To receive Report No. 77/2022 from Dawn Godfrey, Strategic Director for Children and Families giving an update on the SEND Service.

Report No. 77/2022 was received from Councillor D Wilby, Portfolio Holder for Education and Children's Services.  The report and a presentation were introduced by Bernadette Caffrey, Head of Early Help, SEND and Inclusion.  During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·       The Strategic Director of Children and Families informed attendees that a parent engagement event had been held in March 2022 for issues to be raised and discussed. 

·       There were approximately 300 Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) within Rutland and the vast majority of parents were happy and pleased with the service provided (77% fully satisfied).  

·       Any and all complaints were taken seriously and investigated thoroughly.

·       The Strategic Director of Children and Families agreed with the Committee that communication with all parents needed to be correct.  As a result, parental engagement workshops were to be established so that officers and families could work together to help produce a communication workplan.  The workshops would be led and facilitated by an external consultant who was also a parent of SEND children.

·       The Strategic Director of Children and Families confirmed that all tribunal actions must be carried out by the LA.  They were a legal order so the council could not and would not refuse to do them. 

·       The Strategic Director of Children and Families also confirmed that the use of barristers at a tribunal was not unusual.  Practice did differ across the country but Rutland was very small compared to other LA’s and had very limited resources i.e. no in-house specialist legal advice.  Rutland County Council had to employ external specialist legal services but processes had changed over the past 12 to 18 months to decrease the use of barristers but they were still needed in some cases. 

·       A regional contract had been developed with Global Mediation to provide mediation services.  No parent would be forced to partake in mediation but would be encouraged to do so as the council was always willing to do mediation.

·       The number of cases going to tribunal remained in single figures.

·       The Head of SEND, Early Help and Inclusion confirmed that there was an internal governance process, which entailed monthly performance reporting and an external governance process, which entailed quarterly completion of the regional and DfE performance dashboards. There were also bi-annual performance reviews with the Regional DfE SEND Advisor and NHS England Improvement Lead.

·       The Strategic Director of Children and Families confirmed that statutory timescales were identified but that there were no national targets to meet.  The service always strived for 100% but achieving this figure was not realistic especially when dealing with the small numbers dealt with by Rutland County Council. No statutory duties had been, were being or would be neglected but better communication with parents was needed to explain when a timescale was not met, the reasons why it was not met and what the LA was doing to ensure that it would be met in future.

·       In response to a question from Cllr Begy, the Strategic Director of Children and Families confirmed that 23% of parents of those surveyed were not fully satisfied with the service they had received and that was why the service was working very hard on improving parent engagement.  It was noted that the percentages detailed were deceiving as they only represented the small numbers that the LA dealt with.  The Strategic Director of Children and Families confirmed that the actual numbers behind the percentages would be made available to the Committee.

·       Councillor Wilby stated that he understood the pain and frustration of parents trying to do their best for their child/children but confirmed that RCC had passionate and dedicated staff, who were very forward thinking in trying to provide the best service for SEND children with ever decreasing resources so that children could achieve their very best.

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At 21:26, it was unanimously agreed to extend the meeting

by 15 minutes

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·       Councillor Ainsley thanked everyone for the report and presentation as it showed some of the excellent work being done. 

RESOLVED

That the Committee:

a)         NOTED the performance, developments and challenges in the SEND service.

b)         NOTED and provided direction on recommendations for future actions.

c)          RECOMMENDED that Children’s Services actively engaged with SEND Active Rutland to assist in the improvement of communication with parents.

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The SEND Service officers left the meeting at 9.32 p.m.

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