Agenda item

The Panel will consider a report giving an update on the SEND Inspection -  action plan and inspection outcomes.

Contact:         Tom Brailsford, Service Director

                        Paul Harris, Head of Children’s Improvement

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The Panel received a report on the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Inspection – Action Plan and Inspection Outcomes presented by Tom Brailsford, Service Director – Children and Families, Resources, Improvement and Partnerships and Paul Harris, Head of Children’s Improvement, Partnerships & Voice.

The Panel was informed that on the 25^th May 2022, the Ofsted inspection report for Kirklees was published.  As a result of the findings of the inspection, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector determined that a Written Statement of Action was required due to two significant areas of weakness in the local area’s practice.

Paul Harris advised the Panel that the areas of weakness were:

• The poor delivery of the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) which did not support he identification of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in children at the earliest opportunity consistently,
• Weaknesses in the area’s ability across services and within settings to identify and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND who were in mainstream settings.

The Panel was informed that Kirklees and a SEND partnership accepted and valued the assessment and feedback provided by the independent inspection and recognised that it provided an important benchmark in the implementation of the 2014 SEND reforms.

In 2021 Kirklees produced a plan to strengthen and improve some of its SEND Services. The report provided the context to the inspection and outlined the approach to SEND transformation which predated the inspection outcome and showed the identified issues were already being addressed.

Paul Harris advised the Panel that how the Healthy Child Programme operated was being reviewed and would be a priority which would be incorporated in the Transformation Plan as a key workstream going forward.

The Panel acknowledged the Transformation Plan and asked a question regarding re-issuing the plan post Ofsted to incorporate the Ofsted report. Tom Brailsford advised that an annual review of the transformation plan was taking place. Officers from the Children’s Service had given their feedback to Ofsted on their views on how the letter had been written, which was different to what had been expected following feedback from Ofsted.  The Panel noted that the transformation plan had been commended by the DfE as an example of good practice.

The Panel Highlighted the waiting times for children with Mental Health difficulties and asked a question on how improvements would be made. Stuart Horne advised that waiting lists were longer than the Service would like to see.  Some services had secured additional investment and had precured assessment resources.  In terms of mental health services, there had been significant investment for Mental Health in school’s teams which had started to take shape and have an impact, the real progress would show in the next year or 2 as the service expanded.  Stewart Horn further explained that with regards to CAMHS, the service was undergoing a review and service re-design to make improvements to pathways to improve the patient journey and experience and increase the confidence in parents.

The Panel noted weaknesses in different settings and asked a question on how improvements to communication were going to be made.  Tom Brailsford advised the Panel that there were several areas in the transformation plan that would be addressed, and that it was about a partnership approach. The Panel were advised that some examples of what would need to be addressed would be how schools identified children early, to ensure schools had good Mental Health support teams and about making sure schools had a good Healthy Child Programme with a mandate of contacts and early intervention.  Tom Brailsford explained that there was a broad group of professionals who contribute to outcomes.

The Panel raised concerns relating to children with Special Educational Needs and the problems that parents experienced when receiving the right support, and the length of time it took to identify a need. Tom Brailsford advised that there was not a problem with identifying needs, the problem was increasing demand for Education Health and Care Plan’s for the under 5’s, along with delays from external agencies. Tom Brailsford also explained that the services wanted to provide the earliest support as quickly as possible. Jo-Anne Sanders advised the Panel that the Transformation Plan was to re-orientate support as early as possible, and Kirklees was fortunate to have a very strong special educational need co-ordination network.  There was a lot of expertise in special schools with innovation in terms of special school satellite provisions where they invested in support of schools into outreach teams.

The Panel highlighted that the Ofsted report indicated a lot of families had been let down by the system, with the number of Special Educational Statements compared to Educations Health and Care Plans being half the number and that there was a need to acknowledge families had been let down.  Emily Parry-Harries requested that the Panel allow her to look further into the figures in the Transformation report that provided information on the increase in number of pupils in Kirklees LA schools and academies with an Educational Health and Care Plan since January 2015 to January 2021.

Kelsey Clark-Davies responded to the Panel regarding actual experiences by some service users and acknowledged that the information captured was over a length of time from some families that had a negative experience who were more likely to come forward.  The Panel was informed that some families had come forward who had a positive experience and a key theme within the plan was to ensure that culture across the council was child and family centred, working with, and not doing to.

In response to a question from the Panel regarding what support was available to parents, and how that was being strengthened, along with how mainstream support was provided to parents who had sought a private diagnosis. Tom Brailsford explained that parents were supported through early mechanisms, such as health resources online, that parents could access. There was a need to do more in terms of making sure there was parental support and parental confidence.  There was also a support line for SENCO’s to receive information and the Panel was informed that One aspiration was to open this up to parents, however, further work was required. Tom Brailsford confirmed that diagnosis reports from private providers would not affect any support received for an Education Health and Care Plan.  Stuart Horne advised that one problem with a private provider was the commission provider in SWIFT as their psychiatrist was not able to prescribe medication on an ongoing basis that they felt was not necessary.

The Panel thanked officers for all the information provided and acknowledged the passion that officers had to improve families lives and acknowledged that the improvement journey was a high priority for the Council’s Administration.

RESOLVED-

• That the Panel receive updates on the improvement journey of the Transformation Plan.
• That Officers in Children’s Service provide the Panel with details of partners involved in the Transformation Plan that they can meet with or visit as part of the Panel’s scrutiny work.
• That the Panel receive further information on the increased number of pupils in Kirklees LA schools and academies with an Education Health and Care Plan since January 2015 to January 2021.