Agenda item

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Education and Skills, the Director of Children, Families and Communities (DCS), the Interim Assistant Director – Education & Skills, Children, Families and Communities Directorate, the Interim SEND Group Manager and the Chief Operating Officer and Lead Executive for Quality and Performance NHS Redditch and Bromsgrove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), NHS South Worcestershire CCG  and NHS Wyre Forest CCG attended the Meeting to discuss the Joint Local Area Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Inspection - Local Area Action Plan.

The CMR advised the Panel that between 5 March 2018 and 9 March 2018, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) conducted a joint inspection of the Local Area of Worcestershire to judge the effectiveness of the area in implementing the special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.

As a result of the findings of the Inspection and in accordance with the Children Act 2004 (Joint Area Reviews) Regulations 2015, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) determined that a Written Statement of Action was required because of significant areas of weakness in the local area’s practice. HMCI also determined that the local authority and the area’s clinical commissioning group (CCG) were jointly responsible for submitting a written statement to Ofsted/CQC within 70 days of the publication of the Inspection Report (by 20 August 2018). In order to take into account the views of the Panel, the CMR was intending to make the decision to approve the written statement for submission to Ofsted/CQC around 9 August.

The CMR was currently receiving weekly briefings with the Assistant Director, Education and Skills on the progress of the Written Statement of Action, where he would explore any specific issues of concern.  Update reports to the Cabinet and Council would follow a quarterly cycle for the first 12 months, supported with 6 monthly issue specific reports.

The Panel received a presentation and copies were circulated, which outlined:

·       The Statement of Action

·       Accessibility

·       Action Plans: Structure and Content

·       Monitoring and accountability

·       Governance

Discussion Points

·       It was suggested that the term 'local offer' wasn't easily understood and confusing for people looking to access support. It was confirmed that this was a term from the Children and Families Act (March 2014) used by all local authorities.

·       It was confirmed that this was the first Inspection since the 2014 SEND Reforms, however the Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review, between the 4 and 7 December 2017 had already highlighted some areas of concern and work was already underway to address some of the issues.

·       Between 60 and 70 out of 150 local authorities with a local offer of SEND had been inspected and approximately a third of those had received a letter requesting a written statement of action.

·       It was suggested that key concern 1 "the safeguarding concerns around: children and young people from London boroughs who were housed locally; the use of long-term part-time timetables; children taken off roll and missing education;" was very worrying.  The DCS advised that very often the families placed in Worcestershire from London Borough's didn’t have children who were looked after children and as a result the DCS of the placing authority wasn’t obliged to notify the DCS of receiving authority when this was happening.  The DCS was expressing concerns about this nationally and also writing to London boroughs DCS to request notification of families who were relocating to Worcestershire including vulnerable children so their arrival could be tracked appropriately.

·       In order for the Council to identify individuals and levels of vulnerability, schools were being reminded of their duties to pursue the transfer of pupil records with the previous school and to notify the Local Authority of pupils who leave and were admitted to the school.

·       There was an increasing number of children who were being educated at home (currently approximately 700) and for some children this was well organised and supported but for others, it was a tactic to avoid education for varying reasons.  It was confirmed that Worcestershire can and do issue penalty notices for non-school attendance.

·       For children taken off roll and missing education, schools were being reminded of their responsibility to inform the County Council so that more robust tracking to monitor this could be carried out.

·       It was confirmed that it was important for children to regularly attend school as they were better safeguarded when they were in school.

·       In response to the concern about how schools managed children with Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who were often on part-time timetables, the Panel were advised that the SEND Action Plan included a graduated response to building capacity in schools in order to be able to manage this appropriately.

·       The audit process for the Action Plan included regional Ofsted oversight, the County Council's Internal Audit process and Scrutiny.

·       A Councillor suggested that non-qualified teaching staff were carrying out exclusions in Academies, the Assistant Director pointed out that this was not possible as all exclusions were decided by the Headteacher and that there was a prescribed procedure in place for the process.

·       It was suggested the Local Offer website was an important part of the process, in ensuring the local offer was accessible in a variety of ways and at all levels. It was confirmed that appropriate monitoring would be carried out to ensure this was the case.

·       To ensure that the SEND Strategy was accessible to all, an easy read version was being published and the CCG's were working with GP's to ensure that they were able to access the information and accurately signpost patients.

·       It was confirmed that the Local Offer was on track to be launched in the autumn term.

·       The review of Education Health and Care Plan's (EHC Plan) included those already in place and going through the process.

·       The Assistant Director advised that the EHC Plan review would look at placement trends of children in special schools.  It was noted that more children were attending special schools in Worcestershire than similar local authorities and it was important to ensure that there was sufficient capacity and support to meet the demand.

·       12% of schools were represented at the first consultation meeting with early year's settings, headteachers, governors and SENCO's to understand their responsibilities and support available to deliver a graduated response.  It was suggested that direct correspondence with Governors, rather than through generic correspondence with schools may help to establish a better rapport with governors and in turn better engagement with schools.

·       The development of a framework for the expectations and practice standards for the external SEND specialists had not yet been started.

·       Concern was expressed about why some post-16 pathways were effective and others were not.

·       It was agreed that the SEND Action Plan would be amended to include some awareness raising with parents in respect of schools responsibilities for part-time timetabling for children with SEND.

·       The SEND Performance Dashboard would be shared with the Panel.

·       The identification of schools with the lowest performing cohorts of pupils with SEND (attainment & progress) was being discussed with the Assistant Director, the Group Manager SEND as well as being a matter for consideration at the SEND Improvement Board and Vulnerable Children Partnership Board.

·       Babcock were preparing data over the summer period to help with the identification of the lowest performing cohorts (attainment and progress) which would lead to a structured set of actions designed to support the school or setting to put an improvement process in place.

·        The Statement said that too few EHC Plans were completed in a timely way, it was confirmed that EHC final Plan must be issued within 20 weeks of the initial request and that there was a variety of reasons why they were delayed, including volume of plans being dealt with and additional information requests.

·       The CCG confirmed that an Executive Lead had been appointed to take an active part in implementing the actions from the Plan and working with the Worcestershire NHS Health and Care Trust.

·       It was important that Children with Disabilities Register was updated as this would assist with the planning process.

·        All members of the workforce were being invited, through service channels, to take part in an on-line quiz about the SEND Code of Practice – it was suggested by a councillor that this should be mandatory.

·        A member suggested that children could be involved in the communication of action being taken to improve.