Agenda item

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The Committee received a report which detailed the outcome of the recent Local Area Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) SEND Inspection.

In attendance for this item were Councillor Jayne Dunn (Cabinet Member for Education and Skills), Jackie Drayton (Cabinet Member for Children and Families), Jayne Ludlam (Executive Director – People Services), Dawn Walton (Director – Commissioning: Inclusion and Schools), Joel Hardwick (Head of Commissioning: Inclusion and Schools), Tim Armstrong (Head of SEN) and Scarlett Milward (Clinical Commissioning Group).

Tim Armstrong presented the report and explained that as part of the national framework for inspecting local areas, Sheffield had been inspected in November 2018.  The inspection had been carried out by Ofsted and the Care Quality commission (CQC) and was of the entire local area across frontline Education, Health and Care provision to meet the needs of those with Special Educational Needs & Disabilities.  It was the role of the Local Authority and the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to formulate a response to the inspection.

The Inspectors required that a written statement of action (WSOA) be submitted to Ofsted within 70 working days of the publication of the report.  The Department for Education (DofE) and NHS England would support the Council to complete the WSOA.

The WSOA needed to address the following areas of significant weakness:

·       The lack of a co-produced, coherent vision and strategy for SEND in Sheffield.

·       Communication, clarity and consistency in the relationship between the local area leaders, parents, carers, children and young people.

·       Poor strategic oversight of SEND arrangements by the CCG. This results in unacceptable waiting times for access to specialist equipment and appropriate pre- and post-diagnosis support and children and young people’s needs not being met.

·       Weakness in commissioning arrangements to remove variability and improve consistency in meeting the education, health and care needs of children and young people aged 0 to 25 with SEND.

·       The quality and timeliness of education, health and care (EHC) plans.

·       Inconsistencies in identifying, assessing and meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND in mainstream primary and secondary schools.

·       Weaknesses in securing effective multi-agency transition arrangements for children and young people with SEND.

Members of the Committee raised questions and the following responses were provided:-

·       The report reflected issues which had already been identified by the Council and CCG, and work had already begun to address the issues.  The report enabled the Council to support and challenge schools that were not supporting those with SEN as well, in a more robust way.

·       The SEND Statutory Assessment and Review Service had been improving, but not fast enough as identified in the report.  The team had been restructured and staff numbers had been increased to reduce caseloads.

·       Meetings had been held with a range of groups, including parents.  The State of Sheffield questionnaire compiled by the Sheffield Parent Carer Forum had also just closed, which had asked how the Council could do better work for the most vulnerable families and how could the Council better support those who struggle to articulate their needs.

·       The report had also identified that people had to go to single places in the City to access help and that services needed to be accessed in the community.  The education landscape set at a national level was not inclusive, those who could not perform academically struggled and there was a lack of vocational qualifications.  This had been raised with Ofsted and the DofE.  Secondary exclusions were reducing and there were proposals for the Ofsted inspection framework to look at inclusion.

·       A stronger relationship was needed with the provider network and there was a need to work closely with the CCG to strengthen how services were commissioned, what the local authority expected, how they related to families and how joint arrangements worked.

·       There had been a reduction in fixed term exclusions at both primary and secondary level which was against the national trend and there had been a better partnership approach over the last few months.  There was a need to continue to review trends and a Primary Inclusion Panel had been established which included CAMHS etc.  Individual schools were reported to Ofsted where there were issues.  Every child in Sheffield mattered.

·       An area response was required to the inspection and this was being co-produced by the Council and the CCG.  The benefit would be that any strategy that was produced would be integrated.

·       There were some good examples of schools or individuals who were committed and providing excellent work.  A locality approach was supported and was being developed further.  The report identified that this needed to be consistent. 

·       There was a correlation between deprivation and exclusion and there was a need to support families to be more resilient.  There was some really great work being carried out in deprived areas, but the challenge was greater.

·       It was clear that there was some good work taking place, but there were many inconsistencies and pathways were not always in place.  There was a need to both challenge and support.  More engagement with young people was needed.  How were those with SEND supported into independence.  Pathways should be embedded.

·       Significant investment had already been agreed and the issue had been prioritised.  A clear business plan with a range of interventions was necessary.

·       Families were not always engaging with services as they were inaccessible and the Council needed to support schools to address barriers.

·       There needed to be a quicker process to identify and get back into education those children who were refusing to attend.  Support needed to be identified and monitored and communicated to parents.  More effective engagement was needed.

·       It was explained that the inspection had been set against the background of all statements needing to be converted on top of new cases being identified with limited resources and to the Government's deadline and Members recognised the work that staff had done to meet the deadlines around conversion.

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)            notes the content of the report now submitted, together with the responses to the questions now raised;

(b)          thanks Councillor Jayne Dunn, Councillor Jackie Drayton, Jayne Ludlam, Dawn Walton, Joel Hardwick, Tim Armstrong and Scarlett Milward (CCG) for attending the meeting and responding to the questions raised;

(c)            requests that a special meeting be arranged to see the joint response to the SEND Inspection, prior to submission to Ofsted; and

(d)            agrees to incorporate regular progress reports on this matter in its  Work Programme.