Meeting documents

There have been public questions from Mr P Miller and Ms J Creasy. The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills will be invited to respond in the meeting.

Public Questions is an opportunity for people who live, work or study in the county to put a question to a Scrutiny Committee about any issue that has an impact on their local community or the county as a whole.

Members of the public, who have given prior notice, will be invited to put their question in person.

The Cabinet Member and responsible officers will then be invited to respond. 

Further information and details on how to register can be found through the following link and by then clicking on ‘Public Questions’.

http://democracy.buckscc.gov.uk/mgCommitteeDetails.aspx?ID=788

The Chairman welcomed:

• Mr Z Mohammed, Cabinet Member for Skills and Learning
• Mrs G Shurrock, Head of Special Educational Needs

Written public questions had been received from Mr P Miller and Ms J Creasy in relation to the development of a new SEND strategy for Buckinghamshire County Council:

1. Please provide the data to show how a balanced SEND budget will be achieved

resulting from the implementation of the proposed strategy.

2. How will the BCC SEND leadership achieve better cross-system collaboration

(including Social Services, all SEND providers, the RSC and other local LAs)?

3. Why has BCC failed to respond to the Regional Schools Commissioner’s invitation

for an Expression of Interest relating to the development of regional special schools?

Mr Mohammed explained that a written response to the questions had been provided to the Committee. The response was noted as follows:

1. The SEND Strategy will take into account both the priorities identified and the budget that is available. Further financial modelling will be undertaken once the SEND Strategy is finalised and published to ensure we can meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.
2. The SEN Strategy is being finalised to ensure that it takes into account responses from the recent priorities consultation.  This area has been identified as one of the priorities and the strategy will set out clearly the actions of how we will achieve this. Once the SEND Strategy has been agreed it will be published on the Bucks Local Offer Website.
3. The LA has chosen at this time not to submit a bid for a new special free school, as it is aware that bids for a free school have been submitted for a site in Buckinghamshire. The LA needs to await the EFA’s decision on these bids and to assess, subject to the outcome of these bids and as part of the SEN Review, the need for additional provision in the future which will be subject to either suitable sites being available or expanding existing provision.

In response to questions from Members of the Committee:

• The Chairman explained that Mr Miller and Ms Creasy had been invited to attend the meeting but had been unable to do so.
• Mr Zahir confirmed that there were no planned reductions in SEND provision in the County at this point in time.
• Ms Shurrock advised that some data being requested was currently being collated as part of the SEND review and not currently available.

There was a request that the Cabinet Member provide a fuller response to questions raised once all information was available.

ACTION: Committee and Governance Adviser to follow up.

A Member suggested that the SEND Strategy should be brought to the Select Committee once it had been to Cabinet on 9 January 2017.

ACTION: Committee and Governance Adviser to add to the work programme.

Mrs Shurrock updated the Committee on the continuing development of the new SEND Strategy and made the following points:

• There had been a good level of engagement with parents and carers as well as young people with Special Educational Needs to help develop the strategy.
• The review was timely given the pressures that Local Authorities were currently under.
• The general opinion was that the strategy had identified the correct priorities.
• There would be outcomes within the strategy with an explanation as to how they would be achieved.
• The strategy would be brought to Cabinet on 9th January 2017 and published on the Council’s website.