The Board:

v  Noted that the improvement work is directly concerned with equalities and by driving improvement work will improve outcomes for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities e.g. importance of attainment in terms of both socialization and the ability to engage with education and development.
Noted that with regard to Education and Health Care Plans (EHCP) the inspectors were impressed with the progress that had been made in terms of completing assessments in a timely way e.g. that quality of all EHCP’s was consistent in all assessments and the resulting plans. 

v  Noted that as part of the improvement planning (i) there was a need within the next 12 months to strengthen the systematic completion and the quality of annual reviews of EHCP’s; and (ii) there was a commitment to significant additional resourcing, focused on those annual reviews.

v  Noted that work is being undertaken to develop the holistic pathways that would provide supportive therapies to help maintain good health and wellbeing for children and families

v  Noted that the CCG has invested additional funds over the next two years to help clear the backlog and address the waiting times regarding EHCP’s.

v  Noted that with regards to communication and engagement with parents there are plans that are being developed and produced with parents and carers around (i) better communication, in particular to ensure that every parent is clear about the support services that they are entitled to; (ii) better engagement with parents and carers through a program of listening events as well as building on the existing strengths for parent representatives such as the Parent Care Forum and the SEND parent champions; (iii) every parent or carer with a young person who has special educational needs or disability feel that they are co-producing the educational health and care plan; and (iv) parents and carers feeling that they are deeply engaged in the annual review of their services to meet their child’s needs.

v  Noted that the Service would welcome the continued support and challenge that the Board has provided over the past 12 months on SEND e.g., a six-monthly review with the Board to see what measures have been taken to demonstrate the kind of momentum of improvement against all the priority areas.

v  Agreed that it was immensely helpful to have such detailed contributions from all the relevant partner agencies at the Board.

The Board received an update on the SEND improvement plan from Christine McGinnes (Service Head Education & Partnership).

In response to the briefing the following discussions took place:

JSNA

Simon Twite (Public Health Programme - Lead Early Years) was thanked for his work on integrating the SEND plan into the JSNA refresh.

Risks

A poor track record of sharing data and professionals speaking as one voice on an agreed narrative, were identified as potential risks during the inspection.

Given the high needs funding block, it was noted there was a growing demand for support shown by a higher uptake of education health and care plans (EHCPs) and an increase in SEND Transport need.  Officers said the council had excellent provision for SEND was committed to providing a range of support including continued provision in mainstream schools and special schools.

Rationing

A Member asked whether the action plans and recovery plans were working or if rationing was required. Officers explained that the recovery plan for the Dedicated School Grand had been submitted to the Department for Education and the council was awaiting a response from the government regarding additional grant funding.

Officers said they were reviewing the EHCP process to ensure it was rigorous enough and EHCPs were suited to the people receiving them. There were no plans to ration EHCPs but it was likely some flexibility would be required to ensure the system was working properly, such as providing earlier intervention for speech and language issues. Officers informed the Board that a consultation was also underway to review a reduction of top up funding and gather views on the level of funding for the different bands of EHCP. They also said council was also looking to improve transport and support more people to travel independently.

Members were encouraged to attend the SEND event roadshows and get in touch with Christine for details.

ACTION: For Christine to circulate the SEND Code of Practice and the SEND Self-Assessment document to the Board.

RESOLVED:

1.    To note the update.