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
- Julia Bonell, Co-chair of Parent Carer Forum Devon (PCFD)
- Keith Bennett, Executive Principal of Marland School and Chair of Devon Special School Heads (DSSH)
- Kellie Knott, SEND Improvement Director, Devon County Council
- Melanie Coleman, Project Manager for SEND Transformation Programme, Devon County Council
- Mike Bomford, Media and PR Manager (Strategic), Devon County Council
- Paul Walker, Chair of Devon Schools Leadership Service (DSLS) and First Federation CEO
- Shayna Stanbury, SEND Programme Officer/minutes, Devon County Council
- Simon Niles, Schools Planning, Pupil Placement and Commissioning Manager, 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)
Apologies
- Angie Sinclair, Director of Finance and Public Value, Devon County Council
- Dan Carey, SEND Case Lead, Devon County Council
- Heather Campbell, Regional Team Manager South–West and South–East, NHS Devon
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.
A decision raised at the last meeting was to communicate externally the APP and changes made with regards to deadlines. Action: M Bomford and K Knott to meet to develop communications and upload the APP to the local offer.
Members requested to have the actions pulled out of the minutes when emailing the draft version for board members to review. Action S Stanbury
Data dashboard at each meeting.
3. Membership of the board
T Doughty raised the expectation of membership at this meeting and importance to sending a deputy.
D Mason shared an updated on the priority of children’s services from the health perspective. S Smart added health is undergoing changes to the leadership structure. Action: S Smart to review the health membership of the SEND Strategic Partnership Board. Action: D Manson to lead an item focusing on ‘System Co – ordination’ at the next meeting.
Councillor L Samuel advised members, herself, and the Cabinet Member for SEND in Plymouth met and have agreed to have monthly meetings.
4. SEND Transformation programme progress report
Progress update
M Coleman provided an update on each of the red, amber RAG status.
- S Collins requested additional feedback on the early help work package outside of the meeting.
- K Bennett raised a concern around the lead of the special school’s outreach as there is a conflict of interest. In addition the need for decisions to be made at pace for staff to be employed.
K Knott informed the group a Commissioning lead within Devon County Council has been identified as a new lead to move this work forward to mitigate the conflict. - P Walker raised a concern around the RAG rating for the SEN Statutory Service. As a board what do we need to do to make this shift a lot quicker and move this forward? M Coleman advised the update doesn’t reflect the work underway in the background such as a discovery piece was carried out with a group implementing the change.
D Manson raised the difficulties of how we represent, where we are and the complex practice of business system wide in Devon County Council and partners. We know what is stuck, why it is stuck, and we are taking actions to address it.
K Knott raised the complexity of this area, suggesting changes should be seen in the coming months which will significantly shift where we are now. - K Bennett raised concerns around special schools being at the end of these systems and processes with increased workload and bureaucracy. The ask to the board is to be aware of the increased demand on the sector.
- J Bonell raised while the forum understand the work gone into the SEN Statutory Service with freeing up the capacity of the SEN Statutory Service is not increasing the experience of families and it is likely to be unchanged or worse.
Risks/issues
The risks were raised to the board members.
Accelerated Progress Plan (APP)
As set out in a presentation.
5. Sufficiency Plans
S Niles shared the report with board members and took questions throughout.
Discissions were held around the special school sector with increased referrals and the plans to support the special school capacity and commissioning services.
Members also discussed previous decommissioned/disinvested resources bases where they have not been set up to meet the need of children and young people and also where provision is being provided in mainstream settings. From this new provision is being arranged targeting those high area of need such as social emotional mental health, neurodiversity and speech language and communication needs.
It is critical we understand the children and young people coming into the system; therefore it has been agreed to carry out a deep dive in section 19 to inform commissioning, provision planning and Ordinarily Available Inclusive Provision.
Discussions where held around exclusions, the increase and getting the balance right between resource provision and exclusions, including the exclusion resource funding national average and the lack of the team around the child approach. D Manson questioned whether the local area is confident alternative provision is being arranged for those who are excluded, what are the repercussions if a school does not communicate a child/young person has been excluded.
6. Stakeholder update
M Bomford shared an update on media stories and the forward plan.
7. AOB
T Doughty shared the forward planner setting out the areas of the SEND Transformation Programme which will be focused on.
Date for next meeting: Thursday 24 March 2024