Issue - meetings

(To receive a report from the Executive Director of Children's Services which presents the 'Building Communities of Specialist Provision Strategy' to the Executive for consideration and approval)

(1)  That the outcome of the informal public consultation and the Council's response to it as set out in the report section 6 and Appendix B and C to the report, be noted.

(2)  That the outcome of the formal representation period for the Council's maintained special schools cited in the strategy as outlined in the report, section 6, be noted.

(3)  That approval be given to the Building Communities of Specialist Provision Strategy, as detailed at Appendix A to the report.

(4)  That approval be given to the alterations to Council maintained special schools, as set out in the table in the section of the report headed "Maintained School Alterations", to take effect on or from the Implementation date specified in the said table.

Consideration was given to a report from the Executive Director of Children's Services, which presented the Building Communities of Specialist Provision Strategy for consideration and approval.

The Executive Councillor for Adult Care, Health and Children's Services introduced the report to the Executive.

The Children's Services Manager – Responsibility for Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) advised that the report outlined the proposed vision for SEND provision to be implemented over the next five years, subject to approval.  The report also included details of the prescribed alterations for the special schools and the strategies identified to address the existing challenges of sufficiency and suitability in the current system.  The Strategy was detailed at Appendix A to the report.

The Executive was asked to consider the outcome of both the statutory and non-statutory public consultations in respect of both the strategy itself and the proposed changes to the local authority maintained schools affected by it.  The Executive was advised that the proposed changes to the Academies cited in the strategy had already been approved by the Regional Schools Commissioner, so there were no additional decision-making processes required for the approval of the strategy.

The Chairman of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee advised that the Committee had considered a report on Building Communities of Specialist Provision for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities at its meeting on 19 October 2018 and had unanimously supported the recommendations to the Executive.  The comments of the Committee were detailed on page 30 of the Executive report.

The Executive was advised that the Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum and other partners and officers had worked collaboratively with the County Council in developing the proposed strategy. 

The Executive was provided with an opportunity to ask questions where the following points were noted: -

·         It had been recognised that there were significant challenges within the existing provision and the status quo was not sustainable.  The challenges included: an increase in demand on a limited number of school places; excessively long journeys for a significant number of pupils; a potentially detrimental impact of some Out of County placements on families;  and a need for significant improvements to some special school buildings;

·         The strategy would make significant changes to the existing special education provision, creating an integrated and sustainable school system where pupils could attend their nearest school special school, confident that their education and health needs could be fully met;

·         It was the County Council's aspiration to support children and young people with SEND in mainstream schools, where possible;

·         The strategy proposed an increase in the number of special school places by 500, owing to the number of children and young people with complex needs increasing since 2014.  There had been an increase in numbers since 2014 owing to a change in legislation which had introduced new duties for local authorities and the NHS;

·         Consideration was being given to the transportation requirements;

·         Training requirements within schools would be met.

RESOLVED

(1)  That the outcome of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33