In October 2022, Stockport Council began working on a bid to the Department for Education (DfE) as part of their Delivering Better Value programme. The bid acknowledges the pressures that local authorities are experiencing in delivering special educational needs and disability (SEND) services. You can find out more about the programme on the Delivering Better Value for SEND website. The bid aims to:
- support local authorities to improve delivery of SEND services for children and young people
- make sure that services are sustainable
In April 2023, the bid was approved and a 2 year transformation programme started. The programme has 3 core themes:
- governance and accountability
- early help
- neurodiversity
Governance and accountability
Decision making before and after the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and referral process needs to be stronger. We'll revise the:
- referral guidance
- panel oversight of decision making
- reporting process to senior management
This will include a re-launched panel process with representation from schools which will be linked to quality assurance
Things to consider include:
- the revision of panel processes and governance decisions of decisions for children and young people aged up to 25
- understanding the key data and trends for EHCP applications
- a review of the EHCP delivery and offer
- a review of the external placement process and policy
- a review of the school funding request process
- to reduce the need for EHCPs by improving SEN support offers and the graduated response across Stockport
- to improve the EHCP application and process, making updates more accessible
- to make sure that there are string links between school improvement, inclusion and wider services
Early help
We need to make sure that support is available for children as early as possible. We'll:
- build on the new inclusion service and team around the school approach
- build on the family hub programme to specifically include the development and launch of SEN early help funding for school age children
- improve training
- introduce a keyworker approach for families that receive SEN support
Things to consider include:
- a review and update of our early help offer for SEND families
- development of a new and improved early help offer, focusing on special educational needs (SEN) support
- to improve the local offer online information to make it more user friendly for families
- the development of the Team Around The School model to incorporate SEND, early help and the graduated response
- to work with the new family hubs programme to develop local offers in neighbourhoods
Neurodiversity
Neurodiversity and social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) are the largest growing areas of need. We need to review and restructure the neurodiversity support available to families and school, both before and after diagnosis. This will increase confidence within the system, leading to less EHCP requests and better outcomes for individual children.
Things to consider include:
- a review of autism and neurodiversity lived experience
- a review and the implementation of a support offer for neurodiversity before diagnosis
- to develop connections with the Greater Manchester Integrated Care System