Agenda item

This item will provide a high-level overview of the Draft SEND Sufficiency Strategy 2026-2029 via a PowerPoint presentation. The update will include aspects which are likely to be included within the draft strategy and the key headlines, ahead of the presentation to Cabinet in November 2025.

 

 

This item provided a high-level overview of the draft Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Strategy via a PowerPoint presentation, for pre-decision, ahead of it being presented to Cabinet.

 

The Chair welcomed to the meeting Councillor Cusworth, the Cabinet Member for Children’s and Young Peoples Services, Helen Sweaton, Joint Assistant Director for Commissioning and Performance, Cary- Anne Sykes, Head of Service for SEND, Mark Cummins, SEND Transformation Project Lead and Jayne Fitzgerald, Strategic Director of Rotherham Parent Carers Forum, who was in attendance to represent and share the voice of Rotherham Parent Carers.

 

The Chair invited the Cabinet Member to introduce the report, during which the following was noted:

 

·      The update would share the progress made on the planning for a new SEND Sufficiency Strategy and would include the current position, future needs analysis and the outcome of stakeholder engagement. The current SEND Sufficiency Strategy was detailed as part of the Safety Valve Agreement and Implementation Plan, and had been in operation since 2021.

·      The new SEND Sufficiency Strategy would be presented to Cabinet for consideration and/or approval in February 2026, ahead of a proposed implementation from April 2026 onwards. The proposed Strategy was underpinned by the Four Cornerstones of Co-production, which were welcome and care, value and include, communicate and work in partnership.

·      Through seven core aspirations, the strategy would seek to ensure more pupils could be educated within Rotherham beside their peers, utilising a range of locally available education provision.

·      Local authorities were waiting for the outcome of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which had been delayed until 2026. It was recognised nationally that the SEND system required improvement, however, it was noted that Rotherham were doing well in the area of SEND.

 

The Chair invited the SEND Transformation Project Lead to present the PowerPoint, during which the following was noted:

 

Background-

 

·      The current SEND Sufficiency Strategy which was detailed as part of the Safety Valve Agreement and Implementation Plan, had been in operation since 2021 and would run until the end of 2025-2026.

·      A longer-term strategy was required to identify sufficiency requirements beyond the Safety Valve from April 2026.

 

Engagement-

• As part of the preparation of the SEND Sufficiency Strategy, stakeholder discussion and feedback was completed with mainstream schools, special schools, post 16 providers, health colleagues, parents and carers and young people.
• SEND Sufficiency discussion’s took place with education leaders at the Schools Forum, wider education and school improvement partners and at SENCO network events.
• Discussions focused on what was working well and on areas for improvement across core areas including SEND provision, graduated approach and Outreach Services.
• Alongside engagement completed specifically for the development of the new SEND Sufficiency Strategy, young people’s and parent and/or carers views were captured as part of established quality assurance processes across all the SEND provision.
• The Rotherham Parent Carers Forum were heavily involved in the stakeholder discussions and had led on some of the engagement in this area.
• The aim of the engagement was to understand the progress that had been made during the Safety Valve period and identify future priorities for a longer term SEND Sufficiency Strategy.
• The service also engaged with a variety of governance groups, such as the SEND Executive and SEND Partnership. The service often spoke to young people to gather their feedback on the current provisions, sought the views of teachers and employee’s and parents and carers.

 

Introduction-

·      The Council had a responsibility to create enough education provision to meet the needs of all pupils, this was called sufficiency.

·      This included support to mainstream schools to meet a wider level of SEND need and providing sufficiency of education where it was determined specialist provision was required.

·      The SEND Sufficiency Strategy identified local needs and provision requirements so that all pupils across the SEND continuum would be able to access appropriate education provision.

·      The focus of the Safety Valve Agreement was to grow the in-borough provision, to provide a range of different education options which moved towards mainstream education via a graduated response, this mirrored the national position and priorities.

 

 

 

Vision-

·      The service had a strong clear vision, Rotherham were just as ambitious for children and young people with SEND, as they were for every other child. The clear vision would ensure consistency and ambition.

·      It was noted that the SEND Sufficiency Strategy should be read in conjunction with the Rotherham SEND Strategy, My Life My Rights 2024-2028, the two documents worked closely together and included several shared priorities on education and sufficiency.

 

The Four Cornerstones-

• Everything in Rotherham was underpinned by the Four Cornerstones of Co-production, which were welcome and care, value and include, communicate and work in partnership. The key focus of the service was how they worked and engaged with all partners in relation to SEND.

 

Progress Since the Last SEND Sufficiency Strategy (Safety Valve)-

·      More children were supported to access education within or close to their local community.

·      Additional good and outstanding local provision was created, this increased the amount of young people educated locally and reduced reliance on the private sector, such as independent non-maintained and ISP providers.

·      The Graduated Response in Rotherham.

·      The development of a SEND School Improvement Offer and Quality Assurance, this ensured consistency across mainstream settings.

·      The Specialist Inclusion Team (SIT) were created to increase the amount of time that they provided outreach services, this increased the support available to all schools within Rotherham.

·      Continuing to create good and outstanding local provision was an aim for the service, alongside continuing to implement a consistent graduated response and continuing to look at the outreach offer, to provide more support to schools as and when they required it.

 

Rotherham Data-

• This data was taken from the census and highlighted the range of young people accessing a variety of education provisions at different key stages. Overall, the data mirrored national data and highlighted an increase in demand for specialist provision, which was attributed to an increase in requests for Education, Health and Care Plans and assessments each year (EHCP’s).

 

• In relation to children in Rotherham Schools, Rotherham had 57,453 children aged under eighteen that represented 21.7% of the local population. There were 45,763 children and young people attending Rotherham’s schools as at the January 2024 School Census. There were 465 children in a maintained nursery school, 24,661 pupils in primary schools, 19,303 pupils in secondary schools, 1,194 pupils in special schools and 140 pupils in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs).

• There was a growing number of requests for Education, Health, and Care Needs Assessment each year. Half of the special schools in Rotherham were regularly full or over their commissioned number, and the alternative provision places at the Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) were close to capacity since January 2024.

 

The National Position and Comparison-

·      Slide ten detailed the national position against the Rotherham position, across all different education provision types. This included resource provision and special schools. A resource provision would be situated on a mainstream school site and provided the opportunity for young people who could access mainstream education, alongside some additional support. The slide also detailed mainstream schools, independent non-maintained and ISP’s. Independent specialist provision was predominantly post sixteen and independent non-maintained was for the pre-sixteen age range.

·      The difference between the local and national position guided the services thinking and planning for the next SEND Sufficiency Strategy. Rotherham provided more special school places than national averages by approximately 7%, some of that was attributed to the work completed to date which had reduced the independent non-maintained population to sit 2% below the national level. This was a result of the growth of special school places and resource provision places. In terms of mainstream schools, less children were educated there compared to national levels; however, work had been completed to improve the figure such as increased training, recruitment of employees and increased support.

 

Needs Analysis-

·       Key Documents considered were as follows:

o   Safety Valve Monitoring Dashboard, this was included within the quarterly returns and looked at the data in further detail.

o   SEND statutory returns information which identified current demand and place planning. The service focused heavily on place planning to plan directly on a case-by-case basis for young people, this included what their destination looked like and their next step into education, to identify the right provision and any gaps.

o   Local SEND provision map.

o   Performance monitoring analysis for the Outreach Services.

o   EHCP trends and the comparison to the national picture.

o   National Strategy links where appropriate.

o   SEND Strategy and KPI dashboard.

o   Partnership data, such as from Health Partners and the Rotherham Parent Carers Forum (RPCF). The RPCF provided data and feedback from parents and carers, the Strategic Director of RPCF also sat on the SEND Executive and SEND Sufficiency Board.

 

• Key Areas identified were as follows:

o   EHCP Growth, the projects and forecasting for EHCPs were based on a needs change basis. The service was slightly ahead of the forecast at the time; the forecast would be renewed ahead of the strategy seeking approval at Cabinet.

o   Primary need understanding, this provided a breakdown of primary need types. The most prevalent primary needs related to autism spectrum disorder and social, emotional and mental health, these were the two areas with the most growth in Rotherham. There was also growth within speech, language and communication needs.

o   Place planning forecasting, if the demand continued to grow, this would require a number of additional places, including up to 380 more places needed in mainstream schools by 2028, this mirrored the national picture and was the equivalent of 40% of the cohort of mainstream by 2030. 161 additional places within special schools would be required by 2028, which would continue to grow to 300 more by 2030. 78 more places within the ISP settings would be required by 2028, growing up to 128 by 2030.

 

Aspirations-

1.    More young people would be able to be educated locally, in their communities with mainstream peers.

2.    More young people would be able to start their education journey successfully with a plan for their next phase of education.

3.    The service would work with the network of special schools to identify gaps in current provision and make best use of the places available across our special schools.

4.    Mainstream Schools would be able to access a range of support and best practice guidance to create a more consistent offer to SEND pupils.

5.    The mainstream and special schools would be more accessible places for SEND learners.

6.    More young people would benefit from additional support to improve outcomes at post-16 and access employment.

7. The service would ensure that the network of local specialist provision would be utilised to its fullest and would continue to deliver good outcomes.

 

Measuring Success-

·      There was a combination of output measures relating to activity completion, and impact measures relating to the outcomes for children and young people.

·      Progress would be monitored through the SEND Sufficiency Board and SEND Executive Partnership Board.

·      There would be an annual scrutiny update and a Cabinet update.

·      A separate session would be arranged to provide an update to the Commission on the Thresholds of Needs document.

 

 

The Rotherham Parent Carers Forum Update-

·      The RPCF was commissioned by the local authority to gather voice of parent carers and young people and had just under 3000 members across all wards in Rotherham, although they engaged with up to 6000 families online who were not full members.

·      The RPCF completed a survey to all families on an annual basis in March, the survey asked the families what their priorities were at that point in time. In March 2025, SEND Sufficiency and supporting education were the fourth priority identified, and number two was EHCP’s. Access to therapies and SEND transport were also priorities for families. The survey was a snapshot in time and the priorities of families changed frequently.

·      The RPCF worked in partnership with the local authority to deliver the priorities identified.

·      The survey captured positive experiences relating to being listened to and treated with respect, clear and honest communication from schools and practitioners, early intervention and timely support and employees understand my children’s needs and genuinely care.

·      The survey captured barriers and challenges, these were in-consistent support between schools and settings, delays in appropriate placements or support, support plans or EHCPs not being fully implemented, this was felt to be inconsistent between schools and education settings.

 

 

 

 

The Chair thanked the relevant officers for the update and opened the meeting up to questions, during which the following was noted and discussed:

 

·      There had been significant innovation in health over the past twenty years, which had increased the number of children with very complex needs who were likely to continue to survive into adulthood and require an education that would nurture them. The number of children with SEND requirements had disproportionately increased to the population increase.

·      There was a bold increase in EHCPs for years nine, ten and eleven, this was attributed to a direct impact of the pandemic. The Element Two funding provided to schools was attributed to the rise in EHCP’s, the funding hadn’t changed its core value in monetary terms since 2014, which was currently £6,000 for SEND support, if this had risen with inflation this would be at £12,000. Although there was no direct evidence of this, the service advised that they felt that the financial impact of this impacted on schools being unable to provide the support needed for some young people which the service felt was driving the need for EHCP’s.

·      The Threshold of Needs Document was a key driver in ensuring consistency of allocation, decision making around thresholds and levels of need and expectations of a graduated response across every school. This assisted with driving down the demand of EHCP’s.

·      The secondary curriculum was felt to be a driver in EHCP’s as schools lived in a battle between data, Ofsted and the curriculum against reasonable adjustments, equality and SEND Support.

·      A core part of the Safety Valve was around growing the local authorities resource provision, moving towards the mainstream and delivering an additional 100 places combined across primary and secondary education. There was an element that required provisions to be created quickly to meet the demand. The next phase which has been worked on over the last two years has focused on the consistency of support across resource provisions. The provisions were registered with the Department of Education and went through a significant change process and a formal registration.

·      The service had strengthened contracting; service level agreements were in place with all resource provision which set overarching requirements. There was a commissioning model in place, all resource provisions were provided by multi-academy trust partners, these were supplemented with quality assurance. Good practise was also shared with schools who were wanting to learn, and additional support was provided by the Specialist Inclusion Team to new resource provisions.

·      Places in resource provisions were offered on an individual pupil basis and could not be shared across pupils, this was because the space and requirement were individualised to that specific young person. An example was provided of how a young person may be fine in a mainstream provision for 70% of the week but may need to be withdrawn at any point in time. Although places could not be split between pupils, schools did use the spaces flexibly and managed and co-ordinated them well.

·      Every school in Rotherham would have a strategic plan in the next year, which would focus on what their SEND offer was, this would include their whole school special needs offer, classroom offer, and individual pupil offer around every area of need. Support was being provided by SENDCO’s to each school for this. The Specialist Inclusion Teachers were an important presence in schools to ensure a clear understanding of the system and the young people moving through the system.

·      Funding for private nurseries was included within Childcare Sufficiency, historically this included three levels of funding, this was anticipated to change. A written update would be provided to the Commission on the funding available for nurseries.

·      The SEND Service were working with the Early Years Team to complete a data tracking exercise and place planning from the age of 0. This would provide a trajectory for children at a younger age and allow for better planning and support through the system. There was also a Specialist Inclusion Team that worked within the early years provision to join up the system and enable better transitions from a younger age. The Thresholds of Needs document also included a lot of information for nurseries and childminders.

 

Resolved:-That the Improving Lives Select Commission:

 

1)    Considered the update on the development of the draft SEND Sufficiency Strategy 2026-2029.

2)    Requested that a separate session be arranged to provide an update on the Thresholds of Needs document.

3)    Requested that a further update be provided in writing on childcare sufficiency and the funding available for nurseries.