Ambition 1
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What did you tell us?
You told us that you want timely, joined up planning that recognises the individuality of each child and young person, includes everyone involved and meets their full range of needs.
What does this mean?
We will work together to identify children and young people who have SEND needs at the earliest possible opportunity and engage with our children, young people and their families to develop an effective package of support to meet their individual needs, with the right people providing the right support at the right time.
How will we do this?
a) Early identification and intervention:
- improve consistent identification of children and young people with SEND across the local area
- build a high level of expertise to ensure that our children and young people with SEND are well supported and have their needs met at the earliest opportunity, wherever possible enabling needs to be met locally at SEN Support level
- improved communication and the sharing of information across services to ensure that the right people are involved at the right time, making the SEN Support and EHCP process as simple and transparent as possible
b) Individual voice in decision making:
- ensuring that the child or young person and their family have all the information needed to make informed decisions and that their voice is central to their plans
- Establish joint co-ordination of personal education budgets, personal health budgets and direct payments
c) Collective voice in developing services across the local area:
- further develop a culture of engagement, collaboration and co-production with children, young people, parents and carers
- regularly obtain the views of children, young people, parents and carers, using these to improve services being offered locally
How will we know we are making progress?
- increased % of EHC needs assessments and EHCP Annual Reviews completed within timescales
- slowed growth of EHCPs as children's needs are met earlier
- increased number of children with EHCPs having their needs met in their local mainstream school
- increased % of EHCPs are of a high quality and are informed by the aspirations and voices of children and young people
Senior Leaders use the feedback from children, young people and their families to assess the impact of local services and service developments.
Delivery plan
| Theme | Action | Link to Safety Valve Programme | Link to Priority Action Plan | Deadline | Responsible Lead | Progress/Milestones | Expected outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Early Intervention | Seek to repatriate learners from independent special settings at key points of transition. This aims to return at least 16 learners per year to Bexley at a cost avoidance/saving of an average of £32,000 in high needs funding. This will also have an impact on Special Educational Needs (SEN) travel assistance costs. | 3.1 | 12:00:00 AM | Deputy Director of Education | More Children and Young people are supported in the right type of local educational placement | ||
| Develop inclusive practice and knowledge in Bexley mainstream settings by delivering a new outreach programme from the special schools to enhance the offer in mainstream schools for children and young people with more complex needs. | 3.3 | 12:00:00 AM | Deputy Director of Education | More Children and Young people are supported in the right type of local educational placement | |||
| Ensure local children with higher level of needs can access local provision/SEN places, by offering a broad range of provisions in the local offer that support parental choice, thus reducing the need for parents to seek costly out of borough provision. | 3.4 | 12:00:00 AM | Deputy Director of Education | More Children and Young people are supported in the right type of local educational placement | |||
| Offer early intervention to children requiring SEN Support, for children in pre-school, primary and secondary settings, to reduce the need for Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). | 3.6 | 12:00:00 AM | Deputy Director of Education | More Children and Young people are supported in the right type of local educational placement | |||
| Commissioning | To identify and implement a joint commissioning model that addresses inequity of access to EHCP Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy | 3.1.2 | 12:00:00 AM | Commissioning Officer LBB ICB Children, Young People and Maternity Programme Manager SEN Team Manager Designated Clinical Officer SEND | Equity of access to Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy for children and young people with EHCP. | ||
| Commissioning | Develop an electronic tracker to monitor termly the EHCP provision of Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy to quickly identify any issues. | 3.1.4 | LBB Head ICT Designated Clinical Officer SEND | Any gaps in EHCP Occupational Therapy and Speech and Language Therapy are quickly identified by LBB Statutory SEND Service for support to resolve and plan interim ways to support children’s communication or occupational development. | |||
| Voice of the Child and Co-Production | Recruitment of a joint funded full-time post as additional resource to lead on and facilitate co-production and engagement across SEND and Preparing for adulthood. | 4.1.2 | 12:00:00 AM | Deputy Director Education Deputy Director of Childrens Social Care Director Integrated Commissioning | There is capacity across the Local Area Partnership to fully engage with children, young people and their families. Leaders consider the specific needs of groups of children and young people with SEND, and how best to engage them in co-production. There is evidence that Leaders ensure that decisions relating to services are appropriately shaped by children and young people’s needs, experiences, ambitions and outcomes. The voices of parents, carers and young people routinely influence service developments. | ||
| Voice of the Child and Co-Production | Establish a Co-Production Task and Finish Group across the Local Area SEND Partnership to design a SEND Improvement Co-Production Plan | 4.1.3 | 12:00:00 AM | Bexley Voice Associate Director, Adult Social Care Health Provider Patient Engagement leads | There is evidence that Leaders ensure that decisions relating to services are appropriately shaped by children and young people’s needs, experiences, ambitions and outcomes. | ||
| Voice of the Child and Co-Production | Implement a Co-Production plan, | 4.1.4 | 12:00:00 AM | Chair of Co-Production Task and Finish Group | There is a clear co-production plan that ensures that decisions relating to services are appropriately shaped by children and young people’s needs, experiences, ambitions and outcomes. | ||
| Voice of the Child and Co-Production | Establish a Young Person with SEN and Disabilities Group that will meet every 6 weeks to identify and assist to co-produce policies, information and service developments | 4.1.5 | 12:00:00 AM | SEND Engagement /Participation Officer. ICB engagement officer | Young people tell us and there is clear evidence that young people are actively co-producing information, strategies and services developments. | ||
| Quality Data informing Senior Leaders | Local Area SEND Data Dashboard is updated to ensure that the impact of improvement actions are routinely measured and available to the SEND Improvement Board. | 5.1.1 | 12:00:00 AM | Chair of EHCP Quality and a Task and Finish Group | Practitioners, Managers and SEND Improvement Board members have access to data that allows them to accurately and rigorously evaluate the impact of services and improvements. SEND Data Dashboard will the reviewed at SEND Improvement Board monthly. | ||
| EHCP Quality | The SEN team will share details every term of children and young people who require a review of their EHC plan to all headteachers and principals of schools, colleges and other institutions attended by children or young people with EHC plans | 2.1.1. | 12:00:00 AM | Head of SEND | 80% of Annual reviews are completed before or on the anniversary of the EHCP being issued or the last Annual review. (6 months for children under statutory school age) There is a clear plan in place when it is identified an annual review will not be completed on time. | ||
| EHCP Quality | Refresher training will be provided to all SEN Case Officers on how to uplift health and therapy advice into the draft EHCP. | 12:00:00 AM | SEN Quality Assurance Officer | 80% of audited EHCP’s are good or outstanding | |||
| EHCP Quality | An EHCP quality SEN Officer quality assurance checklist is developed as part of a wider SEND Quality Assurance Strategy. | 12:00:00 AM | SEN Quality Assurance Officer | 100% of new and amended EHCP’s have been subject to the check list by the SEN Case Officers improving the quality of new and amended EHCP’s. | |||
| EHCP Quality | Improve the quality of health advice provided for EHCP assessments and timeliness for reviews. | 12:00:00 AM | Designated Clinical Officer | Audits show that 80% of the health advice provided for new EHCP assessments and reviews is of good quality. Audit shows that following 12 weeks' notice of annual review 80% of health advice for EHCP annual review is provided to the SENCo at least 2 weeks before the review. There is a clear plan in place to obtain any late advice from health providers and the reasons for the delay are known and acted on. | |||
| EHCP Quality | Improve the quality and timeliness of social care advice provided for EHCP assessments and reviews. | 2.1.7 | 12:00:00 AM | Audits show that 80% of social care advice for EHCPs was provided within 6 weeks of the request for new EHCP assessments and 2 weeks prior to each EHCP annual review. Audits show that 80% of the social care advice provided for new EHCP assessments and reviews is of good quality. | |||
| EHCP Quality | 3 Review capacity of the SEN Team to review annual review paperwork and make timely decision on whether or not the EHCP should be amended and take action to increase capacity if required. | 2.2.3 | Head of SEND | 85% of decision letters are sent to young people, their parent/carers and education providers within 4 weeks of the date of the annual review meeting | |||
| EHCP Quality | To ensure there is capacity of the SEN team to complete timely amendments to the EHCP following annual reviews when required and consider appointment of two Annual Review Officers. | 2.2.4 | Monthly data on the timeliness of decision letters following annual review is available to the SEND Board. | ||||
| EHCP Quality | To adopt National Digitalised EHCP Portal when available from DfE. | 2.4.2 | when available | Head of ICT, LBB Head of SEND, LBB | To ensure the Local Area is using the new national EHCP Template when this is available. | ||
| EHCP Quality | A reviewed EHCP Quality Assurance Plan is produced which clearly aims to assess the quality of new and amended EHCP’s as part of a wider SEND Quality Assurance Strategy | 2.5.1 | Senior Quality Assurance SEN Officer, LBB Head of SEND, LBB | By December 2024, 45% of children and young people with SEND and their families and SENCos tell us that EHCP’s are clear, concise, accurately reflect the child’s needs and clearly describe the provision required to meet their needs. By June 2025, 80 % of children and young people with SEND and their families and SENCo’s tell us that EHCP’s are clear, concise, accurately reflect the child’s needs and clearly describe the provision required to meet their needs. Data on the quality of EHCP’s obtained from Quality Assurance processes is reported quarterly to the SEND Improvement Board. SEN Case Officers, health and social care advice providers and managers are routinely provided with audit feedback and act on the feedback. |