Agenda item
Strategy for Special Educational Needs and Disability
This report describes the work currently being undertaken to improve our approach to meeting the needs of pupils and students with special educational needs (SEN). A report on the Special Educational Needs and Disability Strategy, due to be considered by Executive at time of writing, is attached as Appendix A.
Minutes:
A report was presented to the committee by Sara Williams (Assistant Director, Early Help and Education) on the work currently being undertaken to improve the council’s approach to meeting the needs of pupils and students with special educational needs (SEN). The committee was advised that the Executive at is meeting on 11 February 2013 had approved a new Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Strategy for 2013-2016. The strategy formed part of the One Council SEN Phase 1 and 2 projects and linked into the Children and Young People’s Plan and the Health and Wellbeing Strategy. It was a high-level document which set out the challenges and the principles underpinning the council’s approach to SEND provision and included an action plan for delivery. There had been a two stage consultation on the strategy with all partners including schools, governing bodies, health services, voluntary agencies and parents. The committee attention was drawn to the three broad principles that had been developed through the consultation process and which underpinned the strategy. These focussed on promoting inclusion and independence, making the best possible use of available resources, and effective partnership working to ensure that the right support was received by families at the right time. The overarching aim of the work around SEN provision was to enhance the quality and quantity of SEN services within the borough and to reduce costs.
Sara Williams explained that the new strategy had been developed amid increasing challenges for the provision of SEND services, which principally related to a rapid increase in demand. These challenges had led to a significant overspend on the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and central service expenditure. In meeting these challenges the council had made a number of significant achievements. These included a reduction in the number of Statements of SEN produced and an improvement in the efficiency of the process. This had partially been achieved by robustly applying the thresholds for Statements of SEN. There had also been a reduction in placements out of the borough, and an increase in SEN school paces in the borough. In addition to these local challenges, government reforms of the legislative framework for SEND were scheduled to be implemented during the period covered by the new strategy. Suggested flexibility had therefore been built into the strategy to accommodate these changes.
Councillor Arnold (Lead Member for Children and Families) reiterated the significance of the challenges around SEND provision and the achievements that had been made. She noted that the council was now on target to meet the overspend on the Schools’ budget.
Several issues were raised in the subsequent discussion. Mrs Gouldbourne congratulated the council on the consultation conducted on the new SEND strategy and commented that the strategy would involve a heightened role for staff. The committee queried why a joined up approach had not been pursued previously. Further details were sought regarding the phase 2 SEN project workstreams, with particular reference to the workstream regarding culture change. Additional information was also sought regarding the changes in relation to the Statements of SEN.
Sara Williams advised that there had been a considerable amount of work conducted to achieve a joined up approach. In the past it had been particularly difficult to navigate the issue of separate funding streams and it was an underlying goal of a number of government initiatives to enable funding to be brought together. With regard to the workstreams which had been agreed as part of the Strategy by the Executive, Sara Williams reiterated some of the successes that had been achieved and outlined some of the areas planned for development. The committee was advised that additional SEN school places had been provided and the council was now on track to have sufficient SEN school places. The council was currently looking at the process of commissioning post 16 SEN places to develop a more coherent offer by working directly with local colleges. It was considered that there was considerable potential to create an attractive offer which would help promote independence for young people with SEN. The council was also examining how SEN was funded in schools and was developing a financial model to explore the impact of national changes to the funding regime. The reference to cultural change was one common to all One Council projects. The key cultural change implicit in the work around SEN was the focus on inclusion.
In response to the queries regarding the SEN Statement process, Sara Williams explained that Brent had previously had one of the worst performances in the country regarding the production of SEN Statements; it now completed 100 per cent of Statements on time. There were less children being put through the SEN Statement process as the associated thresholds were being more robustly applied. This enabled funding to be appropriately directed to supporting children with less complex needs, rather than being spent on taking them through a process designed to accommodate children with highly complex SEN needs. More cases were being taken to tribunal to appeal the council’s choice to not pursue a Statement of SEN for particular children and the council was doing well in winning these tribunals and demonstrating that the thresholds had been applied in a fair and transparent manor.
Priya Mistry (Policy and Performance Officer) explained that a copy of the approved SEND Strategy for 2013-16 would be circulated to the committee in advance of its next meeting. It was agreed that some time would be allotted at the next meeting to consider the strategy document.
RESOLVED:
That the report be noted.
Supporting documents: