Minutes of Meeting of Ennis Area Learning Network

Thursday 4th May 2006.

Ennis West Partners.

Present:Teresa Larkin; Finnoula Tuohy; Geraldine Fallon; Conor Flynn; Sharon O Mahony; Evelyn Darcy; Jacinta Davenport; Mary Fitzgerald; Marie Killowry; Seamus Bane.

Also present:Karen McCarthy (Clare County Childcare Committee), Laura Ward (Clare Accessible Transport).

Apologies:Avril de Carteret; Teresa Hallinan; Deirdre Toomey; Mike Ryan; Ann Knox; Breda O Driscoll; Aobhán Haverty.

Welcome.

Seamus opened the meeting and welcomed everyone, in particular he welcomed Karen McCarthy and Laura Ward. They had been invited to present on the work of their respective organisations so that the network would be better informed and aware of potential opportunities for mutual support in the pursuit of objectives.

Updates.

  • Clare Youth Service:Teresa reported a busy period as the students prepared for the LCA. A group from the Estonian Ministry of Education will visit the Youth Service next week. A new information publication for young people will be launched on Wednesday 10th at 7.30pm in the Youth Centre.
  • Irish Wheelchair Association:Geraldine reported that they are seeking to recruit participants for courses at present. The focus is on people with a disability and courses run from November to November.
  • Ennis West Partners:Sharon distributed general information on EWP and their current activity.
  • Clare Adult Learners Guidance Service:Jacinta advised of ongoing support work of the CALGS and suggested that any organisation whose students expressed an interest in progression should contact VTOS or BTEI to explore options.
  • EnnisCommunity College:Evelyn reported that exams were currently under way. The PLC and mature Student prospectus for the school will be launched next week and there will be an information morning for mature students on Friday 10th may from 9.30 to 11am. Courses will include Community & health Service, Office Skills and Legal Studies among others.
  • BTEI:Conor reported that BTEI activity is starting to wind down, however a Childcare course has started in Sixmilebridge recently and it is planned to run a Community and Health Service course for those progressing from current childcare courses.
  • CABES:Finnoula reported that the CABES QA standards policy has been completed and submitted for consideration. The service offers a broad range of non-certified and some FETAC certified courses. She also sought submissions for “Simply Said”, the annual CABES publication.
  • CLLN:Marie informed the meeting of an Equality training day to be run on June 21stand that she is available to provide support on the use of both the Learner Forum and the Tutor Forum. She also stated that the Active Citzenship module is ready to be run in Miltown and Shannon Youthreach programmes. In relation to ICT Marie informed the meeting that 120 courses have been advertised on the web site with 70 plus network members utilising the site to advertise courses and events. There have been in excess of 10,000 hits for Feb/March/April. The Learner and Tutor fora are beginning to be used and she emphasised that providers should update their courses and delete old information. If any members have forgotten their log on details to contact Ann at / or 065 6895422. eLearning provision is being reviewed with providers.
  • CLLN:Seamus updated the group on progress on the 4 Community Development modules being run throughout the County and the positive feedback from learners. He informed of the level 6 Certificate in Community Development (NUI Maynooth) which will be provided in autumn. Matters arising from the FETAC seminar held in May include the development of cross moderation as a means of evaluating FETAC modules. As all tutors will need to be up to speed on the process of cross moderation a Networking Event is planned for May 18th in the Clare Youth Service between 7 and 9pm. Further details can be had by contacting Seamus at 065 6895420 or .

Review of Area Planning and partnership.

  • Seamus congratulated all involved on the huge work input to the Ennis Area Plan which is on the website and will be published shortly. He requested that anyone with photographs and permission to print same, would forward them to Aobhán as soon as possible. The combined area plans will meet the County Development Board strategy to draw up a county wide lifelong learning plan.
  • Seamus emphasised the importance of the partnership development programme that will be delivered by CLLN. The programme will focus on interagency workings i.e. what is expected within organisations with respect to partnership, memoranda of agreement, etc. Further details, Tangibles, Remit and Application Form are on the web site he encouraged those present to ensure that their organisation was represented at the sessions. Jacinta reported that her experience of the delivering organisation the sessions would be interesting and stimulating.

Input from CountyChildcare Committee (Karen McCarthy).

Responsibility for childcare has now moved to the Office of the Minister for Children and the new programme is called the National Childcare Investment programme. The new programme is more child-centred and flexible than the EOCP. Under the new programme Part Time notification status will be available and sessional care will be defined as up to 5 hours. There is a greater emphasis on pre-school education and after school care with specific supports and allowances in relation to childcare.

The number of services in the county has grown from 96 to 152 in four years. Under the new programme the CCC will have a significant role in assessing and recommending applications from the county for major funding and will be looking to ensure that (geographic) gaps are addressed. Currently the Committee can only measure supply and it engages in atwice-yearly assessment of needs of providers. It plans to work with the CDB to get a measure of the level of demand when the latter carries out a Household Survey of the county later this year. The group are working with the planning section of Clare County Council on ways in which the planning process for new childcare facilities can be made more effective. One issue highlighted by the work of the CCC is the difficulty of accessing certification beyond FETAC Level 5 for people working in the county. Details of training provided by Clare County Childcare Committee are on their website,

Input from Clare Accessible Transport (Laura Ward).

Originally east Clare Accessible transport, the organisation was set up in 1991 and began services in 2002 serving East Clare. It now has 4 buses on the road covering other parts of Clare and also south Galway. Laura explained that the service is about people rather than buses and services are developed around the needs of people. The service is an integrated rather that a designated service which means that all users can be catered for regardless of age or ability. The service runs approx 3,000 passenger trips per month and is co-ordinated from its office in Feakle. It is hoped that increased funding will allow for expansion to all parts of the county and talks are being held with the CDB on a possible trial of an AccessibleTown service. Laura explained that CAT works in co-operation with private and public providers to support access to transport and is not a competitor to private providers. Supporting people to get access to education, training, social and shopping services is the aim of the organisation and they are happy to work with groups to meet as broad a range of needs as possible. She outlined the Community Access service of the organisation and expressed appreciation to CLLN for placing the service timetables on the website as they do not have one of their own.

AOB.

  • Following a suggestion from Jacinta the meeting agreed to put on the next agenda an item to discuss the holding of an exhibition of Adult Learning options.
  • Mary pointed out that St Josephs training Centre is now enrolling students of any background provided they were over 18. They will be offering FETAC Level 3, 4, and 5 courses and also LCA.
  • The next meeting of the Ennis Area Learning Network will be held on Thursday 21st September at 2.15pm in the Clare Youth Service offices.

The meeting then ended.