This article summarises the agenda for the Scrutiny Committee - Children and Families meeting on 22 September 2025. The committee was scheduled to discuss the Lead Member's annual report, the annual scrutiny review report, the High Needs Provision Capital Allocation, Section 19 of the Education Act 1996, and the Fair Access Protocol.

Lead Member's Annual Report and Annual Scrutiny Review Report

The committee was scheduled to receive the Lead Member's annual report, presented by Councillor Heather Shearer, Executive Member for Children, Families and Education, along with the Annual Scrutiny Report. Councillor Leigh Redman, Chair of the Scrutiny Committee, was expected to present the annual report summarising the committee's work over the past 12-14 months, with a focus on improvements for children, young people and families across Somerset.

The annual report noted that the Scrutiny Committee had met twelve times between March 2024 and August 2025, including one extraordinary meeting to discuss the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Deficit Management Plan (DMP).

The report also highlighted a number of topics that the committee had focused on including:

• Children's mental health
• Education standards
• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision
• Budget pressures

The report noted a number of priorities for the coming year:

• The ongoing SEND reforms & white paper when announced
• We must work to ensure DMP success
• The implementation of greater community support and hopefully family hubs to support early help for families
• The impact of cost-of-living pressures on children and families
• Progress against our Children's Social Care improvement journey
• and, with the support of Executive, early involvement in policy development

High Needs Provision Capital Allocation (HNPCA)

The committee was scheduled to receive a presentation updating them on the progress of the High Needs Provision Capital Allocation (HNPCA).

The HNPCA provides funding to local authorities to deliver new school places or improve existing ones for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Since 2021/22, Somerset Council has received £29.222 million, of which around £20.090 million remains unspent.

The council was considering a three-year capital programme to deliver 352 new specialist places and reasonable adjustments¹, and to fully exhaust the allocation received to date.

The capital programme included:

• SEN Unit Places (Refurbishment)
• SEN Unit Places (New Build)
• Special School Places
• Accessibility (SAI)
• Contingency

The key driver for this project is to increase the number of state-maintained specialist places in Somerset, which is currently under-provided and over-reliant on high-cost, independent non-maintained specialist (INMS) provision.

The presentation noted that Somerset currently has over 500 children and young people placed in INMS, at a significant cost to the High Needs Budget.

SEN Units are small specialist provisions on mainstream school sites, and align with the council's Local First approach to pupil place planning.

The schools which are hosting SEN Units have been offered a package of pre and post opening support and training, delivered by the Local Authority, SENSE (Somerset's special schools) and the Somerset Parent Carer Forum.

A key use of HNPCA is the delivery of reasonable adjustments in education settings to make them accessible for local children with SEND, including:

• Improved physical access to the school
• Improved physical movement around the buildings
• Improved access to the curriculum
• Improved facilities within the building for children with physical impairments and medical conditions
• Improved facilities within the building for children with sensory needs

Section 19 of the Education Act 1996

The committee was scheduled to receive a presentation about Section 19 of the Education Act 1996².

Section 19(1) of the Education Act 1996 places a statutory duty on local authorities to ensure that children of compulsory school age who cannot attend school—due to illness, exclusion, or other reasons—receive suitable education, either at school or elsewhere.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has repeatedly judged that Somerset Council's practice is not fit for purpose and that the council is unlawful in not fulfilling its duties to rising numbers of cases where children are not in school for extended periods.

The council was considering a new policy and process map which sets out how the council and others will meet their respective duties.

The presentation noted that the government guidance defines local authority responsibilities for Section 19 provision on the basis of absence (consecutive or not) of more than 30 sessions / 15 days, however, this is not reflected in the legislation and therefore cannot be considered a statutory duty.

The presentation also noted that evaluation of recent pressures on Section 19 duties reveal that escalation of demand is being driven by limitations, not in the 'Section 19' system, but in the EHCP system.

The proposal would be for senior multi-agency panel to make a determination on eligibility for Section 19 provision, including representatives from:

• Health CAMHS³
• Health Clinical
• Virtual School
• Educational Psychology
• Education Pupil Referral Unit
• Children's Social Care

Fair Access Protocol (FAP)

The committee was scheduled to receive a presentation about the Fair Access Protocol (FAP).

The FAP is a mechanism developed by the local authority in partnership with all schools in its area. It acts as a safety net for the most vulnerable children in securing a school place. Its aim is to ensure that vulnerable children, and those who are having difficulty in securing a school place in-year, are allocated a school place as quickly as possible.

The FAP is most routinely used to secure a school place for children when an admission authority has declined a school place due to the child previously displaying challenging behaviour or following a permanent exclusion and subsequently this predominantly affects Middle and Secondary schools.

The council was consulting on a number of proposed changes to the FAP, including:

• A revised geographic model, based on the child's home address to determine schools in scope to admit a child via the Fair Access Allocation Panel
• A county-wide Fair Access Allocation Panel will be held to incorporate the new geographic model
• Increase to 6 categories included in the Equitable Share Data[^5].
• Reduce the timescale for Equitable Share Data to include any children placed in accordance with the FAP categories within the current year and the previous 2 academic years
• Amending Equitable Share Data if a child placed into a school via FAP leaves the school

The presentation noted that the engagement survey, despite its low response rate, has informed both the consultation process and the proposal presented—particularly regarding a potential change in chair.