Agenda item

The Sub-Committee received a report that highlighted the outcome of the Local Area Inspection of support for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND which took place between 26 February and 2 March 2018.

The inspection identified that the service had increased the pace of putting children and young people at the centre of planning for their future. Inspectors recognised that the Council’s evaluation of it’s strengths and areas for development were broadly accurate.

The Sub-Committee was informed that the inspection served as a v useful exercise which reinforced the services approach to co-produce more and to engage and involve all partners when planning support.. The changes to systems and processes had already started to have an impact on outcomes for children.

The Inspection concentrated on the following three key areas:

a.         The effectiveness of the local area in identifying children and young people’s special educational needs and/or disabilities.

b.         The effectiveness of the local area in assessing and meeting the needs of children and young people who had special educational needs and/or disabilities.

c.         The effectiveness of the local area in improving outcomes for children and Young People who had special educational needs and/or disabilities.

The report outlined the following findings:

1.    The service to children with the most complex needs had improved and worked well across agencies to meet their needs.

2.    The Young People who participated in the inspection were mostly positive about the support they got, especially from their schools or colleges.

3.    Teaching staff in schools reported that they and their pupils got helpful advice, guidance and care. There had been reductions in the number of exclusions of five-year-olds and Young People not in education, employment or training.

4.    Parents were positive about the schools where provision for pupils who had SEN and other disabilities was effective. Parent groups recognised that there were some good services in the local area.

5.    The work with Young People to co-produce developments was strong, but not as strong with parents.

6.     The service was not aspirational enough about the future outcomes of children and Young People with SEND, as it was found to be slow to implement the SEND reforms when they were first introduced.

7.    New systems and more rigorous self-evaluation were resulting in strong improvement.

8.    A significant number of parents were concerned about the support their children received as there were delays in receiving reports, including Education Health and Care (EHC) plans.

9.    The process for producing EHC plans had improved. Outcomes were more incisive and the plans identified more clearly what support was to be put in place.

10. Not all infants received the integrated two-and-a-half-year check or the antenatal visit and the six-week baby health checks, as part of the Healthy Child Programme.  It was identified that this was only available to those families where vulnerability had been identified.

11. The overall effectiveness of nearly one third of secondary schools required improvement or was inadequate. This meant that too many children and young people who had SEN and/or disabilities attend  schools where the quality of education was not good.

12. There was a secure understanding in schools where teaching was weak, resulting in fragile provision for children and young people who have SEND. Visits by the school improvement team to schools were beginning to improve these provisions.

The Sub-Committee noted that the report outlined that both Ofsted and CQC reinforced the need to continually improve the SEND services. It was indicated that a plan of action was in place which was ratified by the inspectors. Following the work to convert all ‘SEN statements’ into EHC plans, the service was now looking to improve on the reviews of children who had a plan for a while. Havering was one of the few areas in England implementing the EHC Hub, an online digital platform where parents, young people and professionals could input information to co-produce EHC plans more quickly and effectively.

The Sub-Committee were informed that the SEND Executive Board, who provided a strategic oversight and decision-making ability that was consistent with the Children and Families Act 2014 was in the process of refreshing the improvement plan of the key areas for development.

The finalised improvement plan would be submitted to the Health and Wellbeing Board for agreement.

The Sub-Committee noted the comments of the report.