Decision details

RESOLVED that Cabinet: -

(a)           agrees in principle with the content and recommendations of the Appreciative Inquiry; and

(b)           agrees to receive future business cases in respect of new capital or revenue spend arising from implementation of the recommendations, on the proviso these are cross-referenced with all other Council strategies for education such as the SEND strategy and the Children’s Services Capital Programme.

Voting: Unanimous

Portfolio Holder: Covid Resilience, Public Health and Education

Reason

The Appreciative Inquiry has revealed an ‘inclusion deficit’ in the education of many children and young people with complex needs and challenging behaviour living in BCP. Whilst this is a national issue, local performance needs to improve. Some but by no means all of these children and young people have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The Inquiry found that local capability needs to be strengthened to enable many children in these cohorts to be educated in mainstream schools. To do so will require a major transformation programme which can only be agreed at the Cabinet level.