Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) are public documents. EIAs accompanying reports going to County Councillors for decisions are published with the committee papers on our website and are available in hard copy at the relevant meeting. To help people to find completed EIAs we also publish them in the Equality and Diversity section of our website. This will help people to see for themselves how we have paid due regard in order to meet statutory requirements.
| Name of Directorate and Service Area | Children and Families and Inclusion - Children and Young People's Services |
|---|---|
| Lead Officer and contact details | Mel Hutchinson, Assistant Director Children and Families Janet Crawford, Assistant Director Inclusion |
| Names and roles of other people involved in carrying out the EIA | Mel Hutchinson |
| How will you pay due regard? For example, working group, individual officer | The activity around pooled budget reduction was identified in the Focus review process as an area of further exploration. The process will be a joint working group with Children and Families and SEND. |
| When did the due regard process start? | The process started in April 2023 and has become embedded practice to enable budget management. |
Section 1. Please describe briefly what this EIA is about (for example, are you starting a new service, changing how you do something, stopping doing something?)
This EIA is about reviewing the process and rational of children and young people that require placements from the joint budget of Children and Families and SEND. Looking at the decision making process and how any reduction can be made to better integrate children/young people in the appropriate placement to meet their need with a focus on reducing the number of expensive independent placements. This project will continue to meet the requirement of providing children and young people's needs as a statutory requirement, as governed by the Children Act 1989 and Children and Families Act 2014.
Section 2. Why is this being proposed? What are the aims? What does the authority hope to achieve by it? (for example, to save money, meet increased demand, do things in a better way)
The aim is to increase in-house provision within North Yorkshire to enable children to live within their local communities and prevent long distance placements and those that are high cost. By reviewing the individual arrangements, we will ensure plans are meeting need and make necessary exit plans where appropriate, either by finding in-house provision which the individual will move in to, consider alternative arrangements that is family or be able to rationalise the reason for the placement. The local authority must ensure children and young people's assessed needs are met and compliant with the legal requirements and code of practice, this includes consideration for economic value for money.
Section 3. What will change? What will be different for customers and/or staff?
Placements for children/young people will only be assessed by the following criteria:
- request to Forum to initially agree a plan to progress to Exceptional Placement Panel (EPP)
- request to EPP
- reviewed monthly in the EPP review panel
- annual review back to EPP to check progress and plan
- increased in-house provision
More emphasis on keeping children within local specialist provision where able.
Section 4. Involvement and consultation (What involvement and consultation has been done regarding the proposal and what are the results? What consultation will be needed and how will it be done?)
No consultation with the public is required as this is a review of process and not a change of policy.
Section 5. What impact will this proposal have on council budgets? Will it be cost neutral, have increased cost or reduce costs?
The reduction of the expenditure will only be achieved if any child/young person is able to move into alternative placements. It is anticipated that following the further in-depth analysis that we may achieve in the region of £1,250,000 reduction.
Section 6. How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics?
| How will this proposal affect people with protected characteristics? | No impact | Make things better | Make things worse | Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information, and so on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | X | This review will be for pupils between four to 25 years of age. All pupils will still receive placements under the statutory duty, however, this may result in changes to their current arrangements. | ||
| Disability | X | This review will be for pupils with Special Educational Needs or disability. All pupils will still receive the provision to meet their assessed needs under the statutory duties, however, this may result in changes to their current arrangements. | ||
| Sex | X | It is anticipated there would be no identifiable impact on SEND pupils. | ||
| Race | X | It is anticipated there would be no identifiable impact on SEND pupils. | ||
| Gender reassignment | X | It is anticipated there would be no identifiable impact on SEND pupils. | ||
| Sexual orientation | X | It is anticipated there would be no identifiable impact on SEND pupils. | ||
| Religion or belief | X | It is anticipated there would be no identifiable impact on SEND pupils. | ||
| Pregnancy or maternity | X | It is anticipated there would be no identifiable impact on SEND pupils. | ||
| Marriage or civil partnership | X | It is anticipated there would be no identifiable impact on SEND pupils. |
Section 7. How will this proposal affect people?
| How will this proposal affect people who... | No impact | Make things better | Make things worse | Why will it have this effect? Provide evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information, and so on. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| live in a rural area? | X | No impact on pupils who live in rural areas as the reviews are based on an individual basis. | ||
| have a low income? | X | No impact is envisaged due to low income. |
Section 8. Will the proposal affect anyone more because of a combination of protected characteristics? (for example older women or gay men) State what you think the effect may be and why, providing evidence from engagement, consultation and/or service user data or demographic information, and so on.
No. No combination identified.
Section 9. Next steps to address the anticipated impact.
Select one of the following options an explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us)
| Next steps to address the anticipated impact. Select one of the following options and explain why this has been chosen. (Remember: we have an anticipatory duty to make reasonable adjustments so that disabled people can access services and work for us) | Tick option chosen |
|---|---|
| 1. No adverse impact - no major change needed to the proposal. There is no potential for discrimination or adverse impact identified. | |
| 2. Adverse impact - adjust the proposal. The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We will change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, or we will achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. | X |
| 3. Adverse impact - continue the proposal. The EIA identifies potential problems or missed opportunities. We cannot change our proposal to reduce or remove these adverse impacts, nor can we achieve our aim in another way which will not make things worse for people. (There must be compelling reasons for continuing with proposals which will have the most adverse impacts. Get advice from Legal Services) | |
| 4. Actual or potential unlawful discrimination - stop and remove the proposal. The EIA identifies actual or potential unlawful discrimination. It must be stopped. |
Explanation of why option has been chosen (include any advice given by Legal Services.) The reason why ‘Adverse impact – adjust the proposal’ has been selected on the reduction to pooled budget. This project is simply to review current arrangements for jointly funded placements for children and young people and whether the circumstances are still justifying the placements to discharge the local authority's statutory duties to those children/young people. There will be no removal of provision arrangements being provided, however balancing our statutory duties there may be changes to how those duties are best discharged in accordance with legislation, and statutory guidance.
Section 10. If the proposal is to be implemented how will you find out how it is really affecting people? (How will you monitor and review the changes?)
The project will have reduced the number of children/young people in expensive independent placements. There will be no removal of placements being provided to children/young people, and therefore there will be no disruption to them.
Section 11. Action plan
List any actions you need to take which have been identified in this EIA, including post implementation review to find out how the outcomes have been achieved in practice and what impacts there have actually been on people with protected characteristics.
| Action | Lead | By when | Progress | Monitoring arrangements |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Section 12. Summary. Summarise the findings of your EIA, including impacts, recommendation in relation to addressing impacts, including any legal advice, and next steps. This summary should be used as part of the report to the decision maker.
Children and Families and SEND is a statutory requirement and a demand led service, a significant proportion of the service which the local authority provides is governed by legislation with no options to adjust /remove this from children and young people with assessed needs. The pooled budget is significantly overspent, with a forecast for the rise in demand to continue and therefore the local authority has a responsibility to review existing arrangements to ensure that the service is:
- Fit for purpose.
- Cost effective.
- Meets legal obligations
The project is to ensure we are meeting our responsibilities in arranging placements that meet children/young people's assessed needs in the appropriate manner.
Section 13. Sign off section
This full EIA was completed by:
Name: Mel Hutchinson
Job title: Assistant Director Children and Families
Directorate: Children and Young People's Services
Signature:
Completion date: 11 January 2024
Authorised by relevant Assistant Director (signature):
Date: 11 January 2024