Agenda item

Requests to speak at the Committee on a matter within its terms of reference must be made in writing to the clerk named on the front of this agenda by 5pm two working days before the meeting.

A deputation was received by Anthony Stoll (Chair of Governors at Netley School). Also in attendance was John Hayes (Executive Head at Netley and Head Teacher of Gospel Oak primary), Dorothea Hackman (Vice Chair of Governors at Netley) and Isobel Berwick (Governor at Netley). The subject of the deputation was Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision in Camden and Netley Primary School and Centre of Autism. The full deputation statement was published in the supplementary agenda.

Anthony Stoll summarised the main points of the deputation statement, which set out two requests. A correction was made to the second request which should read as follows: we request that Camden Education be instructed to follow the suggestion for SEND from the 135 partnership (Fleet, Gospel Oak. Netley, Rhyl) to set up a hub for SEND provision similar to the behaviour satellite at Rhyl. In addition to the statement further information was provided on the funding issues; Anthony Stoll stated that if a child required full-time one-to-one help, it cost the school in the region of £33,000 to employ a member of staff, including the on costs. Schools were required to spend c.£16,000 on each child who required additional support of their budget, where there were 21 children in this category at Netley.

The Chair thanked the deputees and invited questions and comments from the Committee. The following was discussed:

·       A Co-opted Member stated that despite good staff, the situation described was not tenable. The school was clearly under immense strain and it was understandable the school wanted assurance for future years. The Co-opted Member stated that an Autism Panel had been decommissioned in 2018-19, where it’s purpose was to anticipate need in the system, which sounded like a process Netley would have benefitted from in the past.

·       A Co-opted Member asked why Netley received more children with additional needs than other schools. It was confirmed by the deputees this was partly because of falling rolls, because there were surplus spaces during the year so children applying for a place had to be given an offer. At the same time, it was perceived by parents that Netley had better provision for autism that other schools, where children travelled long journeys to attend Netley, and parents were not aware that there was as good provision as Netley at other schools.

·       The deputees stated that they had 14 children diagnosed with autism in one year group, that in reception 50% of the children were SEND, and the school had to employ 14 additional new support staff. This situation was not tenable going forward in future years and there was no current mechanism to stop the situation to continue.

·       A Member asked if Netley was aware of the High Needs Block (HNB) Subgroup and if they could apply to that group to recommend funding allocation. In response, John Hayes stated that there had only been one meeting of the group since being recently established, and despite being invited to the group, he was not invited to that meeting. John Hayes stated that in his view the borough lacked an overarching SEND Strategy, where the current approach had a vision statement but no clear implementation strategy.

The Executive Director for Children and Learning thanked the deputees for their statement to the Committee and recognised that Netley had significant concerns about resources and support available to meeting the needs of SEND pupils. There was substantial work taking place this academic term to meet immediate challenges in the borough, such as around education psychologists, additional specialist teaching resources, top-up funding and capital funding. The HNB Subgroup was part of a broader approach about the needs and pressures across the borough. Education colleagues were working with Public Health to progress a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) in spring 2024 to focus on SEND, which would inform the review of local sufficiency and analysis of the needs across the borough to inform how best to use HNB funding. The development of the strategy would look into whether additional specialist provision was needed in the borough and how to better support mainstream schools.