Agenda item

 

The Strategy and Policy Development Manager, Children’s Services presented the report.  Members were informed that the report was an update on the progress of the SEND action plan, presented at the panel meeting on 18 June 2021.  The paper noted specific actions and risks, and graded each area of work as green, amber or red based on risk.  Finally, the recommendations of the recent LGA Peer Review and feedback from the Department of Education and NHS England were considered in terms of the Authority’s current plans.

 

Members were reminded that the SEND Action Plan was agreed by partners across the local area in January 2020 alongside the first joint SEND Strategy and Co-production charter.

 

The aim of the plan was to provide an overall strategic view of the programme of work required to bring together all remaining actions required to meet the issues raised in the Ofsted/CQC Local Area Review (LJAR) and to detail further actions required to ensure that outcomes were sustainable, and that the impact of the work on the lives of children and young people could be demonstrated.

 

The plan had a horizon of two years, with a review to be undertaken by the SEND Programme Board in early 2021. Each area of work was expected to be subject to more detailed delivery planning, including development of timescales, by partners.

 

Members’ attention was drawn to the highlights of the work undertaken since the update to the June 2020 Panel meeting which included:

 

• The reduction in the rate of ‘refused assessments’ (which were often the result of inappropriate referrals by partners) from 50% to 6%

 

• The agreement to jointly fund the Supportive Parents SENDIAS service and North Somerset Parent Carers Working Together forum with BNSSG CCG on a three-year agreement, providing some certainty and sustainability for these key services.

 

• The use of accurate projections and analysis to ensure that capacity in key services was improved and capital projects supported

 

• A range of capital projects were now at various stages of positive progress: a second site for Baytree School’s expansion, a new Free School supporting children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs (SEMH) and hubs at mainstream schools to support children with Autistic Spectrum Conditions.

 

• Additional investment in CAMHS and forthcoming expansion of Off The Record pre-CAMHS services into North Somerset

 

• Relationships with parents and carers were improving, with considerable progress made in delivering new guidance documents

 

• The Inclusion Summit took place in November 2020 and renewed a commitment to inclusion and mutual support across mainstream and special schools

 

Many of the district’s vulnerable children and young people had continued to attend school throughout the pandemic and the schools had served them well in sometimes very challenging circumstances. North Somerset had one of the highest attendance rates during the pandemic in the South West and had recovered much quicker than other authorities with 85% attendance in schools which was encouraging to hear and a vote of thanks to them.

 

Members noted that alongside highlights there were also Risks which included:

 

• Continued pressure in terms of increased assessment requests, EHC plans and requests for places in specialist provision with projections showing this increase was set to continue;

 

• The rate of EHC assessments delivered within the 20-week statutory timescale was recovering, but still low (16%) following issues with Educational Psychology capacity;

 

• A significant number of the ‘refused assessments’ which were received resulted from partners being unable to access CAMHS mental health services for children with anxiety and EHCPs being seen as a ‘last resort’ by schools;

 

• While the equity of health provision across the BNSSG footprint had been improving and clearer leadership around SEND health services was in place, there were further actions needed to agree how complex care packages were jointly commissioned;

 

• Waiting lists for Autism assessment were still too long despite improvement, with parents reporting little support whilst on the journey to diagnosis;

 

• Parents’ confidence in home to school transport (HST) arrangements remained low following challenges in September 2020  (there had been issues around home to school transport which had been an issue over the course of the last few months but it was hoped that some progress was being made);

 

• There was still some way to go to ensure that parents engaged in all decisions about services, and in particular to engage children and young people in co-production. Plans for this work had been heavily impacted by Covid-19.  (Schools had been so compromised and challenged that getting into schools to carry out some of that work had been really difficult but it was something that the Authority was expected to get back to soon)

 

• Further improvements in the use of technology to support the EHC system needed to be progressed, including funding the online EHCP portal.

 

Members were directed towards the RAG rated action plan in the report and also some of the responses noted on the LGA recommendations – where they were picked up, those that the Authority differed on and what the Authority proposed to do. The action plan referred to a Head of Education Partnerships.  Members were advised that the position of Head of Education Partnerships had been re-examined and the Authority would now be recruiting for an Assistant Director of Education Partnerships instead.

 

The Strategy and Policy Development Manager and Interim Assistant Director, Children’s Support and Safeguarding responded to the following Members’ queries (with officers’ responses in italics):-

 

·       I wondered whether it would be possible to be provided with some more information about Home to School Transport and when members will be involved in it next? I was aware there was due to be an update in January 2021 but that did not happen -  I am waiting for the same meetings to happen. I know there have been some meetings and an action plan has been drawn up with the Integrated Transport Unit which is in the Place Directorate. They have been in touch with the SEND team to see how links can be improved with the team and also to be more aware of students’ needs and issues that may arise. More work is being undertaken and hopefully there should be an update soon.(MN)

 

·       North Somerset Parent Carers Working Together raised a number of challenges in relation to home to school transport that arose in September 2021.   A number of meeting had taken place with the home to school transport team and there had been significant progress. The organisation was just waiting for some reassurances from the home to school transport team that the issues in relation to the electronic system for scheduling and recording information and delivering information to parent carers had been resolved and that the same challenges would not be faced again –The priority at the moment is the fully re-opening of schools and testing but I will get a specific update to all councillors about the progress we have made so far in relation to home to school transport and what we still have to address before the end of March 2021 (CJ). 

 

·       I was reading about the Inclusion Summit that took place in 2020 and was expecting to hear more detail about it. It sounded like it was a very interesting discussion -  Yes it was.  It was an opportunity for us to get together what is quite a disparate group of schools.  As you are probably aware school leadership is more disaggregated than it used to be and sometimes schools have grown apart from each other.  The summit brought them back together into a collegiate sense of how schools worked together to present an education system in North Somerset which is coherent, works together and avoids exclusions and parents feeling that they need to leave the formal education system to teach their children at home – a growing issue nationally and certainly one that has been growing in North Somerset. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

·       The summit also provided the opportunity for the Authority to reaffirm its role as commissioner of education in North Somerset.  With a new Assistant Director joining the Authority there was an opportunity to provide not just the helpful role to schools, to bring them together, but also to provide a little challenge to them around standards and outcomes and inclusion. The summit was the start of that and schools have been working together quite effectively since. Some of the impacts have been seen, particularly in secondary schools. There are inclusion panels that meet every couple of weeks to look at children who are at risk of perhaps falling out of the school system.  There has been excellent joint working between some of our secondary schools.  Some of that joint working was in place before but since the Inclusion Summit they have begun to understand how each other work and effectively join up. It is hoped that this will be replicated in the primary sector but there are many more of those schools so this is more challenging but very positive.

 

·       A follow up meeting took place at the end of the Inclusion Summit.  One of the commitments for inclusion was trying to work together across all the SENCOs based in schools to equip people with the skills to be able to better support children and young people in mainstream education. Academies and local authority-maintained schools across North Somerset shared skills, knowledge and ideas to be able to support and work together and also to improve on the Inclusion Panels.  That also includes primary areas.

 

·       I noted the anxiety in relation to ECHPs being seen as a last resort by schools and would like to know whether, with BNSSG joining, North Somerset has the same funding and whether there will be any funding from the government for Covid? - In terms of EHCPs – there is the issue around schools tending to refer people in for EHCPs when they feel it is a last resort and they are not managing very well.  The inclusion summit and some of the joint working is the way we have looked to address that.  Skilling up schools to recognise and address need and to be able to meet by sharing their expertise is much more effective than trying to pull children out of the system into a separate system except where that is absolutely critical and the only way of meeting that need.  We have said in our education commissioning strategy we want children in North Somerset to go to a local school, to be educated in their community and to grow up and become independent in that community.  We want that to be the same for children with SEND.  Only in very few cases should it need to be different. In terms of parity of funding this issue will come up  in the next agenda item.  Colleagues are here from BNSSG and AWP and also Anna Norris, the Contract Manager from BNSSG CCG will be able to answer the parity of funding across the areas.  I know we have seen some improvements and some changes but she will be able to answer that.

 

·       It is important to engage all parents and carers.  I have some concerns about issues when children return to schools. How do we as an authority deal with communicating to parents that their child needs help.  Is there anything in the action plan to identify where there will be need and how to address it? - All of our work has indicated that parents are recognising needs and quite often demands on us are increasing as a result.  I am confident that parents are telling us when they need services. Organisations such as Parent Carers Together and Supportive Parents are very helpful in terms of helping parents to formulate questions, challenges and requests for services. I am not too worried about parents not engaging with us.  Schools and our early years team have some excellent ways of working with parents and children to detect some of those issues very early.  MAISEY (Multi-agency Identification and Support in the Early Years) supports provision planning from early identification of need until school entry, ensuring where possible that transfers to pre-school and school are successful for every child.It is nationally regarded as a very strong way of identifying need and that transfer into schools is managed really effectively through MAISEY. Our primary school SENCOs are very adept at supporting parents.  Whilst I recognise the concern it is not  something we are seeing in North Somerset at the moment.

 

·       Should we be using ‘we will ensure’ in the action plan? Unless it is statutory it is saying we are going to do it.  This means that unless we do it we will be held to account -  Generally speaking the actions in the action plan are drawn from our statutory responsibilities so ‘we will’ is a sensible thing to write.  I think some of it is also about the commitments we have made to parents and carers that we will absolutely do those things.  It is an action plan and we are a year in and we have made some progress on it.  I am not aware of anything that we haven’t made any progress on despite the circumstances.  I am therefore confident that where we have said ‘we will’ we will do those things.  We will keep reviewing it because it is important.

·       I read SEND action plan with interest and can see there has been a great deal of progress but there was a reference to background information that was not included.  I do hope that we as CYPS can be shown the co-production charter and have some input on the child sufficiency strategy.  In terms of how we improve access to our local offer I have seen that there is reference to online portals for obtaining EHCPs and that this has been trialled in other areas.  Is this something we are going to do? – The charter and action plan is published and I can certainly make sure that it is circulated to members of the Panel.  In terms of the online offer the online EHCP portal is something that we are committed to, has been very successful in other areas, and the Department for Education is very committed to areas having.  We are aware that the process of applying for an EHCP is quite demanding on parents and requires them to do quite a bit of work and input.   At the moment they need to chase and challenge by phoning the SEND team during office hours (9-5). The ability to log in at a time when a parent has some time to think about what they want to write to us or what they want  to put in their plan, check on progress or be able to access the feedback from health or from educational psychologists is invaluable to improving the experience for parents.  We have looked at a number of systems and we are currently identifying funding.  This ties into the local offer on which we have received support from the CCG and external partners in terms of usability and how we can invest in making sure that it is more accessible to parents and particularly to children and young people who we know want to use it and to improve the quality and the coverage.  That work is underway. It has been interesting to work with outside people who have a totally different view of LA websites to us and have challenged us to think differently.  Thank you to the CCG for setting that up for us and getting us in touch with them.

 

·       Sufficiency strategy is predominately around ensuring there are placements for children -  children in care and care leavers.  There are two aspects to sufficiency.  The one that is referenced in the SEND strategy is around those school placements for children in relation to when the children need to be in a residential school.  A document is being drawn up and the draft will be circulated for comments. It is a statutory requirement.  There is a smaller community of children with SEND who are not children in care but those will be addressed as well and that includes their emotional health and wellbeing.  Sometimes we place children in care in 24 hour curriculum where their care, education and emotional health needs are placed in one environment.  There is also the sufficiency of school placements which is an area of challenge particularly around the SEMH needs of young people.  That links back to the inclusion strategy and our vision for children to keep them in mainstream education with the right support where that is right for the child as opposed to alternative or external or out of the area education. These areas are very much aligned because you cannot work in isolation. Historically we haven’t worked as strongly as we can but we are on a journey.

 

·       Could I ask about the shortfall of educational psychologists? – that was part of a contract with Somerset County Council as part of their traded services arm. There was an underestimate in the number of EHCPs that they needed to service in 2019.  We have carried out some projection work and we have increased what we have contracted them for 2020 and 2021.  We now have the appropriate amount in place and the Authority is in much better position.

 

The Chairman thanked the Strategy and Policy Development Manager for the update on the SEND Action Plan.

 

Concluded:

 

(1) that the panel receive the update on the SEND Action Plan and the initial response to the LGA recommendations;

(2) that the panel consider the highlights and risks identified;

 

(3) that the panel identify any responses necessary via the Chairman of the Panel (who sits on the SEND Programme Board)

 

(4) that the Interim Assistant Director, Children’s Support and Safeguarding provide an update to Members on Home to School Transport by the end of March 2021.