26 April 2024

National recognition for our role to coordinate support for children and young people with SEND

SEND graphic.png

Back in 2019, we created the role of SEND strategic lead within the trust, recognising the importance of supporting children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and their families.

This had several aims:

  • To drive improvements in services working with children and young people with SEND and their families.
  • To strengthen the timeliness and quality of Education Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment contributions from health staff
  • To provide training and support for health staff to increase awareness and knowledge of SEND and the Code of Practice
  • To work closely with local area SEND partnerships

After a year, the role was evaluated, and it was decided that it should continue. Now, our approach has been recognised as an example of effective practice in a case study published on the Council for Disabled Children’s What works in SEND website.

 

Effective practice

The case study outlines that the introduction of the role has had a positive impact in two mains areas:

  • Ensuring coherence in our work on SEND – This includes SEND being a key part of the trust’s planning and strategy, while the strategic lead is a member of all the main local SEND partnership boards. There has been consistent positive feedback from partners, with Northumberland and North Tyneside local authorities both commenting on the value of having a single point of contact.
  • Driving improvement in the trust’s contributions to the SEND agenda – Notably, the timeliness and quality of trust health advice for EHC needs assessment which has improved over time. This was reflected in the most recent local area SEND inspection reports for both North Tyneside and Northumberland.

There are three key elements that have been crucial to ensuring that the role of SEND strategic lead is effective:

  • Creating clear parameters for the role
  • Engaging the workforce in the SEND agenda
  • Establishing quality assurance and governance systems

 

Challenging backdrop

This comes at a time of many challenges that services face in delivering support for children and young people with SEND and their families. The Government green paper SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, published in March 2023, sets out plans to change the SEND system to improve outcomes for children and young people and improve experience for families.

Recent reports revealed that the number of children requiring an Education Health and Care Plan in Northumberland and North Tyneside has risen consistently over the last five years.

However, the latest national data showed that in 2022, 66.6% in Northumberland and 81.3% in North Tyneside of EHCPs (excluding exceptions) were issued within the target of 20 weeks, against an England average of 49.2%.

As Gillian Vince, the holder of our SEND strategic lead role, said: “We are proud of the excellent way we work in partnership to support children and young people with SEND and their families.”

Read the case study here - Creating the role of a “SEND Strategic Lead” in a healthcare provider in Northumbria - What Works in SEND (whatworks-send.org.uk)

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