Purpose

Proposed decision

 
The Cabinet Member for
Education and Skills to approve the adoption and implementation of
the Locality Model for Special Educational Needs Inclusion in
Kent
 

Reason for the decision

 
-     Adopting the Locality Model for
Special Education Needs (SEN) Inclusion would be a step forwards in
Kent County Council’s (KCC) commitment to delivering the
priorities of the Countywide Approach to Inclusive Education
(CATIE) Strategy. The CATIE Strategy is one of KCC’s
responsibilities to implement the Designated Schools Grant
management plan, as outlined in the Department for
Education’s (DfE) Safety Valve Agreement with
Kent.

 

-     
Implementing the Locality Model will support
increased inclusion in mainstream schools for children and young
people with SEN. The Locality Model will be the framework that
ensures KCC can deliver the most effective and appropriate High
Needs Funding (HNF) allocations to local areas in Kent. The
Locality Model will align with a new Kent SEN continuum being
developed to span mainstream, specialist resource, and special
school provisions, ensuring system-wide cohesion.

 

Background

 

-     
In May 2023, at KCC’s Children Young People
and Education (CYPE) Cabinet Committee, the CATIE was set out as
KCC’s strategy for 2023-28. The CATIE established KCC’s
collective ambitions for children, young people, and their families
in Kent. Professionals working together in a collaborative,
sustainable system to ensure equity of education, meaning children
feel they belong, are respected, and valued as individuals, and are
fully supported to achieve their best.    

 

-     
The CATIE, signposted within the DfE’s Safety
Valve Agreement with Kent, states it will “develop a
school/area-led approach to […] SEN support services
(Locality Based Resources), to better respond to the needs of
children and young people with Special Educational Needs and
Disability (SEND)”.
 

-      
CATIE’s Priority Two aims to develop community
working and implement structures that support children and young
people with SEND in Kent to have their needs met within their own
locality, wherever possible.
 

-     
As part of KCC’s work towards delivering on
CATIE priorities a Locality Model has been developed, with the aim
of improving the outcomes for children and young people with SEND
in Kent. This proposal went out to public consultation between
November 2023 and January 2024.
 

Options (other options considered but
discounted)

 

-     
The process for developing the Locality Model was
iterative and alternative options were considered within the
development process, to ensure the direction proposed is the right
one for Kent. The group involved in developing and defining our
options consisted of KCC staff from education, finance, and SEN,
alongside leaders of education from KCC mainstream primary and
secondary schools (selective and non-selective), single and
multi-Academy Trusts, special schools, and free schools.

 

-     
Three main options were considered:

1)   
to maintain the current system

2)   
to implement a Tariff system

3)   
to implement a Locality Model

 

-      
Option one was discounted as an impracticable
solution; it is not currently performing well in Kent, there
iscurrent inconsistency
in mainstream SEN inclusion and provision, along
with a lack of effective monitoring systems and accountability.
Ofsted have stated, poor standards are achieved, and progress made,
by too many pupils with SEN under the current
system.

 

-      
Option two could have been viable but was discounted
due to its identified limitations. A tariff system[1]
for mainstream would provide clear and transparent arrangements
with a prescriptive allocation of resources but tends to be used in
conjunction with individual funding allocations for children with
EHCPs, rather than for wider operations and funding of SEN Support
Services. The elements of inflexibility it would bring were also
considered too restrictive for SEN support services, and
unsupportive of innovative use of resources for mainstream if used
on its own.

 

-      
Option three was viewed as the best path for KCC to
explore and define further with partners. Research finds that more
consistent and effective support in mainstream schools lead to
positive outcomes for children and young people. Local authorities
who make substantial use of peer moderation and mainstream
collaboration have found that doing so improves consistency and is
a useful source of advice and support. The Locality Model is
designed to improve the quality of the mainstream education offer
in Kent, through early and accurate identification of need, high
quality teaching of a knowledge-rich curriculum, and timely access
to specialist health and care support, and via alternative
provision placements where they are needed.

 

-     
Proposals for the Locality Model were agreed
following intensive collaboration with schools, settings, and other
key stakeholders, and then put out to consultation with
parent/carers, young people, all professional stakeholders, and all
members of the public.

 

- 
Following consultation, subsequent analysis of
feedback, and defining KCC’s response to consultation
feedback, the Locality Model will be   presented to the CYPE Cabinet
Committee.

 

How the proposed decision supports
Securing Kent’s Future andFraming
Kent's Future - Our Council Strategy
2022-2026
 

-     
The Locality Model directly aligns with KCC’s strategic vison for children, young
people, and families, as set out in ‘Framing Kent’s
Future’. Priority 1: Levelling up Kent explains that:
‘We will maintain improvement support services for all Kent
schools, including maintained schools and academies, to maintain
Kent’s high-quality education system’. The Locality
Model will implement structures that will increase the inclusion of
children and young people with SEN in mainstream schools, so they
can be educated with, and are able to access the same opportunities
to education as their peers wherever possible. The aim is children
and young people with SEN in Kent receive early and timely support.
That greater numbers of children and young people are able to have
their needs met within mainstream settings, or should they need
specialist provision, that wherever possible they can access this
locally, close to where they live.

 

-     
Under the Locality Model structure, available
resources will be discussed by groups of schools and other SEN,
education, or healthcare professionals in the local area, to
determine where resource and HNF allocations would be best
directed. The final decision to allocate HNF will remain with KCC,
but by discussions occurring locally KCC aim to make better use of
resources. This activity is expected to support KCC with its Safety
Valve aims to achieve financial sustainability in the longer term.
This would align with priorities set out in Securing Kent’s
Future, the next step on from Framing Kent’s Future, agreed
at Cabinet in October 2023.
 

Financial Implications
 

-     
Kent currently spends approximately £45m on
specific high needs allocations to schools per annum. Approximately
40% of this are for SEN support services for individual children
and the remainder to children with an EHCP. This is funded from the
High Needs Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), a specific
ring-fenced education grant from the Department of Education. The
council is one of a number of local authorities which are part of
the DfE Safety Valve Programme to support those councils with the
highest overspends on SEN services to achieve a financially
sustainable longer term position. The Kent’s Safety Valve
agreement with the DfE states:

 

“The authority agrees to implement the
DSG[2]
management plan that it has set out. This includes action
to:

 

3.1. Implement a countywide approach to
‘Inclusion Education’, to further build capacity in
mainstream schools to support children and young people with
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), thus increasing
the proportion of children successfully supported in mainstream
education and reducing dependence on specialist provision

 

3.7. Ensure there is sufficient and consistent
capacity across the county to support children with severe and
complex needs in their local area where possible

 

3.8. Develop a school/area-led approach to
commissioning of SEN support services (Locality Based Resources),
to better respond to the needs of children and young people with
SEND”

(page 2 and 3  DfE DSG ‘Safety Valve’
Agreement: Kent)
 

-     
Kent must implement a sustainable approach to HNF to
meet the DfE Safety Valve agreement and to ensure financial
sustainability in this area moving forwards; the Locality Model
will build the robust governance and monitoring processes required
to implement the necessary new approach.

 
 

 

[2] Dedicated Schools Grant

Decision

As Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, I agree
to the adoption of the Locality Model for Special Educational Needs
Inclusion in Kent.