Agenda item

Report of the Cabinet Member for Learning and Skills

The Committee received a further update on the progress and impact of the SEND Reforms in Staffordshire and scrutinised the progress to date in undertaking the transfer process.

On 1 September 2014 the special educational needs and disability reforms came into effect as part of the Children and Families act 2014, and set out significant changes to the way in which children and young people with SEND were supported.  These included:

• The introduction of an Education, Heath and Care Plan (EHCP) for 0-25 year olds to replace Statements of Special Educational Needs and a duty to transfer where appropriate Learning Difficulty Assessments (LDAs) to EHCPs by March 2017 and Statements to EHCPs by March 2018.
• The publication of a “Local Offer” setting out in one place information about provision local authorities expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in their area who have SEN or are disabled.
• The introduction of joint commissioning arrangements to ensure integration between education, social care and health to enable partners to make best use of all the resources available in an area to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND in the most efficient, effective, equitable and sustainable way.
• The introduction of Personal Budgets for young people and parents of children with EHCPs, enabling them to have greater choice and control over SEND support.

Members were informed that the number of requests for EHCPs had continued to rise.  The Council’s performance on completion of EHC assessments within the statutory 20 week timescale (84.46%) remained good.  The number of special educational needs tribunal appeals had also increased.  In discussions around the tribunal process members expressed concern on the impact that these can have on schools and the demands on head teachers’ time. 

In considering the progress of transfers of statements of special educational needs and LDAs to EHCPs members noted that during the first year the number of completed transfers fell well below the expected levels as published in the transfer plan.  This was largely due to delays in staff recruitment.  The figures for the current academic year showed that a total of 28% of transfers had been completed.  Whilst this meant that Staffordshire was behind schedule, plans had been put in place to address this and considerable additional resourcing had been made available from the SEND Reform Grant. 

In relation to the Local Offer members were informed that this had two key purposes:

• To provide clear, comprehensive, accessible and up to date information about the available provision and how to access it.
• To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving disabled children and those with SEN and their parents, and disabled young people and those with SEN, and service providers in its development and  review.

Members were informed that the was a requirement for joint commissioning arrangements to cover the services for 0-25 year old children and young people with SEN or disabilities, both with and without EHCPs.  A Joint Commissioning Strategy had been drafted and governance of joint commissioning arrangements were now overseen by the SEND Partnership Board.

A personal budget was an amount of money identified by the local authority to deliver provision set out in an EHCP, where the parent or young person was involved in securing that provision.  There had been a small increase in the uptake of personal budgets rising from 1 to 3, which was in line with the national picture.

Members received details of how the SEND system in Staffordshire would be transformed going forward.  Starting from Wednesday 1 March 2017 a core group of professional within the SEND system in Staffordshire will identify and study the SEND system from the perspective of the service user, with a view to making an evidenced based judgement on which aspects of the system can and should be re-designed to improve the outcomes for the children and young people in Staffordshire.  This work would be undertaken on a place based approach focusing on South Staffordshire initially and be expected to last for up to 6 weeks.

RESOLVED – That:

a)    the update on the progress and impact of the SEND Reforms be noted;

b)    the progress to date in undertaking the transfer process be noted; and

the scrutiny of  the progress in the next phase of SEND Transformation be continued via a further update after the May 2017 elections.