November 14, 2024 View on council website Watch video of meeting
AI Generated

Summary

The meeting considered two significant topics, Preparing for Adulthood, and the Cabinet's response to the Committee's report into the Additional Needs and Disabilities service. Ofsted reports on Surrey's Children's Homes, published since the last meeting, were also received.

The Cabinet Response to the Committee's report on the Additional Needs and Disabilities Service

The Committee followed up on the Cabinet response to its report into the Additional Needs and Disabilities (AND) Service, which had been presented at the previous meeting on 12 September 2024.

There was a significant difference of opinion between the Committee and Officers as to how the recommendations had been received by the Cabinet. Officers felt that the recommendations had not recognised the improvements already being made as part of the ongoing End to End Review of the service. The Committee felt that the Cabinet response to the recommendations had been overly robust.

The Committee sought clarification on a number of issues raised in the Task Group report and the Cabinet response.

  • The Committee asked if case officers would be trained in understanding the lived experience of families. The Service Manager for Children with Disabilities (CWD) explained that the service was working with Family Voice Surrey and Atlas to better understand what families need from case officers. Training resources would be developed including videos to share families' experiences with officers. The service was also looking at ways to ensure that new staff would understand the importance of relational working. Existing work on relational working across the service was also continuing. A Member raised the issue that a significant number of families felt that they were not being listened to. The Service Manager for CWD said:

our case officers on a daily basis do talk to families and they talk to schools. They hear the stories of families and schools directly. Actually, when those case officers come to panel, they're incredibly strong advocates for the family and the child.

  • Following a question about the use of Artificial Intelligence to improve the service, the Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning explained that the service was looking at AI to support the work of officers. Two specific uses were being explored:

One is around the summarisation of reports by professionals into the summary of assessment. And the reason to look at that is it will reduce the administrative work that case officers are having to do in compiling that report, allowing the case officers then to use the information for more co-productive work with families. The second element that we're looking at is mapping then that summary of assessment against the various banding frameworks1 that exist. The Director assured the Committee that AI would not be used to make decisions about children. She also said:

We're also engaged in the broader development in other places, which is pulling in expertise from Surrey, but also from other local authorities.

  • The Committee noted the use of agency staff within the service and asked about the security of funding for these roles. The Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning explained that an additional £15 million had been allocated by Cabinet over three years to support the recruitment of staff to address the backlog of overdue EHCP assessments. This funding had been used to recruit additional staff on temporary contracts. The Director for Education and Lifelong Learning reminded the Committee that:

in the budget the Government did announce that there was additional money available, particularly for SEND. We have no idea yet of how that will be dispersed or what this Council's share of that money may be, how it will reach us.

  • The Committee expressed concern that the high number of appeals to tribunal had doubled in the last twelve months. The Director for Education and Lifelong Learning said:

When you look at it as a percentage, Surrey is eighth, so we don't have the highest percentage, but clearly it is higher than average.

She explained that the Service was trialling the use of mediation and dispute resolution officers and that this had so far had a 57% success rate in preventing cases from proceeding to Tribunal. Officers highlighted the high use of non-maintained independent schools in Surrey. The Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning said:

We are an outlier in our use of non-maintained independent provision. More Surrey children attend that type of provision than typically do in other local authorities. Similarly, we have more children in specialist provision that in other local authorities would have their needs met in mainstream.

The Cabinet Member added that:

The impending introduction of VAT on school fees in the independent sector is already playing out with higher appeals across the board being submitted that relate to children who are in independent settings.

  • The Committee sought further reassurance that communications with families would improve. The SEND County Service Planning & Performance Leader said:

This is an area of real significant concern to me, obviously, and I'm monitoring very closely the number of complaints and concerns that come in that relate to poor communication. So I am aware it is still an issue, and I have asked that it is focused on in the meantime.

The Service was looking to improve its use of out of office replies to emails and was looking at a new phone system that would allow it to monitor response times to phone calls. In the longer term the service was planning to introduce a parent portal. The Committee asked if anything could be done to improve the responsiveness of the service in the meantime, while the new systems were being developed.

Preparing For Adulthood

The Committee reviewed the support provided by Surrey to children as they approach adulthood, in particular children with disabilities and care leavers. The recent internal audit report had highlighted a number of areas where the current arrangements were not working effectively. A key concern of the Committee was that referrals to the Adult Social Care Transition Team were being made later than was considered good practice.

  • The Assistant Director for CWD acknowledged that referrals to the Transition Team were often being made between the ages of 16 and 17, despite national guidance that transition planning should begin at age 14. She explained that this was because the Adult Transition Team were not able to engage meaningfully with young people before the age of 17.5 due to capacity issues. She said:

We would have no resistance to adult services getting involved with children with disabilities younger, but without speaking for them, they do not have the capacity, is my understanding, to do that.

She reassured the Committee that Children's Services were mindful of preparing children for adulthood from an earlier age, and that there were regular meetings with Adult Social Care to discuss transition planning.

  • The Committee explored the issue of data sharing between Children's and Adult Services. Officers explained that they were looking into this as part of the work to develop a new 16-25 service. However, they cautioned that previous work had shown that developing a fully integrated system would be complex and costly.
  • The Committee noted that the Preparing for Adulthood programme had not always been delivered effectively, as had been highlighted in the internal audit. They asked how the service planned to address the issues that had been identified. The Assistant Director for CWD explained that a number of initiatives were underway, including the development of a new 16-25 pathway for young people with disabilities.
  • The Committee noted that the Supporting Families Team were exploring the use of a Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS)2 to increase the number of providers offering vocational pathways for young people with disabilities. A Member asked if there were any particular gaps in provision. The Service Manager in Commissioning for SEND Schools said:

I do think it is more in general, although we do have providers that are specific for particular areas, as I said, like traineeships or supported internships. So I think we are looking at that general area of what needs to be increased to have more available provision.

  • The Committee asked about the provision of further education and training for post-16s with SEND, following feedback from Family Voice Surrey that families were struggling to find appropriate provision. The Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning explained that:

It is true that for some young people the further education options available do not necessarily meet their aspirations or those that do best fit their aspirations may be further away than is desirable.

She explained that the Council's task was to consider whether it was reasonable and proportionate to commission new provision, taking into account the geographic spread of existing services.

  • The Committee expressed concern about the impact of the changes to transport provision on the ability of young people with SEND to access post-16 education and training. The Director said:

It is certainly true that if this council is not funding the transport for post-16 young people there will be some education choices that a young person or their family will not make because they will know that they need to fund the transport themselves.

She said that the Council would need to consider whether it should go beyond its statutory duties to fund transport in exceptional circumstances.

Following the discussion on post-16 education and training, the Committee agreed to add the topic to its forward work plan to be considered at a future meeting.


  1. Banded funding frameworks are used by local authorities to determine the amount of funding that a school will receive for a pupil with an EHCP. 

  2. A Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) is an electronic system used to procure commonly used goods, works, or services. A DPS is open for suppliers to join throughout its life.