To review the Draft Key Performance Indicators for the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Local Area Strategy.

(Note: the Members of the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board and key partners have been invited to the meeting for this item.)

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Councillor Bye, Director of Children’s Services, Nancy Meehan, Head of Service Inclusion & SEND and Learning Disability, Hannah Spencer, Divisional Director of Safeguarding, Becky Thompson and Lead Officer from NHS Devon (Integrated Care Board), Susan Masters provided an update on the development of the Key Performance Indicators (Key PIs) for the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Local Area Strategy which were being developed across the partnership with parents, carers and young people.  The vision for improvements to SEND was set out through the following five priority areas:

1.         SEND is everyone’s business – embedding our values through education, health and social care, changing culture and reforming our workforce;

2.         Identify and act on children’s needs at the earliest opportunity, through valuing lived experience and expertise;

3.         Understand the needs of our children, young people and families and make sure joint commissioning supports service delivery and we make best use of all resources;

4.         Make sure that all early years providers and mainstream educational settings support an inclusive approach to education; and

5.         Improve transition planning for young people moving into adulthood.

The Board discussed the initial proposed measures for each priority area as set out in the submitted report and asked the following questions:

·                     what does preparing for adulthood look like;

·                     do schools share good practice on reducing exclusions and suspensions;

·                     was there a good response from the training offered to teaching staff and assistants regarding SEND;

·                     how was post 16 education and transition managed;

·                     how does the Integrated Children’s Services communicate with potential employers about support they may receive and need to give to help employ people with SEND;

·                     what can we do as an Integrated Children’s Services to support employers more to increase the number of people with SEND to secure suitable employment and receive the support they need;

·                     was Torbay’s Integrated Children’s Services and the approach to co-designing and co-producing solutions unique;

·                     how does the Integrated Children’s Services ensure that good practice was maintained and succession planned to ensure that it continues to improve year on year;

·                     how does the dashboard link to the vision and Key Performance Indicators (reassurance was given that the full complex dashboard was monitored weekly to ensure that any issues were promptly addressed, this also fed into reports to Government and delivery of the Safety Valve);

·                     how frequently were we monitored on the Local Area Strategy;

·                     how were early years providers being picked up in the Key PIs to ensure that they understand about the help available and know how and when to report concerns;

·                     was it proposed for a Key PI around consistency of staffing, this was an area of concern which causes parents and families a lot of anxiety if they have to keep forming relationships with new support staff;

·                     the report covered children from 0 years old to 25 years old, what percentage of children and young people have SEND; and

·                     how many young adults were leaving being cared for to move into independent living.

Resolved (unanimously):

That the Director of Children’s Services be requested to work with SEND Partners to ensure that the key performance indicators include measures:

·                     relating to early years teachers and providers, especially within the private sector, to ensure that they are aware of the support available and how to report any concerns regarding SEND and are signposting parents, carers and family members to the relevant support;

·                     to try to reduce the number of changes of support worker, social worker or key contacts to increase consistency and reduce anxiety of change;

·                     to raise awareness of the Tell Us Once App; and

·                     to increase the number of employers who are aware of the support available to help them employ young people with SEND and also raise awareness to employees of the support that is available and can be put in place to help them secure employment.