Purpose

Proposed
decision
 
That the Cabinet Member for
Education and Skills, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for
Integrated Children’s Services, approve the  extension of the existing Service Level
Agreements for Specialist Nursery Intervention for one year from 1
September 2024 to 31 August 2025.
 
Reason for the decision
 
This decision brings
forward an element of the Early Years Review, presented to CYPE
Cabinet Committee in January 2024, specifically the decision to
extend the existing Specialist Nursery Intervention Service Level
Agreements for one year.
 
A proposal to
implement a refreshed model of Specialist Nursery Intervention
(SNI) is currently out for consultation as part of the Early Years
Education in Kent public consultation. The consultation will close
on 5 May 2024 and the findings, along with recommendations for a
refreshed model of support for early years education
in Kent will be presented to
Children, Young People and Education Cabinet Committee in July
2024.
 
The current Specialist
Nursery Intervention Service Level
Agreements (SLA) expire 31 August 2024. An extension of the
existing SLAs for one academic year (from 1 September 2024 to 31
August 2025) is required toensure continuity of support
and minimise disruption to children, their families and the
settings that support them while any potential change to the model,
determined by the outcomes of
theagreed following the public
consultation, can be implemented for 1 September 2025.
 
The decision is
being brought forward to ensure that special schools currently
providing the service have sufficient time to consider and agree
the extension.
 
Background
 
The Specialist Nursery Intervention focuses on the
identification and assessment of young children, aged five years
and below, with Special Education Needs and Disabilities
(SEND).  The current
specialist nursery intervention service is commissioned
from 11 special schools across the county
through a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that expires 31 August
2024.
 
Children can access the service through four different pathways.
The predominant pathway will see children attending the specialist
nursery setting on average for nine hours a week for two terms,
whilst also attending their existing mainstream setting. This
equates to three, three-hour sessions a week (or average nine hours
in total per week). This can be extended if
required.  There are three intakes a year. If
children are referred and accepted, they will typically have to
wait until the start of the next term to
attend. 

 
The proposal outlined
in the consultation is that the Specialist Nursery Intervention
will continue to work with individual children but will provide
support directly to children in their mainstream settings without
the need for the child to attend a special school setting, as is
(predominantly) the current model. This will support children to
develop skills within their mainstream setting and build confidence
within that setting to support them. Specialist nursery places will
still be available for children to go to who need specialist
support for a prolonged time, but the process for agreeing these
placements will change and will be determined by a multi-agency
team who work with and understand the needs of the
child.
 
Options (other options considered but discarded)

 
Two further options
were considered in relation to the proposal to extend the current
SLAs for one academic year.
 
These were:

·  
Do not extend the SLAs

·  
Submit the proposal to extend the SLAs in July 2024
alongside the outcomes of the public consultation.
 
The option to not
extend the SLAs was considered and ruled out for the following
reasons:

·  
 negative impact on
children and their families of ending the service. 

·  
the need to have a service in place as an interim
measure while a refreshed model is implemented, supporting
continuity of support for children and their families.

·  
 ending the SLAs a year
before a potential new model is implemented would result in loss of
staff and the associated skills, knowledge and experience.

·  
ending the SLAs would mean that if a refreshed model
is agreed a new process would need to be undertaken to identify new
providers, who would then need to recruit staff and mobilise the
new service – creating a delay in implementation of any
refreshed model.
 
The option to submit the
proposal to extend the SLAs in July 2024 alongside the outcomes of
the public consultation was considered and
ruled out. The two primary reasons for this are:

referrals for a new intake of children into the service for term
one of 2024-2025 academic year begin end May 2024. Delaying the
decision to extend the SLA until July would impede this process
creating uncertainty for children, their families and the nurseries themselves.
The
governing bodies of schools holding the SLA will need sufficient
time to consider and agree signing the extension. Headteachers of
these schools have told us that the time between when a decision
taken in July could be implemented and when the school term ends,
does not leave enough time for this process to be
completed. 

 
How the proposed decision supports the

Framing Kent's Future
- Our Council Strategy 2022-2026
 
The proposal to
implement a refreshed model of Specialist Nursery Intervention will
support Framing Kent’s Future Priorities 1 and 4 as outlined
below:
 

Priority 1: Levelling Up Kent and our commitment to maintain
KCC’s strategic role in supporting schools in Kent to deliver
accessible, high quality education provision for all families,
specifically: maintain improvement support services for all Kent
schools, including maintained schools and academies, to maintain
Kent’s high-quality education system.
Priority 4: New Models of Care and
Support and our commitment to support the
most vulnerable children and families in our county, ensuring our
social work practice supports manageable caseloads, reflective
learning, joined up safeguarding and effective corporate parenting
arrangements, specifically by respond to national policy changes on
SEND provision, work with SEND families to rapidly improve the
service provided to SEND children and work with mainstream schools
so more can accept and meet the needs of children with SEND,
increasing choice and proximity of school places.

 
While both above
priorities only reference schools directly, it is reasonable to
extend the application of these principles to the earliest years of
children’s education provided through early years settings
and childminders.
 
These actions will
support Securing Kent’s Future by:

·        
Supporting Objective 1 in bringing the 2023-2024
budget back into balance through cost avoidance achieved by
supporting more children in mainstream schools from the outset of
their statutory education and avoiding the use of non-maintained
independent special school placements. 

·        
Further transforming the operating model of the
Council (Objective 4) by making processes less time-consuming and
bureaucratic we can free up our resource to focus on working
directly with children and the providers that support them. A
greater focus on understanding and demonstrating impact will enable
more effective decision making about how and where to focus the use
of resources.
 
 

Decision

As Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, I agree
to:

 
A) Extend the existing
Service Level Agreements for Specialist Nursery Intervention for
one year from 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025
 
B) Delegate decisions and
necessary actions, including the award and the implementation of
the extensions, to the Corporate Director for Children, Young
People and Education, or other Officer as instructed by the
Corporate Director for Children, Young People and Education, in
consultation with the Cabinet Member.