Agenda item

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

Recommendations:-

1.    That approval be given to the publication of the refreshed Special Education Needs Strategy (2019) as part of the Borough’s Local Offer for Children with SEND.

2.    That approval be given to a period of consultation with schools and settings in relation to the additional capacity required in borough and seek proposals to increase educational provision for Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) across the Borough.

3.    That a further report be submitted following consultation with schools and settings, seeking approval of the proposals recommended for implementation and the associated allocation of capital investment to support the proposals.

Consideration was given to the report which contained the proposed second phase of the Council’s plans to increase and develop special education needs provision in Rotherham and, therefore, specifically proposed developing the use of SEND Inclusion Units within mainstream school settings to ensure that vulnerable pupils could access a mainstream curriculum but also receive high quality support and care.

The SEND Sufficiency Strategy set out Rotherham’s strategic intentions which were:-

·             For Academies and Local maintained schools to receive high quality support to enable them to become as inclusive and resilient as possible; so that children received a high quality education which differentiates learning and teaching to support the diverse needs of individual children and young people.

·             To ensure that there was a high quality programme of workforce development to train education, health and care staff to meet the needs of Rotherham’s children, young people and their families.

·             To ensure that Rotherham schools could deliver a high quality graduated response from health, social care and teaching staff to ensure that inclusion support from specialist inclusion services were available at the point of identified need.

·             To ensure sufficiency of school places within Rotherham for children aged 0-19 who have identified special education needs and whose education, health and care plans identified that only special school provision could meet their identified education, health and care needs and reduce dependence on high cost out of area placements which removed children and young people from their local communities.

·             To ensure a sufficient range of provision for young people aged 16-25 to ensure that there were a variety of pathways to support young people to become confident, independent adults.

The report, therefore, sought approval to consult with providers in relation to new provision to meet the needs identified within the sufficiency strategy.

Cabinet Members welcomed the report and the positive impact it would have, especially on the Council’s Home to School Transport budget with the proposed reduction in the number of out of authority placements and additional transport journeys incurred.

This report had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board as part of the pre-scrutiny process via the Improving Lives Select Commission who were in support of the recommendations.

Resolved:-  (1)  That publication of the refreshed Special Education Needs Strategy (2019) as part of the Borough’s Local Offer for Children with SEND be approved.

(2)  That a period of consultation with schools and settings be in relation to the additional capacity required in borough and seek proposals to increase educational provision for Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) across the Borough be approved.

(3)  That a further report be submitted following consultation with schools and settings, seeking approval of the proposals recommended for implementation and the associated allocation of capital investment to support the proposals.