Agenda and draft minutes

To elect a Chairman for the 2024/25 municipal year.

Councillor Andrew Gray was elected Chairman for the 2024/25 municipal year.

To appoint a Vice-Chairman for the 2024/25 municipal year.

Councillor Jane Ainslie was appointed Vice-Chairman for the 2024/25 municipal year.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were submitted from Councillors Jane Ainslie, Prue Bray and Charles Margetts.  Councillor Jane Ainslie was substituted by Councillor Caroline Smith.

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 20 March 2024.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 20 March 2024 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Sarah Clarke believed that there were some actions suggested from SEND Voices for the action tracker that were not listed in the report.  She would check and send them over to Luciane Bowker, Democratic and Electoral Services Specialist for inclusion in the report.

To receive any declarations of interest.

A declaration of interest was submitted from Sarah Clark on the basis that she was a trustee of Dingley’s Promise.

To answer any public questions.

A period of 30 minutes will be allowed for members of the public to ask questions submitted under notice.

The Council welcomes questions from members of the public about the work of this committee.

Subject to meeting certain timescales, questions can relate to general issues concerned with the work of the Committee or an item which is on the Agenda for this meeting.  For full details of the procedure for submitting questions please contact the Democratic Services Section on the numbers given below or go to www.wokingham.gov.uk/publicquestions

There were no public questions.

To answer any member questions.

There were no Member questions.

To receive a verbal report on the activity undertaken by the SEND Youth Forum.

The Committee welcomed three representatives from the SEND Youth Forum who were attending to give a presentation about their experiences of SEND services in Wokingham.  They were assisted by Ramona Bridgman, Youth Participation Coordinator for Me2 Club and Patrick Pritchett, Activities and Volunteers Coordinator.

The young people talked about their personal experiences and pointed out that there was a general lack of options for SEND post-16 education in the borough and asked that this be considered for further development.  They suggested the development of more opportunities for supported internships.

One young person explained that in her experience there had been a long waiting period (6 months) for reviewing her Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP).  She understood that this was probably due to a lack of staff, but it was nevertheless frustrating as she had had to chase it

One young person expressed frustration that there was a long waiting list for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), and that there had been no improvements since the last time this issue was reported to the Committee.  They suggested that there should be some service provision whilst people were awaiting for diagnosis.

Young people explained that completing application forms was generally a stressful experience for them.  Application forms were complicated, there were no simplified forms available and limited support to help them in this process.

The point was made that there was an issue with accessibility, documents such as the Local Offer were written with complex language that was not easy for SEND people to understand.  Also, there was a lack of visual training and communication - many people learnt better through videos and listening, but these options were not available.

Young people felt that there could be more help available in relation to transitions (from primary to secondary school, secondary school to college) and about other sources of help and other opportunities.  They emphasized the need for visual communication, particularly in the form of videos with short sentences that are easier to understand – less words more videos.

They urged the Councillors to take action to speed up solutions to the issues raised.

Emma Cockrell, Director for Children’s Services welcomed the comments made by the SEND Youth Forum.  These comments would be fed back to relevant colleagues and an effort would be made to address the issues raised.  She invited them to take part in the SEND Partnership meetings for future collaboration work.

One young person explained that although she was entitled to apply for a free bus pass, the online form was not accessible and asked if this form could be provided in hard copy.

Emma Cockrell stated that the service was aware of the need to increase the capacity within the SEND service, this issue was being addressed with the recruitment of additional staff.

The Committee expressed their gratitude for the SEND Youth Council’s participation in the meeting.  They would like to continue to receive annual updates on the work of the SEND Youth Council.

RESOLVED That:  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To receive a verbal update from the Executive Member for Children’s Services.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services, Councillor Prue Bray was unable to attend the meeting.  She sent the following written update, which was read out by the Chair:

Apologies that I am not able to be at the meeting.   On this occasion most of what I would have updated the committee on is already on the agenda.  However, I would like to mention two things.

·           There has been a lot of concern expressed in the media about the impact of Labour’s plan to impose VAT on school fees for independent schools.  Officers have made an assessment of the risk of children moving from the independent to the private sector, including likely numbers.   We believe that we have adequate school places to cope with the likely additional demand.

·           I am delighted to be able to say that although Children’s Services budgets are under pressure, for the very first time that I can remember, Children’s Services is not currently forecasting an overspend this year.  I would like to pay tribute to the hard work of officers in achieving this.  Unfortunately, the deficit in the High Needs Block (HNB) is still climbing, despite the Safety Valve programme, although it is not climbing as fast as it would have been without all the interventions and mitigations that have been put in place.  SEND funding is a national challenge, and we know we are not alone.  This has been a period of change and one of uncertainty for SEND parents.  We have yet to see what the new government will do to improve SEND funding.

Sarah Clarke asked if the High Needs Block deficit would have a negative impact on the Safety Valve agreement? 

Emma Cockrell stated that this situation was being closely monitored.  The deficit management plan that was originally designed, was very ambitious.  The team was working hard to mitigate delays in the plan with new ideas to help realise the original ambitions.  The Safety Valve agreement was not currently at risk.  The use of non-maintained out of borough placements continued to be the main risk in managing the HNB deficit.

Ming Zhang, Assistant Director for Education and SEND explained that many workstreams had already been delivered.  He had met with the DfE and they were happy with the progress made so far.  This was a five year project, and it was on track to deliver the expected financial impact.

RESOLVED That the written update be noted.

To receive and consider the Childcare Support Reforms Report.

Elaine Munro, Principal Educational Psychologist presented the Childcare Support Reforms report.  She explained that the Early Years Service was placed under the Education Psychology Service.

She highlighted the following points:

·           There had been a number of changes over the years in the funding of early years education;

·           From September 2024 children from 9 months from working families would be eligible for up to 15 hours per week, increasing to 30 hours free entitlement in September 2025;

·           There was a planned expansion of the provision of wraparound care for children of school age (reception to year 6) both before and after school.  The plan being that every family that needed it would be able to access a wraparound place from 8:00am to 6:00pm Monday to Friday during term time;

·           There was funding attached to these new initiatives, Wokingham was given £55k to fund the additional officer time to support the implementation of these initiatives.  Wokingham was also funded £62k over two years to support the administration of the wraparound care;

·           The DfE was also releasing some additional capital funding to fund the expansion of childcare;

·           The local authority did not have direct control of the market, however there had been some interest from providers and schools to expand their offer;

·           The DfE estimated that Wokingham would need an additional 26 places for next year, which was already covered by providers;

·           It was difficult to predict the likely demand for services.  It was still uncertain whether the entitlement of free childcare from 9 months would change families’ behaviour.  Some families had already registered for this, and there had been no reports of any families being unable to access a place;

·           One of the challenges was in the availability of trained staff to work in early years;

·           The local authority was actively engaging with training providers to find ways to encourage more people to the profession;

·           The service was being mindful to utilise the funding available carefully, with a transparent and fair bidding process;

·           It was recognised that looking after children who are 2 years old or younger is different from looking after children who are older.  As such, the service was developing training for providers that did not have experience of looking after younger children;

·           These additional initiatives were welcome, but created pressure in the Early Years team due to the additional work and timescales involved;

·           There was a healthy provision of wraparound care in Wokingham, however there were some schools that would need to top up their provision to meet the full hours of 8:00am to 6:00pm;

·           There were challenges in relation to the provision of wraparound care for SEND children.  Providers were unable to meet the needs of SEND children without additional funding, and this additional cost could not be passed on to families.  Whilst funding was available for wraparound care, it was not sufficient to cover the additional costs of looking after SEND children (which involved having to employ more qualified staff) ;

·           There was a desire to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

To receive and consider the Children’s Social Care ReformRreport.

Adam Davis, Assistant Director for Children’s Social Care and Early Help presented the Children's Social Care Reform report.

The report listed the changes that were introduced following reports that were commissioned by the government in response to child deaths and safeguarding concerns.

The report contained details of the changes and developments being put in place in Wokingham in response to the strategies and policies introduced by the government.  Some of these changes were already taking place when the government strategies were put forward as it was the right direction of travel for the service, for example the development of Wokingham’s own residential homes.

Other developments included the improved offer for care leavers accommodation and improved early help services (including the employment of a new service manager for early help).

Much work was being undertaken to promote the recruitment and retention of staff, as described in the report.

Members noted that the report talked about responding to children’s wishes and feeling, and asked how the service responded to children, given that it would no always be possible or appropriate to meet children’s wishes.

Adam Davis explained that the reference of “Children’s wishes and feelings are sought, heard and responded to” on page 28 of the agenda was part of the Children’s Social Care National Framework.  It was important to hear from the children and respond to their comments, it was part of the work in social care to seek the children’s views and respond accordingly, building strong relationships.

RESOLVED That the report be noted.

To receive and consider the Education & SEND Update Report.

Gillian Cole, Service Manager for Schools presented the Education and SEND Update report.

The following points were highlighted:

·           There had been five Ofsted inspections since the last meeting, with four schools achieving ‘Good’ and one school achieving ‘Outstanding’ – the list of school was in the report;

·           The report contained information about S48 inspections, which were targeted at Anglican and Methodist Schools.  Some schools in the borough were due S48 during this academic year;

·           Many changes were already happening and were due to happen to Ofsted inspections.  There were nine headline changes, as listed in the report;

·           A revised Ofsted framework had just been published, with a new framework planned for 2025;

·           The service was working through the changes to ascertain what would be required from schools.  Schools had already been briefed on the nine changes;

·           It was anticipated that there would be greater consistency, with quality assurance happening nationally;

·           Inspections were currently paused and would recommence on 23 September, however ungraded inspections would recommence on 7 October;

·           One of the changes was the introduction of an academy of training and recruitment of inspectors, in an effort to bring about consistency of inspections;

·           And effort would e made to reduce the concurrence of S48 inspections and Ofsted inspections to reduce the stress caused to schools;

·           Another change was the introduction of inspections of chains and multi academy trusts, which currently Ofsted did not have the power to inspect;

·           The removal of a single word inspection result was being removed immediately, and this was being replaced with a reporting card.  This change had significant implications in relation to key performance indicators in the borough.  The service was now thinking about how best monitor schools’ performance going forward;

·           The report contained the initial information about the results of assessments in the borough.  Children in Wokingham continued to perform above the national average.  More information on this data would be available at a later stage.

Members asked how the Ofsted changes impacted the way that the service monitored schools causing concern.  Gillian Cole explained that the service was waiting for direction from the DfE as to how schools that were underperforming would be dealt with going forward.

Ming Zhang added that it was positive that the new Ofsted reporting card would include inclusion as one of its criteria.  There would also be an annual review of safeguarding, inclusion and off rolling.

It was expected that a nation consultation on key performance indicators was likely to take place during the year.

Sarah Clarke added that Ofsted would be considering SEND performance in the area as part of its investigation of schools’ performance.

Members asked how these changes were likely to impact the workforce in schools?  Gillian Cole explained that the changes were the result of feedback from consultations with the workforce, parents and users of the system.  The aim of the changes was to make the workload more palatable.

Ming Zhang highlighted the following points in relation to the key performance indicators for Education  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To receive and consider the Home to School Transport Policy Review.

Oliver Gill, Head of Education Access and Sufficiency presented the Home to School Transport Policy Review report.

The following points were highlighted:

·           The new policy came into effect from 1 September, some progress had already been made, but it was early in the process of implementation;

·           The number of home to school transport continued to rise, the main reason being the rise in the number of EHCPs.  It was also a known factor that transporting SEND children was more expensive;

·           There was now a more robust application of the eligibility criteria, however this was being outrun by the rise in the number of EHCPs;

·           The budget allocation had increased and the forecast for this year was to be within the budget, which was good news and had not happened for a while;

·           The re-tendering of a number of home to school transport contracts had delivered savings (in the region of a quarter of a million) and a more robust service;

·           Two new SEND transport officers were appointed to replace an agency staff;

·           The number of people being approved for home to school transport has decreased from 80-90% to 70% of those who applied, in view of a more robust application of the policy;

·           Going forward, those in receipt of home to school transport would be re-assessed annually to ensure that they were eligible for assistance;

·           A proposal to change the Stage 2 appeals process was being submitted to Council for approval.  It was believed that the changes that were being introduced would make the system fairer;

·           There was an enhanced offer in the payment of personal travel budget for children of statutory school age, from £0.45 per mile to £0.70 per mile;

·           There had been an increase of 60% in the intake of personal travel budget, which was positive as it gave parents the flexibility make their own arrangements in a way that suited them and it was also more cost effective for the Council;

·           The post-16 offer continued to be for personal travel budgets;

·           The programme for Independent Travel Training (ITT) was initiating, with two successful completions in the last week, undertaken by one of the SEND officers.

Sarah Clarke asked that care be taken in relation to the narrative about SEND transport being the cause of the deficit in the budget.  She explained that if there were sufficient places within the borough for SEND children, they would not need to be transported out of the borough.

Oliver Gill agreed that there was a desire to increase the offer of places in Wokingham, including the opening of the new schools and the creation of more resource spaces in schools – work was underway to develop the provision of places in the borough.

Sarah Clarke asked if the two new SEND Transport Officers (one working with personal training budgets and the other with ITT) would be working with parents and families?

Oliver Gill stated that those officers would be working with the families currently in receipt of home to school  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

To receive and consider the SEND & Inclusion Strategy.

Jonathan Wilding, SEND and Safety Valve Consultant presented the SEND and Inclusion Strategy report.

The two policies were separate and distinct from each other as they addressed different acts of parliament.  However, they were interrelated and complemented each other – as such the consultation was taken together. 

The strategies were area strategies, not solely Council strategies, covering a wide range of partners. 

The consultation was initially due to start earlier, but there had been a delay due to the general election.  A decision was taken to run the consultation during the summer holiday, which even though was not ideal, it prevented further delays.  Overall, a good level of responses was received.  Additionally, there was a lot of participation in various forums to gain feedback on the strategies.

The feedback received was broadly positive, and some changes were made as a result of comments.

It was acknowledged that the language used in the strategy was difficult for the SEND Youth Forum to understand, this was mitigated with some face-to-face sessions.

It was hoped that with the endorsement of CSO&S Committee the strategies would proceed to Executive for final approval.  This would be followed by a period of delivery planning and implementation.

Members asked if there was a plan for training of existing staff?  Jonathan Wilding explained that there was an ambition to create a joint up work force development, however this joined up work was in its early stages.  There was already a lot of training available for SEND, this was now being put together in a more coherent calendar – a single point of contact for schools.

Members asked if it was possible to produce the information contained in the strategies in a listening format, in view of the fact that some people processed information much better by listening.  Jonathan Wilding stated that the production of videos was being considered and would be done in due course.  Once the final text was confirmed, an easy to read version would also be produced.

Upon being put to the vote, the Committee voted unanimously in favour of endorsing the strategies for approval by the Executive.

RESOLVED That:

1)     The Committee notes the contents of the report; and

2)     The Committee endorses the approval of the strategies by the Executive.

To receive and consider the Social Care Update Report.

Adam Davis presented the Social Care Update report which contained the key performance indicators for children’s social care for quarter 1.

During the discussion of the item the following comments were made:

·           Wokingham retains responsibility for a child subject to a child protection plan once they moved from the area, until such a time as when the host local authority agrees to a transfer of responsibility; a transfer child protection conference would take place in such cases.  This arrangement also worked vice-versa when children from other areas moved into Wokingham;

·           Dashboard 4 – Children in Care – a question was asked for the reason for the increase in the number of children allocated more than one social worker in 12 months.  It was explained that Here4You (a social worker team that works with the children) had had a significant number of staff changes which resulted in the number of changes in this indicator;

·           The number of care leavers continued to rise, as predicted, as children reached 18 and became care leavers;

·           Members asked for the definition of ‘missing children’ – it was explained that one child was an unaccompanied asylum seeker (UASC) who had left care and the local authority continued to try to identify their location.  Most of the children missing were cases where a child was not where they were meant to be, maybe late or returning overnight.

RESOLVED That the report be noted.

To consider the Committee’s Forward Programme of work.

The Chair invited the Committee to comment on the Forward Programme and make suggestions for item of discussion.

The Chair asked that a training session be organised, ideally before the next meeting of the Committee.  Emma Cockrell confirmed that a training session was being organised with colleagues in Democratic Services, more information would be circulated as soon as the date was confirmed.

The following items were added to the Forward Programme:

6 November 2024

·           The ILACS Update would be incorporated into the Social Care Update report

·           The Education and SEND Update report will include a Safety Valve update and include information about lessons learnt at tribunals

16 January 2025

·           Education in settings other than at schools

·           Corporate Parenting Strategy

19 March 2025

·           School Place Planning Strategy Update

RESOLVED That the Forward Programme of work be noted.

To consider the Action Tracker report.

The following comments were made in relation to the Action Tracker report:

·           Emma Cockrell explained that it would be unusual for a local authority to have a separate UASC strategy, she believed that this should be incorporated with the local authority’s Corporate Parenting strategy;

·           Members agreed to receive the information about holiday activities and food programme (levels of demand, session attended and range of activities) via email;

·           Safety Valve Update - lessons learnt about tribunals – this information would be incorporated into the Education and SEND Update

·           KPI reports – members asked that the direction of travel be made clearer in the report (good/bad/neutral – maybe use colour coding)

·           Complaints report – a report containing information/data on complaints received in relation to SEND services – this would be incorporated into the Education and SEND report;

·           Engagement with the Planning department in relation to the development of the School Place Planning Strategy – officers reassured the Committee that this engagement was taking place; an update report would be brought to the Committee for the March 2025 meeting.

RESOLVED That the actions agreed be noted and added to the Action Tracker report.

That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act (as amended) as appropriate.

RESOLVED That under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for item 19, on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined by Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of scheduled 12A of the Act.

A report containing details of schools causing concern will be considered in a Part 2 session.

This item was discussed in a Part 2 session.