Agenda item

Report by the Director of Education and Skills.

A new SEND and Inclusion Strategy for West Sussex 2019-2024 has been co-produced with a wide a wide representation of stakeholders, including parent carers, young people, education providers and other professionals across social care, health and education. The strategy sets out how the County Council will support the inclusion of all children and young people, with a particular focus on those with SEND.

The Committee is asked to consider the attached draft Cabinet Member decision report and provide comment to the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills prior to the formal decision being taken.

30.1   The Committee considered a report by the Director of Education and Skills. The Director of Education and Skills introduced the report, and provided the following overview of the new strategy:

·       WSCC’s current SEND strategy would come to an end this year. The Education and Skills directorate have been working with stakeholders in the development of a new SEND and Inclusion Strategy which will lead the authority through the next five years.

·       Through various consultation and engagement events, a co-created strategy had been developed which will improve WSCCs SEND provision, ensuring all children get the best start in life.

·       The new strategy would see the service working in partnership with NHS colleagues, Public Health and Early Help. A mental health strategy and reducing exclusion figures were key priorities within the Strategy.

·       With the increasing cost of transport and out of county placements, additional Special Support Centres (SSCs) would bring expertise back into the county and reduce the pressure on transport requirements.

·       The strategy was now being developed with various detailed action plans with key performance indicators (KPIs) in order to hold the service to account and ensure delivery of improvement.

·       The service would also receive scrutiny from the Schools Forum who had delegated responsibility for the high needs block, to ensure that the strategy was deliverable within the funding resource.

30.2   The Director of Education introduced two witnesses to provide their views and experiences of working with the county council in the development of the new SEND and Inclusion Strategy. Helen Williamson, Head teacher of Billingshurst Primary School, made the following comments:

·       Schools in West Sussex have a range of approaches to inclusion and are trying to meet the needs and expectations with limited resources, which was challenging.

·       In previous years, there had been an absence of looking inwardly at the county’s existing resources and expertise, and how better this could be used to support children locally.

·       A good strategy will meet more children’s needs through re-evaluating and redistributing resources across the county, such as SSCs and expertise.

·       Crucial to the strategy’s success would be the buy in of all head teachers. Supporting the use of local provision would ensure the strategy was implemented and functional, meaning schools could become more inclusive.

·       Too many SEND children were excluded because schools lacked the resources to manage and support these children, or the manpower to deal with highly complex needs, which sometimes impacted on other children.

·       A significant number of workshops took place with input from different agencies including health which considered how SEND children were better supported in West Sussex.

30.3   Val Evans, Chief Executive Officer of the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum and parent of a child with SEND provided the following comments:

·       In the last 15 years, significant improvement had been made in support for SEND children.

·       A common frustration was the attitude that children with SEND were the same, and there was a hope this would be addressed as part of the new strategy.

·       The meetings of stakeholders that took place over the last year developed good proposals for the new strategy. There were however questions about the resources in place to achieve the aims as set out in the strategy, and would the individuality of children be taken into account in the rolling out of these proposals.

30.4   The Chairman and Director of Education and Skills thanked the witnesses for their input, and noted he was pleased to hear the positive comments about the collaborative approach with stakeholders. In terms of the comments regarding adequate resourcing to meet the aims of the strategy, the Director of Education and Skills drew the Committee’s attention to the financial and resource implication section of the draft decision report which signalled a commitment to increase and improve provision. Furthermore, the service had been working with the NHS around funding for mental health workers, and 8 had now been appointed. The Director of Education and Skills also highlighted WSCCs commitment to capital expansion to ensure the increased number of specialist places in schools, plus an additional 11 SSCs.

30.5   The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills supported the comments made by the Director of Education and Skills and thanked the witnesses for attending and sharing their experiences. He added that the considerable capital investment toward additional SSCs and classrooms was very much required having visited some of the schools mentioned in the report, and was pleased this was being addressed as part of the capital programme.

30.6   The Committee considered the following points in discussion:

·       Members were concerned about the lack of focus within the report on children with physical disabilities. Helen Johns, Head of Inclusion, advised the number of those with physical disabilities was a small number in comparison to those with SEN requirements, but that the department was looking at a review of their physical and sensory support service. SSCs were also being considered for their capacity to support those with visual or hearing impairment or physical disabilities.

·       Members of the Committee noted the pilot of the Intensive Planning Team (IPT) and that if rolled out it would be fully chargeable. They questioned if the schools would be paying for this from their budget. The Head of Inclusion advised this would be paid from the school’s allocation of central government funding.

·       The Committee considered how the strategy would meet the needs of those currently home educated because schools were not currently adequately equipped to support them, and how the service planned to bring those children back into schools. The Head of Inclusion advised the IPT would bring together services including health and social care to enable home educated children to return to school.

30.7   Resolved that the Committee:

1.      Support the draft Cabinet Member decision to approve the SEND and Inclusion Strategy 2019-2024 and accompanying implementation plan for publication.