Agenda item

This report provides an overview of the Alternative Education, Attendance and Behaviour Project, which is part of the One Council Programme, and updates Members on current progress. The report also provides some information about how the impact of the new service will be monitored and evaluated.    

Sara Williams (Acting Director of Children and Families) presented a report to the committee on the Alternative Education, Attendance and Behaviour Services One Council project; this project encompassed a fundamental review and redesign of these services to meet a complex range of policy, financial and operational challenges. It was explained that these services played a significant role in supporting Brent’s most vulnerable children and young people, and included the provision of education to pupils excluded from or unable to attend mainstream school and the provision of pre-exclusion and in-school behaviour support. Sara Williams advised that the project had involved a significant reduction of staff and emphasised that there had been a lot of valuable trade union involvement in the process. It was also intended that the new service be co-owned with schools and in line with this, schools had been involved in shaping the new service.

Sara Williams drew members’ attention to the factors which had driven the review highlighting that the new service aimed to provide better value for money and represented a more strategic service model with a heightened focus on preventative work. The new structure encompassed the amalgamation of the Key stage 3 and 4 Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) under a single Head Teacher and teaching staff; the replacement of the Brent Education Tuition Service (BETS) with a Health Needs Education Service, focussing specifically on pupils absent due to physical or mental health problems; and, a new multi-agency Inclusion Support Team to provide specialist support to pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties within the PRUs and indirectly, in schools. With regard to the implementation of the new service structure, there had been some initial challenges relating to the recruitment to some of the managerial posts but these had since been tackled and interviews were now being held.

In the ensuing discussion, the committee was advised by Lesley Gouldbourne (Teachers’ Panel) that the management committee for the new service had not yet met for the current term and that there were still some children attending the new Health Needs Education service that did not meet the criteria stipulated. It was further noted that £260k had been budgeted to commission provision for excluded Key Stage 1 and 2 aged pupils; however, with a cost per placement of £30 – 40k, this did not seem sufficient. The committee subsequently queried the trend of pupil exclusions and sought clarity regarding the savings achieved by the service restructure. A query was also raised regarding the offer of voluntary redundancies.

In response, Sara Williams advised that the management committee would have a programme of meetings timetabled going forward and was due to meet in March. With regard to the Health Needs Education Service, it was inevitable that some children who did not meet the criteria would occasionally be provided for by the service in the short term whilst suitable alternative provision was identified. There were few exclusions for KS1 and KS2 pupils and it was never more than three pupils at a time, thus the budgeted amount of £260k was considered to be sufficient. Details of the number of exclusions would be circulated to the committee.

Sara Williams further explained that the remodelling of the service had resulted in significant cost reductions, £480k of which had been directed towards commissioning new initiatives within the service. The full-year net cost of the new service, including the cost of the new initiatives, was estimated to be £4.787m, resulting in a £188,000 per annum saving; this remaining sum would be used to offset the historic deficit on the schools budget. Voluntary redundancies had been offered in two rounds as part of the restructure and applications were only accepted subject to the needs of the service.

The committee thanked Sara Williams for her contribution to the meeting and noted the report.