Agenda item

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Children and Family Services concerning the progress made with the delivery of the High Needs Block Development Plan to develop local Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision and seeking agreement for the Director to proceed with the statutory approvals process.  A copy of the report, marked “Agenda Item 6”, is filed with these minutes.

The Cabinet praised the Department for the provision detailed in the report for young people with SEND despite the lack of Government funding for the High Needs Block.  Members also commended the positive response shown by schools across the County to the call for Expressions of Interest to help expand SEND provision.  Further dialogues would be undertaken with schools in the North East (Melton) area.

Mr. Ould CC said that, wherever possible, the Council would seek to place children with an Education Health and Care Plan in mainstream schools. The proposals would put the Council in a more flexible position to meet needs, and would reduce the need to transport children out of or across the county to access specialist facilities. He went on to compliment the Director and her team for successfully securing Department for Education funding to establish a new build 50-place Social, Emotional and Mental Health School on the Iveshead campus in Shepshed.

RESOLVED:

a)        That the progress with the High Needs Block Development Plan be noted, in particular:-

               i.               The encouraging response from maintained schools and academies to the call for expressions of interest to develop new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) places, which shows a real commitment to help deliver change in partnership with the County Council;

              ii.               That the responses to date to the consultation indicate a high level of support for the proposals to develop new SEND provision;

            iii.               The success of the bid to the Department for Education for targeted capital funding to establish a new build 50-place Free School for pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs on the Iveshead campus in Shepshed;

b)        That the Director of Children and Family Services be authorised to issue Statutory Notices for the development of additional SEND places in the ten maintained schools identified in the Appendix to the report, and subsequently to determine the Notices where no significant objections are received;

c)         That the need for Department for Education (DfE) (Regional Schools Commissioner) to give consent for “significant change” to the eleven academies identified in the Appendix to the report to develop additional SEND places be noted; and

d)        That a further report be submitted to the Cabinet on 24 May 2019 on the outcome of the consultation exercise and, if necessary, to seek determination of the Statutory Notices referred to at (b) above. 

(KEY DECISION)

REASONS FOR DECISION:

The HNB Development Plan proposals will provide the basis for planning, commissioning, and delivering SEND services, improving the quality and sufficiency of provision and addressing the overspend, as well as  ensuring that the growth in demand for places can be met and that best use is made of the available resources.

The consultation exercise is ongoing (it closes on 31 March), but in order to enable the proposed changes to come into effect at the start of the 2019/20 school year in September 2019 the Cabinet’s agreement has been sought to issue the necessary Statutory Notices now so that the prescribed process can start.  Once the consultation exercise is completed a further report will be submitted to the Cabinet.

Statutory Notices are required to enable the development of SEND places for maintained schools, and the consent of the DfE through the ‘significant change’ process is needed for the development of SEND places within academies.

The full consultation responses and any objections to the Statutory Notices need to be considered by the Cabinet prior to final approval of the proposals.