Meeting documents

Education and Health professionals will update Committee Members of the current service provision available for children and young people who are diagnosed with ASD.

Presentation slides to follow.

Contributors:

Ms Sarah Tilston – Designated Clinical Officer for SEND

Mrs Sarah Callaghan – Service Director Education

Mr Tolis Vouyioukas – Executive Director Children’s Services

The Chairman welcomed Ms Tilston – Designated Clinical Officer SEND and Mr Drawmer – Head of Achievement & Learning, who delivered a presentation about current ASD service provision.

The main points were noted as follows:

·       There had been an increase in Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis which had placed pressure on the number of mainstream, additional support units and specialist support units available.

·       Speech and Language needs had increased significantly since 2014.

·       There had been an increase in demand for Education, Health & Care plans (EHCPs) in the post-16 age group as some children had been able to access under 16 placements without additional help, but had required an EHCP when they had entered a new educational placement.

·       Children who had been home-educated had the same access to support and EHCP’s as children who attended an educational placement. Information about the application process had been published on the BFIS website.

·       The presentation of ASD was very varied across different children, which caused challenges for diagnosis. The most challenging issues for Schools and Councils had been the need to reduce children’s anxiety, which was a product of the disorder, and the requirement to provide the right learning environment and placement.

·       Girls had been under-diagnosed and tended to present later as they internalised and masked symptoms. The standardised test for autism had been very boy-focussed, but it was confirmed that CAMHS had been aware and had remedied this.

·       There would be a newly developed ASD toolkit to assist parents, teachers and professionals to identify ASD and access support services. This had been promoted to parents through SENDIAS, FACT Bucks, SENDCOs and Schools.

·       The waiting list for 0-4 years support and diagnosis was currently short. Where a parent and GP suspected a child who is under 5 years old had ASD, paediatricians could hold off diagnosis but would still offer support.

·       Adults who are over 18 years and newly diagnosed could access a great service through the Whiteleaf Centre.

·       Help for 5-17 year olds had recently improved with children no longer being batted between CAMHS and paediatrics.

·       Waiting lists for children aged 5-11 years had been too long. CAMHS had received funding to bring them down, but there had been no funding for paediatrics. The new single point of access would be expected to bring improvements.

·       New post-diagnostic SENDCO support in the form of a Specialist Teaching Service drop-in had brought positive improvements to the service

·       The service area intended to keep as many children in mainstream provision as possible. They had initiated side-by-side partnerships between special and mainstream schools to facilitate this.

·       A recent development within the service meant that the Specialist Teaching Service would now support children with ASD who did not have an EHCP.

·       There would be an increase in social, emotional and mental health needs (SEMH) provision, due to an increase in prevalence in Bucks. This would be delivered through adaptations to whole School behaviour management strategies, where support staff would be taught to de-escalate challenge, reduce tension and support SEMH pupil needs.

·       There had been an increased requirement for Schools to evidence the support they have been providing ASD and SEMH pupils.

·       Some Academies chose to use the SEND/ASD help and assistance provided by BCC, however larger chains tended to have their own in-house provision. BCC had approached all academies and tried to ensure the correct provision was being offered.

·       Prosecution for non-attendance wouldn’t happen if the parent continued to work cooperatively with BCC and CAMHS. Parents should ensure they had communicated difficulties with attendance to the service area.

·       The number of home educated children had increased but as there had been no national reporting criteria, BCC had no insight as to whether this was ASD-related. Although, there are mechanisms in place to ensure all home-educated children had been visited so the service area had been reassured that the education provided is appropriate, there were no national comparators for BCC to make with other Council’s data on this.

·       Transitions to adult services were being evaluated and a big piece of work to make support better and smoother was due to commence.

·       High Needs Block funding had been available to Schools, where a child’s needs had been higher than School SEN funding allowed for.

·       CAMHS services had been divided into different pathways to improve waiting lists for particular high-need groups.

It was agreed that Members would revisit this topic in a future meeting to enable a deep-dive approach into more focussed aspects of ASD provision.