Invitees:

 

Lindsay Harvey, Interim Corporate Director - Education and Family Support;

Cllr Charles Smith, Cabinet Member for Education and Regeneration;

Michelle Hatcher, Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement

Catherine Lewis, Chair of Third Sector Additional Needs Alliance

Denise Inger, Chief Executive Director SNAP Cymru

Dr Stephen Beyer, Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, Cardiff

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support submitted a report, the purpose of which, was to inform Committee of the developments of the ALN reform in Wales and how as a local authority the Council were preparing for its introduction; the status of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill, and information regarding career pathways for pupils with ALN.

 

The Scrutiny Officer gave an introduction to the report, following which the Invitees were invited into the meeting.

 

The Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration advised that he was excited about the above changes that were proposed, and the aims of the new Bill, particularly the single legislative system relating to the support given to children and young people aged between 0 to 25 years who have ALN.

 

The Chairperson then called upon the Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement to give a power point Presentation on the above topic and the work progressed to date in respect of this.

 

Following the conclusion of the Presentation, the Chairperson opened up the meeting for questions.

 

A Member referred to page 12 of the report and one of the aims of the Bill, where it stated that currently only 2.7% of children and young people in Wales have a statement of special educational needs, whereas the new system provides a statutory plan for around 22% of learners with an additional learning need aged between 0-25 years. She asked if this was realistic in terms of being achieved, and/or would the proposal be more of a box ticking exercise that would merely generate increased paperwork.

 

The Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement, advised that there was a considerable amount of good work ongoing with regard to this aim of the Bill. The Bill would provide local authorities with the opportunity to re-focus on and improve even further, early intervention and prevention measures presently in place, regardless of the proposed statementing increase. The proposal she added may in fact lead to an increase in Individual Dependant Plans (IDP’s) as opposed to an increase in Statements, as was indicated in the report.

 

The Chairperson of Third Sector Additional needs Alliance added that there was a fear over the increase in numbers of Statements and IDP’s and the obvious increase in work that this would generate. The IDP’s would cover all those young people on School Action and School Action Plus currently. There would be a standard template, and the content of the IDP would be dependent upon the individual needs of the child in question.

 

The Chief Executive Director SNAP Cymru was of the opinion that there would not necessarily be any more paperwork in view of the projected increase in Plans under the new system, though the IDP’s would be more targeted in terms of their content than that of Statements which were compiled under the present regime. Resources would be targeted through outcomes for children she added.  All in all, she felt that the new process would build confidence in schools for teaching staff, that would in turn, lead to increased confidence for the parents of children at all individual schools. Better use of resources would also result in better outcomes for young people she felt.

 

A Member noted from page 21 of the report, that currently only 7% of learners with significant ALN end up in employment, whilst many more are supported by home or are dependent on Adult Social Services.  She felt that efforts could be targeted to increase this percentage.

 

The Senior Lecturer School of Medicine, Cardiff, advised that this percentage related to England as opposed to Wales, where the number had not been identified. In England the percentage of autistic young people who were unemployed was higher than this at 15%. He felt that to improve these figures (including in Wales), there needed to be in place increased coaching for these young people in order that they may gain further confidence to overcome the interview process when it came to employment opportunities. There was too much focus possibly he felt on adults rather than those of transitional age and/or those individuals with the less complex disabilities.

 

A Member felt that Schools Curricula could be more relaxed so as to to concentrate on the differing needs of those young people that have ALN.

 

The Interim Corporate Director – Education and Family Support advised that schools in Wales could adjust their Curriculum for all young people aged 5 – 16. Estyn were presently looking at the curricula for individual groups rather than cohorts as a whole, and how schools will manage and fund this overall.

 

The Chairperson noted that other local authorities in Wales were progressing well in terms of young people leaving education with 5 GCSE’s or above, and he asked if Bridgend CBC were benchmarking these authorities for reasons of good practice.

 

The Interim Corporate Director – Education and Family Support advised that good practice initiatives were looked at across a broader spectrum of educational issues collaboratively through the Central South Consortium, including for those young people with ALN.

 

A Member noted that historically BCBC had moved away from completing Statements, including for pupils with ALN. She asked how the new legislation would be implemented if Statements were not being completed. She felt that increased funding should be provided by Welsh Government to help support schools in this regard.

 

The Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement, advised Members that 3 or 4 years ago the completion of Statements in BCBC had been very low, however, since then this had increased as had support for young learners. She added that each child with ALN was ‘tracked’ in school regardless whether or not Statements were completed for them. They were sufficiently and equally supported either way.

 

The Member followed-up by stating that children aged 14 – 15 for whom  Statements were completed, often requested more educational support but subsequently did not receive this. This often resulted in that pupil having an uncertain future.

 

The Interim Corporate Director – Education and Family Support advised that the new IDP’s did give better support to pupils with ALN, and that these covered 3 areas of support, namely action required by the school ie known as School Action, School Plus action, where support was also sought from outside the school and from the requirements of the Statement itself. As alluded to earlier in proceedings, pupils were tracked in order to ascertain if they required continued or different support based upon their ongoing needs, as they became older.  

 

A Member asked in terms of requests for support through the likes of Statements and IDP’s, how many had been made in the last 12 months and how quickly appropriate levels of support were put in place for these  individuals.

 

The Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement advised that an ALN for Help Panel met fortnightly and considered such applications for support, with parental consent. The Panel comprised of key personnel including the Head teacher of the School and an Officer from the Education Department of BCBC together with School Governor representation. The cases would be discussed each on their own merits, and a list of appropriate actions were subsequently then compiled. There was also a trend currently that showed an increase in the number of children with ASD. A report had therefore recently been presented to Cabinet, in order to seek to open a further Resource Centre to meet this increase in demand by putting in place further suitable support.

 

A Member asked how long assessments took to process including putting together an appropriate response in terms of any actions of support that are required as a result of such assessment.

 

The Interim Corporate Director – Education and Family Support advised that there was a 26 week timescale for this which was statutory and which BCBC complied with.

 

A Member noted that BCBC were 20^th lowest out of the 22 local authorities in Wales when it came to producing ALN Statements.

 

The Interim Corporate Director – Education and Family Support advised that one of his predecessors did not adopt a system whereby Statements were produced that frequently, and this trend to a degree had continued since she left. This did not mean however that Statements were not completed where and when they were required. Local authorities however did not have to process a large number of these in order to ensure that the quality of learning and education required for and delivered to a child with ALN was being provided, as there were other support mechanisms in place that achieved this.  

 

A Member was aware of the fact that the Psychology Service in BCBC was under pressure due to ongoing financial restraints, and due to this, schools often found it difficult to access their services in the support of pupils. He was aware that there had been discussions regarding the future of this service and the one in the Vale of Glamorgan CBC, combining to work collaboratively. He asked if any further developments had been made in respect of these.

 

The Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement advised that no such collaboration had taken place in respect of this service provision, though discussions regarding this were ongoing, as well as possibly combining this service with other neighbouring authorities through the Central South Consortium. She added that the Educational Psychologists did make a certain number of visits to all schools in the County Borough as a matter of course. However, if a school required extra such visits over the prescribed number, then they had to pay for this extra service. 

 

The Member followed-up by asking if schools needed such extra visits, then they would not necessarily have the funding to pay for these.

 

The Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement advised that discussions were ongoing in respect of this as part of possible future proposals regarding the alignment of the Educational Psychology service, and there was a push for more emphasis on this service being made through the Bill.

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support, added that it was important also for different areas of expertise to be shared wider, through closer integrated working between not only for example, the Education Psychologist teams of neighbouring authorities, but also through related teams within the same Authority working closer, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder; Cognition and Learning and Hearing/Speech Impairment, and Behavioural Support teams. These support services working closer together to cater for increase in demand and cuts in budget, helped build resilience and make money go further, and this was something that Authorities comprising the Consortia were also looking at more collaboratively, including where possible, the scope for sharing these services by providing them through joint working or collaborative methods.

 

A Member felt that the Council should consider writing to Welsh Government to ask for extra resource in order to meet the requirements of the ALN Reform and the accompanying Bill, as local authorities would quite simply not be able to meet all the demands of these.

 

A Member asked if due to the consequences of the Bill and the lack of clarity in the Code of Practice, this would result in an increase in the future of Tribunals and legal challenge as a result of a similar interest in ‘disagreements’. He felt that the intention was to resolve disputes at a more local level, and asked how parents would be informed of this, and whether they would be able to meet the demands of this possible change, both from a pressure and financial perspective.

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support advised that he could not answer the above question at this time, though issues such as this and other concerns associated with the Bill were presently being debated with Welsh Government. He did add however, that a key component of the Bill was identifying ways of working better with children and their parents/guardians.

 

The Chief Executive Director of SNAP Cymru advised that her organisation worked well with BCBC, and always looked to avoid disagreements where possible by working effectively with families, schools and agencies, in order to achieve a pupils needs and requirements without necessarily Statementing.

 

The Member asked if Educational Support organisations would be looking to change the wording of the Code where appropriate, in order to avoid disputes and Tribunals.

 

The Chief Executive Director of SNAP said that this would be pursued, along with other general areas of concern.

 

A Member noted that schools were, due to decreased funding, finding it difficult to take on ALN Co-ordinators. This meant that support for children with ALN was reducing.

 

The Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement advised that an Expert Group had been established to look at this, as it had been identified that such support through these Co-ordinators differed considerably from school to school. Due to this, extra training had been provided to teaching staff, with the aim that a designated member(s) of staff would provide such a supporting role at any school. There were currently 9 specialist ALN trainers undertaking this form of training presently at schools within the County Borough.

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support added, that there was an ambition to train all teaching staff at schools so that they could provide adequate support to children with ALN.

 

The Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement further added that this training would also be evaluated in order to ensure that it was effective.

 

A Member felt that more work could be achieved with regard to improved support for children with ALN, such as greater emphasis being placed on them progressing their learning after school through College and Higher avenues of education, hence enhancing their employment opportunities, and that funding opportunities should be fully explored in order to achieve this.

 

The Senior Lecturer School of Medicine, Cardiff, advised that this was something that was working more effectively in England than in Wales currently, though some work was ongoing to improve education and employment opportunities for young people with ALN in the County Borough, through working with certain larger organisations where there were more employment opportunities, and places of higher education, such as for example Bridgend College where people could further develop their skills in order to secure employment. Opportunities for improved job coaching should also be explored he added, through organisations such as Workchoice and SES.

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support further added that work was developing in respect of initiatives along the lines of the above, including through developing training (both vocational and academic) and apprenticeship opportunities with places of higher education and local companies. This work would concentrate not just on individuals with ALN but also those who were autistic.

 

The Chair of the Third Sector Additional Needs Alliance, added that there was unfortunately a bit of a stumbling block with regard to the above, in that apprenticeships were not covered by IDP’s, as employers seen this as a burden. She was of the opinion that the Welsh Government should be challenged on this.         

 

A Member referred to Appendix A of the report and page 21, where it made reference to the fact that currently in the UK, 7% of learners with significant ALN end up in employment whilst many more supported by home or are dependent on Adult Social Services, the costs of which range from £25k to £70k per year dependent upon the nature of the support package. This he noted however, was data that had been made available in England. This was a significant cost implication to be borne by local authorities, and if a similar scenario to this applied in Wales, then he was concerned of the financial burden this would put on the resources of the Council and partner providers. He felt that funding initiatives should therefore be looked at in respect of post 16 learners with ALN, in order to better their prospects of training and employment opportunities, including where appropriate, scoping work with a view to introducing more apprenticeships.

 

The Chairperson referred to the cost for funding the Bill and how initially this had been just over £4m over 4 years, but had now been raised to around £8.3m for the same period. He asked how this level of funding would be provided as it was a considerable sum. He asked if there was scope for a percentage of this to be funded through a Revenue Support Grant.

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support advised that there was some considerable concern regarding the funding of the Bill and ALN Reform etc, and representations had been made to Welsh Government in relation to this, both from local authorities and third sector organisations. The added burden on schools also required addressing in particular, he added.   

 

A Member was of the opinion that there would be an increase in referrals as a result of the introduction of the Future Generations and Wellbeing Act, and she noted that this may bring about a problem, particularly as there was little or no reference made to ”Referrals” in the proposed Bill. If frontline staff who support services such as those introduced by the Bill get an influx of extra work as a result of it being introduced, then this could lead to jobs within the Authority having to be further evaluated by the Job Evaluation team. The result of this could also mean more costs being incurred by the Authority for increased pay rates.

 

The Chairperson expanded upon debate earlier in the meeting, where a Member raised concern about there being a lack of ALNCO’s at schools to provide expert support to pupils with ALN. He felt that this should definitely be raised in any representations made to the Bill and ALN Reform.

 

The Group Manager Inclusion and School Improvement advised that needed to be at least one specialist ALNCO at a school, and this applied to all schools that were located within Bridgend County Borough.

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support advised that workforce issues as a result of the introduction of the Bill would be addressed with Welsh Government, after being shared and discussed on a regional basis. There was little doubt he added however, that the sims and objectives of the Bill would inevitably result in increased work pressures for staff in the Education system.

 

The Chairperson asked if there was any information available that could be shared with the Committee, in respect of a breakdown of the Budget for his Directorate.

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support advised that the overall funding for Education and Family Support for 2017-18 including schools, equated to £108,448,000. This represented 50.2% of BCBC’s budget.

 

In terms of the breakdown of the above for schools, he added that this was as follows:-

 

(1)  Primary Schools - £43,903,620

(2)  Secondary Schools - £35,269,324 (excluding £6.172m WG Post-16 grant

(3)  Special Schools - £7,908,160

(4)  In-Year delegation fund - £80,216

 

The total funding delegated to schools was therefore £87,161,320

 

The Interim Corporate Director Education and Family Support added that in 2016017, Bridgend was ranked 7^th highest out of the 22 local authorities in Wales, in relation to the percentage of its overall budget that was allocated to Education Services (85.5%).

 

He added that more information regarding the above would probably be made available following Welsh Government’s Autumn settlement, and this could adjust to some degree or another, the above statistics.

 

The Chairperson stated that he hoped the Cabinet would take into consideration the financial impact that the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) Reform would have on the local authority, when setting the Council’s Budget for 2018-19, particularly as this brought about a cut of 2.4% to Special Educational Needs (SEN) in the last financial year.

 

He added that in his opinion there was a possibility that the Bill would be compromised by a lack of central funding, and the Senior Lecturer, School of Medicine, Cardiff concurred with his view.

 

As this concluded the business on this item, the Chairperson thanked the Invitees for attending and responding to questions, following which they retire from the meeting.

 

The Committee agreed to make a series of comments and recommendations for submission to the Directorate and Welsh Government for them to incorporate in their consideration of the Draft Bill, its Code and guidance.

 

The Committee recommended:-

 

1.    That sufficient, long term funding be attached to the Bill; without which presents a great risk to its implementation and to vulnerable young people with ALN; 

2.    That this funding be ring-fenced by Local Authorities and Schools to ensure it is used to meet the needs of the Bill and the needs of young people with ALN;

3.    That specific funding for Post-16 ALN provision be identified and allocated as an invest to save measure;

4.    That job coaching schemes be considered for introduction in Wales, based on the success experienced in England for young people with ALN accessing work through such schemes;

5.    That provision be made in the Bill to incorporate the involvement and role of the Educational Psychologist who currently plays a major role in the establishment and delivery of support and services for those with ALN;

6.    That provisions in the Bill and the Draft Code are sufficiently robust to ensure that there is an early resolution of disagreements to prevent escalation to tribunals;

7.    That more funding and provision be provided in Wales for schemes such as ‘Access to Work’ to assist individuals with Additional Learning Needs with gaining employment;

8.    That apprenticeships be incorporated into the Bill as a method for young people to progress into employment;

9.    That there be stronger links made between the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill, the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 and the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, particularly in relation to transition;

10.  That guidelines be developed and incorporated under the Bill for the number of children and young people allocated to an ALNCO;

11.  That suitable support and resources be allocated to support frontline staff such as ALNCOs and Teachers in order to ensure they are able to deal with the extra responsibilities under the Bill and manage with increased workloads; 

12.  That allowance be made for the associated costs for frontline staff based on the expected need for Job Evaluation on any new appointments or additional duties;

13.  That the Bill be amended to provide greater clarity on when the local authority has to take responsibility from schools for developing and delivering IDPs;

14.  That budgeted gross expenditure on ALN provision in 2018/19 is increased in preparation for the implementation of new legislation to assist in the transition period;

15.  That the Authority works towards ensuring that a minimum of 80% of the budget allocated to ALN pupils is delegated to individual schools and that mechanisms should be in place to ensure those schools are using the funding for its stated purpose of supporting ALN;

16.  That the bill be amended to provide greater clarity on when the local authority has to take responsibility from schools for developing and delivering IDPs;

17.  That health bodies and medical professionals have a statutory duty enshrined in the Bill to report that a child/young person? under or over compulsory school age has ALN.

18.  ??That there is provision in the Bill for childminders and those working in childcare settings to have a clear pathway to raise concerns that a child may have ALN.

19.  That the Local Authority considers how home to school transport arrangements will be affected as part of the new provisions contained in the Bill?

20.  That the Authority learns from best practice from local authorities from Wales and beyond in an effort to improve the academic performance of those young people with ALN achieving level 2 threshold inclusive which currently stands at 26.3%.

21.  That the Authority assesses the required resources, workforce planning and training arrangements to support implementation of the Bill.

22.  That the Authority looks to strengthen its relationship with the FE sector in Bridgend to make the provisions of the Bill work effectively, especially in the challenging transition to further education and work-based learning.

23.  That the Authority explore whether any work has been carried out in the third sector on analysis of the resulting costs associated with support for adults who have not had sufficient educational provision as a young person.  Furthermore that if this has not already been undertaken by those in the third Sector that the Authority look to commission an independent analysis of theses associated costs, both directly to the LA as well as indirectly to other public services.  Such an analysis would help put the costs of supporting children with ALN into perspective.

 

Future Work

The Committee requested that the subject of ALN be revisited by Scrutiny in the future at a time when the Bill has been further progressed to include consideration of the following points:

a)    How the Authority and Schools are engaging with parents over the changes to the Bill?

b)    What the finalised process is for assessments and who is responsible for leading with them?

c)    What involvement/responsibilities do Educational Psychologists have under the Bill?

d)    Has the Bill led to an increase in tribunals and what impact has this had?  This is set against the context of the recent announcement by the Lifelong Learning Minister that instead of saving £4.8m over four years the Bill could potentially cost £8.2m due to an expected increase in the number of cases of dispute resolution.

e)    Given that the Bill focuses on the involvement of young people and their parents, what support is available for those involved in court disputes?

f)     Outcomes from the Supported Internship programme.

g)    Support for those with ALN into employment.

h)    Staffing - Protection and support for staff, ALNCO support, workloads and capacity.

i)      Pupil-teacher ratios and class sizes and impact of Bill on capacity of teachers to support pupils with ALN

j)      How is the implementation of the Bill being monitored; what quality assurance frameworks are there and what accountability for local authorities, consortiums and schools?

 

Further Information

 

The Committee requested that they receive detail of how many requests for support for children and young people with ALN have been received over the last 12 months and how long it has taken from request to an assessment been carried out.