Transcript

for me, the Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning and my name is Claire Curran. I'd like to welcome members and officers to this meeting and we do not have any members of the public present with us. The first item on the agenda is declarations of interest and I have no declaration of interest to make with regards to anything on the agenda today. Second item on the agenda are the procedural matters. Members questions, there have been none submitted. Item 2b is questions from members of the public and we have had one question submitted by Rocio Santa Maria and an answer to that written question has been published in the supplemental agenda and that has been circulated to the person who submitted the question. Item 3 which is our item of substantive business deals with the fair access protocol. The 2021 Department for Education school admissions code requires us as local authority to have a fair access protocol in place that all schools must participate in and it is revised annually. The fair access protocol is in place to ensure that education is secured quickly for children who have no school place and that all schools across our county admit their fair share of children who are vulnerable or with challenging behaviour under the protocol including children who are excluded from other schools. The proposed protocol meets the requirements of the 2021 Department for Education school submissions code and the supporting guidance and when the council is seeking to place a child under the protocol no school is asked to take a disproportionate number of children who have been permanently excluded from other schools or who meet one of the other categories set out in the protocol. The protocol has generally worked well with some 200 children referred during this academic year 2023-24 and I understand this was an increase over the previous year 2023-23 and of these 135 children so far have been placed in a school via a fair access panel. I am accompanied this morning by Janet Carlos from our admissions team. Janet can I ask you the number of children who are placed under different categories under the protocol please. Good morning. For the current academic year the majority of placements that have been made through fair access have come under category L that is children who've been out of education for four weeks or longer for whom there is no school place available within a reasonable distance which is not defined in law. Generally children who move into the area all the local schools are full but clearly that child needs a school place. That is to date 68 percent of our placements this year so it is it is the majority and really the context to that is we are seeing more schools capping their numbers in year particularly secondary. Sometimes it's a class at a time but sometimes they're capping a particular number that they have enrolled and saying they cannot take anymore and that is presenting us with a challenge particularly certain geographical areas of the county. Thank you I understand that and I also understand that the protocol means that the council can place children over and above a published admissions number in a school camp. Yes absolutely that that is the purpose of it. That's great thank you for explaining that. I understand too the cost of payments to schools who admit year 11 pupils year 11 pupils under the fair access protocol is provided for in the high needs block of the dedicated schools grant. I have reviewed the equalities impact assessment that accompanies this report and I'm satisfied that there are no groups that are disproportionately affected and a note in particular looked after children have a separate way of being placed in schools and are not covered by the operation of this protocol but I note there are no substantive changes to the protocol from last year and accordingly there's been no need to consult schools this year. The recommendation is that the cabinet member agrees the proposed fair access protocol for 24 25 and for the reasons I've outlined I'm happy to do so. So thank you. I note that our questioner Miss Santa Maria has has joined us. I'm glad that you've been able to make it. I'm happy to go back on the agenda. Did you have a supplemental question to the written answer that I sent? Would you like to come to the table? You can certainly ask the question. You just press one of the buttons. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity to come and ask a supplementary question and thank you for the answer to my initial question. I can't help but to feel a little bit uneasy and I'm careful to use the word gaslighted by the answer because I'm a part of a blind child and I have personal experience for the past eight years of accessing the services for blind children and my child going to a school with a vi unit. So the reports that you cite are from 2002 and I just wonder what the state of things are now and whether you know the number of trained professionals working in Surrey that cover the amount of children that accessing the services because my experience is that lots of people have left and there is not enough expertise to adequately support the education that blind children really need to achieve what they could achieve and you're right in saying that you know they're doing as best they can and the people that are working the services are doing as best they can and they do a really great job but there is not enough qualified teachers for the visually impaired and there's not enough braille teachers there's not enough habilitation officers and blind children really deserve better and investment in blind children and disabled children will save money in the long term because they really can achieve a lot they can achieve a lot more than what they're achieving now at the moment they're discouraged from pursuing some subjects because there's no there's not enough expertise there's not enough expertise on knowing how to support the technology access at the moment in my daughter's school at Oxford there were children teaching other children how to use the technology because the teacher that knew about technology has left the school so I know that the reality on the ground and it's not as great as it sounds on paper and I know that all across the country lots of people like go through battles and through even legal battles for to access the support that is written on educational health care plans and I know that's not just for blind children but children you know with other sensory needs and special education needs so I think the money is going wasted in arguing what people should be able to access and not necessarily on the actual services and it worries me because I have seen I have seen a progressive production in in the support and my daughter's now going into year 12 and she has left the school and lots of the children that were in the year above her decided not to stay in the school because the support was better elsewhere and lots of children are fighting to access sometimes private support and relying on the charity sector for equipment and provision and for support and other training so it worries me it worries me for the children are coming behind and now that their unit that's Guildford is closed as well yeah what's on paper doesn't reflect the reality on the ground and I don't know what plans the council have to really keep an eye on on what's going on because you said that there's no no plans to change the current support but I I'm just worried that the picture is different in reality than what it says on paper thank you thank you miss Santa Maria and thank you very much for your you know your personal testimony and and really reflecting your experience as a parent and I will certainly take your comments on board and make further inquiries and I'm sure you know that every every school in Surrey is is autonomous from the local authority the local authority doesn't run control and manage schools so the the provision in schools is a is a matter for for the school and and it's the boards of governors or trusts if it's a multi-academy trust or an academy that that is accountable for the provision of for teaching and learning in that school but having said that I thoroughly recognize additional support is given through our sensory support through site for Surrey which is our sensory support partner and I will certainly follow up with our commissioning team to ensure that the support that is given and outreach to schools is monitored and that this is a service that is as good as it possibly can be because I completely take the point of what you're saying that investing in service and support for for children who are visually impaired really just will help them because they are can and should be equipped to lead as full a life as every other person every other able-bodied student in that school but thank you for coming today and giving your your your personal testimony I appreciate it um could I speak to you afterwards would that be fine um and then I'll close this meeting and uh thank you very much for attending