Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed those present and led introductions.

There were no apologies for absence

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

Members were asked to declare any interests they may have had in the business to be discussed.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting of the Children, Young People, and Education Scrutiny Commission held on 21^st March 2023 are attached and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

AGREED:

1.     That the minutes of the meeting of the Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission held on 21 March 2023 be confirmed as a correct record.

The Membership of the Commission will be confirmed and noted.

The Membership of the Commission for 2023/24 was noted.

Members will be asked to note the meeting dates of the commission of 2023/24.

The dates of meetings of the Commission for 2023/24 were noted.

There were no announcements.

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any petitions.

The Monitoring Officer informs that a petition has been received as follows:

“We, the undersigned, request Following a city-wide review of funding for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), Leicester City Council is consulting on a proposal to withdraw the funding provided to Ash Field Academy to support its residential education services.

The withdrawal of this funding is very likely to force Ash Field to close its residential setting. Ash Field does not receive sufficient funding from other sources to maintain the service without it. There are no comparable services offered by any other state[1]funded education setting in the city. This will have a devastating impact on the highly vulnerable pupils who attend, all of whom have complex special educational needs. It will also cause enormous upset and stress for their families and communities, and represent an immeasurable loss to the education landscape in Leicester.

We believe that the withdrawal of this funding is a grave error. We call upon Leicester City Council to reconsider their proposal, and work with Ash Field and its stakeholders to preserve this badly needed service.”

The Monitoring Officer advises that this petition has received 1261 verified signatures. Under the Council’s Petition’s Scheme, the petition has met the requirement for a senior officer to provide evidence at the meeting in relation to this petition. The Lead Petitioner has been asked to introduce their petition, to which a senior officer will respond.

The Monitoring Officer reported that a petition has been received from Mr T Barker, on behalf of the Campaign to ask the Council to reconsider withdrawing the funding for its residential setting. The petition was in relation to item 8 of the agenda, Ash Field Academy Residential Provision - Consultation Findings.

The Chair informed those present that the response to the Hands off Ash Field Academy petition submitted at the meeting would be received as part of the

substantive item Ash Field Academy Residential Provision - Consultation Findings..

.

The Monitoring Officer to report on any questions, representations, or statements of case received.

The Monitoring Officer reported that no questions, representations, or statements of case had been received.

The Strategic Director or Social Care and Education submits a report detailing the findings on the proposed reduction in high needs block funding for Ash Field Academy’s Residential Provision.

The Chair introduced the item. She asked officers to provide the Commission with as much detail as possible on the consultation findings on withdrawing the £400k funding per annum to Ash Field Academy, from 1 September 2024.

The Chair invited Mr Barker to address the Commission.

Mr Barker had requested to present the petition to the meeting. The petition had 1261 signatures and was in the following form:-

“We, the undersigned, request Following a city-wide review of funding for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), Leicester City Council is consulting on a proposal to withdraw the funding provided to Ash Field Academy to support its residential education services. The withdrawal of this funding is very likely to force Ash Field to close its residential setting. Ash Field does not receive sufficient funding from other sources to maintain the service without it. There are no comparable services offered by any other state1funded education setting in the city. This will have a devastating impact on the highly vulnerable pupils who attend, all of whom have complex special educational needs. It will also cause enormous upset and stress for their families and communities, and represent an immeasurable loss to the education landscape in Leicester. We believe that the withdrawal of this funding is a grave error. We call upon Leicester City Council to reconsider their proposal, and work with Ash Field and its stakeholders to preserve this badly needed service.” The Monitoring Officer advises that this petition has received 1261 verified signatures. Under the Council’s Petition’s Scheme, the petition has met the requirement for a senior officer to provide evidence at the meeting in relation to this petition. The Lead Petitioner has been asked to introduce their petition, to which a senior officer will respond.”

The Chair allowed Mr Barker 5 minutes to address the Commission.

Members were advised that Scrutiny Procedure Rule 9 (a) (ii) (e) stated that if a petition was presented at the same Committee meeting at which there was a report on the agenda on the same subject, a Councillor may propose that the petition be considered with the report. Otherwise, the petition would be accepted with debate and referred to the Monitoring Officer for consideration and action as appropriate.

RESOLVED:

That the petition be received and referred to the Monitoring Officer for consideration and action as appropriate. Leicester City Council have offered to work alongside Ash Field Academy, the offer had been declined at present.

The Strategic Director of Social Care and Education submitted a report providing an overview of the findings of strategic review of residential provision at Ashfield Academy and the associated consultation proposal to cease funding with effect from September 2024

The Director of SEND and Early Help introduced the report. The Consultation had run from 26 September 2022 to 9 January 2023, it was extended by 2 weeks, as requested by the school to give people time to send in their responses. 378 responses had been received through the Councils Portal and further information  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Strategic Director for Social Care and Education will provide a verbal introduction to the commission on Children’s, Young People and Education Services.

The Strategic Director for Social Care and Education gave a verbal presentation on the portfolio of the Children’s, Young People and Education Services Scrutiny Commission. 

The various service Directors presented the following:

Childrens Social Care

• Caroline Tote had now retired from her role as Divisional Director in Childrens Social Care. The Council had a  new recruit Damian Elcock, who essentially does the same role at Luton Council and will be starting on 21^st August.
• 65M a year is spent from the general fund on Childrens Social Care. the vast majority, around 85% goes on our 641 children who are looked after either at placements or the support team works around them.
• The number of unaccompanied asylum seeker children that we have, has grown very rapidly over the last year since the Government moved from it being a voluntary process where councils would offer to take children who had arrived.
• The Government initially said that it would be a series of cycles, where are share as a local authority would be 3 children per cycle of 500 children, with 4 cycles per year, where we are currently going through cycles every 3 weeks.
• The number of unaccompanied asylum seeker children we look after in Leicester has doubled in less than one year. These children rapidly become adults as they tend to be 16 or 17 years old. 
• Leicester is now in a position that 1 in 6 of our care leavers are a former unaccompanied asylum seeker children.

Tracie Rees, Send and Early Help

• Across the city there are 12 Children and Young Families  centres which provide support to families across the city.
• The Council  has been awarded  a government grant to enhance the support for families via by creating a network of Family Hubs across the city.
• Commissioning and project  management  across the whole of children’s social care.
• Statutory returns have to be completed on a very regular basis for Ofsted, the Department of Education and other organisations.
• Responsible for staff and administration across Childrens Services.

Pauline Killoran, Head of Service, SEND Integrated Service 0-25 

• The team writes Education, Health and Care Plans using information provided by a range of professional
• Responsible for the Educational Psychology Service, who contribute to plans and support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
• Delivery of the  the Disabled Childrens Service, that provides short breaks and respite for disabled children and their families
• .
• Responsible for the Connexions service that supports young disabled people to secure employment, training and further education.
• Responsible for increasing sufficiency, to ensure that there are enough special school placements across the city for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Jessica Nicholls, Head of Service for Send Support Service

• Responsible for the delivering a range of services to support children and young people with disabilities, this includes:
  • Early Year Service – providing specialist nursery provision.
  • Hearing Support
  • Visual Support
  • Social Emotional & Mental Health – for those with neurodiversity needs.
  • Learning, Communication & Interaction  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Members of the Commission will be asked to consider items for the future work programme.  

Members of the Commission were invited to consider content of the work programme and were invited to make suggestions for additions as appropriate to be brought to future meetings.

There being no other business, the meeting closed at 8.10pm.