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.