Issue - meetings

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITY REFORM

 

 

Meeting: 12/08/2014 - Cabinet (Item 39)

39 SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITY REFORM pdf icon PDF 146 KB

Carole Burgoyne (Strategic Director for People) will submit a report on the Children and Families Act 2014 which sets out a reform programme for the delivery of support and assessment to children and young people with special educational need and disability and their families. 

This report will update Cabinet on the new duties in relation to Special Educational Needs and Disability and the progress of the local implementation plan for Special Educational Needs in readiness for the new duties commencing on 1 September 2014.  The report also proposes spending priorities and the use of the SEND grant to support the changes and transitional period.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Carole Burgoyne (Strategic Director for People) submitted a report on the Children and Families Act 2014 which set out a reform programme for the delivery of support and assessment to children and young people with special educational need and disability and their families. 

The report identified the new duties in relation to Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) and the progress of the local implementation plan for Special Educational Needs in readiness for the new duties commencing on 1 September 2014.  The report also proposed spending priorities and the use of the SEND grant to support the changes and transitional period.

 

Councillor McDonald (Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Public Health) introduced the proposals and referred to the three areas which would require additional resources to meet the timescales for the new duties which would be met from the SEND –

 

(a)

an initial IT resource to achieve a central and shared record of information at a cost of £35,000 and an ongoing annual cost of £12,000; 

(b) 

investment into the children and families element of the Plymouth Online Directory to meet the requirement for accessible and high quality information for families, at a cost of £12,000;   

(c)

additional human resources to review the existing 1570 children and young people who currently had a Statement of Special Educational Needs and to move them appropriately to the new Education, Health and Care Plan Framework, at a cost of £390,000 over three years.  

 

Judith Harwood (Assistant Director for Education, Learning and Families), and Jo Siney attended the meeting for this item. Cabinet Members were advised that parents had welcomed the move from a single agency response to a multi-agency response.

 

Cabinet thanked Jo Siney and her team for their work on and approach to the reforms.

 

In response to a question about looked after children and the role of corporate parents, Councillor McDonald referred to the stay put programme which encouraged looked after children to stay in their existing residence before moving to total independence.

 

Alternative options considered and reasons for the decision –

 

As set out in the report.

 

Agreed -

 

(1)

that the new duties in relation to Special Educational Needs and Disability are noted;

(2)

the local implementation arrangements;

(3)

the spending priorities proposed and the use of the SEND grant to support the changes and transitional period; and

(4)

that the on-going transformation of the service, required to align services and integrate commissioning, is endorsed.