Issue - meetings

                 Report by Chief Executive Officer – People – Terence Herbert

Cllr Pauline Church, Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Skills introduced the report seeking approval of the SEND Inclusion Strategy 2020-2023.

Cllr Church explained that the report described the key achievements of the previous (Special Educational Needs and Disability) SEND strategy 2015 – 2019 and set out the background and the consultation that was taken forward to create the SEND Inclusion Strategy for 2020 – 2023. The strategy has been developed in co-production with parent/carers, children and young people and the organisations who make up the Wiltshire SEND Local Area Partnership. The main focus of this strategy is to support the development of inclusion for children and young people with SEND.

Cllr Hubbard, Chairman of the Children’s Select Committee, reported that he and the Vice-Chair of the Select Committee had received a briefing on the new SEND Strategy, they were pleased with the progress made with the new Strategy and asked to see the further detailed plans to be considered by the SEND Local Area Partnership Board. Cllr Hubbard, as a member of the SEND Task Group, acknowledged the enthusiasm of the Task group for SEND young people to be educated in their local mainstream facility.

In response to questions from Cllr Gordon King about (i).applications for Education, Health and Care Plans completed after 20 weeks; and (ii) face to face consultation meetings in the West Wiltshire Area, Cllr Church indicated that (i) the 20% of the applications that were outside of the 20 week target would, for the majority, have their case heard within a week or maximum of a couple of weeks after the 20 week expectation; (ii) consultation meetings were set up in the north, south and central areas of Wiltshire, with good representation from across the west of the county.

Resolved:

To approve the SEND Inclusion Strategy 2020 - 23

Reason for Decisions:

To support the work of Wiltshire’s SEND Local Area through this SEND Inclusion Strategy 2020 – 23.