Delegated
Decisions by Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement –
|
||||||||||||
Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement : Councillor Michael Waine |
|
Officers: |
Kath Coldwell (Corporate Core) Janet Johnson (Children, Young People & Families) Simon Adams (Children, Young People & Families) |
Also in attendance:
|
|
Public Address: |
Councillor Jean Fooks (Shadow Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families and also as a member of the OCC & Teacher's Joint Consultative Committee). |
Documentation considered:
Report |
Follow on Report on The First Year of Delegating the Statementing Budget
|
A copy is attached to the signed copy of this decision.
Summary of representations in person
Councillor Jean Fooks stated that considerable concern had been expressed at the OCC & Teachers’ Joint Consultative Committee, on behalf of both primary and secondary schools. She added that some schools did not seem to know what was happening in their schools with regard to Special Educational Needs (SEN). The Director for Children, Young People & Families had suggested that it might be a good idea to set up an additional contingency fund. Councillor Fooks asked if this would be possible, and also if officers and Councillor Waine could meet with the teacher representatives in order to ascertain the nature of their concerns.
Mr Simon Adams (Assistant Head of Service (SEN, Disability & Access)) stated that if SENCOs were insufficiently aware of the funding allocated to the school for SEN then this was a matter for the school itself to address now that the statementing budget had been delegated to schools.
Ms Janet Johnson (Service Manager (SEN, Lead)) stated that the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee had requested her to provide them with information setting out how deprivation funding is received and allocated. She further stated that having explored the guidance and looked at the local authority submission the data did not relate to individual numbers of pupils with statements but to the SEN index as a whole.
Cabinet Member’s Comments
The consultation was carried out in order to obtain direct feedback from schools. Although some schools were critical of the way that the consultation had been worded, it was seeking to find out the impact of delegating the statementing budget on children and if their needs were being met. Therefore the consultation was not seeking yes/no responses. Only nine schools responded to the consultation – one of whom had been very supportive of the scheme. The majority of the responses had not related to the issue under investigation. Concerns about the time it takes to produce statements appear to be subjective, as the Directorate is achieving the production of 100% of statements within an average of 13 weeks.
I will ensure that the Schools Forum are asked whether they consider that a contingency fund is required for secondary schools. If so, the funding and administration costs will be top sliced from their budgets.
Decision
Having regard to the arguments and options set out in the documentation before me, the representations made to me and the further considerations set out above, I confirm my decisions on this matter as follows:
(a) to endorse the continued implementation of the delegation scheme;
(b) to ask officers to update the hundred primary schools with the smallest whole school budgets every new funding cycle (the next being 2008 – 2011); and
(c) to ask officers to continue to monitor the level of SEN funding and the impact on pupil outcomes.
Signed ......................................................................
Cabinet Member for Schools Improvement
Date ………………………2007