Agenda item

The Divisional Director for the Children, Young People and Families Division will give a verbal update on this item to the Panel.

The Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care introduced this agenda item. He handed out a briefing note to the Panel, a copy of this can be found on the Panel’s Minute Book or as an online appendix to these minutes, a summary set out below.

Demand for places: This continues to be high. B&NES currently has 1062 (January 2018) young people with an Education, Health & Care Plan (EHCP), this has risen from a figure of 748 (September 2015). Because of this the High Needs element of the Direct Schools Grant (DSG) continues to experience considerable strain. The Council continues to manage these demands through the co-operation of the local Schools Forum. In December 2017 all 13 South West LA’s highlighted the rising demand for SEND places and associated costs as a priority for action.

In response to these pressures B&NES is currently developing a strategy to fund up to 107 additional SEND places across main-stream schools and Bath College. We are also in the process of discussing with two local MAT’s the option of locating some of these places within these schools. The funding for these additional places will be through a combination of money from the DfE and a matched amount from the Council.

The intention is that through the funding of additional local places we can not only increase capacity, but also begin to reduce the reliance on ‘out of county’ places. This should prove beneficial to young people who would no longer have to travel excessive distances as well as enabling the Council to reduce transport costs and target resources more positively on activity that can add value for these young people. We hope to identify the first number of new places in time for September 2018.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked if the Council were seeking to increase capacity within its current Special Schools as well as capacity within mainstream schools.

The Strategic Director for People & Communities replied that increased capacity would be sought where possible across B&NES.

Councillor Paul May commented that the Council should seek to identify more areas for capital investment and that he was willing to argue within the Council for further funding in this area.

Councillor Lisa O’Brien commented that children with needs are now living longer and that it was unfair for a child with complex needs to be denied Special School expertise. She asked if consideration had been given to building a new Special School as part of the new Somerdale development.

The Strategic Director for People & Communities replied that discussions of this nature were held but that developers were not able to make enough of a financial contribution and plans for a Free School on the site were not achieved.

Councillor Sally Davis commented that the funding impact on small schools was cause for concern and that assessments regarding an EHCP were timely and costly.

Kevin Burnett said that decisions on provision should be taken in the best interest of every child and every school leader wanted to do their best for each child in their care. As Councillor Sally Davis mentioned, funding was having a direct impact on their ability to meet these children's needs.

Chris Batten stated that he felt it was a curriculum problem as in the case for a certain section of our pupils it was not appropriate.

Preparation for inspection: Ofsted and the CQC are roughly halfway through a three year programme of inspecting all Local Authorities and CCG’s in relation to their joint provision for young people with SEND. Only four LA’s in the South West area have not received this inspection, therefore it is likely that this inspection will take place within this calendar year.

The local SEND Strategic Board has been actively preparing for the inspection for the past 12 months. This has involved developing and updating the ‘local offer’ to parents as well as focusing on improving the quality of timeliness of plans for young people.

The Chair thanked the Divisional Director for Safeguarding & Social Care for his update on behalf of the Panel.