Issue - meetings

RESOLVED:

1. That the progress of the SEND Transformation programme and its impact for children and young people with SEND and their families be noted.

2. That the focus and priorities for the programme for 2021-22 to embed and accelerate change be agreed.

Reason for Decision:

The Council has invested significant resources into the SEND Transformation programme, and it is important that the return on this investment makes a demonstrable difference and is targeted for maximum benefit. The programme has made great progress already in introducing the foundations of early help and targeted support for children in mainstream settings and committed a further £79m capital investment to increase specialist provision in Surrey.

Despite the continued challenges of the pandemic and new lockdown arrangements, work continues to ensure that the vital projects and pathways introduced by the programme are delivering the benefits anticipated, including additional places for children with SEND closer to home and early support without the requirement for a statutory Education, Health and Care plan. In December 2020, following a meeting to monitor work to improve the attendance of children with SEND, the Department for Education and NHS England concluded that the Council and its partners have demonstrated clear and sustained progress on SEND and that six monthly monitoring of the action plan is no longer required.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Children, Families, Lifelong Learning & Culture Select Committee]

The Cabinet Member for All- Age Learning introduced the report explaining that the SEND Transformation Programme was established as a means to achieve the strategic aims outlined in Surrey’s SEND Partnership Strategy 2019-2022. The SEND Strategy is ambitious about improving outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and the whole system approach to achieve the step change needed. This report outlined what the SEND Transformation Programme has achieved so far and the proposed focus for 2021 to embed and accelerate change.

A member queried why the service and Cabinet Member received challenges from opposition members around SEND services when the report states that the council had demonstrated clear and sustained progress on SEND services with monitoring visits on the action plan no longer being required. The Cabinet Member for All- Age Learning explained that a revisit from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission took place in May 2019 and left one area of focus around rates of exclusion and absence for young people in mainstream settings. The accelerated programme plan was reviewed in December 2020 with the DfE and the NHS confirming that the council had demonstrated clear and sustained progress and therefore as a result formal monitoring was no longer required.

There was a short discussion around the capital investment into the service and how this would support children and young people with SEND.

RESOLVED:

1. That the progress of the SEND Transformation programme and its impact for children and young people with SEND and their families be noted.

2. That the focus and priorities for the programme for 2021-22 to embed and accelerate change be agreed.

Reason for Decision:

The Council has invested significant resources into the SEND Transformation programme, and it is important that the return on this investment makes a demonstrable difference and is targeted for maximum benefit. The programme has made great progress already in introducing the foundations of early help and targeted support for children in mainstream settings and committed a further £79m capital investment to increase specialist provision in Surrey.

Despite the continued challenges of the pandemic and new lockdown arrangements, work continues to ensure that the vital projects and pathways introduced by the programme are delivering the benefits anticipated, including additional places for children with SEND closer to home and early support without the requirement for a statutory Education, Health and Care plan. In December 2020, following a meeting to monitor work to improve the attendance of children with SEND, the Department for Education and NHS England concluded that the Council and its partners have demonstrated clear and sustained progress on SEND and that six monthly monitoring of the action plan is no longer required.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Children, Families, Lifelong Learning & Culture Select Committee]