To receive and consider a presentation by Hayley Smith, Service Manager for Inclusion and Youth Services and Simon Anderson, Inclusion Manager.
Minutes:
· Presentation by Hayley Smith, Service Manager for Inclusion and Youth Services and Simon Anderson, Inclusion Manager.
Issues Discussed:
· There is no under-estimation of the challenge for schools and the new roles of the ALNCo and responsibilities on schools places a great strain on school leaders especially in the smaller schools. This change is being introduced alongside other national changes such as the Curriculum for Wales.
· Powys been preparing for the act for the past 4 years and due to transformation is being delivered at pace and in a spirit of co-construction with schools. Training has been provided for schools, officers and key partners. From the self evaluation it is clear that implementation is occurring successfully.
· The slides showed the delivery of the Act against the eleven core aims.
· To meet the need for an unified plan a new inclusion system has been developed. The three elements of the system are Tyfu gateway, Tyfu Platform and PIP (Powys Inclusion Panel). This also allows for electronic IDPs (Individual Development Plans), and allows schools to track and monitor support for pupils.
· The Tyfu Platform will in future make sure that all information is held centrally and accessible to those that need to access it.
· There are two multi agency panels i.e. the Early Years PIP and older children PIP with multi agency representation. Also looking how to include the "children's voice" in the work of these panels. This assists decision making as all the decision makers are in the meeting.
· Training has been delivered to all schools, governing bodies, Health, Children and Adults Services, and third sector partners.
· Collaboration and communications with schools and others has greatly improved, guides have been produced about the new Act and it is hoped to build on this. Bilingual Tyfu updates are sent to schools.
· Questions:
Question |
Response |
Are there any lessons from developing and procuring Tyfu which could be shared with social care as they look to their developments which came to Cabinet in last few days.
What has been achieved is working across education, health and children's services and systems integration. The Council needs to learn from this procurement based on what's been achieved. |
The Service is working closely in training with children's services. The Service has learned from the procurement and installation such as making sure that the functionality is something that everyone can use. The scope for the development of Tyfu is huge and there is the ability to extend it in future. Schools are saying that the system is simple to use and they are able to share resources instantly as well as getting responses from the LEA instantly.
EYPIP (Early Years Powys Inclusion Panel) – is an example of significant working across services.
ACTION – Recommendation to Head of Transformation and Communications that any learning from this system is captured in respects of developments for Social Services. |
Tyfu Gateway – is this the platform schools will use to apply for support for a pupil.
Schools are currently having difficulties when there are errors in applications which delays the process which is frustrating for governors and schools. Will this new system get rid of this blockage. |
Yes that is correct. They can access advice and support through the gateway and then can make applications through the system itself.
This system is much quicker. A triage system has been introduced to look at referrals on a fortnightly basis by a specialist team. The panel will check referrals and will pick up any issues. Once the panel has discussed a referral then schools have access to this information. If there are any specific issues they can be picked up initially with the school case officer. |
Are there any metrics to show how much quicker the system is by comparison to the previous process. |
This is being collated at the moment and an annual report produced which will include statistics which can be made available to scrutiny and the Cabinet.
The unified system is quicker for schools.
ACTION – Committee to receive ALN statistical report in future. |
If something is spotted it will be picked up which is fine. School are still saying there are issues with referrals. If there are issues applications are delayed. |
A team was sent into Rhayader school to support. The Service Manager indicated that she would be happy to meet with the school. There is a helpline to support schools. If there are any individual issues these can be followed up. |
Concern about the reference to up to 100 referrals needing to be checked if this happens on a regular basis.
With regard to Team around the cluster – how does this work if one of the schools is Welsh Medium.
|
It is not usual to have a large number of referrals but post covid issues are emerging such as anxiety.
This is about Team around the cluster meetings held with Children's Services and partners. Meetings are held jointly. One of the recent suggestion is to have a Welsh only Team around the cluster, and the Service is looking at providing this.
Currently cluster meetings are held through the medium of English but having Welsh sessions has been raised. However, the facility across all partners to deliver a service in Welsh is not where it needs to be currently. |
Who will deliver the training to health visitors. |
Training being run jointly by the Service and has been delivered to health visitors. Training has also been run across PTHB, children's services and FE colleges. |
The central location for pupils' ALN records. Do schools have copies as well because if something goes wrong records could be lost. Can schools dip into the information, and is there a backup of the system. |
It is one central system which has a backup facility. This has been tested with other Councils before the system was purchased by Powys.
All of the information is stored securely and is backed up. When a child moves school the profile follows the child and the new school has access to that information. Any historic information have been archived and stored electronically. |
With ALN act now covering young people up to age 25 does the information follow this individual. |
It depends where they go. If a young person moves to an area which does us the same system as Powys, a physical copy can be provided. |
There are many different partners involved. Have all of them moved forward at the same speed as the Council, has there been any problems and do any remain. Do any of the partners want to retain paper based systems. |
Organisations have worked hard to come on board with the Council as this is very new. The Service has been well supported by partners. This has improved partnership working which was recognised by Estyn. |
Silver Cloud and CAMHS – are you logging how much additional support is coming from these sources. Are you seeing any impact on waiting times for CAMHS as a result of this service and are referrals increasing as people become aware of the service. |
The Service is provided with updates about referrals coming in from Silver Cloud and CAMHS and waiting times. This is a quarterly report and one of the Service's measures. The Service is aiming for all schools in Powys to be trauma informed schools and Welsh Government grant is being used to assist this development. |
Linked to numbers of agencies, what is the capacity of the education service to train schools and provide support services. How are you managing this workload and how confident are you that you have the support necessary to deliver what children need. |
The team was strengthened and additionality was provided such as specialist teachers. We are trying to make sure we can respond to an ever changing need. The Service has been widened and strengthened by working in partnership with others. Recruitment is being undertaken in accordance with need as well as ensuring having bilingual staff. |
In past there have been issues between the Health Board and Education about who should be paying for support services. Are financial responsibilities now clear. |
There is a conference on Friday about resolving these challenges together. People now have a shared understanding of the needs of individuals, and although it is an improving situation there are still challenges.
|
What is the DECLO / ALNCo relationship. |
ALNCo – schools need to have an ALNCo as a statutory role, but smaller schools can share the role as a cluster approach. The authority is supporting whatever model each cluster prefers and facilitating cluster working through grant funding.
The DECLO (designated education clinical lead officer), supports three health boards. Their responsibility is to be the conduit between the authority and the Health Board and to make sure that additional learning and health provision is in place and that this is continually monitored for future provision requirements. |
Do we know what regular means, is it a fixed time period. |
We meet with the DECLO monthly, but has been more often as the Act is implemented. We can meet as often as we need to. |
Play leaders one employed north and south. Are they centrally funded and what did they do when first employed but not placed within a location. |
Before the play therapists began their work they started preparing banks of resources, undertook cluster visits, as well as some training. Before there were live cases they were introduced to clusters and raising awareness across schools. |
Page 27 refers to minimum time. Concerned that minimum becomes the maximum. Is there ample time that is needed rather than minimum time. |
This will be reworded. The key is to make sure we are using all the resources we have to provide the right services. Pupils need to be ready for learning which is at the heart of what the Service is trying to provide. |
What is the role of the Youth Service and who do they report to. |
Youth Services sit alongside the ALN team. Will support the Panels and also provide an additional learning provision, as well as the proactive work they do directly with schools and other services. |
Are Youth Services only working during the day and not doing evening work. |
No they cover during school hours and also run youth clubs and undertake other community work in the evenings. |
There are always children who are below the threshold for getting formal support but have challenging behaviour that might need some support. Is there any training for support from schools. |
This needs to be considered from the perspective of a continuum of support. When a young person is identified not to be developing as expected, then a graduated support is provided. Only when the school cannot meet the support provision does the school come to the LEA. The LEA will always provide some form of support and we have been looking at the range of support which can be provided. |
Some challenges have been identified. What are the perceived level of risk to deliver the strategy by 2024. Are we on schedule. |
We have quarterly reporting and risk register. With the implementation of the act we are currently on track and are confident and optimistic about the future. |
IT procurement – how close were you to delivering on budget. |
This came in under budget as we collaborated with other Councils and now we are expanding and developing the system further. |
Page 35 – concern that all schools need to have an ALN governor but some do not have them.
Welsh Medium schools unable to support transition for pupils as no provision for pupils with ALN to progress their learning through the medium of Welsh. |
At the time of the visits there were a small numbers of schools who did not have ALN link governor. This has been rectified since.
Welsh transition is a significant challenge to be worked on and is being addressed through the WESP. |
Outcomes:
· Recommendation to Head of Transformation and Communications that any learning from this system (Tyfu) is captured in respects of developments for Social Services.
· The Committee to receive the ALN statistical report in future.
Supporting documents: