Draft
These are the draft minutes of the SEND Strategic Partnership Board. This note will be removed once the minutes are signed off at the next meeting.
Attendance
- Adrian Fox, Principal Accountant – Education and Learning, Devon County Council
- Amy Bickford, Senior Participation Officer, Devon County Council
- Councillor Lois Samuel, Cabinet member for SEND, Devon County Council
- Donna Manson, Chief Executive, Devon County Council
- Frank O’Friel, Lead for Neuro Diversity, NHS Devon
- Gary Patch, Head of Integrated Adult Social Care, Devon County Council
- Julia Bonell, Co-chair of Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD)
- Keith Bennett, Executive Principal of Marland School and Chair of DSSH (Devon Special School Heads)
- Kellie Knott, SEND Improvement Director, Devon County Council
- Liam Ennis, Intervention Case Lead for SEND and Social Care, Department for Education
- Melanie Coleman, Programme Manager for SEND Transformation Programme, Devon County Council
- Mike Bomford, Media and PR Manager (Strategic), Devon County Council
- Paul Walker, Chair of DSLS (Devon Schools Leadership Service) and First Federation CEO
- Rachel Shaw, CEO Exeter Learning Academy Trust
- Shayna Stanbury, SEND Programme Officer/minutes, Devon County Council
- Su Smart, Deputy Director of Commissioning – Out of Hospital, NHS Devon
- Trevor Doughty, Chair of SEND Strategic Partnership Board, Independent
- Victoria Mitchell, Co-chair of Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD)
Apologies
- Angie Sinclair, Director of Finance, Devon County Council
- Beverley Mack, Children’s Alliance Director, Devon County Council
- Ceri Morgan, Deputy Director – Education and Learning, Devon County Council
- Hannah Pugliese, Head of Women’s and Children’s Commissioning, NHS Devon
- Penny Smith
- Stuart Collins, Director of Children and Young People’s Futures, Devon County Council
- Tandra Forster, Director of Integrated Adult Social Care, Devon County Council
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 agreed accuracy of the minutes of the previous meeting, actions were discussed, and updates provided.
3. Customer Service Centre/SEND Statutory Service Calls
K Kilbride shared an update on the transfer of calls from the SEND Statutory Team to the Customer Service Centre.
R Shaw questioned whether the capacity in the Customer Service Centre had been expanded to support the additional calls? K Kilbride advised with the move from weekend calls to 5 day a week calls, this allowed for an increased capacity.
G Patch asked whether there has been analysis of the type of calls coming in? K Kilbride advised the team has the tools to do this and are analysing the demand.
PCFD questioned whether it is being recorded if the desired outcome was resolved in the one call or whether additional calls are required? K Kilbride raised a text is sent to the caller asking for satisfaction/ease feedback and there is an option for free text.
PCFD raised this is a well coproduced piece of work with both PCFD and families. K Kilbride raised PCFD are inputting a huge value and are supporting the team to not make mistakes. K Kilbride raised it could be helpful for teams to understand how the Digital Transformation Team and Parent Carer Forum Devon works together as good practice.
T Doughty raised this is an encouraging piece of work and is a significant step forward. Members thanked K Kilbride and his team.
4. SEND Transformation programme progress report.
Programme overview
M Coleman provided an overview of the successes and challenges. In addition, Senior Leadership Team have recently agreed additional commissioning resource, this sits alongside a wider piece of work around commissioning to understand prioritisation and the work underway, therefore it’s been agreed to develop a commissioning board.
K Knott advised the Schools Finance Group recently discussed how the savings figures are shared and the deadlines.
P Walker added the need to track the in term expected savings for each project and understand if deadlines are being met.
Action: S.Stanbury to add document from Schools Finance Group to the programme reporting.
V Mitchell advised families have anxiety over cost savings and financial conversations. It is important the local area measures the impact those savings are having on children and young people and their families. J Bonell added getting the balance is key between savings and service improvements.
K Knott added we are capturing strong individual child tracking with feedback from schools, families and practitioners working together which is improving attendance and inclusion and upskilling staff. This needs to be communicated wider.
Programme milestones
Challenge to the red RAG rating for Resource Base work as the work is deliverable, albeit delayed for some, there are schools who are on track for delivering the resources bases in September.
Action: M Coleman to review the RAG status for Resource Bases.
Programme Delivery Tracker
K Knott advised the strategy has been coproduced line by line and language with parent carers. It has been agreed this is a live document and therefore will have a finalised version by July, being published in September.
F O’Friel advised the multi-agency work is progressing, with the key worker pilot, PINS and the resource paper. The project plan is being rescoped and will allow for more comprehensive updates going forward.
V Mitchell raised the importance of considering language and wording when developing reports and questioned the lack of reference to impact or lived experience.
Action: Report writers to review language as a practical step to allow the board to have a balance of quality and to model behaviour we want to see wider.
Delivery targets
Delivery targets have been agreed following a meeting with the Department for Education, NHS England and the local area with concerns of progress of the Accelerated Progress Plan and difficulties in cultural and practical change in the SEND system.
K Knott raised the importance of board members being we are aware in this position because we have not delivered, and the governance has not been strong enough. This board is the accountable group for delivery.
J Bonell raised the experience of families goes beyond and is much wider and, in some cases, the improvements the local area makes on these numbers of families wouldn’t experience, the cultural approach and how we work with families makes a difference.
EHCP Dashboard
K Knott questioned how the programme is tracking how we are delivering against the targets.
In addition, recognising the SEND Statutory Team have performance targets and are driving the number of plans and the quality of the plans, 125 plans issues in June are the best position the team has been in for a while.
A suggestion was made to separate Non – Maintained Special Schools (NMSS) and Independent Special Schools.
Average Costs Dashboard
Discussions were held around costings, especially around in county provision costing more than out of county.
P Walker suggested it would be interesting to see the cost of provision to the provider compared to the Local Authority especially with the increase in staff wages but no increase to school banding rates.
K Bennet suggested comparing the data like for like to provision and level of need. Members agreed a more detailed finance report would be helpful.
Action: K Knott, T Doughty and programme team to discuss a more detailed finance report in agenda setting meeting.
Risk/Issues
Board members reviewed the risks, suggestion made one should not have increased risk RAG as the data shows an improvement in figures and performance through June and July.
Action: M Coleman and S Chapman to review SEND Statutory risks.
5. SEN statutory process QA framework
K Knott shared the first few pages of the QA Framework. Due to time restraints members agreed to sign off on the basis the item is tabled at the September board for a comprehensive discussion.
Action: S.Stanbury to add SEN statutory process QA framework to September agenda.
6. AOB
L Ennis provided an update on the Secretory for Education and advised the ministerial has been confirmed.
Date for next meeting: Thursday 19 September 2024