Agenda item

For the Select Committee to receive an update on the SEND Improvement Programme.

Contributors:

Cllr Anita Cranmer, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services and Education

Cate Duffy, Interim Service Director - Education

Caroline Marriott, Head of Integrated SEND Services

Lucy Pike, Head of Transformation and Improvement

The Chairman welcomed Cate Duffy, Interim Service Director, Education, Lucy Pike, Head of Transformation and Improvement and Caroline Marriott, Head of Integrated SEND Services to the meeting.

During the update, the following main points were made:

·       The purpose of the update was to report progress and improvements following the SEND inspection of March 2022

·       A written statement of action (WSOA) had been made concentrating on neuro-developmental pathways, community paediatricians and therapies with an emphasis on the delays which had been experienced by families to get this provision.

·       £4.6 million had been received this year from the ICB (Integrated Care Board) to decrease waiting lists for treatment and increase clinical capacity.  Recruitment and retention of staff is a nationwide and ongoing issue.

·       An all-age autism strategy was in the final stages of development and would be presented to a Cabinet meeting in January 2024.

Some examples of how the service had improved included:

·       A single provider model was being used for 15–19 year olds for ADHD assessment. Digital assessments would be used to offer support for autism more quickly.

·       The voluntary sector was helping to support families within  the neurodevelopmental pathway

·       Community paediatricians were arranging to use other professionals  to decrease waiting times

·       Prescribing pharmacists had been able to carry out medication reviews and had eradicated the backlog for these reviews

·       The “Waiting Well” initiative ensured that support was in place at the right time, aiming for early intervention.  Numerous activities included social prescribing, equine therapy and other support offers were used

·       The overall quality of new EHCPs (Education, Health and Care Plans) had improved from 11% to 78% graded as good in 2021 and then August 2023 but there was still a significant amount of work needed to improve existing plans. The timelines for producing these needed  improvement due to the increase in demand and a shortage of educational psychologists. The aim is to meet the 20-week statutory target

·       There had been several new offers which had helped families, including a toolkit giving guidance on EBSNA (Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance), Holiday activity and food programmes, support for children Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) with an increase from 12 to 40 internships provided by the authority for children with SEND. 

·       Much work had been undertaken to rebalance the system through co-ordination of   work at the early intervention stage. A programme called “Delivering Better Value” was in place to make the best use of resources to improve the experience of both children and families.

·       There will be a SEND inspection within the next three years which will be carried out under the new framework introduced in January 2023.  Preparation for this inspection was under way

In response to Members’ comments the following points were made:

·       The All-Age Autism Strategy would be shared with the committee before it is published in January 2024

Action: The new Autism Strategy to be circulated to the committee following Cabinet.

·       To help in the short-term, some associate educational psychologists have been successfully recruited.  In the longer term, the aim would be to have a team of educational psychologists working in schools to give a multi-faceted approach, addressing all angles of the current demand

·       The first phase of the “Delivering Better Value” project for children with SEND had looked at data, auditing 40 anonymised cases to see if children were in the right provision and if they had received the right outcome. The deep dive phase was now underway and would provide further data. The real focus was improving outcomes rather than reducing costs

·       The recommendations of the pathways to SEND review were noted to be embedded as work within the Improvement Programme

·       It was noted that there is currently a national shortage of ADHD medication, and this could be a cause for distress for young people. Advisory information had been sent to schools regarding this

Action: Gareth Drawmer to contact Public Health for an update on the timing of the provision of medication

·       It is too early to give data on the EBSNA toolkit, but there had been a positive response from schools. Buckinghamshire had a 20% non-attendance rate at school against a national average of 21%. Severe absenteeism was at 1.7% in Buckinghamshire compared with 1.9% nationally.

·       More detailed information to give the context to these figures was requested.            

Action: Gareth Drawmer to provide further information on the school non-attendance figures

·       There are three family hubs and sixteen family centres in Buckinghamshire and these play an important role in early intervention. They formerly concentrated on children under five years old but now have a larger remit. They continue to intervene early for children with speech and language problems and are especially focused on the “Opportunity Bucks” wards

·       The over-arching challenges faced in SEND are currently:

o   Meeting the 20-week deadline for assessment

o   The rising demand for EHCPs (a rise of 76% since 2020)

o   Sufficiency of specialist places for children with an EHCP

o   Long waiting times for diagnosis and therapies, including significant waits for ASD assessments

o   Budgetary constraints

o   Recruitment and retention of Educational Psychologists

·       Several charities provide valuable early intervention and support for SEND children

·       A general point was made that Democratic Services should ensure that reports relevant to the subject of a Select Committee should be provided to that Committee prior to final sign off at Cabinet where possible.

Action: The Scrutiny Officer to raise this issue with the Scrutiny Manager & Directors of items relevant to this committee being reported here

 Cllr Stuchbury submitted a question on this Item as follows:

The Department of Education acknowledges the current challenges which local systems are experiencing in delivering special educational needs and disability services. The Delivering Better Value in SEND programme (DBV in SEND) is aiming to support local authorities and their area partners to improve the delivery of SEND services for children and young people whilst working towards financial sustainability.

Paragraph 3.4 states challenging in relations to the provision of therapy for children and young people with an EHP remains significant. The September 2023 figures identified at 24 week wait for speech, therapist and language advice to inform education and health care plans.

My question is considering the OFSTED report and the inspection framework from CQC send being undertaken;

1.      What percentage of the £4.600,000 investment to the integrated care board, ICB agreed in April 23 will be available to help to reduce the time that parents and children are waiting to receive their EHCP report, and

2.      will this positively impact and enable children with speech and learning difficulties to gain the optimum value from opportunities within the education, and

3.      will there be incremental financial support to enable officers working within special educational needs to deliver on their aspirations to improve services in line with the parents’ aspirations to have their child specialist needs in respected education, met in a timely fashion?

 The response to the questions was as follows:

The £4.6m has been allocated across the 3 Written Statement of Action (WSoA) areas of (a) community paediatrics (b) Neurodevelopmental Diagnosis and ADHD Clinic and (c) the Integrated Therapies Service. All these areas of investment will add capacity to the services  in terms of current delivery enabling the required professional advice to be provided more quickly.

It is anticipated that this funding will help to support all children with SEND to gain the right support for their needs, regardless of diagnosis, including those with Speech and Language difficulties.

The £4.6m ICB funding is ongoing beyond 2024/25.