Issue - meetings

The Board considered a report of the Strategic Director – Children and Young People which completed the review of Special Educational Needs (SEN) provision in Halton.

It was noted that the Local Authority had been undertaking a review of SEN provision within the Borough for a variety of reasons, which were outlined in detail within the report. A number of stages to this review had taken place which included:

• 2005 Review of SEN Unit Provision;
• strategic review of Autistic Spectrum Disorder Provision in Halton (28^th August 2008); and
• a local analysis of need.

The present provision of units in Primary and Secondary mainstream schools was outlined in Appendix 1 to the report.

Halton’s aim was to ensure that “Pathways” for learning for SEN pupils would be personalised to meet individual and family needs. This would involve the current SEN Unit Provision across all key stages being re-designed to provide flexible provision within a mainstream school, or early years setting, that enabled the learner to spend as much time as possible in the mainstream part of the school, depending on the needs of the individual pupil. When it had been shown through assessment that the pupil’s needs could not be met in a mainstream school, alternative provision would be sought. Prior to this decision there would be an expectation that “reasonable adjustments” would be made using the totality of resources made available to the mainstream school.

Members were provided with information regarding the proposed consultation to take place with primary and secondary schools. Within both primary and secondary provision, joint working with all areas of Children’s Services, including health, would provide a wrap-around provision for children and families.

The Board noted that provision for SEN within mainstream units did not currently match the needs of the Borough and young people: the present provision for units within schools did not provide value for money due to the number of surplus places. This proposal meant that money would be prioritised in the right direction to ensure everyone in SEN had their needs met; ie this was not about a reduction in resources, they would simply be re-distributed to better reflect/match current and emerging need.

Reason for Decision

            At present, there were surplus places within mainstream units. Mainstream SEN units were not matching the present and future requirements of the Borough.  As part of the developing Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme and the Primary Capital Programme a review of SEN unit provision needed to be undertaken.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

            An alternative option was to leave the provision as it was. However, this would potentially leave the Council vulnerable to challenge.

Implementation Date

            The Secondary SEN Unit Provision Review must be agreed by December 2008 and implemented during the development of the BSF programme. The Primary SEN unit provision review would be agreed February 2009 and implemented by September 2010.

RESOLVED: That

(1)            consultation on the provision for SEN units within secondary mainstream schools commence; and

(2)            consultation on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69