SEND Strategic Partnership Board minutes – 14 December 2023

• Angie Sinclair, Director of Finance and Public Value, Devon County Council
• Brian Gale, Department for Education SEND & Safety Valve Advisor, Department for Education
• Heather Campbell, Regional Team Manager South–West and South–East, Department for Education
• Nigel Acheson, Chief Medical Officer, NHS Devn
• Stuart Collins, Director of Children and Young People’s Futures, Devon County Council
• Su Smart, Deputy Director of Commissioning – Out of Hospital, NHS Devon

1. Welcome, introductions and apologies

T Doughty welcomed the group to the board and a round of introduction took place.

2. Review of previous meeting minutes and actions

The group the minutes of the previous meeting and agreed accuracy. Actions of the meeting were discussed, and updates provided.

A chair has been appointed for the Plymouth SEND Board, given joint working, the Chair of the SEND Strategic Partnership Board will link in with the new chair to ensure consistency of approach. Action: T Doughty to link in with the new chair of the Plymouth SEND Board to start establishing links between the two councils.
Action: Councillor L Samuel to link with the new cabinet member for SEND who has been appointed in Plymouth Council.

Discussions were held around the waiting list, reviewing family experience whilst on the wait list, mapping out what is available to families but also the resources/families need, which could change their experience whilst waiting.

3. SEND Transformation programme progress report.

Progress Update

A presentation was shared setting out the programme overview, delivery tracker and programme risks.

• Multi–agency pathways strand senior responsible officer requested a senior member from Devon County Council to join the strand meeting to ensure join up across the local area. Action: Programme Team
• Preparing for adulthood – increasing concerns about this area and the impact on children and young people. Transition plans are not supporting young people to reach their ambitions. Action: D Manson to review a member from adult’s service to join the membership of the SEND Strategic Partnership Board.
• A positive meeting went ahead between Devon and Essex County Council to discuss the organisational design work, recognising the need to do something different. This included the work in scope and out of scope, the outcomes/goals and the work that needs to be done as a starting point. Meetings will be held into the Spring term.
• Discussions were held around the interdependencies between the Early Help Education offer and the Early Years Transitions work packages, whilst they are two discrete pieces of work there are also interdependencies between them. The senior responsible officer has oversight of both.

Risks/issues

The risk log was shared with board members.

Action: D Manson to take risk around not having a project manager/project manager support for the multi-agency pathways strand to NHS Devon Chief Executive.

Accelerated Progress Plan (APP)

The SEND Transformation Programme manager suggested there needs to be a shift in deadlines as some have passed already. The SEND Improvement Director suggested going back to the Department for Education to check the Accelerated Progress Plan has been signed off prior to reviewing the deadlines. Action: Programme team to contact Department for Education colleagues regarding sign off of the SEND Accelerated Progress Plan.

Parent Carer Forum raised the need to ensure information in the public domain has the right communications around it and is transparent for families. There is a need to be clear about the information the local area is sharing, why and how it is being shared.

Board members reviewed the KPI data:

• Board members raised the need to compare this year’s monthly data to last years. Action: K Knott to speak to the data team to ensure that the attendance and exclusions data is compared with like for like data, rather than full year being compared to termly data.
• Discussions were held around the frequency of the Quality Performance Review Meetings (QPRM). These meetings have been stood down however as part of the corporate performance framework, which was approved at Cabinet in the week, steps will be taken in the new year to link QPRM in. Devon County Council Chief Executive raised it is not acceptable to stand down the meeting and agreed to pick up an action as part of their responsibility of the corporate play. Action: D Manson to review picking up the QPRM meetings with the Director of Young People’s Future and the link to the corporate performance framework.
• Members reviewed the percentage of children and young people excluded from schools and discussed the improved position against the same time in the previous year. Action: DCC/NHS communications to be developed noting the improvement and thanking schools, encouraging them share evidence of good practice and progress made
• The hard work of the Educational Psychology Service was noted to reduce the EHC assessment backlog from 500 in September down to 127, with 95% completed in the 6 week target once an EP is allocated. Action: Communications to be sent out, in January, to EP Service, thanking them for their hard work. It was noted schools have struggled not having access to EP service whilst they worked on the backlog, and whilst the service will be going back out in January to a certain group of schools. There is a risk around EP’s going back out to schools whilst continuing to reduce the backlog. Parent Carer Forum Devon raised the issue of ensuring EPs are available to support annual review and not just a focus on assessments, as parents/young people aren’t getting support they need at review to ensure provision meets needs.
• Chair raised the importance of the SEND data dashboard coming to this meeting. Action: Programme team to ensure SEND dash board is a standing item on the agenda going forward.

4. Safety Valve update

There has been an incredible amount of work undertaken to prepare the Safety Valve proposals for the Department for Education. Information was shared at Devon County Council’s Cabinet on 13th December, prior to the initial proposal being shared with the Department for Education on 15th December. Discussions with DfE will continue with the ability to make amendments up until final submission on 12th January, when the proposals will be sent to the Minister for agreement.

5. Stakeholder update

A slide was shared on the SEND communications and engagement.

Members agree there are three overarching areas in the communications strand:

1. Corporate partnership communications – partnership and ownership
2. Local Offer work – access to information about the local area’s services
3. Individual children and young people and family’s communications/how staff work 1:1.

Members agreed the need to review communications which are being sent out. Work is planned for the start of 2024 to review the different channels communications teams across Devon County Council are communicating through.

6. Coproduction update

PCFD shared an update on the outcome from the SEND Transformation Programme Board and not being able to move forward following it. Devon County Council Chief Executive raised how much it is appreciated the courage of families working with us and apologised for not receiving an appropriate response and took an action to address.

Action: D Manson, K Knott, Councillor L Samuel and PCFD to meet in the new year to develop area.

Action: Programme Team – Coproduction to be added to the January agenda.

7. Any other business

T Doughty thanked L Halliday for her significant contribution and wished the very best for the future.

A Bickford shared a message from young people and shared Christmas decorations that young people had made. They had written down what they have asked for throughout 2023. Board members read out loud in the meeting all of the Christmas decorations of which were:

• Make schools fully accessible for wheelchair users.
• Don’t just talk about coproduction, do it.
• More special schools.
• For schools to feel safe and happy.
• More funding for SEND Services.
• To be listened to.
• Our EHCP’s are followed properly.
• For support to be accessible for all young people.
• For people to learn about difference
• Understand our differences.
• School council to be more inclusive.
• For bullying to stop.
• For schools to be more understanding of neurodivergent behaviour.
• More support in classrooms.
• More accessible youth groups.

Members thanked A Bickford for sharing the letter and views and asked to extend thanks back to the impact group.

Board members made commitments to:

• Action: Councillor L Samuel to provide a response to the Impacts group on behalf of the board.
• Action: Councillor L Samuel to work with the participation team to attend one of the Impacts meetings.
• Action: Look into ways young people’s voice comes to board for members to reflect on and take forward.
• Action: A Bickford to collate views/feedback from young people for programme team to create a performance list for 2024.

Date for next meeting: Thursday 10th January 2024