Attendance
- Brian Gale, SEND Adviser, DfE
- Councillor Lois Samuel, Cabinet member for SEND, Devon County Council
- Councillor Tracy Adams, Chair of the Children’s Scrutiny Committee, Devon County Council
- Emma O’Connell, Children and Family Health Devon Acting Director
- Frank O’Friel, Lead for Neurodiversity, NHS Devon
- Julia Bonell, Co-chair of Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD)
- Kellie Knott, SEND Improvement Director/Chair, Devon County Council
- Kieron Kilbride, Digital Transformation Manager, Devon County Council
- Liam Ennis, Intervention Case Lead for SEND and Social Care, Department for Education
- Liz Wood, Assistant Director for Disability Services, Adult Disability Leadership, Devon County Council
- Melanie Coleman, Programme Manager for SEND Transformation Programme, Devon County Council
- Mike Bomford, Media and PR Manager (Strategic), Devon County Council
- Paul Walker, CEO, First Federation Multi-Academy Trust and Chair of Devon Schools Leadership Services (DSLS)
- Phill Adams, SEND Assistant Director, Devon County Council
- Shayna Stanbury, SEND Programme Officer/minutes, Devon County Council
- Victoria Mitchell, Co-chair of Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD)
Apologies
- Angie Sinclair, Director of Finance and Public Value, Devon County Council
- Donna Manson, Chief Executive, Devon County Council
- Jack Newton, Deputy Director – Education and Schools, Devon County Council
- Jennie Harvey, Head Teacher for Lampard Community School and Chair of DSSH (Devon Special School Heads)
- Penny Smith, Chief Nursing Officer, NHS Devon
- Rachel Shaw, CEO Exeter Learning Academy Trust
- Su Smart, Deputy Director of Commissioning – Out of Hospital, NHS Devon
- Trevor Doughty, Chair of SEND Strategic Partnership Board, Independent
1. Welcome, introductions and apologies
K Knott welcomed the group to the board and a round of introductions 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.
J Bonnell requested a change to ‘Autism Recovery’ to ‘Autism Waiting List Recovery’. Action: S Stanbury to update the minutes amending Autism Recovery’ to ‘Autism Waiting List Recovery’.
Action: S Stanbury to follow up on outstanding actions by 29 November.
3. Customer Service Centre – inbound SEND calls
K Kilbride shared a presentation providing an update on the impact of the changes made in April 2024, including an increase in call response time (5 minutes 42 seconds to 4 minutes 33 seconds) and the percentage of calls which have resulted in a call back booking (80%). A post call SMS one question survey goes out to a sample of people following a call with the Customer Service Centre. K Kilbride advised the project is showing good, sustained improvement.
V Mitchell noted that the positive feedback from families is good and the improved data around impact, however if this is not leading to positive change for families and their issues are not resolved it will result in another call, and some families will be stuck in this cycle.
K Kilbride advised using subsequent progression surveys to understand this in more detail. The team is looking at the ability to rolling the surveys out across the service.
J Bonell raised there is a lack of information available for families regarding how settings are consulted and named as part of the EHCNA process. This could be a result of the 70% calls around progress enquiries and settings.
K Knott advised that consults have been identified by the Head of Service as an area to look into further as its not working well for families, schools and the local area.
B Gale suggested this is a big improvement and is showing success since July.
K Kilbride advised that the team is in the process of developing a survey for the SEND Statutory team to gather information regarding what is working well and not well for them, and therefore where improvements can be made.
K Knott noted that it is positive the tracking is in place to see both the positive and negative impacts of the changes and that now the basics are implemented the local area can look to build and improve further based on feedback from families.
4. SEND Transformation programme progress report.
Programme overview
The local area is still awaiting decisions from the Department for Education to move the new special school builds forward. Councillor Adams asked what mitigations are in place for the specialist provision which is delayed. M Coleman advised that a site in Tavistock has been identified as a satellite provision whilst the Ivybridge school site is developed. S Niles is exploring the different options for the Cranbrook site and a resource requirement was made from the Estates team to support in moving this forward. Action: S Niles to share at the December board the challenges, work being done by the team around the challenges with the sites and the actions taking place to move this forward.
B Gale can raise this concern at the Department for Education Funding Team Safety Valve Advisor Forum.
Action: Local area to provide B Gale with information regarding the delay and concerns to special school sites to feedback into the Department for Education network.
Action: Councillor Samuel to write a letter regarding the concerns to the lack of decision making regarding the two special school sites.
Programme Delivery Tracker
Discussions were held around reporting on the quality assurance, members agreed for an update on quality to be tabled at the SEND Strategic Partnership Board from next month and to be a standing item on the agenda.
F O’Friel provided an update on the health work, there has been a delay in moving the Neurodiversity Strategy forward due to a lack of project support however this will be put in place from next week. Health has been working with Parent Carer Forum Devon in developing the letters being sent out to those on the wait list advising them on the process. V Mitchell asked for communications to be shared with teams to ensure they are aware of the changes to enable them to support families when questioning the new process
K Knott questioned the reporting on the financial targets for the four work strands which are delivering against the safety valve as the direction of travel doesn’t look accurate. Action: M Coleman to work with finance colleagues to review how the financial figures are reported and ensure accuracy in direction of travel and RAG statuses.
Communications update
M Bomford provided an update on the communications sent out this month.
P Adams met with the principal of PETROC who are looking to reintroduce level 1 and 2 curriculum which is a good news story.
J Bonell suggested the join up and collaboration with DiAS is brilliant and is it really good to see there are responses to feedback from families on requested topics. J Bonell raised the anti-bullying curriculum does not mention SEND.
DfE/NHSE Agreed Delivery targets
Discussions were held around the need to ensure the APP and delivery targets are delivering.
5. Accelerated Progress Plan
S Stanbury advised that the accelerated progress plan action leads have been reviewed and are being reviewed following staff changes. Discussions are required around reviewing the actions in the plan to ensure they are still the right actions for delivering change and supporting children’s young people and their families, given they were written in May 2022 and the approach in Devon has shifted since then.
6. AOB
None raised
Date for next meeting: Thursday 19 December 2024