2012-15 Special Educational Needs & Disability (SEND) strategy consultation
1. Why are we consulting?
Brent Council is consulting in order to engage you at an early stage in thinking about how best we can work together to develop Brent’s SEND strategy over the next 3 years. The information below sets out:
- The changing national and local context for SEND
- The challenges we all face in continuing to improve on the good outcomes for children and young people with SEN and disabilities in Brent
- An outline of the policy direction the Council is proposing
This consultation will run over a 6 week period in March and April 2012. It is being circulated widely to schools, governing bodies, unions, parent groups, voluntary bodies and partner agencies. The consultation document is purposefully brief but sets out the main issues in summary form. You will find a consultation response form at the end for return by no later than Friday 20th April 2012. Consultation responses will be collated and made available in May 2012. This consultation will inform the issue of Brent’s refreshed SEND strategy for the period September 2012 to August 2015.
This consultation will also need to take account of the outcomes of the Government’s SEND Green Paper consultation which are likely to become apparent before Summer 2012.
2. Current strategy – progress and achievements
Brent’s current SEND strategy was issued in 2007 and was supplemented by the Education Accessibility Strategy published in 2010
Key achievements are summarised below:
· Outcomes for children with SEN in Brent have remained above national average (*% pupils achieving expected benchmark at 11 and 16 years old) .
· Education accessibility strategy has been implemented leading to an increased percentage of schools that have good levels of disabled access.
· SEN audit programme has been developed and implemented in all schools to support inclusive practice.
· Amalgamation and rebuilding (underway) of Hay Lane and Grove Park Schools to create the Village School with an additional 25 places.
· 20 place ‘satellite’ provision for the Village School established at Queens Park Community School.
· Additional 21 places for children with autism at Preston Manor High School and Granville Plus Nursery
· Revised SEN funding arrangements agreed through the Schools Forum providing increased clarity and transparency of delegated funding for SEN.
· Implementation of Individual Pupil Support Agreements (IPSAs) to provide additional support to SEN pupils outside of the statutory framework.
3. Challenges for the next 3 years
· Local contextual issues
- Outcomes for children and young people are good and Brent children with SEN achieve better than national average attainment.
- There is generally good quality provision with some outstanding special schools.
BUT
- Financial pressures within the Dedicated Schools Grant have reached unsustainable levels as numbers and placements continue to rise.
- The numbers of statements of SEN are significantly above National and West London averages suggesting an over reliance on the statutory framework for resourcing SEN.
- There is a rising population and increasing numbers of children with high level needs. This has led to a shortfall of specialist provision in mainstream and special schools in Brent. It is estimated that 200 additional local specialist places will be required by 2020.
· National contextual issues
- There is a major Government review (SEND Green Paper) in process, proposing education, health and care plans, personal budgets, different models of support and other radical proposals that we will need to plan for. A new statutory framework for SEN will be introduced in 2014.
- The Lamb Enquiry proposed ways for strengthening parental confidence in the SEN system which need further development.
- There are a number of other major reviews and guidance on good practice (Ofsted, Rose, Bercow) for identifying and meeting the SEN of children generally and specifically those with communication and literacy difficulties. The implications of these national reviews need to be fully considered locally.
4. Underpinning principles
It is proposed that the following principles should underpin the 2012-15 strategy
- Secure the best possible outcomes for children and young people with SEN and disabilities.
- Promote their independence and autonomy to assist transition to adult life.
- Build a strong culture of inclusion in every school.
- Increase the skills and capacity of all schools and other education providers to effectively meet a wide range of needs, building on strong early intervention.
- Meet the needs of children and young people in a local inclusive setting wherever possible, promoting their full participation in wider community life.
- Promote the engagement of parents and carers in their child’s learning and ‘team around the child’ approaches to provide co-ordinated multi-agency support.
- Ensure the best possible use of available resources working in partnership between the local authority, schools and other key partners within an agreed strategic framework.
5. Analysis of placements for Brent children with statements
PLACEMENT TYPE
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CURRENT SITUATION
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· 24 Children placed in residential special schools which are part funded by education budget.
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· High costs, high needs.
· Relatively small numbers and downward trend.
· Mostly joint funded with Social Care and/or health.
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· 174 Children placed in day independent special schools outside Brent.
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· Increasing numbers particularly children on autistic spectrum.
· High volume and high cost placing acute pressure on Dedicated Schools Grant.
· Includes some children with high level or very specialist needs where Brent provision not suitable.
· However, many placements made out-Borough due to Brent’s specialist provision being full.
· May involve long journeys and high transport costs.
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· 503 Children placed in Brent special schools and additionally resourced mainstream provision.
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· Very few surplus places in Brent special schools.
· Schools catering for increasingly complex range of needs.
· Programme of expansions and development projects in place in response to rising demand.
· Increased mainstream/special collaboration.
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· 860 Children in mainstream schools.
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· Approximately 50% of children with statements attend mainstream school with additional support.
· Brent has a high proportion of children with statements in comparison to other London authorities and statistical neighbours.
· Thresholds for statements recently revised and threshold criteria consistently applied.
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N.B. There are also 79 other Brent children with statements in other types of provision (e.g. early years providers, PRU’s and maintained special schools in neighbouring local authorities ) who are not included in the above table.
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6. Proposed Priorities for the next 3 years and Proposed Policy/Strategic Direction
Priority
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Examples of how we plan to achieve this
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I
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Continue to raise the attainment of children and young people with SEN by supporting mainstream schools to meet a wider range of needs through increasing their capacity.
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Continued use of SEN audit to challenge and support.
Provide high quality specialist outreach support under unified management.
Support development of school to school networks.
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II
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Continue to develop a continuum of provision across mainstream schools, additionally resourced provision and special schools and address shortfalls in local provision.
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Review of admission criteria of Brent specialist provisions.
Special and mainstream schools working together to develop provision.
Develop further in-house ASD provision.
Targeted review of children in out Borough special schools to consider return to Brent provision.
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III
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Develop stronger commissioning arrangements where out-borough placement is required.
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Develop stronger commissioning arrangements within the local authority.
Joint work with neighbouring authorities to achieve greater economies of scale.
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IV
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Improve advice, information and support to parents and carers and their involvement developing strategy.
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Establish parent reference group to guide developments.
Improve information, advice and guidance to parents across all agencies.
Assess potential for personal budgets.
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V
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Increase multi-agency collaboration and pro-actively prepare for the introduction of education, health and care plans.
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Streamlining of referral and assessment pathways for under 5’s.
Joint training and piloting of education, health and care plans before full implementation in 2014.
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VI
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Increase practitioner skills and promoted effective early intervention.
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Maintain strong central SEN training programme.
Develop traded services offer to schools.
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VII
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Reduce the reliance on the statutory framework for resourcing SEN.
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Review of SEN resourcing arrangements through schools forum.
Broaden partner involvement in consistent application of threshold criteria in decision making.
Evaluate impact of Individual Pupil Support agreements ( IPSAs) and revise .
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VIII
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Promote the collective ownership of Brent’s strategic approach and priorities
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Wide scale consultation on 2012-15 policy.
Revise arrangements for ongoing involvement with all stakeholders.
Increasing emphasis on communication strategy about SEN developments.
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CONSULTATION RESPONSE FORM – PLEASE RETURN BY NO LATER THAN 20th APRIL 2012:
BY HARD COPY For The Attention Of Andy Beckett at Chesterfield House, 9 Park Lane, Wembley, Middlesex, HA9 7RH.
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1.
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Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
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b) How might these be developed further to underpin our work over the next 3 years?
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2.
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Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
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b) Are there any priorities you don’t agree with? If so please tell us why.
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c) Are there other key priorities which you feel should be included?
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3.
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What more do we need to do to meet the priorities set out in Section 6?
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4.
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Any other comments or proposals?
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NAME OF RESPONDENT:
ORGANISATION (WHERE APPLICABLE)
Your Organisation
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An individual
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ARE YOU RESPONDING ON BEHALF OF or as
PLEASE TICK BOX AS APPLICABLE:
Partner Agency (please specify)
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SENCO
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Parent
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Union Representative
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Governor
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Headteacher
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RETURN THE COMPLETED FORM AS FOLLOWS:
Post a HARD COPY to: For the Attention of Andy Beckett at Chesterfield House, 9 Park Lane, Wembley, Middlesex, HA9 7RH.
This document can also be downloaded on line at: www.brent.gov.uk/consultation
EQUALITY MONITORING INFORMATION. If you are responding as an individual It will help the Council meet the requirements of the Equality Act 2010, if you were willing to complete the following questionnaire. Please take a few moments to provide the information below.
About You
1. What is your gender?
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Male
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Female
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2. What is your age group?
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Under 21
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40-49
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21-29
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50 +
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30-39
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3. Which one of these groups do you feel you belong to?
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Asian Indian
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Mixed White and Asian
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Asian Pakistani
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Mixed White and Black African
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Asian Bangladeshi
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Mixed White and Black Caribbean
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Asian Other
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Mixed Other
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Black African
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White British
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Black Caribbean
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White Irish
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Black Other
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White Other
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Chinese
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Other, please specify:
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Yes
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No
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4. Do you consider yourself to have a long standing illness or disability?
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5. Does your disability or impairment affect your daily life?
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6. What is your religion? (Please tick one box)
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Baha'i
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Islam
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Buddhism
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Sikhism
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Christianity
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Taoism
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Hinduism
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No religion
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Jainism
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Prefer not to say
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Judaism
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Other, please specify:
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7. What is your sexual orientation?
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Bisexual
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Lesbian
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Gay
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Prefer not to say
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Heterosexual
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