Agenda item

Additional Learning Needs (ALN) Act Readiness

To consider the report of the Service Manager Inclusion.

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the report of the Service Manager Inclusion which was presented to provide Scrutiny Committee with an update on the Additional Learning Needs (ALN) and Tribunal (Wales) Act (2018) and the progress the Education Directorate is making in readiness.

 

The Service Manager Inclusion spoke to the report and highlighted the main points contained therein.

 

The Service Manager noted the cost pressure referenced in the report in relation to statutory duties, however, owing to managing the difficulties of running two systems and the additional capacity required within the ALN Team, the cost pressure would be closer to £100,000.

 

The Chair congratulated the team for all the hard work and collaboration that had been undertaken.

 

A Member said he welcomed the report and requested an update with a breakdown of statemented children, ALN children, dyslexic children etc.  In response the Service Manager Inclusion said he could provide a breakdown of pupils that are at School Action and School Action Plus that have a statement and their primary needs and include details around the resource base for Members information.

 

The Committee AGREED this course of action.

 

With regard to the ALN Bill coming into force in September a Member commented on the excellent work that had been undertaken and congratulated the Service Manager and the team for leading on this issue. 

 

A Member requested that it be acknowledged the excellent work that the officer and his team had achieved on leading this piece of work.

 

In response to a Member’s question regarding cross border transfers into Primary and Secondary and the delay with transfer paperwork and enquired if the new Act would help or hinder this, the Service Manager Inclusion said he felt positive that the changes would be of significant benefit in that area.   There had been issues with the current system, delays with transfer paperwork etc. and the five authorities interpreting the criteria at different stages in entirely different ways.  The new system was less bureaucratic and the introduction of the Individual Development Plan would replace statements. There would be one plan so whether there was a low level of additional learning need or significant complex needs it would be the same plan.  Work was still ongoing in relation to consistency across all five local authorities such as the type of letters sent to parents, etc.  With one plan in place there would no longer be multiple interpretations of the different stages and this would make a significant difference to the paperwork received with regard to understanding pupils needs when transferring from one local authority to another. The Service Manager felt that the Welsh Government framework provided a good basis to address the issues in the current system.

 

A Member referred to capacity issues and enquired what investment would the Directorate or Council make to overcome these capacity issues to meet Estyn recommendations for improvement.  He felt that with such an important issue there was a need to ensure that appropriate capacity was in place to carry out all the requirements of the Act.  The Director of Education responded that Full Council had endorsed a new structure for the Education Directorate and that it recognised the need for capacity in terms of school improvement and inclusion.  As part of the budget setting process a £100,000 growth item had been requested for next year’s budget and that will now form part of discussions for setting next year’s budget and would be presented to Full Council in March, which if agreed will fund an additional statutory post linked to ALN reform.  This issue was a priority and a request had also been put forward to support the additional capacity that was required via the growth bid.

 

A Member requested clarification on paragraph 2.9 of the report, in relation to IDPs.  The Service Manager Inclusion clarified that with an Individual Development Plan in place the school would determine if it was comfortable to manage the pupil with the funding to support the pupil’s needs.  There may be a threshold that still needs to be defined by the Welsh Government and then reflected in regional and local practice to determine at which point was the complexity of need enough that the local authority would then take on the responsibility for that IDP.   Currently local authorities were responsible for all statemented pupils and the statement, however, local authorities delegate that responsibility to the schools in terms of managing the annual review and the provision etc.  The new system would still give schools the opportunity, that if a pupil had significant complex needs, to request that the pupil had a local authority IDP.  There were still some issues around looking at what the threshold would be between a school IDP and a local authority IDP.

 

The Service Manager said that once the ALN Code of Practice was finalised he was keen to provide an opportunity for Members to have a more detailed explanation and discussion around some of the key areas such as; what is Person Centred Practice, what is an Individual Development Plan, what is the ALN post 16 transition etc. at some point in the future.

 

A Member raised concerns regarding a backlog of pupils waiting to be statemented and enquired if this would affect the report going forward and to be implemented in September.   The Service Manager Inclusion responded that local authorities were required to carry out statutory assessment within 26 weeks.  There was a backlog as the key elements to a statutory assessment were; an Educational Psychologist carried out an assessment of the pupils needs, this would need to be done within a school setting and Health provide a medical report on the pupil that requires them to attend a meeting; and due to the lockdown fulfilling and completing statutory assessments had not been possible.  However, going forward the expectation from the Welsh Government was that the majority of IDP’s would be school based and would not require the input of the local authority.   It would still be a statutory document that had legal entitlement to tribunal appeal.  The new system was less bureaucratic without lengthy timeframes attached to it.   If a school felt a pupil had additional learning needs and required additional learning provision they were in a position to establish an Individual Development Plan.   The majority of IDP’s would be managed by schools without requiring input from local authorities, this would speed up the process and where schools feel the local authority should adopt that IDP, that would entail taking ownership of the existing IDP.  The Team were addressing the backlog as quickly as they possibly could.

 

In response to a Member’s question regarding risks to missing the September date, the Service Manager felt that the only risk was Covid-19, he had no concerns regarding being ready in time, as fundamental key elements were in place.  However, he felt that, as with all new systems there may be some teething problems at first and moving forward post September there may be a need to refine and improve some elements.

 

The Corporate Director of Education advised Members that the Welsh Government had advised Directors of Education across Wales that the discussion on ALN reform was planned for the last session prior to the Senedd recess.  As there was currently an emergency situation, there could be national considerations regarding Covid-19 that may take precedent and therefore there could be a potential delay in Welsh Government final conversations and approvals around ALN reform.

 

A Member referred to capacity issues and commented that it was one of the Estyn recommendations for improvement and proposed that a paper on the new structure of the ALN service and how it would be funded be prepared and presented to a future meeting.

 

The Committee AGREED to recommend, subject to the foregoing, that the report be accepted and endorse Option 1; namely that

 

·        Members agreed that Blaenau Gwent will be ALN ready for September 2021 when the ALN Act becomes operational and that appropriate preparations are taking place; and

·        a paper on the new structure of the ALN service, to include details of funding, be prepared and presented to a future meeting.

 

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