Agenda item

Sara-Jane Brighouse, Programme Manager for Children’s Integrated Services, presented a report on how the Council is meeting its duties and responsibilities to children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The following points were discussed:

(a)  there are 46,869 children and young people attending schools in Nottingham. Of these, 6398 children and young people have some kind of SEND, which represents 13.7% of the school population. There are five special schools, with 585 young people attending specialist schools and Post-16 settings, while 40 attend Focus Provision. There are five Focus Provisions in Nottingham, which are specialist resources in mainstream schools for Autism and deafness. Currently, 905 children and young people receive additional high needs and inclusion funding;

(b)  the current Code of Practice for supporting people with SEND is intended to improve outcomes for children and young people aged 0-25 and their families; establish Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans to replace Statements of Special Educational Needs; replace School Action/Plus with SEND Support; ensure that a graduated response and support is implemented to meet the needs of children with SEND; give access to a personal budget; ensure that the local area co-produces services and strategic developments to involve children, young people and families in decision-making; offer impartial mediation and advice; provide independent Information Advice Support; publish the local offer of support and services; ensure joined-up service delivery through joint commissioning with partners, and health services in particular; and ensure that young people are prepared for adulthood, good health, employment, community inclusion and independent living;

(c)  significant progress has been made in implementing the reforms in Nottingham. The transfer of the Statements of Special Educational Needs to EHC plans has been completed in advance of the national deadline and 98-100% of the new EHC plans have been issued within the statutory 20-week deadline. There are many more personal budgets than the national average, with joint strategic needs assessment and joint commissioning arrangements in place. Significant joint work is underway with SEND and social care Whole Life Disability services, while SEND services continue to work closely with health and social care partners, including delivering practice improvement days. The local offer is on ‘Ask Lion’ Nottingham City directory;

(d)  the current five-year SEND strategy, co-produced with young people and families and published in September 2018, aims to support all schools and settings to be inclusive, develop provision, make transition easier, promote co-production with children, young people and their families, improving links between agencies, and help young people prepare for adulthood. A new facility for young people with Autism will open in September 2020. Support and ring-fenced funding is being provided to mainstream schools to improve provision for young people with SEND. A review of the high-level needs funding system has been completed and a new system will be piloted with schools in spring 2020. ‘Routes to Inclusion’ is being rolled out to all schools in the city, with a specific toolkit to support children with social, emotional and mental health issues. The toolkit was developed and launched with primary schools in October 2018 and work has now begun with secondary schools;

(e)  periodic Local Area Reviews are carried out to inspect how all partners in the city identify children and young people with SEND, assess and meet their needs, improve outcomes, and lead, manage and govern arrangements for SEND in the local area. The inspection will look at the contribution of all partner agencies (education, health and social care in particular) and will consider children and young people who are resident in that area, but receive their support from outside of that area. The inspection results in a published report that will give an assessment judgement about how well the local area is performing and identify areas for improvement. The report may require the local area to consider improvement actions that it should take through a formal ‘statement of action’;

(f)  unfortunately, only 6% of children with SEND go on to regular employment, as many employers have difficulty in supporting their particular workplace needs. Work is underway to establish creative opportunities and placements, and an employment strategy document is being produced. It is vital that Post-16 providers engage closely with their SEND students, and supported internships are being created.

The Committee thanked Sara-Jane Brighouse for her report.

Resolved to request that the outcomes of the upcoming Local Area Review are shared with the Committee when they are available.