Agenda item

The Panel will consider a report providing an insight into the new initiatives of schools working in clusters.

Contact:         Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director

The Panel considered a report providing an insight into the new initiative of schools working in clusters, presented by Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director for Learning and Early Support.

Jo-Anne Sanders highlighted the following key points -

• The report was presented in the early days of the cluster initiative to provide transparency on how the programme had originated and how it would support children and young people with additional needs, and their families. It informed the Panel how the clusters were operating and how checks and challenge were built in across the development.
• Cluster working involved bringing together geographical groups of mainstream Primary and Secondary Schools (and those in the three-tier system), so that school SENDCOs could meet to discuss the emerging needs of young people and receive help and support from the team around the cluster.
• Funding was provided to clusters to support individual children or groups of children, or to fund staff training.
• The cluster initiative had been suggested by Peter Gray, who had written a report for the Department for Education looking at innovative ways of using funding to support children with additional needs in schools. The Council and Kirklees Schools Forum commissioned Peter Gray to carry out a review of arrangements in Kirklees in Summer 2023. In the Autumn of 2023, the review was fed back to the stakeholder groups who had been consulted, including Headteachers, Parent and local officers.
• The review concluded that there were opportunities to offer more consistency of provision across Kirklees, and to offer early funding and help to avoid waiting for the funding associated with an EHCP.
• Ways of working in clusters had been trialled successfully in other local authorities, however it was important to produce a model that would meet the needs of Kirklees.
• A task and finish group was set up in October 2023 and ran until March 2024, which consisted of SENDCOs and Headteachers from Primary and Secondary Schools, Educational Psychology Teams, Specialist Outreach, Early Years Support, and the Parent and Carer Forum.
• Key principles had driven the approach and were outlined in the report which provided detail on what a good funding system should look like, and the principles of cluster working.
• The initiative was piloted in Kirklees with a first cluster in Summer 2024, with the intention of a full roll-out in September 2024.
• 17 clusters were now operating across Kirklees, each formed from a mix of Primary and Secondary schools, providing opportunities for work on transition.
• Council teams “around the cluster” had been organised to fit with the 17 clusters.
• Two Cluster Area Leads had been appointed to have an overview of practice in their area and share best practice, working with the cluster leads (a designated SENCO in each cluster).

Jayne Whitton, Principal Educational Psychologist, further informed the Panel about how the clusters were working in practice. Jayne Whitton explained that:

·       At each cluster meeting schools brought individual cases where there were concerns, cases around groups of children or young people, or school-wide issues.

·       By bringing schools together, key challenges could be identified, expertise within the group could be capitalised on and positive solutions shared.

·       Feedback from SENCOs indicated that even if they had not taken a case to a meeting, learning still took place, as issues and strategies discussed could often be related to pupils at their own schools.

·       Each discussion had a clear structure, to enable solutions to be found.

·       Schools could discuss and agree how resource could be used to meet shared challenges.

·       Schools had visited other schools in the area to observe and support, and shared contact information for useful organisations.

·       Shared training needs had been identified, and training organised across the cluster.

Jo-Anne Sanders advised that cluster working gave some control to schools to utilise funding at an early stage, prior to children receiving an EHCP. The initiative was in its second term, and a review was planned for June to develop the model in line with feedback from all stakeholders. It had involved a huge system change and required everybody to work in a different way. The Panel was informed that there had been challenges around communication and anxiety over funding arrangements from schools and parents. This had been recognised and listened to, and the initiative would continue to be shaped by all involved.

The Panel noted that they could visit a cluster meeting to observe the process in action, and that this could be arranged in conjunction with Area Leads.

In answer to a question from the Panel relating to clarity regarding funding arrangements, Jo-Anne Sanders advised that there would be openness and transparency through a Cluster Audit Statement. There was a modest amount of money available to the clusters, and the support provided was not always financial. The Panel was assured that the EHCP top-up funding would not be removed. One of the key principles was the principle of equity, so funding would be based on need and allocated in the most fair, open and transparent way.

Tom Brailsford, Executive Director for Children and Families, advised the Panel that while the Department for Education (DfE) worked on reforms, Kirklees were at the forefront of taking managed risks to find creative solutions to the problems which existed nationally. The DfE and NHS England had recognised that Kirklees were an example of good practice locally. Cluster working was part of an overall approach to SEND provision for children, which also included increasing special school capacity and creating Additionally Resourced Provision within mainstream schools.

In answer to a question from the Panel, Jayne Whitton advised that the clusters were supporting children with varying levels of need, and that SENDCos were now working more collaboratively both with each other and with the team around the cluster.

The Panel asked how feedback from families would be used to inform the cluster model, and how the families of children with SEND were communicated with about the process.

Jo-Anne Sanders informed the Panel that schools would contact parents of children who were discussed at the meetings, that the children were anonymous within the meeting, and that after the meeting the schools would provide the parents with the outcomes of the cluster’s conversation. The Parent and Carer Forum were working on parent engagement on a range of matters related to SEND and would be reporting their feedback. A full day’s review in June would include parent feedback because it was vital that the system had the confidence of families. The Panel was informed that by understanding needs within communities, appropriate provision could be planned, eg: Speech and Language Therapy capacity or Alternative Provision.

In answer to a question from the Panel about the sharing of best practice between clusters, Jayne Whitton informed the Panel that it was critical for the clusters to share learning and that this was done in several ways:-

·       Each cluster had a cluster lead, and all cluster and Area Leads met up half-termly to share successes and challenges and discuss next steps.

·       Area leads attended cluster meetings to get to know the different areas and met with cluster leads individually.

The Panel was advised that clusters were linking up as much as possible to share their learning and that the individual cluster leads were very interested in what was happening in other areas.

The Chair thanked the officers for their report and for the efforts that had been made to set up the cluster working.

RESOLVED:

(1)  The Panel noted the report and thanked Officers for their contributions.

(2)  The Panel agreed to arrange to visit a cluster meeting to observe the process in action, and that this would be arranged in conjunction with Area Leads.