Agenda item

(To receive a report by Stuart Carlton, Assistant Director of Children's Services, and Sheridan Dodsworth, Head of Service – SEND, which provides an update on the arrangements in place to ensure that all young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN) have an annual Transitional Review from Year 9 onwards and that an appropriate Transition Plan is drawn up)

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Committee with an update on the arrangements which were in place to ensure that all young people with SEN had an annual Transitional Review from Year 9 onwards and that an appropriate Transition Plan was drawn up.

It was reported that in October 2013 the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) found Lincolnshire County Council to be at fault for failing to ensure the effective transition arrangements for a young man who had Special Educational Needs (SEN).

The Children and Families Act would be implemented from 1 September 2014, and this legislation would remove both Statements of SEN and  Learning Difficulty Assessment (LDA) and would introduce a single Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan for young people who require additional support above that which could be provided through the ‘Local Offer’.  All EHC Plans were required to be based on outcomes for young people, and this would introduce a far greater emphasis on forward planning and setting targets which would assist young people in fulfilling their aspirations.  The SEND service was currently being re-structured to ensure it would meet the requirements of the legislative reforms.  As a result officers would be much more closely linked to the individual plans for children and young people and would have a far greater involvement in transition planning than under existing SEN arrangements.

Members of the Committee were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report, and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

• It was requested that an update be brought to the Committee once the new legislation was in place;
• Under the new arrangements a case worker would be identified for each child, and would meet with the families;
• An extensive package of training was being put together for the new service;
• This would be a person centred plan approach, and work would also be going on with schools, and would be based around outcomes for the child. The plans would be driven by the child and their family;
• This would be a 0-25 years service, but some parts would be within Adult Services;
• This service would be provided by the local authority, regardless of whether the child attended a maintained school or an academy;
• Each of the recommendations within the Ombudsman’s report had been dealt with quickly;
• All schools had a responsibility to provide an independent careers service;
• It was believed that there were approximately 250 young people with SEN who would be leaving school before September 2014 when the new legislation came into force.  However, they had already been prioritised and targeted.  There were approximately 500 young people who needed to be prioritised for the following September (2015);
• Members welcomed the changes which would come through in September;
• All cost analyses for the new service had been carried out, and most of the staff from the old service would be successful in gaining a position in the new service.  Additional funding was being provided from government to help in this transition process;
• The protocol for the new service would be available before 1 September 2014;
• There had been extensive consultation, including with parents, on the new model.

RESOLVED

            That the report be noted.