Agenda item

Report by the Director of Children’s Services.

29.1     At its meeting in June 2017, the Committee requested that a report which evaluates the impact of the measures set out in the Department’s Action Plan be brought to its March 2018 meeting.  A summary of the key points discussed by the Committee and the Department’s responses are set out below:

• High Needs Funding Block.  The Committee noted that for the 2017/18 financial year it had been necessary for the Department to make a transfer of approximately £4million to the High Needs Funding Block.   With this in mind, the Department were asked to comment on how certain it is that it would not be necessary to move further monies between funding blocks during the course of the coming financial year.   In response, the Department confirmed it is as confident as it can be that the budget is sufficient to meet the current levels of demand.  However, relatively small increases in demand could still create significant budgetary pressures.  Furthermore, and under the Government’s ‘Fairer Funding’ formula, a local authority’s ability to transfer between funding blocks is now capped (there are three funding blocks: the Schools Funding Block, the High Needs Block and the Early Years Block).  As a result, the maximum that can now be transferred, with the agreement of the Schools Forum, is circa £1.2m.   The Government do not provide additional funding if the budget is insufficient for the actual level of demand.  Therefore any shortfall has to be met from elsewhere within the Department’s budget, or ultimately the Council’s wider budget.    
• Building capacity and inclusive ethos in mainstream schools.    Whilst supportive of the Department’s goals in this work strand, the Committee requested more detail about the challenges schools are facing when building capacity for children with special educational needs.  The Committee also wanted to understand the potential impact of this work strand on individual children.  In response, the Committee were informed that the Department are working with schools to help them have both a better understanding of the resources already available to them and how to use those resources more cost-effectively.  It should also be noted that when compared to its statistical neighbours, East Sussex has a higher than average proportion of its school age population with an Educational Health and Care Plan (EHCP).  This is despite there being little evidence which justifies East Sussex having this higher rate.  Furthermore, and even with the additional expenditure the higher rates of EHCPs generates, East Sussex cannot point to universally improved outcomes.  Indeed other LAs have found different ways of supporting children to have good outcomes, with a significantly lower rate of EHCPS.   As a result, the Department believes it can generate higher rates of good outcomes with a combination of building capacity within mainstream settings and more targeted use of EHCPs.
• Transformation Grant.   In response to a request, the Committee were informed that the £0.5m transformation grant has been targeted at increasing the capacity of the Educational Psychology Service.  This additional capacity is being used to provide more staff who can identify at an earlier stage a given child’s needs (and appropriate strategies that will help address those needs).  Assessment and Planning Officers have also helped by reducing the backlog of cases the service has.  This backlog feeds into parent’s anxiety about the effectiveness of the support available.  It is important therefore that this backlog is cleared so as to help build parental confidence.  It was also confirmed that the transformation grant is time-limited and largely completes in March 2018.  After that the Department will undertake a review of the scope of this service area and what it believes will be appropriate going forward. 
• East Sussex Better Together (ESBT) and Connecting 4 You (C4Y).    In response to a request for more detail, the Committee were informed of the work being undertaken by the Department in partnership with the local Clinical Commissioning Groups.   This work includes an ongoing review as to how support is commissioned for children who have a range of disabilities and health needs.   There are also ongoing discussions in relation to nursing contracts.  Work is also being undertaken with other local authorities to try and achieve consistency of ‘placement cost’ across the region. 

29.2     RESOLVED – the Committee thanked the Department for its detailed report and the work being undertaken across the priority areas identified last year and the proposals for utilising the High Needs review as the vehicle for delivering further developments.