Attendance
- Amy Bickford, SEND Participation Lead, Devon County Council
- 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
- Hannah Chamings, SEND and Disabilities Adviser, Devon County Council
- Julia Bonell, Co-chair of Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD)
- Kellie Knott, SEND Improvement Director, Devon County Council
- 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
- 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 and Public Value, Devon County Council
- Donna Manson, Chief Executive, Devon County Council
- Jack Newton, Deputy Director – Education and Schools, Devon County Council
- Keri Denton, Director of Performance and Partnerships, Devon County Council
- Liam Ennis, Intervention Case Lead for SEND and Social Care, Department for Education
1. Welcome, introductions and apologies
T Doughty 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.
3. Children and young people’s voice
A Bickford shared a presentation on children and young people’s voice.
Young people have asked to get to know members of the board better, understand their role and why they attend the board. Young people have also raised they would like to understand how board members share feedback from the meetings to their team members and the influence of their voice. From this there are some young people who would like to come to the board to meet members in a more informal way and some young people have asked if members could go to them.
There are seven key themes of focus, young people have identified:
- Accessible transport in Devon
- More work experience opportunities available
- People working in service and organisation to hold high aspirations for us.
- Menta health needs to be a priority.
- Accessible leisure opportunities
- Neuroaffirming spaces
- Better preparation for our transitions and adult lives.
From this, four projects have begun on: mental health, accessible transport, work experience opportunities and Neuroaffirming spaces.
Members watched a video created by young people, the survey is still live as young people are hoping to get more responses.
Action: S Stanbury and K Knott to work with special school colleagues to gather further responses to the survey.
T Doughty raised the importance of taking away the requests from young people to meet board members in their chosen environment. Action: P Adams to consider the requests from young people to meet board members in their chosen environment as part of the governance review.
J Bonell raised the positivity of sharing what is important to young people and how empowering their voice can be. The participation model lines up with the four cornerstones, and it encompasses the same principles.
L Wood questioned how the seven priority areas are reflected in the programme and the work we are doing moving forward.
K Knott raised having this item is the best way to start the meeting, hearing from children and young people is why we are around the table. K Knott agreed the priorities children and young people have raised are not part of the SEND Transformation Programme and it is important they are embedded going forward. K Knott added the importance of holding on to children and young people voice and embed this into practice.
Action: P Adams and K Knott to include the seven priority areas for young people in the refresh of the programme.
Discussions were held around Plymouth City Council making adjustments for disabled passengers, P Adams raised colleagues are working with social care regarding transport. Action P Adams to provide an update on the work in social care with transport.
B Gale questioned if the priorities young people identified which in turn link to the projects are going to be part of the strategy action plan? Action: K Knott, S Stanbury and A Bickford to work together to ensure the priorities are linked into the SEND Strategy action plan.
Members thanked A Bickford for the presentation and sharing children and young people’s voice.
4. Quality of EHCPs
K Knott provided an update on the quality assurance of EHCP’s and the three tier approach.
The team has found difficulties moving on from the first stage, this has been a new culture for the way they work, and the learning that comes back from training and development.
Members were made aware of the RAG rating of draft EHCP’s, plans are only submitted when they are RAG rated green.
The way the team is working needs development, the data has been asked to be inputted into the Accelerated Action Plan/SEND Dashboard and work is needed with data colleagues to ensure this is recorded correctly.
Action: S.Chapman – Update the presentation expanding on acronyms.
K Knott raised further work needs to be done on the advice that is being reported in and it’s been recognised there is a lack of skills, knowledge and capacity, therefore K Knott is talking with the quality assurance team in social care to share good practice and move the work forward following positive feedback from Ofsted. As of yet, we are not clear about the advice that is coming through in terms of reporting. Questions for the board around how we want to see that evidence from health and social care colleagues.
Discussions were held around health colleagues providing a report of the successes and areas of improvement in terms of quality and timeliness of EHCP’s. Action: S Smart to speak to health colleagues and Designated Clinical Officers regarding developing a presentation for the SEND Transformation Programme Board setting out the successes and areas of improvement in terms of quality and timeliness of EHCP’s.
V Mitchell raised concerns around the legality of plans and the training in place. K Knott raised as a first step we need to work with colleagues who understand the quality assurance process then moving into training etc to ensure the team can effectively QA.
B Gale offered quality assurance mechanism other local authorities have developed. Action B Gale to share quality assurance from other local authorities with L Wood.
P Adams advised members leadership is reviewing the resources around the quality of EHCP’s. Action: P Adams to provide members with an update at the February board regarding the review of resources for the quality of EHCP’s.
5. Workforce development
H Chamings provided an overview of the report and advised members of the board the recommendations in order to move the work package forward.
The biggest challenge has been engagement across the services therefore it is being recommended that members identify named workforce development leads across education, health and social care to include DCC Inclusion and Learning service, Children’s social care, Adult social care, ICB, CFHD and schools.
Secondly there is currently no requirement or mandatory SEND training for staff. Therefore, the recommendation is for board to agree mandatory role out of the Council for Disabled Children SEND basic awareness training Levels 1 and 2 across all service areas. H Chamings advised the training could be developed to make it personal to Devon. Discussions were held around how staff would be supported to complete the training. B Gale advised Plymouth has implemented training in October with positive feedback received and suggested sharing with Devon how Plymouth marketed and implemented into the local area, schools etc.
Third, there needs to be a clear offer of Devon specific SEND training focusing at least on; the Four Cornerstones, Ordinarily available inclusive provision and a graduated approach, statutory processes, emotionally based school avoidance, preparation for adulthood, Neurodiversity pathways, the Local Offer – what is available in Devon?
From this board members were asked to agree the core workforce training areas, identify those responsible for overseeing and coordinating each training need and individual service workforce development leads to take responsibility for co-ordinating and disseminating agreed training across their service area.
M Tucker questioned whether a review of the workforce challenges and gaps has been completed? P Adams advised that is not a piece of this work however Devon is working with the regions team analysing critical gaps and how they could be filled.
K Knott raised to members this work has not been able to move forward as there is no identified professionals around health and social care. Discussions have been held around the role of the system and improvements plans which sit alongside however updates/progress is not share on those plans, therefore questioned how do we embed and monitor that work?
P Walker advised school leaders are encouraging partners to develop a core offer of training, ensuring it is accessible, and staff are supported to complete it.
J Bonell raised it is important families are involved in the training, allocating resources to support.
Discussions were held around how the cooperate training team can support to move this work forward. L Wood suggested linking adult social workers. Action: L Wood to link adult social workers with H Chamings for the workforce development work.
P Adams raised there is a wider corporate piece of work underway which can be reported back to this board. In addition, the SEND Transformation Programme Board has also requested an update on workforce challenges and gaps.
The recommendations were not agreed nor disagreed; T Doughty requested P Adams take the recommendation forward. Action: P Adams to review the recommendations from the workforce development paper and provide a response to H Chamings and support moving the work forward.
6. Governance review
P Adams informed members following discussions with the two board chairs, the Department for Education, and leadership a paper will be tabled at the next board setting out the governance review. Action: P Adams to table a paper setting out the governance review at the February board. This will include how the boards are operated and how the boards feed into processes, ensuring KPI’s are embedded, and members are taking information back into their service or organisation.
Initial work will be carried out working with board members to identify improvements through a questionnaire based on research of what works well in collaborative leadership with elements of the inspection framework.
V Mitchell raised concerns around the delay in moving this work forward and the importance of having timescales in place for key part of the review with a completion date to ensure members are confident this work is moving forward and driving SEND improvement whilst being transparent with families.
P Adams agreed and informed members the SEND Leadership is being restructured therefore the governance review will work in line with the structure. In addition, the Department for Education has suggested the review is completed by March and implementation through April.
7. SEND – Department for Education
Nothing raised.
8. SEND Transformation programme progress report.
Programme overview
P Adams advised members there are significant pressures around the SEND spend, which is in the public domain. Discussions are being held with the Department for Education.
M Tucker questioned when we will start to see the impact of additional work. E O’Connell advised members there is a data quality issue in reporting speech and language, there is a data quality improvement in place from this month however the data can be back dated.
Communications update
M Bomford provided an update on the communications sent out this month.
9. AOB
None raised
Date for next meeting: Thursday 27 February 2025