Agenda and minutes

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Media

Items
Note No. Item

14:30

1.

Appointment of Chair

The Sub-Committee is asked that in accordance with the Terms of Reference, to nominate and approve a Chair for the 2020/21 municipal year.

Minutes:

County Councillor Turner proposed County Councillor Williamson as Chair, which was seconded by Debbie Corcoran.

 

There being no other nominations, County Councillor Williamson was appointed as Chair of the Sub-Committee.

 

County Councillor Williamson proposed County Councillor Turner as Deputy Chair, which was also seconded by Debbie Corcoran.

 

There being no other nominations, County Councillor Turner was appointed as Deputy Chair of the Sub-Committee.

 

Resolved:

 

County Councillor Phillippa Williamson, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Schools, and County Councillor Shaun Turner, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, were respectively appointed as Chair and Deputy Chair of the SEND Sub-Committee.

2.

Membership and Terms of Reference of the Lancashire Health and Wellbeing Board - SEND Sub-Committee pdf icon PDF 113 KB

To note the membership and terms of reference.

Minutes:

Following a review of the Terms of Reference by the committee, it was proposed that the Chief Operating Officer Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) (responsible lead officer for SEND) and the Lancashire County Council Director of Education and Skills (responsible officer for SEND services), be removed from the Sub-Committee membership.  The reason behind this decision was that these members will be held accountable for decisions being made by the committee, which would not be possible if they were part of the membership.  It was noted that the quorum of the committee remained at three.

 

It was noted that any changes to the Terms of Reference would need to be agreed by the Lancashire Health and Wellbeing Board.

 

Resolved:

 

i.  The Chief Operating Officer Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) (responsible lead officer for SEND) and the Lancashire County Council Director of Education and Skills (responsible officer for SEND services), be removed from the Sub-Committee membership, subject to the approval of the Health and Wellbeing Board; and

 

ii.  the quorum of the Sub-Committee remain at three, be noted.

3.

Welcome, introductions and apologies

To welcome all to the meeting, introduction and receive apologies.

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting. 

 

Apologies were received from Kevin Toole.

 

Zoe Richards replaced Hilary Fordham for this meeting. 

4.

Disclosure of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

Members of the Sub-Committee are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

Minutes:

There were no pecuniary disclosures of interest in relation to items appearing on the agenda but Debbie Corcoran declared a non-pecuniary interest, as she has a family member who has recently been diagnosed with special needs.

14:35

5.

Lancashire Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Partnership - Draft Accelerated Progress Plan pdf icon PDF 222 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Sarah Callaghan, Director of Education and Skills, Lancashire County Council, and Zoe Richards, SEND Partnership Improvement Lead, Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group, introduced the item.

 

Sarah Callaghan reported that the Lancashire local area Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Services had been inspected by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in November 2017 to judge how effectively the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) reforms had been implemented, as per the Children and Families Act 2014. 

 

The inspection identified twelve areas of significant concern and a subsequent inspection revisit was therefore undertaken in March 2020 to see if sufficient progress had been made in these twelve areas.  The second inspection revisit confirmed that sufficient progress had been made in seven of the twelve areas but that further work was required in the remaining five, which are noted below.

 

  Leaders had an inaccurate understanding of the local area;

  there were weak joint commissioning arrangements that were not well developed or evaluated;

  there was an absence of effective diagnostic pathways for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across the local area and no diagnostic pathway in the north of the area;

  transition arrangements in 0-25 healthcare services were poor; and

  the local offer was inaccessible and the quality of information published was poor.

 

In view of this, a draft Accelerated Improvement Plan has been put together for Lancashire, which focusses on these five areas for improvement.  The Plan will be formally monitored, with progress reports being made to both the SEND Partnership Board and the Lancashire Health and Wellbeing Board, along with further reviews by the Department for Education and NHS England.  It was noted that the final working draft of the Plan must be submitted to the Department for Education and NHS England by 30 September 2020.

 

Sarah Callaghan and Zoe Richards summarised the Plan, talking about each area of concern individually and the key performance indictators that have been put in place to counter-act those issues.

 

In response to a query about best practice in developing the action plan and how service users have been engaged in this process, it was reported that service users sit on both the SEND Partnership Board and SEND Operational Group and rigorously challenge actions and progress and shape the development plans for the Accelerated Progress Plan.

 

In addition, engaging with service users had taken place by engagement co-production and co-delivery and was working very well.  With regard to overall improvement of the service, plans were in place to determine how engagement with service users can be further improved by using several different mechanisms; ie, undertaking surveys, having virtual meetings and by liaising with schools to ask children for their opinions on their experiences of services by incorporating this into lessons.  In terms of best practice with regard to Autism Spectrum Disorder, benchmarking had taken place with other areas and meetings have taken place with the newly established National Autism Team, who are keen to have a joint co-learning process.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Urgent Business

An item of Urgent Business may only be considered under this heading, where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Members' intention to raise a matter under this heading.

Minutes:

There was no urgent business.

7.

Date of Next Meeting

To agree the future meeting dates.

Minutes:

A timetable of meetings for the Sub-Committee would be scheduled and circulated to members in due course.