Issue - meetings

Information report ready for review. In January 2023, BCP committed to reviewing the methodology for Exceptional circumstances which has not been updated since LGR and is no longer 'exceptional' with 20% of schools qualifying for support in the financial year 22-23.

The SEND Service Manager presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these minutes in the Minute Book. The report provided information on the review of the methodology for Exceptional Circumstances which had not been updated since LGR and was no longer 'exceptional' with 20% of schools qualifying for support in the financial year 22-23.

There had been a lot of feedback from schools around what a notional £6000 budget looked like, how it should be used. The Forum was asked for feedback on what would be appropriate. It was proposed that a working group be established to bring a revised methodology to the Forum in September.

The forum discussed the report and proposal, the points raised in discussion included:

Clarification of the notional budget and that this wasn’t based on the number of pupils with SEND from the school census. It was confirmed that identifying children as needing school support did not generate any additional funding for the school.

Whether the methodology provided an incentive to overidentify SEND. Children did not receive any additional funding but there was a greater amount of responsibility when identified.

That 20 percent of schools had already reached the threshold but there were probably many more schools who were currently under this threshold but who were waiting for a number of outstanding assessments who would have reached 3 percent if these were completed within a statutory timeframe.

The Forum needed to liaise better with SEND Improvement Board as there were a number of issues coming through the Board and it was important that a working group liaises effectively.

That the data was already very old and January Census data would shift some of the data and if the working group was going to be effective it needed to have up to date data.

It was important that the results from the working party be reported back to members of the forum prior to the final report being produced in order to allow time for it to be considered and allow for an opportunity to liaise with others.

Anyone participating in the working group also needed to be well informed on the issues and implications.

The timeframes for the proposed group and the impact this would have on the methodology. It was noted that it was hoped to bring a paper to the forum in September with the new funding methodology to begin from the start of the new academic year.

The effect on post-16 and if this was taken into account as the percentage of EHCPs going into post 16 was significantly lower.

Concern that there were difficult conversations going on because there were many schools with extremely tight budgets and that support needed to be in place as soon as possible. It was also noted that the purchasing power of £6000 had been significantly reduced.

RESOLVED that Schools Forum acknowledges that BCP has committed to reviewing the methodology  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4