Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet approve the refreshed Rotherham SENDAP Strategy 2025 to 2030 (Appendix 1) that has been co-produced with partners across the Borough.

Consideration was given to the report which outlined the results of the public consultation on the proposed SENDAP Strategy. The new SENDAP Strategy (Appendix 1) recognised the importance of Alternative Provision in delivering good outcomes for children and young people. Alternative provision was essential to meet the needs of children and young people who could not attend mainstream schools due to exclusion, illness, or other reasons. It included education arranged by local authorities or schools to ensure that these students continued to receive suitable education. Alternative Provision could also involve directing students to off-site programs to improve their behaviour or meet their specific need.

Nationally, the White Paper on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan published in March 2023 had identified the key pressures on the SEND System nationally. This had been confirmed by the more recent National Audit Office report in October 2024. These papers consistently found that the SEND system was dealing with a level of volume for which it was not designed with insufficient resources. Across the Country, this had resulted in a loss of parental confidence, poor outcomes for children and young people and large amounts of debt. Local government had been given the responsibility to commission and shape local provision yet lacked the powers to develop and change systems. The Rotherham Joint Local Area SEND inspection in July 2021, led by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), while identifying some strengths, required the local area to produce a written statement of action prioritising the following four areas for action:

• Quality of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)
• Communication of Local Offer
• Preparation for Adulthood
• Graduated Response
  
  

The Rotherham SEND system was re-inspected by Ofsted and the CQC in October 2024. The Area SEND Inspection of the Local Area Partnership placed it among the highest performing areas nationally and recognised the very significant work undertaken by the Council in its widest sense, the Integrated Care Board, health provider partners and schools to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND in Rotherham. However, significant national and local challenges remained and where there was a need for further development within Rotherham, the local area partnership was judged as taking appropriate actions.

Co-production workshops and engagement with young people had highlighted the need for the new Rotherham SENDAP Strategy to be written in a format that enabled the children and young people to see how it would impact their lives. This was reflected in the language used in the 7 outcome statements as set out in paragraph 2.7 of the report.

Paragraph 2.10 of the report detailed the five commitments which had been identified as priority areas of development and monitoring, two of which were also highlighted in the recent Area Send Inspection.

Resolved:

That Cabinet approve the refreshed Rotherham SENDAP Strategy 2025 to 2030 (Appendix 1) that has been co-produced with partners across the Borough.