Agenda item

The Board received a presentation which informed Members of the work of the Local Area in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people who had a special education need or disability in Halton.

The Board was advised that the framework for the inspection of local areas’ effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people who had special educational needs and/or disabilities had been published.  The purpose of the inspection; to hold Local Areas to account and to offer assistance in developing processes and support systems to deliver better outcomes for children and young people, was noted by Members.

The following points were discussed from the presentation:

·       On average a local area would only be inspected once every 5 years; it was anticipated that Halton would receive a visit before the summer;

·       Each Local Area would have a nominated Officer Representative who would act as the single point of contact on behalf of all local agencies throughout the inspection – Halton’s nominated Officer was Ann McIntyre;

·       Inspectors would visit a range of providers of services to see how these services worked together;

·       Included in the evidence the inspectors would seek the attainment and progress of children and young people with SEND; attendance and exclusion information and data relating to identification of SEND at school support and through EHC plans.  Following Members queries, it was confirmed that nursery schools and the children of travellers were included in the information if they had SEN/D;

·       Schools and nurseries published SEND information would be inspected;

·       Evaluation would be received from service users e.g. parents, to determine how they had influenced commissioning and service delivery;

          The presentation provided information with regards to how Halton compared with National and North West averages.  Members were also provided with a breakdown of the primary and secondary schools SEN/D needs by types.  The special school provision and the secondary and primary resource bases available in Halton were noted. 

The areas for development were discussed by Members and it was suggested by one Member that in some cases attachment issues played a big part in influencing the first years of a child’s life. 

Were schools aware of attachment issues and the need to nurture?

·       Psychologists were currently looking into the effects this may have in future years;

·       Primary and secondary schools had been invited to take part in a nurture pilot programme, it was hoped that the schools community would be encouraged to participate once hearing about the pilot from colleagues.

Were schools able to cope when youngsters had been identified with issues relating to lack of nurture?

·       Specialist teachers and psychologists played an important role in identifying and then supporting schools;

·       Teacher training was available and was helping however schools needed to invest in the teacher training themselves.

 Would the SEND training be ongoing?

·       It was the schools responsibility to ensure training was in place to develop their children identified with SEND.

RESOLVED:  That the presentation be received and comments made be noted.