LWL Quarterly Briefing 3: Strengthening Governance for Sustainable Delivery

Part of the Learn Without Limits CIC knowledge base for ALN families in Wales.

Public write-up of our September 2026 quarterly briefing, with an October update on Finance Director recruitment.

Our March briefing introduced LWL’s Prevent, Bridge and Progress model. Our June briefing examined the six workstreams, delivery risks and resources needed to put that model into practice.

September focused on strengthening the governance needed to take the work forward.

As agreed, we paused development work for the quarter while we began formal Board recruitment. Our knowledge base, blog, online community and a number of events continued during that period.

We also registered Learn Without Limits CIC with Companies House and worked with Social Business Wales to review whether our governance model would support the organisation’s longer-term needs.

This was a deliberate response to the dependencies discussed in June. Expanding delivery requires funding, appropriate oversight and people with the capacity to take responsibility for the work.

Following through on the June briefing

June’s briefing identified technical governance, infrastructure funding and limited core capacity as significant constraints.

The agreed pause allowed us to focus on Board recruitment and the organisational arrangements needed before making further development commitments.

It also gave us an opportunity to distinguish more clearly between strategic oversight, specialist advice and day-to-day delivery.

A director can provide oversight and challenge without having the capacity to undertake a technical build. An adviser can help assess an approach without becoming responsible for maintaining the resulting service.

Our September roadmap makes those responsibilities more explicit.

What continued during the quarter

The development pause did not mean that LWL stopped operating.

We maintained our knowledge base and blog, continued our online community and ran a number of events. These activities kept information and connection available to families while we concentrated on governance.

They also maintained the relationship between our organisational planning and the experiences families bring to LWL.

Our free information work remains a substantial part of the programme. It helps families understand terminology, identify questions and find routes towards appropriate support across education, health and social care.

The blog was always intended to become a primary discovery route into LWL. Families should be able to find useful guidance through search without first needing to join a social media group.

Our existing online community also continued. Maintaining that community is separate from developing the proposed LWL-owned platform.

Registration and our work with Social Business Wales

We registered Learn Without Limits CIC with Companies House and worked with Social Business Wales to review our governance model against our longer-term plans.

We want to preserve the parent-led purpose that brought LWL into existence while building an organisation capable of sharing responsibility and sustaining its work.

Registration is one step in that development. Governance also needs to work through clear responsibilities, appropriate decision-making and financial controls.

The September roadmap therefore includes establishing and strengthening arrangements for conflicts of interest, access to systems, decision-making and specialist review.

These are practical requirements for an organisation preparing to manage funding and develop services on which people may come to rely.

Board recruitment and specialist advice

During the quarter, we interviewed several candidates for the Technical Director role and invited people to contribute to a technical advisory panel.

This work seeks to bring additional expertise into decisions about our digital plans.

The Technical Director role is intended to provide Board-level oversight and technical challenge. The proposed advisory panel would contribute specialist advice and peer review.

We will announce further appointments as they are confirmed. Interviews and invitations represent progress, but they do not mean that every role has been filled or that the panel is fully established.

October update welcoming Matthew Dymond

Since the September briefing, we have successfully recruited Matthew Dymond, who is completing onboarding as LWL’s Finance Director.

Welsh-born Matthew brings more than 20 years’ experience in accounting and financial management. His background includes group financial control, budgeting, cash flow management, internal controls and financial systems implementation.

He also has experience supporting international subsidiaries and explaining complex financial information to colleagues without a finance background.

His experience will help us scrutinise delivery costs, strengthen financial oversight and assess the sustainability of future plans.

An early priority will be reviewing our cost assumptions and funding requirements. This includes distinguishing initial expenditure from recurring commitments and checking for overlaps between workstreams.

Strengthening programme management

During this period, LWL’s founder and Programme Lead, Steph Shobiye, also completed PRINCE2 Agile Foundation certification.

This builds on her previous programme and PMO experience. It supports the structured approach being taken to priorities, dependencies, review and delivery planning.

The model remains Prevent Bridge Progress

The purpose of LWL has not changed.

Most of our work remains focused on prevention. We help families understand systems earlier, recognise difficulties and navigate towards appropriate support before situations become more difficult to resolve.

Bridge is our temporary safety net where participation has broken down. Its purpose is to help prevent a gap in education, training or other opportunities becoming prolonged disconnection.

Bridge does not replace statutory education, health or social care services.

Progress is the handover towards appropriate established routes, including education, training and employment. For parent carers, that may also include returning to work or learning as family circumstances stabilise.

LWL’s role is to help families move towards sustainable next steps. We are not seeking to become their permanent destination.

Our first briefing write-up explains this model in more detail.

Where the six workstreams stand

The September briefing set out the proposed activation order while distinguishing existing activity from future development.

This sequence is a working baseline for Board review and challenge. It is not a fully funded timetable or confirmation that every proposed service is ready to launch.

The September roadmap identifies WS1 as the next digital development priority. That does not remove the wider technical dependency identified in June. Both the community platform and navigation service need appropriate technical oversight and delivery capacity.

Reviewing the roadmap before committing to delivery

The briefing proposed technical and financial review before major delivery or scaling decisions.

Technical review needs to consider what should be built, bought or configured, alongside privacy, security, accessibility and the risks of depending on particular suppliers.

It also needs to consider how student or volunteer contributions could be supervised and incorporated safely.

Financial review needs to examine the cost baseline, staffing assumptions, recurring expenditure, cash flow and sustainability.

The intended result is a roadmap and cost model that the Board can scrutinise before the organisation makes larger commitments.

This review should be capable of changing the plan. A working baseline gives people something concrete to question, rather than asking them to endorse decisions already treated as settled.

The owned community platform

The longer-term proposal is to develop LWL-owned community infrastructure that reduces dependence on commercial social media platforms.

For families, the purpose would be more dependable access to community information and connection.

The roadmap envisages discovery, platform selection or configuration, a limited pilot, testing and a staged transition. It also includes time to stabilise the service and learn from use.

Moderation, privacy, accessibility, Welsh-language needs and ongoing cost all need consideration. So does the ability to leave a supplier or change approach if the chosen platform no longer meets our needs.

We are not announcing an immediate migration or asking families to move before suitable arrangements exist.

The parent navigation service

The roadmap places further navigation-tool development after the owned community platform.

This reflects the need to sequence work around available resources and establish manageable delivery responsibilities.

Further development would require a governed build process, testing, release management and sustainable maintenance. Additional integrations or features would need justification through evidence and capacity.

A prototype can help test an idea. Operating a dependable service creates a longer-term commitment to the people using it.

Funding must provide actual capacity

A central principle of the briefing was that funding needs to unlock named responsibility and sufficient capacity.

A proposal can appear affordable if essential work is assumed to happen informally. That leaves costs hidden and creates dependence on unpaid effort that may be difficult to sustain.

The roadmap identifies a paid Technical Lead as an important delivery dependency. The role would provide accountable day-to-day technical delivery, distinct from Board oversight or advisory input.

Costing needs to include appropriate employment assumptions, ongoing maintenance and support, documentation, backups, access management and handover.

Stronger governance will help us scrutinise those assumptions and prepare credible funding proposals. It does not guarantee successful applications, and an application should not be presented as secured delivery.

Safeguarding and accessibility throughout the programme

The September roadmap treats safeguarding, privacy, accessibility and information governance as continuing responsibilities.

They affect platform choices, access arrangements, the information collected and how contributions are supervised. They also affect what the organisation can reasonably promise.

Welsh-language needs must be considered during planning, even where additional delivery capacity will develop in phases.

As the programme grows, we need arrangements that can be documented, reviewed and handed over. Families should not have to depend on one person retaining all the knowledge required to keep a service operating.

Actions following the September briefing

The next actions are to:

1. Complete Matthew’s Finance Director onboarding and the Companies House appointment update.
2. Clarify the outcome of Technical Director recruitment and confirm appointments when agreed.
3. Follow up invitations to the proposed technical advisory panel.
4. Review the technical roadmap and delivery sequence with the appropriate expertise.
5. Review the financial baseline, staffing assumptions and recurring costs.
6. Use that scrutiny to inform funding proposals and decisions about restarting development.
7. Maintain the knowledge base, blog and online community, with events planned within available capacity.
8. Continue reporting publicly on what is operating, what remains proposed and what depends on funding.

Continuing the quarterly conversation

Our briefings provide a public opportunity to explain progress, identify constraints and invite practical input.

March introduced the model. June examined delivery. September concentrated on the governance and capacity required to take that delivery forward responsibly.

Thank you to the families who continue to contribute, those who attended events, the candidates who took part in recruitment and the people considering advisory involvement.

Thank you also to Social Business Wales for supporting our governance work, and to Matthew as he joins LWL.

Future briefing and event information will be shared through our events page. Our website and blog remain the public routes into our work.

Previous quarterly briefings

• Quarterly Briefing 1 Prevention, Bridging and Progression in the ALN System
• Quarterly Briefing 2 From Insight to Delivery in the ALN System Wales

This article is the public write-up of LWL’s September 2026 quarterly briefing, published in October. The Finance Director announcement is a subsequent October update. The roadmap remains subject to review, funding and available delivery capacity.