Agenda item

This item, to be presented by the Department for Education’s (DfE) programme delivery partner Newton Europe, seeks to inform Schools Forum of how the Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND diagnostic phase will work in Brent as well as meeting the wider objective to identify local and national opportunities to improve the outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

Roseanne Furniss from Newton Europe, the Department for Education’s (DFE) programme delivery partner was welcomed by the Chair who he advised had been invited to attend to share an overview of how the Delivering Better Value (DBV) in SEND diagnostic phase would work in Brent as well as meeting the wider objective to identify local and national opportunities to improve the outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

The Committee heard that the context of the DBV in SEND Programme was to address the recognised challenges in providing SEN Services, particularly with regards to the underlying funding challenges. The programme would seek to explore how funding could be most effectively used to ensure that better outcomes for children and young people with SEN were achieved. The four cornerstones to consider in achieving improvements were recognised as taking a child/young person centred approach; actively listening to those receiving support from the system; collaborating with key partners including service users and their families and exploring the issues around funding to ensure that funding that was available was used efficiently to ensure maximum impact. The Forum heard that the DBV programme aimed to design its support through providing short term help to Local Authorities to identify sustainable changes that could drive high quality outcomes and assist in building an evidence-based grant application to support the implementation of the changes. Parallel to this the DBV Programme sought to inform long term reform by collecting the objective evidence base from participating authorities to inform future policy, drive legislative changes and share best practice.

The Forum were advised that Brent were currently at Module 1 of the 3 module grant application process, Module 1 included an understanding of Brent’s historic and current position in SEN support and consideration of future SEN provision, identifying themes from the baselines and forecasts at this stage would support Module 2 which focused on exploring the main drivers of challenges specific to Brent. Module 3 required further exploration on the cultural and behavioural changes that would require adaptation in order to improve outcomes. At this stage in the application process Local Authorities should have a clear evidence base that would inform how the grant would be used ahead of the final stage of the process of making the grant application.

The Chair thanked Rosanna Furniss for introducing the item before offering Forum members the opportunity to seek further details or clarify any questions they had. Forum members raised questions regarding the level and frequency of funding, timescales and stakeholder involvement, with the following responses provided:

·                In response to a Forum query regarding the level and frequency of funding it was confirmed that each Local Authority participating would be given £45k to support the grant and application phase of the programme, this would be followed up by the grant of up to £1m which would be awarded as a one off payment to kick start the plans created throughout the grant application process. There would be no additional funding available following the award of any grant

·                It was acknowledged the application timescale was tight, however Brent were still at the initial stage and support would be provided at each step to ensure Brent had the support to gain insight into their specific challenges and were able to put a strong bid together to gain the funding to begin to implement changes.

·                Officers were clear that they wanted stakeholder engagement to ensure that decisions made were informed by as many partners within the system as possible. A meeting would be taking place in November 2022 to give as many groups within Brent’s SEN systems including the High Needs Block Sub Group and the Inclusion Strategic Board the opportunity to engage in the process. Officers welcomed the opportunity for schools to attend to ensure as broad a representation of partners could share their views and ideas.

The Forum welcomed the information shared and noted the positive opportunities for effective change in SEN provision in Brent as a result of the DBV in SEND programme. Officers confirmed that an update on the programme would be provided at a future Schools Forum.