Policies for education provision for young people aged 16-20 with additional health needs
Dear Wiltshire Council,
My question refers to a .gov.uk document "Ensuring a good education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs Statutory guidance for local authorities" 2013 which is based on Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 & Equality Act 2010 and is for Local Education Authorities.
This document states:
The LA should:
Have a written, publicly accessible policy statement on their arrangements to comply with their legal duty towards children with additional health needs.
Have clear policies on the provision of education for young people over compulsory school age.
Please provide me with the policy on the provision for education of young people over compulsory school age. Please also provide the policy statement on your arrangements to comply with your legal duty towards young people (16-20) with additional health needs.
If these documents have been changed at all since 2018 please provide previous versions in addition to current versions.
If this information is available online I have not been able to find it and I would appreciate you providing me with the links to access.
Yours faithfully,
Miss B White
Dear Miss White,
Please accept this in acknowledgement of your request for information. Your reference is in the subject line. We will respond within 20 days.
Kind Regards,
Josie
FOI
Information Governance
Legal and Governance
Email: [email address]
Web: www.wiltshire.gov.uk
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Dear Miss B White,
Freedom of Information Request Case ID 202000261
Thank you for your request for information received on 21 July 2020, in which you asked for the following information:
Please provide me with the policy on the provision for education of young people over compulsory school age. Please also provide the policy statement on your arrangements to comply with your legal duty towards young people (16-20) with additional health needs.
If these documents have been changed at all since 2018 please provide previous versions in addition to current versions.
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the Act) the Council is obliged to:
◾Let you know whether we hold the information you have requested
◾Provide you with the requested information, if held, (subject to any exemptions to disclosure that may apply)
I can confirm that the council holds some of the information you requested, the available follows or is attached to this email.
There is a publicly available Local Authority (LA) policy Continuity of Educational Provision for Children and Young People with Additional Health Needs (available on Right Choice website, searchable via Wiltshire Council website), which covers the legal duty to provide education to children with additional health needs of compulsory school age. Copy attached
There is no specific LA policy for children of pre- or post- compulsory school age. Rather, arrangements would be made for these groups by links with Early Years arrangements, SEND, EET Service (Young Works Wiltshire) and/or as a strand of Alternative Provision.
We note that the 2013 guidance says that the LA should have clear policies on the provision of education for children and young people under and over compulsory school age (which does not imply that there is a legal duty to provide full time education for these groups). The LA recognises that this should be made clearer in a publicly available document and we shall undertake to do this.
Information supplied under the Act may be subject to protection under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. You may use the information we have provided in response to your request under the terms of the Open Government Licence.
If you are dissatisfied with the response to your request you can ask for a review of the handling of your request for information. Details of the complaints procedure are below.
Regards,
Kyle McCormack
Information Governance Team
Legal and Governance
Wiltshire Council
[Wiltshire Council request email]
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Dear FOI,
I am grateful for your timely response.
I am disappointed that the LA does not have a specific policy for children with additional healthcare needs where they are of pre- or post- compulsory school age. Thank you for your open response and for telling me about the corrective action you will take to identify and publish your policy.
I note you state what “would” be arranged for individual children who unluckily fall into this bracket. Without a policy or supporting processes I understand there to be no actual arrangement in place unless you could show it. I will create a new FOI to give you an opportunity to respond to that.
Please can you confirm the out of date policy you have attached is the current version?
Thank you.
Miss B White
Dear Madam,
I will raise this with the service and update you once I have a response.
Kind Regards,
Miss Sukhvir Kaur
Wiltshire Council
Legal & Governance
Information Governance Team
County Hall – 1st Floor,
Trowbridge,
Wiltshire, BA14 8JN
[Wiltshire Council request email]
Web: www.wiltshire.gov.uk
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Dear FOI,
I wondered whether you have yet had a response to the enquiry you said you would make?
Thank you
Miss B White
Dear Ms White
Thank you for your query, I've check our records and we have yet to receive a response from the service area. I've chased them today and hope to receive a reply shortly
Yours sincerely
David
David Sausins
Senior Information Governance Officer (Data Protection and Information Assurance)
Information Governance Team | Legal and Governance
Tel: 01249 709558
Email: [email address]
Web: www.wiltshire.gov.uk
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Dear Ms White
The SEND Team have confirmed that the policy is the only and current one.
Yours sincerely
David
David Sausins
Senior Information Governance Officer (Data Protection and Information Assurance)
Information Governance Team | Legal and Governance
Tel: 01249 709558
Email: [email address]
Web: www.wiltshire.gov.uk
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Miss B White left an annotation ()
I could not find this document as directed on the internet. Here is the link: https://www.rightchoice.wiltshire.gov.uk... it will download a pdf to your machine if you click that link.