Agenda item

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 reflected a positive experience of special schools and many schools had given a high level of support but  additional issues had been raised through the Covid pandemic and some schools had struggled. It was clear that certain groups of children had been affected in different ways. The service aimed to be agile to adapt to these needs.

·       Support for schools requiring help to provide for children’s needs included maintaining communication with schools especially during the pandemic, in-reach and outreach support, inclusion units within schools which were sharing information and working with council services for example’ educational psychologists.

·       Each priority area detailed in the Improvement Programme was supported by an impact group which reported the progress made on improvements to the monthly Improvement Board to ensure monitoring was both sufficient and recorded. The  quality assurance of work was considered to be very important.

·       Preparing for Adulthood was a priority and a Lead Officer had recently been put in place to lead on this, focussing on the needs and pathways for careers and into employment for this group of young people

·       Measures to help children transitioning into year 7 included the increase in Identification of children requiring SEN support. In addition schools are made aware of the ordinarily available package of help  as well as encouraged to think about what support children would require before reaching year 6. Three new posts were being set up to help children going into year 7.

·       The data of the needs of children in special schools and had been analysed in depth enabling the extension of provision in schools and special units before waiting for the publication of the sufficiency strategy. The data would be reviewed each year, and it was felt possible to publish a 5-year strategy based on this work

·       The Early Years team prioritised identifying children’s needs as early as possible and getting the appropriate educational setting.

·       The Shout Out for SEND conference focussed on the pathways and independence of young adults and provided links with employers. Roadshows would be going into schools and the council officers would also provide schools with the resources to provide these roadshows themselves.

·       The aim was to increase the number of apprenticeships and internships.

·       The Local Offer, provided by the Bucks Family Information Service, was under-used by parents and the aim was to encourage the awareness and accessibility of this.