Agenda item

The Health and Wellbeing Board has the Executive Governance for the SEND transformation programme. It has previously confirmed its desire of the work to be brought into view on a regular basis.  SEND is of critical strategic importance to all Partners and is systemic in its impact.

Contact: Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director, Learning and Early Support Tel: 01484 221000.

Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director, Learning and Early Support and the Senior Responsible Officer for the SEND transformation in the local area, and Adrian Wisniewski, Programme Manager, Strategy Innovation and Planning, attended the meeting to provide an update on the SEND Transformation Programme.

Jo-Anne Sanders reminded the Board that the last update on the programme was in January 2024, and as the Health and Wellbeing Board is the most senior part of governance for this programme, it is important to report back on the progress that has been made and the next steps.

The Board was informed that the update would focus on:

-          Some of the work that has been undertaken in terms of the shifting culture,

-          Key focuses and also the challenges,

-          Key milestones that have been achieved since the last update

-          Further examples of progress and impact

-          Next steps

-          Deep dive – for the Board to suggest areas to be presented at the next deep dive

The Board was informed that there has been an attempt to try and change the culture, and it requires a system approach to make things better for children and families, and children as they prepare to become adults.  There have been opportunities that have been recognised, regarding how to work together in partnership for families with anyone who wants to provide help and support and drive some of the shared accountability.

There are some cogs that have to work together such as:

Co-production - which is something that the local area needs to be proud of.  There is an active parent/carer forum that holds to account, challenges but are also very supportive

Governance – clear governance, there are three levels of governance, making sure there is the right buy-in at each level.  The highest strategic level of governance, partners, then the operational level

Quality and compliance – there is a clear focus on making sure things are done in a timely way, but also making sure they are of quality, ensuring that they are set up to have impact. Rather than sitting behind a desk it is important to step out, and listen to people’s lived experiences and trying to make a difference on the ground. An example, is the local offer live event, supported by a range of partners, but was led by the parent/carer forum, held in June and the feedback has been extremely positive. 

Clusters - Some of this involves being brave and trying to look at innovation.  Rather than looking inwards in Kirklees, it also involves looking up and down the country and seeking out opportunities. An example of this is a new way of working that is just being undertaken with mainstream schools, of which there are approximately 170.  Work has started with groups called clusters, wrapping a team around those schools, to identify needs early and meet those needs as early as possible.

In addition, there are some system changes with the investment that the local area is making into rebuilding two of the special schools, to ensure there are enough places to cater for needs locally.  Crucially, there was success in securing government support for an alternative provision free school.  All of the different aspects of the cog need to work together to ensure the best outcomes for children.

The Board was provided with information that outlined what the focus has been and also some of the challenges.  The Board was reminded that at the last SEND update, information was provided on ‘The Big Plan’. In response, across the local area and beyond, there has been positive feedback about the accessibility and the language being easy to understand.  It is important to evolve this rather than changing everything at once because that would become confusing to the system.

There are challenges with all this as demand is not staying static.  There is not only an increase in demand, the complexity of some young people and families have also increased and this is whilst operating in a challenging financial landscape.  There is a deficit within the high needs block, and work is being undertaken with the government to resolve this and there are resource capacity challenges across the system, which is nationally recognised and not just bespoke to Kirklees.

The Board was provided with information which outlined the key milestones since the last SEND update:

-              In February, as a local area following an inspection, a ‘Written Statement of Action’ was issued and there has been follow up monitoring visits by the Department for Education (DfE) and NHS England.  There has been a positive meeting, with many of the actions taken, the progress whether qualitative or quantitative and lived experiences being improved, and this was acknowledged by the DfE.  This was a reflection of all the hard work of the partnership.

-              In March, with regard to the Safety Valve, there has been a great deal of engagement with the DfE, and they acknowledge the challenges in being able to deliver a balanced budget, and was therefore able to renegotiate the terms of the Safety Valve.  This gave a little more time to achieve and remove the high needs deficit

-              In April, with the cluster working, the task and finish group co-produced and shared recommendations and a pathfinder group of schools was established to start trialling the new approach with schools.

-          In June, Cabinet received a report regarding the clusters and were supportive of moving forward and those arrangements being put in place.

-          In September, previously there had been opportunities to support young people to inclusion, therefore work was undertaken to refresh and update the Inclusion Fund Policy to reflect the changes to the early education and that new entitlement.  Schools were asked to submit expressions of interest to roll out the next phase of the additional resource provisions.

The Board was informed that the clusters have now gone live, and the early years transition fund, the new approach is also live.  Online from September another additional resource provision with more in the pipeline, and very successfully led by the Designated Clinical Officer, parent/carer forum for inclusion of neurodiversity (PINS) has gone from bidding to the actual delivery for 14 primary schools.  This belies the amount of work, energy and effort the partnership has undertaken.

Referring to the presentation slides the Board was presented with statistical information relating to the Healthy Child Programme:

-          Mandated new birth visits within 14 days was 8% at the time of inspection in 2022, now 79%; 6- week reviews 65% now 77%; 12 months was 68% now 89%, 2.5 yr reviews was 43% now 80%. This is impressive in terms of the improvements made in performance.

-          Education Health Care Plans compliance is improving.  There is month on month improvement with July and August being the best with over 200 plans issued. That means two record months since April 2024.

The Board was informed that while there has been progress, is any of this making a difference?  One of the things that is being undertaken regularly is capturing people’s lived experience. An example of the some of the impact can be seen with the Healthy Child Programme where families are generally happy with the service. In the last quarterly reporting, 96% of families surveyed rated Locala as good or very good.

In terms of next steps and what is being planned.  It has been fortunate that there has been an opportunity to start a conversation with RISE partnership, and RISE stands for Research and improvement for SEND excellence and that is the council for disabled children and National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi). There is an opportunity to work with them and focus on the preparation for adulthood. Part of the transformation there was an opportunity to meet with them to scope out what that support could look like.

The clusters workforce development aims to look at the review for special school funding, to ensure that they can be equipped with all the tools they need to meet the needs of young people.  The Quality assurance framework is being able to connect with colleagues from the third sector and Kirklees Care Associations and those conversations have already started.

The Board was asked whether there are any areas of the programme that the Board would want to know more about ?

In response to the information presented, the Board asked a number of questions and made comment including some of the following:

-          The information presented reflects some of the discussions at the ICB Place Committee where the focus was on the Starting Well Programme, and there was a lengthy discussion  around the neurodiversity in particular, the waiting time for assessments.  One of the things that came out of the discussion, and it wasn’t fully understood, was the extent to which having a diagnosis unlocks access to other services and support. When people are waiting for an assessment, how can we ensure that their children have access to the right level of support even though they haven't received a formal diagnosis. It is an area that seems to come up quite frequently.

-          This is a really big challenge, and it isn’t anything that one organisation can solve. What would be really valuable is more information in the way of data because it is important to understand where the demand is coming from.  It is also important to look at the inequality's because it is known that people often go for private diagnosis and that risks creating inequalities in terms of the ability for people to get the diagnosis and therefore the support they need. Understanding the trends in relation to data and demand would be helpful.

-              The cluster is an innovative way of looking at it because it is saying that rather than a statement leads to a special package of care, it is about ensuring that schools work together to share resources across the cluster, thereby making best use of the resources available rather than schools competing for precious resource when it is recognised there isn't enough to go around.

-          The cluster only just launched in September; however, it would be good to see how that has impacted over the first term, appreciating that these things will take some time.

-          The information came to life on the examples of impact outlined towards the end of the presentation, on the individual children being supported and the example of my happy mind programme being rolled out to nearly 35,000 pupils and that sounds like a really great intervention for supporting pupils and young people with their mental health.  Will there be a continual roll out across schools and how will the impact of this be monitored?

-          Healthwatch regularly hear from parents/carers particularly around ADHD and Autism assessment waiting times, how can people be connected who are having difficulties?  Healthwatch also hears from people who have had to remove their child from school because the school is unable to meet their needs and also the support takes an exceptionally long time to put in place, therefore having their children at home is easier.   How are these families being supported? This is difficult for anyone to understand with the number of improvements, challenges, pathways and different things that are happening, how is this being explained to local families?

RESOLVED

That Jo-Anne Sanders and Adrian Wisniewski, be thanked for providing an update on SEND transformation, and that information relating to trends, data and demand to be brought back to a Board meeting at a later date.