high needs' commissioning plan 2018 - 2022
TRANSCRIPT
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High Needs' Commissioning plan
2018 - 2022
The document has been produced by the Children, Families and Communities' Education and Skills Team on behalf of the Assistant Director for Education and Skills It sets out the High Needs' Commissioning plan for 2018-2022, and the processes to be followed December 2017
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Contents
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3
2. The Children and Young People's Plan and the SEND Strategy .................................... 4
3. SEND Sufficiency Report .............................................................................................. 5
4. Executive Summary of Recommendations ..................................................................... 9
5. Worcestershire County Councils High Needs' Commissioning Principles ..................... 12
6. Commissioning Plan for setting type and location of SEND provision .......................... 16
7. Joint Commissioning .................................................................................................... 18
8. SEND Commissioning Implementation ........................................................................ 20
9. Performance Monitoring ............................................................................................... 23
Glossary of Terms ............................................................................................................... 24
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1. Introduction 1.1 In September 2016 Worcestershire
County Council (WCC) began a High Needs' Commissioning Review (HNCR) to assess the processes and the suitability of provision in place for those Children and Young People (CYP) with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The review was both internal and external in focus, and incorporated significant work on joint commissioning between Education, Early Help, Social Care and Community Health. This joint High Needs' Plan is the culmination of work across the Children, Families and Communities Directorate, led by Education and Skills, on how to best meet the joint needs for CYP in Worcestershire.
1.2 This is a High Needs' Commissioning Plan and is neither a SEND Strategy nor operationally focused. This Plan sets out the commissioning approach from WCC for children and young people in receipt of High Needs' Funding. Other strategies and documents cover an operational focus for Special Educational Needs.
1.1. We have a requirement to commission services jointly, and have worked hard on these processes to ensure that our services are fit for the purpose of the end user. There are large areas of provision that require Educational, Early Help, Community Health provision and Social Care work. These should not be considered as separate commissioned services, but have a joined-up approach.
1.2. The document was led and produced by the Education and Skills Commissioning Team, with support from Early Help, Social Care and Health colleagues. As such, and because education sector processes are heavily influenced by external timelines, this document is weighted towards education commissioning processes. However, we have incorporated Early Help, Social Care
and Community Health input into the outcomes of any commissioning decision.
1.3. This document establishes:
How we will contribute to achieving our
priorities and plans for Special
Educational Needs in meeting the
need of our communities
The link between the Council's
statutory duties, regulatory
requirements, needs assessments
and the Council's resources.
The outcomes of our review of current
service provision and the requirements
we have established, which will
underpin and help prioritise resource
allocation decisions.
1.4. A significant aspect of the review was to assess need and provision requirements for Students with Special Educational Needs, and whether we had sufficient and suitable provision that was accessible in Worcestershire. The findings of our provision requirements review are set out in this document, as are our intended actions.
1.5. We have also looked at how we commission places and the most efficient and transparent ways of achieving this. One key priority for this area of work has been to put in place meaningful annual discussions with all our Schools and Settings in receipt of High Needs' Funding at the right time of the new commissioning cycle.
1.6. Of course, reform of process on its own cannot be enough to deliver a better system of provision for our most vulnerable children and young people, but it is a vital part in that programme of change and improvement. We are confident that the proposals we set out in this document will give all those involved in supporting young people and children with high needs the best opportunity to help to make a positive impact to their lives.
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2. The Children and
Young People's
Plan and the SEND
Strategy 2.1 In order to deliver joined-up services in
Worcestershire that can best respond to the needs of children, young people and families, we require an integrated approach to planning and commissioning. Our High Needs' Commissioning Plan sets out the strategic intention for the commissioning and planning of services for children and young people aged 0-25 years in response to agreed priorities set out in the Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) and the SEND Strategy.
2.2 The CYPP was launched in September 2017 to ensure all children in Worcestershire reach their full potential and live happy and healthy lives.
2.3 The plan has been developed by us, in partnership with organisations and businesses across the County to benefit all children and young people in Worcestershire, ensuring the County is a wonderful place to grow up in.
2.4 It will set expectations around the way all agencies work and focus on key priorities for children from now until 2021. The ultimate outcomes of the plan are to ensure children: are safe from harm, reach their full potential, make a positive contribution in their communities and live healthy, happy and fun-filled lives.
2.5 The survey we conducted earlier this year showed us what was most important to children and young people, and the people that work with them. Thank you for your responses; these have helped to inform the plan. If you're interested in finding out more and committing to support the plan, please email [email protected] To view the plan, visit: http://www.worcestershire.gov.uk/cypp
2.6 This Plan is informed by both the
CYPP and the SEND Strategy. The SEND Strategy 2017-21 sets out the case for change and how we plan to respond through five key priorities. It will drive an ambitious programme of work that will change the ways in which we work with children, young people, and parents/carers and as professionals together. It will involve greater integration of services, particularly with health and with adult services.
2.7 This Plan sets out our commissioning aims in order to meet the priorities of both the CYPP and the SEND Strategy. Good commissioning of services will enable SEND practitioners to work in an environment of support and access to high quality educational provision.
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3. SEND Sufficiency
Report
3.1 Both the High Needs' Commissioning
Review and this Plan have been informed
by the data collection undertaken for the
annual SEND sufficiency report produced
by WCC.
3.2 What follows is the executive summary of
the SEND sufficiency report. The full
report and data will be published in early
2018 on the Council's website.
Executive Summary
3.3 The number of pre-school children being
referred to Specialist Early Years
provision, including Special school nursery
places is continuing to rise. There has
been a 37.5% increase in the number
of pre-school age children being referred
to PSF since 2007/08. On average
between 2010 and 2016, 8% of pre-school
age children (3 & 4 year olds) in
Worcestershire were referred to Pre-
School Forum.
3.4 Between January 2010 and January 2017
there has been a 42% increase in the
number of children on roll in a Special
school nursery. The LA has supported
accommodation and resources to expand
the number places available in EY
specialist provision.
3.5 The implementation of 30 hour early
entitlement for eligible 3 and 4 year olds in
September 2017 will extend the demand
for places and have a direct impact upon
the sufficiency of early years' specialist
places.
3.6 There continues to be inconsistent offers
of provision from the Special school
nurseries so we will develop a consistent
and equitable offer for these nurseries.
3.7 This increase is having and will continue
to have a significant impact upon the
sufficiency of school-age places in Special
schools. The largest recorded primary
need in pre-school age children in
Worcestershire is Speech Language and
Communication Needs (SLCN). Cabinet
Members are committed to offer Early
Years Specialist Language provision in
each district to support pre-school age
children identified specific speech and / or
language disorder / impairment as a
primary need.
3.8 The number of pupils being referred for a
Worcestershire special school place is
continuing to increase, 1.66% of pupils in
2016 and 1.75% of pupils in 2017 were
accessing a Worcestershire Special
school place.
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3.9 Between January 2010 and January 2017
there has been a 17% increase in the
number of children on roll in
Worcestershire Special schools. This
does not include the numbers of children
and young people also accessing
Independent, non-maintained special
schools or out of county provision.
3.10 The LA has supported expansions
at several of the Special schools to enable
more places to be available. The full-time
equivalent capacity of all Worcestershire
Special schools needs to be determined to
further assess the requirement of
places. Based on 5 year average forecast
projections, there is a requirement for
additional special school places across all
districts.
3.11 In both mainstream and specialist
SEND provision in Worcestershire, there
continues to be a gender gap with more
males than females with identified SEND.
3.12 The area of need showing the
most significant increase in
Worcestershire Primary Schools is
SLCN. The areas of need showing the
most significant increases in
Worcestershire Secondary Schools have
been in Moderate and Specific Learning
Difficulties (MSLD). SLCN and Autistic
Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Other
Difficulties are also on the increase.
3.13 Resources bases and SEND Units
have a part to play in the education
provision in Worcestershire for children
and young people with SEND. The Early
Years Specialist Language provision
(EYSLP) forecast projects a future need
for full-time equivalent places to remain
consistence across the districts to those
commissioned currently. Service Level
Agreements details the recommended
hours of input each week, therefore the
implementation of 30 hours early
entitlement should not directly impact this
type of provision.
3.14 School-age Language Units
projections are not showing significant
sufficiency issues but the data recorded
does not show the full picture of demand
for Specialist SLCN
provision. Geographical gaps are
significant, with no such provision in the
south of Worcestershire. Further work
needs to be completed to determine
provision requirements across the county.
3.15 Autism base data and immediate
projections show insufficient places are
available in Bromsgrove, Malvern,
Worcester, Wychavon and Wyre Forest.
The numbers of children and young
people being referred for Mainstream
Autism Base (MAB) provision is
increasing. Alongside this analysis of the
pupils accessing the Medical Education
Team (MET), independent, non-
maintained special school and out of
county provision, also indicates that more
MAB places are required.
3.16 There continues to be inconsistent
offers of provision across resources bases
and so the LA will develop a consistent
and equitable offer for School-Age
Language units and MABs.
3.17 SEND pupils attending Alternative
Provision (AP) are predominantly
identified with Social, Emotional, Mental
Health (SEMH) needs. A high proportion
of the SEND pupils accessing the MET,
choosing Elective Home Education (EHE),
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and those attending independent or non-
maintained Special schools are also
identified with a primary need of SEMH,
along with ASD.
3.18 25% of the SEND pupils attending
other LA schools (out of County) have a
primary need of ASD recorded. Further
analysis is required to determine whether
more in-county ASD provision and/or more
SEMH provision is required.
3.19 To enable us to have a clearer,
more accurate picture of Specialist
Education provision in Worcestershire and
the analysis of future needs, we will
continue to work hard on ensuring that the
data. relating to SEND pupils, children and
young people in Worcestershire and those
Looked After by Worcestershire is
consistently recorded and easily extracted
from the systems used to record the data.
Table 1.1 Commissioned Places at special schools
Special
School
Places
2013/14
Places
2014/15
Places
2015/16
Places
2016/17
FTE
actual
2016/17
Chadsgrove 121 121 121.00 129.25 129.59
Rigby Hall 117 116 116.00 124.33 118.62
Wyre Forest 216 224* 234.00* 230.00 233.38
The
Kingfisher
52 54.33 64.17 70.00 60.83
Pitcheroak 134 134 139.25 143.00 138.62
Vale of
Evesham
171* 174.5* 185.00* 172.00 169.64
Fort Royal 165 168.17 176.83 200.00 199.78
Regency 158 157 165.00 173.00 172.35
Riversides 68 68 68 68 68
TOTALS 1,270.00 1,285.00 1,337.25 1,377.58 1,348.75
* Residential unit funded as part of places and top-up. Removed 2016/17
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Table 1.2 Percentage of pupils attending Special school and % pupils with EHCP or Statement:
Year
Total pupils
on Roll at
Mainstream
schools
Total
pupils
on roll
at
Special
Schools
Total pupils
on roll
mainstream
& special
Schools
Combined
Total WCC
SEND
Statement /
EHCP at
Mainstream
schools
Total WCC
SEND/EHCP
at Special
schools
% of pupils
on roll at
special
schools of
school
population
% of
SEND/
EHCP Pupil
Population
2017 76946 1372 78318 No info yet 1372 1.75% 3.40%
2016 76391 1289 77680 985 1289 1.66% 3.30%
2015 75807 1232 77039 1091 1232 1.60% 3.10%
2014 75556 1218 76774 1193 1193 1.55% 3.20%
2013 73672 1079 74751 1263 1167 1.56% 3.30%
2012 75433 1191 76624 1351 1351 1.76% 3.40%
2011 74530 1131 75661 1272 1320 1.74% 3.30%
Source: School Census January 2011 – 2017 & SEN2 statutory return
Note: includes nursery pupils on roll
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4. Executive Summary of Recommendations 4.1 This plan document sets out our strategic approach to commissioning services for
children and young people in receipt of High Needs' funding. However, the recent High Needs Commissioning Review (HNCR) made several recommendations that will be underpinned by our plan. The following recommendations are made based on the review's findings, consultation feedback and on the data for current demand for school places, forecast rates and proposed housing growth in the area. This data will be made fully available in a published SEND sufficiency report in January 2018.
4.2 These recommendations should not be read in isolation of the strategic approach identified in the remainder of this document. They are part of a wider context of SEND reforms which will be set out later in this plan and within the SEND strategy.
Provision Changes
Finding (P1) Numbers in special schools are likely to continue to rise, due to demographic and housing pressures, in the foreseeable future.
Action (P1)
Need to assess capacity of ALL Worcestershire Special schools to address immediate need for more places, need to agree average number of pupils per class base and capacity of schools, and; then discuss options, and implications for increases at ALL ages and in ALL existing special schools; It may be possible for schools to take more pupils by better utilisation of space.
Finding (P2)
Increasing places at our existing special schools is unlikely to fully meet future demand. However, consultation showed that the identification of new generic special school provision in Malvern was unclear and unsupported.
Action (P2)
Before making a judgement on new provision, we will assess the impact of the SEND Strategy and this High Needs' Commissioning Plan and how its commitment of support for mainstream inclusion for children and young people with SEND and a better early intervention approach affects Special school places. We will continue to monitor the need for additional provision and any gaps in provision as part of normal SEND Commissioning approaches. In addition, we will review proposals received to date from our existing schools and settings about capital expansions and assess these against their viability to meet our provision requirements. We will not be looking to commission any new provision through Free Schools at this stage.
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Finding (P3) Numbers of Children and Young People with SEND at post-16 is increasing
Action (P3)
The LA will produce a 16-25 strategy to develop the options available to Children and Young People with SEND at age 16 beyond that of staying in a special school, so that they can access Apprenticeships and other vocational or FE provision. We have access to high quality post-16 SEND provision within our FE providers that we will continue to support, and we will look to expand our SEND options with existing post-16 Commercial and Charitable providers. (It should be noted that we do not have Cabinet approval to provide any capital funding for post-16 SEND projects)
Finding (P4) Worcestershire has a high number of children and young people accessing special school places
Action (P4)
We will explore the possibility of providing a 'SEND Outreach Fund' to be given to Special schools and mainstream schools who achieve excellence for their children with SEND to work with other mainstream schools and settings in order to reduce the numbers of children accessing special school places that could remain in mainstream provision. A best practice approach. The SEND Strategy will detail further policy changes to ensure those that can access mainstream provision do so. We want children and parents/carers in Worcestershire to be able to access support at an early stage, as soon as problems or concerns arise, whether that is in a child's early years or later in life. More children and young people will be supported within universal and early intervention services and through a Graduated Response in a co-ordinated way that meets their needs so that fewer children will require a Statutory Response to meet their needs
Finding (P5) Early Years' special school places are commissioned on a different model to mainstream and PVI Early Years' Settings. The numbers are included in a special school total allocation.
Action (P5)
The HNCR identified the potential need to identify the EY element in the total of commissioned places and to consider a different funding model for Early Years' special school places. We will begin this work immediately and in full consultation with settings involved.
Finding (P6) There is a growing trend for children and young people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Action (P6)
We will work to expand Mainstream Autism Base provision at our existing bases; and in a pyramid model where possible and with sufficient interest from relevant parties, and; We will undertake a further detailed review of the ASD / SEMH data to understand the other options for longer term ASD / SEMH provision, and in full consultation with our existing SEMH providers.
Finding (P7) Permanent Exclusions have increased year on year since 2012-13. We require more Alternative Provision places.
Action (P7) Work with providers to create more AP places in Redditch and
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Bromsgrove. We welcome proposals from existing providers and Schools and Settings in these areas on how best to achieve this.
Finding (P8) Consultation feedback showed there is a lack of clarity around the role of Medical Education Team provision.
Action (P8)
We will begin a full review of the Medical Education Team in order: a. To assess appropriateness of current provision b. To assess alternative models of providing medical education to children and young people in Worcestershire c. To ensure that any future model for medical education needs would operate and be funded appropriately
Commissioning Changes
Finding (C1)
Neither a consistent offer for Special Educational Needs across the County was apparent, nor were the requirements of the Local Authority (LA) clear and established. Providers need better support from the LA on what is expected from them, and the LA needs to be better able to hold providers to account and monitor performance and value for money.
Action (C1)
We will therefore begin working on and consulting upon: a. Special school Service Level Agreements and/or Contracts; b. Special School nurseries Service Level Agreements and/or Contracts; c. School Age Language Unit Service Level Agreements and/or Contracts and; d. Revise the Mainstream Autism Base Service Level Agreements and/or Contracts;
Finding (C2) Commissioned place decisions were not clear, transparent or fully involving the schools and settings we were commissioning places from.
Action (C2) A new commissioning process will be implemented for next year and is set out later in this document in section 4
Finding (C3) The review highlighted significant gaps in the data we need to inform funding and commissioning decisions, and the accuracy of the data we do receive.
Action (C3)
A new data reporting timeline will be implemented and is set out later in this document in section 4. We will reform our internal data processes and resource to improve data collection and its use.
Finding (C4)
Given budget pressures we need to be able to assess the impact and value added of all provision. We were unable to do this for Nurture Groups as no LA performance monitoring is in place. Some schools and settings "self-fund" Nurture Groups; others receive a significant contribution from the LA.
Action (C4)
We will review the future of Nurture Groups and consult with all schools who receive Nurture Group funding on their future, alongside those who self-fund their own groups and assess the value added of this provision.
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5. Worcestershire County Councils High Needs' Commissioning Principles
5.1 The processes for commissioning
education provision for students in receipt of High Needs' Funding is very much process-driven, and provides for schools and settings to use the funds to address need in a system of relative autonomy. Commissioning is therefore a placements' process, and not one of standalone commissioned services.
5.2 Community health and Early Help commissioned processes are often on a needs' basis and reflect specific interventions related to those needs. As such, we have incorporated these commissioned services into the education timelines so that we can deliver assessments jointly.
5.3 Details of how we will improve joint production of EHCPs, and by association the commissioning implications of them, can be found in section 7 "Joint Commissioning"
5.4 We recognise that changes need to be carefully managed and that the pace of change should not create unhelpful turbulence.
5.5 Our Plan rests on key commissioning principles which provide a strategic framework:
a) Outcome Led: Commissioned services will provide evidence of required levels of impact and outcome and focus on the needs of children and young people rather than services structures or processes. b) Evidence Based: Commissioning will be informed by local evidence/analysis of need service provision using key strategies and data
c) Engagement and Participation of Children and Young People and their Families and Key Stakeholders: As far as practicable, commissioning processes will be inclusive and participatory. There will be ongoing and effective communication and engagement with stakeholders and will include service users, providers, education, health and social care. d) Value for Money: Commissioners will spend money wisely. Commissioned services will be required to demonstrate value for money, proportionate to the nature of the needs they are addressing whilst improving outcomes for children and young people. e) Quality Assurance: Commissioned services will have quality assurance processes in place which ensure the quality of delivery and compliance with inspection frameworks, statutory guidance policy and legislative procedures. Poor quality and poor value for money services will be de-commissioned in consultation with those services. Quality needs to be monitored and relevant contracts and SLAs in place to allow this f) Systemic and Integrated Approach: We will ensure that services are efficient, effective and sustainable.
g) Creative and Appropriate We will use funding appropriately to commission a range of services that best meet the needs of the child and their parent / carer. We will invest in a creative way through early intervention or different approaches that will have greatest impact and possibly reduce cost pressures at a later stage in a child's life.
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Future Commissioning
Process Changes
5.6 The HNC review highlighted areas for review in the commissioning process:
To be clearer, more transparent in commissioned place decisions and to more fully involve the schools and settings we will commission places from.
To introduce a new commissioning cycle that details the roles and remits of all partners in agreeing future year place numbers
To fully review data collection to ensure a data collection timeline, particularly for top-ups is in place and done on a termly basis. 5.7 The proposed changes to processes incorporate how we commission the place funding we are responsible for, and the process for commissioning top-up funding for all institutions. 5.8 Commissioned places and top-up funding are very separate processes, with places being commissioned on an annual cycle, and top-up funding being a "live" agreement that follows the pupil. 5.9 We will introduce clear processes for each funding stream, and these are set out in this section of the Plan. 5.10 All SEND Commissioning will now be overseen and managed by the Education and Skills Commissioning Team, working closely alongside the SEND Team. All providers will have a named contact to direct commissioning and funding queries to and a cluster lead within SEND services to discuss operational issues with.
Data and Top-Up Funding
5.11 Accurate data is imperative to informing good commissioning decisions. The LA can only work from the information it has at its disposal and so we are implementing immediate internal improvements to how we collect and report upon SEND data. 5.12 We will reform our own internal reporting platforms and will change data collection timelines to reduce the burden on Schools and partners, but increase the quality of data and maximise its use. 5.13 Consultation feedback centred on why WCC could not simply use existing data returns such as the School Census return. The census does not hold the banding level of a pupil or the start date/end date that they are at the school. It also does not provide the proportion of time at the provision i.e. 5 sessions a week 1/2 full time equivalent (FTE) or 10 being full time etc. A pupil could start or leave the day after the census and the funding would not follow the pupil. 5.14 Data reporting is imperative if we are to make accurate top-up funding decisions as 'live' as possible. We are therefore introducing a data collection timeline that will affect funding decisions. 5.15 The data source for the pupil level information for special schools is the ONE system and will continue to be so. 5.16 To support this and to improve the process for allocating 'real time' top ups as pupil records change the Education and Skills Commissioning Team will request pupil level data from Special schools. Schools will be requested to complete termly returns by: -
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February half term based upon the previous January census and any subsequent changes for both year-end final and the initial new-year allocations.
May half term to be based upon the previous May census and any subsequent changes for the first in-year adjustment.
October half term to be based upon the previous October census and any subsequent changes for any mid-year adjustment. 5.17 It is hoped that this will not be a significant burden on schools and will allow for a more accurate in-year allocation for schools in supporting budget planning. It is hoped that through this process, no child or young person will go unfunded. 5.18 To exact this, schools will be provided with a spreadsheet and separate instructions uploaded to schools secure area of the Children's Services Portal. This will contain the current list of funded pupils from the ONE system including: -
DfE No. and School
Pupil Data
Start and End Date
Number of Weeks (Proportion of 52)
Number of Sessions
FTE – Weeks x Sessions
Current Funding Band
Funding LA
Notes for Schools/LA 5.19 This will include all pupils in the school from both WCC and other LAs. 5.20 The instructions will set out step by step guidelines on the pre-populated elements and how schools make changes to the current position by changing the above data drivers.
5.21 Returns will be validated and subject to approval as required by SEND Services.
5.22 Changes proposed to individual pupil bands will be part of the pupils' annual review process and/or separate discussions with SEND Services. These will be subject to agreement and moderation as prescribed by the LA.
Please note: There are already significant pressures
on the High Needs DSG budget, and any increase in
places or expenditure needs to be managed
effectively and within the financial resources
available.
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Below is the WCC Special Educational Needs Commissioning timeline for annual places
Stage / Task Changes to be implemented by schools by: September each year
Responsibility / Team
School Census Data Return October School Census
Schools and Settings
Census NOR data to Provision Planning team in WCC
December / January WCC
Data and information collection
Jan / Feb
WCC Provision Planning Update SEND sufficiency report
SEND sufficiency report issued to Education and Skills Commissioning Team
March (updated with January census data if possible)
WCC Provision Planning
Commissioning Team and SEND Services draft action plan of changes required for the following Sept
April
Commissioning Team / SEND Teams
If number of places commissioned changing
Annual Reviews with all institutions in receipt of High Needs Funding held
May / June SEND Commissioning & Schools and Settings
SEND Services agree changes with Commissioning Team
June Commissioning Manager / SEND Teams
Submission of places to ESFA for following September
Nov Commissioning Manager
Financial Statements issued to schools to include their budgets, and confirmation of places for September
March Schools Finance
Changes implemented by schools Following Sept Schools
Please note: If proposed changes to commissioned places require a School Organisation
process or additional accommodation the timeline would be extended to factor these in.
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6. Commissioning Plan
for setting type and
location of SEND
provision
6.1 SEND policy and practice is rightly highly personalised so that each case is decided upon the specific needs of the individual child or young person.
6.2 The parents or carers of children with complex SEND conditions consequently play a vital role to represent and champion their child’s needs and interests and to navigate their way through the complexities of the education, health and sometimes social care systems. National policy recognises this role and has created a system where, at some key points, the voice of the parent can even have primacy. Not least when it concerns the travel arrangements and location choices for SEND provision or whether their child accesses specialist or mainstream provision.
6.3 As individual cases aggregate within a geographical area, the employees working at a system level seek to establish policies, procedure and practices that can operate effectively to meet the collective needs and maximise outcomes, while also seeking to balance equity, efficiency and ensuring legal compliance.
6.4 Worcestershire sends significant numbers of children to independent provision, of which the largest proportion are out of County. With some children in settings that are a long distance from their family home and community. Example locations include: Exeter, Berkshire, Wales and Chester.
6.5 It could be argued that this isn't necessarily ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, so long as needs are being met and equitable and affordable policies are maintained.
However, when SEND budgets are seeing increasing pressures, we need to review our strategy to local provision and also our ability to support children within a mainstream setting.
6.6 For example, if every mainstream secondary school in the County admitted one more pupil with an EHCP, this is equivalent to the number of pupils being placed outside the County with independent non-maintained schools. If every mainstream secondary school in the region admitted five more pupils with EHCPs, this is equivalent to the total number of pupils from the County being placed with independent non-maintained schools (costing £5.6m)
6.7 The SEND Strategy states that "we believe that every Worcestershire child and young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) really does matter. This means that they all should have their needs met, as far as possible, in the local community, in local early years' settings, local schools, in local Further Education colleagues and work places." Therefore: Our commissioning Strategy for setting type and location of provision is built upon the following logic:
6.8 If more children with SEND needs are educated in a mainstream school, ideally their local school, then more places are available in special schools for those with more significant needs and fewer places are required in independent schools and especially those far away.
6.9 We will introduce the following commissioned activity to support this plan:
Support Local SEND:
6.10 It is important that to ensure all children in Worcestershire reach their full potential and live happy and healthy lives, they live, learn and progress within their own community. As such, we will work to increase access to high quality SEND placements within the County.
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Support Mainstream SEND: Access to high quality SEND placements is not solely related to special school places of course, and we work on the assumption (supported by legal duties and the SEND Code of Practice) that where a child or young person can access mainstream provision, we will support them to do so. We are enhancing our Early Help offer, reforming and embedding our graduated response in mainstream settings, and working with them to ensure the right support is available to all our children and young people with SEND wherever they are. We will explore the option of an Outreach Fund, provided to SEND experts within special schools, Resource Bases and Language Units, and also within mainstream schools who achieve excellence for their children with SEND, to support this work with our other mainstream schools and settings. Support options for SEND: We expect that a child or young person with SEND will have the same options available to them at age 16, as any other child or young person. We are developing a 16-25 SEND strategy in order to open up the post-16 SEND offer, in order to support vocational options such as Traineeships and Apprenticeships. We have some outstanding SEND provision within our Further Education Colleges that we need to further utilise and develop. We will continue to work closely with all FE Colleges within the County to further enhance their high quality SEND provision and support any future developments and plans.
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7. Joint Commissioning
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7.1 Joint planning and commissioning are a key part of the SEND Reforms, and will help lead to better integrated processes and integrated front-line delivery. It requires cultural change across organisations that in turn requires clear leadership and strategic understanding. Effective commissioning is about much more than procurement and contracting, though these are key elements of the commissioning cycle. Commissioning has to define what’s needed and how those needs are best met before consideration can be given to what services need to be purchased.
7.2 Joint commissioning arrangements should enable partners to make best use of all the resources available in an area to improve outcomes for children and young people in the most efficient, effective, equitable and sustainable way.
Establishing effective partnerships across education, health and care
7.3 LAs must work to integrate educational provision and training provision with health and social care provision where they think that this would promote the wellbeing of children and young people with SEND or disabilities, or improve the quality of special educational provision. Local partners must co-operate with the LA in this. The NHS Mandate, NHS Act 2006 and Health and Social Care Act 2012 make clear that NHS England, CCGs and Health and Wellbeing Boards must promote the integration of services.
7.4 If children and young people with SEND are to achieve their ambitions and the best possible educational and other outcomes, including getting a job and living as independently as possible, local education, health and social care services should work together to ensure they get the right support.
7.5 The SEND service currently operates a number of Panels – 6 week decision, 16 week decision, special school Placements,
Special College Placements – to name the key ones.
7.6 The SEND service needs to ensure that the Panels it operates are;
Purposeful
Have clear Terms of Reference
Have the right people attending
Provide clear outcomes
7.7 As such the SEND Service is currently
reviewing all of its Panels to determine:
which are needed as part of a
Statutory Responsibility (with the Code Of
Practice)
which can be managed in a different
way, i.e. through a line management
arrangement
7.8 The SEND service plans on concluding its
review at the end of 2017 and starting
2018 with a clear understanding and
structure of its panels.
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8. SEND
Commissioning
Implementation
8.1 The work does not stop with this Plan document, but continues with the implementation of it.
8.2 A High Needs Implementation Steering Group is in place to oversee that the recommendations in this High Needs Commissioning plan are carried out. This Group includes representatives from Commissioning, SEND, Place Planning and Finance.
8.3 The Steering Group is an intrinsic part of the directorate's SEND governance structure. It reports directly to the SEND Improvement Board on a monthly basis as well as engaging with the Headteachers of the county's special schools.
8.4 The Steering Group will have ownership of the Implementation Plan to drive change of SEND commissioning in Worcestershire and will oversee the annual process of the Place Change Request Form to the Education & Skills Funding Agency.
8.5 Some of the proposed changes can be implemented immediately, but others are part of a longer-term strategy. All are subject to close scrutiny and monitoring to ensure they are seen through to genuine outcomes.
Table 2.1 Overview of the Implementation Plan
Priority Recommendation summary Action
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Increase Generic Special School Places
Place Partnership will conduct a buildings capacity assessment, or update existing plans. Worcestershire County Council's Place Planning Team will issue a concept brief template to all Special Schools in the county in order to assess any 'basic needs' proposals against the priorities of this plan. Proposals will be assessed by a new High Needs Commissioning Board, reporting to the SEN Strategy Board, alongside available capital funds and relevant and suitable projects will be taken forward.
On
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Increase Generic Special School Places
Before making a judgement on new provision we will assess the impact of the SEND Strategy and this High Needs Commissioning Strategy and how its commitment of support for mainstream inclusion for children and young people with SEND and a better early intervention approach affects Special School places. We will continue to monitor the need for additional provision and any gaps in provision as part of normal SEND Commissioning approaches. In addition, we will review proposals received to date from our existing schools and settings about capital expansions and assess these against their viability to meet our provision requirements
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Increase Generic Special School Places
A sub-group of the High Needs Commissioning Board will convene in January 2018 to begin a focused Post 16 SEN Commissioning Strategy.
The primary focus will be to look at opening up
commissioning options for SEN Post-16.
- To look at Supported Internships - FE College future plans - Training Providers (Two Counties Training etc) - NEET prevention with a focus on SEN cohort - Funding traineeships or vocational SEN training
options - Monitoring Post 16 SEN budgets - SEN Careers and Enterprise work stream
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Outreach Funding
We will explore the possibility of providing a 'SEND Outreach
Fund' to be given to special schools and mainstream schools
who achieve excellence for their children with SEND to work
with other mainstream schools and settings in order to
reduce the numbers of children accessing special school
places that could remain in mainstream provision. A best
practice approach.
Part of this work will be an assessment of all High Needs DSG
expenditure, and a refocus on this area of work as part of the
wider SEN Strategy, which will be part of an invest to save
approach.
We will also look at existing outreach work, including the
current Physical Disabilities Outreach Fund.
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Separate out Early Years Funding and Places
The HNCR identified the potential need to identify the EY
element in the total of commissioned places and to consider
a different funding model for Early Years special school
places. We will begin this work immediately and in full
consultation with settings involved
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Increase Autism Provision
The SEN Group Manager and Commissioning officers will further analyse Education and Health data to formulate a clear strategy for additional Autism provision in the county.
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long-term SEMH Places
We will work to expand Mainstream Autism Base provision at our existing bases; and in a pyramid model where possible and with sufficient interest from relevant parties, and; We will being a review of the ASD / SEMH data further to understand the other options for longer term ASD / SEMH
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provision, and in full consultation with our existing SEMH providers.
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Alternative Provision
We are working with a number of providers interested in opening a new Alternative Provision Free School in the Redditch or Bromsgrove area. Due to the future financial commitments of new provision, we will assess all proposals and provide clear support to our preferred applicant.
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Changes to the Medical Education Team
A full review of children and young people accessing support from the Medical Education Team has begun and actions in place to better support them. The next stage of the review will be to; a) To assess appropriateness of current provision b) To assess alternative models of providing medical education to children and young people in Worcestershire c) To ensure that any future model for medical education needs would operate and be funded appropriately
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High Needs Commissioning
We will work alongside Health and Social Care colleagues to introduce by September 2018, a holistic Children, Families and Communities contract with providers in receipt of High Needs Funding, prioritising contracts with our Special Schools.
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Commissioning places
A new commissioning process will be implemented for next year
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Data A new data reporting timeline will be implemented
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Nurture Groups We will review the future of Nurture Groups and consult with all schools who receive Nurture Group funding on their future and the value added of this provision
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9. Performance Monitoring Ultimate Outcome Our Priorities What are we going to do How will we know if we've made a
difference?
Appropriate Specialist education provision
placements are made
Support mainstream provision to better accommodate the needs of children and young people
with SEND
Introduce innovative and creative commissioning approaches, including the possibility of introducing an 'Outreach Fund'
Introduce robust contracts for all Special Schools in order that the LA understands what can be delivered, and the Schools understand what they are expected to deliver
Introduce a new Commissioning Cycle that allows for timely and collaborative discussions between commissioners and head teachers
Agree the NET Capacity of our Special Schools and look to increase place numbers where possible.
We will support a new 16-25 SEND strategy by commissioning increased SEN services from FE providers that expand post 16 options.
Our Graduated Response will be well understood and an Early Intervention
approach will be fully embedded in SEND practices.
Appeals and Tribunals will have reduced by at least 10% by 2022, from 2017 figures
Understand the specialism of each Special School and make
clear our requirements
Contracts with Special Schools, with clear and agreed Service Specifications are in
place for September 2018
Have accurate Special School funded places that are based on future plans
To improve communications with Special Schools
Year-end actual numbers reported in data returns from Special Schools will be within
90% accuracy of original allocations by 2020 and 95% accuracy by 2022
Children and Young People and their parent carers have
access to a wide ranging local offer
To increase capacity of provision for all children and
young people
All Special Schools with the ability to expand will have increased their capacity for FTE
places by 2022
To create new opportunities and increase choice of provision for all children and young people
We will have 5% of all Worcestershire SEND young people post 16 on a vocational course
of some kind by 2020 and 10% by 2022
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Glossary of Terms
CYPP Children and Young Peoples Plan
DfE Department for Education
EHCP Education, Health and Care Plan
ESFA Education Skills and Funding Agency
EY Early Years
EYSFF Early Years Single Funding Formula
FE Further Education
FTE Full time Equivalent
HN High Needs
HNCR High Needs Commissioning Review
SEND Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities
WCC Worcestershire County Council