Agenda item

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education and Skills and the Interim Assistant Director - Education and Skills were invited to the Meeting to discuss the Special Education Needs/Disabilities (SEND) Strategy, the Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review and the feedback from the Joint Local Area SEND Inspection carried out by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The Panel was advised that the feedback from the Joint Inspection had been made public that morning and copies of the feedback letter were circulated during the meeting.

The Panel received a presentation from the Interim Assistant Director - Education and Skills.  He explained that the recent Inspection carried out by Ofsted and CQC covered the local area and looked at the provision in schools, health and council services.  The Inspectors looked at how the local offer worked, the joint commissioning arrangements with the health service and the graduated response and assessment process.

Unfortunately, the Inspectors found that the 2014 SEND Reforms and Code of Practice had not been implemented properly, this was disappointing for everyone concerned but there was a strong commitment to improve the Service. An Action Plan was being developed, focusing on the main areas of the local offer, joint commissioning arrangements and the graduated response.  This, it was hoped would re-build the trust with parents and carers as the service improved.

The main findings from the Inspection were:

·       the Leaders recognised that the local area had suffered from a lack of strategic direction in the past and the Director of Children’s Services acknowledged that there was still much work to be done

·       the Commissioner’s strategic oversight of delivery was weak and required greater priority on the quality of services

·       the local area had recently developed its SEND Strategy, but it was at an early stage of implementation

·       the Strategy contained many of the requisite actions that underpinned a comprehensive and well-evidenced Strategy

·       relationships with parent and carers were fragile

·       the local offer was not fit for purpose

·       Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans were not meeting timescales or of the quality required

·       there was a strong commitment and drive from some professionals on the ground in education, health and social care to improve the quality of the local area provision

·       Inspectors identified potential safeguarding concerns relating to the use of part-time timetables, children and young people being removed from school roll, and tracking vulnerable children

·       Leaders recognised the benefits of strengthening accountability for improved outcomes and better use of resources across education, health and social care

·       The determination of Leaders to ensure that the overall picture for children and young people who had SEN and/or disabilities improved was beginning to be recognised by professionals across the area

·       Recent changes of Leadership were described as a ‘breath of fresh air'.

During the discussion the following main points were made:

·       the  Action Plan agreed by all partners needed to be signed and submitted to Ofsted/CQC within 70 days

·       one of the main findings of the feedback was that there was currently no designated Clinical Officer or designated Medical Officer in post and the provisional arrangements to fill the vacancy didn't reflect the breadth of the role sufficiently in terms of both strategic and operational duties. This had now been rectified and a Clinical Officer had recently been appointed

·       although the conversion of all Statements of Special Education Needs to Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans met the statutory deadline of April 2018, the quality of EHC Plans was poor. Health and social care professionals were not actively involved in the assessment process and subsequent planning of support to meet children’s and young people’s needs. As a result, the child’s or young person’s health and social care needs were not being identified sufficiently well or being met effectively. Moving forward, it was important that the EHC Plans were more holistic.

·       The Panel asked to be provided with the number of children who were on part-time timetables, being removed from school rolls and the number of vulnerable children housed in the local area by London boroughs. The Interim Director advised that collating this information was not straight forward but that an estimate could be provided

·       The Panel was extremely concerned that the feedback had reported that there was a significant shortage in education provision in the local area for children and young people whose needs should be met in a specialist setting. Currently, 111 children were waiting to be allocated a place in a special school, and 25 children were not receiving education. The demand for specialist provision in the local area, when special schools were already full meant that some children and young people had to be educated out of County. As a result, additional financial demands were being made of the already overspent high needs funding budget. The Interim Director explained that there were plans to expand the Special School provision, but there had been many years of demand which had accumulated and built up.  September 2018 would be tight in terms of school places, but every child that needed a special school space would be allocated one.

·       The Panel were further advised that some children who were currently in a specialist provision would now not meet the threshold for a specialist place but would go to a mainstream school with appropriate support.

It was agreed that the Panel should consider the draft Action Plan in July prior to it being submitted to Ofsted.

The Panel also requested that the Ofsted letter in addition to being sent to all relevant Headteachers and Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators (SENCO's), should be sent to the SEN Governor of all Governing Bodies.