Issue - meetings

The Panel considered the report of the Executive Director for Children and Learning outlining the outcome of the local area Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) inspection, conducted by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in April / May 2024.

Councillor Winning (Cabinet Member for Children and Learning), Rob Henderson (Executive Director, Children’s Services and Learning) and Dr Debbie Chase (Director of Public Health) were in attendance and, with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

It was noted that OFSTED had recently published their report into the Provision of Special Educational Needs in Southampton and therefore the papers were no longer required to be treated as confidential.

The Panel discussed a number of points including:

• The accuracy of the Council’s SEND self assessment;
• The key learning points from the inspection;
• The Council’s SEND transformation programme and Capital programme;

·  The uptake of the mandated healthy children programme and any potential variations to this across the City;

·  The number and percentage of elective home educated children with SEND is circulated to the Panel; and

·  The development of the SEND Partnership action plan.

RESOLVED

1)  That, reflecting issues raised by the inspection about the visibility of some children with SEND, the number and percentage of elective home educated children with SEND is circulated to the Panel.

2)  That, to help target activity aimed at improving uptake, analysis is undertaken of the mandated healthy child programme developmental checks to identify if there are any significant variations across the city, geographical or otherwise.

3)  That the issue returns to the agenda of the Panel in November to consider the SEND Partnership action plan developed in response to the inspection findings.