Cabinet considered twelve objectives, to be achieved between December 2017 and July 2018, which would create a transparent and accountable system to ensure that all children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities were appropriately supported to achieve their goals over the coming years.

Councillor Bicknell assumed the Chair for the item.

The Lead Member explained that on 1 September 2017 Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission had published a letter following the inspection of the area’s services for young people with additional needs.

The local authority, Clinical Commissioning Group, schools, health providers and representatives of the Parent Forum (PACiP) had worked together to develop an action plan to address the issues identified in the inspection. The paper set out the intended impact of the Written Statement of Action which had been signed off by a multi-agency group and submitted to Ofsted earlier in the  week.  The multi-agency group, chaired by a Director of the East Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group would meet regularly over the next year to monitor progress and report to the Health and Wellbeing Board in addition to Cabinet and other agency leadership boards.

Cabinet received a report on the issues in September 2017 and Children’s Overview and Scrutiny had been monitoring progress.

Sections 2.11 to 2.23 of the report set out the twelve things that people would see and experience differently as a result of the actions that were set out in the statement of action. They could be grouped in the following areas:

·         Making sure there were clear expectations for all, including co-producing an Inclusion Charter for young people and families, making the Local Offer, parent engagement and promotion ‘everyday business,’ developing an Annual Trends report and establish an Annual Inclusion Summit.

·         Making sure that there was capacity and clarity about the process for Education, Health and Care plans, including refreshing the EHCP process, investing in expert resources to manage complex EHCP cases and ensure multi-agency quality assurance takes place and establishing a ‘preparing for Adulthood’ pathway with additional capacity within the local authority team.

·         Making sure that there was capacity and clarity about the way schools worked with families and young people, including establishing an inclusion quality mark for schools and colleges, investing in the expert resources to bring the inclusion quality mark to life and using the SENCO network.

·         Work together to develop services and that help all young people make progress by completing the consultation on the SEND Strategy and developing a multi-agency, implementation working party.

The council and health partners had met to consider a bid for £450,000 over the next three years to fund the additional resources required to implement the inclusion quality mark and develop the capability to manage complex cases better through the Better Care Fund. All schools were being consulted on providing a £416,000 fund for pupil focussed services aligned to the strategy.  This had been recommended by the Schools Forum and a decision was due in early December 2017.

The Principal Member for Maidenhead Regeneration and Maidenhead commented that this was a very important paper to address the needs of the most vulnerable students. It was noted that the report would be brought back to Cabinet every 6 months, and quarterly to the Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Director of Children’s Services confirmed that there were currently 870 young people in the borough with an EHCP although the number fluctuated. This represented just under 2% of the school population. Approximately 17% of pupils needed additional help. The number was increasing nationally. Budgets were getting harder therefore anything that could be done early would help.

The Lead Member for Finance commented that some governing bodies were actively engaged and others were not. He asked how the whole of the education network could be encouraged to appreciate the shared obligation and to share good practice. The Director explained that resources from the BCF were in place to build on the successful model used to address the pupil premium. Clarity of expectations would be important, therefore the idea of an inclusion mark had been brought in.

The Principal Member for Neighbourhood Planning, Ascot and the Sunnings commented that Charters had a big centre for pupils with SEN. She was now aware of similar centres in primary schools. The Director explained that there were a number of such units, for example at Riverside Primary. Many schools also had nurture groups. There was just as much investment in primary as secondary.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Cabinet:

i)          Notes the Written Statement of Action which has been submitted to Ofsted.

ii)        Approves a consultation process to finalise the area-wide SEND Strategy and Inclusion Charter for the borough, culminating in an Inclusion Summit to take place before the end of March 2018.

iii)       Approves the submission of a joint bid with East Berkshire CCG to the Better Care Fund to secure £150,000 per year for three years to fund the resources that will support improved inclusion in mainstream schools and resolve the most complex cases in a timely way.

iv)       Endorses the recommendation of the Schools Forum that schools agree to transfer 0.5% of the Schools Block funding to the High Needs Block for 2018/19 to provide additional support for pupils included in mainstream schools.

(Councillor Dudley remained in the room but took no part in the discussion or voting).