Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Children and Families Bill
Implementing the Reforms for Special
Educational Needs and Disability
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
DfE - The Vision
 Early identification and support
 Trained and equipped workforce
 Easily accessible information
 Clear focus on outcomes
 Assessment and EHC Plan from birth to 25
 Increased control for parents and young people
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Timeframe for the Bill
 Lords committee – October
 Regulations and Code of practice published
th
Consultation process until 10 December
 Report stage – November 2013
 Royal assent – February 2014
 Law – September 2014
th
4
October –
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Legislation - Key Highlights
 0-25 Education, Health & Care Plan
 Personal Budgets
 Local Offer
 New rights & protections for 16-25 year olds
 Preparation for Adulthood
 Joint Commissioning duty
 Health duty
 Duties on Academies
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Legislation: Remaining Debates
 Young Offenders with SEN in custody
 Disabled children and young people
 Single point of redress
 Duty on social care
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Key Issues Arising From Pathfinder Activity
 Engaging families and young people critical
 Good practice in engaging institutional settings
 Local offer: engaging, accessible, transparent & comprehensive
 Requires a culture shift in thinking & approach
 Person-centred planning is important
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Co-ordinated Assessment and
Single EHC Plan
 Children, young people and their families at the centre of the process
 A “tell us once” approach to sharing information
 Use of person centred and key working approaches
 Plans focused on outcomes (short and long term) with detailed and
specific provision requirements
 More streamlined but time invested in joint agreement on key outcomes
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
THE CO-ORDINATED ASSESSMENT PROCESS
– AN EXAMPLE
Referral
Request
Assessment
Planning
6 Weeks
8 Weeks
6 Weeks
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
THE SINGLE EHC PLAN – AN EXAMPLE
 Part One: Personal details
 Part Two:
- a personalised profile of the child
- the child’s current needs
 Part Three:
- the support the child needs to succeed and achieve
- the child’s support plan
- education placement
- who’s involved
 Part Four: Agreeing the plan
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Local Offer
Principles
 Collaborative: local authorities must involve parents, children and
young people in developing and reviewing the local offer.
 Accessible: should be easy to understand, factual and jargon-free.
Should be well signposted and publicised.
 Comprehensive: describe support available across education, health
and social care from 0 to 25 and how to access it including eligibility
criteria. Describe where to go for information, advice and support, and
how to make complaints or appeal against decisions.
 Transparent: must be clear about how decisions are made and who is
accountable and responsible
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
What Must be Included
 Education, health and social care provision for SEN ;
 How parents and young people request assessment for EHC plan;
 Arrangements for identifying and assessing SEN;
 Other educational provision such as sports or arts provision;
 Post-16 education and training provision;
 Apprenticeships, Traineeships, and Supported Internships;
 Arrangements for travel;
 Support to help movement between phases of education
 Sources of information, advice and support relating to SEN
 Childcare, including provision for disabled children and with SEN;
 Leisure activities;
 Support available to young people in higher education
 Arrangements for resolving disagreements, mediation, parents’ and young
people’s rights to appeal to Tribunal and routes of complaint and redress for
health and social care.
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Publishing the local offer
Local authorities must:
 make their local offer widely accessible and on a website
 publish their arrangements for enabling those without access to the web
to get the information
 enable access for different groups, including disabled people and those
with different types of SEN
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Preparing and Reviewing the Local Offer
Local authorities:
 must involve children and young people with SEN and their parents in
developing and reviewing (co-production)
 must involve schools, colleges, health services and others - all must
cooperate with each other in development and review.
 should have engagement with providers of relevant early years
education.
 must keep under review the special educational and social care
provision available in their area and outside.
 must seek and publish comments about the local offer, including those
received from or on behalf of children and young people with SEN and
their parents
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Co-ordinated support - Joint Commissioning
There should be joint commissioning by Local Authorities and Clinical
commissioning groups. Therefore the local authority will need to:
• put in place joint commissioning arrangements
• Including for securing provision in Education, health and care plans
• arrangements for resolving disputes between parties
Planning of individual support
• assessment process, with children and young people and families at the
centre which integrates education, health and care services
• option of a personal budget for families and young people
Sunderland City Council : Support and Aspiration
Personal budgets
Development of an indicative budget for all Education, health and
care plans
• Exploration of funding streams where choice and control can be
offered
• Use of notional budgets and direct payments.
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