Agenda item

SEND Written Statement of Action

Minutes:

The item was introduced by Chris Baird, who reminded members that an inspection of SEND provision across the whole of Warwickshire – not just in schools and education settings – had been undertaken last year. Weaknesses had been identified in a number of areas, so a written Statement of Action outlining how these would be addressed was required to be produced. The draft statement had been signed off by Ofsted and the CQC, which recognised the action plan that had been developed and how services would be developed over the course of several years. Monitoring meetings had been taking place with the Department for Education and NHS England, the most recent of which had been on 17 May. At this meeting the positive progress that had been made, and the pace at which it had occurred, had been noted.

 

Rachel Barnes said there had been good levels of input into the Written Statement of Action from parents and carers, including those from the newly relaunched Parent Carer Forum. Rachel Barnes reminded members there had been five areas of significant weakness that had been identified. The first of these was in relation to waiting times for autism diagnosis. Rachel Barnes said waiting times were reducing, and there had been increased staffing capacity to make diagnoses. There had been improvements to the self-help offer, including a conference that had been well attended. An e-booklet was due to be launched soon. A new model of assessment to streamline current processes was being piloted.

 

The second area of weakness related to communication with parents and carers. A new monthly SEND newsletter had been launched, as had a Facebook page specific to the SEND Local Offer, which had more than 500 followers. The main website on the Local Offer contained a section titled ‘You Said, We Did’ to show what progress had been made. Additionally a series of webinars and online workshops had taken place, which had been well attended and good feedback had been generated. Nearly 100 members of staff had received training in restorative practice, which was aimed at building trusting relationships with families and schools.

 

Areas three and four were closely linked to each other, regarding inclusion and workforce development in schools. Rachel Barnes said ‘change champions’ had been allocated within each school consortium to lead on this and help develop an inclusion charter. A new inclusion framework aimed at providing earlier interventions was being trialled within 17 schools in Rugby. Another trial regarding children with behavioural challenges was taking place within a further five schools, based on the work of Dr Ross Greene. Rachel Barnes said feedback on this had been positive and it was intended to roll this out to another 25 schools this year. The fifth area of weakness related to the Local Offer webpages. Rachel Barnes told the Committee these had been relaunched and traffic to them had increased by 50 per cent. Additionally literature had been provided to schools, children and family centres, libraries, and also GP surgeries and presentations has been made to various groups. The Committee was told there had been two monitoring meetings with Department of Education and NHS England so far and a third was planned to take place in October 2022.

 

Councillor Beetham said the improvements made to date had been impressive. He noted the longest wait time for an autism diagnosis was four years, and the target was to reduce waiting times to 13 weeks. He asked if this target was on track, and asked to see projections to see how this could be delivered. Regarding the improved communication on the Facebook page, he noted that on 8 June there had been seven posts and then the day before the meeting there had been two posts within a short space of time. He stated his belief it would be better if posts were better spaced out, as there was a possibility some of them would be missed by users. Rachel Barnes said she would share this feedback. Regarding the reduction in waiting times, she said this was a target to be implemented by the end of March 2024. She was happy to share the methodology with members outside of the meeting.

 

Councillor Simpson-Vince asked if the improvements meant the service was now at a level where it ought to have been, or if they had gone further than that. Chris Baird said the focus had been on addressing the five identified areas of weakness, but a change improvement plan had been implemented at the same time to look at a wider range of issues. There would be areas of increased pressures, such as the number of referrals for children with an EHCP, and these would need to be kept under review.

 

Responding to a question from Councillor Kerridge about reducing the timeframes for autism assessments, Nigel Minns said there would be short and medium term aims to be implemented to drive this. For example different teams of professionals could be employed to undertake them; although it might take time to commission this, once it was implemented it would help speed up the process of getting the assessments done. Nigel Minns said there had been an increase in capacity in child psychologists to do this work. Additionally there were a range of short and long term funding streams available. Nigel Minns highlighted the longest waiting times prior to Covid-19 had been two to two and a half years, and the pandemic had exacerbated waiting times.

 

Rachel Barnes said there needed to be increased communication to highlight the fact there was a misconception that families were unable to access autism services without a diagnosis. In fact families are able to access support without a formal autism diagnosis.

 

Councillor Seccombe highlighted that a third of the funding for autism services came from the Council and the remainder from the health service, highlighting the need for collaborative working. Of the areas of concern outlined in the report, Councillor Seccombe said the first two required the intervention of medical professionals. By getting the rest of them right, it would remove the stigma in young people’s minds of needing medical or professional help. Councillor Seccombe said that by getting the support levels right as outlined in the third and fourth areas of concern, the issues raised in the first and second areas of concern would be allayed. She said it was important for children to remain in their regular school and community environments.

 

Responding to comments from Councillor Roodhouse, Nigel Minns said there were challenges regarding recruitment. External service providers were also having difficulties with recruiting and retaining staff. He reiterated the point raised earlier about communicating the fact services could be accessed without requiring an autism diagnosis; otherwise families would be in the situation of potentially waiting four years for a diagnosis, only to realise they had unnecessarily waited that time to try and access services they were eligible for. However it was important to make sure children were accessing the correct treatment pathway for their particular needs.

 

Councillor Humphreys said in cases where a class contained a child who was being disruptive, this would have a bearing on the learning or not just that child but the others in the class if there was no additional assistance. She did not want to see children excluded from classes but said more resources were needed to help children with behavioural issues. Rachel Barnes said there was a pilot scheme whereby teachers could receive a manual that would help them address the root causes of disruptive behaviour. It was expected that results from the pilot scheme would be ready within a few months.

 

Responding to a question from the Chair, Nigel Minns said there were considerable differences in how headteachers addressed autism and wider special educational needs, despite there being a good variety of training schemes available. Some schools had a more inclusive approach than others. This disparity had been noted by the CQC. Nigel Minns said the Schools Forum had been asked to help with funding for training, but they had decided against doing so following additional pressures to overall funding. Chris Baird said when a new headteacher came into post they would be informed of the various training available to them. He said Ofsted had noted in its inspection that SEND provision varied amongst different areas and on an individual level. Rachel Barnes said feedback was being gathered from the Parent Carers Forum, as well as capturing feedback before and during the intervention process. The responses would then be used to form key messages that could be circulated out.

 

Responding to points raised by Councillor Hammersley, Nigel Minns said the provision of special schools in Warwickshire remained high. As well as the special schools themselves, there were a number of specialist units within mainstream schools that could meet children’s additional needs and the Council commissioned places in independent special schools where appropriate. Pupils made good progress so long as they were provided with the required levels of support and schools were asked to make reasonable adjustments rather than to go above and beyond in terms of additional support. Nigel Minns said that studies showed that children in the past who had not received the support they needed had achieved poorly in adulthood; for example research showed a higher prevalence in the prison population and unemployment rates.

 

Responding to a question from Councillor Brown, Rachel Barnes said there were 471 children in Warwickshire currently not on a school roll, excluding those being electively home educated. These figures had been submitted to Ofsted as part of the pilot of the new inspection framework. Regarding the monitoring of the level of education provided to children being home schooled, Chris Baird said the Council did have some duties but the specifics in terms of delivery was down to the parents and carers. This was their legal right, although this was being examined in the Schools White Paper.

 

Rachel Barnes said there had been a lower engagement rate with parent carers from the north of the county, and alternative ways of engagement were being looked into.

 

Resolved

 

That the Committee endorsed the progress made to date to deliver the Written Statement of Action.

Supporting documents: