Agenda item

The report will provide the Panel with a further update in relation to the recommendations made by Scrutiny in relation to SENDACT.

Contact Officer: Mandy Cameron – Head of Service (Education, Safeguarding and Inclusion))

(1)  That the panel would wish to see greater clarification in the timescales outlined in the SENDACT action plan.

(2)  That the panel would wish to see that the voice of young people is captured and reflected in the work of SENDACT.

The panel welcomed Mandy Cameron, Head of Service Education Safeguarding and Inclusion to the meeting.

Ms Cameron informed the panel of the background to the progress report which was an update on the recommendations from a piece of focused work that scrutiny had previously undertaken on children with special educational needs.

Ms Cameron stated that the service was making good progress in the areas outlined in the recommendations and explained that the council had made an investment to increase the size of the team to better meet the increased demand and that the timescales for statutory assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) had significantly improved.

Ms Cameron informed the panel of the monitoring board that looked at the work of the team and would provide help and support in order to maintain the momentum in progress that was being made.

Ms Cameron informed the panel of the work that had been done in establishing an advocate agency for parents and providing the package of support that parents required.

A question and answer session followed that covered a number of issues that included:

·         The importance of the work that was being done to support parents and carers through the EHCP process.

·         The complexity of understanding the criteria for getting an EHCP.

·         An explanation on the process for supporting parents through the EHCP process and the focus on getting a common understanding of the criteria in schools across the district.

·         An overview of the EHCP leaflet that had been co-produced with parents.

·         A question on the lack of information on the timescales set against the actions detailed in the action plan.

·         The wider piece of work that was taking place on school transport.

·         The council’s focus on looking at a more holistic solution to home to school transport to provide a suitable package of support to young people and their families.

·         A question on progress of the recruitment exercise to increase capacity in the SENDACT team.

·         Details of the recruitment process and quality of applicants.

·         The work that was taking place in looking at the use of interpreters.

·         The need to ensure that the work that was being undertaken in the action plan had clear timelines attached to each action.

·         Clarification that many of the actions had remained on the action plan because they had moved into a different phase of work.

·         Confirmation that the next update report would include much clearer detail on the timescales.

·         A discussion on how the panel could visit parents and front line staff in order to get assurance that the required improvements outlined in the action plan were happening.

·         Details of the parent monitoring group.

·         An overview of what the service had learned from the scrutiny review.

·         The importance of providing support post 16 and during the transition from school to the work place.

·         A concern over the length of the 20 week timescale for a statutory assessment for an ECHP.

·         An explanation of the process that was followed during the 20 week ECHP assessment period.

RESOLVED -

(1)  That the panel would wish to see greater clarification in the timescales outlined in the SENDACT action plan.

(2)  That the panel would wish to see that the voice of young people is captured and reflected in the work of SENDACT.