On 20 June 2017, Executive agreed to a period of consultation until 31 August 2017 with a range of stakeholders on the proposed remodelling of SEND services for children and young people from ages 0-25.

As a result of feedback and responses during this period of consultation, particularly from schools, internal staff teams and national organisations representing children and young people with sensory impairment, the proposals in the previous report to Executive have been changed.

The changes take account of the feedback received in order to:

·         Ensure that the proposals improve the quality of support and provision for all SEND pupils and meet the SEN Improvement Test (See Appendix 1);

·         Ensure that the funding from the Dedicated Schools Grant High Needs Block (HNB) is used effectively and efficiently to meet the full range of SEND needs across the  0-25 years age range;

·         Specifically, we need an option which both reduces pressure on the High Needs Block and increases specialist places.

The Strategic director children’s Services will present a report (Document “AQ”) which seeks approval for a further period of formal consultation on a revised preferred option for transforming the SEND specialist teaching and support services.

Recommended -

(1)          That the Executive accepts Option 3 as set out in Document “AQ” as the preferred option for consultation.

(2)          Executive is asked to approve a period of consultation from 17 January 2018 to 28 February 2018 with children, young people, families, partners, stakeholders, staff and all interested parties, see Appendix 4 to Document “AQ”.

(3)          That Executive receives a further report in April 2018 following the period of formal consultation.

(Children’s Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee)

(Judith Kirk 01274 439255)

On 20 June 2017, Executive agreed to a period of consultation until 31 August 2017 with a range of stakeholders on the proposed remodelling of SEND services for children and young people from ages 0-25.

As a result of feedback and responses during this period of consultation, particularly from schools, internal staff teams and national organisations representing children and young people with sensory impairment, the proposals in the previous report to Executive had been changed.

The changes took account of the feedback received in order to:

·         Ensure that the proposals improved the quality of support and provision for all SEND pupils and met the SEN Improvement Test (See Appendix 1);

·         Ensure that the funding from the Dedicated Schools Grant High Needs Block (HNB) was used effectively and efficiently to meet the full range of SEND needs across the  0-25 years age range;

·         Ensure the Council had an option which both reduced pressure on the High Needs Block and increase specialist places.

The Strategic Director Children’s Services presented a report (Document “AQ”) which sought approval for a further period of formal consultation on a revised preferred option for transforming the SEND specialist teaching and support services.

A representative of UNITE attended the meeting and raised the following:

·         There are concerns about the proposed model in the absence of credible evidence in the report.

·         The evidence that the High Needs Block would be reduced by 50% could not be found on the DfE website, only the Council web site.

·         The figures in the Financial Appraisal in Section 5 of Document “AQ” did not add up

·         The Council will still need to find £1m and the budget is still £1.5m over but the Council will have fewer specialist staff.

·         There is no feasibility study in Document “AQ” on how the 30% traded services are likely to be achieved.

·         UNITE was concerned that money saved would be used to support redundancy costs rather than support children with Special Needs. 

·         The appendices to the June 2017 report were not available.

·         The proposals today were revised but there was no explanation of what the feedback back was.  The data on feedback was not published.  Does it back management’s proposals?

·         Proposals on Prevention and Early Help are linked because of the locality model proposed in the report. 

·         In June 2017 no job losses were mentioned.  The proposals today include job losses. UNITE suspect that this is what is behind the proposals.

·         FTE’s (Full time equivalent) equate to more members of staff. 

·         The proposals for Prevention and Early Help equate to axing approximately 500 jobs.  In the preferred option for SEND, 40 FTE are proposed to be cut out of 108 FTE. The union believe this could be as high as 100 staff.

·         Section 8.6.1 of the report states that the proposals were shared with the unions at OJC level 2 in December 2017.  The minutes of the meeting state that there would be 20 -25 job losses.  The numbers are very important for Unions to consult on in a timely manner in accordance with S188 of the Trade Union and Labour (Consolidation) Relations  Act 1992.

·         UNITE call for the Executive to put the consultation on hold to publish, share and examine feedback, to share the evidence with unions and put it in the public domain and to allow a feasibility study to be carried out on whether the 30% traded services model will work.  Without this there is a risk to delivering the service.

·         A further period of consultation is needed

·         Management are saying if the proposals are not approved the service can not be delivered.

·         The Executive be urged to put the proposals on hold until other avenues can be explored.

The Strategic Director Children’s Services was of the opinion that the 30% traded services could be achieved based on feedback from schools.  Examples were given of successful traded services and services that had confirmed that they could trade at 30% based on experience.  A high level of response had been received from schools that valued the service and had expressed that the 70% funded 30% traded model was more viable than 100% traded services.

The Strategic Director of Corporate Services stressed that under the new National Funding Formula Bradford should have gained £15m but under new Government proposals Bradford would only gain £7.5m.  He emphasised that the current structure was not affordable and the proposals were to make it affordable.

The Strategic Director of Corporate Services confirmed that schools had delegated budgets and the proposals recognised that schools had indicated that they were willing to spend on providing services.

In response to a question from the Leader regarding the likelihood of   receiving the £15m that was needed the Strategic Director of Corporate Services advised that the authority had to plan based on what was known.

The Education, Employment and Skills Portfolio Holder stressed the importance of consulting again in the light of the feedback received.  He confirmed that the feedback should be shared with UNITE.

It was confirmed that the consultation would continue until 28 February and be reported to the Executive on 3 April 2018.

The Strategic Director of Children’s Services confirmed that the model reported to Executive in July 2017 included job losses although the number had changed.

Resolved -

(1)          That Option 3 as set out in Document “AQ” be accepted as the preferred option for consultation.

(2)          That a period of consultation be approved from 17 January 2018 to 28 February 2018 with children, young people, families, partners, stakeholders, staff and all interested parties, see Appendix 4 to Document “AQ”.

(3)          That a further report be received by the Executive in April 2018 following the period of formal consultation.

Children’s Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee

ACTION: Strategic Director Children’s Services