Moray Council ASN review letter to parents and carers

Joint letter from Council Leader and Interim Chief Executive to parents/carers

Following a meeting of Moray Council’s Education, Children’s and Leisure Services Committee on 14 May we want to update parents and carers on the ASN review currently underway.

We appreciate the time parents and carers took to join us outside the HQ building ahead of Committee and we’d like to further reassure everyone that Elected Members and officers are aware of the strength of feeling on this issue. We are clear that the appropriate level of care and education is a significant priority for us as well as parents and carers.

While we appreciate the strength of feeling from parents and carers, this must not spill over into becoming harassment of staff as this is not acceptable and could negatively impact future working relationships. We would appreciate consideration being given to personal comments being made about officers. All officers and senior leaders involved in the review and day-to-day ASN work have relevant professional qualifications and expertise to undertake this extensive piece of work; further many have links with establishments already and a good understanding of the service offered. The contribution of each member of the team is valued and we appreciate they are working together to develop a provision that meets future needs while being mindful of the budget pressures we face.

In response to requests from parents and carers for more information, we’re pleased to set out in more detail here the process undertaken to date and what’s next for the ASN Change Management Plan. The Plan recognises that additional support needs are varied and have developed and changed over time. This is why our proposals to redesign the service for supporting pupils with ASN has gone through a number of iterations, taking account of learning from other local authorities and input from across our own teams to make sure we make the changes needed to get it right to meet future needs.

Previously, any moderation of ASN provision was completed as a central exercise based on written reports and resource allocated accordingly by a group of officers. While a Moray-wide central review is still undertaken, the service felt it would be more beneficial to visit settings and talk to the Head Teacher, Nursery Manager and any other staff who have the responsibility to plan for children with additional support needs as well as allocate support packages, including the use of support staff. This process started in June 2023 and completed in December 2023 with some follow up visits happening earlier this year. The length of visit varied based on context. This is all part of the usual work undertaken by central teams to look at a number of elements of educational delivery. Ordinarily this exercise is done annually and is an operational element of the service which would not include consultation with parents and carers directly but whose views, along with those of the children, are already captured in the Child’s Plan. 

In the past two years, allocations have been frozen given the review was ongoing, and with the pupil cohorts changing considerably staffing allocations also need to be altered. It would not have been appropriate to consult with parents and carers during a period of confidential staff consultation, which is ongoing, however we do recognise that any change can be difficult and that we could have considered some form of communication with service users. We can only apologise for this and reassure you that it’s a lesson we take from this critically sensitive piece of work. 

ASN is a complex support service that we’re required to deliver and in a challenging financial backdrop it’s important that we make the best financial investment which ensures the best future outcomes. Despite the difficult financial position, the proposals represent an ongoing budget commitment and set out a future service to reflect the need to create nurturing, inclusive environments for our young people. We’re confident that the investment in training and learning from other local authorities will enhance the provision for our young people at a time when challenges are increasing.

It's worth noting that many settings will see an increase in allocation and some remain the same, which is the case with teachers and pupil support assistant allocations. Post-covid we’re acutely aware that there is an increase in anxiety, mental health and wellbeing. Working closely with partner agencies, the Education team is currently looking at different funding models to see if a range of support can be provided where there are currently gaps.

Following the Presumption of Mainstreaming, Moray has enhanced provisions within ten primary schools, seven secondary schools as well as three developmental playgroups. Children will spend time in the provision, in mainstream school and a mixture of both. We also have specialist provision at Beechbrae, Pinefield Parc and B6 within Elgin Academy.

We have reviewed this and will be implementing new provision, which is currently part of the second change management process considered at the Education, Children’s and Leisure Services Committee on 14 May, that will increase the specialist provision available as well as ensuring that all secondary schools have an enhanced provision. 

We also plan to introduce new flexible provision for primary aged children in two areas in Moray where the children will attend the provision for part of the week and build up attendance at their base school, with staff from the provision and school working closely together. 

The allocation given to settings is for the next academic session, 2024/25. We’re currently developing an annual moderation process as well as an ASN forecast tool so that any changes in allocations in future will be minimal. There is already a process for senior leaders to request additional resource for newly identified need and there is also flexibility in the current allocations for changes to the management of resource locally. Additionally, our school visit programme will include a renewed focus on how resource allocations are being used and to optimise positive impact for affected children and families. 

These additional provisions will add capacity and we will monitor this over the next year. For clarity and reassurance those children with the highest level of need will continue to be supported and where targeted additional support is necessary this will be provided.

The concerns around children who are not attending school have been raised, which is also of particular concern to the council, and we’re currently undertaking a focussed piece of work to track these children and make sure appropriate plans are in place for each one. This will, as you will appreciate, take time and we understand that this is an anxious period for parents and carers. We’d encourage anyone with concerns regarding this to please highlight it via education@moray.gov.uk. 

During our moderation exercise we saw examples of very good practice in meeting the needs of learners and our strategic meetings this year have had a clear focus on sharing practice which will continue over the years to come. The training identified has been shared with colleagues and many schools and settings have already been working with their staff on professional development and learning with essential annual training to be delivered over the August in-service days. 

The current area of priority is the Central ASN team and Moray provision, which is the second change management plan, discussed at committee on 14 May, and currently out for staff consultation and is linked to the additional provision. The Socials, Emotional and Behavioural Needs (SEBN) team are part of the change management along with other central teams and we have just appointed an additional Educational Psychologist. As stated above, we’re keen to move resource to where children are to continue appropriate levels of support. 

This is a large piece of work and again, we apologise for any errors in communication in what we consider will provide benefits for children. We’re committing today to providing future updates to parents and carers in a more timely way. To that end, we would like to once again extend an invitation to meet with parent representatives, perhaps through the Moray ASN Parent Carer Action Group, to have a respectful discussion about the change management plan and future ASN provision in Moray.

We hope this information goes some way to allay concerns around the service and we know you will understand that our team is determined to ensure appropriate provision to meet needs within the parameters of local government.

Yours sincerely