English: Can I thank Mr Reckless for his questions? With regard to the four priorities that have been identified by the members of the group, they build upon one another. First of all, the development of a workload and well-being charter and toolkit, that is the first step in the process of identifying within your school how you're doing, and to help you self-evaluate, and to be able to demonstrate as school leaders to your staff, and potential staff, that this is an issue that you take seriously if you have signed up to that charter. Then, of course, sometimes, schools will need particular help and support to implement new practices. That's where, then, we have the reducing workload resources and training pack, so having identified that maybe there is more that you need to do in your school, some schools may need some additional support to actually understand what best practice looks like and how they can take effective action if they have found themselves to be needing to do so. That's where the resources come in. Practices in schools change quite a lot, so those resources were developed primarily back in 2017, and we need to make sure that they're refreshed and updated for where we are now in the system. We also, then, need to work with our regional consortia, our school improvement services, because we need to see workload and bureaucracy reduction as part of a school improvement system, rather than just for its own sake. It's got to be there for a purpose. They will then have the lead responsibility to ensure that they are circulating training models and exemplar case studies across all four consortia, on a consistent basis, so no matter where you are working in Wales you will know that you are getting a set level of information and support, and also to help feed back to me on monitoring of uptake of those training materials, so that we in the centre have a better idea that, actually, these processes are being impactful in individual education settings. With regard to the middle tier and the role of local education authorities, can I assure the Member that they are represented on this group? So, they're not excluded from this group. They are key members of this group, and crucially, they too have agreed to sign up to the audit. There may well be a justifiable case why an individual local education authority requires schools to collect data in a certain way. They just need to demonstrate why that is relevant and why that is necessary, and that they're not just asking the schools to do that for the sake of it and that data, then, is not used to inform policy development from an LEA perspective. So, I've got no problem with collecting data as long as it is useful, it is used, and actually leads to raising standards in our schools. So if an individual local authority could justify that to its schools, its headteachers, there's no reason why they should be precluded from doing that, but you have to take the beam out of your own eye first, which is why we're starting with the Welsh Government requirements, to make sure that we are practising what we preach with regard to the data that we're asking schools to collect. Because how many times in this Chamber have we stood here and sometimes paucity of data is an issue for us, and then we say, 'Well, we should ask schools to do more of that'? So sometimes, we ourselves are responsible for driving this demand for schools to do more and more and more paperwork, and we need to stop and reflect and really think about what we're asking schools to do, and does it add value. With regard to business managers, some individual schools were already employing business managers. The pilot is an attempt to spread that best practice, and by using some Welsh Government money, match funded by local authority money, to be able to prove the case maybe to some of those people who doubt the value of those particular roles, that actually it can make a big difference in terms of reducing workload and driving other benefits by employing that person. Sometimes, understandably, individual schools, individual local authorities, may have been reluctant to be able to experiment and to drive these posts forward. By using Welsh Government money, we've tried to demonstrate - and hopefully the evaluation will demonstrate - the effectiveness of those roles and why they're important. In secondary schools, especially our large secondary schools, they are providing a really important role that is highly valued not only by headteachers and senior managers, but often really valued by the pupils, because there is a different type of professional with whom a pupil can have a relationship, and sometimes it is the school business managers and not the professional teachers that children will want to talk to about their problems. So actually, not only are they sorting out the paper, the photocopiers, all the orders, paying the bills, organising things; actually, many of them have really, really established important relationships with children within the schools, and they are valued members of the school community. I applaud all the business managers who are working so hard in our schools in Wales today, and hopefully the pilot will demonstrate their worth even more.
Welsh: A gaf i ddiolch i Mr Reckless am ei gwestiynau? O ran y pedair blaenoriaeth a nodwyd gan aelodau'r grŵp, maen nhw'n adeiladu ar ei gilydd. Yn gyntaf oll, datblygiad y siarter a'r pecyn cymorth llwyth gwaith a lles, dyna'r cam cyntaf yn y broses o nodi ble yr ydych chi arni yn eich ysgol, ac i'ch helpu chi i hunanwerthuso, a gallu dangos fel arweinyddion ysgol i'ch staff, a darpar staff, fod hwn yn fater yr ydych yn ei gymryd o ddifrif os ydych chi wedi ymrwymo i'r siarter hwnnw. Yna, wrth gwrs, weithiau, bydd angen help a chefnogaeth arbennig ar ysgolion i roi arferion newydd ar waith. Dyna ble, wedyn, y mae gennym ni'r adnoddau a'r pecyn hyfforddi sy'n lleihau'r llwyth gwaith, gan nodi, efallai, fod angen i chi wneud mwy yn eich ysgol, efallai y bydd angen rhywfaint o gymorth ychwanegol ar rai ysgolion i ddeall yn union beth yw arfer gorau a sut y gallan nhw gymryd camau effeithiol os ydyn nhw wedi canfod bod angen iddyn nhw wneud hynny. Dyna lle mae'r adnoddau yn dod i'r amlwg. Mae arferion mewn ysgolion yn newid cryn dipyn, ac felly cafodd yr adnoddau hynny eu datblygu'n bennaf yn 2017, ac mae angen i ni sicrhau eu bod yn cael eu hadnewyddu a'u diweddaru o ran ble'r ydym ni yn y system erbyn hyn. Mae angen hefyd i ni weithio, wedyn, gyda'n consortia rhanbarthol, ein gwasanaethau gwella ysgolion, oherwydd y mae angen i ni weld lleihau llwyth gwaith a biwrocratiaeth yn rhan o system i wella ysgolion, yn hytrach nag er ei fwyn ei hunan yn unig. Mae'n rhaid bod diben iddo. Nhw wedyn fydd â'r cyfrifoldeb arweiniol o sicrhau eu bod yn dosbarthu modelau hyfforddi ac astudiaethau achosion enghreifftiol ar draws y pedwar consortiwm, a hynny yn gyson, felly ni waeth ble byddwch chi'n gweithio yng Nghymru, fe fyddwch chi'n gwybod eich bod yn cael cyfradd benodedig o wybodaeth a chymorth, a hefyd i helpu i roi adborth i mi ar fonitro'r niferoedd sy'n defnyddio'r deunyddiau hyfforddi hynny, fel bod gennym ni yn y canol well syniad o ran bod y prosesau hyn, mewn gwirionedd, yn cael effaith mewn lleoliadau addysg unigol. O ran yr haen ganol a swyddogaeth awdurdodau addysg lleol, a gaf i sicrhau'r Aelod eu bod nhw wedi eu cynrychioli ar y grŵp hwn? Felly, nid ydyn nhw'n cael eu heithrio o'r grŵp hwn. Maen nhw'n aelodau allweddol o'r grŵp hwn, ac yn hollbwysig, maen nhw hefyd wedi cytuno i ymrwymo i'r archwiliad. Efallai fod cyfiawnhad mewn achos o awdurdod addysg lleol unigol yn ei gwneud yn ofynnol i ysgolion gasglu data mewn ffordd arbennig. Mae angen iddyn nhw ddangos, er hynny, pam mae hynny'n berthnasol a pham mae hynny'n angenrheidiol, ac nad ydyn nhw ddim ond yn gofyn i'r ysgolion wneud hynny am ddim rheswm, ac nad yw'r data wedyn yn cael eu defnyddio i lywio'r gwaith o ddatblygu polisi o safbwynt yr awdurdod addysg lleol. Felly, nid oes gennyf i broblem gyda chasglu data ar yr amod eu bod yn ddefnyddiol, yn cael eu defnyddio, ac yn arwain mewn gwirionedd at godi safonau yn ein hysgolion. Felly, pe gallai awdurdod lleol unigol gyfiawnhau hynny i'w ysgolion, i'w benaethiaid, nid oes rheswm pam y dylid eu hatal rhag gwneud hynny, ond mae'n rhaid i chi dynnu'r trawst o'ch llygad eich hun yn gyntaf, a dyna pam yr ydym ni'n dechrau gyda gofynion Llywodraeth Cymru, i sicrhau ein bod ni'n ymarfer yr hyn a bregethwn o ran y data yr ydym ni'n gofyn i ysgolion eu casglu. Oherwydd sawl gwaith yn y Siambr hon yr ydym ni wedi sefyll yma ac weithiau mae prinder data yn broblem i ni, ac yna rydym ni'n dweud, 'Wel, fe ddylem ni ofyn i ysgolion wneud mwy o hynny'? Felly, y ni ein hunain, weithiau, sy'n gyfrifol am sbarduno'r galw hwn am i ysgolion wneud mwy a mwy a mwy o waith papur, ac mae angen i ni bwyllo a myfyrio a meddwl o ddifrif am yr hyn yr ydym ni'n gofyn i ysgolion ei wneud, ac a yw hynny'n ychwanegu gwerth. O ran y rheolwyr busnes, roedd rhai ysgolion eisoes yn cyflogi rheolwyr busnes. Mae'r arbrawf yn ymdrech i ledaenu'r arfer gorau hwnnw a, thrwy ddefnyddio rhywfaint o arian Llywodraeth Cymru, gydag arian hafal gan yr awdurdodau lleol, i allu profi'r achos efallai i rai o'r bobl hynny sy'n amau gwerth y swyddi penodol hyn, sydd yn gallu gwneud gwahaniaeth mawr o ran lleihau llwyth gwaith ac ysgogi buddion eraill drwy gyflogi'r unigolyn hwnnw. Yn ddealladwy, weithiau, efallai y bu ysgolion unigol ac awdurdodau lleol unigol yn gyndyn o arbrofi ac ysgogi'r swyddi hyn. Drwy ddefnyddio arian Llywodraeth Cymru, rydym ni wedi ceisio dangos - a gobeithio y bydd y gwerthusiad yn dangos - effeithiolrwydd y swyddi hynny a pham y maen nhw'n bwysig. Mewn ysgolion uwchradd, yn enwedig yn yr ysgolion uwchradd mawr sydd gennym ni, maen nhw'n cynnig swyddogaeth bwysig iawn sy'n cael ei gwerthfawrogi'n fawr nid yn unig gan benaethiaid ac uwch reolwyr, ond yn aml yn cael ei gwerthfawrogi'n fawr gan y disgyblion, oherwydd bod math gwahanol o weithiwr proffesiynol yno y gall disgybl gael perthynas ag ef, a bydd plant yn dymuno siarad â rheolwyr busnes yr ysgol am eu problemau weithiau ac nid â'r athrawon proffesiynol. Felly mewn gwirionedd, nid yn unig eu bod nhw'n cael trefn ar y papur, y llungopiwyr, yr holl archebion, yn talu'r biliau, yn trefnu pethau eraill; mewn gwirionedd, mae llawer ohonyn nhw wedi sefydlu perthynas wirioneddol bwysig gyda phlant yn yr ysgolion, ac maen nhw'n aelodau gwerthfawr o gymuned yr ysgol. Rwy'n cymeradwyo'r holl reolwyr busnes sy'n gweithio mor galed yn ein hysgolion yng Nghymru heddiw, a gobeithio y bydd y cynllun arbrofol yn dangos eu gwerth mewn modd hyd yn oed mwy amlwg.