SCN0479

Written evidence from Warwickshire County Council

 

 

Warwickshire County Council response to national inquiry

 

Background

  1. In 2014, the Government introduced wide-reaching changes to the SEND system, with the intention of offering simpler, improved and consistent help for children and young people with SEND. The Government claimed these changes would give families greater choice in decisions. The Committee’s new inquiry is intended to review the success of these reforms, how they have been implemented, and what impact they are having in meeting the challenges faced by children and young people with SEND. The Committee is inviting written evidence on the following by 14 June 2018

 

Terms of Reference - Call for written evidence

  1. Assessment of and support for children and young people with SEND
  2. The transition from statements of special educational needs and Learning Disability Assessments to Education, Health and Care Plans
  3. The level and distribution of funding for SEND provision
  4. The roles of and co-operation between education, health and social care sectors
  5. Provision for 19-25-year olds including support for independent living; transition to adult services; and access to education, apprenticeships and work

 

Warwickshire County Council response

Overview

  1. Warwickshire County Council has embraced and embedded the principle and expectation that children will benefit from a holistic assessment of a child/young person’s needs that:
  2. Places the child and the family at the centre of the process, ensuring their voice is heard;
  3. Creates a single outcome focused plan, that offers extended control and choice to the young person and their family and
  4. Integrates education, health and care assessment with agreed positive outcomes in adulthood through the following four Preparation for Adulthood pillars:

10.1.                 Employment;

10.2.                 Independent living;

10.3.                 Friends, relationships and community; and

10.4.                 Good health

 

Assessment of and support for children and young people with SEND

 

  1. Assessment based upon outcomes is a significant improvement on the previous system of statements of SEN and welcomed.
  2. The explicit focus on co-production with young people and parents/carers has also been welcomed and has led to improved EHC plans.
  3. Warwickshire developed the SEND provision matrix to set expectations locally on assessment and provision expected at SEN Support prior to referral for an EHC plan. This has proved helpful in providing clarity to parent/carers, schools and other stakeholders on local support and who should provide it.
  4. As statutory review timescales are different for social care and education, and non-statutory for health services, the holistic review of the plan can prove challenging. Warwickshire has seen progress in this area with social care and education reviews being coordinated to work together.
  5. A national template for EHC plans would have saved significant time at the beginning of the reforms, as local task groups were set up to design templates and forms followed by sharing of local authority templates and further iterations.

 

The transition from statements of special educational needs and Learning Disability Assessments to Education, Health and Care Plans

 

  1. The timescale for transferring Statements of SEN and LDAs to EHC Plans demanded the investment and of a high concentration of scant resources into one activity, thereby diverging expertise and capacity from other areas including SEND support. As the main measurable target used by the Department for Education, this indicator focusses on quantity rather than quality.

 

The level and distribution of funding for SEND provision

 

  1. The pressures on SEND funding are led by growth in EHC plans, changes in needs and reforms to funding for schools.

 

Growth

  1. Specific growth pressures include:

18.1.                 A growth from 2,723 statements in 2014 to 3,509 EHC plans in 2018 (22% increase).

18.2.                 The growth has mainly been in the 16-25 cohort, with numbers at school age remaining stable

18.3.                 An increase in the number of children identified with severe and complex needs, especially in the areas of Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties, Autism Spectrum Condition and Social, Emotional and Mental Health.

18.4.                 A growth in referrals for EHC plans (from 468 in 2016 to 664 in 2018)

  1. In the last two years, we have seen an increase in referrals for specialist provision (special schools) and an increase in the number of permanent exclusions at SEN Support – particularly at primary school. Over the same time period, we have seen increased concern from our schools about financial pressures upon them and the new performance standards accountability framework.

 

High Needs Block

  1. Warwickshire’s High Needs Block is over allocated for 2018/19 by approximately £2.8m.  The challenge of achieving a balanced budget without compromising statutory responsibilities, presents high level financial risks that cannot be resolved through efficiencies.  It is evident, that the system cannot sustain the increasing demand for revenue funding which has been created by growth, especially in the post 16 cohort sector. 
  2. The introduction of the national funding reform has significantly reduced local authority flexibility, by ring-fencing the schools block within the DSG.  This means that local authorities can no longer transfer a resource from the schools block to the high needs block to support ongoing SEN pressures. 
  3. The growth in post 19 provision, in particular, is an unfunded burden of the SEND reforms, affecting the High Needs Block of every local authority.

 

Specialist provision

  1. Warwickshire has a positive story to tell with 270 state-funded specialist places created in the last three years, the continued rise in demand for specialist provision and increase in exclusions inevitably leads to placements in independent specialist provision where higher costs are often paid for poorer outcomes for our children with SEND. The cost of a special school place is, on average, £27k and the cost of independent provision usually at £50k (and often more).
  2. As a local authority we are acutely aware that due to housing development, we will require approximately 350 specialist places over the next ten years, however we are unable to establish a new setting unless we are successful in a free school application round. Capital programmes with our existing specialist settings will not be able to cater for this need. As a result there is risk of a lack of provision. Local authorities should be free to establish more specialist provision, in line with their sufficiency strategy rather than through the free school arrangements.

 

Local authority costs: Plan co-ordination and transport

  1. There are some SEND costs that are met by local authorities outside the High Needs Block. For every extra EHC plan, the local authority must have administrative oversight (EHC Plan Coordinators). The increased number of plans has led to a need to increase the number of Plan Coordinators for the local authority to fulfil its statutory duties. So far, the increase has come at a recurrent cost approximately £300k.
  2. Transport costs are also often overlooked, as this is a local authority responsibility not covered by the SEND Code of Practice. As the number of EHC plans has risen so has the cost of SEND transport cost. Local authorities have different statutory duties for school transport dependent on whether the child is aged under 16, 16-19 or over 19. SEND transport costs are currently at £8m per year, a rise of over £2m since 2014.
  3. This costs are unfunded and prove challenging to implement in a climate where parent expectations are raised and local authorities are embarking on ambitious savings plans as a results of the phasing out of the Revenue Grant.

 

The roles of and co-operation between education, health and social care sectors

 

Reliance of local area governance

  1. The new system was launched with an implicit reliance on local area governance, to respond to the partnership expectations (set out in the Code as ‘should’) in addition to the statutory requirements (set out in the Code as ‘must’).  The failure to secure a statutory commitment across all three agencies presented an inherent risk that the health and care provisions required to deliver a high quality EHC Plan would not be delivered.

 

EHC Plans

  1. That said, in terms of EHC plans, the experience of multi-agency working in Warwickshire has generally been positive. Our feedback from parent surveys highlights the positive  involvement of educational psychology, therapy services and specialist teaching support. Progress has been made with CAMHS, social care disability teams and adult social care. Issues of engagement still remain with adult health teams (particularly continuing care) and safeguarding teams. With regards to adult health and children’s safeguarding teams, the reliance on local partnerships rather than statutory requirements can create conflicting priorities where there is increased demand on all services. The introduction of the Single Route of Redress is encouraging multi-agency focus on the quality of plans, but the impact remains to be seen.
  2. It is important to note that national data is not currently required on how many EHC plans social workers and health professionals have contributed to. Including such data on the SEN2 survey, whilst initially providing some difficulty in recording, would provide a benchmark of which areas are successfully seeing involvement of all services.

 

Joint commissioning

 

  1. In terms of joint commissioning, Warwickshire County Council works with three Clinical Commissioning Groups. There is a challenge in ensuring agreement across four agencies to changes in commissioning arrangements.
  2. Furthermore, schools express that they have no option but to meet the costs of health care in their schools (eg. equipment and nursing costs) as thresholds rise and requirements on CCG commissioning is either unclear (eg. sensory assessment) or non-statutory.
  3. Again, distinctions between local authorities ‘must’ and CCGs ‘should’ can be unhelpful.

 

Provision for 19-25-year olds including support for independent living; transition to adult services; and access to education, apprenticeships and work

 

  1. The focus on Preparation for Adulthood is one of the beneficial part of the SEND reforms. Parents and carers have often spoken to us about the ‘cliff-edge’ they face at age 19. However, as above, without multi-agency statutory requirements for 19-25 year olds, there is a risk that the ‘cliff-edge’ is simply moved to age 25, at great expense to the education system and without delivering the desired outcomes.

 

Focus on Employment

  1. National statistics show that only 6% of people with learning disability are in paid employment. Improving pathways from education to employment is vital to turning this around. In terms of outcomes for adulthood, there is also substantial evidence to show that a person who finds employment usually improves their well-being, independence and participation in community. In Warwickshire we are ambitious for our supported internships programme, helping young people with SEND into work, but there is concern about resources to achieve this. The allocation of £40k to Warwickshire for two years to support pathways to employment from DfE seems disproportionate to the task ahead.

 

Transition through health and social care

  1. Warwickshire has successfully changed its processes for transition from children’s to adult social care as part of the reforms. This has been welcomed by young people and their parents/carers. Parents and carers still report frustration regarding transition from children’s to adult health services, particularly when the change in care coordination moves from the paediatrician to the GP. We are working through these issues in local Preparation for Adulthood groups, bringing together professionals and parent/carers.

 

Summary

  1. Warwickshire County Council embraces the new SEND Code of Practice and its aims but remains concerned regarding financial resources to cope with growth and unfunded elements of the reforms.

 

 

 

 

 

June 2018