Lancashire SEND Partnership Board Terms of Reference 2024
The Lancashire Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) Partnership Board brings together partners who work together to deliver our shared vision, values and priorities. The Lancashire SEND Partnership that forms the Board is an equal partnership of Lancashire County Council, education providers, the Lancashire, and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), and healthcare providers, Lancashire Parent Carer Forum, and POWAR the children and young people’s participation group. The Board oversees and monitors the SEND Plan 2021-2025 and its impact and effectiveness at improving educational outcomes.
1. Purpose of the Lancashire SEND Partnership Board
The SEND Partnership Board purpose is to:
- Promote a culture of inclusion and partnership working through co-production.
- Act as the strategic governance body for SEND with oversight of the SEND improvements across Lancashire.
- Ensure the shared vision and clear strategy for the improvement of SEND services in Lancashire is implemented.
- Ensure that improvements are effective and have a positive impact on outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and their families.
- Ensure that improvements deliver appropriate consistency in delivery of services, removing unwarranted variation, and ensure there is equality of access to provision.
- Ensure systems and processes support improvements in the delivery of and engagement with services across the partnership and for children and young people, and parent carers.
- Provide oversight, check and challenge with progress on improvement plans for SEND, ensuring that there is full scrutiny of the work that is being delivered.
- Ensure the lived experience of children and young people with SEND is improved, and that their needs are met through the effective delivery of Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs) and through the SEND support they receive.
2. Role of the board
The role of the Partnership Board is to:
- Ensure the SEND Plan 2021-2025 is implemented in an effective, transparent, and timely manner.
- Oversee the delivery of the wider work programme for SEND and take on the role of ‘check and challenge’ for scrutiny of the actions.
- Ensure meaningful engagement with children, young people and their families is embedded in the culture of all SEND and associated services.
- Ensure engagement and co-production takes place with all stakeholders and partners.
- Engage with relevant departmental and statutory bodies, such as the Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care, and the National Health Service.
3. Decision making and delegation
The LCC Executive Director for Education and Children's Services along with the Chief Nursing Officer / Director of Children, Young People and Maternity representing the Integrated Care Board are jointly accountable to the Lancashire Health and Wellbeing Board for the SEND Plan 2021-2025.
LCC Director of Education, Culture and Skills is responsible for reporting on progress to the SEND Partnership Board and the County Council’s Cabinet. The Senior Responsible Officer for Health is responsible for reporting on progress to the SEND Partnership Board and through the ICB Children and Young People’s Board to the ICB Board.
The Partnership Board is accountable to the Health and Wellbeing Board for the delivery of the SEND Plan, providing leadership and strategic direction.
4. Governance
The SEND Partnership Board governance structure is as illustrated in Appendix A
5. Membership
Board members act as representatives for their sector or organisation as part of the partnership, sharing the perspective of their sector, whilst also engaging with their sector and keeping others informed of information that comes through the SEND Partnership Board.
The SEND Partnership Board membership Appendix B
6. Tenure of membership
The chairing of the SEND Partnership Board will be reviewed every year in line with membership of the Board. The membership of the Board will be reviewed every year to ensure that it continues to reflect the SEND partnership, and to ensure that there are no vacancies.
7. Quoracy
The meeting is quorate with either the Chair or Vice Chair in attendance along with 40% of the membership. Where a meeting is inquorate it can proceed with decisions to be ratified at the next meeting.
8. Attendance by non-members
Invitations may be extended to non-members where their input or advice supports the discussion taking place at the meeting. Members of the Health and Wellbeing Board SEND Scrutiny Sub-Committee may attend Board meetings as observers.
9. Substitution at meetings
The Chair and Vice Chair of the Partnership Board are expected to attend 90% of meetings, with one or other in attendance at each meeting. Members are expected to attend 80% or more of the Board meetings. If more than three meetings are missed, this may result in membership being terminated. Substitutions for attendance will be by exception only.
10. Frequency of meetings
The Board will meet quarterly, with meetings taking place in, April, July, October, and January each financial year. An extra-ordinary meeting will be scheduled annually for the young people's Take Over of the SEND Partnership Board, co-produced by young people.
11. Communication and sharing information
The minutes of each Board meeting will be uploaded to the SEND Partnership website and will be publicly available within five working days of being approved by the Board as an accurate record. Additionally, within one week of each Board meeting members will receive a Board Brief that they should share with those people or groups that a Board member represents from across the Partnership. POWAR have requested that a summary template is implemented for agenda items.
12. Declaration of interest and confidentiality
Board members must declare a direct personal or professional interest related to any items under discussion. At times the Board will consider sensitive and/or confidential items which will be identified within papers and at the meeting. Such items remain confidential until such time it is agreed otherwise.
13. Review
The Board will keep the purpose of its work, priorities for action and governance structure under regular review.
Appendix C identifies the point in the Board calendar when various aspects will be reviewed.