CUMBRIANSCHOOLS’ FORUMSEN SOCIAL DEPRIVATION ACCESS AND INCLUSION WORKING GROUP

DRAFT Notes of the SEN, Social Deprivation, Access and Inclusion Working Group held on Friday, 11 January 2013, at CREA, Penrith.

Present:Dawn Boyes (Cockermouth School), Chris Brooksbank (South Lakeland Primary and Chair of Group), Kerry Cox (representing Lisa Balderstone, PRUs), Margaret Embury (Newman School), Nick Fish (Copeland Primary), Bernard Gummett (Special Schools), Jo Laker (Allerdale Primary), Alan Mottershead (Carlisle Secondary), Graham Wigginton (Solway Community School)

John Barrett (LA), Helen Hamilton (LA), Nicola Shiels (LA)

Apologies:Duncan Fairbairn, Dawn Boyes, Steven Holmes,Alan Rutter

  1. Declarations of Interest

There were no declarations of interest.

  1. Notes of the Meeting held on 14 November 2012

The notes of the meeting held on14 November 2012 were agreed as an accurate record.

Matters Arising:

  • Funding to Support Statements –there were ongoing concerns as to whether the funding level would be sufficient. There was some further discussion and it was acknowledged that there was not an easy solution.

There were no other matters arising.

  1. SEN Budget Update

A report that provided a budget update on the DSG centrally retained SEN budgets as at the end of November 2012 had been circulated. Appendix 2 set out the position as at the end of October 2012.

The position as at the end of November was that a net overspend of £78,000 was forecast against the centrally retained SEN budgets. The in-year statementing and allowances budget had been increased by £179,000. This related to SEN payments to schools relating to 2011/12 but paid in 2012/13.

The out of county residential budget had been increased by £839,000. This was as a result of a review of both the number of children and the ratio between social care and education for looked after and children with disabilities in residential placements. The review had concluded that the DSG should fund 39 weeks of the placement to reflect the educational element of the package and that social care should fund the remaining weeks. As a result £839,000 had been drawn down from the DSG reserves into the out of county residential budget.

The behaviour services budget had been reduced by £17,000. This amount had been moved to the VirtualSchools and Equalities Team budget to reflect inclusion related activities undertaken by that team.

The £78,000 net overspend was broken down as follows:

  • £80,000 overspend on in year statementing and allowances
  • £162,000 overspend on resourced provision reducing within schools. Overspend on this budget was due to numbers in resourced provision reducing in schools.
  • £9,000 underspend on Central SEN services. Projection based on all known liabilities until the end of 2012/13 and information from the Complex Needs Panel.
  • £75,000 overspend on out of county hospital services. This was based on actual spend in the previous two financial years.
  • £39,000 underspend on child protection. This budget was used to support certain child protection issues such as behavioural issues.
  • £191,000 underspend on behaviour services, due to cessation of some of the activities the budget historically supported such as PRU funding.

The group expressed concern at the current level of underspend in some areas.

The report also explained the movement in the budget from the end of October 2012 to end of November 2012 – a £59,000 increase in the forecast expenditure. The details were set out in the report, the areas were:

  • In-year statementing allowances
  • Resources Provision
  • Central SEN Provision
  • Child Protection
  • Out of CountyHospital Tuition
  • Behaviour Services

When the position at the end of December had been finalised, the information would be circulated to the SEN Group.

The Chair thanked LA officers for the figures and supporting information that had been provided to the group. This was very welcome and much appreciated.

  1. High Needs Block

CCC Cabinet on 10 January 2013 had considered a report on School Funding Reform: Special Educational Needs and Early Years Provision. The report had set out options for consideration regarding SEN funding.

There was Operational Guidance from the Department for Education that Authorities should allocate the funding for high needs pupils across all schools.Allocation across all schools would result in a lower level of funding for schools with high needs pupils.This guidance was non-statutory and Cabinet were recommended that the Council should not implement the guidance but continue to fund high needs places based on the individual pupils with high needs within each school as this would ensure that the funding for high needs pupils was targeted on schools with pupils with high needs. Cabinet agreed this recommendation.

There were significant issues around high needs. The level of budget for high needs, as formulated by DfE had been calculated and it appeared that it was less than anticipated. There was risk around post-16 and post-19 funding. There would be two funding systems – funding for pre-16 as currently, post-16 – first £6k plus top ups. Special schools and resourced provision would continue to be funded from the high needs block. Work with special schools was ongoing regarding the detail of the funding, the key being to look at maintaining some stability in the budget.

Some work to rationalise resourced provision would be required and part of the wider debate would include consideration of resourced provision for early years.

There were some concerns about the proposed funding changes and the potential shortfall in funding. It was pointed out that current funding did not reflect spending. The LA had provided information about numbers in resourced provision to DfE but there were come discrepancies to be resolved.

  1. Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the SEN, Social Deprivation, Access and Inclusion Working Group was scheduled to be held on Wednesday 8 May 2013. As work was ongoing around the issues that had been discussed, it was suggested that it might be useful for the group to meet again before 8 May 2013. The possibility of the group meeting in mid-March would be investigated and if necessary the group would meet.

The meeting of the SEN group on 8 May 2013 would begin at 1.00pm.

  1. Any Other Business

Education Welfare Support – a query had been raised by schools about the education welfare support service and what had happened to the funding in relation to this area of work. There was a view that this had been one of the areas of the services that had been affected by the restructuring of Children’s Services. It was agreed that there would be some investigation to see if the funding had been removed completely or if an element had been added to school budgets. In many ways it was seen as a ‘hidden’ reduction to school budgets.

SAA/NS

May 2013

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