Agenda item

Report attached

The Sub-Committee received a report that updated Members on the progress made to implement the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) action plan following the Care Quality Commission (CQC) /Ofsted inspection of March 2018.

Following the inspection a detailed action plan was produced and has been monitored by the SEND Executive Board, comprising of Partners, Parent representatives, Schools in addition to Local Health and Local Council representation. A SEND Strategy was signed off by the Health and Wellbeing Board in September 2018 and an update was provided to a meeting of the OSSC in November 2019.

The report detailed the following areas for improvement and progress on implementation:

·         The SEND Executive Board was now fully engaged, including parents and partners.

·         Implementation of Havering’s High Needs strategy. The strategy was approved in 2017 and will run until 2022. But an earlier review was carried out. The outcome of the review was that the local priorities remain similar and progress was being made. The main theme of the Strategy remains to ensure Havering had quality and inclusive education for children with SEND.  The provision should be local and reduce the need for children to travel out of borough to school.

·          The strategy guides our development of new provision - plans to build a new £8.5 million free school for children with SEND have been approved by the Dept for Education and the local authority.

·         The strategy indicates the need to deliver a programme of new provision to see a better distribution across the borough and throughout both primary and secondary schools.  Progress have been made in this area.

·         Local Offer – to continue to develop, maintain and keep the local offer up to date, including children, young people and their families to ensure it is responsive to their needs. This work is in progress and the offer is reviewed regularly.

·         EHC Hub - establish the EHC hub, which is an interactive web-based platform to make our EHC assessment and planning process more efficient and transparent, supporting inclusion of all partners including children/young people and parents. The hub is now implemented and being used by parents and carers for new EHC plans from September 2019.

·         Review of EHC planning and processes, to improve the quality of Education, Health and Care needs assessments and plans, ensuring that they paint an accurate picture and are produced in a timely way to ensure need is met at the earliest opportunity. The borough now has approximately 1,600 children with EHC plans, up from 800 former statements of SEN in 2014. New EHC plans are up from 133 in 2016 to 195 in 2018. At January 2019 (the latest published data) 70% of EHCPs in the borough meet statutory timescales, compared with 58% across London boroughs.   Quality of EHCPs is still variable and work is underway to establish a quality assurance process.

·         Jointly Commissioned Services – develop a single joint commissioning process which will inform the commissioning of services for those children and young people with SEND. This work is maturing; a complex needs panel was established early in 2019 to ensure children with the most complex health and educational needs are considered earlier in the process. The revised panel incorporates budget-holders and commissioners as part of the panel, generates creative solutions to meet the needs, in borough, of the majority of our children and young people and has led to more consistent and transparent decision-making.

·         We have progressed ‘co-production’ at a strategic level by continuing to work with parents and partners to determine the future commissioning of short breaks and Transport provision. A series of workshops and events have been held with parents and carers, to develop an outcome-focused joint commissioning model and framework for Short Breaks focused on young people with complex and multiple needs.

·         Improve transition into adulthood - Provide a timely and joined up transition to ensure that young people with SEND (age 13 up to age 25) and their parents/ carers have a smooth and positive experience of transition.  Corbets Tey at The Avelon now deliver post-16 provision (and Routes4Life for post 19 year olds) courses for 19-25 year olds focused on year-long preparation for adulthood pathways. We have undertaken a review of supported internships across the borough and established three training programmes for staff (from schools, colleges and LA) to develop skills, knowledge and confidence in delivering employment opportunities for young people with SEND.

·         Improve the Social Care offer – work is underway to develop a 6 bed residential facility to provide long term and short break support for children in Havering. This will mean that children needing to access overnight short breaks can do so locally and should the need arise for longer periods of accommodation again this will be able to be delivered in Havering, meaning greater continuity of support as children can remain in their local school.

The Sub-Committee noted the report.