Agenda item

(To receive a joint report from Jonas Gibson, Commissioning and Development Manager and Catherine Southcott, Commissioning Officer, which provides the Schools Forum with an update on the current position of Outreach Services)

The Forum gave consideration to a report from the Commissioning Officer, which provided an update as to the progress of the Behaviour Outreach Support Service and to explore a mechanism to achieve savings to the Dedicated School Grant through investments in early intervention and support.

The report aimed to conclude the review of the Outreach Services, which had been initiated by a report from the Assistant Director of CfBT Education Services which had been considered by the Schools Forum at its meeting on 15 January 2014.  The outcome of the overarching service review with recommended model for delivery for Outreach services for "Physical Disabilities and Autism and Learning Difficulties" was then agreed by the Schools Forum at its meeting on 14 January 2015.

It was reported that throughout the review process it had been recognised that further research was needed for the "Challenging Behaviour" Outreach Service.

The Executive Director for Children's Services introduced the report and expressed concerns to the increase in the number of children being excluded at all key stages from schools and special schools.  The Forum was advised that to date there were 39 permanent exclusions from primary schools; 93 from the secondary sector; and 7 from special schools.  The increase in numbers was putting extra pressure on the Teaching and Learning Centre, who was struggling to cope with the increase in numbers.  It was noted that some children because of their complex SEN needs had to be catered for out of County, and that this sector had also increased.

The Executive Director advised that the Local Authority had a statutory responsibility to educate excluded children and that the final review of the "Behaviour Outreach Services" had presented an approach that would hopefully assist in achieving longer term savings from the Dedicated Schools Grant by containing the growth of the exclusions and the high specialist placements.  It was reported that this could be achieved through investment and the development of an effective "Behaviour Outreach Support Service," which would be focussed on early intervention, prevention and support for Schools, Families and to the pupils experiencing social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.  Details of the Financial Implications were shown at Paragraph 10 to 10.6 on pages 39 to 41 of the report.  Paragraph 11 on page 41 of the report provided details of the recommendations, the benefits and disadvantages/risks associated with the proposed service.

The Executive Director stressed that action need to be taken now, due to the current pressures on the Teaching and Learning Centre as the Ofsted inspection had highlighted the current pressures on the Teaching and Learning Centre.  The Executive Director highlighted that this issue had been discussed by the Schools Forum before, and at that time the Forum had decided not to impose a penalty on schools that excluded pupils.  The proposed Outreach Service would offer a solution to the problem and reduce the pressure on the Teaching and Learning Centre but the issue of exclusions was a complicated and wicked issue which required a range of strategies and that no one single solution could deliver transformational change.

The Commissioning and Development Manager guided the Forum through the report and Appendix 1, which provided details of the Proposed Behaviour Outreach Support Service Design, and Appendix 2 which advised of the Proposed Behaviour Outreach Support Service Pathway.

During discussion the following issues were raised:-

·         The potential for fining those that excluded, but it was confirmed that a previous decision of the Schools Forum had decided not to go down that route;

·         The pressures on secondary modern schools that have a high level of SEN's;

·         It was noted that Grammar schools received far less funding and therefore had a problem with the top slicing.  Some discussion was had as to alternative funding arrangements which proportionally top sliced more funding off those schools more likely to exclude;

·         That some schools were finding it very challenging to manage challenging behaviour, with schools needing more support to deal with such issues;

·         It was highlighted that there was a perception that there was a large number of children with Autism in secondary mainstream schools who, some members felt needed to go to a special environment.  It was highlighted further that the Code of Practice required children to be placed in mainstream wherever possible and that increased numbers of pupils in specialist provision would be more costly;

·         The Forum was advised that other authorities were not experiencing the same rise in number of exclusions as Lincolnshire was, but exclusion was an issue nationally;

·         Members asked for reassurance that there was a plan in place for the local authority to work with the Teaching and Learning Centre to address its recent Osted report.  The Executive Director advised that there was an action plan in place;

·         Some members felt that preventative measures were better than cure, as some children did not need to be excluded.  The Forum were advised that research had identified that prevention working with other agencies would be an invest to save model;

·         Providing resources to schools and sharing skills would provide help to tackle the issues.  The Forum were reminded that there was only one pot of money and it was important to get the best return for that money;

·         The possibility of student exchanges – The Executive Director advised that this approach had been used in some areas but had not significantly reduced exclusions, but clearly had mitigated some;

·         The effect of bad behaviour on other children in the class and on members of staff.  It was noted that the teaching profession was losing good members of staff as a result in some cases; and

·         The implications of using Free Schools for intervention rather than exclusion.  It was suggested that there was a specific issue which had highlighted the possibility of being double funded by the Education Funding Agency and that this was being explored.

RESOLVED

1.    That the content of the report be noted.

2.    That support be given to the LA's proposals in developing a Behavioural Outreach Support specification.

3.    That support be given to the funding sources in supporting the delivery of the said service. (Voting 7 in favour; 4 abstained).