WHY WAS THERE A NEED FOR CHANGE TO THE SEN & DISABILITY SYSTEM AND WHAT DOES THE CHILDREN'S AND FAMILIES ACT 2014 SEEK TO ACHIEVE? Brian Lamb OBE

Background to the New Approach 2

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, Children, Young People and Professionals feeling like this!

With a little of this…?

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.

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What is driving the Reforms? Move to a more family based system ; Providers must take account of; the views, wishes and feelings of the child or young person, and the child’s parents the importance of the child or young person, and the child’s parents, participating as fully as possible in decisions; and being provided with the information and support necessary to enable participation in those decisions the need to support the child or young person, and the child’s parents, in order to facilitate the development of the child or young person and to help them achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes, preparing them effectively for adulthood (Clause 19)

Good Parental Involvement? Planning-Parental engagement must be planned for and embedded in a whole school or service strategy. Leadership-Effective leadership of parental engagement is essential to the success of programmes and strategies. Collaboration and engagement-Parental engagement requires active collaboration with parents and should be pro-active rather than reactive. It should be sensitive to the circumstances of all families, recognise the contributions parents can make, and aim to empower parents. Sustained improvement-A parental engagement strategy should be the subject of on-going support, monitoring and development. Goodhall, J. and Vorhaus. J. (2011) Review of Best Practice in Parental Engagement. London. DfE.

LOCAL OFFER Changing the Culture of Provision

Local Offer and Schools “The Local Offer has two key purposes: To provide clear, comprehensive, accessible and up-to-date information about the available provision and how to access it, and To make provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations by directly involving disabled children and those with SEN and their parents, and disabled young people and those with SEN, and service providers in its development and review Local authorities and their partner bodies and agencies, including schools, must co-operate with each other in the development and review of the Local Offer. This is essential so that the Local Offer provides a comprehensive, transparent and accessible picture of the range of services available.” DfE Schools guidance September 2014.

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Developing the Local Offer “Effective parent participation can lead to a better fit between families’ needs and the services provided, higher satisfaction with services, reduced costs (as long- term benefits emerge), better value for money and better relationships between those providing services and those using them. Local authorities and parents should work together to establish the aims of parent participation, to mark progress and build trust.” SEN Code of Practice. 15

Accountability “A local authority must from time to time publish. (a) comments about its local offer it has received from or on behalf of children and young people with special educational needs, and the parents of children with special educational needs, and (b) the authority's response to those comments." Children and Families Act 16

Schools Role in the Local Offer “Schools will need to co-operate with the local authority to help it fulfil its duty to develop and publish in the Local Offer an authority-wide description of the special educational and training provision it expects to be available in schools in the. They should also have the opportunity to take part in the regular review of the Local Offer that the local authority has a duty to undertake, in order to identify gaps in provision and ensure that the Local Offer is responsive to the needs of local children, young people and their families.”

Local Offer-What Needs to be in Place? Parents and young people have been involved in shaping what is in the Local Offer ensuring services are attuned to needs (CoP ) There is clarity and transparency over what parents and carers, children and young people can access and how (CoP 4.29 following) There is more information about Health and Social Care and other relevant services (CoP 4.14/15 and 4.59 following) Early Years providers, schools and colleges are clearer about their roles and what is they are expected to deliver for their delegated funds (CoP 4.32) and can discuss this with the Local Authority (CoP 4.15) Mechanisms are in place to be able to review the offer and the Local Authority has responded (CoP ) Parents and young people will have the continuing opportunities to participate in strategic decision making. (CoP 4.61)

WHAT DO EARLY YEARS, SCHOOLS AND FE HAVE TO DO?

Early Years and Schools Practice Two year developmental check implemented by April 2015 (CoP 5.23) with early intervention standard for children with SEN (CoP 5.36) Early Years settings will be able to access the Early Years Pupil Premium Schools will have clear process for identifying SEN and not conflating it with poor progression as there will be a clear focus on high quality teaching for all (CoP ) School Action and School Action plus gone. Need to ensure that there is a clear Graduated Response in place in early years (CoP 5.39 following) and has replaced school action school action plus (CoP 6.44 following)-Schools need to ensure they are modelling Plan, Assess, Do, Review approach. Clarity about the way in which schools use their delegated SEN budget (CoP 6.95) with SENCO’s fully involved in decision making (CoP 6.87) Better use of data (CoP ) and a focus on outcomes is improving attainment and settings are meeting the OFTSED and School Accountability frameworks on progression of all pupils.

What it could look like for parents, children and young people? Parent must be told when their child is identified as having SEN and a plan must be produced and shared with the parent (CoP 5.15 and 6.39) The focus in the plan must be on children and young peoples outcomes (CoP 6.37) Children and Young People are routinely involved in those discussions where appropriate (CoP 1.1-2) Parents should be seen once a term to discuss progress and interventions (CoP ) and a plan produced and discussed once a year (CoP 6.64) Schools may want to go beyond this and produce regular reports (schools will not be producing IEP’s) There is a clear process for discussing if an Education Health and Care Plan is needed and young people and parents fully involved in decisions about the future (CoP 6.53)

The SEN Information Report Schools must also produce an Information Report of how they are approaching SEN in the School The Report should be published on their website, be kept updated and include; the kinds of SEN support the school provides their approach to teaching children and young people with SEN what arrangements they have for consulting parents and involving them in their child’s education (and also for engaging young people directly) 22

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Post 16 Education Planning for transition to adulthood will have started early and by Year 9 there will be a plan in place (CoP 8.11) Post 16 the young person will have the right to make decisions about provision but will usually do so with their parents input (CoP 8.17) Young People (16 plus) will have the right to request an EHC plan, name the setting if they have an EHC plan, request a personal budget and make representations about the content of their plan and appeal to the Tribunal about the provision in their plan (CoP 8.16) Young people will follow a coherent study programme which provides stretch and progression and enables them to achieve the best possible outcomes in adult life. (CoP 8.32) Post 19 there will be a clear pathway into further education and/or continuing support from health and social care that meets the learners needs (CoP )

Information Parent Partnership has to provide a wider range of advice in the future. Can give you advice and support in all aspects of the reforms. 26

Independent Supporters There will be some additional people to help those of you converting to an EHC Plan or starting the process through the needs assessment and developing the plan They will be recruited by a voluntary or community sector organisation to help families going through an EHC needs assessment and the process of developing an EHC plan. This person is independent of the local authority and will receive training, including legal training, to enable him or her to provide this support. 27

Dispute Resolution Disagreement resolution services are for all parents of children and young people with SEN, and young people themselves with SEN. Using the service is voluntary and covers SEN provision as well as disagreements about health and social care. You can use this for; If you disagree with your local authority, your school, early years setting or college about how they are carrying out their education, health and care duties. If you disagree with your early years settings, school or college about the SEN provision they are making. This applies if your child has any kind of SEN If you disagree with your local authority or Clinical Commissioning Group about the health or social care provision during your child’s EHC needs assessment, or about their EHC plan, and any review or reassessment of the EHC plan 28

Mediation You can use the new Mediation service in the following circumstances; When the Local Authority decides; not to carry out an EHC needs assessment or re-assessment of your child not to draw up an EHC plan for your child, once they have done an assessment not to amend your child’s EHC plan after the annual review or re-assessment to cease to maintain your child’s EHC plan Or on; the parts of the plan which describe a child’s special educational needs the special educational provision set out in the plan You do not have to use the Mediation service but the LA does have to offer it to you. You still have the right to go the SEND Tribunal if you are not happy with the outcome of Mediation or if you do not want to go through Mediation. 29

If we can get this right then….. Children and young people with SEND will be achieving better outcomes and attainment-closing the gap with non SEND peers Parents have more confidence in the system and conflict reduced What resources are available will be effectively deployed Families are clear about what is on Offer locally to support them and have influenced what that looks like

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