Agenda item

Hester Collicut introduced her report (Agenda Item 11), which provided an update on the Delivering Better Value Programme (DBV) and its impact on the SEND system in West Berkshire. Hester Collicut reported that updates were provided to the Department for Education (DfE) quarterly between April 2024 and April 2025. Information concerning the second quarter had just been submitted. The DBV programme was progressing well. There were delays relating to recruitment, which did impact on some areas of delivery including the Mental Health Programme and the Transition Support Programme. Both of these programmes had been provided with permission to run beyond March 2025 into the summer.

Trevor Keable referred to paragraph 4.19 of the report where it stated that a business case would be submitted for additional resources to support the business-as-usual processing of annual reviews. He assumed that this tied in with agenda item eight (Transition Support Programme) and queried if he was correct in understanding that this was work that the Local Authority should be carrying out anyway and therefore should not require extra resources. Hester Collicut reported that it was a statutory obligation to manage annual reviews. Additional input would be required to meet the increased demand for Education Health and Care Plans. It was an area that had been highlighted through DBV and would require expansion and realignment of services in order to meet deadlines. It was expected that a review of services would take place over the autumn term.

Trevor Keable referred to the Transition Support Programme report later on the agenda (agenda item 8) and noted that it was seeking further funding. He assumed that this was the same funding referred to in the DBV update report. Hester Collicut stated that a pilot programme was being delivered as part of the Transition Support Programme, which was part of/funded by DBV and therefore would only be funded until July 2025. To ensure the pilot programme was successful this needed to run for the full year, and this was why additional funding was being sought for the posts outlined in the report later on the agenda. The pilot programme would impact on the High Needs Block because it would support successful transitions into mainstream school and meet needs earlier. Trevor Keable further queried if in affect the Forum was being informed that there was not the money available to provide what legally should be being provided. Hester Collicut confirmed that this was not the case as the annual review business case was a separate internal mechanism at the LA. It was about the restructure of the assessment team and reviewing processes. The DBV had provided the opportunity to unpick processes and provide a sustainable model moving forward.

Hester Collicut clarified that match funding support was being sought from the Forum for the two posts, which formed part of the Transition Support Programme. The post, focused on annual reviews, was held within the DBV, and this was a short phase to ensure the pilot worked successfully focusing on transitions of year five and six pupils. In the meantime, irrespective of DBV, a review of statutory assessments was taking place to ensure statutory requirements were being met.

Neil Goddard further clarified that the LA had been under resourced in relation to the annual review process and therefore unable to engage in a way it would like to. There had recently been budget capacity provided to add an interim role to enable the LA to start catching up with input to annual reviews. There was a bid going through the internal corporate processes for additional LA money to make this a permanent post going forward. Transitions were a very separate issue but was linked in terms of the resources that went into it. The LA understood its statutory role in relation to annual reviews and was looking to place further investment in this area.

RESOLVED that the Schools’ Forum noted the update.