Agenda item

Report of the Group Director of People

The Group Director of People submitted a report (previously circulated to provide Members with an update on the progress to date in respect of the review of the Special Educational Needs (SEND) Accessibility Strategy 2017-2020.

It was reported that although the Strategy does not form a part of the Council’s Policy Framework, it is a statutory requirement as required by Schedule 10 of the Equality Act 2010 for the Local Authority to prepare an Accessibility Strategy in relation to schools for which it is the responsible body; and to comply with legislation a review of the Strategy is required every three years, however due to COVID, the review took place in Autumn 2021 and concluded in early 2022.

The Strategy sets out how the Local Authority will work with maintained settings to increase the extent to which disabled children and young people can participate in the school curriculum; improve the physical environment of schools; and improve delivery of information to pupils with disabilities and/or learning difficulties.

It was also reported that a consultation exercise had taken place with parent/carers and maintained settings to whom this Strategy applied and stakeholders, the Darlington Parent/Carer Forum and Darlington Association on Disability; a consistent message from parent/carers was the need to ensure more staff training for equality and diversity and to ensure that information was accessible. 

This Strategy will be presented to Cabinet for approval on 3^rd May 2022.

Members discussed in particular the duty on the authority’s academies and the ways in which this authority advise academies and offer them the expertise of our officers; the national recruitment issue and how that was affecting service delivery; how the strategy will be monitored and the compliance with the Local Offer; and the assessment process for an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) which remained above the national average throughout the pandemic.

Members also discussed in more detail the accessibility issues that had been experienced at the beginning of the pandemic and the ongoing work with the Parent/Carer Forum to better seek the views of parents to support future challenge in this area.

RESOLVED – (a) That this Scrutiny notes the process undertaken to review the Strategy.

(b) That this Scrutiny notes that ongoing consultation with children and young people will inform any further amendments to the Strategy and/or the action plan that will accompany this.