THE SEND REFORMS-WHAT DO THE REFORMS MEAN FOR PARENTS AND CHILDREN? Brian Lamb OBE

From this…..? Welcome to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Maze School Action School Action Plus Statements IEP’ s Health and Social Care second exit on the right

Leaving Parents and Children feeling like this!

To this…..

With a little of this…?

OVERVIEW

Structure of Legislation-Individual Duties Graduated response EHC Plans Personal Budgets Rights to Tribunal or Health complaints mechanism Presumption in favour of mainstream schools Extension to 25 Young people have additional rights to appeal and hold budgets post 16

Strategic Duties Local Offer Joint Commissioning within and outside a EHC Plan Co-operation over delivery of services Promoting integration Review of adequacy of local provision Not all of these co-operation duties are new but they are strengthened LA’s Identify children with SEND in their area CCG’s, NHS Trusts and Foundation Trusts must bring to the attention of LA’s children with SEND

THE BACKGROUND How did we get to this point?

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.

DEFINITION OF SEND

Definition Overall definition of SEN has not changed but disability more clearly encompassed: “A child or young person has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. xii. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she: has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of educational facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions” CoP April 2014.

THE LOCAL OFFER Changing the culture of provision

Local Offer aims To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving children and young people with SEN, parents and carers, and service providers in its development and review To provide clear, comprehensive and accessible information about the support and opportunities that are available LA’s to review provision where issues are raised about the adequacy of the offer

Local Offer Sets out what families can expect from local services and eligibility criteria and/or thresholds for accessing services What 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 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. Education, health and care provision for children and young people with SEN which should include information about its quality and the destinations/outcomes achieved by those who use it Must include support in preparing for adulthood Much greater stress on what works for children and young people

QUESTIONS

ADDITIONAL SEN SUPPORT What replaces school action and school action plus?

Graduated Response-Implementation Issues School Action and School Action Plus going-to be replaced with Graduated response-Assess, Plan, Do, Review The Teacher and SENCO working to establish if there is an SEND need-linked to progress and attainment measured against peers, views of parents and child taken into account Reviewed against further progress following the interventions which have taken place following a plan Involvement of specialist support if there is no progress, differentiated provision and provision mapping Consideration of a EHC Plan depending on need and continued lack of progress-not seen as being a routine response to need

Schools Duties Use their best endeavours to make sure that a child with SEN gets the support they need – this means doing everything they can to meet children and young people’s SEN Ensure that children and young people with SEN engage in the activities of the school alongside pupils who do not have SEN Inform parents when they are making special educational provision for a child Prepare a report on the implementation of their SEN policy and their arrangements for the admission of disabled children, the steps being taken to prevent disabled children from being treated less favourably than others, the facilities provided to enable access to the school for disabled children and their accessibility plan showing how they plan to improve access progressively over time

EDUCATION, HEALTH AND CARE PLAN Personalising Services

In shared houses….nobody does the washing up!

Education Health and Care Plan A single, simpler 0-25 assessment process and Education, Health and Care Plan from New duties on health and social care to cooperate in the production of a plan and new complaints mechanisms A duty to jointly commission services New Rights to Health Provision if part of the plan Social Responsibilities been clarified The criteria for triggering a plan remain the same, timescales are shortened (20 weeks) and other agencies can also trigger a plan and it will have to be reviewed LA’s will have time (up to 3 years two terms) to transfer existing statements to EHC plans.

EHC personal budgets Once an 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: 1. The local authority manages the funds and commissions the support specified in the EHC plan (sometimes called “notional arrangements”). 2. The funds are paid to a third party to manage on behalf of the parent or young person. 3. 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 the special individualised provision made available through the EHC plan Schools have to agree to the use of schools resources and any provision put in place as a result of the personal budget 26

Types of Support

So everyone takes responsibility….

QUESTIONS

Need to not lose sight of the Aim Children and young adults with SEN achieve better outcomes and attainment Parents have more confidence in the system Resources get used in right places to deliver this

SCHOOLS OBLIGATIONS Brian Lamb

Equality Act Duties The specific duties that schools, early years providers, post-16 institutions and local authorities have towards disabled children and adults are included in the Equality Act 2010 the key elements are as follows: They must not discriminate against, harass or victimise disabled children and young people; They must make reasonable adjustments to ensure that disabled children and young people are not at a substantial disadvantage compared with their peers. This duty is anticipatory: adjustments must be planned and put in place in advance, to prevent that disadvantage.

Code of Practice-Local Offer/Schools Offer The Local Authority must set out what it expects early years providers, schools and post 16 institutions to provide for its delegated funds. Further under the Special Educational Needs (Information) Regulations, early years, schools and post 16 providers are required to give more detailed information about their arrangements for identifying, assessing and making provision for pupils/students with SEN. The school-specific information should reflect the local offer and elaborate on it. The requirements about what is covered are very similar in the Local Offer and Schools Sections.

Schools Information Report Must include; the kinds of special educational needs that are provided for policies for identifying children and young people with SEN and assessing their needs, including the name and contact details of the SENCO (mainstream schools) arrangements for consulting parents of children with SEN and involving them in their child’s education arrangements for consulting young people with SEN and involving them in their education arrangements for assessing and reviewing children and young people’s progress towards outcomes, including the opportunities available to work with parents and young people as part of this assessment and review arrangements for supporting children and young people in moving between phases of education and in preparing for adulthood. As young people prepare for adulthood outcomes should reflect their ambitions, which could include higher education, employment, independent living and participation in society the approach to teaching children and young people with SEN

Schools Information Report how adaptations are made to the curriculum and the learning environment of children and young people with SEN the expertise and training of staff to support children and young people with SEN, including how specialist expertise will be secured evaluating the effectiveness of the provision made for children and young people with SEN how children and young people with SEN are enabled to engage in activities available with children and young people in the school who do not have SEN support for improving emotional and social development. This should include extra pastoral support arrangements for listening to the views of children and young people with SEN and measures to prevent bullying how the school involves other bodies, including health and social care bodies, local authority support services and voluntary sector organisations, in meeting children and young people’s SEN and supporting their families the kinds of special educational needs that are provided for

Schools Information Report “Schools should ensure that the information is easily accessible by young people and parents and is set out in clear, straightforward language. It should include information on the school’s SEN policy, named contacts within the school for situations where young people or parents have concerns, and arrangements for handling complaints from parents of children with SEN about the provision made at the school. It should also give details of the school’s contribution to the Local Offer, including information on where the local authority’s Local Offer is published.”

QUESTIONS

POST 16 PROVISION Brian Lamb

Post 16 Provision must cover: how local authorities and health services should plan strategically for the support children and young people will need to prepare for adult life how early years providers, schools and colleges should enable children and young people to have the information and skills they need to help them gain independence and prepare for adult life support from Year 9, including the content of preparing for adulthood reviews for children and young people with EHC Plans planning the transition into post-16 education how post-16 institutions can design study programmes and create pathways to employment how young people should be supported to make decisions for themselves Packages of provision for children and young people with EHC plans across five days a week transition to higher education transition to adult health services transition to adult social care leaving education and training and progressing into employment

FE Duties The duty to co-operate with the local authority on arrangements for children and young people with SEN. This is a reciprocal duty. The duty to admit a young person if the institution is named in an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan. Young people have the right to request that an institution is named in their EHC plan, and local authorities have a duty to name that institution in the EHC plan The duty to have regard to the Code of Practice The duty to use their best endeavours to secure the special educational provision that the young person needs. This duty applies to further education colleges, sixth form colleges and academies. It does not apply to independent specialist colleges or special schools, as their principal purpose is to provide for young people with SEN Move post 19 from age to “whether the educational or training outcomes specified in the plan have been achieved”

16-17 Year Olds “Where a young person is under 18, the involvement of parents is particularly important and local authorities should continue to involve them in the vast majority of decisions. Schools and colleges normally involve the parents or family members of students under 18 where they have concerns about a young person’s attendance, behaviour or welfare and they should continue to do so. They should also continue to involve parents or family members in discussions about the young person’s studies where that is their usual policy.” Draft Code of Practice April 2014.

LDA’s/Post 18 provision and EHC Plans “where relevant assessment information exists, and parents/young people and professionals are content with the statement/LDA; where there are no additional health and social care needs; and where personal budget is not sought, a transfer may use existing information and discussions with the child/young person and their parents to develop a person- centred, outcomes-focused EHC plan.” “When a young person with an EHC plan does make the transition to adult services, both sets of statutory guidance will make it clear that the assessment for adult services should be aligned with the annual review of the EHC plan, avoiding the need for separate, unconnected assessments. For those young people whose needs make them eligible for adult services, their resulting statutory Care plan will form all or part of the care element of their EHC plan.” Government Guidance to LA’s April 2014.

Young People’s Rights “After compulsory school age (the end of the academic year in which they turn 16) the right to make decisions etc. under the Children and Families Act 2014 applies to them directly, rather than to their parents. Parents, or other family members, can continue to support young people in making decisions, or act on their behalf, provided that the young person is happy for them to do so, and it is likely that parents will remain closely involved in the great majority of cases.” “Local authorities, schools, colleges, health services and other agencies should continue to involve parents in discussions about the young person’s future. In focusing discussions around the individual young person” Draft Code of Practice 2014.

Young Peoples Rights post 16. the right to request an assessment for an EHC plan (which they can do at any time up to their 25th birthday) the right to make representations about the content of their EHC plan the right to request that a particular institution is named in their EHC plan. the right to request a Personal Budget for elements of an EHC plan the right to appeal to the First-Tier Tribunal (SEN and Disability) about decisions concerning their EHC plan

Autism Provision “Under statutory guidance accompanying the Autism Strategy, SENCOs should inform young people with autism of their right to a community care assessment and their parents of the right to a carer’s assessment; colleges should adopt the same approach. This should be built into preparing for adulthood review meetings for those with EHC plans.”

Mental Capacity Act “The right of young people to make a decision is subject to their capacity to do so as set out in the Mental Capacity Act The underlying principle of the Act is to ensure that those who lack capacity are empowered to make as many decisions for themselves as possible and that any decision made or action taken on their behalf is done so in their best interests.” Draft Code of Practice 2014.

Working on Tables What is working well for you now? What would you like to see change?

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