The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise the report outlined above and make recommendations to Cabinet as appropriate.
Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor Sandra Moore, Portfolio Holder for Children and Families.
The Cabinet report will be published on Tuesday 14 April 2020 and available to view at the following link: https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=285&MId=3729&Ver=4
Minutes:
The Chairman invited the Portfolio Holder for Children and Families to introduce the Cabinet report, a copy of which had been circulated and appears as Appendix B to the Cabinet minutes of 22 April 2020 in the Minute Book. During the course of discussion, the following points were raised:
The High Needs Grant Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant was currently underfunded by the government and there was an accrued and increasing overspend. There was a need for an increase in provision locally due to a lack of sufficiency in special schools. Budget pressures means the situation needed to move quickly and it was hoped that the work could be completed by the September term which would save a total of £4million pounds per annum.
A Councillor from the Children’s Services O&S Committee submitted a question in advance which was how long the investment would take to pay back. The Portfolio Holder responded that based on financial modelling undertaken payback period was one year from when the spaces came online and factored in a level of risk due to Covid-19.
The Chairman of the Children’s Services O&S Committee asked what the current shortfall in spaces was and if the 135 places would cover or what the shortfall would be. The Portfolio Holder commented that this was no where near covering the number of spaces needed but these were mostly in secondary provision and work was ongoing to address these issues.
Whether the savings calculated included those which would come through reduced school transport costs. It was confirmed that this was not included within the report. It was believed that there would be some revenue savings but this would need to be followed up.
A Board member asked if children who were already in place in independent schools could be moved to the new additional places. It was noted that children would only be moved as an outcome of the normal review process for EHCP plans.
A Councillor commented on the substantial savings to be made and questioned why this had not been done previously. It was noted that Poole and Bournemouth had done some work in the past in putting additional spaces in place but that it was a significant challenge. Preceding councils had created a combined total of 241 places previously.
A Councillor commented that this was a welcome initiative but highlighted that parents must be given support and that EHCPs would only be reviewed in the normal way and moves not put in place just due to cost avoidance. The Portfolio Holder fully supported this.
It was noted that demand would outstrip supply, but the Council was continuing to pursue opportunities for additional school places. A Councillor commented that schools had been very supportive over this.
In response to a query about the impact that this would have on the overall capital programme within Children’s Services the Director confirmed that this was ringfenced for creating additional spaces, but a paper would be coming back to Cabinet shortly on the overall Children’s Services capital programme.