Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Children and Family Services which provided a summary of the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission inspection report of the local area Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) support along with an overview of the plans to continuously develop and improve services to support children and families who were experiencing SEND support through the High Needs Development transformation programme.  A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 10’ is filed with these minutes.

The inspection report for Leicestershire had been published on 15 May 2020 and as a result of the findings, it had been determined that a Written Statement of Action was required because of two significant areas of weakness in the local area’s practice:

·     The absence of a clearly defined joint commissioning strategy for 0-25 SEND provision

·     Systemic weaknesses in the quality of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) including the drawing up of these plans, the inaccuracy with which the plans reflect children and young people’s needs, the absence of good quality outcomes in EHCPs, the inconsistency with which plans include contributions from education and particularly health and care professionals, and the lack of any formal quality assurance framework to improve new and existing plans.

As well as highlighted areas for development, many strengths had also been identified in the report and these concurred with the views of the local area, as stated in the self evaluation document that had been shared with the inspection team prior to the visit.

A draft template of the Written Statement of Action (WSOA) had been circulated to partners and stakeholders and there had been agreement that specific sections would be developed for each of the priorities in the action plan.  The document had been co-produced with the Clinical Commissioning Group, parents, carers, children and young people and other stakeholders.  The views of the Committee were sought on the WSOA and any feedback was requested by 11 September so that any amendments could be included in time for sign off by the SEND and Inclusion Board on 22 September.

An update was also provided on the progress of the High Needs Block Development.  Significant progress had been made and to date, many of the planned new provision had been delivered to target dates.  Work continued to build on the existing good practice.  There had been some delay to the building programme for the two new schools as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic and temporary provisions were being delivered to ensure that all children had an appropriate school place to meet their needs at the start of the autumn term.

Arising from the discussion, the following points were raised:

i)                It was noted that there would be a focus on improvements in the service as well as completion dates.  Whilst the completion dates for the actions had been set out, the action plan did not include when outcomes or improvements would be seen as a result of the actions being implemented.  However, lots of work had already taken place before the inspection and resources were in place to implement everything.  It was agreed that an update would be provided to the Committee in the next six-nine months.

ii)               In response to a query around outcomes training, it was reported that all officers working in the SEN service had received the training.  Staff within Leicestershire Partnership Trust who wrote EHCPs were also being trained.  There were plans for those in the Educational Psychology Service to receive external training.  It was noted that positive results had already been identified.

iii)             The backlog of outstanding annual reviews was questioned, along with the estimated timescale for this to be cleared.  It was stated that a team of dedicated officers were in post to address the most urgent reviews.  It was hoped that the backlog would be cleared by the beginning of the next calendar year, but this was largely dependent on the number of referrals received during this time.  Assurance was given that the situation would be closely monitored.

iv)             A query was raised around the fact that some actions in the action plan had been rated pink and that they were yet to be started.  It was stated that these actions starting were dependent upon other actions being completed.  However, the Director of Children and Family Services confirmed that all actions were on track.

v)              A member raised the point that the inspection report contained no statistical information and asked what the judgement made by the Ofsted Inspectors had been based on.  The Director stated that this was primarily the professional judgement of the Inspector, underpinned by the inspection framework.  The report was based on how well the authority met the requirements as set out in the framework.  Most of the areas highlighted in the inspection report had already been identified in the self-evaluation prior to the inspection.  The Lead Member for Children and Families reiterated that there had been nothing unexpected in the inspection report and that it had been a fair assessment.

RESOLVED:

a)    That the report be noted;

b)    That an update be provided to a future meeting of the Committee.