Issue - meetings

SEND improvement funding

Meeting: 01/09/2021 - Cabinet (Item 50)

As advised in the July Budget Overview Report, BCP is required to produce and fund a Written Statement of Action (WSoA), initial indications were a minimum £300k full year requirement and this has been included within the Q1 forecast.

Sigificant work is required to implement the 2014 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) reforms, much requiring transformation, which will form part of the Council’s wider transformation programme.

Additional resource is required to ensure the WSoA is fit for purpose. This business case covers:

- immediate resources needed to begin the ‘develop’ phase of the work

- some of the resources currently identified moving into the delivery phase

Additional resources will be required for the delivery phase – some will be sought from the Department for Education (DfE) and Local Government Association (LGA), where this is not possible, further business cases will be brought forward for this year, or built into proposals for the MTFP 2022-23.

Decision:

RECOMMENDED that: -

(a) Cabinet recommends that Council approve £292k of additional resources to support the SEND written statement of action in 2021/22.

(b) Cabinet recommends that Council approves the £220k additional resources requested in 2022/23 which reduces to £156k in 2023/24, and £137k from 2024/25 onwards.

RESOLVED that Cabinet: -

(c) notes that Council is being requested to approve the additional resources for future years in advance of the formal budget report for 2022/23 as the request includes the appointment to permanent staff posts.

(d) Receive further business cases as required

Voting: Unanimous

Portfolio Holder: Covid Resilience, Public Health and Education

Reason

To ensure the local authority is in the best position to meet its statutory responsibilities and to produce a Written Statement of Action which the DfE passes as both ‘fit for purpose’ and deliverable (as judged through a follow up monitoring and inspection).

Minutes:

The Portfolio Holder for Covid Resilience, Public Health and Education in accordance with the Constitution and having been agreed with the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Board that the item is urgent presented an urgent report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'I' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Cabinet were informed that as advised in the July Budget Overview Report, BCP is required to produce and fund a Written Statement of Action (WSoA), initial indications were a minimum £300k full year requirement and this has been included within the Q1 forecast.

In relation to this Cabinet was advised that sigificant work is required to implement the 2014 Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) reforms, much requiring transformation, which will form part of the Council’s wider transformation programme, and that additional resource is required to ensure the WSoA is fit for purpose.

Cabinet were informed that the business case covers: