West Northamptonshire SEND & AP Partnership Improvement Board Summary (24 October 2024)

SEND & AP Partnership Improvement Board Summary (24 October 2024)

Welcome & Apologies from the interim chair, Stuart Lackenby.

Item 1: Previous Minutes & Action Log

• Previous minutes were agreed without amendments.
• Action Log updated.

Item 2: Update from the Chair

• Discussion on national SEND context and financial challenges.
• National Audit Report will be circulated to Board members for information. 

Item 3: Priority Action Plan Reprofiling

• Re-profiling of the priority action plan discussed on the basis of ensuring that the partnership plan is both ambitious and achievable. 
• Priority actions, plus some dependant and/or high risk improvement actions will remain in the programme with the existing governance structures.
• There are some changes to timelines that have been amended based on a robust review of challenges, risks and mitigations. 
• Some improvement actions will move outside of the programme and will be delivered slightly differently through service areas and business as usual. 
• Improvement actions will report quarterly to workstreams for oversight. 
• The partnership will develop a simple, benefit tracker.

Item 4: Deep Dive Feedback

• The first deep dive with Department for Education and NHS England took place in September. 
• Feedback was reviewed as partnership including to balance ambition and achievability. 
• Praise was given to the robust governance, reporting structures and programme management approach taken by the partnership. 
• The next deep dive is scheduled for November.

Item 5: Highlight Reports & Risk Log

• Monthly summary of workstream highlights presented with progress in some areas. 
• There was an emphasis that future reports should ensure tracking impact and feedback is incorporated. 
• High level risks and mitigation strategies were discussed along with the need to ensure to escalate where necessary.

Item 6: Integrated Care Partnership Current Position

• Update on ICB’s efforts to address waiting lists and service challenges. Next steps are in development and the partnership has the opportunity to offer feedback and comments on the draft Community Paediatric Report. 
• Work on communication with families regarding the review will be ongoing.

Item 7: SEND Peer Challenge

• The SEND Peer challenge is an opportunity for a cluster of Local Authority’s to review and take learning from each other. 
• Positive feedback for the partnership was received based on progress since inspection and an emphasis on partnership involvement and continuous improvement.

Item 8: Independent Chair

• A new independent chair has been appointed and will start in January 2025.

Item 9: Data Dashboard

• Updates were provided on key data for the period. 
• The data dashboard will be updated to better align with re-profiled plans and include qualitative measures in the future. 
• Alignment of the data dashboard to highlight reporting will allow better tracking of impact.