Agenda item

To receive a report on the Children and Families review of Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision and progress made to date.

Fintan Bradley attended to inform the Committee of the service’s review of Special Educational Needs (SEN) and to provide an update on the progress made to date.

It was explained that Cheshire East had a number of legacy policies, guidance and provision for children and young people with SEN. Since Local Government Reorganisation the range of provision, both specialist and resourced had been significantly reduced and the policy and practices of the former County Council needed revising and updating. In light of this, a review had been commissioned by the Director of Children and Families to explore how Cheshire East could best respond to these challenges whilst taking into consideration the Coalition Government’s Green Paper on SEN which was running adjacent to the internal review.

It was reported that work on the review had begun in September 2010, and that an initial scoping activity had resulted in the review being split into five work streams, each of which Fintan Bradley expanded upon in turn:

• Resource provision and services for SEN
  • This work stream was to examine the location, roles, practice and impact of the 11 primary and 6 secondary resourced provisions attached to mainstream schools across the Borough, especially in terms of pupil attainment and achievement.

• SEN funding
  • It was explained that the funding of individual pupils with SEN, without a statement, relied on an expensive bureaucratic assessment process which had been criticised as being untimely and inefficient. This work stream was set up to explore ways of getting resources into schools to empower professionals to make timely decisions over the implementation of SEN support.

• Pathways and Access to SEN services
  • It was reported that a consistent complaint had been levelled at SEN provision regarding accessing appropriate support and advice in a timely fashion. As a result, a working group was established to review current pathways and access arrangements to services with a view to developing clearer and more transparent pathways.

• Specialist Provision
  • It was explained that The Local Government Review had resulted in East Cheshire having only 4 out of the 14 SEN Schools that existed in the former County Council. Consequently, the Borough was increasingly reliant on other Local Authority schools to cater for children whose needs cannot be met internally. This work stream was set up to look at a pattern of provision to explore if Cheshire east can expand to cover needs of the children currently forced to go out of the Borough.

• Policy, guidance and protocols
  • It was reported that Cheshire East has inherited a range of strategies, policies and guidance from the former County Council. Whilst most of these remained relevant, there was a need to pull them together into one coherent document to reflect the aims and ambitions of the authority.

After hearing the report, a number of Councillors had questions and queries regarding the issues raised. Firstly, attention was drawn to the low ratio of educational psychologists to children with SEN in Cheshire East and the frustration that Head teachers often face with the bureaucracy in securing their services. It was questioned whether this was an issue being considered in the review. Reassurances were made that the general issue of over bureaucracy was a key part of the review and it was agreed that the issue of educational psychologists could be discussed during the next update. Secondly, it was queried whether children with eating disorders were included in the review. It was confirmed that this would be included in the review and that the service was working alongside CAMHS in this regard. Thirdly, it was commented that the SEN process can cause great concern to parents and as a result it was asked whether any effort had been made to consult parents / carers in the review. It was confirmed that consultations would be made and this was an integral part of the review. Lastly, it was questioned whether Cheshire East were considering whether specialist schools could be a shared service with Cheshire West and Chester. Fintan answered that he would talk to his counterpart about the potential option of shared schools.

A comment was also made on the recent Ofsted report that made the national news regarding the idea that schools were getting children unnecessarily classified with SEN as to generate more revenue. Assurances were made that Cheshire East had its thresholds at the correct level and as a result it was not considered a major issue. Despite this, it was said that the consistency of the thresholds and the application of such will be improved as a result of the review. It was hoped that this would reduce the number of appeals. A request was made or the figures behind the number of appeals and for the number of outstanding figures for statements, in terms of its direction of travel.

RESOLVED –

a)     That the Committee note the report

b)     That the Committee receive further updates on the progress of the review, especially as recommendations develop.

c)      That information regarding educational psychologists be supplied as part of the next update.

d)     That conversations take place regarding the possibility of specialist schools being shared with partner authorities.

e)     That the statistical review of SEN numbers, placements, appeals and outstanding figures for statements be distributed to Members of the Committee.