Agenda item

The report informs Members of the findings of the SEND Revisit from Ofsted and CQC and outlines next steps to be taken.

C McEvoy-Carr, Executive Director of Adult Social Care and Children’s Services provided a brief introduction to the report and a presentation was provided by S Barron, Strategic Lead for SEND & Designated Clinical Officer. A copy of the presentation would be filed with the signed minutes.  The Executive Director advised that she had been very pleased with the outcome of the visit.  She also took the opportunity to thank all involved, which included parents/carers, children/young people, schools and health colleagues and local authority representatives who had strived to improve the services offered to children and young people with SEND and advised that this work would continue.

Members were advised that the visit had focussed on the three areas of weakness previously identified and it had been found that sufficient progress had been made and as such would no longer be subject to the formal quarterly support and challenge visits from the DfE and NHS England.   Inspectors had found there had been a seismic change in the leadership and culture since the 2018 Inspection and details of the strengths and how these had been achieved were outlined along with the SEND priorities to take forward.

A Kingham, Service Director – Education and Skills advised that a copy of the letter from Ofsted would be circulated after the meeting to members of the Committee.   Councillor Renner-Thompson, Cabinet Member stated that this was an excellent report with the visit being undertaken during a pandemic and also in the lead up to an Election and was a massive achievement and thanked C McEvoy-Carr and her team.

In response to questions from Members the following information was provided:

·       The biggest factor to continue to drive improvements to the service would be to listen to the children, young people and their families to assist in understanding their needs and how these can be supported, embedding these in service delivery in order to achieve a service which met their needs.

·       There were a number of ways to measure progress however the key one would be through the Whole Education Programme which provided schools with a self-evaluation tool which would allow the service to track and monitor progress.  On an annual basis there would be a set of priorities and targets identified and a number of officer sub-groups would continue to operate with the aim of improving the service to children and young people with SEND.  A lot of work was being undertaken at the current time in relation to those with ADHD and SEMH to help mainstream schools to become more inclusive.  The Executive Director advised that there was also a SEND Strategic Board which met on a regular basis and held each of the partner agencies and the Council to account, and at which they needed to demonstrate the progress that had been made.

·       Increasing inclusive education did not necessarily mean that there would be a cost increase as it was about doing things differently and opportunities to invest to save would be looked at which would hopefully reduce costs in the longer term.

·       Grants from Central Government had been used to expand capacity for SEND pupils with the development of the Ashdale Centre and increased capacity at Hexham Priory along with the trial of ARPS within the Seaton Valley partnership.  The Local Authority had also allocated £17m within the Medium Term Financial Plan to invest over the next three years to grow capacity and provide special schools, with £1m of that already allocated for the SEND Free School.   There was a substantial amount of funding available to support growing capacity.

Members welcomed the report and the progress that had been made and offered their thanks and congratulations to those involved.

RESOLVED that:

1.    the information be noted;

2.    a regular update be provided to allow the Committee to provide advice and support.