Agenda item

SEND Banding quarterly update

Minutes:

The first quarterly update following the SEND banding review had been made in September 2019. John Wood stated he would provide a general update electronically and further analysis would be contained within the next report. 

The new system was still embedding and there was need for further work regarding hearing impairment and SEMH. There had been a trend for schools to use the new banding matrix differently to panel officers and challenges had been made against panel decisions. 

 

Feedback had generally been positive.  The banding model had been adopted by RBWM and had been praised by Ofsted in the recent Local Area Re-inspection.

   

It was acknowledged that if SEND issues were not identified at the Early Years stage, this could lead to behaviour issues later in school.  Michael Jarrett confirmed that training was available for Early Years but the take up was low.

 

EHCP assessments had also been made for children on the point of transitioning to a new phase: as a result, the LA had introduced an additional review level prior to transition. A member outlined the difficulties experienced at primary level in obtaining EHCPs, with a number not being granted until pupils reached Year 6 despite repeated applications.  There was an appreciation amongst members that this was an extremely complex area but the financial impact on schools had to be considered along with the possibility of creating a further issue with a rise in the pupil exclusion numbers. John Wood stressed that there was a need to reduce the number of EHCPs but this was not about setting targets for individual schools. The birth rate was going down in Slough, but concerns were increasing, and these factors had not been included in the previous piece of work. 

 

A breakdown against the different banding levels was requested.

 

More information would be provided for the next Schools Forum meeting, reporting on the improvement work necessary.