Agenda item

The minutes of the meeting of the High Needs Block Working Group held on 6 May 2021 are attached.  The Forum will also receive an update on behalf of the Working Group and there will be a spotlight on the dyslexia friendly school project.

Helean Hughes (Director – Education & Skills) and Cate Mullen (Head of Inclusion & SEND) gave an overview on the work of the HNB Recovery Group and highlighted the following:

·         The pandemic had had a significant impact on the work of the high need recovery plan, although they were just getting back up to speed.  It was difficult to attribute savings made to just one project and it was proposed that at future meetings of Schools Forum they would receive details of the savings made/identified/action by the high needs block recovery group;

·         At the scheduled meeting with the DfE next week Officers would be asking if there was anything else they could suggest to make savings and any findings would be reported back to the Forum;

·         The High Needs Block Recovery Plan was very detailed – the three main areas that were encompassed within it were

i)             Early Intervention  and Prevention

ii)            Statutory Processes

iii)           Quality Assurance and Monitoring

·         There were Officers leading on projects – regular updates were received from them.  For some projects it was harder to note the savings achieved and some are longer term pieces of work which will take a while for the savings to come through.  There were ongoing discussions about work relating to the development of provision mapping tools to support discussions and decisions relating to funding requests;

·         High Needs Block information sharing sessions had been made available to teams within Education and Skills directorate so that they were able to offer support to schools had been well received by colleagues;

·         In relation to the System of excellence – a series of engagement (roadshow) events for officers and schools’ settings had been taking place.  So far four of the hour-long events had been held and two more were planned for external partners.  There had been a very good level of engagement in them.

A Governor representative asked if there would be any of these events put in place for Governors.  Cate Mullen agreed to liaise with outside of the meeting to discuss this further.

Ian Abbott (Lead Professional – Cognition and Learning) gave an overview of the Dyslexia-Friendly Schools Award and highlighted the following:

·         This was a national scheme which leads to a dyslexia friendly BDA (British Dyslexia Association) Quality Mark and was based on “If the child does not learn the way you teach, then teach the way he learns”;

·         Dyslexia was prevalent in lots of creative industries and a poem was shared which when read from the bottom to the top gives a different meaning;

·         There were a number of benefits in joining the scheme which also fits in with the Council’s SEND Strategy;

·         There was a two-year programme which ran from initial registration in the scheme.  Schools were being supported in their progression of the scheme with narrated PowerPoints, virtual training sessions, DFS network meetings and remote support and schools were coming together to share good practice with each other.  There was a clear scheme criterion to follow and after 2 years there would be a verification visit by the BDA and a celebration of good practice; and

·         There was a spread of 18 schools across the county currently working towards the scheme (5 secondary and 13 primary schools).  If any other schools were interested in finding out more, they should contact Ian Abbott.

The Chair was pleased to note the project and involvement and asked if other schools where able to join the scheme – was it closed, or would it be expanded in the future?  Ian Abbott reported that they were considering ways in how the scheme could be extended in the future and that if a school were keen to join the scheme, they could do this via the BDA.  Wiltshire Council had supported the current scheme which was open to other schools and it was hoped that schools would continue to share good practice.  Resources and training were also available to schools if they were interested.

Helean Hughes reported that Officers would be looking at the impact of the first round of the scheme and then look to get the next steps planned in if schools were interested and wanted to know more about it.  The vision was to have all Wiltshire schools as dyslexia friendly schools in the future.

Resolved:

That Schools Forum:

1. Note the minutes of the High Needs Block Recovery Group meeting held on 6 May 2021.
2. Note the update on behalf of the High Needs Block Recovery Group
3. Note the update on the Dyslexia Friendly Schools project.