The Director of Children’s Services introduced the report that outlined the SEND (Special educational needs and disabilities) action plan. Nick Stevens, Head-teacher at Riverside school led the interactive session. The presentation was led in a workshop style and focused on the following:

?        Why action on support for children and families with SEND was required?

?        What the identified priorities were and what actions were planned to address these?

?        To identify who would contribute to the collective responsibility to improve experiences and outcomes for children and families with SEND

?        Discussions surrounded how all involved persons could contribute as schools and colleges.

The quiz section of the presentation focussed on Educational and Health Care Plans (EHCP), timescales and proportionality of those Children and Young Persons (CYP) who had been identified as receiving SEN support in schools. It was highlighted in the discussion that there were currently 907 EHCPs and statements across the borough and that there had been a 20% increase since 2011. It was also noted that there were a further 2,666 children within the Borough who had been identified as receiving support in RBWM schools without an EHCP. There are 279 children (31%) with ECHPs or statements who did not attend schools within RBWM.

Mr Stevens reported that a range of head-teachers had been approached to discuss ways in which schools currently supported children and young people and families with SEND. There had been differing opinions and a wide range of views on how schools supported and met the needs of SEND in young people and families. Most schools felt that there had been examples of great work amongst staff in supporting the needs of children and that there had been many examples of success within schools where teams had gone over and above standard procedures to support children and families.

It was however noted that there was a gap in the availability of information for signposting support.  It was also highlighted that school leads were unfamiliar with the RBWM SEND Action Plan.

The SEND Action Plan had been created to address the Joint Ofsted and CQC Inspection (July 2017) which had highlighted 8 key areas for improvement:

Work was underway and had been carried out to address the key areas of concern that included;

?        To establish a SEND Steering Board and Local Leaders Working Grp.

?        To complete the SEND Strategy consultation

?        Development of an Inclusion Charter

?        Development of CAHMS Transformational Strategy

?        Strengthened work with PaCIP

?        Increased capacity of Designated Clinical Officer

?        Multi agency review and deep dive audit of ECHPs

?        New Ageless Autism Service by September 2018 

?        Review of Feedback mechanisms for CYP

?        Annual Inclusion Summit

?        50 more assessments for ASD

RBWM has secured £450,0000 of funding from the Better Care Fund (BCF) over three years from April 2018. This would fund the creation of three additional posts to support the development of EHC plans for children and young people with the most complex needs and the recruitment of a SEND specialist to help schools develop their systems for inclusion.

Work had been undertaken to look at the use of personal budgets to make it easier for families to secure third sector services as part of their ECH plans. In addition Berkshire Health Foundation Trust (BHFT) will be providing a single point of access for Local Authority EHCP requests. East Berkshire SEND group would review audits and scrutinise quality through real-time case studies and experiences.

It was also noted that there had been significant funding contribution from schools through the Dedicated schools grant in 2018/19.  This includes £160,000 for Early Years SEND provision and £416,000 from the schools block allocation to transform inclusion services.

Putting this together with the BCF funding, there is a large amount of money which could be used to bring sustainable change to the way in which SEND was implemented in and across the borough.

At the end of the workshop, the Chair welcomed public participation and welcomed views and questions from the public in the gallery.

As part of the discussion, management and review of the SEND action plan. Nick Stevens and the Director of Children’s Services explained that there would be two streams which focussed on outcomes for the initial 9-12 months, followed by the longer term management and implementation of the SEND strategy. The first stream would drive change and would predominantly be managed through steering boards to ensure that the changes required by Ofsted are delivered. The second stream would be in line with the overarching three year plan to effectively deliver strategy and would be overseen by a group of Head teachers and LA officers. There would also be a PaCIP AGM, Head teacher Forum, Council scrutiny via the Childrens and Services Overview and Scrutiny panel to monitor the success of the  embedded delivery.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY That:The SEND Action Plan be circulated to the Youth Ambassadors for further scrutiny and comment.