Meeting documents

For the Committee to ask Cabinet Members questions on current key issues for their portfolios.

I.              Mr M Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

II.            Mr G Williams,  Deputy Cabinet Member for Children’s Services

This agenda item will also include an update on the performance of the Educational Psychology Service.

The Chairman welcomed Mr Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education & Skills and Miss Sarah Callaghan, Service Director for Education to the meeting. During discussions and in response to Member questions the following main points were noted:

·       Mr Appleyard thanked members who had attended his recent Home to School transport briefing and advised that he would hold further discussions with Members over the coming weeks. A public consultation, in various locations across the County, would be launched following discussions at the Cabinet meeting on 22^nd October. Mr Appleyard was keen to reach as many people as possible, who might be impacted by proposed changes.

·       A Member asked whether there had been any issues with the recent 11+ exams, as they had been made aware of technical issues. Miss Callaghan stated that officers were investigating whether all students had received fair access and if not, the situation would be rectified. A full resit would be a very unlikely course of action due the stressful effects of re-taking the exams. Members requested an update on the progress in this area.

                                                                      ACTION: Service Director for Education

·       The Chairman discussed the Educational Psychologist update report and queried item number 6, due to the fact that a similar recommendation had been rejected at Cabinet. Miss Callaghan stated that there may be a misinterpretation and named Educational Psychologists for Schools would be unrealistic based on pressures on the Educational Psychology service. Instead the new preventative way of working Schools would be to allocate a named SEND officer and Educational Psychologist who they could contact for advice, support and signposting.

·       In response to a question about privately employed Educational Psychologist reports not being accepted by BCC’s Educational Psychology services, Mrs Callaghan said she would investigate, as these reports should be accepted.

                                                                      ACTION: Service Director for Education

·       A member queried why EHCP plans took 20 weeks to issue and why only 32% were issued within the set timeframe. Miss Callaghan advised that a number of different assessments have to take place to be able to effectively issue the plan, that the department were still dealing with the existing backlog of assessments and that visits to the child, to perform the assessments, were not possible during School holidays. It would be expected that the County would be in line with national average, by the end of the year.

·       The benefits and reasoning behind transferring locum contracts into associate contracts within the Educational Psychologist service were explained. Miss Callaghan reassured the Committee that quality of assessments would be monitored prior to payments being made.  Members were informed that the Senior EP and Head of SEN posts had been filled permanently and the service intended to move towards a preventative model once the back log is cleared and is expected to be sustainable. . A member asked if the timing of assessments could be reduced. Mr Appleyard stated that the overarching assessment must take place to ensure the resulting assessments are the correct ones for each particular child.

The Chairman thanked Mr Appleyard and Miss Callaghan for attending the meeting.