Minutes:
1. Mr Love provided his Cabinet Member verbal update as follows:
1.1 Secondary School Offer Day
Friday 1 March was secondary school offer day. 96% of applicants received an offer from one of their four preferred schools, which was the highest proportion of the cohort in the last five years. Just under 79% of Kent pupils were offered a place at their first-preference school.
Parents and carers were asked to accept or decline their offered school by 15 March however, those offered places at the Oasis academies on the Isle of Sheppey had more time. They would receive further information from KCC once the Department for Education (DfE) had made its final decision regarding the Oasis academies.
Thanks were offered to admissions team who had allocated school places to more than 22,000 pupils.
Mr Love wished pupils every success for the remainder of the year and wished them well as they prepared for the move to secondary school.
1.2 Phase Transfer Deadline
15 February was the phase transfer deadline for children and young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). An up to date EHCP had been issued for around 92% of placements this year, and the remaining 8% of children had bespoke arrangements being prepared. All parents had been contacted by email or post to provide updates when the deadline was missed. In most cases the delay was due to school capacity issues.
KCC’s internal processes were now significantly more robust than they were in the past and further improvements were planned for next year. It remained the highest priority to ensure that any outstanding placements were assigned as soon as possible, so that parents and pupils could plan for the new school year.
1.3 NEET Statistics
The most recent data from the DfE’s National Client Caseload Information System showed that Kent had outperformed England and the South East in terms of the number of young people with an EHCP who were identified as Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). Kent had 4.6% of those with an EHCP identified as NEET, compared to 6.9% in the South East, and 8.3% across the whole of England. The demonstrated the impact of the new SEND Post 16 team, and new ways of working with The Education People’s NEET Support Service.
1.4 Additional SEND Investment
It was announced at the Budget Council meeting on 19 February that, despite severe financial challenge for the Council, there would be an additional £2,000,000 investment to increase capacity within SEN services. The funds would be targeted to address backlogs in assessments and annual reviews, and to increase management capacity to support robust and appropriate decision-making. Over time this would provide a positive impact for families, help to address the three areas of weakness identified in the Improvement Plan, and support KCC in playing its part to improve outcomes for children and young people.
2. Mrs Chandler provided her Cabinet Member verbal update as follows:
2.1 Kent Intake Unit
On 22 February Mrs Chandler, alongside the Leader and Corporate Director, met with Michael Tomlinson the Minister for Countering Illegal Migration, at the Kent Intake Unit in Dover.
They discussed the challenges Kent faced from the arrival of large numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC), and how KCC would meet its statutory obligations through measures such as the opening of new reception centres across the county. Minister Tomlinson welcomed the progress Kent had made. There was a desire from KCC and the Home Office to continue close cooperation to ensure there was robust safeguarding in place for children who came into the county.
KCC continued to make the case for fair distribution of UASC, via the National Transfer Scheme, to avoid an unfair burden on Kent. This would ensure KCC could continue to meet its legal responsibilities for what was a national issue.
2.2 UASC Update
There had been 87 UASC arrivals during February and the total number of arrivals for 2024 was 246. By comparison, there had been 191 arrivals in the first two months of 2023.
Given the expected pressure of UASC arrivals throughout 2024, preparations were underway to open new reception centres at nine locations around the county. Mrs Chandler had met with local Members of Parliament and Councillors in areas where these new centres were planned, to help provide reassurance to residents around the nature of the sites. All reception centre placements would be on a temporary basis and that there would be staff on site 24 hours a day.
All UASC residents would have a schedule of activities including English language lessons and lessons about life in the UK. This would ensure that all of the young people passing through Kent were best equipped to living in a new country, as they prepared for longer-term placements elsewhere.
2.3 Ofsted Inspection
Ofsted carried out a focused visit inspection of Kent at the end of January. The inspection was carried out under the Inspecting Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) Framework and covered Canterbury and Folkestone and Hythe. The inspection focused on the child in need, child protection, children’s entry into care, and 16 and 17 year old young people who presented as homeless.
Ofsted’s findings were published on 27 February 2024 and concluded that KCC provided a high quality of service, with only minor areas of improvement identified. Thanks were offered to all the staff for their hard work in preparing for the visit and helping to achieve a positive outcome.
2.4 Sector-Led Improvement Programme
Following the recent bid to become a Children’s Social Care Sector-Led Improvement Partner for 2024-25, which would see KCC working closely with other local authorities to help them improve their children’s services, confirmation had been received that KCC had been successful. Mrs Chandler read an extract of the feedback from the bid as follows:
‘Your bid exceeded our expectations by providing good evidence regarding the strength of your children’s social care services and demonstrating how your Quality Assurance Framework will be applied to support other local authorities. Your bid clearly demonstrated the quality of your contextual safeguarding offer and suicide prevention expertise, as well as providing strong evidence to support the impact and outcomes of your work.
Your bid met our expectations by demonstrating your commitment to continuous improvement alongside the stability of your leadership. You also provided a satisfactory list of support activities you would expect to offer and demonstrated understanding of the risks you might need to manage in delivering SLI support.’
The action plan and exact amount of funding would be confirmed shortly, and thanks went to the all the officers involved in preparing the successful bid.
2.5 Staff Consultation on the Open Access Review
The consultation concluded on 22 February and staff received the final documentation on 1 March. The distribution of documentation did not go as planned however, all documents were available by the end of the day. Staff were thanked for the professional way they had engaged with the consultation. Apologies were offered to the staff members who experienced difficulties accessing documents on the Oracle system. All the questions raised by members of staff had been answered.
3. Further to questions and comments from Members, it was noted that:
· Some staff were very distressed following the Open Access Review and the delay in receiving documentation.
· Youth provision for those with SEND would be within Family Hubs, information and guidance had been given to staff members.
· A lot of work had taken place to support NEETs and the data showed that the system was working better in Kent than elsewhere. However, there was more to be done to make the number of NEETs as low as possible.
· It was not possible to say exactly when SEND pupils awaiting school placements would have their placements allocated. Bespoke arrangements were being finalised and placements were being tailored to individuals. It was recognised that communication with parents and carers was very important during this time.
4. The verbal updates were noted.