Were Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel misled by Haringey SEND department?

I was watching the Haringey SEND parent deputation to the Children and Young Persons Scrutiny Panel after the OFSTED inspection and I was thinking, nah, that doesn't sound right what they are saying about funding for EHCP's for kids with SEND, coproduction and a culture change in the SEND department and all that.

For starters, when they kept going on about how it was the children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) fault that Haringey's Schools buget's books did not balance because they needed help, in the form of education heath and care plans (EHCPs). I was thinking, you know what Difficult Parent,  nearly 17 years we've been doing this, and it doesn't feel like there are loads more kids with disabilities or anything like that - and that got me wondering, if what they were saying was true.

Also, I remember reading somewhere that a lot of the money that was meant to be going to the SEND kids with the EHCPs, which is called "The High Needs Block", is being skimmed off and sent to something else all together that is called "Early Help".

According to the NSPCC 'Early Help' is  for things like parents who are living in challenging circumstances provide a safe and loving environment for their child. Or, if a child is displaying risk-taking behaviour, early help practitioners might work with the child and their parents to find out the reasons for the child's behaviour and put strategies in place to help keep them safe. Which is all right and everything, but it doesn't sound much like SEND to me. (Link to the NSPCC website: https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/safeguarding-child-protection/early-help-early-intervention)

That money has been being skimmed off for over 15 years, one and a half to two million pounds a year, and if they schools had that money, well there would be MORE MONEY for the SEND kids on the "High Needs Block" and the "High Needs Block" budget would not be in deficit would it? So, how anyone can argue that Central Government is not giving the Haringey enough money for children with special education needs and disabilities AND THEN THE SAME COUNCIL TAKES MONEY OFF THOSE KIDS and expects to remain credible is both a mystery and a bit of a cheek to me.

To address this "accounting anomaly", the council aren't just going to give the money back to the schools to fund the EHCP's for kids with SEND - like what they should really - nah, they had a 'consultation' about it. And parents were meant to be asked about the "Funding Formula for the Schools Block". Well, I don't know if the parents did or didn't get asked about the consultation.  The parents were supposed to be asked by school's and SENCOs rather than the council, or so the council said, but the consultation only ran for 14 days, which I am not sure complies with the rules about consultations (which they were told about, mind you, at the Cabinet Member Signing for the school's funding formula on 15th January 2021). And 14 days is nowhere near the 6 weeks's that the AMAZE report recommends for consultations.

Finally, there was all that coproduction business. Well, sometimes I am just not sure that people know what they are going on about when they bang on about coproduction. So, I thought it was worth looking up the Hart's Ladder of Participation that sendPACT did back in 2019 - and gave to the SEND Reforms group over 2 and a half years ago now. (Link: https://sendpact.com/2019/06/11/a-laddder-of-participation-for-haringey/). It's really good, and I thought it was worth using like a 'rating system' of where we are right now with 'coproduction'.

This can get a bit confusing very quickly, so I am going to be as clear as I can be.

Haringey get money off the Government for schools and this is called the “Dedicated Schools Grant” and is made up of four blocks of money: Early Years Block; Schools Block; High Needs Block and Central School Services Block.

Services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) from aged 0 to 25, comes from a pot of money called "The High Needs Block".

See the picture below for more information.

Right, so, Haringey schools have money troubles. On the agenda for the first Children and Young People's Scrutiny Panel meeting of 2022 is Budget. 

This includes the concerning implications of the on-going budget pressure on the High Needs Block (HNB) from legislative changes to serviceprovision responsibilities introduced in the 2014 Children and Families Act...

...[the deficit on the HNB] which continues to be driven by the increasing number of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) in recent years.

There are currently 9,000 pupils with SEND, of which 2,400 have EHCPs, from a school population of 38,062 on roll in Haringey Schools. In the May 2021 High Needs Block Committee meeting It was agreed that compared to the 5 statistical neighbours Haringey was fairing well. In particular the support of pupils with complex needs in mainstream schools is good.

Reviewing the 2021 meeting minutes (see the diagram above) for the High Need Block Committee, Haringey School's Forum and the Children and Young People's Scrutiny Panel we have found that:

1. The overspend is being unfairly attributed to meeting the needs of children and young people with special education needs and disabilities. This funding is called the 'High Needs Block'.
2. For the past 15 or so years, because of some very high profile tragedies in Haringey £1.5 million to £2 million has been taken from the funding for the education children and young people with special education needs and disabilities and put into the pot for the 'early help' of families where there are safeguarding concerns.
3. Had this money not been transferred, the 'High Needs Block' would not be in deficit.
4. The removal of this money from funding for the education ofchildren and young people with special education needs and disabilities does not appear to be inline with guidance from central government.
5. The stewards of the money that is spent of the education of children and young people with special education needs and disabilities have had to work incredibly hard to cut costs and make efficiencies savings on this annually reduced budget.

The picture below summarises the monies that are moved out of the "High Needs Block" and are not spent on the education of children and young people with special education needs and disabilities in Haringey.

The budget papers for Children and Young People's Scrutiny Panel January 2022 state:

7.1.7 The year end Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) forecast continues to be in deficit against the agreed budget. At Qtr2 £6.3m is forecast, all against the High Needs Block which continues to be driven by the increasing number of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) in recent years.

And in the minutes for the October 2021 School's Forum it states that

[The Head of SEND] reported that there is an increased demand in system- hypothesis: that schools are increasing demands for EHCPs to address funding gaps caused by high costs of SEN and falling rolls.

The graph below shows the number of EHCPs and statements, by year and age group, in Haringey from 2014 to 2021. The data is freely available on the GOV.UK website: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/

The graph and at table below show that the number of pupils with EHCPs in Haringey primary and secondary schools has broadly remained constant over the whole whole of the 8 year time period. This would strongly dispute the hypothesis from Haringey SEND that schools are claiming that pupils need EHCPs in order to plug their own funding gaps.

The graph show that there are increases in the number of pupils with EHCPs in under 5 provision and over 16 provision.

In reference to Difficult Parent's lived experience: we were strongly discouraged from applying for a 'statement' (as it was in 2007) for our severely disabled child. This was plainly untrue and caused a lot of trauma to us at a time when we were very fragile and in shock about what had happened to our son. We fought back, and were supported in doing so by our son's wonderful nursery. Roll on to 2016 and we were invited to take part in the writing of the policy for criteria for an EHCP needs assessment.  What we found was that neither the Educational Psychologist leading the working party nor the SENCOs were aware that under 5's were entitled to an ECHP. We fought back and found the bit in the 2014 Children and Families Act that said 

• "Special educational provision”, for a child aged under two, means educational provision of any kind
• Health care provision or social care provision which educates or trains a child or young person is to be treated as special educational provision (instead of health care provision or social care provision).
  
• (Link: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/6/section/21/enacted)
  
  

Looking  at the increase in the number of pupils with ECHPs over 16, this would be a reflection that EHCP support runs until a pupil is 25 years old, and is a continuation rather than an increasing number of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) in recent years.

Back in January 2021, during the Cabinet Member Signing for the Schools Funding Formula, the Haringey's Head of Legal and Governance rather helpfully set out the legal principles apply when undertaking consultation. We re-print them below. 

With reference to the 2nd December Haringey Schools Forum Public Pack, there is reference to a recently run consultation that parents have never heard of regarding the Funding Formula for the Schools Block. There is discussion in the draft meeting minutes for the High Needs Block Committee (19th December 2021) about a 14 day consultation on the Funding Formula for the Schools Block proposal will commence on 29th November 2021. 

The Head of SEND asked members to send any amendments through today so that the proposal can be finalised. 

Members asked to what extent parents and SENDCOs have been involved in drafting the document as it could directly affect services to their children and the families SENDCOs work with?

The response was: Parents have been asked to be involved via schools.

Hmmm..... so, me being a Haringey SEND parent and knowing other Haringey SEND parents, I have asked Haringey SEND parents:

Did you?
You know what?
What?
You know?
Know?
About the consultation?
No? What consultation? What proposal? What ARE you going on about?

Below is a nice picture borrowed from some work that sendPACT did on Hart's Ladder of Participation for parents and carers.

The nicely sets out what is meant by all other forms of participation, culminating in coproduction at the very top of the ladder where " Parent/carers lead activities in which decision making is shared between parent/carers and professionals working as equal partners".

Haringey SEND department, councillors scrutinising and accountable for the department, the newly formed parent carer forum and all parent carers need to keep reminding themselves about what coproduction is.  Thus far, activities have barely got onto the first rung of the ladder of participation.

In the Children and Young People's Scrutiny Panel Meeting on 18th November 2021, Councillor Brabazon is minuted as saying "The parent carer forum was administered by the Bridge Renewal Trust and not the Council but she nevertheless agreed that adequate notice should be given for meetings".

However, the parent carer forum at that point had only hosted 2 meetings and were not responsible for any coproduction meetings that the council hosted in 2020 nor 2021.

This blog has documented that inadequate notice has been given by Haringey SEND department for plethora of "coproduction" (not) meetings over a good 18 month period since the AMAZE report was published and made the 21 day minimum notice recommendation.  These Haringey SEND department "coproduction" meetings have included the setting up of the parent carer forum; the recommissioning of the SENDIASS contract; the "SEND parent charter"; Haslemere respite centre, the draft SEND strategy and include the meetings for the written statement of action (WSOA).

Haringey SEND department only gave 19 days notice for a limited invite (not to all parents) with a limited number of places across 2  workshops addressing the areas within the written statement of action. 

Also of concern is the lack of information shared with parents prior to the written statement of action workshops. Given that "coproduction" is higher than "consultation" on Hart's Ladder of Participation, it is not unreasonable to expect, demand even, that the legal principles apply when undertaking consultation should also apply to coproduction:

(a) The consultation must take place while the proposals are still at a formative stage (i.e. when the results of the consultation may still make a difference)
(b) The consultee must be given sufficient information about, and reasons for, the proposal to be able to respond in a meaningful and intelligent way and given sufficient time to be able to respond.
(c) Depending on the circumstances of the particular case, it may also be necessary to consult about other options that have been rejected.
(d) There must then be sufficient time for the responses to be considered properly, and the responses must be considered conscientiously, in the course of taking the ultimate decision.

Ahem.
Without transparency there can be no Scrutiny.
Without Scrutiny there is no Accountability.
Without Accountability, Haringey SEND can do whatever they like.
Which is what has got us into this mess in the first place.

In various meetings, forums and panels, everyone has got the blame for the financial issues of the Haringey SEND department:
Headteachers, SENCOs and Schools are increasing demands for EHCPs to address funding gaps
Parents in the West of the borough parents choose to have EHCPs for their children so that they can access funding
Central government not giving enough money
Children and Young People for having special educational needs and disabilities

This is not the only arena where Haringey SEND play the blame game, and are still playing the blame game, with no sign's of a culture change: coproduction and the timing of meetings being blamed on the parent carer forum and a group of 9 - 12 volunteer parent carers who have only met twice and are not responsible for the failings of the Haringey SEND department.