Agenda item

The Chief Executive reported that two questions had been received under Standing Order 35.

 

Question asked by Mrs Sue Whiting:

 

“Could the Chair please state:

 

a)    How many children, currently in Year 6, with an EHCP, working below Year 5 expectations, have been allocated a mainstream place for Year 7 in September 2024?

 

b)    How many children, currently in Year 6, with an EHCP, working below Key Stage 2 expectations, have been allocated a mainstream place for Year 7 in September 2024?

 

c)    How many children, currently in Year 6, with an EHCP, have not been allocated a placement or provision (Mainstream or Specialist) for Year 7 in September 2024?”

 

Response by the Chairman:

 

a)    There are 428 Year 6 children with an EHCP. The Service is working to ensure all Year 6 children have a named place by 15 February 2024 transfer deadline. The information about curriculum levels is held within the schools.

 

b)    There are 428 Year 6 children with an EHCP. The Service is working to ensure all Year 6 children have a named place by 15 February 2024 transfer deadline. The information about curriculum levels is held within the schools.

 

c)    As of 18 January 2024, there are 224 Year 6 children with an EHCP that do not have a named placement. The review and placement teams are working through the 224 cases to allocate a place by the 15 February 2024 phase transfer deadline.

 

Mrs Whiting asked the following supplementary question:

 

“Thank you for the response, especially the numbers in part C. I specifically asked in question A, how many children had been working below Year 5 had not been allocated a mainstream space, and in B, the same question relating to how many children had been working below key stage 2. The answer seems to be the same for both, so I am not sure whether there are 428 Year 6 children with an EHCP with a place by 15 February who are working below Year 5, or whether there are another 428 children who are working at Key Stage 1. If the information for curriculum level is held with the schools, how can the EHCP’s provision be accurate and appropriate?

 

At the invitation of the Chairman, the Director of Children and Family Services responded that there was a total of 428 children in Year 6 who had an EHCP. The Department were working through all of those children to ensure that they had a named place by the 15 February deadline. In terms of curriculum levels, the EHCP included all information on children, including attainment details. However, the Department would need to look at each of those 428 plans in order to answer the question. Children were allocated with a place by looking at the EHCP to understand what the child’s needs were. The Department had the information available when it looked at individual children in order to place them, then the detail of curriculum level was held at a school level.

 

Question asked by Mr David Warwick:

 

“Given the TSIL FAQs state that in 2022 ‘we spent more than the Government (High Needs) grant by £10.8m’, and in March 2022 the Department for Education signed a £19.5m contract with consultancy firm Newton Europe to address this. Could you please advise:

 

a)          Why has Leicestershire County Council spent over £10 million on high-cost dubious value private SEN provision (ISP) in 2023 and why has the Council failed to make any progress to meet its legal obligations to process Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) in the required 20 weeks?

 

b)          How does the Council expect schools to cope if 68% of children in specialist settings are to have their needs met in mainstream schools or resource, and 34% children with a EHCP in mainstream provision are to have needs met without an EHCP.”

 

Response by the Chairman:

 

a)    The High Needs Grant allocated to Leicestershire for 2023/24 totals £105,082,000. The cost of placements for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in 2023/24 is budgeted to be £112,643,000. These costs include places at special schools, additional money to support children with an EHCP in mainstream school, resource bases and independent provision. The cost of independent provision makes up around 27% (£30m) of the overall placement costs. The type of provision that is required to meet a child’s needs is set out within their Education Health and Care Plan. Schools across the county are consulted on whether they can meet the needs of children as set out in the plan. Independent provision is used for children where their needs cannot be met elsewhere or where there is no other provision available to meet the needs of children.

 

Over the last 5 years the County Council has invested over £30m to provide over 500 additional specialist places for children with special education needs and disabilities in state funded provision in Leicestershire.

 

The average time taken to complete an EHCP assessment in Leicestershire is currently around 35 weeks. It has decreased from an average of 42 weeks earlier in 2023. 35 weeks remains well above the requirement for plans to be completed in 20 weeks. The main reason for the delay in assessments is the availability of Educational Psychologists (EP) to undertake the advice element of the EHCP assessment. EP availability is a national issue; however the local authority has taken a number of steps to recruit additional EPs to undertake the assessments in order to improve timeliness.

 

b)    The deep dive into SEND Services in Leicestershire that took place at the beginning of the programme reviewed the journey of children and young people in non-mainstream settings, and was focused on opportunities for improved outcomes – often earlier in their education journey. The review found that in 32% of the cases a specialist school was needed to meet needs, in 40% of cases, there was an opportunity for the needs of that child to be met in a mainstream school and in 28% of cases, there was an opportunity for the needs of children and young people to have been met in a mainstream SEN unit. It should be emphasised that the deep dive into potential opportunities is not the same as the idea that children “are to have their needs met” with a different level of support, and that the focus is on new starters into the SEND system rather than any inappropriate change of provision.

 

This analysis has led to the work across the programme to look at how children with special educational needs and disabilities needs can be met in mainstream school, when this is the most appropriate setting for the child. This has included the development of the inclusive practice tool kit, settings specific planning work, as well as improving processes and ways of working across Early Years and SENA.

 

Mr Warwick asked the following supplementary questions:

 

a)    “Does the 35-week period quoted include those applications which are refused or rejected but then taken to tribunal successfully by parents and guardians. If not, what is the average time including this, and how many tribunal applications are successful in Leicestershire?

 

b)    A Cabinet report dated 23 June 2023 included information on a diagnostic review by Newton Europe Consultancy, engaged through a competitive tendering process. In that, it was stated that there were opportunities for 34% of children and young people with an EHCP in a mainstream provision to have their needs met without an EHCP. My members, who work in schools, such as teaching assistants, business managers, etc., wish to know how, with rising numbers of children presenting with high needs and challenging behaviours, support staff or school budgets can cope if 34% of children on an EHCPs have to have their needs met without one.”

 

At the invitation of the Chairman, the Director of Children and Family Services responded that:

 

a)    The average time taken to complete an EHCP included all of the EHCP assessments undertaken so it did include those plans which were instructed under tribunal. The time taken, 35 weeks, was the time taken from the point when the EHCP assessment was agreed to its completion. In respect of the second part of the question, around how many tribunal applications in Leicestershire were successful, almost 95% of all tribunals ruled against the Local Authority, in favour of the parent. The Director did not have the breakdown of how many of those were on assessments, to report to the meeting. However, the Department would continue to monitor this.

 

b)    The deep dive into SEN services outlined in the paper on the agenda relating to the Transforming SEND and Inclusion in Leicestershire, took place at the beginning of the programme and reviewed the journey of the children and young people who were in non-mainstream settings. It was focussed on opportunities for improved outcomes for those children and looked at what could have been done earlier on in the education journey. Across mainstream schools, there was a range of support available to support children with special educational needs and disabilities, without the need for an EHCP. The deep dive which took place looked at the journey of those children who had an EHCP in mainstream schools, which did on some occasions identify that those needs could have been met either earlier, or without an EHCP. There was a wealth of resource within schools, and expertise within mainstream provision, which did, and could, support those children with SEND, outside of an EHCP. The data did not state that the Department would remove an EHCP from children who had them. However, it would look at the journey of children and assess whether or not there were things which could have been done differently for them in order to meet their needs earlier, or without an EHCP, through things such as SEN support and other things available through schools.