Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings held on 7^th November 2024 and 20^th January 2025 be approved as correct records of the meetings.

RESOLVED:

The update on Elective Home Education was noted.

The Head of Inclusion gave a verbal update on Elective Home Education.

The Team undertook a number of checks when parents chose to home educate their children but were restricted on what they could do. 

The top five secondary and primary schools had been identified and officers had spoken to both them and parents.  Mental health was the single biggest factor for parents choosing to home educate their children and it was clear that there was a pattern around mental health when lack of attendance became an issue.

Parents often did not understand what was required when choosing elective home education and work was now undertaken with parents to support them.  There was also work for the local authority to encourage pupils back into school.  Work was taking place around the transformation agenda and how to intervene earlier.  There was a plan for the development of a strategy around elective home education and a working group was being established to progress this work.  The data was clear and understood and the initial work would be around why elective home education was seen as an option.

During discussion on the update, the following key points were made:

i.          Members acknowledged that early intervention was key. In response to how many children were taken out of school and then wanted to return, the Head of Inclusion advised that this was not a significant issue as the numbers were not high, but the children may not necessarily be able to go back to the school that they wanted.

ii.         In response to a question about whether the number of children being home educated had plateaued, the Head of Inclusion advised that it came in waves but was not as steep as it had been and the authority continued to see phases of increase.

iii.        Members questioned that when a child returned to mainstream education were they at the level of attainment that they needed to be at.  In response, the Head of Inclusion advised that there were issues around attainment as not all of the curriculum would be covered.  It was how the child fitted back into the year group.

iv.        It was suggested that parents also needed to be educated around home education. It was confirmed that parents were spoken to and it was accepted that home education was done with the best of intentions but often parents did not understand fully what it entailed.  Work took place with them so they could understand the implications fully when making that decision.

v.         The highest percentage age group being home educated was KS3 and together with KS4, accounted for 70% of home educated children.  Work was being targeted at those age groups as attendance became chronic in secondary education.  It was a similar split between girls and boys with 571 girls and 540 boys. Work needed to be undertaken with children before they transferred from primary education as it was acknowledged that moving from smaller schools to larger ones could be overwhelming for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 89.

The Head of SEND provided an update on Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP), supported by a presentation.

The key points of the presentation were:

·                There were 4600 EHCPs in North Northamptonshire at January 2025.  This had been a 100% growth since 2021.

·                There was on average 100+ EHC needs assessments each month, with the number of parental requests increasing.

·                North Northamptonshrie was now broadly around the national average percentage of the population for children and young people with a EHCP.

·                The highest prevalence of SEND in EHCPs was autism/communication & interaction; social, emotional & mental health, and speech, language & communication.

·                The timeliness of EHCPs being issued on time had been improving since 2020/21, though there had been some notable dips in performance during 2024.

·                In 2023, the EHC Service had issued more EHCPs on time than its statistical neighbours and other East Midlands local authorities.

·                Since September 2024, the Service and other advice providing agencies undertook weekly monitoring at week 10, monitoring if advice due at week 12 was on-track or forecast to be late.  This had led to the timeliness of advice received at week 12 improving and had supported improvement in EHCPs being published on time at 20 weeks.

·                In January 2025, 95% EHCPs had been issued on time.

·                A quality assurance framework was in place and all new EHCPs would go through that tool later this year.  Parents had felt improvement in the quality of plans.

During discussion on the update and presentation, the following key points were made:

i.          The Chair and members of the EAP congratulated the whole team in getting to this much improved position.  The positive response from parents was particularly good and it was welcomed that quality was being highlighted.

ii.         Whilst welcoming the improvement, it was highlighted that some children were still not in the correct placement and it was questioned how quickly were appropriate schools and placements found.  In response the Head of SEND confirmed that placements were challenging in meeting parental preference.  There were currently seven special schools and around 300 specialist places.  There was a balance in meeting parental preferences with demand.  The authority would like families to be confident in mainstream education with specialist support but if a special school was required, wanted to offer local provision.

iii.        It was clarified that funding for schools was through a local formula approved by the Schools Forum.  Schools were supported in using their funding in the best way.

iv.        Permanent recruitment to the Team had been very successful and the size of the service had grown during the past year.  Previously, there had been a large number of agency staff and the authority had now moved towards permanency.  14 caseworkers had been recruited before Christmas, with another seven in January and another four due to start.  The quality of the staff recruited was pleasing.

The Head of SEND thanked the members of the EAP for all of their support.

RESOLVED:

The update on Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 90.

The Chair thanked Members and Officers for their attendance and closed the meeting.

The meeting closed at 6pm.