Issue - meetings

Purpose of the report: to provide the Children, Families, Lifelong Learning and Culture Select Committee with a progress update on the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) transformation programme, including relevant progress updates about the implementation of the recommendations of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Task Group.  This report builds on the Select Committee Report from December 2020 as well as the Cabinet Report from February 2021.

Witnesses:

Denise Turner-Stewart, Cabinet Member for Education and Learning

Liz Mills, Director – Education and Lifelong Learning

Mary Burguieres, Assistant Director – Systems and Transformation

BenedicteSymcox, Chief Executive Officer – Family Voice Surrey

Kate Goode, Participation Manager – Family Voice Surrey

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Cabinet Member explained that the report built upon previous updates to the Committee and Cabinet in December 2020 and February 2021 respectively. It outlined further progress in the year to date and highlighted the next phase of delivery – building system wide momentum and cultural change and securing financial trajectories over the next five years.

2.    The Director added that 290 additional school places for children with SEND had been delivered – a mixture of expansions of existing schools and new specialist units and centres, plus one entirely new school. There was a focus on operational improvements: the Service was seeking to improve the timeliness and quality of Education and Health and Care (EHC) planning and communication with families. They wanted to make sure all children received the right support without necessarily relying on a statutory plan. There had been a reduction in requests for statutory plans, attributed to recent investment in early intervention – Surrey had a high number of statutory plans compared to regional and statistical neighbours. The Service was working with education, health and care partners to ensure children’s needs were met more holistically. From early years, the Service was focused on preparing children for adulthood and was creating additional pathways into adulthood – 70% of young people were on a pathway to independence or employment, a 13% increase on the previous year.

3.    The Vice-Chairman asked what the Programme’s key risks were and asked whether it had been affected by ongoing disruption within the construction industry. The capital programme had delivered 23 schemes in year and there had been a six-week delay to occupying the new school, but temporary provision was accommodating pupils in the meantime. The Land and Property Service’s approach to capital delivery was to secure a longer-term delivery partner to facilitate smoother delivery. The delivery of one free school, Betchwood Vale, had been delayed for a year for planning reasons and the Service was working with partners to ensure delivery and provide interim places. 

4.    A Vice-Chairman asked how the Programme reflected the SEND Code of Practice and Partnership Strategy and the Written Statement of Action’s four key focus areas and would support children to attain better outcomes. The Director explained that the Transformation Programme was outcome focused and everything the Service did was centred on relevant statutory provisions and the SEND Code of Practice. The Strategy reflected local consultation and ran from 2019 to 2022 and the Service was to co-produce a new strategy for 2022 onwards, for which the development of the All-Age Autism Strategy provided an improved model of co-production. The key focus areas were borne out of the original Code of Practice and were reflected in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32