Broadly speaking, local authorities will welcome the children’s wellbeing and schools bill. It clarifies some key areas of our work with schools and strengthens our role in local communities. But it is only a first step in sharpening our collective focus on the most vulnerable children.
In East Sussex, we have created strong partnerships with and between our schools. Over a number of years, we have shaped our shared vision for education and built a school-led system. We have clarified the different roles we play and continue to build relationships based on trust and transparency.
Outcomes for children in the county, especially the most vulnerable, are not yet where we want them to be. We have collectively challenged ourselves to raise the bar and, as a local authority, we have shaped our role in the system as champion for the children who most need us to be their advocate.
Across all our partners and schools, we are ambitious for children with SEND, those who are looked after and those who experience disadvantage. Our vision for 2030 is that all schools will be rooted in their local communities and reflect the communities they serve.
However, we experience different challenges in meeting this shared ambition. The pressure on resources is real and increasing, our accountabilities are not aligned across the system, and demand continues to outstrip the supply of services and funding.
The bill acknowledges these challenges and provides an important starting point for how we might address them.
A key section of the bill is the creation of ‘new duties for schools and local authorities to cooperate’ on admissions and place planning. As the bill highlights, and as has been our experience in East Sussex, schools and local authorities do generally work well together on these important processes.
However, there are times when this is not the case and where the ability of local authorities to discharge their statutory powers has been frustrated. This is to the detriment of vulnerable children and young people.
Accountabilities are not aligned across the system
Providing more clarity and aligning our accountabilities will help us work together to make the right decisions locally about school places and admissions.
Moreover, the bill’s emphasis on sharing information and productive dialogue is truly welcome. It creates an environment of cooperation where differences can be explored and addressed in the interest of children and young people.
This climate will help us to prioritise the right things and start to turn the tide for the increasing number of young people who are outside of school. In this regard, the bill provides some important protections for young people.
We face significant challenges in our county on attendance, exclusions, elective home education, section 19 requests, availability of specialist placements and alternative provision.
All of this means that some of our most vulnerable children are not regularly in school. This has widespread consequences for young people, their families and their communities. It also creates further pressures on public finances down the line.
Many areas have developed local, collaborative solutions to this challenge; in East Sussex we have multi-agency ‘inclusion partnerships’ where schools bring complex cases for review. However, the bill’s provisions for children who are not in school are a positive and important step forward in making this a focus across the system.
Having said that, there is an opportunity to go further and create a national system that truly helps us address these challenges. Indeed, proposals relating to reform of children’s social care will depend in large part on ensuring that children are regularly attending school.
Of course, each part of the system needs to be supported and resourced to do its job well, but it’s only by working together that we can ensure support reaches the children who need it most in an effective and timely manner.
Local government can only play its full role in delivering that ambition by working in partnership with all schools. The bill creates a legislative framework that will enable this cooperation.
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