Agenda item

To receive and consider the Annual Wokingham Borough SEND Survey 2022 (report available on the website).

The Annual Wokingham Borough SEND Survey was presented by Sarah Clarke and Terri Walsh, both representatives from Wokingham SEND Voices.

Some of the comments made during their presentation are listed below:

·           SEND Voices Wokingham is an independent organisation of parent/carers of SEND children (0-25 years of age) in Wokingham.  This organisation’s purpose is to represent the voice SEND children, parents and carers;

·           The role of SEND Voices is to act as a critical friend and work with the local authority;

·           This survey was the first annual survey undertaken by SEND Voices, and it was used to ask about everything to do with SEND;

·           Smaller surveys had been undertaken in the past, but the idea was to continue to undertake annual surveys going forward, and to track improvement;

·           The annual survey had been sent out to all parents, carers and voluntary organisations that worked with SEND children.  440 responses had been received, which was a good level of response;

·           One of the key findings from the survey was that there were a number of services in the borough available for SEND children and families:

Ø  Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS),

Ø  Autism Spectrum Service for Information, Support and Training (ASSIST),

Ø  Short breaks team – gaps were identified in this service, but it was noted that some new members of staff had made a positive improvement

Ø  SENDIASS training – made a real difference for families

Ø  Preparing for adulthood booklet

·           The report also identified some areas for improvement, as written in the report.

Councillor Helliar-Symonds expressed serious concern about the transport service provided to SEND children around the borough.

Sarah Clarke clarified that two surveys had been carried out: the SEND Annual Survey and a SEND Transport Survey.  She informed that improvements had been made in relation to SEND transport, however there was some work to be done to improve training.

Sal Thirlway recognised that although improvements had been made in SEND transport, more improvement was needed.  Work was ongoing to keep improving the service.  He would raise the issue of training with Corporate Transport Unit (CTU).

In response to a question from Councillor Chadwick, Sarah Clarke clarified that answers to the question in the survey about communication had revealed that many parents were finding that they were having to re-tell their story to lots of different professionals.  Therefore, it could be concluded that communication between professionals and families could be improved.

It was confirmed that answers to Member’s questions that had been emailed prior to the meeting would be circulated via email with the minutes.

Councillor Chadwick asked if it was the delays in the production of Educational Psychology reports that was causing the delays in issuing Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP).  Terri Walsh informed that there was a shortage of Educational Psychologists and Speech and Language Therapists, this was a national issue and it did cause delays.

Councillor Chadwick noted that there was a theme in the survey around difficulties in finding information.  Sarah Clarke stated that every local authority was supposed to have a website where parents could find information.  The improvement of the website was part of the improvement plan and was linked to the Safety Valve Programme.

Councillor Bray informed that the Council’s website was being completely replaced next year, with a new supplier.  As part of this work, there would not be updates on the current website, unless absolutely necessary.  The service was conscious that the new website needed to be more user friendly.

Councillor Bray added that it was recognised that better communication with parents was needed, so that they understood better why certain decisions had been made.  She believed that engaging in co-production of letters to parents with SEND Voices, for example, was part of the improvement process.

Councillor Bray announced that Wokingham SEND Voices had recently achieved charitable status and this was very good news.

Sarah Clarke added that acquiring the charitable status was positive as it allowed the organisation to apply for funding to support families.

In response to a question about co-production, Sarah Clarke confirmed that they had been very involved in the production of the Written Statement of Action and SEND Improvement Plan.  She believed that what was missing at the moment was the production of a ‘you said we did’ type of document in a language that parents could easily understand.

Councillor Malvern asked what was being done to speed up communications and letters to parents.  Sarah Clarke stated that some letters were complex due to the fact that they had to include legal information.  There was a co-production working group, which was part of the SEND IIP, trying to speed things up.

The Chairman asked if there were any strands of work that SEND Voices believed the Committee should be monitoring in the next year.  Sarah Clarke stated that issues around inclusivity in mainstream schools needed to be monitored.  She believed that the children in mainstream schools that did not quite meet the threshold for an EHCP should be better supported, and this would result in savings in the long term.  This concept was called the ‘ordinarily available’ and schools, health and social care should be encouraged to engage with this concept and offer support.

Sal Thirlway stated that broadening inclusivity was part of the SEND IPP and the local authority was looking at ways to support schools to support children in mainstream schools.  He informed that, statistically, Wokingham had more children with SEND and EHCPs in mainstream schools than most other local authorities.

Sarah Clarke suggested that it was possible that so many children with EHCPs were in mainstream schools because there was no specialist placements available for them.  It would be interesting to look at this data more closely.

Councillor Boyt was interested to know if Wokingham was looking to learn from best practice in other local authorities.  Sarah Clarke informed that there were 152 parent/carer forums in England, Wokingham fed into one of the regions – SE19 in the Southwest.  The region fed into a national network where there was opportunity to talk to ministers and take part in other important work at a national level.  Additionally, there was a lot of work within the region where best practice was shared.

Fr Richard Lamey confirmed that support for families was very welcome, as it could be very difficult to go through the application process for an EHCP.

Helen Watson was in support of the idea to produce a ‘you said we did’ document.

The Chairman asked for more information about the process of ceasing SEND support.  Sarah Clarke informed that this process was done on a case by case scenario.  However, she pointed out that this linked with the work to be developed around inclusion, where some children, with the right support may be able to step down from an EHCP and be placed in a mainstream school.

It was clarified that EHCPs did come to an end at the age of 25.

Councillor Bray commented that changes over time in an individual’s EHCPs were to be expected, if there was no change, this would be a sign that there had been no improvement.  EHCPs were reviewed at least annually, and at transition points.  She believed that there was more work that could be done to improve the reviews of EHCPs.

Sarah Clarke agreed that some work needed to be done to improve the quality of reviews.  She pointed out that timeliness of reviews had improved in recent years.

RESOLVED That the report be noted.