Children’s Trust Vision
All children, young people and their families in Cornwall are safe and have good opportunities to achieve and improve themselves.
We will close the gap between those who are doing well and those who are doing less well by effective work with those with greater needs.
18 subject to a
Child Protection Plan
479 Children in Care
11 New Care Proceedings
Head of Service Introduction. David Wood
Schools, Achievement and SEN came together as a combined service in December 2011. During the last year it has made progress in building a management team which has a more developed understanding of the range of work undertaken by the service and has begun to take advantage of opportunities for synergy and joint working across the new team. This process continues. In scoping service plans across Children Schools and Families Directorate one key ‘Golden thread’ are the actions and initiatives associated with ‘Narrowing the Gap’ between high achievers and others to ensure that all children and young people achieve their full potential.
The service is very mindful of the impact on families and children of Welfare benefit Reforms in terms of dislodging families from their homes and communities in additional to the financial pressures on families created by maximum benefit allowances, ‘bedroom tax’, housing benefit changes and council tax charges.
The educational landscape is evolving swiftly in line with government policy change and significant organisational design challenges remain in terms of keeping the school improvement service delivering effectively within a declining budget envelope. New SEN legislation early in 2013 will also bring the need for radical change in SEN structures and processes.
Two significant organisational change projects have been agreed at directorate and corporate levels. The first is to move Short Stay Schools into an Alternative Provision Academy, working with an independent sponsor. This will move a section of the service out of the council, mirroring the academy development in schools. The second is to re-position school improvement as part of Cornwall Learning, trading on a business footing, as part of a new business entity at arms length from the Council.
A parallel development is the re-design of the Education Welfare Service to focus on statutory responsibilities with a reduced reliance on grant funding and service traded with schools.
A second wave of organisational change will come through the SEN Pathfinder development and response to SEN legislation. This is likely to gather force in the summer of 2013
While these significant change projects move forward, it is important that effective service delivery continues in schools and community in order to secure improvements in outcomes for young people, particularly in improving the performance of young people at GCSE. While other key education indicators are showing real progress, GCSE performance has stalled, and is 3.8% behind the national figure at 5+ inc English and Maths in 2012. Improvement will be driven by effective use of data by schools in order to identify those who are not progressing at an appropriate rate and by narrowing the gap for vulnerable groups, most notably CiC, SEN, and EAL. While progress against other indicators has been good, the quality of school improvement overall will ultimately be judged against the GCSE headline indicator. Challenge to schools on GCSE performance will remain a high priority.
The recent publication of Ofsted inspection results for local authorities shows that Cornwall compares favourably to both the national picture and that in the south –west for the number of schools judged good or better. This demonstrates the effectiveness of the service in identifying schools at risk and in supporting and developing practice in such schools.
The school improvement team has been successful in shaping a new relationship with schools based on buy-back and is developing a working relationship with academies. The team is now playing a substantive role in shaping academy partnerships and sponsorships which, alongside the growing number of Trust schools in Cornwall, is adding to diversity and choice.
SEN services are effective. Performance indicators are met and the web of educational support available is being developed through the ARB and CDC provision. School attendance remains good. Although exclusion are showing a rise in both primary and secondary, comparisons with other authorities remain favourable. The ‘Assessment for All’ programme has been adopted to push harder on the achievement and progress of those with SEN in order to narrow the gap for these students.
The Access and Infrastructure team continue to develop the services for schools offer and to introduce changes to admissions and to school meals. Transport costs remain high and this issue needs to be tackled in conjunction with corporate colleagues.
The service has made a significant contribution to safeguarding, particularly on the schools agenda. Ofsted judgements on behaviour and feeling safe in schools remain very good. In the last round of school inspections under the previous framework, 148 inspections reported safeguarding to be outstanding or good in 88%, satisfactory in 12% and none were reported as inadequate. Safeguarding processes in schools are monitored and S157, S175 returns are now consistently returned. All colleagues in the service prioritise safeguarding matters and support individual casework for children and young people as required.
The Service is determined to continue to improve by focusing on properly deploying its human resources and encouraging training and development through the Performance and Development System (PDS). The Workforce Development Plan and the Business Support Plan appear in Appendix One.
No./Ref / Key Objectives for 2013/141 / Special Educational Need (SEN) Assessment processes including development of SEN Pathfinder Project objectives as a response to SEN legislation to include Area Resource Base
2 / Setting up improvement services to raise standards in:
2a – Early Years to include the development of Child Development Centres
2b – Key Stage 1 and 2: Closing the gap for vulnerable groups with reference to Achievement for All and progress of children in care and those with English as a second language
2c – Children in Care Educational Support Service (CiCESS) Strategic Development and Governance
2d - Key Stage 3 and 4 and Post 16: with particular emphasis on GCSE performance to narrow the gap between Cornwall and the National average and the implementation of the Raising of Participation Age (RPA) plan
3 / Social Inclusion and Special Educational Needs Support Services
4 / Establishing a new Social, Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) school in Cornwall
5 / Through the Access team fulfilling:
5a – Local Authority Statutory duty to provide good quality school places
5b – Local Authority mandatory duty to provide school admissions services
5c – Local Authority duty to provide transport services to eligible children
5d – To provide a schools meals service
5e – To provide support to schools and governing bodies for school organisation
5f – To support the arrangements to provide services for schools
6 / Cornwall Learning to be a lead provider of training for schools
Appendix / 1 – Workforce Plan
2 – Business Support
1
Schools, Achievement and Special Educational Needs Service Plan 2013/14
July 2013
V2.0
Objective 1 – SEN Assessment (Jean Murray)Corporate Business Plan Priority
• improve the resilience and self-sufficiency of communities
• improve health and wellbeing and radically redesign social care and health services
• manage public services through integration and sharing of resources to achieve efficiencies
• manage Council resources well, while seeking to maintain service levels
Business plan priority
- Implementation of new SEN funding system from April 2013
- Refine the Local Offer to reflect the new funding arrangements
- Managing budgets within High Care Needs Block
- Piloting of Single Assessment/ Single Plan process whilst maintaining current administration of statutory assessments
- Responding to the proposals of the Children’s Bill 2013 with the expected changes in SEN processes.
- Setting up new IT system to underpin adoption of new SEN processes
- Ensure that there is a robust commissioning process for the Short Stay/BESD Academy ensuring we meet the needs of Cornish children.
First Quarterly Review (July 2013)
SEN Funding Reform implemented; Project Plan in place for Fair Funding review to determine funding system as of April 2014;
Steering group set up re. Local Offer, next meeting Sept. 2013;
New officer in post to take forward the post-16 work;
Finance allocation system agreed with the finance team re. allocating top-ups to schools.
EHCP plans are being piloted and evaluated;
Steering meetings have been held to consider the options of using ONE or Framework i
Commissioning framework is written and waiting to be signed off by LA /ACORN.
Target outcomes 2012-13
103a = 100%; 103b= 99.66%
Outcome – Meeting statutory duties: Statutory Assessment will be completed within 26 weeks
Equality & Diversity
Safeguarding
Crime & Disorder
NA
Project/Activity / Objective/Outcome/Evidence / Key Performance Measures / 2012/13 Outturn / 2013/14 Target / Risk
Statutory Assessment for SEN / Statutory Assessment will be completed within 26 weeks / N103a
N103b / 100%
99.57% / 100%
100% / See Risk Table at the end of the report
Objective 2a – Early Years Improvement (Carol Kimberley)
Corporate Business Plan Priority
• improve health and wellbeing and radically redesign social care and health services
• manage public services through integration and sharing of resources to achieve efficiencies
• manage Council resources well, while seeking to maintain service levels
Business plan priority
- To implement the revised EYFSP programme for all schools, ensuring statutory requirements are in place and all reception staff trained.Will be completed August 2013 – this should then be rephrased to say to continue to implement….
- To continue the implementation of the revised statutory EYFS Framework , ensuring all 0-5 provision is compliant and that EY Ofsted registered settings have been monitored and are secure with regard to pre-and post inspection support under the new September 2012 Ofsted framework
- Implementing effective performance management SLA – children’s centres.
- Revise CDC SLA work and ensure CDC coverage is effective in North Cornwall
- To review Early Years and Childcare if new Government proposals announced on 29th January are implemented from September 2013.
- To secure sufficient Ofsted settings graded Good or Outstanding in order to meet the demand for 1000 new two year old places by September 2014.
First Quarterly Review (July 2013)
1. EYFSP implementation is almost complete with only one significant issue picked up during moderation. Final outcomes from the first year of the new system will be available from August 2013.
2 and 6. In general implementation of the new EYFS has gone well. Ofsted outcomes as at March 2013 were;
National: good or outstanding inadequate
Childminders 74% 1%
Childcare on non-domestic premises 83% 1 %
All provision 77% 1%
Cornwall: good or outstanding inadequate
Childminders 84% 0%
Childcare on non-domestic premises 86% 0%
All provision 85% 0%
3. Children Centre work is under way. Monitoring visits are in place. Ofsted risks have been identified and an LA children centre action plan has been put in to place. I am supporting that with Bernie Doyle and Donna Yeomans. Tim and Sheil support with the monitoring visits.
4. CDC work is ongoing. Bodmin CDC staff are now working directly to Truro CDC. A North Cornwall CDC has been established although venues are problematic
5. We are still waiting for the new outcomes to be announced.
Equality & Diversity
Government proposals announced on 20th January 2013 pose a considerable risk to vulnerable groups of children if current staff child ratios are relaxed.
Where applicable list, do not complete an EIA at this stage, the aspects of this Priority/Objective that may impact on equality and diversity. These can then be further developed during the project phase.
Safeguarding
As above if ratios are relaxed.
Where applicable, list those aspects of this Priority/Objective that might impact on safeguarding and so will require impact assessment
Crime & Disorder
None
Where applicable, list those aspects of this Priority/Objective that might impact on crime and disorder
Project/Activity / Objective/Outcome/Evidence / Key Performance Measures / 2012/13 Outturn / 2013/14 Target / Risk
Effective support and challenge to schools and pre-school settings, including children centres through the new performance management SLA for children centres which will raise achievement and attainment for all learners within the Early Years Foundation Stage, closing the gap for the most disadvantaged and exceeding national performance / Rapid and reliable identification of schools, settings and children centres that are vulnerable through analysis of EYFS data and all related data available through the Early Years Quality Improvement Support Programme.
Formulation of appropriate support through the use of:
EYFSP moderation work
EYQISP programmes of support including focussed improvement plans that coordinate setting improvement through the EY improvement team
Focussed cluster training support and training for practitioners led by EY consultants or through commissioned support via Cornwall Learning ( schools) or EY Children Centre teachers and EY support assistants (settings)
Generic training for all settings delivered by EY Improvement team members or commissioned consultants via the workforce development training directory for settings.
Ensure that funding from the Early Intervention Grant that has been allocated to the EY Improvement Team is passported across to Schools and Achievement in order to be able to function effectively, particularly with regard to ERP and strategic planning.
Develop the Child Development Centre programme in Cornwall in order that children with SEN are assessed and supported effectively prior to their transition to statutory age provision in EYFs schools and settings. This will include:
Securing the development of CDC support for North Cornwall
The implementation of the CDC Protocol
The development of Governance arrangements for Treliske CDC
The review of the SLA arrangements with Primary school based CDCs and RCH Truro.
To work with Locality Teams in order to development training and improvement support for children centres in order that they are not at risk of failure in Ofsted inspections. / Ongoing on termly
As required –reported termly
Autumn term analysis of EYFSP results
Spring term analysis of early assessment information
Termly data sharing meetings with all Locality teams
Ongoing monitoring and evaluation against key issues for each EYFS school or setting.
Monitoring of Ofsted outcomes
Monthly reporting, Karen Reynolds
Termly monitoring vists by Carol Kimberley
Truro CDC Steering Group reporting
Ofsted outcomes, EYQISP, NI 72 and 92 outcomesto be replaced by new EYFSP outcomes – waiting for details / In 2013 new statutory Early Years Foundation Stage Profile assessment arrangements have been introduced. This means that we are unable to assess children’s progress across the Early Years in a way that relates to previous annual measures. However the new system will enable us to compare the expected levels of development for children in the prime and specific areas of learning both within Cornwall and against national figures. Our target would be that local outcomes would be at least as good as national expected levels of development within the prime areas of learning and that in order to sustain previous expectations the local Authority gap outcome would be better than the relative national position. Once the national measures are defined and Cornwall’s position is determined we will be able to set challenging and meaningful targets.” / Reduced staffing levels and staff vacancies has affected the capacity to support settings.
also See Risk Table at the end of the report
Ensure Support and challenge within the EYFS is effective and ensures that all providers:
Implement Statutory Requirements related to the implementation of the Revised EYFS Framework from September 2012 and the Revised Ofsted inspection Frameworks from September 2012 ( EY settings)
Revised EYFSP arrangements ‘12 / Dissemination of new Ofsted and EYFS frameworks through
- EY Conference
- Area training and cluster meeting events
- Targeted training for schools and settings
Ongoing monitoring and evaluation against key issues for each EYFS school or setting.
Monitoring of Ofsted outcomes
Objective 2b – Cornwall School Improvement Team. Key stage 1 and 2
Corporate Business Plan Priority
• improve the resilience and self-sufficiency of communities
• improve health and wellbeing and radically redesign social care and health services
• manage public services through integration and sharing of resources to achieve efficiencies
• manage Council resources well, while seeking to maintain service levels
Business plan priority
- Maintaining CSIT SLA position within an increasingly diverse landscape of school support and the strong likelihood of school improvement no longer being a core funded element of the LA is a major challenge.
- We need to ensure greater influence on schools even where the leadership is unwilling to fully engage with the support offered.
- Continue to work with schools and other providers to ensure CPD and school improvement is effectively targeted
- We need to disseminate key messages from phonics screening and ensure all of our schools are ready for the tests in year 1.
- Ensure Pupil Premium is effectively targeted, monitored and makes a real impact on outcomes for pupils on FSM
- Need to prepare KS2 for new Grammar Tests to be introduced in May 2013
- Improve outcomes at L3 and L5
- Support and challenge middle leaders particularly with schools that are currently satisfactory or are likely to be judged as requires improvement
- In light of the new changes to the statutory Ofsted framework we need to review and respond to the raised expectations of local authority responsibility to support and challenge schools.
- Sustain and enhance existing arrangements to ensure partnership and collaborative working in schools in order to achieve a school place for every child in Cornwall who wants one and high quality educational provision.