Agenda item

To provide an update on the development and work associated with primary and secondary SRPs (Specialist Resource Provision) within Bracknell Forest and the development and implementation of a banding tool.

The Forum considered a report which updated on the development and work associated with primary and secondary SRPs within Bracknell Forest and the development and implementation of a Banding Tool.

Secondary SRP Development

Nathan Jones explained that there would be no capital investment required from SEND capital funds for the SRP at King’s Academy Binfield.  The school had committed to developing 40 places: 14 places in primary and 26 places in secondary.  Only one place had been secured so far but it was expected that all 40 places would be brought online within the next three years, with 10 young people already having been identified as suitable for accessing the secondary places in September 2023.  The school had committed to increase its knowledge base to meet those needs. 

New Secondary ASC SRP Provision and Further Secondary Development

Three secondary schools had expressed an interest in hosting SRPs for children with ASC.  Two of those schools would require substantial capital spend and the other would require moderate capital spend.  A more formal procurement process was needed to bring the places to fruition. 

Development of a secondary cognition and learning SRP had been identified as a way to support effective transition from the Owlsmoor primary SRP.  This would also require a significant level of capital and revenue funding. 

The LA was developing a capital strategy group to have oversight on capital spending and the SEND Team had put forward a plan to the group detailing all the activity that would be involved in bringing SRP places online.  The team was confident that places would be made available by 2024. 

The Forum thanked Nathan and the team for all the work done so far.  The Forum offered to do whatever it could to help speed the process.  Cheryl Eyre advised that a Capital Board was being set up within the People directorate and she would welcome having members of the Forum and other stakeholders on the Board.  The Board would be working to develop the SRP plan, and this would provide an opportunity for the Forum to challenge from within, but they would still report to the Forum. 

The Forum noted that there was already one Year 7 pupil in a primary school unit and two further Year 6 pupils who did not yet have a secondary school to go to.  Therefore, it was imperative for the SRP project to move at pace. 

The Forum asked how much funding was available for SEND capital projects.  Cheryl replied that there was approximately £4.8m available in total for SEND capital builds.  There was a complex sign-off process to access those funds.  The Forum noted that this was a significant amount of money that could make a real difference to SEND students in the borough. 

Primary SRP Update

The Speech, Language & Communication Needs (SLCN) unit at Meadowvale had been running at 20% occupancy and the school had served notice of closure.  Nathan had been working closely with the Headteacher and the SEND Team to plan the moving of the children impacted by the closure.  Only four children had been accessing the unit and two of those were expected to remain at Meadowvale, so the closure of the SRP was unlikely to have a significant impact.

In November 2022 officers were contacted by the Headteacher at Harmans Water as the lead teacher had decided to leave due to the level of challenge they were dealing with on a daily basis.  This was followed by two other key members of staff leaving.  Officers had sought to secure places for two children who had been inappropriately placed in that provision and had consulted with 15-20 schools to try to find appropriate provision.  Officers were also developing mutually understood entry criteria to understand the nature and needs of children to be placed in those provisions.

The Headteacher at Owlsmoor Primary had proposed adding 8 further places to their SRP unit, catering for two distinct cohorts: one for children that could access some aspects of the mainstream curriculum, and the other for children with more complex needs. 

Banding Tool Update

Following the banding tool update held at the end of 2022, data had been received from 13 settings which had moderated a number of children through the tool.  It was noted that some schools were identifying a need for £40,000 funding for children currently getting around £7,000.  The department had accepted that there would be situations where more funding was going in to maintain provision in mainstream, but it was expected that there would be an overall reduction in costs.  A project was underway to run new EHCPs through the banding tool.  It was noted that there was disparity around the landscape in the current model.  Ultimately, whatever tool was used, there was a need for guidance, support and a suite of documents to ensure consistency.  The draft documents had been shared with the working group. 

The Forum welcomed that schools may receive additional funding but expressed concern about where similar tools used in other LAs had had a depressing effect on funding and been used as a blunt instrument.  The Forum asked whether there would be a mechanism for challenge and when the tool was likely to come into place.  Nathan replied that it needed to be modelled much more effectively than it had done.  Nathan felt it was helpful to present the impact based on current data but was clear that this was not the final position.  The department was not advocating an LA-driven model and would like it to be done between the school and parents initially.  There was a need to ensure a robust and commonly accepted way of schools challenging the banding allocation which required transparency in the system.  Care was needed to ensure the tool did not take out substantial funding, but nor could it be used to give substantial additional funding where the child’s needs were not showing that level of funding.  It was likely that the tool would be stair-cased in over a number of years, but there would be ongoing conversations with Forum and HNB colleagues about pace. 

The Forum expressed concerns that the current administration of HNB was not working and asked for assurance that some things would be fixed in the meantime while waiting for the new tool to come in place.  Nathan replied that a national banding tool had been included within a central government green paper and it would be helpful if more details were available.  There was a risk that the LA could invest a huge amount of time over the next two years developing its own tool but then have to use the national banding tool, although it was acknowledged that there was a need to do something. 

Free School Application Update

Cheryl Eyre explained that the LA had submitted applications for two Free Schools: one for an ASD school and one for a Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH) school.  ASD had been the biggest need in Bracknell Forest.  Both applications were well received by the DfE, but the DfE said they were looking at applications from neighbouring LAs and asked how Bracknell Forest was intending to link up with those.  Only 33 schools across England had been agreed overall by the DfE, including our ASD school.  SEMH schools had been agreed for Wokingham, Windsor, and Surrey, and Bracknell Forest would be working with them to access places in those schools.  Cheryl highlighted that council members including Councillor Barnard had been very supportive of this project.  There was a great deal to be done within the next 12 months to progress this and the foundations needed to be laid by 2025 but it was hoped that it would be before then. 

RESOLVED to NOTE the activity around SRP:

1.     the drive to bring online the 40 ASC SRP places at King’s Academy Binfield across primary and secondary education stages;

2.     the development of the Capital Board to oversee the utilisation of the borough’s SEND capital;

3.     the plan to undertake procurement to establish an additional 30 secondary ASC SRP places;

4.     the ongoing support of Harmans Water SEMH SRP

5.     the ongoing development of Owlsmoor Cognition and Learning SRP with the creation of an additional 8 places; and

6.     the work related to the implementation of a new banding tool for the allocation of top up funding and the need to ensure this did not create additional pressure on the high needs block budget, supported through modelling.