Agenda and minutes

It was noted that Councillors Adoh, Hussein, Jones, Kayani, Osibogun and Summers had given their apologies for the meeting.  Councillor Gaster had notified the Chairman that he might be late to the meeting.

Councillor K Bates declared a personal interest as a Chair of Governors.

Maggi Bull declared a personal interest as a Governor of two schools.

Tony Wilson declared a personal interest as a Trustee of the Oxford Diocesan Bucks Schools Trust.

Councillor R Matthews declared a personal interest as a School Governor and volunteer at Transitions UK.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on 9^th September 2021.

The minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 9^th September were reviewed. It was noted that:

·       The report on the Buckinghamshire Challenge Board would come back to the committee in January 2022 as part of the report on the Education Standards Board

·       Councillor Anita Cranmer and Dr Tim Jones should be added to those in attendance

·       Councillor S James had submitted apologies for the meeting

RESOLVED: that the minutes of the meeting held on 9^th September be AGREED as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman introduced the  newly appointed co-optees to their first meeting of the Select Committee: Maggi Bull, representing the Catholic Church; Tony Wilson, representing the Anglican Church and Zoe Williams a Parent Governor representative.

The Committee will consider a report outlining the Council’s SEND Improvement Journey, setting the context of improvement in relation to the overarching SEND and Inclusion Strategy and the local SEND landscape.  The report also details the improvement priorities and progress made against them as captured by the SEND Improvement Plan. Details of the governance structure ensuring oversight, scrutiny and challenge to the journey is also detailed in the report as is information relating to the Quality Care Commission/Ofsted SEND inspection that is expected within the next six months and activity underway in preparation for that inspection.

Contributors:

Richard Nash, Corporate Director – Children’s Services

Simon James, Service Director – Education

The Chairman noted that this item related to four distinct areas of council working as stated in the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice 2015. The council had been working hard under the eight priority areas detailed in the reports to provide extensive support to children and young people across the county.

Councillor Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Richard Nash, Corporate Director of Children’s Services, Simon James Service Director - Education, Hero Slinn, Head of Integrated SEND and Andrew Howard, Chairman of FACT Bucks spoke to the report.

Councillor Cranmer introduced the report noting the progress made to support children and young families in Buckinghamshire. Richard Nash noted the high level  of importance and prioritisation given to SEND work  at the council.

Simon James summarised the report, noting that improving outcomes for child with special educational needs was a priority for the whole county of Buckinghamshire and the Special Educational Needs Strategy had been published in January 2020 to support this work. The report related to both children with Education and Health Care Plans (EHCPs), with significant long-term needs and those needing SEN support. The council was pleased with improvements made so far against the seven priority areas in the strategy but would be relentless to improve services further in the future in partnership with parents and the report also focussed on the next steps to do so. The SEND Board provided oversight and governance for this work.

Andrew Howard, Chairman of Families and Children Together (FACT), noted that families with SEND children were challenged in different circumstances and at different times, therefore experiencing the support available in different ways. The council service was working hard to address the challenges experienced by families. FACT worked at a strategic level, and had seen a significant shift in attitude towards service provision in this area. Further resources were now directed to SEND. Strategically it was hoped that the services would develop further over the next few years.

In response to questions from committee members it was noted that:

·       There had been an increase in EHCPS but that the number in Buckinghamshire was in line with the national average. The numbers of EHCPs  for children with autism, special needs and those with social, mental and emotional health had increased further. Sufficiency work was directed to addressing this issue. The end of the year would give a clearer picture of the numbers as those age 25 moved out of this reporting mechanism.

·       The service was experiencing significant increased demand and thus was moving towards a banded funding system, implemented on a phased approach, enabling schools to plan better their provision for children. A new manager would be in place in November to look at improving processes relating to funding reaching schools in a more timely manner following an EHCP.

·       1200 replies had been received in the 2020 FACT survey of parents.  Feedback was mixed depending on whether parents had received the services they required or not.  Many parents  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

              The Committee will consider a report providing an overview of the issues relating to the sufficiency of educational placements for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. It outlines the issues and headline data that informed the development of the draft SEND Education Sufficiency Strategy, and details the steps taken to publicly consult on 6 proposals to meet the expected demand over the coming 5 years.  The report summarises the outcome of the consultation and next steps. These next steps include working with Buckinghamshire’s parent/carer forum and existing schools and colleges to develop new or different provision, as well as exploring the feasibility of new building projects to meet growing demand.

Contributors:

Richard Nash, Corporate Director Children’s Services

Simon James, Service Director - Education

The Chairman introduced the report noting the need to provide sufficient places for children with special educational needs and disabilities within Buckinghamshire. The Chairman  thanked the Officers and the Cabinet Member for the extensive work undertaken to support children and young people with these needs. Councillor Cranmer noted that the work detailed in this item fed into the work undertaken in the strategy.

Simon James noted the connection with the previous report, aiming to find places for as many children as possible within Buckinghamshire and to provide sufficient appropriate educational places for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. Collaboration work involved detailed communication with all special schools, inclusion units, FACT Bucks and primary, secondary and special school headteachers.  310 responses had been received about the six key proposals in the public consultation in June 2021. 84% of responders agreed the proposals were right or partly right. 16% did not agree with the proposals. The next stage would be to develop the SEND sufficiency strategy and plan, engaging with stakeholders and taking into account the consultation responses received.

In response to questions from the committee members the following points were made:

·       Weekly meetings with the DFE gave support to this work

·       Regular communication was held with the Regional Schools’ Commissioner who welcomed this work on sufficiency

·       Post 16 is a priority, and representatives from Bucks College Group attended liaison groups to understand which students required a care plan. Work was underway to improve the quality of the offer to this group. Work also focussed on routes into employment and training from special schools.

·       The service would listen and adapt to the responses in the consultation. Work would take place over multiple phases. There was a possibility of opening a new school for children with social, mental and emotional issues, and expansion of some current schools. Mapping work of educational places against proposals was underway. Andrew Howard noted that this work was significant and FACT Bucks was grateful for this.

·       More challenging behaviour was now being experienced, particularly from children that has not been able to access all the help they required during the pandemic, and it was the service’s intention to target those children who needed the most help.

·       In depth work on children placed in out of county settings had been completed and was reported in a report to the Schools Forum  last September.  Last financial year, some children were brought back into placements within the county. Many of those children had a primary need and the strategy aimed to bring more back into county, especially those with social, emotional and mental health needs where there had been a significant increase in numbers.  3% or 148 children with EHCPs were currently placed outside the county. It was noted that occasionally, a child’s needs were not able to be addressed in county.

·       A feasibility study had been undertaken at Alfreston School which showed it was not possible to convert the boarding provision to day provision. It was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Committee will receive the work programme for the council year 2021-2022. 

The Chairman introduced the work programme which outlined the areas of the service’s work to be examined by the committee over the forthcoming council year. The following points were noted:

·       The rapid review group on the recruitment and retention of social workers would commence in January, following the adoption of the scoping document.

·       That for the benefit of newer committee members it would be useful to have an overview of the mainstream work in education in Buckinghamshire. This would be considered with the Officers.

·       That the reports going to the January and March committees were noted

RESOLVED that the work programme be AGREED

The next meeting of the Children’s and Education Select Committee will be held on 20^th January 2021 at 2.00 p.m. at The Gateway, Buckinghamshire Council.

The date of the next meeting of the Select Committee would be Thursday 20^th January 2022.

CHAIRMAN

The meeting concluded at 3.30 p.m.