A report asking the Committee to approve the Children with SEND Accessibility Strategy 2023-2025.

The Director of Education, Brighter Futures for Children (BFfC), submitted a report on the Children with SEND Accessibility Strategy 2023 to 2025. A copy of the Strategy was attached to the report at Appendix 1. The Strategy succeeded the previous Accessibility Strategy agreed by ACE Committee on 1 July 2021 (minute 5 refers). The report asked the Committee to approve the Children with SEND Accessibility Strategy 2023-2025, as attached at Appendix 1, which had been updated to reflect the further developed local offer and to recognise the adoption of the Reading Area SEND Strategy 2022-2027.

The Strategy set out how BFfC on behalf of Reading Borough Council would comply with the legal requirement to ensure equality of access to education for Reading children with disabilities. The Strategy detailed which parties were responsible for ensuring which provisions were in place and provided guidance to schools and educational providers on how they could seek support from BFfC in order to ensure that they were compliant. The Strategy set out the steps to be taken to ensure that pupils with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) could fully participate in the education provided by their Reading community school and aimed to ensure that pupils with SEND could enjoy all other benefits, facilities and services that the school provided for its pupils. The Strategy looked to remove disability as a barrier to engagement for children by providing clear guidance to schools and educational providers regarding the law, and to give advice regarding what support was available to them from BFfC to help ensure that school environments were accessible to all children.

The Committee noted that the Accessibility Strategy only applied to community-maintained schools and did not apply to academies or free schools in the Borough who were responsible for developing their own strategies. The Director of Education confirmed that BFfC would work closely with all schools, including academies, to support and challenge them to meet the same standards as those set out in the Accessibility Strategy.

At the meeting the Committee asked to receive an annual update report on the implementation of the SEND Accessibility Strategy. The Director of Education advised that a report on the progress made towards the implementation of the wider Reading Area SEND Strategy was already being submitted on an annual basis to the Health and Wellbeing Board. The Director of Education recommended that the annual report could also be submitted to the ACE Committee and could include a combined update on the implementation of the SEND Accessibility Strategy at the same time.

Resolved –

(1)            That the Children with SEND Accessibility Strategy 2023-2025, as attached at Appendix 1, be approved;

(2)            That the ACE Committee receive an annual report providing update on the progress made towards the implementation of the wider Reading Area SEND Strategy as well as the SEND Accessibility Strategy.