Agenda item

To consider a report of the Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Service to refresh the Rotherham SEND Strategy, vision and future priorities.  

Recommendations

That Cabinet:

1.    Approve consultation on the refreshed Rotherham SEND Strategy that has been co-produced with partners across the Borough.

2.      Agree to the refreshed SEND Strategy being presented back to Cabinet in late 2024 for formal approval prior to implementation.

The Chair invited Councillor Cusworth, the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People Services to introduce the report. She introduced Helen Sweaton, Joint Assistant Director, Commissioning and Performance and Niall Devlin, Assistant Director, Education and Inclusion.

The report being submitted to Cabinet on Monday 10 June was asking for approval to consult on a refresh of the Rotherham Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Strategy, which set out the priorities and vision for SEND services over the next four years. Following the Joint Local Area SEND inspection in July 2021, along with partners, the Council had worked to deliver the written statement of action to address significant areas of weakness in the local area’s practice. In September 2023, the Improving Lives Select Commission noted feedback from advisers and successful achievement of the required improvements and the successful discharge of priority actions.

To provide additional context, the areas of improvement were quality of education, health and care plans, communication around the local offer, preparation for adulthood and the graduated response. Since that time, the Department for Education (DfE) White Paper on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and also an alternative provision improvement was published in March 2023. The national SEND review set out government proposals for a system that offered children and young people the opportunity to thrive with access to the right support, in the right place and at the right time, enabling them to fulfil their potential to lead happy, healthy and productive adult lives.

It was known that, where possible, it was better for children to access education within mainstream with additional support, because children should be able to play in their communities with their friends that live close by. It had a tremendous effect on children and young people’s sense of wellbeing when they were sent out of area for education, whether that was for alternative provision, which used to be called pupil referral units, or whether it is special educational needs. There would always be some children who needed to access specialist provisions.

It was important that a refreshed vision and a co-produced strategy for SEND services in the borough be developed to reflect the changing environment and the current priorities for children, young people, parents, carers and families. The draft strategy had been developed with partners, including the Rotherham Parent Carer Forum, Special Educational Needs and Disability Information advice and support services, and both special and mainstream schools. The refresh strategy titled ‘My Life, My Rights’ reflected the changing environment and priorities for children and young people, parents and carers.

There were seven sections in the strategy, which were set out in the report. She highlighted the voice of children and young people was very important. The Children and Young People’s Partnership Board had been reinvigorated recently and the young people, who were the guiding voices which was the children of the Parent Carers Forum and those children, themselves who had disabilities and additional needs attended those meetings. That Board was the main point for capturing the voice of the young people along with other representatives from other cohorts.

The seven outcome statements listed below, were produced following workshops and engagement with young people:

1.    I have a voice, and this is listened to and respected.

2.    I am as healthy as possible.

3.    I feel safe.

4.    I have help and support in a way that suits me.

5.    I have adults in my life who are supported to help me.

6.    I am supported to be as independent as possible and have a purposeful life.

7.    I belong and feel valued.

She explained that local data highlighted three areas that had a significant impact on health, wellbeing and educational access for Rotherham’s children and young people and these were areas of focus. The three areas were:

·       the number of permanent exclusions or part-time timetables for children and young people with special educational needs.

·       The number of disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs who were missing school due to health concerns.

·       To have a clear process for engagement with children and young people so their views and voices and do what can be done to work with them.

One of her key themes was that all children could access an enjoyable learning environment and achieve their full potential success, whatever that may look like for them.

Cabinet was being asked to grant a period of consultation and further engagement to support this. The draft strategy would then be submitted to Improving Lives Select Commission on 29 October 2024. She believed that scrutiny was always asked to conduct some pre-decision scrutiny to feed into any strategies before it was re-submitted to Cabinet for consideration including scrutiny’s input.

Councillor Blackham felt the report was good and believed it was a child centred approach however he felt it needed a bit more emphasis on the role of parents. He understood it was going through various stages of consultation however parents were the people who would challenge the service on this. He felt the Council had to bring the parents along with them, which also led into the consultation period, which he felt was short and conducted over the summer. He accepted there may be reasons for that but expressed his concerns of the need to capture the needs and views of the parents.

He also sought clarification regarding the links with academies in Rotherham. The report mentions mainstream schools, but did this mean that the views and input of the academies was captured within the report and he felt this needed further clarification within the report.

Councillor Cusworth noted that the draft strategy had been co-produced with the. At the Local Area SEND inspection, where the Council did receive a written statement of action, which was based on progress since 2014, the Rotherham Parent Carers Forum were described as the jewel in the crown. The Council worked in that basis around those genuine partnerships in the four cornerstones of co-production, so that may be the reason, if the strategy had not been clear enough around parental views and input but this would be considered.

She provided assurance that the Council did not expect any less from the academy trusts in relation to how they worked with all Rotherham’s children, including those with SEND. She noted the Rotherham Parent Carers forum held drop-in coffee sessions around the borough.

The Joint Assistant Director, Commissioning and Performance noted that in relation to parents and carers specifically that they could ensure that they did not just reach out to the Parent Carer Forum, that they did some proactive engagement using the Special Educational Needs and Disability Information advice and support service, the schools, the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) to conduct some surveys to raise awareness with other parents who were not engaged with that forum.

The Chair asked if it was felt there would be any changes to the DfE’s White Paper on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities as a result of the election. The Assistant Director, Education and Inclusion explained the Government had done a Green Paper on the SEND and AD consultation and produced the SEND and AD improvement plan. At the start of September 2023, the government launched the SEND and AP trial and improvement programme. The intention was not to produce any legislation until that trial had concluded at the end of 2025.

Councillor Yasseen agreed that having a fully consulted upon SEND strategy was much needed. One of the issues regarding access to these specialist services was that there were sometimes blockages due to a lack of knowledge about where to go and who to speak to and she was please to see that had been thought through.

She requested that the service check and clarify the data being used in the strategy, one area highlighted was regarding the number of young people eligible for free school meals, the Rotherham data was actually much lower than stated. She also mentioned around the need to be mindful of how ethnicity data was presented within the strategy. She noted that Rotherham had a disproportionately higher percentage of children and young people that should be able to access SEND provision, therefore it would have been interesting to see how Rotherham compared against its statistical neighbours. The documentation did not indicate what issues were making Rotherham disproportionately higher within the SEND access points.

The Joint Assistant Director, Commissioning and Performance explained they did have a challenge around the data as there was a lot of data published in relation to this area and each organisation used slightly different definitions. It was noted that a glossary could be included that would indicate what data was being used. She indicated some of the categories used were different depending on whether school population or postcode population was being used. Benchmarking data had not been included and this would be discussed with the Improving Lives Select Commission, however it is inclusion could make the data section of the strategy longer. The Council did very well at ensuring Rotherham’s SEND children could access mainstream provision and the mainstream schools were good at identifying those individuals and providing support.

Councillor Marshall felt it was an excellent report. She queried if the consultation period was long enough given it was within school holidays. The report lists there were no direct financial implications from its approval and that any financial assessments of the priorities for supporting children and young people would be undertaken once the strategy was developed. Councillor Cusworth indicated that extending the consultation period could be investigated. She explained that the strategy was a legal requirement and set out the vision for the next four years, there were no additional financial pressures associated with the creation of the strategy.

The Joint Assistant Director, Commissioning and Performance explained that in the context of the strategy there were no direct financial implications, it did not cost the Council anything to have the strategy. Due to the costs associated with how children with SEND were educated, some of the associated actions as a result of the strategy may have financial implications on the Council in the future which would be considered once the strategy was ready to be submitted to Cabinet for approval.

Councillor Yasseen, a lot of the targets in the shared outcomes framework were missing, could further information be provided. The Assistant Director, Education and Inclusion explained that where information was provided it was because that information was statutorily required, and the Council did not have a choice about those targets. Where it indicated national, the reason the figure was not included was because the Council was waiting for that information to be published in July. The blank targets were because the Council wanted to agree those during the consultation with parents.

Councillor Keenan queried what being done to address the sleep issues identified within the report and could this be something for the Health Select Commission to consider under its work programme. Councillor Cusworth noted that sleep issues did affect the children and young people across the borough. She felt it was a much bigger issue but was of particular concern for those with additional needs and she would welcome scrutiny’s involvement in this area. The Joint Assistant Director, Commissioning and Performance noted it was one of the priorities in the Place Plan. Joint work with Rotherham ICB, Rotherham Public Health to redevelop the Sleep pathway to bring everything together.

Councillor Yasseen requested that the paperwork for the initial equalities impact assessments be completed correctly. As these are mandatory documents these should be accurately completed.

Resolved: That the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board:

1.    Agreed that Cabinet be advised that the recommendations be supported.

2.    Recommended that a glossary be included within the report/strategy going forward to explain the data and information sources used.

3.     Suggested that an item regarding the work being done regarding Sleep Pathways be referred to the Health Select Commission for consideration at a future point.