To receive any questions of which Members of the Council have given notice.

Deadline for notification: 5.00pm on Friday 9 September 2016

31.1    The following questions had been received from Councillor Roger Evans

1. I have recently been sent a copy of a message sent to certain selected Councillors in July. I was not on the list and have only seen this message in the last few days.

I note in the message it says the LA is fully supportive of this application. Can it be confirmed if this is the case or not. If the statement is true why the “LA is fully supportive” of this application and the confirmation that the LA will “commission 50 places with an additional 10 nursery places being available”.

Response

The Children and Families Act places a duty on local authorities to ‘keep under review its education provision…. made in its area for children and young people who have special educational needs or a disability.’ (DfE. (2014). Children and Families Act 2014 c. 6 Part 3 Section 27)

As part of this review the LA is supportive of the Shrewsbury Academy Trust (SAT) free school bid to develop specialist provision in Shrewsbury. Working with the SAT to develop this provision will be a cost effective means ensuring that the LA is able to meet its statutory duty.  

It is anticipated that the LA will commission between 50 and 60 places across the 5 to 16 age range by the end of the second year of operation. The LA will keep this under review and adjust, if necessary, to ensure both sufficiency of places and value for money.  The LA will also quality assure its full range of SEND provision through monitoring of outcomes for children and young people with SEND, particularly with regard to outcomes relating to Preparation for Adulthood (PFA). This is in line with the duties placed on local authorities within the Children and Families Act.

Recent discussion between the LA and SAT has meant that there are currently no plans to develop nursery provision at this stage.  The LA does not believe that there is a need for centralised specialist provision for this age group with this level of need. The LA are seeking to place children aged between 0 and 5 years within mainstream nursery/early years provision within local communities where possible.

The Parent and Carer Council (PACC) are supportive of this application and have been informed of, and are involved in, the initial planning of this development. This is in line with the duty placed on local authorities to involve parents (and young people) in strategic decision making when planning provision for SEND.

The provision is intended to meet the needs of children with complex SEN. It will cater mainly for children with a moderate to severe learning difficulty whose needs cannot be met appropriately in a mainstream setting. This may be because of very low levels of cognitive functioning and/or because they have additional needs that mean that they are not able to function independently within a mainstream environment. These pupils require a curriculum that provides opportunity to develop independence and that may have a vocational focus in order to develop the work related skills that will enable them to fully participate within their community as adults. Currently this profile of pupil is likely to attend Severndale Academy.

Health data demonstrates that within Shropshire there is an increase in the number of children with very complex needs. As these children reach school age this will place further demand on places at Severndale Academy. A specialist free school for children with moderate to severe learning difficulties will mean that Severndale will have the capacity to meet increased demand for children with severe learning difficulties as well as those with profound and multiple learning difficulties.  

2. Can we be told if this is likely to affect any other school in Shropshire, have these schools been informed, and will the LA be paying in full any transport costs incurred by parents in transporting their children to this new free school. Have the LA any further details on this application that can be shared with the scrutiny Committee.

Response

The only school that is likely to be affected within Shropshire is Severndale Academy. The principal of Severndale Academy is a member of the core planning group and is therefore informed.

The LA transport pupils who meet the criteria for transport for SEND. It is not anticipated that there will be an increase in transport costs to either parents or the LA as the majority of children attending this provision would have had transport provided to Severndale or to another specialist setting within a neighbouring authority.   

Further details:

The bid will be submitted to the DfE at the end of this month. The final outcome of this bid will not be known until summer 2017. If successful then it is planned to open in September 2018. Capital funding for the project will be provided by central government and a high proportion of the running costs will also be provided from a central government budget for the first two years of operation (this will be commensurate with the number of commissioned places). We will keep cabinet fully updated of this and other proposals as they develop.

31.2    Mr Evans thanks officers for their response and by way of supplementary question expressed concern about the effect the proposals would have on other schools.  The Director of Children’s Services commented that there would be a positive outcome for all schools as there would be extra expertise available that they could access.