Agenda, decisions and minutes

Resolved:

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2014.

Resolved:

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2014.

Resolved:

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2014

Resolved:

The Committee agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 3 February 2014

·         Gail Exon declared a personal interest as a Governor at Trinity School

·         John Paschoud declared a personal interest as a Trust Governor at Watergate School

·         Nicholas Rothon declared a personal interest as a Governor at Christ the King School

·         Lisa Palin declared a personal interest as a Governor at Greenvale School

·         Stella Jeffrey declared a personal interest as her husband works as a clerk at Trinity School

Resolved:

The Committee noted the response.

Sue Tipler, Head of Standards and Achievement, introduced the response.

The Committee noted the response.

Resolved:

The Committee noted the response.

Alan Docksey, Head of Resources, Children and Young People, introduced the report and highlighted the following key points:

·         Some services are regulatory and are funded through the Education Services Grant, others are regulatory but are purchased, while many are support services that are traded at economic cost or market rate.

·         Services are usually provided on a fees basis or using a fixed base cost.

·         If the Council were to pursue trading outside Lewisham there would be significant risks attached.

·         There are other approaches to trading services to schools that other organisations use, such as transferring risks to a different organisation.

·         Trading services to schools has been identified this as an area for potential savings and increased trading could be pursued if an alternative vehicle could be used.

In response to questions from the Committee, Alan Docksey and Frankie Sulke provided the following information:

·         When trading with schools in the borough, the Council already has a relationship and established position. Trading outside the borough would require officers to pursue business and raise the reputation of the organisation.

·         The council operates with a static level of resource, so if more staff are needed to do traded work it would be difficult to take on the work as base budgets would need to be changed. There are large difference between expanding work and becoming a business to providing services to schools to improve. In addition there are lot of businesses in the market selling services to schools.

·         With some services, former local authority staff left to provide services directly to schools. For example, schools buy-in peripatetic support for finances, often from former staff who have previously worked with the school. Schools sometimes like having their own clerk for governing body meetings, who are also often former local authority staff.

·         Schools have the option to enter into Service Level Agreements with the Council, or they can buy in services as and when they need them.

·         The Council’s aim is not to seek a profit from schools and prices have been increased in the past few years to cover the costs of providing services.

·         By providing services to schools, the local authority maintains a link to the school, and can use these services to apply pressure to schools about maintaining standards.

The Committee then discussed the SLA document attached in the appendix, noting that it is quite large and complex and that a simpler, governor friendly version might be useful.

Resolved:

The Committee agreed to receive an update on progress in early 2015.

Keith Martin, Service Manager, Children with Complex Needs, introduced the report and highlighted the following key points:

·         The Children and Families Act has received Royal Assent and will be implemented in September 2014.

·         The Act will change delivery of SEN services and introduce the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC) to replace the Statement of Special Educational Needs.

·         There will an increase in the age range of provision to 25.

·         A local authority local offer will need to be available which shows how Lewisham will meet the needs of SEN children.

·         Lewisham has carried out a pathfinder project along with 20 other authorities to pilot the changes.

·         EHCs put in place services throughout the process as they are identified, not at the end of the process as with statements. They build into existing TAC processes, carry out consultations with parents and schools and allow children have a greater voice.

·         Training has been delivered to schools about the new EHC.

·         The aim is to build a multi-agency team to deliver the new EHC process, with an integrated service and combined teams.

ÁineNí Ruairc, Headteacher at Watergate School, then spoke to the Committee and highlighted the following key points:

·         Watergate is a school that specialises in teaching children with severe learning difficulties. 50% of children at the school are autistic and 20% have profound and multiple learning or physical disabilities.

·         8 pupils at Watergate have EHCs in place with 6 currently in process. All of them are young children just entering or who have recently entered the school.

·         The experience of EHCs has been a good one. There are positives within the process, as it is child centred and considers the whole child rather than different aspects sequentially.

·         There is parental involvement from the beginning and parents are given time and support as well as reassurance.

·         Professionals are involved at the beginning, whereas previously the statement process would go through one officer. This allows more professional dialogue about current needs of the child and is an opportunity to tease out problems and solve them with parents.

·         Further consideration should be given to education provision, which currently forms a relatively small part of the EHC and should be expanded.

·         Two 6 month reviews have been carried out so far. The reviews are not as rigorous as the statementing review process and detailed, written reports for parents and for records would be useful.

Lisa Palin, Parent Governor Representative, then addressed the Committee, sharing her experience as a parent who has gone through the EHC process and highlighting the following key points:

·         The EHC approach has worked well, offering a more holistic approach that is supportive for parents.

·         There have been some difficulties, it seems harder to go through with someone who is already ‘in the system’ and has a statement rather than a child coming into it for the first time. The key worker role was not always clear and parents carried out some of this role themselves. Not all parents have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Andrew Hagger, Scrutiny Manager, introduced the report.

The Committee then discussed the following topics as suggestions for the new Children and Young people Select Committee to consider for their 2014/15 work programme:

·         Capacity of secondary schools, including planning for 2018

·         Supplementary schools.

·         Gap analysis of service for children and young people across the borough

·         IT provision in schools

There were none.