Question:
What are the aims and objectives of each of the safety valve workstreams and projects (as listed in the summary update on 6th September 2023)? I am particularly concerned that stakeholder organisations that work with parents such as SEND Voices are not aware of the detail regarding the workstreams and projects, and feel that a greater degree of openness and transparency is needed.
Minutes:
What are the aims and objectives of each of the safety valve workstreams and projects (as listed in the summary update on 6th September 2023)? I am particularly concerned that stakeholder organisations that work with parents such as SEND Voices are not aware of the detail regarding the workstreams and projects, and feel that a greater degree of openness and transparency is needed.
Answer
There are four workstreams of Safety Valve with multiple ambitious aims and objectives. Obviously the workstreams are too wide ranging to give you a comprehensive reply tonight but I would like to give you a summary of what each workstream aims to deliver and share with you some green shoots at this early stage of our Safety Valve programme:
1. Early Intervention – through this workstream, we want to address unsustainable increases in requests for statutory assessment by providing improved access to early intervention services as follows:
· Local Offer Website & Support – to increase parental confidence and improve access to information.
· Early Years Strategy – improving support provided to private voluntary and independent sector early years providers.
· Implement New SEN Support Service (including recommissioning and extending specialist outreach for schools). For this, I am delighted to report that our new Area SENCO was appointed on 20/10/23 and will take up the role in January 2024. We have also jointly commissioned a Speech and Language outreach service in partnership with BOB Integrated Commissioning Board (Health) providing outreach support from Highwood Primary School who have a trained specialist teacher. We have also increased investment in Addington Special School outreach and the Foundry outreach offer for SEMH (Social Emotional and Mental Health).
2. Sufficiency & New Provision – through this workstream, we want to improve the range of provision, address gaps in local specialist places and reduce over-reliance on expensive independent sector specialist provision by delivering:
· New Resource Bases & SEND Units attached to mainstream schools. For this project, I detailed progress in my reply to a previous question.
· Addington Special School Expansion; I am pleased to share with you that the new satellite site at Farley Hill will open in the next few weeks (after half-term). It has in fact now opened, it was help up by bats, very annoying.
· Oak Tree Special School, which you may share my delight in that we have successfully delivered this new school in partnership with Reading BC, and I attended the opening last month with the Mayor.
· Special Free School Bids and Implementation. We made successful bids for two new special schools which will deliver an extra 240 places by September 2026. I detailed this exciting development in my answer to an earlier question on Resources Units and new free schools.
· Alternative Provision & Education Other Than At School ‘EOTAS’ Review. The project is progressing well with SEND Voices directly involved in the AP remodelling project.
· Post 16 / Preparation for Adulthood Strategy – progressing well in improving access to information and guidance as well as in developing proposals for new and additional post-16 provision (details TBC subject to our needs assessment and gap analysis)
3. Commissioning – through this workstream, we aim to achieve closer integration with our partners in Health and Social Care:
· Joint Commissioning of Therapeutic Services & Ordinarily Available Health Provision. I just now highlighted the visible green shoots of this project in the launch this term of a speech and language outreach in place in Wokingham.
· Improved commissioning and contract management of independent sector provision has been implemented to ensure oversight and quality.
4. System and Operations – This workstream has the following objectives:
· Revise High Needs Banding Framework to ensure consistency, clarity and transparency of funding across all schools (mainstream and special) in Wokingham.
· Digital Improvement – to better align our data across finance, operations and school place planning to ensure consistency, minimise duplication and improve planning and control.
· Strengthen Multi-Agency Panel Decision Making – ensuring that our partners across health and social care are integrally involved in all decisions regarding funding and placements.
That is a summary outline, I will stop there.
Thank you for the summary, so is there more detail available than that? Because you said this is very high level.
Supplementary answer:
If you wanted to contact me after of the meeting, there is various bits of information, I cannot promise we will send you the whole thing because there is a vast array of spreadsheets and costings and things like that. But there is I am sure more information that we can give you if you would like some. We will see what we can find.
Helen Watson, Interim Director for Children’s Services informed that there was an information sharing event for parents happening, which was being facilitated by SEND Voices on the evening of 8 November on Zoom at 8pm. This session would clarify with a lot more detail, this will be an opportunity for parents to have much more detail.