Surrey County Council approves £4.9m SEND investment

Surrey County Council’s cabinet has approved a further investment of £4.9m as part of its Additional Needs and Disabilities (AND) transformation programme. This investment means the council’s statutory Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) service can be expanded and restructured to meet the needs of children and families. The council said this will enable it to build on its “extensive” work to improve the experiences of families of children and young people with SEND, and will mean the service can continue to focus on driving forward improvements, including strengthening relationships and communication with families and schools. The cabinet has agreed the following: A new structure, with work managed across five teams instead of four, with a single management structure. An Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) team established, responsible for the whole 20-week statutory process. This will include 30 assessment officers working directly with families to support improvements in relational working and co-production. Increase in area team staff working directly with families and schools from 81 to 111 to reduce the average number of families each staff member is supporting from over 200 to 150. The team directly supporting families through the needs assessment and EHCP process will therefore increase from 81 to 141 overall [the 30 assessment officers + 111 area team staff]. Establishment of a permanent Mediation and Dispute Resolution Officer team (MADROs), after a successful pilot which reduced the number of families proceeding to tribunal hearings by over 50% for the cases they were allocated. After all the changes are implemented, there will be 231 staff in the statutory SEND service. Jonathan Hulley, Surrey County Council cabinet member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning said: “I am delighted that Cabinet has approved this investment, which will help us to refine and expand our SEND service so that it is better fit for the future. “I am also pleased that this investment to continue to drive forward improvements, including communications with families and schools, has the support of the Council’s cross-party Children, Families, Lifelong Learning and Culture Select Committee. We are looking forward to building on the considerable improvement work which we have already undertaken in Surrey.” He added: “However, provision and support for children with additional needs is a systemic issue that councils up and down the country are grappling with. We welcome urgent government reform of the SEND system and we have made it clear to ministers that, alongside these extensive and positive steps we are taking locally, national SEND reform and additional funding is needed urgently.”