Attendance
- 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’Frield, Lead for Neuro Diversity, NHS Devon
- Julia Bonell, Co-chair of Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD), Parent Carer Forum Devon
- Keith Bennett, Executive Principal of Marland School, Chair of DSSH (Devon Special School Heads, Marland School, Devon Special School Heads
- Kellie Knott, SEND Improvement Director, Devon County Council
- Liz Wood, Disability Lead – Adults, Devon County Council
- Melanie Coleman, Programme Manager for SEND Transformation Programme, Devon County Council
- Mike Bomford, Media and PR Manager (Strategic), Devon County Council
- Phill Adams, Senior Manager – Employment and Skills, Devon County Council
- Shayna Stanbury, SEND Programme Officer/minutes, Devon County Council
- Stuart Collins, Director of Children and Young People’s Futures, Devon County Council
- Trevor Doughty, Chair of SEND Strategic Partnership Board, Independent
Apologies
- 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
- Liam Ennis, Intervention Case Lead for SEND and Social Care, Department for Education
- Rachel Shaw, CEO Exeter Learning Academy Trust, Exeter Learning Academy Trust
- Tandra Forster, Director of Integrated Adult Social Care, Devon County Council
- Victoria Mitchell, Co-chair of Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD)
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. Action(D.Manson/S Smart): Devon and Health Implementation Plan for 2024-2025 to be added to the forward planner to come back to a meeting in September or onwards.
3. SEND Transformation programme progress report
Safety Valve Savings Tracker
Finance colleagues are working to pull together the figures and child level data. The first set of monitoring was submitted to the Department for Education at the end of May which has been submitted and we are on track for the first milestones.
Performance Trackers
M Coleman provided information on performance trackers.
Discussions were held around a current risk to alternative provision with the increased year on year number of children who are coming through the section 19 panels. This is also impacting the safety budget at month two. Work is required across the local area to support those children and to understand how the area responds/support the system and children to reintegrate back into education provision. Health colleagues raised children are being supported at the end of their pathway therefore a joint approach needed at the earliest stage.
Discussions were held around attendance, the correlation between attendance and fixed term suspensions. Work is underway through the education redesign work to understand the function of and whether Devon has the right number of attendance advisors. In addition Devon County Council is working with schools who have high rates of exclusion to provide bespoke support. Alongside this Devon School Funding Forum agreed to put money into Early Help, this work is being monitored regularly to ensure the wrap around support is having a positive impact.
4. Coproduction
K Knott shared the outputs from the coproduction work, collecting information from sessions and providing a wider context of coproduction in Devon. Priority areas have been identified across an individual, service, and strategic level which includes culture and organisation, processes and practice,, early intervention, statutory SEN, and communications. These have been further revised into three top priorities and an action plan has been developed across the three levels.
Discussions were held around the work already underway and joining the action plan together across the different areas.
Key decision: It was agreed for coproduction to be a standing item on the agenda.
5. Preparing for Adulthood
P Adams shared information on why preparing for adulthood is important, what young people and parent carers have told us, and an overview of the Preparing for Adulthood works strand.
Discussions were held around the importance for the right governance in place as there is still currently a lack of join up across care leavers and SEND.
Transitions were discussed, the need to start transitions earlier and having a 14, 16 and 18 age milestone approach
6. Communications Plan
The communication plan for the programme was approved by members. This plan is a live document and will develop throughout the programme.
7. Stakeholder Update
A graphic of the communications update was shared to members. No questions were raised.
8. AONB
None raised.
Date for next meeting: Thursday 18 July 2024