Jane McSherry, Assistant Director for Education, introduced the item:

·         The Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Panel has taken a lead over the last year on scrutinising the progress being made with the transfer to Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs);

·         These were introduced by Government in 2014, replacing statements of educational need. They reflect a change to a more holistic approach to the support provided to those with additional needs and an extension of the age range of application so that this now goes from 0 to 25 years. Additionally, they are co-produced in partnership with parents and children/young people themselves;

·         Following the introduction of EHCPs, all existing statements of educational need also had to be transferred. Merton took the decision to do this properly and co-produce the transfer of all the existing 1,023 statements. This was a big process that had to be done in parallel to meeting requests for new EHCPs and be fulfilled by the deadline of the end of March 2018. This has now been achieved for all but 15. All these children/young people are within a tier 4 mental health facility or out of the country therefore making them inaccessible;

·         Government introduced a deadline of 20 weeks between the initial request for an EHCP being accepted and production of the resulting plan. Over the last year, the Department has not been where it has wanted to be in terms of meeting this deadline. However, there has been a significant improvement in performance now the transfer of statements to EHCPs has been completed. As a result, 52% are completed within the 20 week target. Of the remaining 48%, 70% are completed within 26 weeks; and

·         Highlighted that the department has been dealing with a significant increase in requests for EHCPs. In addition, that there have been very few cases of mediation or tribunal required as part of the EHCP process. This demonstrates that parents are happy. Ensuring that parents are engaged in the EHCP process has to be balanced with need to meet the 20 week deadline.

In response to member questions, Jane McSherry clarified:

·         There is no additional funding being provided to meet the increased number of EHCPs. This is a budget challenge for the dedicated schools grant. This is also being affected not just by a growth in numbers but an increase in the complexity of needs and the fact that children/young people with a whole range of conditions have a better prognosis and therefore need support for longer. Specifically on transport costs, parents are being encouraged to have personal budgets, as these are more cost effective. However, parents can be resistant to taking on the additional responsibility. The Department is therefore providing them with support to ease the transition. In other cases, travel training is being provided to young people and pick-up points established to reduce costs. Merton’s special schools are in the process of being expanded. This is already complete at Perseid and is in progress at Cricket Green. This achieves the objective of keeping young people close to home (cutting travel costs) but also reduces the need to use more expensive provision in the independent sector;

·         Prior to EHCPs being finalised, children will be within mainstream provision, on SEN support with the school budget covering an additional costs. The Department is working with schools to speed up assessments to reduce this burden on school budgets as much as possible;

·         Monthly data on performance against the 20 week target for the production of new EHCPs has been provided to scrutiny and is publicly available as part of the agenda for previous Panel meetings;

·         Merton’s performance on the need for medication and tribunal cases is good with use in Merton much lower than other boroughs. This will be helped by Merton having lots of good and outstanding schools; and

·         Customer satisfaction/user feedback on the EHCP process is captured at a number of points. Firstly through case officer feedback and the parent/carer forum. Additionally, the Department is just about to complete a formal consultation on the experience of parents/carers involved in the EHCP process.

RESOLVED: for the consultation on the experience of parents/carers involved in the EHCP process to be shared with the Panel.