Agenda item

The Department for Education (DfE) has introduced two programs: the Safety Valve (SV) and Delivering Better Value. These programs collaborate with local authorities to create recovery plans for financial sustainability. The SV program, specifically, provides financial support from the DfE.

Councillor Paul May introduced this item to the Panel and began by apologising that they were unable to provide a full report at this stage. He said that this was a complicated area of work and was a major issue for the Council to get correct.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding added that the Council has until May 24th to submit updated plans to the Department for Education (DfE), working closely with three DfE-appointed Safety Valve advisers.

He informed the Panel that an independent review of the finances and plans involved has been carried out and that they are working on refinements within their existing plan.

He said that Safety Valve is an opportunity for rapid service improvement to be achieved in the following areas.

·  Early Help

·  SEND Support

·  Free School / AP School capital investments

·  7 new Resource Bases

·  Bolster SEND Team Leadership

He stated that all draft plans have been shared with the local Parent & Carer forums.

Kevin Burnett said that it should be acknowledged the excellent work the officers within the Council do for their pupils with SEND. He said he was concerned though as to whether this work will put them under undue pressure / scrutiny from the DfE in terms of cost cutting from what they would like to see versus what B&NES needs.

He asked if assurances could be given with regard to being able to stick to their plan, once it has been submitted, and not to have to dilute on the request of the DfE. He added that it was acknowledged that all of these issues, especially the new schools would take time.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding thanked hm for his comments and replied that there were no plans to reduce the amount of funding through our EHCPs and that the plans contain the right level of service investment. He added that he was very comfortable that the plans will not be detrimental to the Council.

Councillor Robin Moss commented that the Council is in the position it is in because the current Government has been removing funds from Councils for many years. He stated that he was concerned that services would be continued to be cut in order to fund the National Insurance tax cut plans due for September.

He asked how confident was the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services that these plans will come to fruition, especially for those schools that will be expecting to receive certain services.

Councillor May replied that if plans within Safety Valve should fail it will leave a lot of Local Authorities in trouble and stated the Government needs to provide these services to our schools and our young people. He added that the officers involved have worked tirelessly in a professional way to have these plans in place. He stated that Early Help provision must remain in place and that they would endeavour to submit a full report to the Panel on this issue in due course.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked why the Council has failed to meet its original targets that were submitted to the DfE and how confident are we that by submitting this revised plan that the payments from the DfE will be reactivated, and what will happen if the plan is not achievable.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding replied that in terms of the initial plan negotiations they probably did not allow themselves enough time to achieve their proposals. He added that if the finances are not received it will be an issue, but that officers will do all they can to achieve the set targets.

He said that the deficit does not sit on the Council’s budget line currently and therefore this is an unknown factor at this stage.

Kevin Burnett commented that the current situation has been determined by the years of austerity and cuts that have been made to school’s services and SEND provision and asked what will happen if schools do not have provision in place for pupils who have an EHCP.

The Director of Education & Safeguarding replied that the academisation process within B&NES was quite rapid and that school services then became the responsibility of those academies and there remains a degree of inconsistency about services that are provided by them. He added that the Council could become proactive in this area if national policy was to be updated.

Councillor May stated that this was major issue and the decisions taken will affect the whole Council.

The Panel RESOLVED to approve the following recommendations.

i)  The Panel was briefed on the progress to date on the direction of our safety valve work.

ii)  The Panel was assured that the Local Authority and its partners are working to deliver a programme of work that improves services, delivers more school places for children with SEND and reduces financial pressures.

iii)  In consultation with parents/carers, and stakeholders we have renamed our programme the SEND Collaboration for BaNES, as this reflects the overarching aims of the work.

iv)  Note that the financial issues facing the Council are a national issue affecting all Local Authorities. The council’s position is that SEND remains an area of Education policy in urgent need of reform, and that the current system is dramatically underfunded.