Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Ayten Guzel, Alessandro Georgiou and Paul Pratt, who were substituted by Cllrs Nicki Adeleke, Elisa Morreale and Andrew Thorp, respectively.

Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary, other pecuniary or non-pecuniary interests relating to items on the agenda.

Cllr Thomas Fawns declared that he was a governor at Durants School for special educational needs.

To receive and agree the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 7 March 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 7 March 2024 were AGREED.

To receive an update on special educational need and disabilities (SEND) placements, budget for SEND Children’s services, care packages, transport costs, and special needs school packages.

Cllr Abdul Abdullahi and Peter Nathan introduced and highlighted the key aspects of the report, including but not limited to: the administrations priorities in relation to SEN school places, support and precision care; as well as funding streams, budgetary pressures and intervention services. Work with partners, service performance, legal constraints, and the context of the topic in the borough were also discussed.

In response to Members’ queries regarding invest to save developments, officers advised that EY had been commissioned to conduct a review, and recommended long term interventions to allow for the continued development of additional places, nurture group provision and the speech and language offer. These provisions were in place for 5 years from 2022, as had been agreed with head teacher colleagues on the Schools Forum, and the reasons for longer term projects were said to include recruitment and impact monitoring.

In response to Members’ questions and comments relating to testing children for special educational needs, officers responded that parents, schools and professionals could all request statutory needs assessments. Schools provided SEN support to children where required, and were usually asked to make requests because they are able to provide more information as to the child’s performance. A cycle of assessment plan and the activities the school had undertaken in determining a child needed additional support were looked at by the council. The council provide lots of support and information in respect of requests, but were said to receive the highest volume in London, with around 700 new requests per year.

In response to Members’ enquiries regarding staffing provided by private companies, officers replied that if carers were providing personal care, these were regulated services and inspected by the CQC. There was said to be a vulnerability where carers were not providing personal care as there was little regulation around this. Some inner London boroughs would place vulnerable young adults in Enfield accommodation, but this was not known to the council until issues arose, at which stage the council would negotiate with the provider to make adequate provision or advise if it was not a suitable location for the individual to be placed. It was added that the council put on a series of events to help parents come to terms with the transition and drop in service between children and adult support provisions.

In response to Members’ questions relating to transport, officers advised that when requests were received by transport, these were transferred to the brokerage team who spoke to parents and assessed the education, health and care plans before determining the best and most efficient form of transport for that child. Wherever possible, independent travel training was pursued as it was the best solution for all involved and they tried to transition children who were on busses towards this. Travel training in schools and personal travel budgets which gave parents more flexibility were described as methods which had brought success. The brokerage team also looked at requests in respect of the local offer, with applications that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To note the completion of the Work Programme for 2023/24 and that the Finance & Performance Scrutiny Panel Work Programme for 2024/25 will be discussed at the first meeting of the new municipal year.

Members NOTED the completion of the Work Programme for 2023/24 and that the Finance & Performance Scrutiny Panel Work Programme for 2024/25 would be discussed at the first meeting of the new municipal year.

To note the dates of future meetings will be confirmed following Annual Council on Wednesday 15 May 2024.

Members noted that the dates of future meetings would be confirmed following Annual Council on Wednesday 15 May 2024.

The Chair thanked Members and officers for their time and contributions and the meeting ended at 20:16.