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 and statement were received from Mr Adam Sofianos with the answers from the Portfolio Holder set out in response:
Questions from Mr Sofianos:
Q1
The Key Lines of Enquiry paper is an important work, and I thank councillors and officers for coordinating it.
It tells, indirectly, the story of SEND, from over-stretched services to under-supported children. And beyond the council experience, the situation is even worse, with many children waiting years to access diagnosis, struggling daily with their mental health, experiencing systematic unmet needs at school, only to be excluded from their community – because they were deprived of the support which they were entitled to under law.
This is a multi-layered crisis, seemingly without end. It falls to councils to try to do the best they can, despite it.
One overriding theme in the Enquiry is: how can the deficit be reduced? Does Council agree that it’s just too big to significantly reduce, that service cuts won’t deliver it, and that only widescale government intervention can achieve this?
Cllr Richard Burton, Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People, provided an answer as follows:
Thank you, Chairman, and thank you, Adam, for your question.
I would also like to thank you for the recognition and understanding of the situation as demonstrated by your question and agree with most of what you say. I've said most, actually, probably more than most, especially the bit that you said it falls to councils to try to do the best they can.
As always, we remain committed to improving outcomes for children and families with special educational needs and disabilities in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. A recent Department of Education review recognised the significant progress that we've made locally: strengthening our partnership, improving governance and restructuring our SEND service. These steps are laying the foundations for lasting improvement.
But like many councils, the demand for SEND services and the cost of delivering fall outstrip the funding available from central government. This continued lack of government intervention to address the growing Dedicated Schools Grant deficit and the current system that has generated and is perpetuating it is not just a local issue.
It's a national crisis that requires urgent action. Without fair and sustainable funding systems, councils will be forced into impossible decisions, with devastating consequences for children and young people and families across the country.
That is why we are calling on government to act. Every child and young person in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole deserves the support they need to thrive, and that cannot happen without immediate reform to the SEND system backed by a sustainable funding model.
It is also why we commissioned this report to understand why BCP Council is experiencing a high deficit and similar authorities, and to endorse a package of improvement that includes early intervention, strengthened Education, Health and Care Plans oversight, expansion of local provision and improved dispute resolution.
These actions are designed to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND by reducing demand pressures and delivering better value for money by investing in what really makes a difference.
Thank you.
Q2
The data for suspensions and exclusions is heartbreaking. Sanctions here are above the national rate. FSM children are excluded 4 times and suspended 6 times more than other children. Those with SEN support are excluded 6 times more than peers. Children with EHCPs are suspended 8 times more than peers.
The report shows a vastly disproportionate impact on our most vulnerable children. It underlines the urgent need for earlier intervention, faster diagnosis, better awareness of trauma-informed practice, and a culture of inclusion embedded in all settings.
There are schools which already embrace these cultures – such as my local primary Highcliffe St Mark’s, which – despite the same funding challenges as others – battles to support and develop vulnerable children. How can the Council use its best examples, to encourage and support improvement across the conurbation?
Cllr Richard Burton, Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People, provided an answer as follows:
Thank you again, Adam, for your second question.
We recognise the dedication and commitment that our local schools demonstrate every day in supporting our children and young people. We have several networks which allow schools to share best practice across the conurbation, for example Head Teachers, SENCO and Attendance Forum.
We also hold an annual education conference and at the last one, which I attended, a local Head Teacher shared how they enable children to develop a sense of belonging to their school community.
There was also movie input from practitioners from other areas of the country explaining their journey to become a totally inclusive establishment and the impact of a sense of real belonging has on their students. There is more details of this in the KLOE paper that's coming up.
We're also connected to regional and national networks, which ensures we can bring the best practice from across the Southwest and the country to BCP. We are currently establishing a BCP Education Partnership Board, which will further improve collaboration across the conurbation.
The published suspension exclusion figures are always out of date by the time they have gone through due process and are made publicly available. It'll be interesting to see how they change over the next few years as these practices are enacted.
Q3
The agenda papers don’t break down sanctions by school. But the Government’s data does. The release of 2023/24 statistics show that 5 schools among 100 in BCP gave half of all permanent exclusions, and 6 schools gave almost half of all suspensions.
One school gave 1,148 suspensions in a schoolyear: the equivalent of 6 suspensions every single schoolday for a year.
In that time I read of local children suspended for having a period panic in class, isolated for having a short haircut, sanctioned for being unable to afford school uniform, and countless SEND children reporting unmet needs.
Budgets might be impossibly restrictive, but school cultures shouldn’t be. Yet there are few ways to hold schools to account.
Would the Committee consider inviting representatives from some of these schools to a future meeting, to discuss how cultures impact children, especially the most vulnerable?
Cllr Richard Burton, Portfolio Holder for Children and Young People, provided an answer as follows:
Thank you again, Adam, for your question.
There are several ways in which we support schools in understanding performance and approaches to alternatives, and suspensions and exclusions. These include data sharing and the utilisation of this data to target, support and challenge.
Data sharing also allows for robust discussion through several networks. For example, through the Head Teachers Forum, SENCO's meetings, and targeted attendance meetings. To strengthen challenge further, we are developing an Education Effectiveness Framework and Education Partnership Board.
We need to be careful not to oversimplify these statistics as we have a complex mix of different schools within BCP.
Cllr Carr-Brown, Chair of the Children’s Service Overview and Scrutiny Committee also provided an answer as follows:
Thank you for that question, Adam.
I have brought this to the committee. We have had a discussion and of course it's an incredibly important area and issue that you raised. We also acknowledge the stresses and strains on schools and what they are dealing with and those stresses and strains on parents.
We think that yes, inclusion is obviously a key element of any response that we build towards the central budget recovery, as well as being an intrinsically important issue for every single child in our conurbation. We would like to, in broad terms, seek to understand more about this and hear the views of schools. However, we need to do that within a scrutiny format. We have a committee here that has particular ways of doing things. We have to show that our test and challenge is there for the right reasons and it's carried out in the right way.
So what I'd like to do is take away your proposal, and we will discuss it in terms of our work planning and we will then scope it and see how we can deal with it most appropriately.
Thank you.
Statement from Mr Sofianos:
S1
With the Government’s SEND reforms delayed, and services under colossal pressure, children’s rights are under threat, and families need your support more than ever.
There are concerns that the Government will spend less money, that children could have less legal protections.
And some in politics are apparently using this moment to attack and delegitimise vulnerable children.
Reform deputy Richard Tice recently claimed there’s a “crisis of over-diagnosis” among neurodivergent children.
Reform leader Nigel Farage has claimed Britain is “massively over-diagnosing… mental illness problems” and even claimed neurodivergent children were being diagnosed by GPs over Zoom.
These comments are ill-informed, divisive, destructive, and offensive, and should be condemned.
This is a dark time for vulnerable people. I urge all councillors to support SEND families, to use their voices to support the retention of children’s rights, and to take that message to Government itself.