To receive an update on the Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and action plan and next steps.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Councillor Bye, the Head of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities & Inclusion (SEND), Hannah Baker, and the Director of Women and Children’s Improvement NHS Devon, Su Smart outlined the submitted report which provided an update on the implementation of the Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review of SEND, and responded to questions.  The Director of Children’s Services, Nancy Meehan and the Divisional Director for Learning and Partnership Hubs, Rachel Setter, also attended the meeting and responded to questions.

Members were advised that action 7 recommended that ‘the Council needs to assure itself that it is compliant with the Code of Practice and relevant caselaw around its statutory processes’ this was taken from a dip sample of 16 out of 16000 cases and picked up as a result of one case going to tribunal.  The Council had undertaken a further dip sample across all ages and was assured that it was compliant.

Members asked questions in relation to what SLAIP stood for (SEND Local Area Inclusion Partnership); concern over waiting lists (682 young people were currently on the waiting list for CAMHS), two or three years was a long time for a person to be on a waiting list and it was becoming more difficult to get an appointment with a GP, how many parents were not raising concerns at an early stage, how likely would Members be able to see a change, why was this still a challenge and when would families start to see a difference; were families on speech and language waiting lists given help whilst they were waiting for an appointment; how would older children in other settings benefit from the early years help that was being targeted through Primary Schools; what action was being taken to address schools not wanting to take excluded children under the Fair Access Protocol; does the Council understand why more parents were elected home educating their children; how were School Leaders responding to feedback; and three out of five secondary schools in Torbay had been judged as ‘requiring improvement’ by Ofsted, was there a common reason for this.

In response to questions around waiting lists, it was acknowledged that it was not good enough for children and young people to be waiting too long.  Health waiting lists covered lots of areas e.g. mental health, autism etc.  Lots of action was being taken by NHS Devon as well as investment and looking at what support parents and children could get whilst on waiting lists (e.g. Waiting Well and Neurodiversity Champions) to move away from only receiving support from diagnosis to needs led support.  It was noted that this was not having as positive impact as NHS Devon would like.  There had been positive feedback through writing to every family on the waiting list for Autism support so they know what support was available and working with providers to give more information, it was suggested that lessons could be learned from this approach to see if it could be rolled out wider.  The Council was working with 30 Primary Schools on a model which would see Speech Therapists linked with every Primary School from June, they would be able to provide support with observing children, strategies and looking at referrals and what support they could provide.  SENDCOs had been trained with Language Enrichment Groups to provide a targeted intervention programme.  As well as collaboratively working with health and education in a way not previously done before to help primary children with their speech and language, this linked to the Locality Model Pilot.  12 Primary Schools had early years within their schools which would help pick up problems with speech and language at an early stage as well as through the Family Hubs.  NHS Devon plan to roll out support wider than the Locality Model Pilot Schools as part of a speech and language programme, but there was a need to make sure the approach was right for all the education settings.  A lot of early intervention work was carried out as part of the 2 ½ year old checks looking at speech and language which would trigger a Section 23 notice.  Early Talk Boost training had been rolled out to look at school readiness, working with Health and the Family Hubs.  There was a need to increase the confidence of those working in early years settings to carry out the Early Talk Boost conversations to identify needs at an early stage and make appropriate referrals.

Members were advised that in response to action 9 in respect of children being out if school, there was a proposal from the Thinking Schools Academy Trust on a Secondary School based locality pilot to focus on preventative work to stop suspensions and exclusions and enable greater inclusion.  The Director of Children’s Services, Nancy Meehan, advised that an Education Leaders Group had been established comprising herself, the Chief Executive, Schools Forum, Torbay Association of Primary Schools (TASH) and Torbay Association of Secondary Headteachers (TASH) who were having challenging conversations about this topic as well as resetting with those schools who were sceptical about the Locality Model Pilot, with focus on an education strategy looking at the best outcomes for our children.  It was noted that there were currently 547 children who were elected home educated with 54 children leaving schools this academic year.  Extra resources had been put in place and this was being closely monitored by the Children’s Strategic Quartet, which noted that a survey of 50 to 60 parents had highlighted the main reason was dissatisfaction with the School their child attended.  The paper would be shared wider with the Local Education Board and Chairs of other Forums to look at how the Council and our Schools could do things differently.  There was also concern over the potential lack of peer socialisation and isolation outside of the School setting.  It was acknowledged that this was a National Issue and there were proposed changes as part of the Children’s Bill, but Torbay was an outlier, with some Schools having more people leaving than others.  There was approximately £2.5m not going into Torbay Schools as a result of children not attending Schools.  School Standards were acknowledged and part of the reasons for three of the Schools being judged as ‘requiring improvement’ related to how they delivered education for those with SEND but that was not the only reason.  The Sub-Board wished to monitor this area in more detail as part of its future Work Programme.

Tanny Stobbart provided an overview of a group of mums that had raised money to run a forest school for children who were not in school with support from Play Torbay.  They had decided to establish themselves as a community and put in an application to carry out research with Exeter and Plymouth Universities to gain evidence on why people were choosing to elected home educate their children.  They proposed to take the research to Parliament and were working with the two Local Members of Parliament who had agreed to support them.  It was noted that there were colleagues in the voluntary sector who could work with children and parents to help them achieve better outcomes.  Tanny to bring back the results of the research to a future meeting of the Sub-Board.  

Resolved (unanimously):

1.         that the Children and Young People’s Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Board welcomes the progress made in implementing the Local Government Association Torbay SEND Peer Challenge Action Plan and acknowledges the actions still to be taken;

2.         that the Sub-Board reviews the reasons for children being elected home educated and what can be done to reduce the numbers, and the links to exclusions part of its Work Programme for 2025/2026; and

3.         that the Sub-Board reviews the Secondary Schools standards as part of its Work Programme for 2025/2026.