Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs ... · SEN Green Paper – Support and...

Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs

and Disabilities 2015-18

Strategy for Children and Young People with SpecialEducational Needs and Disabilities 2015-18

1.1 Suffolk County Council is committedto providing the best quality of

education and support for all local childrenand young people. Raising attainment is thesingle greatest priority for the council and thisis underpinned by the ambition providedthrough the Raising the Bar programme,which is committed to ensuring that all localchildren reach their potential and areeffectively prepared for their life beyondschool, training and further education. Thelandscape for services for children and youngpeople is one of rising demand, the need forimproving standards and one facing achallenging financial climate that, bynecessity, rapidly changes. The SpecialEducational Needs and Disabilities Strategy ispart of our commitment to further enhancethe lives of Children & Young People (C&YP)with Special Educational needs/Disabilities(SEND) in Suffolk. Within this context, childrenwith SEND are one of the key prioritiesidentified in the C&YPs’ plan for 2014/15.

1.2 This document supports the SuffolkCounty Council Children and Young

People’s Strategic Plan 2014/15 and theRaising the Bar School improvement strategy.These ambitions outline the Council’sstrategic aims and key priority intentions forchildren and young people (aged 0-25) withSpecial Educational Needs and Disabilities.The strategy additionally links to the Suffolk

County Council Corporate Plan, the SchoolImprovement Strategy Plan, the Adult SocialCare Strategy, local future plans to promotesocial inclusion and prevent social exclusionfor children and young people, the Policy forSupporting Adults with a Learning Disabilityand the Health and Wellbeing Strategy. There is a statutory requirement for all Local Authorities to have a current SpecialEducational Needs and Disability (SEND)Strategy. It is advised that SEND Strategiesshould ideally be for a period of three years inorder for Local Authorities and partners to beable to respond to changes in Governmentfocus, legislation or local trends.

Sections

1 Introduction 3

2 Our Vision for Children’s SEND Services in Suffolk 5

3 National and local policy context 6

4 Our strategic priorities 8

5 Implementation, monitoring and review 15

Appendices

Appendix 1: Children and young people in Suffolk - local context 16

Appendix 2: The 2014 Children and Families Act 17

Appendix 3: Defining the needs of Children and Young People with SEND 18

Appendix 4: 2015/18 SEND Strategy Action Plan 19

Appendix 5: Glossary of terms 24

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Introduction1Strategy for Children and Young People with SpecialEducational Needs and Disabilities 2015-18

2.1 The Council’s Raising the barprogramme sets out clear ambitions

that all local children and young peopleshould be supported and challenged, in orderto achieve their full potential on the journey toadulthood. Through targeted programmes ofactivity, our intention is to enable andempower all local children and young people,to be well positioned to be able to omptimisetheir life chances and choices. This agendacomplements our vision for all SEND learnersin Suffolk, that they should have access to awell-planned continuum of inclusive provisionthroughout the journey from childhood toadulthood, to ensure that no child is leftbehind. This will require access for all of ourlearners to high quality universal and whenrequired targeted services at the point of need.Our intention is that these ambitions will beunderpinned by integrated front line delivery,integrated process and strategy acrosseducation, health and social care, which workclosely with parents and carers and whereindividual needs are met without unnecessarybureaucracy or delay.

2.2 We believe that every Suffolk childand young person really does

matter and that all should have their needsmet, as far as possible, in their localcommunity, in local early years settings, localschools, in Further Education colleges andwork places and that they should be offeredhigh quality provision which ensures goodhealth and care and good educationalprogress, attainment and achievement. Weexpect every early years’ provider, mainstreammaintained, academy, specialist educationprovision, free school and post 16 settings tomake effective provision for disabled childrenand those with SEN, so that they make goodprogress in their learning and can move oneasily to the next stage of their education andlater into employment and independent adultlife. We also expect local education, care andhealth services to be delivered in an integratedway so that the experience of families

accessing services is positive and children’sand young people’s safety, well being andhealth outcomes are well promoted alongsidetheir educational progress and achievement.Our vision is to have effective services in place for young people with additional needsup to age 25.

2.3 Our primary objective is that allSuffolk children and young people

will be supported to achieve as healthy, safe,well-educated and positive citizens ready forthe 21st century world of work. Children andyoung people shall be listened to and genuinelytreated with respect and expected to respectothers. They will be more directly involved indecision making about the things which affecttheir lives and in helping to promote a positiveimage for themselves and their peers. Suffolkwill remain a County of opportunity for all,where creativity, enterprise and innovation are encouraged for the benefit of futuregenerations. For those working with the mostvulnerable and disadvantaged, Suffolk willfurther develop and embed an inclusivelocalised service culture, which gives effectiveand timely support when needed in this waywhilst we endeavour to constantly improveoutcomes for our young people via our directlydelivered and/ or commissioned services. Weare determined to narrow the gap between themost vulnerable and disadvantaged and themajority via early intervention and access tospecialist educational provision and specialistsupport services.

2.4 Suffolk will develop an integratedteam around the child, family, school

and community approach underpinned byPerson Centred Principles. The ‘Think Family’principles will become the basis of staffdevelopment and training across children,family and adult services, and the focus ofmoving into adulthood for disabled youngpeople/adults aged 13 to 25 in particular.

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Introduction

1.3 The strategy identifies what weconsider to be current priorities for

development in Suffolk. It also sets out theways in which we plan to meet the newlegislative requirements of the Children andFamilies Act, which were effective fromSeptember 2014 and will significantly changethe way in which services are delivered tochildren and young people with SEN anddisabilities and their families.

1.4 The development of this strategyhas been informed by both the local

and national policy agenda, together with thelegal requirements and responsibilities forSEND provision. This strategy has beenproduced in consideration of the significantgovernment reforms to education, health and

social care required for working with and forchildren and young people with SEND (0-25)and their families and/or carers. The followingnational level policy agendas underpin the2014 Children and Families Act SEND reforms:

• The Lamb Inquiry (2009)

• SEN Green Paper – Support andAspiration: a new approach to SEND (2011)

• Children and Families Bill/Act (2013/2014)

• Regulation and Code of Practice(2013/2014)

1.5 Local Authorities are expected fromSeptember 2014 to implement the

SEND legislative reforms from the Childrenand Families Act. The Suffolk 2015-18 SEN andDisabilities Strategy will deliver the CountyCouncil and our key partners plan for ongoingwork with vulnerable children and is the primefocus of strategic developments with regardsC&YP with SEN &/or Disabilities. However, itmust be noted that other Suffolk CountyCouncil strategic developments & protocolsalso recognise and provide for the needs ofC&YP with SEND, in particular:

• The 14-19 Strategy

• The Parenting Strategy

• The Early Years Strategy

• Child Poverty

• Working Together

• Strategy for LAC

• Early Intervention Strategy

• Single Assessment

Our Vision for Children’sSEND Services in Suffolk

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representation from the Suffolk LearningPartnership. The key purpose of the group is toenable local area partnerships to examine theirarrangements for children and young peoplewith SEND, including transition to further andhigher education, training, employment andself-employment or other activities to identifygaps and to generate improvement. This groupwill report to the cabinet member for childrenand skills, the Directorate Management Team,the Health and Well-Being Board and theChildren’s Trust supporting implementation ofthe Children and Young People’s Plan and theEmotional and Wellbeing Strategy.

3.3 The financial landscape

In the current economic climate publicservices are under increased financial pressureto achieve ever improving outcomes for localchildren and young people, against a backdrop of ever diminishing resources. Therecession and the Government’s strategy tomanage the debt have serious implications forpublic sector funding. In Suffolk, we will berequired to reduce budgets for a number ofpublic sector services over the coming years.These financial constraints will require us toreduce bureaucracy and increase effectivenessto ensure that provision targets children andyoung people to best effect.

From 1st April 2013 the government changedthe way in which all schools, includingacademies were to fund for SEN provision. As a result of the Government funding reform,mainstream schools now receive funding forpupils with special and additional educationalneeds from two sources. The majority offunding is now delegated to schools from theSchools Block with ‘top up’ funding forindividual pupils with high level, low incidenceSEN provided via the High Needs block.

During the life cycle of this strategy we will berequired to achieve much greater value formoney from the expenditure on statutoryservices and some cases face budgetreductions. Despite recent increases in, and insome cases the re-designation of specialschool places, we face a shortfall of specialistprovision in mainstream and special schools in Suffolk. Future needs profiling of localpopulation trends and the volume of learnersbeing placed in non- local authority provision,tells us that we need access to an increasednumber of local SEND specialist school placesfor our learners with SEND.

This demand has placed great pressure onspecialist education providers and serviceswith regards to the budget for schools whichfunds SEND provision. In recent years we havebeen required to place increasing numbers ofchildren and young people with SEND to non-Suffolk school settings, mainly usingindependent schools at considerable distancesfrom their home address. The effect of theneed to place children and young people inindependent schools increased expenditure on the schools budget in 2012/13. The out ofLA demand continued in 2013/14 resulting inconsiderable pressure being placed on localbudgets.

To effectively implement the requirements of the 2014 SEND Reforms, we will seek tomaximise the skills of those working withchildren and young people and integrateefforts across services through joint workingand commissioning practices. We aim toensure that, whatever the challenges we face,we will target funding and services to enablechildren and young people with SEND toachieve and succeed.

3.1 SEND Policy Framework

3.1.1 The Children and Families Act 2014 takesforward the Government’s commitment toimprove services, life chances and choices for vulnerable children and support strongfamilies. It underpins wider reforms to ensurethat all children and young people cansucceed, no matter what their background.The Act extends the SEND system from birth to 25, giving children, young people and theirparents/carers greater control and choice indecisions and ensuring needs are properly met.It takes forward the reform programmepreviously set out in Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needsand disability: Progress and next steps andmakes provision for:

• Children and young people to be at theheart of the system;

• Close cooperation between all the servicesthat support children and their familiesthrough the joint planning andcommissioning of services;

• Early Identification of children and youngpeople with SEN and/ or disabilities (SEND);

• A clear and easy to understand ‘local offer’of education, health and social careservices to support children and youngpeople with SEND and their families;

• For children with more complex needs, a co-ordinated assessment of needs and anew 0 to 25 Education, Health and Careplan (EHC plan) for the first time giving newrights and protections to 16-25 year olds infurther education and training comparableto those in school;

• A clear focus on outcomes for children and young people with EHC Plans,anticipating the education, health and caresupport they will need and planning for a clear pathway through education intoadulthood, including finding paidemployment, living independently andparticipating in their community;

• Increased choice, opportunity and controlfor parents and young people including a greater range of specialist educationalprovision, mainstream schools andcolleges for which they can express apreference and the offer of a personalbudget for those with an EHC plan.

3.1.2 The Code of Practice provides statutoryguidance for organisations who work with andsupport children and young people with SENDand their parents, such as:

• Local authorities (education, social careand relevant housing and employmentservices)

• Early years providers

• Schools

• Special Schools

• Further education colleges

• Sixth form colleges

• Academies

• Independent special schools andindependent specialist providers

• Pupil referral units and AlternativeEducation Provision Providers

• The National Health Service (NHS)Commissioning Board

• Clinical commissioning groups

• NHS trusts

• NHS foundation trusts

• Local Health and Well-Being Boards

• SEN Tribunal

3.2 Governance

Strategic governance will be overseen by anewly established 0-25 Special EducationalNeeds and Disability (SEND) Strategy Group,which will be chaired by the Assistant DirectorEducation and Learning. The group will be a multi-agency forum, which will include

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National and local policy context

3 National and local policy context

We are committed to further developinglocal approaches to integrated and

multi-agency working and the coordination ofservices for children with SEN and disabilitiesand their families.

We intend to achieve this outcome by:

• creating a change in our integrated agencyculture that presumes mainstreamplacement and education at every phase;

• ensuring early co-ordinated planning toensure early inclusive placement inmainstream settings for children withcomplex needs. We will maximise co-ordinated team work to ensure this is successful;

• collaborating effectively betweeneducation, health and care serviceproviders, in order to develop our newEducation Health and Care assessmentand planning framework. This will be inline with the requirements of the 2014SEND legislative reforms. This will place a duty on education, health andsocial care facing SEND services todevelop and deliver a more joined up assessment and person centred planning process;

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Our strategic prioritiesX

4 Our strategic priorities

Priority 1: Improve integrated agency working and the coordination of services for children withspecial educational needs and disabilities

4.1 An essential contribution to thisstrategy came from our consultation

with children and young people, their parentsand carers, schools, our Council services andother partners like health services andvoluntary groups. We carried out stakeholderengagement and consultation activities in the2014/15 autumn and spring term periods. We used the views and feedback fromstakeholders to inform the work of thisstrategy, by providing a range of actions weshould carry out with our partners over thenext three years to achieve these priorities.Achieving these priorities will require allstakeholders to commit to new ways ofworking.

The priorities are provided below with animplementation action plan available inappendix 4:

(1) Improve integrated agency working andcoordination of services for children withspecial educational needs and disabilities

(2) Develop the Local Offer and support localschools, education and training providersto develop their SEND provision andstrengthen capacity, to be able to meet theneeds of all children and young people

(3) Successful implementation of Education,Health and Care plans

(4) Joint commissioning arrangements withHealth and Clinical Commissioning Groups(CCGs)

(5) Post 16 Transition Arrangements

• education and social care teams workingtogether in localities in order to providekey worker training to all staff working withchildren with SEND, both within theCouncil and in other agencies;

• allocating identified and skilful key workersto the families of children and youngpeople who have been assessed as havingthe most complex levels of need;

• promoting the Early Help approach acrossall agencies working with children withSEND and their families and across all agegroups / phases. This approach has a focuson putting families at the heart of decisionmaking, effective coordination of services,joined up planning and key working;

• progressing targeted work in localitiesacross education and social care services,which will include our Health partners todevelop an integrated approach to speechtherapy, occupational therapy andphysiotherapy services, reducingduplication and creating a less complexroute into accessing specialised services;

• strengthening joint commissioningsystems, process and strategy with Healthpartners to enable a stronger integratedfocus on joint commissioning for children.

training completed by staff in schools,educational and training settings (includingaccredited training) and using this data toinform the ongoing SEND trainingprogramme and to target schools andlearning providers where there may beskills gaps;

• aiming for all schools’ and learningprovider Special Educational NeedsCoordinators (SENCOs) to be qualifiedteachers and complete the accreditedSENCO training programme;

• providing targeted training for schools andlearning providers with a focus on the EarlyHelp approach, key working and effectiveworking with parents and carers;

• reviewing and extending trainingopportunities for teaching assistants,school and learning provider supportprofessionals, to enable this group of staffto be further empowered to play a key rolein promoting the attainment and progressof children and young people with SEND;

• Undertaking rigorous monitoring of thedifference in achievement betweenchildren and young people with SEND andthose who do not have SEND (known as“the SEN gap”) by individual school andlearning provider and targeting challengeand support accordingly;

• ensuring that school governors are clearabout their duties and responsibilities withregard to children and young people with SEND.

Our aspiration is that our Local Offer approachwill be underpinned by the following principlesand key criteria:

• We will develop a more inclusive localisedapproach to meeting individual needs inmainstream educational and post 16learning settings, with the essential supportneeded to make this successful beingmade available at the onset of need;

• That educational services with social careteams will work closely with our health, early

years providers and other learning partnersto provide and/ or jointly commission acontinuum of provision for children andyoung people with SEND needs;

• From working collaboratively with ourHealth partners we will increase theamount of specialist SEND provisionavailable and consider the potentialdelivery options;

• To inform our commissioning intentionsacross educational, social care and healthservices we will shape and design amethod of geographical and localityforecasting, to ensure sufficient specialschool places and/ or provision areavailable to meet current and predictedfuture needs across the County;

• From joint working with our Healthpartners we will commission a range of specialist provision for those aged 0-25 years with acute or high-level low-incidence needs;

• Education, health and social care teamscollaborating will establish additionalenhanced provision and outreach supportfor pupils of mainstream ability with lowincidence high level needs e.g. those withASD Autistic Spectrum Disorders;

• Based on evidenced needs we willcommission early intervention and earlysupport services, that are targeted andfocused most on meeting local priorityareas of need;

• The Local Offer will be published inaccordance with legislative guidance andwe will ensure that it outlines the full rangeof provision available for children andyoung people with SEND;

• Successful implementation of our LocalOffer approach will lead to a reduction inthe number of pupils needing to be placedin independent out of county schools;

• Effective collaborative working andcommissioning will take place acrosseducation, health and social care teams, tomeet the needs of the most vulnerableSEND learners by enabling access to highquality local care and residential provision.

Amulti-agency and cross sector workinggroup including parent/carer

representatives and professionals from a rangeof backgrounds, has been established todevelop our Local Offer continuum of provisionframework. The Local Offer has been informedfrom ongoing and regular consultation withfamilies and other stakeholders. The Local Offercontinuum of provision will build on thecurrent good practice locality deliveryapproaches being deployed across the Countyby special & mainstream schools, colleges,PRUs, education and training providers. TheLocal Offer has been available and accessiblefrom September 2014.

The Local Offer will be co-produced byparents/carers, young people andprofessionals and will be an invaluableresource and source of information for familiesand SEND stakeholders across the County.There will be a need for a small number ofchildren who require highly specialist servicesto be placed in out of area provision. There isscope, to make further enhancement to localservices and offer more opportunities forchildren to be supported through localservices. We are committed to providing asmany services as possible for children withSEND and their families within their localcommunity and this will be underpinned byour approach to the development of localoffers, which will underpin the County’s LocalOffer continuum of provision.

There remains a commitment from allagencies, education and training providers tomeeting the needs of children and youngpeople with additional needs to, wherepossible, develop and secure local sustainableand suitable provision for all of Suffolk’s

learners with additional needs and to reducethe requirement for some of this cohort torequire their needs to be met by out of Countyspecialised provision. A shared commitment toinclusion from all key agencies, will reduce theneed for out of County placements and enableany potential financial savings to be reinvestedback into developing the capacity ofpractitioners, schools, education and trainingproviders alike to be able to optimally meetneeds in our localities of our learners requiringadditional support.


• carrying out an audit of effective practice ininclusive practice across all mainstream &special schools, Early Years settings,education and training providers,identifying and disseminating effectivepractice;

• supporting the creation of inclusive localleaders for education (heads and seniorleadership) to lead and support inclusivepractice and capacity within mainstreamschools. We will also target schools withemergent inclusive practice as well asthose failing to effectively include childrenwith complex SEND;

• prioritise early years placements of childrenwith complex SEND in mainstream schoolsand nurseries with enhanced support andcoordination to ensure early successfulinclusive placements;

• working in partnership with system leadersthrough the Suffolk learning partnership toensure all school leaders are clear aboutthe implications of the SEND reforms fortheir organisation and the communitiesthat they serve;

• conducting an annual audit of SEND

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Our strategic prioritiesOur strategic priorities

Priority 2: Develop the Local Offer and support local schools, education and training providers todevelop their SEND provision and strengthen capacity, to be able to meet the needs of allchildren and young people

Joint commissioning is a strategic approachto planning and delivering services. The

Children’s Trust Board is developing an agreedjoint commissioning approach with Health andCCG partners to ensure a shared vision andunderstanding of the way in which the partneragencies, represented on the Board, will worktogether to commission the services that areneeded to fulfil the priorities identified in thelocal Children and Young People’s StrategicPlan, and to ensure the effectiveimplementation of all associated action plans.Parents/Carers are involved in various ways,including individual feedback and throughparent/carer events. It is intended that ourapproach to commissioning across allchildren’s and Health services for children andyoung people with SEND needs will beeffectively planned and coordinated across thewhole spectrum of a child’s needs.

From April 2013 General Practitioner (GP) ledClinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) tookover statutory responsibility for commissioninghealth services for children and adults. At thistime Local Authorities became responsible forpublic health and were also required toestablish Health and Wellbeing Boards to bothprovide leadership and also to ensure thathealth and social care services can becomemore integrated. From September 2014 thestatutory duty now exists for both LocalAuthorities and CCGs to jointly commission

services for children with SEND. The recentlypublished Department of Health mandate forthe NHS Commissioning Board included aspecific objective to ensure children with SENDhave access to services identified in theiragreed plan and those parents, families andcarers have the option of a personal budgetbased on a single assessment across health,social care and education.


• building a shared vision and agreed way ofintegrated working for the future of SENDservices and provision in Suffolk, acrosseducation, health education and socialcare teams working closely with our Healthpartners to develop a new jointcommissioning framework, which will bedeployed to provide clear criteria for futurecommissioning decisions, as we seek toeffectively discharge the new legislativeduties for SEND;

• working collaboratively with our Healthpartners we will increase the range andbreadth of specialist SEND provisionavailable through targeted jointcommissioning approaches;

• deploying effective contract managementprocesses we will commission quality andaccountable services, with regular reviewand evaluation processes to facilitateevidenced based interventions.

Education, Health and Care Plans (forchildren and young people with SEND

aged 0-25) will be based on a coordinatedperson centred assessment and planningprocess. This will place the child, young personand their parents at the centre of decisionmaking, to ensure that their views arerespected and valued. Transport and all othersupport arrangements will be consideredthrough the coordinated assessment process.The focus for the Education, Health and Care(EHC) planning process will be to facilitate thedevelopment of the child or young person,supporting them to achieve the best possibleeducational and other outcomes andsuccessfully preparing them for adulthood.


• working with local education and trainingproviders to develop an integratedapproach to EHC plans, based on “whatworks” and “lessons learned” from thenational SEND pathfinder local authorityareas;

• progressing the development of EHCplans, that will be informed by local parentsand carers. This process will be subject toregular review and updating to secure themost effective and efficient approach;

• working with local stakeholders to developa local timeline with milestones for themanagement of transitional arrangements,from the deployment of formerassessment methodology such as LDDplans, to the new EHC framework;

• recognising and supporting the systemicchange required to work in a different wayacross all agencies and teams meeting theneeds of children and young people with

additional needs. There will be a need todeploy a joint person centred assessment,requiring all practitioners to work onsecuring person centred outcomes;

• working with local schools, education andtraining providers to further developPerson Centred Planning approaches inmainstream schools and educationalsettings;

• working with Health partners to clarifypathways from paediatric to adult healthservices for those with complex needs;

• working with SEND partners, stakeholders,education and training providers to ensureappropriate assessment and plans are inplace and these address the children andyoung person’s needs, ambitions andcircumstances;

• leading actions to engage and involve arange of partners, children, young peopleand their families in the co design and co-production of information sources andappropriate plans;

• developing a range of local and directsupport that will be available to prepareusers for independent living;

• developing training and networkingprogrammes to ensure that SENDprofessionals and partners understand theirrole in supporting young people intoadulthood and communicate with otherspromoting and maintaining an open,balanced and consistent approach;

• working with local SEND partners,stakeholders and provision providers inseeking continuous improvement ofservices through regular consultation,engagement and feedback.

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Our strategic prioritiesOur strategic priorities

Priority 3: Successful implematation of Education, Health and Care plans

Priority 4: Joint commissioning arrangments with Health and Clinical CommissioningGroups (CCGs)

5.1 Implementation

Implementation of this Strategy will besupported through the Council CorporatePlan, the Children’s Services Plan, andapproved Joint Commissioning Frameworksand the Adult Social Care Plan. The 0-25Special Educational Needs and Disability(SEND) Strategy Group will be the strategicbody with responsibility for providingprogramme oversight and to lead onimplementation of the Strategy’s keyobjectives.

This group will be chaired by the AssistantDirector Education and Learning and willprovide regular progress updates to theDirector of Children’s Services and theChildren’s Services Directorate ManagementTeam for governance purposes. The SENDStrategy Group will be a multi-agency forumand will include representation from theSuffolk Learning Partnership.

• Key focus will include progressing anumber of relevant performanceindicators:

• Reduction of the SEN attainment gap

• Introduction of Personal Budgets forchildren and young people with disabilities

• Reduction in out of area placements

• Reduction in numbers of young disabledpeople who are NEET

In addition, implementation will be supportedthrough team plans and performancemanagement objectives of relevant staff.

5.2Monitoring and Review

This Strategy will be reviewed and refreshed onan annual basis. The first review will be due insummer 2016.

We are committed to improving thepersonal transition experience and

journey to adulthood for young people withSEND and their families, in order to improve lifeoutcomes for this vulnerable cohort of youngpeople. In recent years there has been a lot ofpositive work done to improve the transition toadulthood, particularly around improvement ofprocesses, data sharing and joint planning, aswell as the introduction of person centredplanning at transition reviews and enhancedopportunities to access work experience andsupported internships.

In preparing young people with SEND foradulthood, effective transition planning for thiscohort for post 16 destinations is crucial.Nationally and locally the number of youngpeople with SEND who are not in education,employment or training (NEET) is reducing.However, parents and carers still identify thetransition to adulthood as one of their greatestareas of concern, particularly the transitionfrom Children’s Services to Adult Social Careand from school to college.

We will support every child and young personwith SEND to help them make a successfultransition in this period of significant change.We’ll make sure parents and carers can accessadvice and guidance on what options areavailable. We’ll work in partnership with parentsand carers to enable them to take part in thedecisions about their child’s needs and supportarrangements.


• strengthening the partnership with specialschools, local FE Colleges and trainingproviders including sharing of expertise /services between special schools and post16 providers;

• working with local stakeholders topromote improved and earlier jointworking between Children’s and Adults’Services and setting out roles andresponsibilities of all agencies in a protocolfor Multi Agency approach to supportingyoung people into adulthood;

• working with partners to be further flexiblein our approaches and try to tailor oursupport to the individual young person andtheir family to support the transitionperiod;

• working in partnership with mainstream &special schools and FE providers todevelop increased curriculum options foryoung people with learning difficulties toimprove their qualifications and post 16pathways.

• developing and delivering high qualityvocational programmes in the post 16offer, which will lead to employment andsupport independent living for more youngpeople, particularly for ASD and BESDlearners, through Vocational Skills Centres,FE Colleges and Special Schools.

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Our strategic priorities

Priority 5: Post 16 Transition Arrangements

5 Implementation,monitoring and review

T he Government’s response to the Lambreport was to publish a Green Paper in

2011 consulting on proposals to transform theSEN statutory landscape, and outlining steps toreduce barriers, bureaucracy and delaysexperienced by families and goals to:

• Enable children, young people and theirfamilies to have an active role inimplementing any plan designed to meettheir identified needs.

• Improve the quality and range ofinformation available to children, youngpeople and their families to enable them to make informed choices.

• Create a Local Offer which not onlydescribes the range of services available,but also what families can expect fromeach of the services listed.

• Build on the success of the Early Supportprogramme and create a new 0-25integrated specialist assessment andplanning process for children with specialeducational needs or who are disabled andtheir families, resulting in a singleEducation, Health and Care Plan.

• Improve the way in which LocalAuthorities, NHS and schools use theirresources through joint commissioning toachieve improvements in the range ofsupport available within a local area.

• Enable young people to have the option of a personal budget.

These proposals were previously set out in theChildren and Families Bill, published in February2013 and became law from September 2014.We are now expected to have a single andshorter assessment process leading to acombined Education, Health and Care Plan toreplace both SEN Statements and LearningDifficulty Assessments for 0-25 year olds. Wealso expect some children and young people

subject to an integrated plan to have personalbudgets and to choose direct payments. This strategy will have as a key priority thedevelopment of the ‘local offer’ in Suffolk.

From 1st September 2014 a new statutory dutywas placed on Local Authorities to work withCCGs to jointly commission services for disabledchildren and children with special educationalneeds and disabilities. This duty offers newopportunities for joint commissioning to deliverimproved personalisation of budgets for healthcare alongside social care and education,improving service delivery and outcomes forchildren and young people, whilst achievingefficiencies. In 2013 The Department of Healthpublished the mandate for the new NHSCommissioning Board framework, where there is a specific objective to ensure children with specialeducational needs and disabled children haveaccess to the services identified in their agreed planand that parents and carers have the option of apersonal budget based on a single assessmentacross health, social care and education.

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Locally nearly 1 in 5 children and young peoplehas an agreed special education need, with

slightly fewer in secondary school than in theprimary phase. Most pupils are currentlysupported through school action or schoolaction plus, with a relatively small percentageof pupils having a Statement of SpecialEducation Need. There is a marked differencebetween phases with 1.6% of primary pupilshaving a Statement increasing to 2.4% ofsecondary pupils. Over the period of theChildren’s Trust, the number of pupils with specialeducation need has increased by 14% from17706 pupils to 20261, though the percentageof pupils with Statements has decreased.

In recent years Suffolk County Council wassuccessful in developing a new service fordisabled children under the Aim Higher forDisabled Children project and the award-winning Activities Unlimited website. Indeveloping the project considerable work wasundertaken to establish the profile of need.Using the national formula it was estimated atthe time (2010) that 1% of Suffolk’s 7,000disabled children population would be severelydisabled. The project reported that itsknowledge of the disabled children populationin Suffolk suggests that this figure is asubstantial over estimation. Below is providedsome additional information:

• There are 167,837 children and youngpeople in Suffolk ‐ 23.5% of the county’stotal population;

• Boys outnumber girls (85,966 boys to81,871 girls);

• 4,167 (4.3%) pupils have a first languageother than English;

• 81 schools have one or more pupils from aTraveller family on their school roll;

• 1 in 5 pupils have some sort of specialeducation need;

• 7,000 children have a disability;

• There are nearly 800 Looked After Childrenin Suffolk and over 500 children with ChildProtection Plans;

• 1 in 6 children are living in poverty.

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Appendices

Appendices

Appendix 1: Children and young people in Suffolk - local context

Appendix 2: The 2014 Children and Families Act

1918

AppendicesAppendices

W e recognise that children and youngpeople with SEND may present with a

broad range of complex needs. For some thefocus of support will be wholly educational.For others their parents, carers and families willneed support from a number of statutoryservices and this will continue throughout theirchildhood and may continue into adulthood. A child or young person may have specialeducational needs or a disability or both.

Definition of specialeducational needsChildren have special educational needs if theyhave a learning difficulty which calls for specialeducational provision to be made for them.

Children have a learning difficulty if they:

A) Have a significantly greater difficulty inlearning from the majority of children ofthe same age; or

B) Have a disability which prevents or hindersthem from making use of educationalfacilities of any kind generally provided forchildren of the same age in schools withinthe area of the Local Authority;

C) Are under compulsory school age and fallwithin the definition at a) or b) above orwould so do if special educationalprovision was not made for them.

Definition of disability1 The Equality Act 2010 states a person has a

disability if –

a) They have a physical or mentalimpairment and

b) the impairment has a substantial andlong term adverse effect on their abilityto carry out normal day-to-dayactivities

2 The Government guidance states that theterm substantial means more than minoror trivial. The term physical and mentalimpairment implies that a disability canarise from a wide range of impairmentssuch as:

• Long term medical conditions such asasthma and diabetes

• Fluctuating or progressive conditionssuch as rheumatoid arthritis or motorneurone disease

• Mental health conditions such asbipolar disorder or depression

• Learning difficulties such as dyslexia

• Learning disabilities such as Down’ssyndrome and autism spectrumdisorders

• Cancer

• Multiple sclerosis

• HIV / AIDS

3 People with severe disfigurement will beprotected as disabled without needing toshow that it has a substantial adverse effectin day to day activities.

Appendix 3: Defining the needs of Children and Young Peoplewith SEND

APPENDIX 4 – 2015/18 SEND Strategy Action Plan

Working with our children and young people, their families, schools and our partners, we haveidentified five key priority areas for focus. This section gives a summary of what we will do toachieve these objectives.

Key Activity Key Milestones and Outputs

Priority 1: Improve integratedagency workingand thecoordination ofservices forchildren withspecial educationalneeds anddisabilities

• Through an integrated approach with Social care and Health partnerswe will see an improvement to the progression rates, educationalachievement and life chance outcomes for all children and youngpeople with SEN and those who are disabled.

• We will have developed innovative approaches to addressing gaps inservices through joint commissioning and using evidence-basedpractice and research to improve the quality and availability ofprovision 0-25, with robust arrangements for moving into adulthood;

• Through partnership working with health teams we will benefit fromhaving in place more effective commissioning and adequateprovision for speech and language therapy, child and adolescentmental health services and school and community nursing forchildren with complex health needs;

• We will have developed new needs - led and outcome focusedapproaches to joint commissioning and integrated working forchildren and young people with SEND that promote earlyintervention and prevention, whilst also ensuring that SCC and NHSCCGs meet their new statutory duties linked to the provision ofservices within the Education Health and Care Plan.

Key PerformanceIndicators by 2018

• We will see reductions in waiting times from 2014 baselines forgroups of children requiring access to specialist speech and languageand physical impairment services, owing to improved commissioningframeworks increasing service activity and impact;

• Good quality health provision will be available in special schools andfor SEND pupils in mainstream schools;

• 90% of local primary and secondary schools will be able to usetargeted screening tools to enable access to therapy services.

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Priority 2: Develop the LocalOffer and supportlocal schools,education andtraining providersto develop theirSEND provisionand strengthencapacity, to be ableto meet the needsof all children andyoung people

• Through the Local Offer approach we will have in place improvedlocal provision for, and access to local services in education, care andhealth, which will further enable families to be able to accessappropriate health, care and social opportunities locally and requiringfewer children who will need to be educated out of their local areaand out of the county;

• We will be able to measure an increased confidence of parents andcarers of SEND children and young people, with regards to thesupport provided locally and improve the engagement of parents andcarers by providing them with access to timely information, adviceand support;

• We will look to develop and improve local SEND services for children,young people and families with their active participation and makepersonal budgets available where it will improve independence andchoice;

• We will aim to create a smooth journey for any child with SEND andtheir family that avoids any need to battle or conflict – the journeywill wherever possible be based on mainstream inclusion from earlyyears into adulthood – a smooth, respectful, person centrededucation and experience;

• We will have developed more effective locality joint commissioningarrangements, informed by locality needs assessments to ensure wecan take timely and cost effective decisions when we procureplacements from commissioned providers.


• The local offer will ensure swift and easy user access to localcontinuums of provision that consist of high quality specialist servicesas appropriate and necessary, such as educational psychology, speechand language therapy and child and adolescent mental health support;

• The number of permanent exclusions taking place in Suffolk schoolsin an academic year will have reduced to fewer than 60, from 108 inJuly 2014, and no young person with a statement will bepermanently excluded;

• There will be a reduction in the number of pupils attending out ofcounty residential schools and educational settings. This will be madepossible due to there being more inclusive mainstream placementsand our plans for specialist in county provision when necessary;

• Improvement in SEND Pupil Performance data;

• Increase in the number of mainstream schools supported by specialschools, PRUs and specialist services;

• Improvement in Early Years progress data;

• We will see an increase in the proportion of Suffolk Special schoolsjudged good or better from 2014 baselines.


Priority 3: Successfulimplementation ofEducation, Healthand Care Plans

• We will develop with our partners an implementation plan for thesuccessful roll out of Education, Health and Care Plans;

• We will consistently work in partnership with education, NHS andcare providers to meet the needs of children, young people andfamilies locally;

• We will ensure further development of transition planninginformation in young people’s Education, Health and Care plans, tohelp FE providers to tailor programmes that meet the educationalneeds of the learners and support their progression once they leaveformal education.


• Increased number of EHC plans are informed by pupil views from2014 baselines;

• Improved outcomes and satisfaction levels reported by pupils,parents and carers from 2014 baselines;

• Increased number of plans with a team around the child approach;

• 100% of requested professional advice will be provided withintimescales and 90% of statutory assessments will be completed intime;

• Successful implementation of plan for the future roll out ofEducation, Health and Care Plans;

• Increased number of pupil centred reviews;

• Key working approaches will be embedded across all servicesworking with families.

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Priority 4: Jointcommissioningarrangements withHealth and ClinicalCommissioningGroups (CCGs)

• By periodically reviewing our existing specialist provision places witha view to matching our current need more closely, we will be able tore-designate current places to get improved outcomes from what wealready have;

• Through timely and needs – led commissioning approaches we willbe able to ensure disabled children and families have timely access toappropriate community equipment and wheelchair services to meettheir current and future needs;

• By adopting a needs led approach to commissioning, we will be ableto adapt, reconfigure or decommission provision that is no longerseen as local priority and reinvest potential savings to createadditional capacity and where appropriate develop new provision inresponse to need;

• By improving our commissioning and procurement arrangements wewill be able to ensure that we get best value for money in all placesthat we commission outside of the County;

• We will develop a clear joint commissioning framework which will setout a newly defined commissioning cycle that includes effective SENresource planning and a new audited commissioning process.


• Reduction of out of LA specialist provision pre 16 placements from2014 baselines;

• Reduction of under- utilised specialised provision places from 2014baselines;

• 80% of parents and carers will express confidence in the quality ofcommissioned services;

• Reduction in annual financial investment required for children andyoung people needing to be educated in non LA specialist provision;

• Reduction in the number of young people with SEN and disabilitiesaged 16-19 needing to be educated in non-LA specialist provisionfrom the 2014 baselines;

• More options/places available to young people for post 16 educationand training;

• More parents/carers involved in transition planning;

• Additional SEN places on 2014 base level provided by September2016;

• Implement a commissioning strategy;

• Reduction in costs of out of County placements.


Priority 5: Post 16 Transitionarrangements

• We will aim to create a smooth journey for any child with SEND andtheir family that avoids any need to battle or conflict – the journeywill wherever possible be based on mainstream inclusion from earlyyears into adulthood – a smooth, respectful, person centrededucation and experience;

• We will work with the providers of further education (FE) to helpdevelop further provision to accommodate more high needs learnersfrom 16-25 years old;

• We will work in partnership with mainstream schools to developincreased curriculum options for young people with learningdifficulties to improve their qualifications and post 16 pathways;

• We will ensure best value for money out of County places fromspecial school places commissioned from independent providers;

• We will aim to develop and deliver high quality vocationalprogrammes in the post16 offer, which will lead to employment andsupport independent living for more young people, particularly with afocus on meeting the needs of ASD and BESD learners, throughVocational Skills Centres, FE Colleges and Special Schools;

• We will explore collaborative commissioning arrangements withother LA areas as part of the SEND Regional Alliance;

• By working in partnership with mainstream schools and Healthpartners we will be able to develop increased curriculum options foryoung people with learning difficulties to improve their qualificationsand post 16 pathways.


• Additional post 16 SEN places on 2014 base level provided bySeptember 2016;

• Improved number of young people with SEN and disabilitiesparticipate in education or employment with training until they are18;

• Improved post 16 opportunities available to students with SEND;

• Implementation of a commissioning strategy;

• Reduction in costs of out of County post 16 placement costs;

• Training programme in place in response to post 16 workforce skillsaudit;

• More options and places available to young people for post 16education and training;

• Improved outcomes and satisfaction levels reported by post 16pupils, parents/carers;

• More parents/carers involved in post 16 transition planningarrangements;

• More post 16 young people with SEND effectively supported from2014 baselines.

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Appendices

ASD Autistic, Spectrum Disorders

BESD Behaviour, Emotional and Social Difficulties

CCL Communication, Language & Literacy Development

C&YP Children and Young People

CAMHS Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services

CCG Clinical Commissioning Group

DFE Department for Education

DSG Dedicated Schools Grant

EHC Education, Health and Care Plans

FE Further Education

GP General Practitioner

HI Hearing Impaired

LA Local Authority

LAC Looked After Child(ren)

LD Learning Difficulty

LDD Learning Disability or Difficulty

MAT Multi Agency Team

MLD Moderate Learning Difficulty

NAS National Autistic Society

NHS National Health Service

NMI Non Maintained or Independent School

PMLD Profound & Multiple Learning Difficulties

PSED Personal, Social and Emotional Development

PSMN Physical, Sensory and Medical Needs

QA Quality Assurance

SEAD Social, Emotional Aspects of Development

SEND Special Educational Needs and/ or Disabilities

SENCO Special Educational Needs Coordinator

SLA Service Level Agreement

SLCN Speech, Language and Communication Needs

SLD Severe Learning Difficulty

SLT Speech & Language Therapy/Therapists

SpLD Specific Learning Disability

SCC Suffolk County Council

VI Visually Impaired

Appendix 5Glossary of terms

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