CASE STUDY
A County Council identified £40m of cost avoidance opportunities by quantifying inclusion at school level and creating a SEND & AP sufficiency plan.
Situation
A County Council faced its highest recorded growth in SEND, with the total number of EHCPs growing by over 12% . Despite numerous inclusion workstreams, special schools were beyond capacity and over 100 children were on the independent special school waitlist. The local authority's DSG was under substantial financial pressure.
A new approach was needed to meet more needs in local mainstream schools while becoming more financially sustainable. Public Alchemy was commissioned to do an evidence-based diagnostic to define key strategic priorities, plan local sufficiency and leave a product that empowers the local authority to repeat the process independently.
Objectives
01
Link finance and operational data to create an evidence-based diagnostic.
02
Identify cost avoidance opportunities, quantify the financial impact of a lack of inclusion, and create new places for children with SEND.
03
Equip the senior leadership team with a data product to assess the efficiencies of mitigation and the ability to repeat the exercise when they want.
"We are now better able to conduct our own analysis through an integrated dashboard that we will be able to use to review impact and plan next steps. PA’s knowledge of SEND, local system impacts and evidence-based thinking has brought significant benefits. "
- Assistant Director
"They brought a huge amount of SEND and data expertise which enabled them to work quickly with members of my team, talking from a position of knowledge. Public Alchemy are incredibly easy to work with, they bring knowledge and expertise but are also willing to listen and digest the vast experience from colleagues they are working with."
- Head of Corporate Performance
How we developed a new strategy to sufficiency and inclusion
Local SEND Pupil Forecasts
Modelling the current and future needs of children at a local level provided the evidence base to:
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Identify how much additional provision is needed in each local area, for each type of need.
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Quantify the financial opportunity of mainstream inclusion within each geography.
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Engage school system partners with a convincing plan for change.
Mainstream Inclusion Quantification & Improvement
Identifying metrics that measured inclusion, both operationally and financially, enabled the LA to:
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Target the 48% of primaries responsible for 88% of special school escalations.
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Quantify the cost of individual school actions to the High Needs Block, linking school-level actions to countywide savings.
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Identify inclusion best practice and shortlist mainstream schools suited for resourced provision
Workstream Prioritisation & Business Case Creation
Linking operational improvement plans to financial benefit, resulting in workstream prioritisation:
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Quantified £15.3 M of annualised cost avoidance from 282 additional special school places and 313 additional resourced provision places.
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Quantified £6.2 M of annualised savings from 15 workstreams to support the needs of 515 pupils within standard classroom support, rather than through an EHCP.
SEND & AP Sustainability Product
Building a legacy product that enabled the diagnostic and workstream planning process to be replicated independently by LA decision-makers:
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Quantified £15.3 M of annualised cost avoidance from 282 additional special school places and 313 additional resourced provision places.
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Quantified £6.2 M of annualised savings from 15 workstreams to support the needs of 515 pupils within standard classroom support, rather than through an EHCP.
Impact
471
Additional places planned for children locally, that would otherwise require independent special schools far from home.
£15M
Of annual cost avoidance identified through additional RP & AP capacity in areas that the existing sufficiency plan had missed.
£25M
Of savings valued in existing mitigation plans by creating an automated business case tool that allowed the LA to model mitigations in collaboration with the finance team.