The Committee gave consideration to the report as set out on pages 3-14 of the agenda supplement, and received a supplementary presentation from the Principal Casework Manager on current autism provision and nurture hubs in Herefordshire alongside areas under development. A copy of the presentation slides is attached as an appendix to the minutes.

The Committee noted that expenditure to provide placements at independent and non-maintained special schools (INSS) specialising in autism provision has increased significantly in the last five years from £400k to £2.9m, which is closely linked to the issue of insufficient provision locally. There is also a significant related cost to the Council’s transport budget to transfer pupils to these settings. It was intended that the proposal to create a separate hub managed by an existing school in Herefordshire with highly trained staff qualified in the teaching of autistic pupils would help reduce reliance on the use of INSS. The Committee noted that the Council will be seeking expressions of interest to run the autism hub, and the Committee queried how schools or other organisations would be able to make an application to be a part of this, what criteria would be used to select the preferred partner and what the timeframe would be. This detail was not available at the meeting but was noted as an information request to be forwarded to the Head of Additional Needs.

The Committee also noted that to date, 38 schools have been trained or been given a date for training on autism awareness, with a further push planned to have the vast majority of Herefordshire schools engaged. The Committee queried what the reason might be for any reluctance on the part of schools to engage with the training, and the Principal Casework Manager suggested that this was likely to be down to schools being extremely busy and managing competing priorities.

The report and presentation also included an update on the SEND Green Paper ‘Right Support, Right Place, Right Time’ which was published in March 2022. It was considered that Herefordshire is generally well placed to implement the recommendations contained within the Paper, although there are some challenges around strategic leadership where it was considered that the Scrutiny Committee may be able to add value. It was confirmed that the Council is now due an Ofsted SEND inspection which would review the service areas of health, social care and education, with the last inspection having taken place in 2014, and the Committee noted that it is in their Work Plan to consider preparedness for such an inspection at its meeting in January 2023.

The Committee acknowledged the various challenges facing the service and the mitigations set out within the report, and identified that a key theme running throughout the debate had been the issue of inclusivity. Particular attention was drawn to the need for fuller engagement in the SEND agenda by senior leaders and greater encouragement to be given to mainstream schools to be more inclusive. On that basis, the Chair suggested that a report could be drafted on behalf of the Committee for consideration at the next meeting to sum up the Committee’s work and key findings on this matter. It was suggested that this could include a possible recommendation that the Executive take a more proactive approach to engaging with schools to consciously promote inclusivity of pupils with identified SEN support needs.

It was unanimously resolved that:

The content of the report and presentation be noted.