Change Board – Hampshire SEND Green Paper Pathfinder
Date / 9 July 2013Time / 9.30 a.m.
Location / Portal room, Castle Hill, Winchester
Present / Steve Crocker (Chair) / Deputy Director (C & F)
Heather Aspinall / Chief Executive, The Rose Road Association
Bridget Bevis / Regional Director of Kids
Debra Bratt / Hampshire Parent/Carer Network
Ray Daniel / Hampshire Parent/Carer Network
Fliss Dickinson (Lead Officer) / County Service Manager SEN & STAS
Suzie Dobson / Joint Child Health Commissioner
Julie Greenslade / Community Paediatrician, North Hants Hospitals Trust
Phil Johnson / Headteacher, Glenwood School
Kieran Lyons / Integrated Disability Manager
Liz McGill / Commissioning Manager, MH
Tesni Mason / Parent Partnership Officer
Lynn Mead / Hants SEND Pathfinder Project Manager
Angela Murphy / Interim AD for Children, NHS Hampshire
Hilary Robbins / County Service Manager, EP and PPS
Tracey Sanders / Head of Corporate Unit, EECU
Diane Smith / Admin Support
Lorna Taylor / Head of Performance and Business Improvement, Adult Services
Apologies / Carol Dixon / Hampshire Parent/Carer Network
Mike Gaston / Principal, Totton College
Alan Newton / Headteacher, Wyvern College
Marilyn Penman / Headteacher, Manor Infant School
Sharon Smith / Chair, Hampshire Parent/Carer Network
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Action
Introductions were made to Lorna Taylor from Adult Services who will be joining the Board.1. / Declarations of Interest
There was nothing new to declare
2. / Notes of meeting held on 22 May 2013 and matters arising
The notes of the meeting held on 22 May 2013 were checked for accuracy and matters arising.
3 / Matters arising:
· The Grant Determination Letter and Exit Plan has been sent off to the DfE.
· Hilary will provide an update on the EHCP later in the meeting.
The minutes were agreed to be a true record of the meeting.
4. / SE7 SEND Pathfinder Change Board Terms of Reference
Lynn has updated the Terms of Reference to reflect the Pathfinder extension. All were happy with the changes and Lynn will now upload to the website. / Lynn
5. / Highlight Report
The overall status of the pathfinder remains amber. The key issues remain the volume of activity required and the capacity available to deliver and meet national requirements.
Hampshire colleagues met with the DfE to go through the end to end business process map. The DfE thought integration would happen at the joint commissioning level and this will be explored over the summer.
A meeting was held with Health and Adult Services on Transition and an update will come to the September Change Board meeting.
A meeting has been held with IT to discuss the use of IT as an enabler joining up SEN data and mobile working etc. Lots of issues around this.
The first meeting of the Communication Sub-Group has been held.
Lynn will attend the Regional Steering Group meeting on 16 July, on behalf of Fliss, and the group were asked to send any feedback or thoughts to Lynn.
Global Mediation’s contract is up for re-tender – the Regional Steering Group has recommended this is extended for another year. Kent owns the contract on behalf of SE regional LAs and Fliss said currently Hampshire’s usage is very low. Continuation of the contract will be considered by CFMT.
Action required by the Change Board
To identify a Communications Lead – The Board thought Clair Kennett was the obvious person to lead.
Business Innovation work – more detailed work needs to be done, undertaking research with other local authorities to bring together more information and then hold workshops. The Change Board were happy for this to proceed. Steve said that he assumed that as and when advice and support is needed from people around the table Lynn would call on them. Lynn and Fliss will be scoping this out.
Governorship of the Local Offer beyond the Pathfinder will be going to CFMT for consideration. Tesni said they have looked at where the Local Offer should sit and joint commissioning looks appropriate. They will have business as usual working groups with Local Offer champions. They do need to have a clear system in place – more discussion will take place at the next Change Board meeting. Steve raised how we take forward joint commissioning and how this can be amalgamated in the longer term with the cessation of the Change Board. /
September Agenda
6. / Key Working Proposal
A paper was circulated on Key Working approaches. Fliss said it has become clear that the focus needs to shift from key workers to key working based on the recognition that:
· Not all families require a key worker
· Key workers are unsustainable for the number of families involved within the current and future EHCP statutory process
· Significant pressure on the current system – with a 20% increase in statutory assessments during 2012.
· Continued squeeze on public expenditure will result in a reduction of the work force and related services to carry out statutory processes.
· Attempts to identify key workers have not been sustained in other areas such as CAF and Early Years.
The proposal is for the SEN Service to administer the EHC assessments and Plans providing an identified point of contact for parents/carers.
Social Care will offer support to those young people who are in care or are an open case to the Disability Team.
Parent Partnership has a small band of volunteer parental supporters who will continue to provide information, advice and support to parents of CYP with SEN.
A second preliminary paper on key working approaches – Support for ‘Our Story’ from Parent Partnership Service was also circulated. This paper considers the proposal to provide support to parents to prepare Our Story from the PPS through the increase of Independent Parental Supporters (IPS). The key issue would be cost as currently the supporters are only paid travel expenses, not for their time.
Bridget said that key working is the main thing that young people wanted, particularly as they will have the right to go to appeal in their own right. Fliss said the Educational Psychology Service (EPS) has done a lot of work on ‘Voice around the Child’ and there will be an option to trial this process although the EPS will not have the resources to continue with this.
Debra asked if any research had been carried out on costings as it was thought they should be saving money if cases don’t go to Tribunal.
Steve said one of the problems is that Local Authorities will be making the investment but it will be schools who save money and clarity should be sought from the DfE on Schools Forum rules.
7. / CYP Participation KIDS SE7 findings
A link had been included in the agenda to the KIDS DVD. Bridget said originally this was very long and an edited version is now available.
Members of the Youth Engagement Group are in London today talking at the Champions’ Conference. Bridget said they had to negotiate with schools and colleges to get young people there on a school day. The Youth Engagement Group will help shape the policy at national level, there is a small pot of funding available, - Medway and Kent still need to get young people involved. Steve asked to what degree are YP views challenged and Bridget replied that YP want to be engaged in dialogue but if their view is unrealistic they have to be told. Bridget said the group would welcome views from the Change Board. C & YP often say their voice is not heard because it is felt parents know what’s best for them. Bridget said it will be critical to get the voice of C & YP in ‘My Story’.
Lee Culhane joined the meeting to discuss next steps in Hampshire. Papers were not available for the meeting and Lee said these will be available to go out with the minutes. Work has been commissioned with 148 children, 44 from Hampshire. They have worked with the Short Breaks Respite Project to create a document which they are hoping to get signed off by the end of July and then schools will be engaged by the end of October. An event will be held for C YP in November to help manage expectations and give them a voice. Asked if parents have been involved Lee said Louise Clarke from Parent Voice has but they haven’t involved other agencies such as HPCN or Health. Once the document has been signed off this will go out to all groups requesting feedback.
An update will come to the November meeting of the Change Board. /
November Agenda
8. / EHCP Assessment and Plan
A summary was given in the Highlight Report. Hilary said they will start introducing EHC Plans from September for 4 – 11 year olds. The next steps will be to engage with the SEN Personal Advisors re S139a this coming year.
Lynn said they are in negotiations with SQW as data they have requested cannot be provided and does not meet ethnical standards.
Steve said it would be interesting to see an example of what a good EHCP looks like.
9. / Health
Suzie said they had five different NHS providers in Hampshire all with different issues about integrated assessments. They have looked at other areas which delivered good service and now have an integrated model for all three therapies. The model is based on the Somerset model and this can be accessed from their website. The tender process closes on 19 July 2013 and five providers will be bidding for north and south of the county. Interviews will take place in September with the contract being awarded mid October, going live April next year.
A Health PID was circulated. Angela said this needs to be more outcome focused and a revised version will be available for the September Change Board meeting.
A Health Development day is planned for 24 July 2013. Southampton have asked if they could use the same model - commissioners will be attending the Development Day and it is hoped to use the best from both models – a similar approach will be used with Portsmouth in an attempt to standardise commissioning. / September Agenda
10. / Personal Budgets
Kieran tabled a report on the Personal Budget’s pilot. Eight families have taken part and this has been really positive. It has been identified that the RAS doesn’t take account of all that parents and carers do for a child and this will be revised before the next cohort proceeds. Adult Services have withdrawn their RAS, which is now under review and will be done differently. Kieran said it should be made clearer and fairer – at the moment some families get significantly more whilst others significantly less. The next step of the evaluation will be support planning. This may delay the trial with the next 8 families which was due to start in August but Kieran said they need to have the right mechanism in place before proceeding. This will subsequently delay rolling out to Health and Education.
A report will come to the next Change Board meeting. / September Agenda
11. / Joint Commissioning
Information from SE7, who have been working with In Control, was circulated.
12. / Communications update
· The Hampshire SE7 News Bulletin was circulated. Copies will be sent to HPCN and Parent Voice and anyone else who wants copies. Asked if an easy read version has been considered, Lynn replied not yet. The next News Bulletin will go out in January 2014.
· Corporate Communications have agreed to lead the Communications Group – the Communications Plan will be updated and actions agreed.
· Local Offer engagement of awareness – two different types of communication – need to be consistent. Pages are being finalised for the website and should go up this week.
11. / AOB
There was no other business to discuss.
12. / Dates of future meetings
Thursday 19 September 2013, 9.30 a.m. – 12 noon, Denning Room, Podium, EII Court East
Wednesday 27 November 2013, 9.30 a.m. – 12 noon, Mountbatten Room, Podium, EII Court East
Wednesday 29 January, 2014, 9.30 a.m. – 12 noon,
Avon Room, 2nd floor, EII West
Wednesday 19 March, 2014, 9.30 a.m. – 12 noon,
Austen Room, 1st floor, EII East
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