Contents
Attendance
- Amy Bickford, Senior Participation Officer, Devon County Council
- Angie Sinclair, Director of Finance and Public Value, Devon County Council
- Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, Cabinet Member for Childrens Services, Devon County Council
- Donna Manson, Chief Executive, Devon County Council
- Julia Bonell, Co-chair of Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD), Parent Carer Forum Devon
- Julia Foster, Senior Manager, SEN-D, Devon County Council
- Kellie Knott, SEND Improvement Director, Devon County Council
- Mark Tucker, Senior Learning Disability and Autism Programme Assurance Manager and SEND Lead, NHS England and NHS Improvement South–West NHS England
- Melanie Coleman, Project Manager for SEND Transformation Programme, Devon County Council
- Paul Walker, First Federation CEO, First Federation
- Sarah Pickering, Head Teacher Mill Water School, Mill Water School
- Shayna Stanbury, SEND Programme Officer/minutes, Devon County Council
- Stuart Collins, Director of Children and Young People’s Futures, Devon County Council
- Su Smart, Deputy Director of Commissioning – Out of Hospital, NHS Devon
- Trevor Doughty, Chair of SEND Improvement Partnership Board, Independent
- Victoria Mitchell, Co-chair of Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD), Parent Carer Forum Devon
Apologies
- Keith Bennett, Executive Principle of Marland School and Chair of Devon Special School Heads, Marland School, Devon Special School Heads
- Liz Halliday, Children’s Services Improvement Communications Lead, Devon County Council
- Councillor Lois Samuel, Cabinet Member for SEND, Devon County Council
1. Welcome, introductions and apologies
T Doughty welcomed the group to the board in its new form and a round of introduction took place.
Discussions were held around a lack of health representation at the entirety of the meeting.
2. SEND Transformation programme progress report
Board members were provided details and progress on each pillar of work underneath the SEND Transformation Programme of which some come from actions that form part of the SEND Accelerated Action Plan. There are a few additional work packages which have been identified and work is being scoped, action plans are being developed with key milestones, risk logs, key stakeholders and a review and understanding of the resource requirements.
Department for Education adviser informed the group the national data dashboard is still in development, the hope is for it to be released in December/January.
The Director of Children and Young People Futures informed the board following discussions at the SEND Transformation Programme Board, Department for Education colleagues advised Devon to continue with the work on the dashboard.
Discussions were held around resources and the risk around Devon County Council staff leading on most of the pillars of work under the SEND Improvement Plan.
D Manson raised SEND as a system risk and therefore a priority for all partners, however, it does not appear to be a risk in the Children and Young People Strategic Leadership Board, nor does it state in the Strategic Board how the local area has oversight. From this how do we ensure colleagues with SEND expertise are working in a positive and constructive way.
Action: D Manson to reinforce with A Williams the improvement journey and to take this to Senior Leadership Group as there needs to be a solution across Devon, Plymouth, and Torbay.
NHS Devon were asked about their contribution and resources to put support alongside Devon County Council.
Post-16 – transitions are being mapped across the county and looking at more broadly with health. S Smart suggested health are putting a lot of work around transition and there are connections health need to make outside this meeting.
Members discussed overachieving savings, whilst these are positive, we need to ensure we focus on the best interests of children and young people. K Knott noted that this was important and that financial sustainability is linked with improved outcomes and experiences for children and young people and their families.
K Knott raised the additional special school builds rely on the Department for Education and there is a delay on that.
3. SEND Transformation programme risks and issues
M Coleman shared the programme risks with board members who discussed the mitigations.
Action: M Tucker and S Smart to discuss going through CSU to support the limited capacity for DCC project management resources.
Action: D Manson to pick up the risk around the communications lead leaving in December 2023.
Board members discussed the need to look at a communication strategy, a partnership response and this being the opportunity to review the information we are sending out and the audience to ensure communications are effective.
Suggestions were made around outside the meeting looking at what our partners want to hear and how that can work.
Discussions were held around the risk that there is a lack of buy in and/or prioritisation by schools. S Pickering asked what this meant as she is committed in her school and knows many others who are, so felt this was an unfair description of the risk/issue.
Clarification was required around what those are not buying in for and where schools are being held to account. This risk was linked specifically around the programme and a lack of take up on partnership opportunities within the SEND Transformation Programme.
Action: revise risk to ensure accurate reflection of schools’ commitment to SEND.
D Manson suggested the risk is the local area needs to look at how the strategic leadership structure will support the SEND work in Devon.
4. SEND monitoring visit/Accelerated Progress Plan update
The headlines of the monitoring meeting were shared with board members, such as the developments made in terms of a new approach to the programme and system-wide change.
There have been some changes to the SEND Accelerated Progress Plan, mainly section A, in terms of reducing duplication and rewording actions to bring clarity to what is being delivered.
Alongside the APP there is an Excel document with detailed actions which sit under the main APP. Both documents will be reported with RAG status and updates.
5. Safety Valve update
K Knott shared high-level information on the challenges, deficit projection, projects and next steps and advised this agenda item will be coming back to the December meeting with more detail.
Discussions were held around the capital bid, which is based on developing mainstream further education as the trajectory is showing a demand more than can be delivered. To what extent is Devon recognising the need to upskill school leaders and practitioners to build strength in the system. Can Devon develop skills and knowledge of professionals and information in the community to support those in further education instead.
Analysis is required on the current training staff have, which training is available, and which is not.
6. Stakeholder update
A paper was circulated prior to the meeting, board members were asked to send any questions to the lead of the item as they sent apologies.
Department for Education Advisor advised the key lines of enquiries is leadership and listening to what children and families are telling the local area. The criticism is families are not getting the information they need to participate on decisions for their individual plans.
7. Co-production
PCFD shared a presentation on co-production including key priorities and the proposal is for the Board to mandate that the SEND Transformation Board create a plan on next steps regarding co-production with a view to embed coproduction in the future.
The next steps include taking a paper to the SEND Transformation Programme Board to produce recommendations. Consideration is required around the resources to deliver coproduction, the level of partnership and encompass stakeholders. From this, these recommendations along with timelines and resource requirements will be brought back to the December meeting.
8. Any other business
- Terms of reference – board members agreed the terms of reference.
- Key message – partnership.
Date for next meeting: Thursday 14 December 2023.
* Presentations
Presentations are available on request. Please email childsc.sendimprovementprogramme-mailbox@devon.gov.uk. Please include in your email:
- which presentations you would like to receive
- from which Improvement Board meeting
- if you have accessibility needs