1.30 pm
The Committee will receive a presentation from the Deputy Director for Education about the draft Special Educational Needs and Disability Strategy. The strategy is intended to:
i. Ensure the right type of special education provision in the right places to meet the needs of Oxfordshire’s growing population.
ii. Enhance support for Oxfordshire’s mainstream schools to provide inclusive education.
iii. Increase the effectiveness of the use of the High Needs budget to better meet the needs of children with Special Educational Needs & Disabilities.
Minutes:
The Committee received a presentation (a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the minutes) from the Deputy Director for Education on the draft Special Educational Needs and Disability Strategy which had been developed to ensure the right type of special education provision was in the right place to meet the needs of Oxfordshire’s growing population; to enhance support for Oxfordshire’s mainstream schools to provide inclusive education; and to increase the effectiveness of the use of the High Needs budget to better meet the needs of children with Special Educational Needs & Disabilities.
In introducing the presentation, Deputy Director for Education, David Clarke, explained that the vision of the Strategy was that investing in and developing good quality local provision which met the need of children and young people with SEND within Oxfordshire – the right pupils in the right provision at the right place.
Oxfordshire County Council had a whole-hearted commitment to investing in and developing schools’ SEND provision for the children of Oxfordshire. The ‘local first’ approach would ensure that children and young people’s needs were at the core of our service planning. He further announced that they had appointed a new Head of SEND, Ms Jayne Howarth to oversee the process.
Oxfordshire was proud of the SEND education provision that was currently being delivered which enabled more children and young people with SEND to access local provision. The future programme and creative approaches were enabling the work to expand and deliver even better outcomes.
He further outlined the challenges the council faced including the changing needs of SEND children, Mental Health issues, the need for better outcomes for mainstream schools, fixed term exclusions of children with SEND, together with:
• Insufficient places
• Increase in demand
• High Needs Block funding pressures
• OFSTED and Statutory requirements
The Committee noted that the Council maintained overall responsibility for SEND in all schools including academies, and that, whilst the Council were unable to impose the Strategy on all schools, it was now written into the specification for all new schools.
Mr Clarke, during the presentation set out proposals to support the Council’s mainstream schools, particularly around assessments, including: the integration of the high needs project; funding following the child in order to support schools keeping the child; SEND advisors; and a Countywide admission panel to establish where the need was around the County.
The Chairman reiterated the need to keep pressure up on the high needs block funding, as Oxfordshire remained very low in comparison to Buckinghamshire and suggested that he write again to the Government to lobby them in relation to the low funding.
Carole Thomson reported that she was a member of the F40 Executive which had a parliamentary lobby on the 15 October 2018 and that she would email the representative to ensure that the high needs block formed a part of that.
RESOLVED:
(a) to note the report and ask officers to report back progress in six months;
(b) ask the Chairman and Cabinet Member for Education and Cultural Services to write jointly to MPs regarding the continuing underfunding of the high needs block funding in Oxfordshire.