Agenda item
SEND Improvement Plan
- Meeting of "Hybrid" Meeting, Tower Hamlets Health and Wellbeing Board, Tuesday, 29th June, 2021 5.15 p.m. (Item 1.6)
- View the background to item 1.6
Minutes:
The Board received a briefing that provided an update on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) improvement work, looking at the priority areas and the key issues, main activities, and current challenges for each. The main points raised as part of the discussion may be summarised as follows:
The Board:
v Noted the importance of the transition for children and young people with SEND especially with regards to the provision for these students at key stage 3 and key stage 4 e.g. Young peoples’ annual reviews at Year 9 do not routinely make adequate plans for transition to adulthood and any appropriate services.
v Noted that it is recognised that there is a need to improve the understanding of projected future demand for SEND and specialist education provision in particular has been identified as an area for coproduction with the parents and carers.
v Noted that senior leaders recognise the importance of continued investment in the early identification and considerable joint work has been delivered in order that families remain known to services, to ensure that no child with additional needs is missed.
v Noted that that effective processes are in place to ensure that vulnerable children with additional needs, including those where there are safeguarding concerns, are kept in view by services.
v Observed however that SEND is not systematically considered as a relevant need by all parts of the workforce. This is borne out in how consistently services outside of Education monitor and record information around SEND status which has the potential to negatively impact on efforts to identify and meet need in a timely way.
v Agreed therefore that it is important to keep the momentum going on the improvement journey. In particular Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) are an area of concern as whilst progress has been made both in the working through the backlog that had built up due to Covid and the aim is to have all of those outstanding cases resolved by before the start of the next school year. However, the overall timeliness of plans issued is 27% (this includes the backlog) with the timeliness of plans since October at 53% therefore this needs to be considered as it impacts on the overview of this service and therefore the quality of annual reviews.
v Acknowledged that going forward that it was important to (i) strengthen the understanding of SEND priorities for all partners across the local area so that all parts of the system work together to address issues and drive improvement; (ii) secure the commitment of partners around areas of work which are ‘in development’ and would benefit from a more joined up approach; and (iii) support partners to deliver key messages to wider staff and colleagues about their role in delivering the best possible services and outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
v Noted that SEND Local Offer focus group with parents and young people is meeting on termly basis. In addition, the Young People’s Zone was launched in April and “You said We did” feedback had been made available on the Council’s own website.
v Agreed that it needed to continue to monitor and track the measure of progress of (SEND) improvement work, looking at (i) the priority areas; (ii) the key issues; (iii) main activities; and the current challenges for each area; (iv) the effectiveness of programs and initiatives that are in place to support young people who have SEN to have better outcomes when making the transition to adulthood e.g. Higher education and employment; (v) how schools are supported by the local area in assessing and meeting the needs of children and young people with EHCPs and at SEND Support; (vi) how relationships with the service users and their families are maintained; and (vii) the design and monitoring of services.
v Noted that(i) “Children and Families Act” brought a clear expectation that most pupils with SEND are to be taught in a mainstream school, and that every teacher is a teacher of SEND; and (ii) the Tower Hamlets Education Partnership is strengthening their role in respect of SEND e.g., a substantive training offer is being developed.
v Agreed that (i) there cannot be a school improvement without improvement for children with SEND; and (ii) EHCP should be co-produced with families as it is an effective method of development.
1. Accordingly the Board noted the contents of the presentation and agreed to consider the issue’s raised in more detail at future meetings.
Supporting documents:
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Cover report for SEND Improvement Update, item 1.6
PDF 129 KB
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SEND Improvement Update_v1, item 1.6
PDF 318 KB