Agenda item

The Chairman introduced the Committee’s final report on the Development of Inclusion of Special Education Needs children in mainstream schools.

Members of the Committee expressed reservations about the “national context” section of the final report, which seemed to focus on the future Conservative agenda. The Committee agreed that the report did not benefit from the national context section and agreed to delete it in its entity.

Following the above changed, Members changed recommendation 2.1 to read: “That Cabinet are aware of changes which may occur at a national level that could affect the viability of the Inclusion policy in the future.”

The Committee were directed to the conclusions and recommendations section of the report. The Committee discussed the following recommendation ideas:

1.      The Secondary Transfer is developed to ensure a smooth transition between primary and secondary phases.

2.      A capacity is built in mainstream schools so they are confident in their ability to support children within the mainstream setting.

3.      A Robust Parent Participation Forum is activated

4.      Encourage schools to have systems in place to ensure the pupil voice is heard

5.      Develop a common framework for engaging parents in AEN.

6.      Put systems in place to engage hard to reach families

7.      Improve quality of information provided to parents and carers

8.      Train and develop a skilled workforce to work with children with additional needs.

The Committee discussed inputting a recommendation regarding the practicality of expecting all schools to perform as successfully as one high achieving school in the borough. The Committee agreed that the following conclusion should be included in the final report: “The Committee heard from competent staff from mainstream schools that are performing well and have fully embraced the Inclusion programme. The Committee cannot determine how practical it is to expect all schools to perform as successfully.”

Following on from the above conclusion, the Committee recommended the following recommendation be included in the final report: “That Officers are instructed to identify schools that may be challenged by the Inclusion agenda and report to the Cabinet Member implementation strategies that will be put into place to support these schools and the criteria used to measure their success.”

Officers informed the Committee that criteria by which school success is measured is implemented by Ofsted, but the Local Authority had good intelligence of school achievements, including performance indicators in place to flag up any under achieving schools.

Members expressed concerns over whether Government resources allocated to the Building Schools for the 21^st Century programme would still be available in the current economic climate. Officers informed the Committee that funding from the Building Schools for the 21^st Century programme would not make a major impact on the Inclusion strategy – the Inclusion programme would continue with or without Building Schools for the 21^st Century programme funding. Building Schools for the 21^st Century programme focused on rebuilding schools in the borough, however the Inclusion service was not hinged on the rebuilding of schools and therefore would not be hugely impacted upon should Building Schools for the 21^st Century programme funding not be fully available.

Officers informed the Committee that the support for Inclusion in the borough is good on the whole. However, there was a cultural shift which needed to be endorsed in schools to enable them to better address the changing ethos of the service.

Agreed:

The Committee agreed the final report.