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Written evidence from London Borough of Newham

1. London Borough of Newham (LBN) welcomes the opportunity to provide written evidence to the Education Select Committee and looks forward to discussing these issues in greater depth at the evidence session on May 8th. 

2. LBN’s new administration is committed to ensuring sustained improvement in support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), and is implementing a transformation programme to support this commitment.

3. In autumn 2018, LBN launched a Transformation Plan with priorities including establishing clearer pathways for children and young people with special educational needs, joint commissioning, SEND specialist provision, an integrated approach to specialist support for schools, and robust business systems and reporting.

4. A new local offer, engagement and co-production with families and children, and the development of a dedicated Newham SEND Information, Advice and Support Service will underpin these priorities.

5. What challenges do you face in discharging your statutory duties towards children and young people with SEND? Is this enough to lead to satisfactory outcomes for children and young people with SEND?

1. Challenges 
1. The 2014 reforms to provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities have provided a welcome framework for joined up, forward thinking support to children and young people and their families. LBN is committed to supporting children and young people with SEND and realising the ambitions of the Children and Families Act 2014. However we currently face four significant challenges in meeting our statutory duties in this area.

1. Education, Health and Care Plans
1. LBN has followed an approach of inclusive provision for children in the borough, largely without the need for Statements of Special Educational Needs. The change in legislation and increasing expectations of families significantly increased demand for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). This has resulted in a large backlog of assessments and challenges in ensuring high quality EHCPs are prepared in a timely way.

8. The proportion of new EHCPs completed within the 20-week time scale in Newham was the lowest in the country in 2018. As of the end of January 2019, there were 938 EHCPs in place. With increased funding and capacity now in place, we expect the number of children with EHCPs to double by March 2020.

1. 19 to 25 year olds with SEND 
1. The duty to provide support through an EHCP to 19 to 25 year olds who require it entails the development of provision and opportunities for young people. LBN has worked closely with Newham College and with Newham’s Adult Services to develop provision, which has enabled us to support the opening of a resource for post-16 young people with autism.

10. However, the range and extent of provision is not sufficient to meet demand at this time. For example, we have no local provision for young people post-16 with complex health needs. Whilst developing local provision will reduce reliance on expensive out-of-borough placements, in the short term this places additional pressures on the High Needs Budget. 

1. High Needs Budget 
1. The High Needs Budget (HNB) is significantly overspent. The budget for 2019/20 is £48.205 million (including a transfer of £1.7 from the Schools Block) and overspend is anticipated to be in the region of £6.4 million this financial year. 

12. Next year’s HNB allocation is £47 million and with increases in total cost of additional funding for children and young people with SEND we anticipate this will lead to an overspend of £13 million for 2020/21.

13. Meeting our responsibilities towards children with SEND and their families cannot currently be achieved through the HNB alone and is therefore placing wider pressures on the council’s finances.

1. Pupil Places 
1. An unintended consequence of the 2014 Act has been that parental demand for Special School or specialist provision has increased nationwide.  Within Newham, there are very limited special school places available locally as a result of the borough’s inclusive approach to SEND provision. 

15. Mainstream schools in the borough are managing increasing complexity of needs, against a backdrop of funding constraints and accountability pressures focused on attainment and inspection outcomes. At the same time the number of high needs funded pupils increased by 88% between 2010 to 2018.

16. These pressures are leading to an increase in the number of parents who are requesting special school places which are not currently available in the borough. 

1. Outcomes 
1. Educational outcomes are generally good at primary level for children and young people in Newham overall, including those with special educational needs and disability. 

18. Table 1: Outcomes at key stage 2 for pupils from Newham, London & England (2018)

19. In the secondary phase, the comparative performance of children and young people with SEND (especially those with EHC plans) is generally lower than that of all Newham pupils or those with no SEND. This is particularly noticeable at GCSE.  It is important to note that a relatively small proportion of children in Newham have EHCPs, and that those who do generally have particularly complex needs.

20. Table 2: Outcomes at key stage 4 for pupils from Newham, London & England (2018) 

21. Is the assessment threshold for an Education, Health and Care Plan too low?

22. No. LBN believes the threshold is appropriate for a small group of children with high needs, provided timely and sufficient support is available for children with lower levels of need. 

23. Are the statutory timescales for assessment and finalisation of Education, Health and Care Plans appropriate?

24. Yes. The timescale of 20 weeks is one we accept and feel should be achievable. LBN has found it difficult to meet the timescales to date. Additional funding for 2019/20 has been agreed with the aim of increasing staff capacity and making improvements to processes in order to accelerate progress. 

25. For a small proportion of assessments, gathering other agency reports, determination of placement, or disagreements with wording of assessments may delay the issuing of a plan.

26. How do you quality control EHC Plans? Do you consider all plans to be of sufficient quality?

27. LBN has recently changed our quality assurance process. Until the end of 2018, a multiagency panel reviewed the outcome and content of all plans. This process became unmanageable as a result of the increased number of plans being presented for review, making it difficult for the panel to engage effectively with the content of EHCPs.

28. At the end of last year, we undertook an engagement exercise with families and schools about the quality of our plans. As a result of the feedback received, LBN has reviewed the structure and layout of EHCPs. All EHCPs are now quality assured and signed by a service manager or equivalent. More complex cases continue to be discussed in detail at our multiagency panel.

29. At present, LBN does not consider all EHCPs to be of a sufficiently high quality. In particular, we are currently focused on ensuring our plans are clear and accessible to families, through additional training and oversight for staff. 

30. Plans are underway to introduce multi-agency audits later in 2019 with involving parents, LBN’s newly appointed Designated Medical Officer, and colleagues from the Clinical Commissioning Group.

31. 5.  In your authority, do you consider that there is enough focus on children and young people with SEND who do not have an EHC Plan?
32. Within Newham, there has been an emphasis on supporting children with SEND in mainstream schools wherever possible without issuing Statements of Special Educational Needs or EHCPs. 

33. In practice, this has meant that high needs funding has been available to schools to support children and young people with SEND but without an EHCP. Pupils often receive funding more quickly than in other areas, as a full EHCP assessment is not required in order to receive support through the High Needs Budget. 

34. The number of children identified with SEND in Newham (11.9% in 2018) is lower than the England average (14%). We are working with schools to explore whether there are factors that are contributing to under-recording of children with SEND and to ensure that children with lower levels of SEND receive the attention and support they require to thrive at school. 

35. What impact did the deadline for transition to EHC Plans have? 

36. Due to LBN’s approach to inclusive provision for children the borough had relatively few Statements of Special Educational Needs prior to 2018 and therefore the deadline had a limited impact in that regard. All Statements of Special Educational Needs were transferred to EHCPs by the deadline of March 2018. 

37. The main pressure experienced by LBN has been from the increased number of new requests for assessments for EHCPs. 

38. What level of training do the case officers in your SEND team have?

39. As part of LBN’s renewed approach to developing a highly skilled and experienced workforce, we are investigating more formal qualification-based training for our staff. To date, training has been provided through in-house training such as legal updates, sessions run by senior members of the team for subjects such as writing EHCPs, or Council-provided training for customer service.

40. This has been complemented through staff attending external training provided across

41. London such as courses run by Mott Macdonald or IPSEA. LBN are looking at accessing the NASEN run BTEC course for SEN Officers this year to further develop the skills within the team.

42. What steps does your authority put in place to avoid Tribunal cases?

43. Wherever possible we look to resolve disputes without the need for a Tribunal.  Tribunals are time consuming, costly and stressful for families. 

44. A number of steps have been taken in order to resolve issues at an early stage and avoid Tribunals: 

45. The quality of mainstream and specialist SEN provision with an ethos of preventing and resolving disagreements at an early stage within schools has reduced the need for Tribunals. 

46. Access to Senior Managers is encouraged and taken up by families on a regular basis when they are unhappy with decisions made.

47. A dedicated Tribunals Officer works to prevent Tribunals and come to resolution with effective use of a professional mediation service.

48. LBN are at present writing new criteria for requesting and issuing an EHCP, improving the quality of our EHCPs and working more closely with our partners to ensure health and care elements of our EHCPs are improved. We expect these improvements to contribute to maintaining a low level of appeals. 

49. The rate of appeals in Newham per head of school population is very low in comparison to other areas. Between 2013/14 and 2016/17 (the latest year of comparative data) the rate of appeals per 10,000 of the school population was lower in Newham than for London, our statistical neighbours, or England.  

50. In 2016/17, the rate of appeals per 10,000 of the school population in Newham was 2.90, and for England it was 5.45, with Newham ranked 48th in England (where 1 would be the lowest appeal rate).

51. As a Local Authority we would only contest an appeal as a last resort. Since 2017, 18 appeals have proceeded directly to a hearing without mediation, with 13 of these appeals dismissed by the Tribunal. Since 2017, there have been 15 requests for formal mediation with only one case proceeding to tribunal which was subsequently withdrawn.

52. What processes do you go through when deciding when to engage external legal advice?

53. LBN does not engage external legal advice for tribunals. The Tribunals Officer represents LBN in all tribunals and mediations and comes from a teaching background rather than a legal background.

54. Legal advice is sought from our in-house legal services in relation to Upper Tribunal appeals and Judicial Reviews. 

55. Do you use traded services? If so, do you think that this prevents some young people with SEND accessing support? 

56. LBN has a limited traded model. Instead, we have funded specialist support from the HNB on a needs-led basis, with schools requesting whole school or individual support. Services include a service for children with complex health needs and dyslexia, specialist support for children with social and communication needs (Autism), and sensory needs.

57. The main exception to this is our Educational Psychologist service that provides assessments for EHCP assessments out of their core offer as well as offering a bought-in service for schools.  

58. Do your arrangements for involving children, young people and parents include a broadly representative group of the children with SEN or disabilities and their parents and young people with SEND or disabilities? How do you involve these groups in decision-making? 

59. Within Newham, we are keen to broaden our engagement with families, recognising that ensuring representation across the full range of needs is a challenge everywhere. LBN have taken a number of steps to address this: 
1. Actively attending meetings of the Newham Parent Forum and coffee mornings of other local parent/carer groups;
2. Monthly meetings with a focus group of parents of children with diverse needs to review the development of Local Authority SEND provision;
3. Involving the Chair of Newham Parents Forum as a member of the overall strategic group overseeing the implementation of the SEND Improvement Plan, and involving parent carers in strands of work within the plan;
4. Involving parents in the development of our new Local Offer Website, due to go live on 1st April 2019. Parents will be part of the ongoing review of the website;
5. Key policies and procedures from LBN are now being shared for feedback and amendments made prior to them being issued;
6. Individual children and young people are involved in the development of their EHC plans through person-centred planning meetings and using the ‘All about me’ questionnaire to input into all EHCPs.

60. As a Local Authority, we recognise there is still further work needed to embed and increase participation within decision making, for both parent carers, and children and young people with SEND. Through working closely with the Newham Parents Forum and other groups in the borough we are looking at how to develop this further.

61. Do you consider that your local offer meets the needs of children, young people and parents? 

62. Within Newham schools and the community there is a range of services available for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families.

63. LBN are currently focused on developing and improving our short breaks provision. Our present short break funding currently provides individual packages of support for those meeting the criteria for social care. Through developing our early help approach and redistributing funding to group-based provision and the voluntary sector we will be increasing the number and quantity of short breaks for children and young people. This approach will be more cost effective, and avoid intrusive and costly social care assessments.

64. Information on the local offer on LBN’s website is not as extensive as it should be. At the start of April 2019, we will launch a new and improved Family Information Service and Local Offer website. In partnership with parents and carers we are looking at how the website can be improved further to ensure it meets families’ and children’s needs.

65. Do you consider that your social care and education teams work well enough together? 

66. Good communication and clear processes are critical to effective working across different departments and agencies. 

67. Within LBN there is a 0-25 SEND service. The SEN Team, Disabled Children and Young

68. People’s Team and Specialist support services are managed by a single Head of Service, enabling good working arrangements. There is good communication with Adult Services and Children’s Services.

69. We are actively working to improve working relationships with social care and education in key areas including clearer funding pathways, improved processes and joint working.

70. How are you overcoming barriers such as different thresholds and different assessment timescales for different services?

71. Different thresholds and timescales do present challenges. Over the past six months, we have taken a number of steps to address these:

72. Social care assessments and continuing care assessments are being aligned and completed at the same time, in order to enable clearer decision-making on funding for support to children and their families.

73. Clear timescales have been agreed for completing Care Act transition assessments prior to a young person’s 18th birthday to ensure a smooth transition to adult care funding.

74. The Disabled Children and Young People’s Team is undertaking assessments of children when required in order to support EHC social care assessments. 

75. Contracting for therapies (including health) has provided LBN with opportunities to ensure assessments are aligned with the EHC assessment process. 

76. 15.  How are you helping schools to overcome challenges with working with health services?

77. The integration of children’s public health within LBN has the potential to enable effective and joined-up support to children in schools and other settings. For example, Health Visitors are leading the piloting of integrated health and education reviews for two-year-olds in two neighbourhood areas, with a view to rolling the programme out across the borough.

78. Health colleagues are fully involved in implementation and oversight of our SEND

79. Improvement Plan. As an example, representatives of the local Foundation Trust, CCG and Public Health sit on a group that reviews progress of SEND improvement projects. Through this and regular meetings we are developing good working relationships with our health colleagues both within the CCG and health providers.

80. Specific issues are raised by schools on an individual basis and LBN works with schools and health providers to resolve these and meet children’s needs. As an example, our school nursing service has been working with a local special school to develop a holistic plan for health support for the full range of pupils’ needs.

81. 16.  What challenges do you face in discharging your post-19 duties as intended by the legislation?

82. The duty to provide support through an EHC Plan to 19 to 25 year olds that require  it means that Newham, like other areas, needs to develop the quantity, quality and choice of provision available to young people approaching adulthood. LBN has developed provision at Newham College for young people with autism, including supporting the creation of a specialist resource provision for those with the most complex needs. This provision is due to expand further in September 2019. 

83. LBN have also worked closely with Newham College to develop and expand their supported internships offer. There are 45 learners accessing internships within the College of which 11 are participating with Project Search. We are confident this will increase next year with the development of a new Hospitality and Catering Internship in September run by the College.

84. However, there remains a shortfall of options at local level to cover all needs and provide meaningful long-term work opportunities. There is an increasing financial burden on Local Authorities as expectations of families and young people have increased following the 2014 reforms. There are currently 172 young people aged 19 or over in Newham with an EHCP and we are experiencing an increasing number of requests for independent post-19 provision.

March 2019.

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