The New Children and Families Bill and SEND- Issues for implementation Brian Lamb OBE

What is driving the Reforms? Greater focus on Outcomes in SEN: “We know that the educational achievement for children with SEN is too low and the gap with their peers too wide. This is a hangover of a system, and a society, which did not place enough value on achieving good outcomes for disabled children and children with SEN” Lamb Inquiry. Greater Parental Involvement and Choice: “The empirical evidence shows that parental involvement is one of the key factors in securing higher student achievement and sustained school performance.” Harris 2006.

The empirical evidence shows that parental involvement is one of the key factors in securing higher student achievement and sustained school performance (Harris 2006).

Elephant in the Room - Resources?

Education, Health and Care Plan Implications for Sensory Services

Education Health and Care Plan Ensuring linkages are made across health and social care with Education Advice on assessment, identification and content of plan Advice on interventions Specialist support on learning strategies Identifying and supporting communication needs Supporting parents, children and young people define aspirations and appropriate outcomes Identifying specialist equipment and support Helping to produce Provision Map Links to other services Advice equipment and device maintenance (auxiliary aids requirement)

EHC personal budgets Once a LA confirms a plan is necessary, a parent or young person can request an EHC personal budget. This is an amount of money identified to achieve outcomes agreed in an EHC plan. It may be managed in three ways: The local authority manages the funds and commissions the support specified in the EHC plan (sometimes called “notional arrangements”). The funds are paid to a third party to manage on behalf of the parent or young person. The funds are paid to the parent or young person as a direct payment, and they buy the provision specified in the plan. An EHC personal budget should cover only the special individualised provision made available through the EHC plan. An EHC personal budget should not, for example, cover a school place.

Funding EHC Personal Budgets Base funding, notional SEN budget and high-needs block funding enable schools and colleges to provide teaching and support arrangements for all of their pupils and students. If individual needs exceed the level of provision the school or college normally provides, additional funds: can definitely come from funding provided by the LA from their high-needs block can possibly come from funding managed by a school or college, if the head or principal agrees. It is normally these additional funds, beyond the normal provision as set out in the local offer, that would be offered as part of an EHC personal budget.

Implementation Issues New process in place in time for September 2014 How to handle those children who already have a statement - up to three years to make the transition? Address at review points - secondary transfer, post 16 transfer, or annual review? Banding and what comes out of high needs block-conversation with schools How to ensure that parents and young people are fully involved in statementing process - great stress in indicative guidance on this and also linked to local offer process Post 16 Commissioning-continuance of “LAG” funding issues Joint Commissioning-how far are health and social care now involved in process - see Mott McDonald latest guidance

the local offer Addressing confidence in the SEN system/Changing the culture of provision?

Government Bill-Local Offer Parents, children and young people with Sensory must be involved developing the local offer: co-production of the offer with parents and young people - what are the communication and access needs for families and young people to be involved? It must set out what families can expect from local services and where they have eligibility criteria and/or thresholds for accessing services - what does a good service look like for Sensory? What specialist services are available to support those without Education, Health and Care Plans, including what children, young people and parents can expect schools and colleges, to provide from their delegated funds - how are schools dealing with delegated funds and specialist support? What specialist support is available and how to access it and to give details of where parents and young people can go for information, advice and support. Each service will be accountable for delivering what is set out in the local offer and if families are unhappy with what they receive or what is available they will be able to take this up with those services.

Schools’ individual duties to publish information 1. The school's policies for the identification, assessment and provision for pupils with special educational needs, whether or not pupils have EHC Plans, including how the school evaluates the effectiveness of its provision for such pupils. 2.The school’s arrangements for assessing the progress of pupils with special educational needs 3.The name and contact details of the SEN co-ordinator. 4.Information about the expertise and training of staff in relation to children and young people with special educational needs and about how specialist expertise will be secured. 5.Information about how equipment and facilities to support children and young people with special educational needs will be secured. 6.The role played by the parents of pupils with special educational needs. 7.Any arrangements made by the governing body or the proprietor relating to the treatment of complaints from parents of pupils with special educational needs concerning the provision made at the school.

Additional SEN Support What replaces school action and school action plus?

“The culture of schools is still to focus the best teachers on the those children with highest abilities… however we also need the best teachers and better targeted resources to those most in need” Lamb Inquiry

Early Identification - New Code (1) Educational settings must: Consider their core teaching and adapt that to meet needs of the cohort as a whole-how does that effect sensory provision - what support do teachers need? Ensure that parents of children are fully engaged, consulted and informed and agreement is reached on how the child’s needs will be met-how do parents know what a good offer for Sensory looks like? Ensure that the child or young person is fully engaged, consulted and informed and agreement is reached on how their needs will be met—what support and communication; Develop a plan that focuses on what outcomes are expected and the support that the school, college and any relevant agencies will provide-importance of monitoring of children and young people with sensory needs;

Early Identification - New Code (2) 16 Early Identification - New Code (2) Reviews of progress should be held at least once a term-structured conversation model-what communication and other support do parents and children and young people need? Where relevant, external services and providers should work with settings to meet the needs of children and young people with SEN; how is the service positioned with the school-what is commissioning relationship? Settings should review the effectiveness of what is happening and consider the need for a further assessment and whether there should be changes to the support provided; role of support services in providing further advice and support.

Challenges What does a good local offer look like for Sensory Provision - NatSIP workstream looking at this. How does that translate at school level/what is the role of LA’s in that-developing a Sensory response - NatSIP workstream - Workshop at NatSIP North today. How do we ensure better outcomes for children with sensory issues? What is the evidence for different approaches - NatSIP, Sutton Trust and Fischer Family Trust materials/ Achievement for All approach/collecting your own. How do we ensure that parents and young people with sensory loss are fully engaged?

Important Links http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/sen/a0075339/sengreenpaper http://www.education.gov.uk/a00221161/children-families-bill http://www.afa3as.org.uk/ http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20091207163458/dcsf.gov.uk/lambinquiry/ http://www.education.gov.uk/complexneeds/ http://www.sendpathfinder.co.uk/ http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/document/cm84/8438/8438.pdf http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/sen/a00209601/send-materials-advanced http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/ htttp:www.natsip.org.uk

Contact Details Brian.publicaffairs@natsip.org.uk