The minutes of the meeting of the High Needs Block Working Group meeting held on 9 November 2021 are attached. Schools Forum will also receive an update on behalf of the Working Group and there will be an update on the Independent Special School review.
Minutes:
Helean Hughes (Director of Education and Skills) gave an update on behalf of the High Needs Block Working Group and highlighted the following:
· The Temporary Support Funding had been discussed. There was currently an issue in meeting the statutory 20 week requirement for EHCPs. Due to national an increased demand for assessments and recruitment issues, Education Psychologist resource was in short supply which was causing delays and whilst they were trying to recruit additional EP resource there was an immediate issue for the meeting the 20 week deadline. The use of £4k per pupil was agreed to be used for supporting the pupil whilst awaiting the outcome of the EHCP application; and
· The test site for the Ordinarily Available Provision (OAP) had been shared which set out what was available for learners with SEND, for parents. Schools and all parties. Officers were dedicated to being able to launch this in the new year.
Cate Mullen (Head of SEND and Inclusion) reported that the DfE SEND review would be set up by Will Quince (Children’s Minister) and was due to be issued in the first quarter of 2022. They were hoping to see adaptations to be made to the SEND Code of Practice so that the law that sits behind sets out the intentions of the DfE in terms of the inspection framework for Ofsted and CQC local area inspections.
Lisa Fryer (Education Officer – Independent Specialist Placements) presented an update on the Independent Special School wave 1 review and highlighted the following:
The Chair thanked Lisa Fryer for her presentation and confirmed that the slides would be attached as Appendix 1 to the minutes.
The Wiltshire Parent Carer Council representative agreed that the amount of money spent on a placement didn’t always mean it was of high quality although this was a perception from parents/carers. She reported that the Parent Carer Council had received a high number of calls relating to children and young people who were on long term part-time education timetables and that there were a lot of mental health issues because of this and the levels of school avoidance were high.
The Early Years representative commented that the considerable savings made in this work were impressive and he acknowledged how complex and time consuming the cases were but asked about the costs of the work to make those savings in relation to the staffing time etc spent on that work. Lisa Fryer confirmed that she had been seconded to move into this role and her post had had to be backfilled and whilst there had been some challenges, there hadn’t been any additional resource brought in to carry out the work and that it was sitting within the existing team. They felt that it was proportionate between the amount of work going in and the savings being achieved and that the focus was on the best outcomes for the young people and that made it a worthwhile exercise.
Helean Hughes reported that the team would now be moving into business as usual work and that a model PFA pathway for adulthood would be the next challenge to ensure that it was fully addressing the SEND and Inclusion Strategy.
Resolved: That Schools Forum
1. Note the minutes of the High Needs Block Working Group meeting held on 9 November 2021.
2. Note the update on behalf of the High Needs Block Working Group.
3. Note the update on the Independent Special School Review.
Supporting documents: