Outcome: Nutritious free school meals for all primary school pupils.    

The Catering Service is responsible for providing school meals in all Carmarthenshire schools, serving around 25,000 meals every day. We comply with national standards including healthy eating, food hygiene, and allergens. We also provide a free breakfast service in most primary schools.

We offer a menu which is compliant to Welsh Government regulations and achieves the highest grade available for compliance and nutritional balance. Menus are nutritionally analysed using Saffron recipe development software.

We continue to work with parents, schools, and external stakeholders to manage special diets and allergies. This includes individual care plans for pupils, one-to-one meetings with parents and a robust system of work to ensure a healthy, safe dining environment. We go above current guidance and work to include pupils not currently covered by the groups identified by Welsh Government as being entitled to a special diet menu. For example, Additional Learning Needs students, pupils with sensory issues, etc.

 

Free School Meals

The Welsh Government announcement regarding extending Free School Meals entitlement for all primary school children required a significant amount of planning, financing, and investment to build capacity and prepare for the implementation of the commitment.

School meal provision for our 97 settings is provided via three central production kitchens – 85 production kitchens attached to settings, as well as deliveries between production kitchens, and 15 dining centres.

Universal Primary Free School Meals have been offered to all full-time pupils in Carmarthenshire since April 2024. We are also pioneering the development of local sustainable supply chains within Wales.

 

Bremenda Isaf Farm

We have also invested heavily into generating our own food production model on our County Farm Estate. Bremenda Isaf Farm became the first in the UK where the Council directly employ staff responsible for food production on the public plate. By developing and launching the Future Generations Menu in Primary Schools, we are also supporting other Local Authorities across Wales. With a menu based around seasonality and availability of Welsh produce, scaling up this model will directly improve the resilience of Carmarthenshire’s local supply chain. At the same time, we are improving and utilising our county farm asset to reduce the environmental impact of our food procurement and increase economic value retained by the council.

We are exploring how Bremenda Isaf can be a centre of innovation to support the local food system in Carmarthenshire – everything from diverse food production to education, health, and wellbeing. Investment is being sought for the infrastructure requirements necessary, alongside engagement with a broad range of local stakeholders focussing how the best delivery model could be achieved. 

 

Outcome: Increased bilingual and Welsh medium education.

Our vision is to ensure progression from Welsh-medium pre-school provision to primary and secondary Welsh-medium and bilingual education to the world of work or further and higher education. We are increasing the proportion of each year group that receives Welsh medium education in line with Welsh Government's new designations. We have strengthened and expanded the provision for learners through Language Centres with specific provision for latecomers and improving standards. We ensure that learners with additional learning needs (ALN) have linguistic opportunities equal to their mainstream peers. Our Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP) and action plan are arranged under seven main goals or outcomes:

1. More three-year-olds educated through the medium of Welsh.
2. More five-year-olds being educated through the medium of Welsh.
3. More children continue to improve their Welsh language skills when transferring from one phase of their statutory education to another.
4. More learners studying for Welsh qualifications – as a subject, and subjects through the medium of Welsh.
5. More opportunities for learners to use Welsh in different contexts at school.
6. An increase in the provision of Welsh-medium education for pupils with ALN in accordance with the duties specified by legislation.
7. An increase in the number of teaching staff who can teach Welsh – as a subject, and through the medium of Welsh.

 

Linguistic Categorisation of Schools

We collaborated with schools to transition them to the new linguistic categorisation system. In line with guidance, we have taken the lead by identifying a category that best reflects the current category of each school. We have also set each school an aspirational category to reach within 10 years. Schools continue to develop in line with their Welsh Language categorisation in preparation for the introduction of the Education and Welsh Language Bill.

 

Outcome: Schools for sustainable community learning that are fit for 21st Century.

School Building Condition

90% of Carmarthenshire school buildings are graded as "Good" or "Satisfactory", compared to 72% in the previous year. However, this is due to a change in the assessment criteria provided by Welsh Government. We now follow an objective methodology, using a weighting and scoring process. This gives a more accurate overall condition grade, with properties able to be compared across all portfolios. This new methodology gives us confidence that building condition is appropriate. Further investment is challenging as the cost of upgrading or building new schools has escalated significantly, placing increased pressure on a limited capital budget. It will be impossible to deliver all the Council’s aspirations.

 

Modernising Education Programme (MEP)

Following approval of the revised MEP Strategy in November 2024, we are continuing to invest in our school buildings. There is currently an ongoing 'live' project worth £15m to develop new classroom and science teaching spaces, along with a community focussed enhancement of sports facilities at Bryngwyn Comprehensive School, Llanelli. Under the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme, formal approval of our Strategic Outline Programme was provided in August 2024. A total of £60.9m is available for capital projects which include ALN provision in Llanelli, Ysgol Dewi Sant and Welsh Medium primary education provision in the Kidwelly and St Ishmael area. We are also utilising Welsh Government grant funding to develop a Welsh Language Immersion Centre at Ysgol Gyfun Y Strade and various projects to enhance community facilities across the schools’ network. All schemes are being developed in line with Welsh Government sustainability guidelines designed to make schools as energy efficient as possible.

We are currently progressing several schemes to develop community sports facilities in secondary schools. This work is scheduled for completion during the summer of 2025. All facilities at these schools will be available for wider community use, in addition to enhancing the provision available to pupils. Further schemes to be developed in line with new grant funding available in 2025/26.

We have completed a comprehensive review of school capacity calculations in partnership with all primary and secondary schools to feed into the new Admissions Policy for 2026/27.

 

Is Anyone Better Off?

Pembrey School’s New Building Officially Opened

Pembrey School’s new building was officially opened by Carmarthenshire County Council’s Leader, Cllr Darren Price, at a ceremony attended by children, teachers, and staff on Wednesday, 17th of July 2024.

The brand-new, £8.25m primary school building has been constructed on land adjacent to the old school site and has a capacity for 270 primary pupils, aged 3 to 11, and 30 nursery places. This scheme has been delivered as part of the Welsh Government and Carmarthenshire’s Sustainable Communities for Learning Programme, B and B investment. The building was constructed by local contractors, TRJ (Betws) Ltd.

Replacing the former school building, the new site incorporates a Flying Start facility (previously located in a separate mobile classroom) under one roof. It has transformed the education provision in the Pembrey area by providing state-of-the-art facilities, accommodation for pupils and staff, as well as a learning environment suitable for education in the 21st century.

Delivering this modern and new facility for both the school and community of Pembrey is being achieved over two phases. The first phase seeing children, teachers, and staff occupying the new school in February 2024. 

Work on the second phase is progressing well, with the demolition of the former school building to build a sports pitch for community use, a multi-use games area (MUGA), a forest school for outdoor learning, and associated landscaping and infrastructure works.

On completion, the new sports pitch will be transferred to Pembrey and Burry Port Town Council to replace the community facilities lost on the land where the new school is located. The pitch will be used by the school during school hours and available to the community outside these hours.

How can we do better?

Our focus remains on supporting pupils with additional learning needs by fully implementing ALN reforms and reviewing transport arrangements to ensure fair access. We will work with schools to address financial deficits, strengthen governance, and progress our Modernising Education Programme, including capital projects, school reviews, and proposals to change the age range of several primary schools. Improving attendance and supporting vulnerable pupils is a priority, as is updating our approach to Elective Home Education. We will also encourage schools to self-evaluate their Whole School Approach to Emotional and Mental Health, identifying strengths and setting actions for improvement.