Public Issues
To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-
The deadline for the submission of public questions is 3 clear working days before the meeting.
The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday the working day before the meeting.
The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.
Minutes:
The following questions were heard by the Committee with responses provided at the meeting by the Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People:
The following questions were received from Mr Sofianos:
Q1
The SEND scorecard reveals a significant change in the SEND workforce between May and September this year.
Agency workers rose
from 16% to almost 27% of the team.
Permanent case
officers in post fell from 56% to 38%.
And the proportion
of EHCPs having a change of case officer in September soared to
30%.
This comes as PCT member parents have been advised directly by
Parent-Carers Together (but not by the Council itself) that case
officer teams have been restructured.
What are the causes of these changes, and how will the Council reassure parents – and inform them all – moving forward?
Answer from the Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People:
Thank you, Adam, for your question
These figures are due to the SEND restructure staff changes which is now being implemented and is part of our wider improvement work.
This is a significant planned change to the system involving the reallocation of over 4000 children and case allocation structures/teams.
Many of these changes are a direct response to requests by our Parent Carers Together (PCT) and Parent Carers Foundation (PCF) Forums for new posts in the system e.g.
This is to ensure more caseworkers so that the service can support children and families’ needs better. This evidences that we are committed to co-production and working together better.
Throughout the summer we have shared these plans with PCT, Schools and wider settings and to ensure that families are aware of these changes. Unfortunately, as explained to the two Parent Carers Forums we have current systems limits which means that we cannot do this automatically for our parents.
To this end we have reached out in partnership with PCT and PCF to help disseminate this change and ask for parents to access the Local Offer site to find who their new Case Officer is.
We recognise that our system needs to improve, and this will be addressed in future systems development work.
Q2
AP settings have a mixed record.
A recent national survey found that in 2022/23, AP pupils missed a staggering 42% of sessions overall. 38% of pupils missed 50% or more sessions.
AP pupils travelled almost 3 times as far to school as mainstream peers – almost 9km on average. 25% of these live more than 10km from the setting.
And although by law, 100% of excluded pupils should be placed with an AP within 6 schooldays, the national success rate remains for lower.
What is the current overall rate for APs within BCP, for:
i) sessions missed,
ii) pupil distance travelled,
iii) pupils allocated places within 6 schooldays of exclusion?
Answer from the Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People:
In relation to elements i and ii ... view the full minutes text for item 33