Agenda item

To receive an update on the development of the Special Education Needs and Disabilities Strategy, following the public consultation period.

The agenda item provided an update on the draft SEND Strategy and included a high-level overview of the strategy consultation response, following the public consultation on the proposed strategy.

The Chair welcomed Cary- Anne Sykes to the meeting, who was the Head of Service for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

The Chair invited the Head of Service for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities to introduce the item and present the update, during which the following was noted:

·       The consultation had gone very well; however, the consultation period was disrupted by a three week SEND Ofsted Inspection.

·       The SEND Ofsted Inspection graded the Local Authority at a One, which was the highest grade. The Local Authority would be inspected again in five years’ time.

Overview of the proposed SEND Strategy, My Life, My Rights 2024-2028:

·       The Strategy, “My Life, My Rights”, set out the vision for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Rotherham.

·       It would drive forward the improvements that had already started across the local area and would help all services in education, health, and social care to work together to make the required changes, to ensure children and young people in Rotherham would achieve the very best outcomes. 

·       The proposed SEND Strategy had been approved for consultation.

Consultation:

·       Consultations took place via online consultation form, face to face and over Microsoft Teams, to ensure engagement of a wide range of people.

·       Consultations included children and young people, parents and carers, Social Care and Early Help, Health and Therapy Services, education professionals and schools and partner agencies and members of the Improving Lives Select Commission.

·       There had been cohorts of people who were harder to reach and did not want to attend any sessions in person or over Microsoft Teams. In these instances, the Head of Service for SEND briefed the leaders of community groups and they shared the information with those cohorts. An example was provided of Ferham Primary School’s parents coffee morning, the group did not feel it would be appropriate for a local authority officer to attend the coffee morning and present, therefore the school shared the information with the group on the local authority’s behalf in a relaxed environment.

·       152 responses were received from online consultation forms and 13 consultation group sessions were held, with 137 people attending the sessions in total.

Consultation Feedback:

·       Four people opposed the way that the strategy was written in the voice of the child and/or young person. It was advised by the service that the young people wanted the Strategy to be written in that way, in their voice. Everyone else who provided consultation feedback had strongly agreed with the way that the strategy had been written in the young persons voice.

·       Overall the feedback on the draft strategy was very positive and included the following:

o   “All positive, brilliant use of inclusion with the strategy and the wording Ambition, Inclusion and Equity”.

o   “The SEND strategy is beacon of hope for outstanding SEND services in Rotherham”.

o   “I like the priorities; they feel young person centred and aspirational for supporting young people to achieve high quality lifelong skills”.

o   “I like the way it is expressed through 'I have and I am...”.

o   “It is clear and concise”.

o   “Would like to see evidence of the SEND Co-Ordinators gaining permission form young people (over the age of sixteen) prior to speaking or emailing their parents/carers who may act on their behalf to ensure that they are aware. I would also like to see all students from a minimum of Y9 having access to the Hub. Where young people have assumed capacity”.

Amendments to the draft strategy following the consultation:

·       The Vision would remain the same and no changes would be made to the outcomes of the draft strategy.

·       The Health Key Performance Indicators listed below, were adjusted following the consultation, to ensure the measures could be measured against regional partners and national data.

o   The percentage of children receiving the checks, to show good coverage.

o   The percentage of children achieving the expected level in communication skills at 2 - 2 and a half years, as anyone who did not achieve this would be referred for support.

Four Cornerstones:

·       The service would continue to embed the Four Cornerstones.

·       The service recognised that when the values of the cornerstones were achieved and integrated into practice, trust would be developed and progress in achieving outcomes for children and young people would be made. Without trust systems, partnerships, organisations, and families could not work together effectively and meaningful partnership work could not be achieved.

The Working Group:

·       There would be four working groups which would monitor the action plan that would sit alongside the strategy, the working groups would be:

o   Health and Wellbeing Working Group, led by the Designated Clinical Officer and a Principal Psychologist. In the first six months the group would focus on waiting well and emotional based school avoidance. Start and finish groups would be developed to embed the work across schools and services.

o   Voice and ParticipationWorking Group, led by the Voice and Participation Educational Psychologist and the Operational Manager at the Rotherham Parent Carers Forum. The focus of the group would be person centred planning and accessibility of information.

o   InclusionWorking Group, led by the Head of Service for SEND and the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) SEND Manager. The group would focus on the threshold of need, to provide an understanding of what provision is available, from ordinarily available provision in the classroom, to the most complex special school provision, across all SEND.

o   Independence Working Group led by a SEND Governance Lead and the Service Lead for Inclusion Support Services. The group would focus on transitions within each phase of school. For example, early years to Key Stage One, Key Stage One to Key Stage Two and Key Stage Two to Key Stage Three. The group would also focus on independence in life and learning.

The Chair thanked the relevant officer for the presentation and invited questions, this led to the following points being raised during discussions:

·       The working groups would have key focused pieces of work, to ensure a focus on engagement with communities, young people and families.

·       Stakeholder engagement had been completed and all feedback had been received, with was very positive.

·       The service was also working on a new SEND Sufficiency Plan and SEND Sufficiency Strategy. Robust work was in place relating to sufficiency, all available data was used to monitor the level of exclusions and all support packages in place, this was reported into available provisions.

·       Nationally SEND provision was a challenge, however, Rotherham had a good level of provision in comparison to national figures.

·       The next steps detailed within the presentation and report, would be amended to include any potential changes that may be required in future as a result of statutory or national changes in the area of SEND, to ensure the service would respond to any changes when required.

Resolved: That the Improving Lives Select Commission considers the report and update.