MIDDLESBROUGH COUNCIL

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Reforms Progress

Executive Memberfor Education and Skills: Councillor Janice Brunton

Chief Executive: Mike Robinson

Date:9thSeptember 2014

PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

  1. To provide an update on progress made on the SEND Reforms programme to comply with Part 3 of the Children & Families Act 2014, as part of the quarterly reporting to Executive on implementation of this legislative change.
  1. To highlight financial implications arising from the need to provide additional capacity to implement Education, Health & Care Plans (EHCPs) for new referrals from September, and to convert existing statements of SEN and Learning Difficulty Assessments (LDAs) to EHCPs over a 3-year period.
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS
  1. To note:
  2. the progress made in implementing the SEND reforms;
  3. the additional capacity required to carry out assessments, prepare Education, Health & Care Plans, and convert existing statements of SEN and LDAs to EHCPs;
  4. the intention to include information in future quarterly reports to Executive on the financial implications of the full range of reforms as these are developed, and to tailor the relevant capacity in line with the actual SEN reform grant over the four-year period of implementation.

IF THIS IS A KEY DECISION WHICH KEY DECISION TEST APPLIES?

It is over the financial threshold (£150,000)
It has a significant impact on 2 or more wards / 
Non Key

DECISION IMPLEMENTATION DEADLINE

  1. For the purposes of the scrutiny call in procedure this report is

Non-urgent / 
Urgent report

If urgent please give full reasons

BACKGROUND AND EXTERNAL CONSULTATION

  1. This is the second quarterly report to Executive on the implementation of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) reforms arising from the Children & Families Act 2014.
  1. The previous report of 20th May 2014 outlined the background to the reforms and provided details of how Middlesbrough is working collaboratively with Redcar & Cleveland on a South Tees approach, in recognition of cross-border issues and in order to facilitate integrated working with Health organisations that operate on this geographical basis. This is also producing benefits interms of sharing good practice and providing mutual support between lead officers from the two boroughs in order to help them meet the challenges of a tight timescale to implement the reforms.
  1. This report outlines the key areas of progress achieved by the six working groups and explains how additional capacity is being providedfor the transition plan to convert existing statements and LDAs to Education Health & Care Plans (EHCPs).

Completed Workstreams

  1. The immediate duties that come into force on 1st September 2014 for every Local Authority are:
  • to publish its Local Offer of services for children with SEND and their families;
  • to establish a clear revised assessment pathway for children and young people aged 0 – 25 years with guidance for all agencies;
  • to publish a transition plan detailing the order in which statements of SEN andLDAs will be converted to an Education Health Care Plan and when;
  • to provide access to dispute resolution and mediation for parents, carers and young people;
  • to ensure a personal budget is available through the EHCP process if parents or young people choose to access this.
  1. In order to ensure all of the above are in place for 1st September, the following work has been completed:
  • Local Offer guidance and templates issued to all schools and training delivered to school SEN Coordinators (SENCos).
  • Jointly commissioned IT platform for LA Local Offer under way through Open Objects, to create a joint database as the basis for the website content.
  • Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) Assessment Pathway and accompanying guidanceissued to all schools and training delivered to all schools and other agencies. DfE have recently confirmed our EHCP format is fully compliant with the statutory requirements.
  • Transition Plan detailing conversion of statements and LDAs to EHCPs drafted for publication by both boroughs on Sept 1st. Several families have volunteered to have their child’s statement converted to an EHCP in early September to provide working models for the transition programme.
  • Co-production with parents, carers and young people underway through Headliners project for children to interview stakeholders and produce a DVD on views of the SEND system, with a focus on transition to adulthood- due for completion in September.
  • Training for person centred planning through In Control scheduled for Sept – December for all staff involved in the assessment of children and young people with SEND.
  • Tender issued for mediation and dispute resolution services.
  • Regional support plan currently being facilitatedthrough Early Support - to identify and agree future support from Champion LA for implementation priorities across the north-east, with Teesside sub-regional specific objectives.
  • Personal Budgets booklet distributed and included by DfE in national guidance as an example of best practice.
  1. DfE is undertaking regular monitoring of individual local authorities’ implementation of the reforms and has confirmed that Middlesbrough is on track to deliver the reforms in line with statutory requirements. The Personal Budgets booklet, which was based on Middlesbrough’s short breaks documentation, has attracted particularly positive feedback.
  1. Schools are ready to tackle the challenge of the new ways of assessing and planning for children with SEND, but it is recognised that the forthcoming year will present issues we may not have encountered in the preparation work already achieved. There will be help and advice readily available as we all learn how the new system actually looks and feels for schools, children and their families, with training being provided where necessary.
  1. Further information on the programme of support available over the coming months will be made available to schools early in this new academic year. There will be regular opportunities for school staff to share their experiences with multi-agency colleagues and contribute to evaluation that will be undertaken on the impact of working together in the new system.

Capacity
  1. DfE has recognised that the EHCP process will be more time consuming than the current assessment and statementing process, andthat other aspects of the reforms require additional staffing or expenditure, e.g. creating and maintaining a Local Offer database and website, administering Personal Budgets, new mediation arrangements, and additional joint commissioning of services. Officers have already put in significant additional work to develop local models of working for the reforms.
  2. The statutory timescale has been reduced, from the current 26 weeks for preparation of statements,to 20 weeks for EHCPs. In addition to coping with a new and more intensive process for new referrals, there is an added burden in converting existing statements and LDAs(estimated at more than 920) to EHCPs, for which DfE has specified a 3-year timescale. The Transition Plan is shown at Appendix A.
  3. DfE has provided additional funding specifically to support the reforms. The SEN reform grant provides for one-off implementation costs as well as ongoing new burdens funding. In January 2014 Middlesbrough received an implementation allocation of £195,014, followed by £156,890 in June 2014 for new burdens funding. A proportion of the latest allocation was for one-off costs such as the Local Offer website, and the remainderis for ongoing costs from September 2014.
  4. The SEN reform grant national totals have been published for 2015/16 and 2016/17, but not the individual LA allocations. If Middlesbrough receives the same proportion of the national total as in 2014/15, this would equate to allocations of £110k and £137k respectively in the next two financial years.
  5. The SEN team not only handles casework for statutory assessment and educational placements, but also has a wider role in advising schools and parents in order to achieve the most appropriate support and placements for children, and their involvement often prevents SEN tribunals. The team needs sufficient capacity to give this advice, otherwise wrong decisions could be taken by schools and the LA could incur significant costs in defending tribunals.
  6. However, in planning for the new arrangements, it is important to note that the SEN team must not be regarded as the sole initiator of EHCPs. The Children & Families Act places a statutory duty on social care and health organisations to work in an integrated manner with education services, especially in terms of assessment, preparation and maintenance of EHCPs.It is likely that the early referrals will take longer as teams get used to working in the new way.
  7. In recognition of the additional work presented by the new system, plans are in progress to create extra capacity, funded from the SEN reform grant. Details are currently being finalised of roles and grades; however, working on the anticipated number of hours per plan, four new staff are likely to be required to achieve the new EHCP workload and the transition plan for conversions. The cost is likely to be between £128k and £140k per annum, which is more than the estimated SEN reform grant.
  8. The grant also needs to cover expenditure across other aspects of the reforms, and therefore once the actual allocations are known, discussions will need to take place on how to handle any cost pressures, e.g. through contributions from health or to tailor the capacity to meet the grant, with mitigating actions identified to address any risk of not completing the conversions in the required timescale. However, there have not been full commitments against the first year’s grant, and therefore it may be possible to balance the overall position across the four years without putting the conversion timescales at risk.
  9. Because of the need to embed integrated working in the EHCP process, it is envisaged that secondments would be the most appropriate way forward, e.g. from health, social care, and the 0-19 service (which has previously undertaken Post 16 Learning Difficulty Assessments). This will make it easier to review the timescales for the posts in future years, once the actual allocations are known. It would be more difficult to achieve this flexibility if new staff were recruited to the posts.
  10. The new way of working needs to be embedded in such a way that, once the conversion process is completed, each partner continues to carry out their responsibilities as outlined in the legislation.
Monitoring
  1. Progress against national and locally agreed targets will continue to be monitored by:

Project Board - monthly minuted meetings

Executive - quarterly written report

DfE - quarterly on-line surveys and on–site visits

Middlesbrough Achievement Partnership’s SEND task & finish group will also receive regular updates.

Conclusions

  1. Good progress has been made in implementing the SEND reforms, and the joint working with Redcar & Cleveland has been effective. The priority elements of the reforms are on track, with DfE approval, and the remaining areas will now be developed. Training and guidance have been provided to schools and other partners to ensure the early referrals can be handled appropriately under the new arrangements.
  1. The new processes are more time consuming. There is a clear need for additional capacity for converting existing statements and LDAs, which will also help to address the pressures currently being experienced by the SEN team and the tighter timescales for the new system.The new posts are currently being established. Secondments from other services are recommended, in line with the legislative requirements for integrated working across education, health and social care. This approach will be embedded during the Transition Plan period.
  1. DfE has provided additional funding to recognise the new burdens. Although the precise allocations have not been published beyond 2014/15, estimateshave been calculated from the national totals. Further work is needed on commitments required for the other aspects of the reforms before identifying whether the grant is sufficient, but it is anticipated that it may be possible to balance it across the four-year period. If this is not possible, the capacity will need to be tailored to the actual allocations, with appropriate mitigating actions to ensure the Transition Plan is achieved.
  1. The Council has a statutory obligation to provide additional capacity to begin the conversion process so the first year’s staffing needs to be put in place urgently. By using secondments, more flexibility can be achieved in the longer term timescales for conversions.

IMPACT ASSESSMENT (IA)

  1. An IA is not required at this stage as no policy changes have been proposed and the report is for information. As the implementation of the reforms develops, and changes to policies become apparent, an IA will be prepared.

OPTION APPRAISAL/RISK ASSESSMENT

  1. An option appraisal is not appropriate to this report, as there is no option but to implement the SEND reforms to comply with the legislative requirements of the Children & Families Act 2014.

FINANCIAL, LEGAL AND WARD IMPLICATIONS

  1. Financial –as noted in the body of this report, additional staffing can be provided from the SEN reform grant to increase capacity as outlined earlier in this report. This will facilitate the more intensive assessment and EHCP process for new referrals, and enable implementation of the transition plan for conversion of existing statements and LDAs. Further work will be undertaken on other aspects of the reforms once operational details have been more fully developed, to identify whether the grant is sufficient across the four-year period from the first instalment in 2013/14. The method of filling posts by secondment will provide some flexibility to manage this. The quarterly reports to Executive will provide updates on the ongoing financial position.
  1. Ward Implications – there are no specific ward implications, as the processes and services apply to children and young people with SEND from all areas of the town.
  1. Legal Implications –the Children & Families Act 2014 contains high level requirements; the detail which LAs must comply with is contained in a Code of Practice. The final draft of thishas now been published and is being analysed to ensure the LA is compliant in finalising the new arrangements.

SCRUTINY CONSULTATION

  1. Overview and Scrutiny Board intends to discuss the SEND reforms at a future meeting. Progress reports on implementation will also be submitted to Children & Learning Scrutiny Panel.
RECOMMENDATIONS
  1. The Executive is recommended to note:
  2. the progress made in implementing the SEND reforms;
  3. the additional capacity required to carry out assessments, prepare Education, Health & Care Plans, and convert existing statements of SEN and LDAs to EHCPs;
  4. the intention to include information in future quarterly reports to Executive on the financial implications of the full range of reforms as these are developed, and to tailor the relevant capacity in line with the actual SEN reform grant over the four-year period of implementation.
REASONS
  1. To ensure that the Council complies with the legislative requirements in respect of assessment and the provision of services for children and young people with SEN and disabilities.
BACKGROUND PAPERS

The following background papers were used in the preparation of this report:

Transition Plan

AUTHORS: Julie Cordiner, Assistant Director Learning & Skills tel: 728201

Kate Redfern, Principal Education Manager, Redcar & Cleveland

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Address: PO Box 505, 3rd Floor, Civic Centre, Middlesbrough, TS1 9FZ

Website:

Appendix A

Transition Plan to convert statements and LDAs to EHCPs

NCY 6 / Children with statements in year 6, not just those who are transferring from one institution to another. / Sep 2014 – July 2015
NCY 9 / Children with statements in year 9 in 2014/15 / Sep 2014 – July 2015
NCY 11 / All children and young people with a statement in year 11, not just those who are moving into further education. / Sep 2014 – July 2015
NCY 14 / All children and young people in Year 14, if moving on to post 16 education or training in Sep 2015. / Sep 2014 – July 2015
Children and young people leaving custody / Children and young people with a statement leaving custody between 1st September 2014 and 1st April 2015.
NCY 5 / Children with a statement, who were in year 5 in the 2014/15 academic year. / Sep 2015 – July 2016
NCY 8 / Children who were in year 8 in the 2014/15 academic year. / Sep 2015 – July 2016
NCY 10 / Children who were in year 10 in the 2014/15 academic year. / Sep 2015 – July 2016
NCY 13 / All children and young people in Year 13, if moving on to post 16 education or training. / Sep 2015 – July 2016
Young people with a LDA / Young people with a LDA who are staying in Post 16 education beyond Sep 2016. / Sep 2015 – July 2016
NCY 0/ Reception / Children with a statement who were in year 0/ reception in the academic year 2014/15. / Sep 2016 – July 2017
NCY 4 / Children with a statement who were in year 4 in the academic year 2014/15. / Sep 2016 – July 2017
NCY 7 / Children with a statement who were in year 7 in the academic year 2014/15. / Sep 2016 – July 2017
NCY 12 / Young people were in Year 12 in the academic year 2014/15 and who will be continuing with their education in Sep 2016. / Sep 2016 – July 2017
NCY 1 / Children with a statement who were in year 1 in the 2014/15 academic year / Sep 2017 – April 2018
NCY 2 / Children with a statement who were in year 2 in the 2014/15 academic year / Sep 2017 – April 2018
NCY 3 / Children with a statement who were in year 3 in the 2014/15 academic year / Sep 2017 – April 2018

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