Agenda item

The Committee welcomed the following witnesses to the major review witness session:

Councillor Simmonds - Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Education and Children's Services 

In summary, Councillor Simmonds provided his perspective and commented that the scoping report was comprehensive. He reported that there were four key lines of enquiry which needed to be explored. These lines included (a) ensuring that the resources in this area of children's services provided the best results; (b) the allocation of finances; (c) raising awareness of the support available to children not in a formal setting; and d) focussing on early intervention choices to increase performance and best impact. It was recognised that the effective joint working programmes in the London Borough of Hillingdon and inspection outcomes were amongst the best in the country and it was questioned how this could be improved.

Some Members questioned how levels of early intervention engagement could be improved. It was reported that there were programmes in place which aimed to do this such as early support key working, establishing close links with the child development centre and links with health services. Rolling uot the local child care offer, a service encouraged by government, raised awareness about the resources available to them.

Janna Murphy - Specialist Resource Provision/Assistant Head Hayes Park School and Sarah Blakely - Early Years Foundation Stage Manager

Janna made the following key points during her presentation:

The ability to refer to speech and language therapy services, seek advice and support from the Local Authority Inclusion team and the Early Years Team, links with Charville' Children Centres and improved guidance for emergency funding and exceptional funding, including early access funding were areas that worked well in Hayes Park school. These were all forms of external supports offered to the school.

Internal "raising the concern" process, in class strategy support plans, early identification through Language link screening in Reception for all children, speech screening, information sharing on Behaviour Watch system, and having a family support working and team around the family when required were some of the in school support programmes that well at Hayes Park school.

There were clear processes in place, such as the ability to be able to identify children with SEND, evidence gathering at an early stage. Witnesses explained that the SENDCO at the school had devised a plan saying what was needed and how the action should eb undertaken by the teacher. There were also SEND drop ins which were useful for staff and parents.

Another area that worked well was Nuture Groups which were classes of between six and 12 children or young people in early years. There were six principles of Nurture and as the children learnt academically and socially they developed confidence, became responsive to others, learn self respect and took pride in behaving well and in achieving. Parental engagement was also key to success with morning coffee sessions being offered, support groups parent reading classes and planners being used to communicate and create a home school link.

Areas of potential recommendations included; the ability to being able to make direct referrals to Occupational Health (as it can only be done by the GP), increased links between EYFS settings and health visitors for hard to reach parents, specific support for independent nursery settings to begin EHC applications process before the child started school, increased guidance and support for parents in regards to self care and mechanisms for engaging parents better through online forums.

In response to Member questions, the witnesses confirmed that the main barriers or families taking summer school offers were language barriers. The male parent usually had a competent level of English but non-working mothers usually had more contact with the school. There was a need to develop a good relationship of trust and sharing information as parental engagement was significant. Communication was key in this process. The clear pathway for funding had made it easier and costs were managed through prioritisation. An inclusion network was being developed to share good practice amongst schools.

Dr Ahmed Ahmed - Member of staff from the child development centre

Dr Ahmed made the following key points during his presentation:

Dr Ahmed worked as part of a team order local paediatric community service to children with additional needs by providing multi - disciplinary assessments and interventions. Children were assessed by relevant professionals before being allocated to a care pathway to maximise their developmental, social, emotional and educational potential. We offer child and family centred holistic care.

The child development centre ran a diagnostic secondary service, and most children were idneitifed with SEND needs in a different service then referred to the CDC.

Identifications

The types of intervention methods offered by the CDC Included:

·         Antenatal - providing advice for families to have antenatal assessments if they had another child with a condition that could be diagnoses antenatal foe example Down Syndrome.

·         At birth - Maternity staff identifying them at an early stage.

·         Clinic attendance - children attending CDC clinic for medical assessments as part of statutory assessments and other developmental conditions were identified.

Interventions

·         Interventions were provided by the CDC therapy services.

·         Medical interventions for children with additional needs who had epilepsy, sleep disorder or ADHD were provided.

Transition

·         Dr Ahmed worked closely with the Early Years team ad schools, and attended transition meetings.

·         CDC therapists visited nurseries and schools to observe children and provide appropriate support to education staff.

In response to Member questions, it was reported that there was usually a risk for children with an overseas background to identify problems and there was a communication issue as professionals did not always know who they could refer to for support and assistance.

Some of the challenges for the CDC included waiting lists concerns which was a national problem, a lack of health professionals, communication and the use of different electronic systems used by different professionals without a consolidated area of information.

Elaine Caffery - Nursery Manager a manager from a private voluntary school, 4Street Nursery

In summary, Elaine made the following key points:

Elaine described the systems in place at 4street Nursery for interventions for young children with SEND. These included Attention Hillingdon, Playing and Learning to Socialise (PALS) Social Skills Programme, WELLCOMM, High quality nursery provision and Five to Thrive. She confirmed that the nursery received a huge amount of support from the Council's inclusion team.

Areas that worked well were children being identified early with appropriate interventions put in place, relationships being built with parents from an early stage, providing timely and relevant information to the parents, tracking the progress against the EYFS with individual development plans and close working with other professionals.

Early planning for transitions was important to ensure that the best strategies were put in place for later stages, face to face meetings maintained relations between parents and professionals.

The areas for development included cross borough arrangements, transition arrangements for those at SEND support/vulnerable children when the school can be less receptive to sharing strategies. Access to services such as Educational Psychology, CAMHS and Play Therapy were suggested areas which could be looked into to improve.

There was an emphasis placed on children who fell below the radar because of lack of parental engagement or difficult to get schools to engage. There was always a worry of financial pressures particularly with some of the new initiative being introduced.

Jo Moody - Advanced Practitioner (provides training and support to other nurseries) / early years practitioner - South Ruislip Early Years Centre

Jo explained that there were a number of tools to support the early identification of children's needs, which included a tool called WELLCOMM (speech and language tool resource kit) which contained specific activities linked to each stage of development. There was a speech language and communication folder which provided tip sheets for parents and advice for staff- this information was shared with schools Children's Centres, GPs and health visitors. Another identification method used was the two year progress checks (requirement of the EYFS) health visitors carry out the healthy children programme screening between the ages of 24 and 30 months.

Some of the areas that worked well included training staff at the early years stages, the types of training received such as ELKLAN speech and language support, promoting positive behaviours training, training in making learning visible and five to thrive.

Building relationship with the parents led to better relations lonf time.

Areas which could be developed to improve the service included the amount of children waiting for an MDT - B appointment. Streamliinig the use of resouices - ie therapy services and greater sharing of the outcomes of two year checks.

RESOLVED -

1.    Witnesses be thanked for their attendance, evidence and recommendations; and

2.    The evidence be noted as part of the major review.