The Children, Education and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Committee met to discuss the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Priority Action Plan, the national policy direction for early years provision, and the committee's work programme for 2025-26. The committee agreed that a SEND Priority Action Plan progress update should be given at the 1 December 2025 meeting, including the impact of online information in engaging families about available support. They also agreed to include the topic of waiting times for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) assessment in its future work programme, and to scrutinise geographical differences in the take-up of early education and childcare entitlement in West Northamptonshire.

SEND Priority Action Plan Update

The committee recognised the work done to progress implementation of the SEND Priority Action Plan to this point.

The Director of Children's Services provided context for the Action Plan, noting that West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) is the lead agency for the SEND Local Area Partnership, which includes key partners in health and social care. The SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Partnership Improvement Board oversees the Action Plan, with active engagement from West Northants Voices in Partnership (WNVP), the local parent carer forum.

The Assistant Director Education summarised progress in the first three priority areas of the Action Plan:

• A Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) was approved by the Health and Wellbeing Board in the summer of 2025, informing the Joint Commissioning Strategy (JCS).
• A data-sharing agreement between partners was approved to improve collaboration.
• The backlog of nearly 1,000 young people waiting for Education, Health and Care (EHC) assessments in March 2024 was being addressed, with the backlog due to be cleared by January 2026.
• A backlog in education psychology assessments had been cleared, with 80% now completed within six weeks.
• A new case management system for the SEND team would go live on 13 October 2025.
• Staff training had improved the consistency and quality of EHC assessments and EHCPs¹.
• Guidance on good practice in relation to ordinary available provision had been adopted.
• A Shadow Young People Board had been created to improve co-production with young people.
• Additional SEND provision was being developed within mainstream and special schools, including the opening of Tiffield Special School, expansion of Gateway Special School and Daventry Hill School, creating 719 additional places.

The representative of WNVP noted that the data sharing agreement had been approved and would help identify young people on multiple waiting lists. They also noted examples of recent EHCPs that gave an excellent picture of the young person concerned, their needs and how they would be supported, and that the new case management system would assist parents to be more informed about the progress of EHC assessments.

The Director of Nursing summarised work in the final two priority areas:

• A review of community paediatric services led to a plan for service delivery by a single provider in the future.
• The Integrated Care Board (ICB) had invested £490,000 in a speech and language therapy (SALT) specialist service and £1 million in the Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder pathway to improve access.
• A new joint approach to meeting speech, language and communication needs had been soft launched at 50% capacity, with a full rollout planned in the coming months.

During the discussion, Councillor Hayley Adkins, Chair of the Committee, and other committee members raised concerns about families feeling forced to use their own resources to pay for support while waiting for mental health assessments, the capacity to enable young people with SEND to attend a school that met their needs, and the financial pressures on voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations that support young people with SEND.

The Director of Nursing clarified that waiting lists for mental health assessments included an initial waiting list before assessment and a secondary waiting list to see a CAMHS clinician. Work to improve waiting times had focused on reducing secondary waiting, and the waiting time to see a CAMHS clinician had been reduced from 54 weeks to 30 weeks.

The Director of Children's Services noted that meeting the needs of young people with SEND was complex and depended on providing the right support at the earliest opportunity.

The committee agreed that the SEND Priority Action Plan progress update to be given at the Committee meeting on 1 December 2025 should include the impact of online information in engaging families about support available, and agreed to include the topic of waiting times for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services assessment in its future work programme.

Response to the National Policy Direction for Early Years Provision

The committee noted action by West Northamptonshire Council to implement the requirements of the Best Start in Life Strategy.

The Assistant Director Education presented an overview of action in West Northamptonshire to deliver the new national direction for early years provision set out in the Best Start in Life (BSiL) Strategy², launched on 7 July 2025. The strategy has three key pillars: rebuilding and expanding family support services; enhancing access to early education and childcare; and raising the quality of early years practice.

The entitlement to government-funded childcare had been extended in three phases during 2024 and 2025, and eligible working parents could now access up to 30 hours of childcare a week during term time for children aged from nine months to four years. There were nearly 450 early years providers operating in West Northamptonshire, and 11,529 children in the area accessed early education and childcare in mid-2025.

The Assistant Director Education noted that data on take-up showed that this was significantly lower in parts of Northampton than in the rural areas, and that early years providers supported children at their most vulnerable age but pay in the sector was often low.

The West Northamptonshire Schools Forum was responsible for determining how early years funding was used, and WNC took the position that as much as possible of this funding should be passported to providers; in practice 97% was passported.

The Assistant Director Education noted that the BSiL Strategy included national funding to support remuneration as part of the focus on raising the quality of early years practice, and that inspecting early years providers more frequently, developing a professional register and career framework for educators and investment in training and workforce development would also help to improve the quality of practice.

The Assistant Director Education noted that West Northamptonshire was ahead of the national and regional positions and that of its statistical neighbours in 2024/25 in the number of children who had met the 12 development goals at the end of Reception year to be assessed as having reached the Good Level of Development, and that there was confidence that the current trend would continue.

During the discussion, committee members sought assurances about action being taken by WNC to address uneven take-up of the early education and childcare entitlement, capacity in the sector to deliver the BSiL Strategy, the availability of primary school places to meet the future needs of children at the early years stage, and whether WNC's approach took account of work by the former MP for South Northamptonshire on the 1,001 critical days model.

The Assistant Director Education responded that WNC sought to use all possible means to make parents aware of the early education and childcare entitlement and to support overall take-up, and that there were no indications that the government intended to change existing requirements relating to early years staff qualifications or the staff / child ratio.

The committee agreed to scrutinise geographical differences in the take-up of the early education and childcare entitlement in West Northamptonshire as part of its future work programme.

Committee Work Programme for 2025-26

The committee agreed the proposed work programme for 2025/26, subject to the addition of an item of business on 0-19 services for the Committee meeting on 1 December 2025, and agreed to consider the proposal form for a scrutiny review on getting social housing in West Northamptonshire up to the Decent Homes Standard³ at the Committee meeting on 20 October 2025.

The Democratic Services Assistant Manager introduced the draft work programme, noting that it reflected the outcomes of the work programme development session held on 10 July 2025, and that the Council meeting on 25 September had agreed a motion requesting the Director of Children's Services to produce guidance for schools on smartphone use and to encourage the introduction of restrictions.

Councillor Sally Keeble requested that the committee consider a proposal from the Labour group for an in-depth scrutiny review into the proportion of the Northamptonshire Partnership Homes (NPH) housing stock that did not meet the Decent Homes Standard.