To note the Membership of the Committee including the appointment of Chair and Vice-Chair for the 2024/25 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED: That the Membership of the Committee be noted.

To note the Terms of Reference of the Committee for the 2024/25 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED: That the Committee’s Terms of Reference be noted.

Members to give notice of any interest and the nature of that interest relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the adopted Code of Conduct.

No declarations were made.

To receive and, if so determined, to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 12 March 2024.

Councillor Sutton referred to page two of the Minutes and asked that them encouraging Members to pay attention to the breakdown of respondents during consultations, be added to the Minutes.

Councillor Procter raised that their name had been spelt incorrectly in the Membership of the Committee agenda item.

RESOLVED:

1)    That the above changes be made to the Minutes.

2)    That the Minutes of the meeting held on the 12^th March 2024 be approved as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

A maximum of 15 minutes will be allocated to public questions submitted in writing to Democratic Services (democratic.services@trafford.gov.uk) by 4 p.m. on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must be relevant to items appearing on the agenda and will be submitted in the order in which they were received.

Four questions were received from Members of the Public ahead of the Meeting and were read out by the Chair in the order in which they were received.

The first question is outlined below:

‘We would like to ask how the local authority is working to improve understanding within education, health and social care, that an academically able child can have complex support needs, so that blanket policies based on academic ability do not prevent a young person from accessing support, preparing for adulthood and accessing appropriate education and leisure opportunities. Our 15 year old has cognitive abilities on the 99th percentile but independence/self-help skills on the 1st percentile and social skills on the 3rd percentile. Due to his academic ability, he has not received the necessary support required to prepare him for adulthood. He is completely dependent on us to meet all basic needs and requires full parental support to access anything in the community. There is currently no post 16 provision that could meet his needs.’

The Director for Education, Standards, Quality and Performance informed the Committee that due to the complexity and detail required for the question, that they would respond to the questioner after the Meeting in writing.

The second question is outlined below:

‘How are panel decisions transparent and due consideration given to these when there is no clarity on who sits on the panel, there are no minutes taken and/or shared, no reasons offered for decisions made and no appeal process? 

The questioner also provided the following background to their question –

Our lived experience is very important and the committee need to understand the background to my question - My two young people have education, health and social care plans reviewed in April but still not finalised - outcomes, needs and provision were discussed as working by all professionals at annual review. Panel have stripped provision from one - which leaves outcomes unable to now be met and still awaiting panel for the other.

Communication and waiting times are diabolical and having direct impact on children and young people, causing trauma to families.’

The Director for Education, Standards, Quality and Performance requested to provide a response after the meeting adding that it would be inappropriate to respond to individual cases in Scrutiny.

The Director did however add that Education, Health, and Social care panels and Short Rate Panels did have decision letters which gave reasons for the decision and explained the appeals process.

The Director referenced the Change Programme Partnership the Council was working with, with the Department for Education who had asked for the Council to consider the parental understanding of panels, with the Trafford Parent Carer forum cited on this.

The third and fourth questions were submitted together and can be seen below:

‘Referring to page 18 of the document pack regarding the Local Area SEND inspection states the following improvements are required:

"Leaders across the partnership should ensure that the SEND strategy is fully embedded across health, education and social  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.

To receive a report from the Local Area Partnership on the work undertaken since the Local Area SEND Inspection in October 2023.

The Corporate Director for Children’s Services introduced the report and referenced slides which had been prepared which would take Members through some of the granular details of the report. These were to be shared with the Committee after the meeting.

The Director for Education, Standards, Quality and Performance provided the Committee with context behind SEND in Trafford. During the May 2024 census, there were 2237 pupils on roll with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) which made up 5.09% of pupils, and 11.3% of pupils in receipt of SEND support. The Director highlighted how those with an EHCP was above the national rate and those in receipt of support as below. The total of EHCP’s had seen an increase of 7.1% on the previous year. The Director also shared with the Board the six Ambitions in Trafford for SEND.

The Committee were informed of strengthened governance arrangements within the Council, including an Independent Chair of the Strategic SEND Partnership Board, a strengthened Ambitions plan including greater oversight and dedicated workstreams, a performance scorecard which was reported at every strategic Board, and the Chief Executive and Lead Member Assurance group that the service reported to.

The Director for Education, Standards, Quality and Performance informed Committee that the presentation focused on the four areas that were identified in the inspection as areas for improvement.

The first looked at the Council’s SEND Strategy being fully embedded, which involved ensuring work streams, governance and performance monitoring was in place, with the Director for Education, Standards, Quality and Performance outlining the key progress seen so far which included performance metrics which had been identified and additional performance clinics now in place. Regarding the next steps, the SEND week of action was planned for November, work was required on developing a user-friendly version of the Ambitions Plan, and the development of the Workforce Strategy. A further objective was to develop the SEND Commissioning Strategy, with progress so far shared, which included the refreshed Trafford SEND Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and a SEND Commissioning workshop, due to take place later in the week.

The second area for improvement identified had been in improving the transitions for children and young people between Adults and Childrens services. The SEND Improvement Lead identified progress so far. This included preparing for adulthood (PfA) workshops which had taken place with others planned, with plans to develop a jointly agreed transition strategy and set of practice guidance around PfA. It also included improving the complex pathway into adults social care, and specific progress made in the Neighbourhood pathway and the Mental Health pathway, with more work to be done in both spaces. The Improvement Lead also mentioned the next steps and plans moving forward, including good timely transition on what EHC’s looked at, improving the quality assurance framework which was reported through the learning improvement group. The Improvement Lead highlighted progress in audit processes, however, referred to further work required regarding Annual Reviews. 

The Corporate Director for Children’s Services felt the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

To discuss what Members would like the SEND Tribunal Task and Fish group to look at, which had been agreed in the former Municipal Year.

The Chair reminded Members of the agreement in the previous Municipal Year to form a task and finish group looking at the cost of SEND Tribunals. The Chair asked Members if they had any suggestions for scoping.

The Executive Member for Children and Young People referred to a question from a Member in the full Council meeting the week prior, regarding how many tribunals there had been and how many Trafford had been successful in. The Executive Member felt this would be the best place for the group to start and to also look at the various steps parents take up until the point it reached tribunal.

Councillor Ennis agreed with the Executive Member but felt the recommendations of the piece of work should focus on what can be done to stop cases going to Tribunal, suggesting that many cases the Member had been involved in had not had enough intervention from the Council to mediate them going ahead.

The Chair recognised the stress for families going through the tribunal.

Councillor Procter had been told that day there had been twenty since January, however, was unsure on the accuracy of that and did not know which stage as tribunal had three stages. Councillor Procter was concerned by the delay this caused in children getting the support they needed due to delays in the tribunal service and recognised both the emotional cost to families and the financial cost to both the Council and families involved.

The Chair also raised concern for the children who did not have somebody to advocate for them, with families not able to take the concerns to a certain level and might also be confused by the complex language.

Councillor Hirst felt the ideal start would be to speak to families and then take the work on from there. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services advised the Task and Finish group that tribunals were a legal process, so it would be important not to speak to those currently going through it to not prejudice any outcomes for either the benefit of the family or child. As such, the Corporate Director felt there should be some considerations when gathering the lived experience.

The Director for Education, Standards, Quality and Performance confirmed the data as sixteen so far for 2024.

The Chair felt historical data could be used rather than live cases. The Corporate Director agreed there was mechanisms to collect that information, however, just did not want to cause any issues.

The Senior Democratic Support Officer outlined the process moving forward, which would commence with an initial scoping meeting after the Summer recess.

RESOLVED: That the Senior Democratic Support Officer contact interested Members to arrange a scoping meeting for the Group.

For Members to consider the draft work programme and suggest any items they would like the Committee to scrutinise.

The Chair asked Members to make suggestions for the remainder of the Municipal Year which would then be taken away and used to form the basis of the Committee Work Programme.

Councillor Hirst suggested safeguarding issues around home to school transport as well as support for children. Councillor Hirst highlighted issues with operators and the effect that had had on Children. Councillor Hirst also raised the problem of pastoral care on transport, with no training for drivers.

Councillor Parker referred to a report from the National Police Chief’s Council that day, which had described recent figures of violence against women and girls in England as a national emergency and provided some of the detail from the report. Councillor Parker also raised the warning that young men and boys were being radicalised by online influencers. Councillor Parker wanted the report to look at what the Council was doing to address the rise of violence against girls and the prevention of the radicalisation of boys into misogyny. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services recognised the necessity for this piece of work to bring in wider stakeholders, such as community safety partnerships and Greater Manchester Police.

Councillor Ennis suggested reports on Out of Term time provision and how the Council could support the Voluntary and Charity Sector with that, and also on the driving factors behind persistent and severe absences. The Executive Member for Children and Young People mentioned that this had been raised by Councillor Ennis at the Executive meeting and had discussed the item with the Corporate Director for Strategy and Resources that day for consideration.

The Senior Democratic Support Officer informed the Committee of the process behind forming the Committee Work Programme after the meeting.

Councillor Maitland asked for an update on transition from children to adults’ services.

Councillor Sutton raised the issue Co-opted Members. Councillor Sutton suggested forming a task and finish group to look at this, for example changing the teacher representative Member to school staff representative, possibly including an offer for early years, care leavers, teaching assistants. Councillor Sutton also asked whether it could look at what had happened in the recent past and to look at how the Council recruits Members.

The Senior Officer reminded Members that the process was to be looked at over the coming months by the Governance team, with the Elections causing delays in commencing the work. The Corporate Director for Children’s Services had confirmed conversations with the Legal and Governance team of the need to ensure that there was a mechanism in place on deciding who joined the Committee to ensure they are best placed to be a representative.

Councillor Procter reminded the Committee she had raised this matter previously and that she was aware of people who wished to support the work of the Committee.

As an additional work programme item, Councillor Procter recognised the presentation from the Trafford College student at the last Committee meeting and wanted a report on support for young trans people to come to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.