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City of Westminster

Local Area

SEND Self-Evaluation

Quarter 3 (October to December) 2019/2020

(updated March 2020)

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Introduction

Our ambition is to support all children and young people in their journey to adulthood with underpinning principles of early help, personalisation and inclusion, enabling them to achieve their chosen outcomes. Westminster City Council (WCC) and Central London and West London Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) have high ambitions for all children and young people, including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). We firmly believe that all children and young people should have access to good local provision including health care and every opportunity to thrive, whether this be in education, employment, independent living or participation in their community.

Between 2014 and 2017, our local SEND strategy focused on implementing new assessment pathways; developing the tri-borough SEND Service; engagement with education settings to improve identification and assessment of children and young people with SEND; improving joint working between education, health and social care, including joint commissioning; and, developing relationships and co-production with the parent/carer reference group, led by the Westminster Parent Participation Group, ‘Make it Happen’. The impact of the political decision to commit to an integrated tri-borough SEND service in 2014 created additional challenges at a time when the reforms were being introduced. Initial progress was therefore slower than we would have liked.

In 2018, the tri-borough arrangements ended but Westminster City Council (WCC) and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) continue to work in a bi-borough arrangement. However, CCG commissioning still operates across the tri-borough footprint. In the lead up to April 2018 and during 2018/19, the bi-borough SEND Service focused on completing transfers from Statements and maintaining the improvements in the assessment process that started to become evident in 2017/18. A climate of continuous improvement and quality assurance was put in place and the completion rate for Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments within 20 weeks, excluding exceptions1, now stands at 100% (October to December 2019).

In the calendar year 2017, 60.3% assessments were completed within timescales and this increased to 78% in the calendar year 2018. In the calendar year 2019, 99% of plans were finalised within 20 weeks, excluding exceptions. This figure is now significantly higher than the last published London average of 60% and national average of 64% (both relating to 2018 calendar year). The SEND Service launched a bespoke case management system, Eclipse, in July 2019 through the One SEND project.

The NHS Long Term Plan (LTP) sets out an ambitious agenda to improve outcomes across a range of areas including maternity, children and young people’s mental health, LD and autism and other long-term conditions. It is recognised that these outcomes can only be delivered via joint working between young people, parents, CCG and Local Authority (LA) commissioners and providers. Our joint commissioning plan reflects the NHS LTP’s vision and aims.

1 The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 set out specific exemptions from the 20-week timescale e.g. when appointments are missed

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The LTP also commits all sustainability and transformation partnerships to developing into an integrated care system by April 2021. We recognise that across North West London, we have unwarranted variation in health outcomes and duplication across eight boroughs; by reducing this inefficiency we can improve quality and reduce inequalities. We envisage that local delivery teams will continue in order to maintain our strong borough-based links between the CCGs and the LAs.

Our SEND Strategy 2018 - 2021 sets out the following overarching aims:

• support children and young people to achieve the best they can in education and all other aspects of their lives

• support young people to get a job (with support as necessary)

• support children and young people to live as independently as possible (with support as necessary); and • support children and young people to be healthy, active and visible in their local community.

In September 2019, our Children’s Services were rated outstanding in all areas by Ofsted. Inspectors noted that “practice with disabled children and

their families is consistently effective. Direct work, communication and observations regarding children with limited or no verbal communication are

careful and thoughtful”.

This self-evaluation document provides an evaluation of how well the Westminster partnership (or ‘local area’) carries out its statutory duties in relation

to children and young people with SEND. It focuses on the effectiveness of the local area in supporting children and young people with SEND and their

families to achieve the best possible educational, health, social and other outcomes. This evaluation is reviewed on a quarterly basis and provides the

basis of a continuous cycle of self-improvement. It forms part of our ‘business as usual’ quality assurance arrangements and should be read alongside

our SEND Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA), SEND Strategy with our “One Year On” Report and high-level action plan.

Leadership and Governance

Progress against the SEND Strategy and the associated action plan are overseen by a bi-borough multi-agency CFA Executive Board which is co-chaired by

the Executive Director of bi-borough Children’s Services and the Deputy Director of the CCG. This Board includes the Chairs of the parent forums from

each borough, providers, schools and settings. See Appendix 1 for the governance structure. Political leaders are involved in shaping the transformation

plans and are kept informed of progress through regular Cabinet Member briefings, providing challenge and support.

The CFA Executive Board is underpinned by five supporting workstreams and a number of other projects:

• Joint Commissioning Board

• Short Breaks and Personalisation

• Preparing for Adulthood

• SEN Support

• Early Years and Childcare Board

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Co-production

Co-production is at the heart of our work and is increasingly ‘business as usual’. We have a Co-production Memorandum of Understanding in

place. To promote transparency and accountability, we have an established process for recording our ‘You Said, We Will’ activity, which results

in an annual ‘You Said, We Did’ summary.

Representatives from the Parent Forum, ‘Make it Happen’, are actively involved in all aspects of strategic work which includes joining the

interview panels for SEN Service staff appointments and being consulted on the content of job descriptions for a variety of roles. ‘Make it

Happen’ holds regular meetings with officers from the LA, CCG and health providers including a Termly Reference Group meeting, chaired by a

parent. The SEN Service attends monthly surgeries with ‘Make it Happen’; other officers attend for focused sessions on areas such as short

breaks and therapies. Parents also train officers and participate in evaluations when re-procurement takes place (relevant to SEND). ‘Make it

Happen’ has trained Local Offer Parent Champions who deliver training and work with individual families. They are co-production partners in

the bi-borough All Age Autism Strategy.

‘Make it Happen’ has worked with Contact, a national charity for families of children with disabilities and the LA, to undergo organisational

changes which have enabled the group to become more independent. The LA has provided funding to support this and has provided a new

office space as part of our new disabled children’s centre, the Tresham Centre in north Westminster.

Our improvement work is informed by the views of children, young people and their families through their attendance at the CFA Executive

Board, at Workstream meetings, through the Termly Reference Group meetings with officers, through the SEND Strategy surveys (2018) and

surgeries with the SEN Service and other partners. The Assistant Director for SEN and Educational Psychology (EP) meets termly with a group

of young people at St Marylebone Bridge Special School to seek their views and update them about actions that have been taken to improve

the local offer. This group of young people, with the support of our EP Service, also interviewed all candidates for the Assistant Director SEN

and EP role in 2018.

We have recently made changes to our Sensory Impairment Service, creating a more joined up bi-borough model, which has enabled us to

increase the capacity of frontline delivery. Consultation workshops with local parents helped us to design the new delivery model. Children

with visual impairment and hearing impairment were involved in the interview process for the specialist teachers in the new service.

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CAMHS service reviews have been co-produced with Rethink Mental Illness and local Mental Health Champions since 2015/16 and have

gathered feedback from 400 children and young people service users and 175 parents and carers across what was previously the tri-borough.

We co-produced our Trailblazer bids with young people, parents, schools and other stakeholders and successfully gained Wave 2 funding to

deliver Mental Health Support Teams in education settings.

We have ambitions to strengthen our co-production activity with children and young people and have recently recruited a new SEND Children

and Young People’s Participation officer who took up the post in October 2019.

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Executive summary

Key areas that work well

Strategic developments The YOS has achieved the Youth Justice SEND Quality Mark.

The Local Area has a clear governance structure and reporting mechanisms in place that cover all aspects of SEND support and joint commissioning. The overarching board includes parent representatives and is chaired by senior leaders from the LA and CCG.

The local area has maintained a dedicated Designated Clinical Officer (DCO) in post since December 2014; a newly appointed DCO started in post in June 2019. The DCO acts as the health lead for embedding the SEND reforms and is the key point of contact for colleagues from the LA, health teams, schools, ‘Make it Happen’ and within the CCGs.

The Local Area has held three multi-agency Sharing Good Practice events, most recently an event on Reviews and Transitions. This is helping us to understand our data, promote effective practice and challenge ourselves to work more collaboratively.

A recent SEND data peer review was undertaken, working in partnership with LAs across the West London Alliance.

Co-production and engagement are increasingly ‘business as usual’. Examples include the co-production of our SEND Strategy 2018-2021, the strategic development of our local offer (the steering group is parent-chaired), co-development of the short break offer and a new resource allocation system for personal budgets and for SEN, improved passenger transport, development of mental health services and the appointment process for specialist teachers for children with sensory impairment. An officer who will focus on the participation and engagement of children and young people with SEND joined our SEND Local Offer Service in October 2019. The role will be focusing on: supporting local professionals to engage more effectively with young people with SEND, delivering a range of events to capture the views of children and young people with SEND and implementing reporting structures that ensure that the views of children and young people with SEND are communicated to Senior Leaders across the Local Area. The officer has attended a Young People’s event led by Young Healthwatch and has begun discussions with the coordinator about how we could work together effectively and share insights.

Our Local Offer website has improved. We have received positive comments from parents about how easy it is to access and how useful the information is to them in making decisions about their children. Our local offer survey, which we analyse on a quarterly basis, shows that 77% of users found the site to be up-to-date, 71% of users found it to be useful and relevant and 90% found it to be understandable. Nearly half of responders use the site more than once a month and 74% of users consider the site to be attractively designed. These figures, which are based on relatively small numbers of responses, show some natural variation between quarters and we are using outcomes of the survey to continually improve the website.

Westminster is establishing three local Family Hubs as a part of its Early Help Strategy. Hubs are an integrated Early Help workforce across a neighbourhood as well as a physical building. They are located in the areas of greatest need. This model represents a new and innovative way of working for all staff groups and

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Key areas that work well

facilitates the much earlier identification of need, preventing families having to repeat their stories over and over again. The integration is achieved through workforce development training that focuses on integrated whole family working.

Westminster has invested in 5 Youth Hubs and 17 organisations to deliver specific projects to achieve elements of the Early Help Strategy. This work has strong links to the local Family Hub model. Furthermore, the Council has developed the Active Westminster Card to enable residents and those studying in the borough to access substantially discounted leisure services to promote healthy and active lifestyles.

Identification of SEND

The Local Authority and CCG are continuing to invest in the Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) Service. In Quarter 3, 90% of children referred to the service were seen within 12 weeks. The SLT Service proactively signposts to drop-in sessions at Children’s Centres for parents while they wait. CCG and LA commissioners continue to chair the multi-agency Speech, Language and Communication (SLC) Strategy Groups, which coordinate and deliver a work plan focused on the local area’s journey to move towards a whole system approach to SLC. For Early Years this is complemented by the Pre-Birth to 5 Redesign programme’s focus on SLC, which is resulting in an improved offer for reception age children and a targeted training offer for schools.

Training and support are provided to Health Visitors, schools and other settings by specialist services including SLT, physiotherapy, CAMHS and Paediatrics to support early identification and specialist staff attend children’s centre sessions; for example, local CAMHS deliver support to identify and meet needs of children under 5 with attachment disorders.

Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) are now produced within statutory timescales. Since June 2019, 100% of EHC plans have been finalised within 20 weeks (excluding exceptions). Performance for 2019 SEN2 (2018 calendar year) evidenced an improving picture and SEN2 for 2020 (2019 calendar year) will show continued strong performance; 99% of EHCPs finalised in 20 weeks (there were no exceptions) which is a 21% improvement on the previous year. The LA invested extra resources in order to complete over 99% of transfers from Statements by 31st March 2018 and more recently to improve the annual review processes.

There are strong arrangements in place for the identification of SEND in children who are electively home educated. We have recently produced an

Information Guide for Home Educators which includes details of the SEND services and the local offer.

Assessment and meeting needs

There is a holistic and core SLT and CAMHS offer within the Youth Offending Service (YOS), to identify and meet needs.

There is a rolling programme of parent workshops delivered by a range of professionals including SLTs, occupational therapists, educational and clinical

psychologists. This includes understanding autism spectrum disorder (ASD) after diagnosis. There is also a programme of training available to schools and

settings. The borough’s Autism Outreach Service regularly runs a bespoke programme for parents, following feedback from parents and responding to the

needs of the local community.

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Key areas that work well

There are Parents’ Autism Awareness Courses (for ages 2 – 5 and ages 5-18) for parents of children who have received an autism diagnosis. The courses cover

social communication, interaction, sensory needs and support in nurseries and in schools.

The aim of all the parents’ programmes is for parents to be able to develop supportive links with other parents. They provide a safe environment, where

parents are able to share successes and discuss concerns and difficulties.

We have reshaped our short breaks offer to meet the increased demand for more specialist support for children with complex needs and to introduce a more graduated offer. This includes a new offer in south Westminster at Churchill Gardens Primary Academy and a significantly expanded in-house offer at the Tresham Centre in Lisson Grove. At the end of December, 258 children were receiving a short breaks service. The support and challenge provided through our inclusion offer is effective in enabling families to access mainstream services. Based on parents’ wishes, we have developed our own Disabled Children’s Centre through the re-design of the Tresham Centre which opened in July 2019.

Place planning work has led to funding of SEN capital initiatives to meet local need, such as the development of a new resource base for September 2019 at All Soul’s C of E Primary School and good engagement with Headteachers to explore additional specialist provision to improve local options for families.

Children in care are very well supported by the Virtual School. The Virtual School monitors the quality of planning and support provided to looked after children and young people with SEND. Every looked-after child with SEND has an allocated virtual school teacher who works closely with the SEN Service to ensure that the child’s needs are being met. Every child has a personal education plan that runs in conjunction with their EHCP or SEN Support plan and this is reviewed three times each academic year. In some cases, there is evidence of innovative approaches to capture views where traditional methods would not suffice e.g. the use of photos.

Improving outcomes

2019 educational outcomes for children with SEN show that at both primary and secondary their achievements are well above national comparators. At KS2 37% of children on SEN Support achieved the expected standard in reading, writing and mathematics compared with a national average of 25%; 16% of children with an EHCP achieved this measure compared to a national average of 9%. At KS4 49% of children on SEN Support achieved grades 4-9 in English and mathematics compared with a national average of 32%; 22% of children with an EHCP achieved this measure compared to a national average of 11%. Schools report that the Educational Psychology liaison visits are highly valued and contribute to making a difference for children with SEND.

We perform favourably regarding the proportion of working-age adults with a learning disability known to adult social care in paid employment, with 11.7% in employment compared to 6.4% nationally and 8.3% in London. We have established a dedicated post to improve the pathways to employment for young people with SEND, including a local Supported Internship offer, working with the Westminster Employment Service, which launched in September 2019 and

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Key areas that work well

has provided placements for 10 Young People, with a 100% retention rate to date. Our multi-agency Supported Employment Forum has co-produced an action plan and agreed priorities to be taken forward during 2020 to increase SEND employment outcomes in the local area.

Our latest figures show that 1.2% of 16-17 year olds are Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) in Westminster, compared with 2.0% in London and 3.0% nationally. A multi-agency NEET Panel is in place, chaired by a Director within Children’s Services, and attended by local colleges and training providers. We aim to continue to reduce the rate of young people with SEND who are NEET (or ‘not known’). Over April to June 2019, on average 97.2% of 16-17 year olds with SEND in Westminster were in learning (88.2%, England / 92.5%, London). There is a 0.2% gap in the rate of participation for young people aged 16-17 with SEND in Westminster compared with all children in this age group; across England this gap is 3.8% and in London it is 2.0%.

Our EHCP quality assurance framework is driving up the quality of plans. The oversight and drive provided by senior leaders has led to significant improvements in case management and data quality. Parents have co-produced new arrangements for assessment, planning and reviews.

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Key areas for development

Strategic developments

We will continue to make improvements to and publicise our Local Offer website e.g. to make it more accessible to young people with SEND, building on their feedback.

Parents were closely involved in the development of our new personal budgets policy. The new Resource Allocation System (RAS) training for both professionals and parent champions finished as of 31st May 2019. Since then we have been running a pilot for short breaks and finalising the internal processes. Families can request a personal budget at any time, and this can be supported through the current pilot arrangements.

The pilot has been extended until December 2020 as we wanted to ensure our policies and processes are correctly implemented. Following this the Personal Budgets programme will launch officially. Personalisation has successfully been promoted across social care, education and health through workshops, information days, and publications.

All children and their families eligible for continuing health care receive information on personal health budgets (PHBs), including their indicative budget. There are also plans for a wider expansion of PHBs.

A Personal Transport Budget offer has been agreed and was launched in January 2020, providing greater choice and control for families who have children and young people eligible for travel assistance to school or college. Communication is ongoing with schools about this. The SEN service is set up to utilise pre-paid cards and the recently launched Independent Travel Training (ITT) team is prioritising the promotion of Personal Transport Budgets with families.

While our SEND Strategy and Joint Commissioning Plan reflects the views of parents, we recognise that we need a more consistent approach to co-production with children and young people, building on strengths in CAMHS and wider examples of co-design. Our SEND Children and Young People’s Participation officer started in October 2019 to help take this work forward.

We are continuing to develop and enhance our Early Years Service. We are one of 5 Local Authorities working with the Early Intervention Foundation through their Early Years Transformation Academy so as to join up best start, healthy child and school readiness initiatives. Our new Strategic Lead for Early Years started in July 2019 and 3 Early Years and Inclusion Advisors started in October 2019. The service is providing support to PVIs, maintained nurseries, children’s centres, schools and childminders and act as Area SENCOs. Take up of Disability Access Funding and SEN Inclusion Funding (SENIF) has been historically low but is now rising following our re-designed arrangements which include high needs funding. It is now accessible to children under 3 years old and allocations are based on individual needs. The SEN Service set up a multi-agency Early Years Panel in October 2019, which oversees the management of early years cases and SENIF. We are also developing 2 specialist early years provisions in the borough which will open in April 2020; one will be based at Portman Family Hub, the other at Hallfield Primary.

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Identification of SEND

We continue to work to reduce the waiting times for ASD diagnosis, reduce the average age of diagnosis and address the under-diagnosis of girls with ASD. An all-age, multi-disciplinary Autism Strategy is underway to improve pathways and reduce waiting times; the first phase (0-18) is being presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board for sign off in March 2020. In September 2019, referral to assessment for under 5s took on average 28 weeks at Cheyne (down from 38 weeks in December 2018) and 23 weeks at Woodfield. In September 2019, the average wait for over 5s referral to assessment was 43 weeks for Cheyne and 21 weeks for Woodfield. While we are improving, we recognise this is still too high, and the CCG is leading a transformation programme to redesign our child development pathways, underpinned by the emerging autism strategy. Child Development Service have recently attended the bi-borough SENCo forum to support SENCOs to complete referrals to CDS. One third of children are currently diagnosed at first appointment and for pre-school children the average age for diagnosis is aged 2.5 years. All children who are waiting are supported with information, therapies and have support from Specialist Health Visitor or Specialist Nurse.

In 2019, 68.6% of children received a 2-2.5 year developmental review from a health visitor, which is above the London average of 68.1%, but below the national average of 77.6%. An action plan is in place to improve the uptake of these reviews, including the introduction of fortnightly Saturday clinics for parents who are unable to attend their scheduled appointments.

Assessment and meeting needs

Commissioners have worked together with our main therapy provider, Central London Community Healthcare (CLCH) NHS Trust, to address areas of variable

performance around waiting times for occupational therapy (OT). In November 2019, 80% of children and young people with a Central London GP entered OT

treatment within 12 weeks; the year to date average is 60% seen within 12 weeks. This is a significant improvement on previous years. In November 2018, 14%

were seen within 12 weeks. The national referral to assessment target is 18 weeks. OT continues to be an area of priority for both CCG and LA commissioners,

working in partnership with providers.

Continued work is required with the provider of local Wheelchair Services. Recent performance has indicated improved referral to treatment waiting times however more work needs to be done to ensure the needs of children and young people are met in a timely manner. The Wheelchair Service have also committed to initiatives to improve communication with service users, however the impact of this needs to be confirmed by service user feedback.

Our Quality Assurance process has identified the need to improve the advice provided by CAMHS professionals as part of children’s Education, Health and Care needs assessments. An action plan has been developed and is being monitored by the CFA Executive Board.

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School Nurses and Health Visitors play an active role in the early identification and ongoing support of children and young people with SEND. The DCO,

alongside commissioners, is leading on work with School Nursing and Health Visiting services to improve contributions to professional advice for Education,

Health and Care Plans.

We will continue to improve the range and quality of emotional wellbeing and mental health support and develop clearer and better-communicated pathways. Central London and West London CCGs, in partnership with Mind and WCC, have successfully bid for Trailblazer funding to establish Mental Health Support Teams in schools. West London was awarded Wave 1 funding in 2018/19, and Central London was awarded Wave 2 funding in 2019/20. This means that MHSTs will be in 43 WCC schools and colleges by September 2020. This will support us to strengthen the whole school approach to emotional wellbeing and mental health at the targeted level and embed a graduated offer. As well as the expansion of MHSTs in Westminster, Place2Be Mental Health Champions Programme places have been secured for ten schools in the borough, and Central London and West London CCGs have commissioned further support from Mind to deliver additional provision in schools that don't have MHSTs. The joint CCG and Local Authority Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Plan was agreed and signed off at the December 2019 Health and Wellbeing Board.

Through the Vulnerable Children’s Collaborative (VCC), we aim to improve the attendance of children with SEND who are not attending school regularly or not in receipt of a full-time education. Whilst the rate of persistent absenteeism in primary schools has gone down, there has been an increase for children with EHCPs in secondary schools. We are reviewing our offer to understand the reasons for this increase, with a particular focus on provision for children who are unable to attend school due to ill-health. Out-of-borough/independent schools are now required to submit attendance data with their termly invoices for resident pupils on their roll. The WCC primary school attendance rate for those on SEN support in 2018/19 was 94.5%. This is in line with the national rate from 2017/18 of 94.5% and just below the Inner London rate of 94.8%. In terms of pupils with an EHCP, the WCC rate of attendance for primary schools in 2018/19 was 93%, compared to a national rate of 93.2% and an Inner London rate of 93.7% for 2017/18. The WCC secondary school attendance rate for those on SEN support in 2018/19 was 91.8% compared to a national rate of 92% and an Inner London rate of 93.2% in 2017/18. In terms of pupils with an EHCP, the WCC secondary school rate in 2018/19 was 92.8%. This compares favourably to the 2017/18 national rate of 91.8% and is slightly lower than the Inner London rate for 2017/18 which was 93.5%.

The Designated Nurse for Looked After Children (LAC) is working with the Local Authority, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Chelsea & Westminster

NHS Foundation Trust to continue to lift performance for initial health assessments (IHAs) for LAC to ensure they are completed within 20 days. Work is

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underway to review and improve the current commissioning arrangements for LAC Services. In December 2019, 80% of IHAs took place within 20 days of a

child or young person being placed in care, which is a significant improvement.

Improving outcomes

We are working to improve the rate of children on SEN Support who achieve a good level of development (GLD) in the early years. In 2019 this was 26% compared to 31% in Inner London and 29% nationally. We have developed an analysis of the GLD ‘hotspots’ and are using this to target areas of greatest need e.g. additional speech and language support through the Communications Champion programme, sharing of best practice and the introduction of a termly SLT newsletter. The rate for children with EHCPs who achieve a GLD is above comparators at 17% compared with 6% in Inner London and 5% nationally. Pilots are taking place in GLD hotspots to support settings in improving practice around communication and language and literacy (CL & L) and also targeting speech and language support. Initial visits at St. Gabriel's and Tachbrook have taken place and they agreed to participate in the pilot.

Parents have indicated that transition to adult services could be better; work is underway to strengthen the pathway across health, education and social care so that young people receive a seamless service. As a local area we acknowledge that the completion of the Learning Disability Annual Health Checks for 14 - 25 year olds are below expectations; work is underway with Primary Care colleagues and Special School Nursing to increase the offer and uptake of these appointments.

We will continue working to reduce the rate of exclusions in the borough. The number of WCC resident SEN pupils who are permanently excluded from WCC schools has fallen by 36% between 2017/18 and 2018/19. There were eleven WCC resident SEN pupils permanently excluded in 2017/18. This fell to seven pupils in 2018/19. The fixed term exclusion rate* for secondary pupils with SEN support in WCC schools has fallen to 25.0 in 2018/19. This compares favourably to the national average which was 28.5 in 2017/18. The fixed period exclusion rate for secondary pupils with EHCPs in WCC schools was 21.8 in 2018/19, which remains considerably below the national average of 28.2 (2017/18). To help reduce exclusion levels, particularly for the SEN cohort of students, the Local Authority has prioritised this area of work with local headteachers and this is monitored through the Vulnerable Children’s Collaborative (VCC). As part of this priority action, schools have access to a commissioned support offer from our alternative education provider (TBAP) and additional training and support around effective inclusion policies and strategies. This has included the offer of trauma informed training and we have established a local inclusion project. The school inclusion project has three parts: trauma informed training, a family intervention and mentoring. The work has focused on 4 primary schools and Westminster Education Centre, which is a short-term intervention provided by TBAP to support learners at risk of permanent exclusion and the results are very encouraging. A bi-borough inclusion strategy is being developed.

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All participating schools rate the pilot very highly with Gateway Primary saying it is ‘the most valuable intervention the school has received’ as it enables ‘work

at a greater depth with the families they are concerned about….’ Hallfield Primary School have decided to take the next step and to adopt a whole school

approach to being trauma informed. In 2020, with money from the Violence Reduction Unit, we will extend the model to 2 secondary schools.

*number of incidents of fixed term exclusions

We continue to improve the timeliness of our decision making following annual reviews of EHCPs. We have put new processes in place to ensure we improve

our ability to make decisions within 4 weeks of the annual review meetings. Through the process of annual review, we will further improve the quality of

EHCPs. Our QA framework, findings from the national Personal Outcomes Evaluation Tool (POET), a new case management system (Eclipse), and new

outcomes measures will all help to drive up standards. The number of Tribunal appeals about the content of an EHCP has reduced since 2016.

We launched a new case management system (Eclipse) on 29th July. All case files have been migrated. Business Intelligence initial reporting and SEN2 '11 month test' has been successfully produced. Eclipse supports staff in the efficient and timely management of the EHC needs assessment and review processes and is providing managers with greater insights, including on EHCP outcomes.

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Appendix 1: Governance Structure