Agenda item

To receive a report from Matthew Waterfall and Sasha Das Gupta from the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) on the restructure of Kintore Way Nursey School with a focus on:

The commission then received a report from Rebecca Sherwood, Kintore Way (KW) Nursery School and Children’s Centre and Matthew Waterfall from National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) on the restructure of Kintore Way Nursey School on the following themes

·  Impact of the changes at Kintore Way nursery would have on the wider community and especially SEND children in the community.

·  One of the largest and oldest nursery schools in the country, financial issues at KW due to the failing of the funding process to address the unmet needs of Children with SEND.

·  Detrimental impact on children, families and community at KW, not being able to access those services due to restructuring resulting in more difficult situation for children and families

·  KW provides outstanding services to most vulnerable children and has a Ofsted rating of excellent, 15 redundancies among staff are planned sending shockwaves through the community, highly subscribed and full capacity nursery, 34 families on waiting list.

·  Current funding does not account for children under 5 with SEND when these children go to special schools and are deferred back to nursery, the nurseries receive £6k compared to £33k going to special schools if the child is accepted. The budget deficit is a result of the mismatch in SEND funding for Nurseries providing SEND services.

·  Need for Council strategy for Early Intervention and SEND provisions in Nursery which would provide greater value for money for children with SEND and make a difference in the community.

·  Resource based provisions is being applied in other neighbouring boroughs who have identified the gap in funding for SEND in nurseries.

·  Lack of communication from Council with regards to the restructure and decreasing the budget deficit.

The commission then heard from a parent (anonymous), Rebecca and Mathew on the following themes

• Non-verbal children, families are hugely dependent on nurseries like KW.
• SEND children need early adult interaction within the window of opportunity in early years to help with their cerebral development.
• Parents often don’t have the skills and expertise to deal with SEND needs and as a consequence suffer from mental health issue themselves, KW has been a respite for such parents.

The commission then heard from Michelle, parent and Brenda, (ex-parent of KW) on the following topics

• Immense support and love, staff give children at KW, as a result the child does really well at special schools
• Staff at KW have helped parents get through the EHCP process; SEND children at KW are helped to be more sociable, articulate and independent.
• KW staff have also helped children and families through bereavements

The commission then heard from Claire, teacher at Grove & KW nurseries on the following points

• Staff at Grove & KW are highly skilled in performing tracheostomies, eye drops, tube feeding and diabetic injections within the class room environment for children with special needs
• Reducing the number of staff will have a devastating impact on the children with special needs; current staff are highly skilled, experienced, dedicated and motivated to provide such medical care.

The commission then asked questions on the following topics

• Experience with Southwark and KW interaction; redundancy costs would cost more than the current costs
• Current central government funding of SEND does not include early years help, learning from practices in other boroughs; as Southwark is also facing significant budgetary pressures
• Redundancy time frames would help inform the upcoming budget for next year
• Clarity on nursery based resource provision and accelerating the EHCP process

Matthew explained to the commission that there are specific examples of resource based provision centres which have worked in providing value for services in the long term, and that this would be provided to the commission later in an email.

Rebecca informed the commission that the school has to pay £116k in pensions and School in Difficulty Panel would provide the £115k in redundancy costs. Southwark has been provided with Service Level Agreements on resources based provision and many such examples from Lambeth and Wandsworth boroughs are already in place. Current SEND Inclusive Funding of £1200/term for under 5 can take almost a year to process and by then the child reaches special schools who then receive EHCP funding for the entire amount of £33k. Previous practices involved back dating pay to nurseries which has now been discontinued, as a result nurseries unable to cover costs of teaching assistants and SEND staff who have supported the child for a year.

The commission agreed that there is a need to review early years SEND funding for children under 5 in nurseries which is a national issue

The Chair suggested a recommendation on exploring all possible options with regards to the restructuring at Kintore Way Nursery including

1. Early years SEND funding (EHCP) for children under 5 in nurseries
2. Pilot programme of Resource Based Provision proposed for 3 posts of staff supporting 20 SEND children in a designated area of the nursery
3. Clearly devise a short and long term plan for reducing the budget deficit ensuring long term financial sustainability

The commission heard from Rebecca that the current budget deficit at KW is over £1m, any action taken now would not have any effect on the planned redundancies. However, staff who have received have been kept informed of the conversations with trade unions and the council and that they would be informed if there is a change in circumstances by December 2023. On resource based provision, a pilot is being proposed for 3 posts of staff supporting 20 SEND children in a designated area of the nursery. Some of the current staff are willing to stay at KW.