Agenda item

Report by Corporate Director of Children’s Services

A public consultation on proposed changes to arrangements for SEND for children and young people in Oxfordshire was launched on 10^th January 2022. It is intended to run until 10^th March 2022.

The People Overview & Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to consider this paper and formulate a joint response to the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) Consultation which closes on 10^th March 2022.

The Committee was provided with a report which informed Members of a public consultation on proposed changes to arrangements for SEND for children and young people in Oxfordshire which was launched on 10th January, 2022.

The Chair commented that it was unusual that the Committee was being asked to comment on the consultation at this point in time and reference was made to some parents of SEND children having difficulty accessing the consultation. Members did not think that scrutiny should be a consultee in the process, but should have a role in the policy development.

The Director of Childrens Services reported that the Committee would have the opportunity to scrutinise the policy.    

There have also been a series of all member briefings on this issue. The report provides an opportunity for the Committee to scrutinise the policy and also to consider any recommendations to feed into the consultation.

Members were informed that reasons that changes needed to be made were outcomes for children with SEND in Oxfordshire were not good enough. In addition, it needed to be ensured that effective and efficient use was made of available funding, which would mean that difficult decisions must be made and the Council needed to act now.

The key strategic objectives being consulted on were:

·       Improving outcomes for children with SEND

·       Developing a continuum of local provision to meet the requirements of children and young people with SEND

·       Good physical and mental health and wellbeing

·       Improving post-16 education, learning, employment and training

·       Positive move into adulthood for young people with SEND.

The proposed changes which were subject to consultation were :

·       Reform of Top-Up funding arrangements for children and young people with an EHC Plan

·       Resource bases as a core part of the range of provision

·       Sufficiency of specialist day placements in Oxfordshire

·       Enhanced pathways within mainstream schools

·       Reconfiguring requests for additional funding for schools

·       Co-ordinated approach to supporting children with SEND at the earliest opportunity.

The Director of Children’s Services commented that SEND was not a good system for making use of resources. The Council were awaiting the outcome of the national review into SEND.

Kate Bradley - Head of SEND, Carole Stow - Consultation Manager of OCC, Susannah Wintersgill -  Director Strategy, Insight and Communications, Ed Edwards – Senior SEND Consultation Officer and Simon Knight – Head Teacher attended the meeting to provide background to the consultation.  

Issues raised by Members

·       Training was an important aspect of SEND and this was not referred to in the paper. Officers reported that training was key to the approach.

·       The phasing of top ups would be dependent on the outcome of the consultation.

·       There needed to be support and challenge in schools with School leaders thinking strategically.

·       There was a need for commissioning of services.

·       This review result in a potential overspend for Oxfordshire.

·       It was important that pupils voices were also heard and Members were informed that sessions had been held with young people to get their views.

·       There would be an email address which would be published to enable views to be emailed in separate to the on-line consultation.

·       There would be an all Member briefing which would take place before Cabinet considers the policy.

Councillor Liz Brighouse, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children, Education and Young People’s Services said she was keen for the SEND topic to be considered again by this Overview and Scrutiny Committee to enable comments to be fed to Cabinet.

RESOLVED – That the issue  be noted as a possible future topic and it be determined at the next meeting how and when this could be considered on the Committee’s Work Programme for the next Municipal Year.