The meeting on 2 December 2024 of Torbay Council's Schools Forum was scheduled to involve discussions on a variety of important topics including the ongoing SEND [Special Educational Needs and Disability] review, the arrangements for funding home to school transport, and the early years funding process.

SEND Review

A report was included in the documents for this meeting that provided an update on the progress of the review into Torbay Council's arrangements for meeting its duties to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Torbay Council was inspected in November 2021 under the SEND Local Area Inspection Framework. The subsequent inspection report, which was published in January 2022, identified eight serious weaknesses in the council's provision. The report required the council to produce a Written Statement of Action, which was subsequently published in April 2022. In July 2024, the Local Government Association [LGA] conducted a review of the council's progress in delivering the Written Statement of Action. The review identified limited progress and that the ambition to meet the eight areas of weakness has led to a system that continues to ‘add more’ rather than stand back and think about the big issues that need a clear joint focus.

The report to the Schools Forum stated that preparation is underway for a follow-up inspection by Ofsted that is expected to take place in the near future.

Home to School Transport

The forum was scheduled to receive a report on the home to school transport provided by Torbay Council.

The report noted that expenditure on home to school transport has increased year on year. In response to this, the council had commissioned a review to ensure that the transport provided was done so consistently with relevant legislation, and to end transport arrangements where the relevant legislation criteria were not met.

As a result of the review, the council appointed an Independent Travel Trainer in April 2024 with the aim of supporting young people to travel independently, and to prepare them for safer and more confident engagement with the community by becoming more independent. A list of young people have been identified to be supported by the trainer.

Early Years Funding Process

A report was provided to the Schools Forum that compared the two funding processes that Torbay Council uses to provide funding for early years entitlements.

The report explained that there is one process for paying for the early years entitlements of children who attend Private, Voluntary and Independent Sector [PVI] & School based Early Years provision. Under this system, settings submit a forecast of their expected pupil numbers each term, before submitting their actual numbers. At the end of the term they are able to make adjustments to their data to reflect, for example, children who joined after the headcount date, or left before the end of term.

Schools use a different process to receive funding for their early years provision. Under the schools process, schools submit a forecast of the number of funded hours they will provide in the following financial year each January. They then submit their actual numbers each term, and receive adjustments to reflect the difference.

The report noted that There have been a number of queries raised to the early years team about the equitability of this and the option for this to be available to school-based settings. The report did not, however, make any recommendations about which, if any, of the two processes it would prefer to use in future.