Agenda item
Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) - Update on Specialist provision and the implementation of the SEND Reforms
The report provides an update on Brent’s progress in delivering the national programme of reforms as well as information about current specialist provision in the Borough.
Minutes:
The committee received a report detailing the progress made in delivering reforms to services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These reforms were required following the introduction of the Children and Families Act 2014 and a new SEND Code of Practice in 2015. Drawing members’ attention to the main changes in this new Code of Practice, Sandra Bingham (Head of Inclusion), highlighted that these were quite far reaching and included replacing Statements of SEN with Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans. Further changes included involving children and young people and their parents in decision making, a stronger focus on promoting high aspirations for children and young people with SEND, and a greater emphasis on supporting successful transitions to adulthood. The requirements to pursue joint commissioning with health and to publish a ‘local offer’ (a single point of information regarding support, services and opportunities in the borough for SEND children and young people) had also been introduced.
Members heard that Brent was progressing well with regard to these changes. Sandra Bingham explained that the council was on track to meet the 2018 deadline for converting Statements of SEN to EHC plans. New innovative ways of working to involve parents and young people in decision making were being explored and implemented, including the offer of a co-production meeting with parents and young people in the development of EHC plans. The Westminster Society had been engaged to facilitate the Parent Carer Forum, which had been struggling under the burden of administrative tasks. The administration would now be managed by the Westminster Society thereby allowing more time for participation of the forum’s membership in the development of SEND services with the local authority. The committee was further informed that work had been undertaken with partner agencies and schools to develop a transition protocol to support a seamless transition into adulthood and ensure that young people could exert choice over their lives. Similarly, joint commissioning of services was underway and the council was working closely with health colleagues around paediatric therapy, speech and language and occupational therapy services. The Brent Local Offer had been published in 2014 and feedback on this was welcomed. Sandra Bingham concluded her introduction of the report, noting that demand was growing for specialist provision in Brent and the council was exploring how this could be developed locally.
During the following discussion, members queried how well Brent performed in identifying children with SEND and in providing effective support to improve outcomes and life chances. Members also sought further details on the improvement made to outcomes as a result of the introduction of EHCs over Statements of SEN. An assessment of the success of partnership working with health services was requested. The committee questioned the level of engagement with parents in co-production meetings regarding EHCs and sought further details of the track record of the Westminster Society. Noting the small number of placements provided in the successful internship scheme, a member queried how work on post-16 opportunities could be improved.
Several queries were subsequently made regarding the transition from SEN statements to EHC plans, including whether the 2018 deadline would be met, whether the target of completing 473 of these by December 2017 would be met and why 14 per cent of new EHCs were not completed within the required 20 week timescale. Members questioned how the borough was meeting rising demand for specialist provision and what the consequences were for children who were placed in out of borough provision. Officers were asked to comment on the skills and resources of mainstream schools to support children with SEND. Noting the fall in the number of parents seeking to appeal local authority decisions at tribunal, a member sought assurance that the decrease reflected parents’ satisfaction, rather than any difficulties in submitting an appeal. It was further noted that a number of tribunal appeals were discontinued due to new evidence being submitted and the committee questioned what measures the council took to avoid such situations arising. Members’ questions were concluded with a query on the council’s readiness for an inspection under the new joint inspection arrangements.
Responding to the queries raised, Sandra Bingham advised that a self-evaluation form had been completed for the forthcoming SEND inspection which indicated that the early identification of SEND was a strength in Brent. SEND was a priority group with regard to attainment and the council was working with schools to identify and share good practice. The impact of EHCs, particularly on attainment, would be measured over the coming year; however, the focus of the plans was on long term outcomes for the children and young people. As part of the EHC process, parents were offered the opportunity to attend a co-production meeting and uptake of these was increasing. It was hoped that involving parents at this stage would result in increased satisfaction with the resulting plan and reduce the number of appeals via tribunal. The Westminster Society had a proven track record of supporting parental engagement in other boroughs and a report would be brought back to the committee in the following year assessing the success of the arrangement. Jayne Jardine (Head Teacher Manor School) advised that there needed to be a collective focus locally and nationally on developing career pathways for young people with SEND as there were too few opportunities currently.
Sandra Bingham further advised that joint strategic commissioning with health was progressing well both strategically and at a practical service level, with good relationships evident between therapists, schools and parents. Gail Tolley (Strategic Director of Children and Young People) emphasised the need to ensure that funding for children from the CCG was sustained, given the focus in the health economy on Adult Social Care. The council was also actively challenging the outcome of the high needs block for the dedicated schools grant to ensure that there would be appropriate funding for SEND children.
Addressing queries regarding the conversion of Statements of SEN to EHC plans, Sandra Bingham advised that if there was no change to staff resources dedicated to the task, this would progress as intended and would be completed on time. It was sometimes not possible to complete an EHC within the statutory timescale due to the availability of the child or pressures on colleagues in meeting necessary deadlines. The rising demand for specialist provision had been met by expanding capacity of specialist schools and working with mainstream schools in the borough. Brent Special Schools Academy Trust has been established and plans to open a new free school hopefully in September 2018.In the meantime the Manor school will expand on a satellite site with 18 places. The new Free School, The Avenue aims to have 104 over the next few years. Special schools worked closely with colleagues in mainstream schools to help develop specialist provision in these settings. Children placed outside of the borough would not be disadvantaged in terms of the quality of the provision but could face increased traveling times and would not have the benefit of attending school within their local community.
Responding to concerns regarding parents’ access to tribunals, Sandra Bingham referred members to the process detailed in the report, highlighting that it was now a requirement for mediation to be engaged in before progressing to tribunal. There was currently insufficient data to measure the impact of this new requirement; however, it was hoped that this had facilitated a fall in the number of tribunals. Parents could also access support in addressing concerns or progressing appeals from the Brent SEND Information and Support Service (SENDIASS). New evidence would be considered, even if submitted at the tribunal stage as it was essential that an assessment of a child was accurate and it was recognised that often this information had not been available previously.
Gail Tolley expressed her confidence that the Council was well prepared for the forthcoming SEND inspection.
The committee recognised that the future of the borough’s children with SEND should be a borough-wide concern and commended the successes of the student internship programme for young people with SEND. The committee subsequently RESOLVED:
i) That a council-wide approach to maximising employment opportunities for young people with SEND be endorsed;
ii) That the provision of council placements for the internship programme for young people with SEND be endorsed;
iii) That Members be encouraged to maximise employment opportunities for young people with SEND via their connections with community groups, organisations and businesses in the borough.
Supporting documents: