North Yorkshire Council has been participating
in the Delivering Better Value in SEND programme, sponsored by the
Department of Education through 2023. 52 other local authorities
have participated in the programme, which is intended to identify
opportunities to improve outcomes for children and young people
with SEND and support local authorities in improving the financial
sustainability of their high needs budgets. All authorities within
the programme are entitled to apply for an implementation grant of
up to £1 million to support the delivery of a change
programme. A grant application of £1 million has been
submitted – this will be assessed by the DfE, and at this
stage we cannot say if the grant application will be successful.
However, because the time availability to deploy the grant is
restricted, we are planning for all eventualities – and this
report will outline the considerations in whether North Yorkshire
should accept the grant allocation, if such an offer is
forthcoming
Decision type: Key
Reason Key: Expenditure > £500,000;
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Notice of proposed decision first published: 05/01/2024
Decision due: 19 Mar 2024 by Executive
Lead member: Executive Member for Children & Families
Lead director: Corporate Director Children and Young People's Services
Contact: Martin Surtees, Finance Project Officer Email: martin.surtees@northyorks.gov.uk Email: Martin.Surtees@northyorks.gov.uk.
Consultees
The change programme contained in the grant
application has been the subject of extensive discussion and
consultation with key stakeholder groups, including Schools Forum
and the High Needs Funding Sub Group, the five locality boards,
parent and carer representatives, health sector partners and school
headteacher networks.
Critically the proposals were informed by case study workshops that
involved parents and carers, school representatives, health sector
colleagues and professionals from within Children and Young
People’s Services – facilitated by Newton Europe (who
are the firm delivering the programme on behalf of the DfE.
We will be further engaging with these partners to develop our
thinking further about the delivery of the change programme –
in anticipation of the grant application being successful