Agenda item

Report of the Director of Children’s Services.  To be introduced by the Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families.

The Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families introduced the report which sought approval for the commencement of a voluntary consultation on the proposed changes to the bandings and top up funding for Early Years, mainstream and special school education settings for SEND.  It was noted that a report on the outcome of the consultation, along with the final decision, would be submitted to the Cabinet for decision at a future date.

In response to questions from Councillor da Costa, the following was noted:

-       There was no target prescribed by the Department for Education to reduce the number of Education, Health and Care Plans.  The Safety Valve programme was introduced to develop proposals which may help to reduce the need for new EHCP as a result of early interventions.

RESOLVED to

1.            Approve the commencement of a voluntary consultation on the proposed changes to the bandings and top up funding for Early Years, mainstream and special school education settings for SEND.

2.            Approve the draft consultation questions to commence over an 8 week consultation period from the 5^th October 2023 to 1^st December 2023.

3.            Note that a report on the outcome of the consultation and final decision on the proposed policy changes will be submitted to Cabinet at a future date.

Reasons for decision

Haringey Council has a statutory duty to deliver support to children and young people with SEND. These responsibilities are described in the Children and Families Act 2014 which sets out the Local Authority‘s duties to assess young people’s SEND needs and to make provision to meet these needs.

Funding to support children and young people who require additional support to meet their SEND needs is allocated to Haringey Council via the Dedicated Schools Grant, with the High Needs Block within this grant being specifically allocated to make financial provision to meet the identified SEND needs of children and young people.

Haringey Council is part of the national Safety Valve Programme which is designed to assist local authorities in reducing overspend in their High Needs Block expenditure and achieve an in year balanced budget. Haringey has agreed a Safety Valve deal until 2027-2028, incorporating 18 projects, which if successful will draw down funding of £30m to clear the projected deficit. As of 1 April 2023, due to the strength of and confidence in the proposals, Haringey has received £11.96m which has reduced the cumulative deficit to £11.8m. Haringey has reported an in year overspend of £2.22m and is forecasting cumulative surplus of £0.1m by 2027/28.(Refer to Haringey Safety Valve Programme report to Cabinet 13 September 2022)

As part of the conditions of participation within the Safety Valve programme Haringey council has committed to review SEND bandings and top-up allocations to ensure that these are needs led, fair, open, transparent.

To inform this work, Haringey Council has worked with key stakeholders, including but not exclusively, parents and carers, schools, specialist teaching staff, health colleagues and education psychology to develop two sets of banding descriptors which are designed to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.

The Bandings and Top-ups work has been informed by the following agreed principles and values:

a)     Universality: There should be a consistent set of principles and methodology for allocating SEN top-up funding across all phases and settings. There may be flexibility to reflect differences in age / stage.

b)     Fairness: There should be recognition that the High Needs Block allocation for Haringey, and that decisions about funding in one area affect resources available to another. As such, strategic and operational decisions about SEN funding should be made transparently, consistently and fairly, to ensure that resources are targeted at where there are the greatest needs.

c)      Ease of use: The approach to SEN funding in Haringey, and the tools used to inform and reach decisions, should be straightforward to explain, concise and easy to use.

d)     Mutually-reinforcing: The SEN funding system should align with guidance for when to carry out EHC needs assessments and the agreed definition of “ordinarily-available provision” in Haringey. It should also align with the threshold for being allocated a place in a special school.

e)     Needs led: The approach to banding should be based on clear descriptors of need that are easy to understand. These could be complemented with examples of how these needs might be met in a Haringey school.

Appendix Three: Proposed Early Years Bandings describes the proposed new Banding descriptors for children aged 0-5 in Early Years settings. Key changes are  outlined as follows:

a)      these bandings are applied fairly and equally across all early years settings in Haringey,

b)     there will be an increase from 2 to 4 Bands allowing for a better description of children’s needs,

c)      that these bandings are applied until children reach the end of the Early Years Foundation stage allowing support for children to be extended until the age of 5 in line with developmental stages with regular 6 monthly progress reviews,

d)     that these bandings are funded jointly from the Early Years block and the High Needs Block of the Dedicated schools Grant (DSG) to ensure that sufficient funding is available to support children at the earliest point of intervention but that the amount of support from the High Needs Block (HNB) is reviewed in accordance with the terms and conditions the council’s Safety Valve agreement and what is allowable within the HNB grant and conditions,

e)      bandings will be agreed at ‘Early Years Review’ meetings held by the Early Years provider and parent and based on evidence supplied and supported by relevant health and local authority education specialists. The decision to award the top-up band will be agreed at this meeting and subject to a termly review to ensure parity and equity of funding across settings.

f)       the amount of funding which each of the individual 4 bands is allocated will be calculated annually based on the financial allocation within the DSG and will be published annually in April to allow for budget setting for settings by academic year,

g)      each band will be clearly described with the highest financial award being allocated to children with the most complexity of need,

h)      it is proposed that the services move incrementally into the new system over a 3 year period to ensure minimum disruption to children and settings, with the new  system being incrementally introduced through settings as new children are assessed.

Appendix Four: Proposed SEND Bandings for school aged children and young people describes the new bandings formulations for children and young people aged 5-19 who attend a mainstream or special school located within the London Borough of Haringey (either maintained or academy) but not Independent Schools (which are subject to different funding arrangements). Key changes are outlined as follows:

a)     there will be an increase from 4 to 8 bands with 3 bands describing SEN support available to children prior to consideration of an education, health and care plan (EHCP),

b)     that the Bandings are used to describe children and young peoples needs on a continuum.

c)      that there is an additional band introduced which allows for additional financial support to schools to allow for early intervention and support, to prevent a child’s needs from escalating further and without the need for an EHCP.

d)     the amount of money allocated to each of the individual 8 bands will be calculated annually based on the financial allocation within the High Needs Block of the Designated Schools Grant and each banding amount will be published annually in April to allow for budget-setting for settings by academic year,

e)     the amount of money allocated to each child will be agreed by Haringey SEND Panel based on the evidence and recommendations of the parents, Special Education Needs and

f)       Disability Co-ordinator (SENDCO) and specialist education professionals who are responsible for supporting the child or young person

g)     bandings and top-ups will be reviewed at each child’s SEN or EHCP annual review,

h)     during the proposed transition year, September 2023 – August 2024, every child or young person who currently has top-up funding from the High Needs Block of the DSG will have a planned audit of their EHCP which will indicate their new band. Where a child’s audit indicates that their plan is not indicative or reflective of their needs, an annual review of their EHCP will be held before a new banding is allocated. In such annual reviews, professionals will satisfy themselves that the proposed allocation of funding for that child or young person is sufficient to provide all special educational provision in section F of the EHC plan. The Haringey SEND service will be training all Haringey Schools in assessing children in relation to the new bandings during the first half of the Autumn term (2023) and extensive testing previously undertaken in a range of schools indicates that for the majority of children this is a straightforward process using the indicative needs of the child as described within their EHCP and applying them to the new bandings.

i)       every child or young person who currently has top-up funding from the High Needs Block of the DSG will have a review which will be supported by the School SENCO and parents and carers. A new banding allocation will be made based on the needs evidenced within the child or young person’s existing plan, and any banding which deviates from the existing scale by 2 or more points will be taken to Haringey SEND Panel for moderation. Following application of bandings to individual children, the SEND Service and Schools Finance Team will allocate top-up funding based on allocation of existing monies within the HNB and allocate an amount per band based on the budget available within the High Needs Block and the complexity of the needs of the child (thus band H will always be higher funding than Band A). This calibration of top-up funding will take place annually in recognition of annual fluctuations in budget allocation from central government and will be sent to schools forum annually in April for agreement.

There is no duty to consult with regards to changings in bandings. As good practice, the proposal is to undertake public consultation via an on-line consultation form published on the Haringey SEND Local Offer web-site. This will be for a period of 8 weeks to ensure that families, schools and other stakeholders have sufficient time to respond to the proposed changes. The proposed consultation questions and communications plan are attached as Appendix Five: Proposed consultation questions and Appendix Six: Bandings and Top Ups Comms Plan

The consultation will also be promoted via the SEND Newsletter, Special Schools and Parent Carers Forum and a range of other relevant networks within the education, health and care sector.

The consultation will be 8 weeks in total as work to produce the new Bandings and Top-ups has involved key stakeholders throughout the process to date. This includes SEND Power (parent carer forum), early years settings, mainstream and special schools who engaged in events and workshops, modelling the bandings with schools using pupil cohorts.

Alternative options considered

Consideration has been given to retaining the bandings in their current form with no changes made. This option is not considered to be sustainable in light of the feedback from stakeholders regarding developing a more equitable system and within the context of the Safety Valve  programme to achieve a balanced budget. Where alternative options are provided in response to the consultation, these will be fully considered.