Agenda item

The committee to be provided with a verbal update on the Isle of Wight Council’s Safety Valve Bid

The Assistant Director, Education and Inclusion

Hampshire County Council and Isle of Wight Council provided an introduction and suggested the committee should consider an annual update regarding the SEND strategy and Safety Valve Programme.

It was explained that the during 2020/21 the Department of Education introduced the safety valve intervention programme for those local authorities with the very highest percentage Dedicated School Grant DSG deficits. The Isle of Wight Council had been invited to take part in the 2022/23 programme whereby the Council put in a safety valve bid into the DfE which would potentially deliver the additional finance needed for the future strategy for improving outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs.

The Assistant Director for Education and Inclusion gave a PowerPoint presentation on how children and young people with SEND on the Isle of Wight are getting an improving deal across education, health and care.

It was affirmed that there was commitment across the sectors to drive improvements by working together to ensure that children’s needs are identified early and that they receive the support they need.

It was highlighted that the Isle of Wight was doing well in this field and was consistently above the national performance indicators.

The Government Green Paper was warmly welcomed and the strategies the Island had chosen to follow had the objectives of supporting mainstream schools in their support children with special needs, as well as looking at the individual situations through the lens of the child. Strategies that were being developed by the local authority involved building capacity with SEN support guidance, tool kits, bespoke training, networks and termly meetings with advice givers.

There was also to be greater local authority involvement with a person-centred approach, making sure that EHCPS are reviewed annually and had tighter outcomes and sharply focused provision. All EHCPS were now electronic, though there needed to be a standardizing of EHCPs that would need to be addressed.

There was a commitment to continue with the EHCP process improvement with the roll out of the EHCP hub along with right sizing the financing of EHCPs through a banding system and increasing the number of SEN caseworkers.

There was the desire to reduce the number of Off Island placements and furthermore create a new special school funded under free school processes which would accommodate 75 places catering for both primary and secondary aged pupils. The Committee was told that a bid for the funding of this new school had just been granted by the DfE.

The presentation concluded with an overview of how children and young people with SEND are given provision for preparing for adulthood. This included an employability hub with supported internships and apprenticeships, and work with employers to broaden awareness.

Questions were asked regarding the amount of the deficit and write off, the shortage of SEN teachers and support staff, and the fact that the Government White Paper on education had been scrapped which had the effect of leaving the Green Paper to operate in isolation.

RESOLVED:

THAT the SEND Strategy and Safety Valve report be noted.

THAT the committee would monitor progress of the strategy and safety valve programme to ensure the different strands are being implemented.