Agenda item

The minutes of the meetings of the High Needs Block Working Group held on 7 July and 9 September 2021 are attached.  The Forum will also receive an update on behalf of the Working Group and there will be a spotlight on SEND Assessment and EHCP to be presented by Cate Mullen (Head of SEND and Inclusion). 

Helean Hughes (Director of Education and Skills) gave an update on behalf of the High Needs Block Working Group and highlighted the following:

·         When the High Needs Block Working Group met in July they had received updates on Alternative Provision and discussed provision mapping.  The key message was to ‘Keep it simple!’  Links to paperwork and processes needed to move between phases and use of drop downs.  It was highlighted that the introduction of the provision mapping needed to be done in a phased way rather than implementing all at once.  This would help schools to adjust. The group had also looked at banding benchmarking information and there was ongoing work to compare what Wiltshire does with other LA’s, how they carry out self-evaluation and what more could be done to make improvements;

·          At the working group meeting on 9 September the participants were made aware of the  £1.7M  recurring investment into the SEND service agreed by Cabinet which was recognition that the number of EHCP’s had increased over the last 4/5 years but staffing team had remained the same – the group were pleased to note that that investment had been made and that additional posts were being created.

Cate Mullen (Head of SEND and Inclusion) presented a spotlight on SEND Assessments and EHCP’s and highlighted the following:

• In July, Cabinet gave approval for £1.742M in 2022-23 to increase capacity within SEND and Inclusion Services.  As well as the statutory SEN Team they would also now be able to fund posts for Educational Psychologists and Early Years Inclusion Officers as it was recognised that all these officers do have an impact on high needs spend;

• The working group had focused on the statutory processes and how they could improve/streamline the way they determine SEND assessments and EHCP’s and agreed to review the work of the SEND statutory panel.  With the help of a consultant this had helped them to move this work on at pace;

• Previously, decisions in Wiltshire as to whether we undertook an assessment was an individual officers led decision outside of the panel process and then the decisions to issue/not issue, banding decisions, placement change requests, banding uplift requests, additional costs requests and specialist equipment requests were all dealt with at a weekly SEN Panel meeting made up from LA officers and some school representation.  The rational for change was to ensure that the process was as transparent as possible and ensure that as many engaged stakeholders as possible could feed into to the decision making;

• The sheer amount of business to be determined at the weekly SEN panel had become unworkable including the amount of pre- work/reading which was quite challenging.  The group had worked to refine the volume of pre-reading and preparation for group members and to ensure that case presentation enabled the very best consideration of information in order to address the question brought to the group;

• The consultant had worked with the Wiltshire Parent Carer Council and schools to develop new processes;

• There would now be three Discussion and Decision Groups (DaDs) and they had moved away from SEN Panels as this sounds daunting;

• DaD1 was a group meeting on a weekly basis and to determine whether to agree to an EHC Needs Assessment.  This group had been running since before the summer holidays and currently 50-60 requests were being received per month.  Schools were asked to register interest to be represented and they can see how the LA make decisions

• DaD2 also meets weekly and this group determines whether to issue an EHCP following assessment; what level of banded funding is associated with a new plan; requests for a banding increase; requests for Resource Base/Maintained Special School places; requests for additional funding under £40k and specialist equipment requests.  Whilst there was still a lot of business for this group to consider they had tried to remove the need for all the preparation and reading before the meeting;

• DaD3 had their first meeting last week and are planned to meet on a fortnightly basis and would be considering applications for higher cost funding and placement decisions and SENDIST considerations;

• The DaD1 and DaD2 groups were seeking school representatives and they were also working with the Wiltshire Parent Carer Council to utilise their skills and to have parent carer representation; and

• This was an exciting ongoing piece of work and of course there was always more work to do to make improvements.  The E-form being developed was a long way down the road and it was hoped that the changes would make it more streamlined for all concerned.

The Chairman thanked Cate for the update and added that the clarity around the purpose of the discussion and decision groups was helpful, she felt that this would make a massive difference to the processes and help parents which was a step in the right direction.

Resolved:

1.           That Schools Forum note the minutes of the High Needs Block             Working Group meetings held on 7 July and 9 September 2021.

2.           Note the update on behalf of the High Needs Block Working Group.

3.           Note the update on SEND Assessments and EHCPs.