Council's Annual Report 2022-2023
In this section
Well-being Objective 1
Enabling our children and young people to have the best possible start in life (Start Well)
Overarching Judgement
We aim to support all Carmarthenshire learners. We will ensure that they are happy, safe, thriving, and are fulfilling their personal, social and learning potential. We will strive to become the best we can be and be highly regarded locally, whilst also earning national and international recognition.
Children’s services continue to introduce working practices (Signs of Safety and a relationship-based approach) which engage and work in partnership with families to help improve outcomes for children. To ensure this, senior managers audit assessments and highlight any areas for improvement and good practice.
For families with children under 4 living in deprived areas the Flying Start programme is expanding in a phased approach across the county. The Flying Start App has been integral in reaching families, providing key messages and support services.
We are continuing to develop our fostering and adoption services to meet the needs of children who become looked after and need permanence at an early stage.
Approximately 15,000 children and young people across the county aged between 0-25 years benefitted from the Summer of Fun and Winter of Well-being initiative.
The new Childcare Offer national digital service has been rolled-out and continually promoted. We are working towards addressing the gaps identified in our fifth Childcare Sufficiency Assessment (2022-27) and the accompanying Action Plan and continue to promote and develop Welsh medium childcare within the County.
Why is this important?
Giving every child the best start in life is crucial to reducing health inequalities across the life course. The foundations for virtually every aspect of human development – physical, intellectual and emotional – are laid in early childhood.
What happens during these early years, starting in the womb, has lifelong effects on many aspects of health and well-being – from obesity, heart disease and mental health, to educational achievement and economic status.
To have an impact on health inequalities we need to address the social gradient in children’s access to positive early experiences. Later interventions, although important, are considerably less effective if they have not had good early foundations.
Fair Society, Healthy Lives, the Marmot Review, 2010
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.
PROGRESS: ⇑ We are continuing to support and encourage the childcare and early years sector to develop Welsh language opportunities and providers have been made aware of all avenues where staff can access Welsh language courses and resources. The expansion of Flying Start programme will also encourage new providers who specialist in Welsh-medium provision. Progress has been slow due to pandemic aftermath and increasing living costs impacting on the viability of the sector. The sector remains under constant pressure to maintain their services for working parents and early years child development experiences for children. There were 90 childminders with 791 childcare places at 31/3/23 (a reduction compared with the same time last year which was 102 childminders with 781 childcare places.
OUTCOME: Pupils with Additional Learning Needs are fully supported.
PROGRESS: ⇑ Carmarthenshire has expanded workforce capacity to meet the demands of delivering the new ways of working, especially to support the provision of additional learning provision in mainstream schools. However, the duty to favour mainstream provision will necessitate further growth in central services to strengthen and build capacity in all areas and limit the requirement for growth in specialist setting provision and reconsiderations of school decisions
OUTCOME: Increased school attendance rates and access to education for vulnerable pupils.
PROGRESS: ⇑ In the current academic year attendance levels in both sectors are above the level of 2021/22 by 1.6 percentage points in primary and 3.9 percentage points in secondary schools. This highlights that attendance is generally improving, including an uplift of improvement for eFSM learners. There is variation between schools in both sectors with some making considerably more progress than others.
OUTCOME: Deliver a rounded curriculum raising educational standards.
PROGRESS: ⇑ Support provided to schools for developing the curriculum has improved considerably since January 2023, with the Education and Children’s Services department now playing a lead role in the design and delivery of the curriculum professional learning offer.
Engagement of schools has increased substantially from 5 schools per session to 55 +. As a result, there is greater collaboration on understanding the curriculum for Wales, improved sharing of effective practice and a stronger link to authentic learning experiences.
Working alongside local developments and businesses we continue to enrich our learning offer to schools, for example, extracting carbon, alongside Swansea University or focussing on the development of the Pentre Awel site.
OUTCOME: Nutritious free school meals for all primary school pupils.
PROGRESS: ⇑ Universal Primary Free School Meals (UPFSM) are being rolled out across the county in line with Welsh Government targets. All pupils up to year 2 currently receive UPFSM meals, with year 3 & 4 going live September 2023 and years 5 & 6 in April 2024.
OUTCOME: Increased bilingual and Welsh medium education.
PROGRESS: ⇑ The Authority successfully identifies the demand for Welsh medium education and meets this demand and provision in all phases reflects the Authority’s Welsh in Education Strategic Plan (WESP). Carmarthenshire's WESP is innovative and ambitious and is effectively focused on ensuring Welsh medium education is available to all learners, within reasonable distance from their homes.
The plan focusses rigorously on proactively ensuring that all schools can move along the language continuum, specifically focusing on the advantages of access to learning during the Foundation Phase through immersion methodology. As a result, the supply and demand for Welsh medium education across the authority continues to increase.
OUTCOME: Improved opportunities for all residents in literacy, numeracy and digital skills to upskill for employment.
PROGRESS: ⇑ We have trained and supported more than 330 people by improving their digital skills (one of the key areas of targeted intervention), in order they are well equipped with better employment prospects.
OUTCOME: Schools for sustainable community learning that are fit for 21st Century.
PROGRESS: ⇑ Carmarthenshire County Council has clear priorities for investment via its Modernizing Education Programme (MEP). The Programme is a strategic investment and rationalisation plan to transform school provision. It is kept under review to ensure that its school reorganisation and investment proposals retain flexibility at their core to reflect changing circumstances in a continually developing society and be responsive to changes in the education policy framework.
OUTCOMES: Keeping children at home with their families whenever possible.
Reducing the inequalities faced by children from disadvantaged backgrounds which may affect their later life chances.
Families facing difficulties are supported to provide stable, safe and secure home environments for their children.
PROGRESS: ⇔ Children’s services provide a range of services and support whose overall aim is to enable children and young people to reside within their own families and within their own communities wherever it is safe to do so, working with others to prevent the number of children who suffer adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s) and prevent the need for statutory involvement. Despite an increase in the number of looked after children Carmarthenshire still has one of the lowest compared to the rest of Wales per 10,000 of the population. Families have struggled in the aftermath of the pandemic and cost of living crisis which has added stress, issues arising increasing risks of abuse and neglect and mental health. Requests for accommodation are made through our accommodation panel to try and ensure alternative support options are considered through teams such as edge of Care, Integrated Family Support team (IFST) and Family Intervention Teams and other preventative services. We are reviewing EOC and IFST to ensure families receive the right help at the right time within their local communities. We are also developing parenting programmes.
OUTCOME: Families from disadvantaged backgrounds are able to access health and well-being provision within their local areas.
PROGRESS: ⇑ The Local Authority has a broad range of services that support families to access health and well-being provision. Including:
• The Family Information Service (FIS) is central resource for providing information on services for families and professionals. The Right Help, Right Time Framework helps to navigate the service available across different levels of need. FIS Facebook page has 1,195 followers and 34,390 website hits.
• Early Years services include the Flying Start programme and Early Years Cwm Gwendraeth Pathfinder Pilot. These provide multiagency and integrated working in targeted deprived communities, improving health and well-being outcomes for families. A total of 2,356 children received support during 22/23 through the Flying Start programme. The Phase 1 expansion led to a further 127 children benefitting from the service.
• Services 0-25 years. The Families First programme is accessible across the County, and provides parenting support, support for young people and disability support. A total of 9,230 individuals received a meaningful intervention in 22/23. Demand and complexity have increased, and the programme is responding positively, 94% of 789 cases closed reported a forward movement .
As a Council we focus on the following thematic and service priorities:
- WBO1a Thematic Priority: Healthy Lives – prevention /early intervention
- WBO1b Service Priority: Early years
- WBO1c Service Priority: Education
Why this is important?
Giving every child the best start in life, improving their early life experiences, and ensuring they live healthy lifestyles will reduce their risk of facing inequalities later in life and support them to reach their full potential. We recognise that early childhood is a time of great opportunity but also great risk as every interaction helps to shape the way children develop. We will therefore strive to protect children and young people from harm and work to ensure their emotional and physical well-beings are protected and nurtured.
Our Overall Self-Assessment:
In their last Assurance Check, Care Inspectorate Wales found Children’s Social Services had-
- Approachable and supportive leaders
- A Culture of co-production and personal outcomes being developed with people
- Clarity in operational methodology
- Strong multi-agency cooperation
- Positive integrated approach to a culture of prevention through joint working
- Low children looked after population
Makes a positive contribution to the well-being of people in the pandemic period.
We are continually working to reduce the number of children becoming looked after utilising specialist and preventative teams such as Edge of Care (EOC), Integrated Family Support Team (IFST) and Family Intervention Team (FIT). We continue to face challenges to maintain children safely at home as families have struggled following the aftermath of the pandemic and cost of living crisis with increased hardship with issues arising where risks are high in relation to abuse and neglect, mental and emotional health issues. We work in partnership with families and other agencies to provide the right support at the right time to prevent the need for children to become looked after and to rehabilitate them safely at home wherever possible.
For progress and data on this thematic priority see pages 25-31 -
Why this is important?
Protecting children who are experiencing, or are at risk of abuse, neglect, or other kinds of harm is our priority. Our focus is on early intervention / prevention to ensure all children can reach their full potential and be healthy, happy, and safe. Helping to give every child the best start in life and improve their early life experiences is our key aim.
Our Overall Self-Assessment:
Flying Start is expanding in a phased approach across the county.
Phase 1 of the expansion is already complete, and Phase 2 is due to commence in April 2023 to reach a target of 249 children aged 2-3 years by 31st March 2025. Once fully rolled out all families with children aged 2-3 years will be eligible for 12.5 hours of funded, high-quality childcare for 39 weeks of the year.
The ‘Summer of Fun’ and ‘Winter of Well-being’ funding enabled approximately 15,000 children and young people aged 0-25 to benefit from free activities across the county.
For progress and data on this service priority see pages 32-34 -
Why this is important?
We will support all Carmarthenshire learners. The future direction of Education Services will focus on supporting learners to become:
- Ambitious, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives.
- Enterprising, creative contributors, ready to provide a full part in life & work.
- Healthy and confident individuals, ready to learn fulfilling lives as valued members of society.
- Ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world.
Our Overall Self-Assessment:
Overall, pupils are happy, safe, thriving and are fulfilling their personal, social, and learning potential.
Pupil surveys show Health and Wellbeing is generally good across all our schools.
Overall, outcomes for GCSE in 2022 are higher than 2019 when exams were last sat.
We have enhanced support for pupils with Additional Learning Needs and vulnerable learners.
For progress and data on this service priority see pages 35-43 -
