An update report on the Safety Valve was then showed to members. Rachael said that this report was shared with the ESFA on the 15^th December, so reflects the current budget position as reported at Novembers Forum.

The first condition of the grant is around our special school numbers and really that parental confidence within mainstream we detail for the Education, Skills and Funding Agency. In terms of our numbers overall, we have managed and controlled those numbers throughout the year and that's reflected in the financial information and the report that Rob has provided to us today as well.

Our special school trajectory was in line with our agreed budget position with the ESFA. Rachael explained that there is a significant pressure, we have just been through the January SEP panels and I know colleagues that have taken part in that process have found those decisions really, really challenging regarding the numbers of applications that are certainly coming through and the demand for special school placements as well compared to those that are available. But we have managed within the numbers that we have stated to the ESFA, we are going to be potentially bringing back a proposal for Schools Forum around how do we support some of those children that may not have been given a special school placement because that's equally as important as, as also managing the numbers at those schools as well.

Rachael also mentioned in this section that we are seeing an increased number of tribunals and obviously undergoing also mediations with families around some of those decisions as well. We are being really robust in our tribunal process, responses are around mitigating the decisions that we feel are right in terms of our refusal rates, but also the decisions we're making around efficient use of resources in our local area as well. But members of forum should note that if looking at overall tribunal statistics, about 94% to 96% of them go in parental phase. We also are heavily involved in tribunal process with our special schools for Devon tribunals as well and that's placing pressure on our on our system as well. We have met with our DfE colleagues over the tensions that exist between our neighbouring authorities and us and our ability to respond in the same way for children around those actions as well. There is, however, a commitment from the DfE to provide us with a consultant to facilitate further that work across our neighbouring authorities. We are meeting that consultant at the start of February to think about the scope of that. So in this area, we have rated ourselves still amber for this because we are delivering activity in line with our original DSG management plan and in line with our safety valve condition.

Lawrence asked for a little more clarity on the legal fees of tribunals, Rachael agreed that this needs reporting and agreed to build this into the next financial report.

The next grant condition was around SEN practise inclusive practise and workforce development and in this section Rachael listed the things that have taken place over the last quarter around the SEND bus. Which has now been to most schools and provisions as well as to the Early Years conference. That reached a lot of families and lots of practitioners, which I think has helped to spread the message but still considerable aware of work to work to create that understanding of those aspects as well.

What we have done is also  created additional training opportunities as well and we've also have listed in this section the things that are being delivered currently around autism education in schools, in secondary as well. I'm delighted to inform people here and it's not out yet, but we have just put in an expression of interest with health colleagues for a primary neuro diversity programme that would be across the peninsula as well that would be funded by NHS. So that's going to be called the PINS programme and would be something equivalent for primary sector that they have done for the secondary sector under AET. So there'll be more information following once we know more ourselves as well regarding that.

We've done a lot of resource production within this section around train the trainer models for SENCOS to be able to use within their schools as well, including also looking at self-evaluation documents for schools to use to make sure that the graduated response is understood beyond the
role of the SENCO or senior leaders within schools as well.

In terms of the grant condition 3.3 for the Education, Health and Care Plans and that graduated response, we continue to rate ourselves as red in this section. The reason for the red rating is really the numbers of requests for statutory assessments, which still remain significantly high within our local area.

We look at and we hope to see this starting to come down over a period of time. What we do know is requests for statutory assessments that comes from parents and they come from schools and they come from professionals as well. We do also know that sometimes the request for statutory assessments that are coming for school are also linked to parental pressure to submit some of those requests as well. We've got some evidence around that, and that really is an indicator of parental confidence about what can be provided. One of the aspects that we're looking at is around the ILDP, the Individual Learning Development Plan that sits below the having an EHCP and getting that in a more consistent way within Torbay so that people can talk about the ordinarily available provision and the provision that's put in place for children. A lot of the refusals are around people not having evidence of interventions and support provided prior to putting in those requests for statutory assessment, so it's wasted work for the SENCO it's wasted work for the teams and actually some of that work would be better served in the ILDP forum and doing some of those earlier provisions as well. But it links also back to people's understanding of those different aspects within those graduated response documents. Our Educational Psychologists are also offering support for those assessments and tool kits as well, within the graduated response, so that when those Requests for Statutory Assessment comes in, we're getting a shared understanding of need when those requests. Rachael said that remains an area of concern as our issuing of plans is still aligned with previous years, so although we're having an increased rate of requests  we are being really, really robust in our decision making and obviously offering next steps meetings for colleagues as well.

Lawrence asked whether a suggestion from the last Forum about having the next steps meetings in advance of an RSA had been looked at yet. Rachael said that although this is still being looked at, it would require additional resources which we do not have at the moment.

Stewart then asked if data was available on what refusal rates look like from Schools and Parents, Rachael said that this data was available and can be shared with members at a future Forum.

Sarah asked whether the LA has heard back from Health colleagues following the pre notice action letter that was issued back in November. Rachael said that following a meeting with Health in January, there is now a greater understanding and position that actually we do need to create the pathways and processes around the funding of EHCPs. So there is a trajectory moving forward where there is now a position at the NHS and ICB that they recognise this is a piece of work that will need to be funded moving forward. Penny Smith is the new chief nurse and is now attending SEND meetings.

Rachael then moved on to condition 3.4, around children placed outside of area. We have maintained our independent placement overview panel. So everything that is above a spend of £30k goes to an IPOP decision making process and as you can see there we have  certainly maintained our numbers and that's despite significant pressures and demands that come in for children to be placed in ICPs as well. Parental preference for ICPs is significantly high as well in in our local area. It was pleasing to note that we are maintaining our position on that when we have the governance in place to do that as well.

Condition 3.5, building confidence within the parental community, was then discussed by Rachael. what we're seeing from parents and carers is that's not being reported in a in a more positive way than it was previously. So we really wanted to hold the mirror up to that and you know, talk with parents and carers about what difference does this make and what would it look like within our provisions as well. So we have scored that one as a red at this current time and we have taken action through the alternative provision strategy. We're looking at sufficiency of placements.

Parental confidence is, is a lot of the things that drive some of those demands that we're seeing come through our system. Members will also be experiencing some of that back with your colleagues in schools, where parents have expectations as well around what will be provided. That also fits in with the numbers of children that are also going Electively Home Educated for example. And coming out of the education system as a whole as  well. So we have rated this as read because there's lots of indicators that actually this is not going in the in the direction of travel that we would want it to as well.

Mike Lock asked whether we are expecting instant results when actually this is something that will take time to build. Rachael said that there are indicators that things are going the opposite direction than some of our intended actions, pointing to the increase in EHE numbers as a result of increased parental anxiety.

Condition 3.7, relating to the implementation of our transitions panel for Post 16, was then discussed. Rachael said that the LA have been doing and continue to do a huge amount of our ceasing activity within this area, we have 41 ceases in progress that are still coming off the system, looking at the trajectory of numbers that we have at the 31st of March. So if all of the plans are issued or if we continue to issue the plans at the rate we have been issuing them and also do our ceasing work, we are looking at being probably 51 plans above our ESFA target at the end of the year. So there's still more work being done by the team around those numbers of plans and how do we get to that that position, obviously the ceasing activity has continued at the rate that it was previously, but actually the Requests for Statutory Assessments coming through the door hasn't slowed up in line with our plans. So we're looking to be about 51 above target, but we're doing everything we can to reduce that as well.

Lawrence wanted it noted that It's a really constructive approach that Rachael and the team have been taking with him on lots of different things and it's slowly having a really positive impact and helping us to do things better as well.

Rachel Setter gave an update on the family hubs. Within the home learning environment there is support to early year settings to deliver the early talk based programme, and we also then have the home learning environment lead, who does the outreach work, supporting children that are not in an early years provision so that we're making sure we're supporting both those groups. The early language consultant role has just been recruited to and their main focus will be to work with health colleagues and family health colleagues in the 0-19 partnership to develop those really early speech and language pathways and bring it all together. So we know that there are lots of activities and groups happening, but having a really clear pathway for families to be able to access and know which points they can access and what support is relevant for them and their child's needs. Obviously the family Hub funding is only until March 2025, but we're confident looking at the budgets and kind of being a bit creative is that we can continue those roles post March 2025. So it isn't something that we'll drop off that we'll be able to have that sustainable these roles in and the pieces of work continue post March 2025.

Rachael then spoke on condition 3.8, Implementing the coproduced new graduated response for Social Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH). This has been moved to red on this occasion because we are seeing an emergence of children's needs beyond that which we have seen previously. We know that the number of requests that are coming through for SEMH as the primary area of need is increasing as well. So though we are doing ceasing work in this activity we have placed this as red because this all falls under some of those health conversations around actually how do we get a spectrum of support and a pathway of provision for children with SEMH. So this comes back to how do we jointly Commission with health and also how do we fund some of the resources within EHCPs that have SEMH as the primary area of focus as well so we have selected to declare to the ESFA at this time that this is an area of concern and is also then a significant area of focus coming out of our overview and scrutiny meetings as well, because we have to develop these pathways and we have to develop these provisions that are Co aligned with what can be delivered across all different agencies. It's not about the just the expansion of CAMHS, is it in this way. This is about having a pathway of support up to specialist services when they are required.