Agenda item

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

This report sets out details of proposals for the future model of alternative provision in Haringey and to propose a number of recommendations in order to take forward these proposals.

 [Cllr Mark Blake left the room for this item 19.53]

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families introduced this report which set out details of proposals for the future model of alternative provision in Haringey and to propose a number of recommendations in order to take forward these proposals. Additionally, as a result of this report, the Pupil Referral Unit would be brought back in house.

The Cabinet Member was delighted to present this paper and the accompanying model for change which sets out a strategic, partnership and transformational approach to meeting the needs of children and young people in Haringey. Based on local and national work on alternative provision, and increasingly informed by the voices of children, young people and parents themselves, the proposed approach requires change in the short and longer term recognising that a phased approach is needed to ensure that co-design and learning is embedded from the outset.

The Cabinet Member noted that the Young People at Risk Strategy recognises that the Council must adopt an early intervention and whole systems approach in order to address some of the complex issues facing children and young people in Haringey. This report and the approach it outlines was within the wider context of that Strategy and its vision to ensure that all children and young people receive the best start in life.

Officers added that the report represented a whole systems approach. It was anticipated this would be 5 to 10 years programme of change and this report represented the important first steps.

RESOLVED

1.    To agree the Change Model attached as Appendix A recognising that some elements are for implementation now whilst others require further co-design before being implemented

2.    That in order to support the Change Model, to agree:

a.    the use of Stamford Hill School site as the preferred site for the Alternative Provision Hub which will accommodate the co-located Tuition Service and Octagon Pupil Referral Unit from 1^st September 2020

b.    to note the application of TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment)) to these arrangements

c.    to note the need for a further Cabinet decision to approve the award of contract to carry out the capital works required to ensure the Stamford Hill School site is ready for pupils on 1^st September 2020

Reasons for decision

There are three main drivers for the decisions being proposed at this time.

First, the trajectory for pupils permanently excluded from school is poor and there continues to be a disproportionality in the number of Black and Minority Ethnic Pupils being excluded and a seeming overrepresentation of pupils with SEN at risk of exclusion, experiencing a significant number of fixed term exclusion or permanently excluded. The risks of becoming longer term NEETS (not in education or employment) or involved in anti-social behaviour or criminality remain high and present a compelling argument for change. There needs be a real drive to shift the perception of many children, young people, parents/carers, schools and governors from seeing permanent exclusion as the end of the road towards thinking about educational entitlement and the meaningful steps needed to ensure that a pupil is able to re-engage and benefit from a high quality educational offer.

Second, Reviews of both Exclusions and of Alternative Provision have been recently undertaken in Haringey, and during the same period a Review of Exclusion was carried out nationally, led by Sir Edward Timpson and known as the Timpson Review. The main findings from this set of reviews were that a more robust and consistent response to emerging needs is needed, both in Haringey and nationally. Where pupils are struggling to engage positively with education or where schools may be struggling to positively engage pupils, intervention needs to be responsive and comprehensive, with timely assessments of need and properly tailored approaches that consider the whole child. There needs to be consideration of how Behaviour Policies, Curriculum and understanding and perceptions of Special Educational Needs (SEN) are contributing to exclusions and demand for alternative provision.

Third, in light of the Reviews and the need for a whole systems and locally embedded approach to responding to the needs of vulnerable children and young people who may become at risk of exclusion, the Council took a decision in October 2019, not to recommission the TBAP Trust, the Tri-Borough Alternative Provision Trust, to deliver Haringey’s Pupil Referral Unit, based at the Octagon, from September 2020. The decisions proposed here ensure that there is provision in Haringey to meet the needs of children and young people who would otherwise have been educated at the Octagon from September 2020.

Alternative options considered

An option to continue with existing arrangements was considered in October 2019 but rejected on the grounds that these arrangements would not facilitate the whole system change required to deliver improved outcomes for vulnerable children and young people in Haringey.

A second option considered was to seek responses from the market to delivery of the Pupil Referral Unit but for the reasons set out above this was not taken forward.

A third option considered was not to co-locate the Tuition Service and the Pupil Referral Unit at the Octagon together at this time, but this was rejected as this is an important first phase in taking forward the whole systems approach set out in the accompanying paper for adoption.