Agenda item

1.    Mr Rory Love, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills introduced the report which provided an overview of progress in SEND since the issuing of the Improvement Notice in March 2023.  The report was the first in a series of quarterly reports to the Committee.  Mr Love commented on the issuing of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)  and the percentage of plans completed within 20 weeks, in August 2023 this figure was 2.3% but August 2024 was 51.6% which demonstrated the significant progress that had been made and confirmed that the Minister had removed the Improvement Notice.

2.    The Chairman commented on the progress demonstrated within the report and invited members to comment.  The key points raised and responded to by the Cabinet Member and officers present included the following:

a.    A member questioned if 100% was not the aim, what was?  Mr Love confirmed that the aim was to get all the EHCPs issued within the 20 week statutory timescale, however there would not be a targeted deadline against this. Mrs McInnes also confirmed that the rate of improvement would increase as the backlogs had now been cleared.

b.    Following requests for clarification from members, Mr Watts confirmed how important it was for the committee to work within a forensic work programme gathering evidence from a broad group of stakeholders allowing for evidenced recommendations to be submitted to the Cabinet Member in due course. 

c.    In response to a question about annual reviews the number outstanding had reduced from 62.4% in Augst 2023 to 35.6% in August 2024, Mrs Farmer provided details figures on the numbers of annual reviews and the ongoing efforts to address the backlog. 

d.    The data for phase transfer had just been made available, so would now be shared with committee members in terms of inclusion in schools.

e.    Mrs McInnes clarified that the content contained within the report arose from facilitated workshops with SENCOs and Headteachers and would not be imposed onto schools. Overall, things had improved immeasurably.

f.     In response to a question about why improvements were not seen earlier Mr Love explained that changes in personnel, structure and management team changed the culture of the team and drove improvements.  Mrs McInnis also stated that significant corporate support and input from expert consultants had played a part. 

g.    Officers added that meeting a statutory requirement and meeting a parent’s expectations were not necessarily the same, and welcomed any contacts that could be provided to enable outreach to any groups of parents who felt unsupported.

h.    In response to a comment about the 18 week wait for a wheelchair Mr Love would follow this up with the Kent and Medway Wheelchair Service and report back to the Committee.  Mrs Farmer reassured members that children in wheelchairs did not miss out on education while they were waiting for a wheelchair to become available.

i.      A Member referenced the external auditors report, the number of EHCP requests remaining being above the national average and how this was going to be addressed.  Mrs McInnes responded that they had looked at the decision-making threshold and made regular changes. Since January, the number of assessments and EHCPs being issued had improved and work was ongoing.  

j.      The Church Representative requested that, regarding the falling proportion of assessment requests from parents, the council resisted efforts to add more responsibility to schools in the process.  He had concerns that this would lengthen the time taken and impede the ability for schools to work closely with parents.  Mrs Farmer clarified that there were local inclusion forum team meetings which contained expert practitioners within a geographical area to problem solve and ensure statutory duties of schools and the authority around SEN support were met.

k.    In response to a comment Mrs McInnes confirmed that there was no intention that children from special schools would be reassigned into mainstreams schools and with regards to the distribution of the SEND newsletter it was requested that members forward it to anyone who would benefit from seeing it. 

l.      Mr Adams confirmed that the Specialist Resource Provision (SRP) forecast indicated a move from 600 places in the secondary sector to 1000 by the end of this decade. There was a proportion of funding set aside within the Capital Budget to support the SRP expansion, this was dependent on the capacity of the schools and their ability to convert rather than build. 

m.  The Chairman congratulated Mrs McInnes and her team on the report and the positive steps being taken. 

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Committee note the report.