24 November 2016 weekly update

Dear Colleagues

Kent’s Local Offer for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

The Local Offer: what help is available, and when and how to access it

In September 2014, the Children and Families Act 2014 introduced reforms to the way in which children and young people with SEND are supported to learn, including the introduction of Education Health and Care Plans. The changes also include a new statutory duty to ensure that families have timely, high quality information and support so that they can fully participate in decisions that will lead to good outcomes for their children. To support this we are expected to publish what help is available; and when and how to access it. This is called the Local Offer

Kent’s Local Offer is providing a growing range of information for the families of children and young people with SEND. The number of people searching for information has been steadily increasing. Knowing that we are providing the right services and support for families has huge importance for us and we have been pleased to work with the Kent Parent Carer Forum (KPCF) to help get this right. Their presence on the Local Offer Steering Group means we are keeping the content and its accessibility under review and continually making improvements to it.

As you know schools are *responsible for ensuring quality information about the support they provide for pupils with SEND is available for parents and accessible on the school’s website. Some schools and Early Years settings have recognised that the Local Offer provides an easily accessible information point about services from Education, including information on transition to adulthood, short breaks and local services provided by the NHS.

*Guidance on Schools duties is available

Kent Strategy for Children and Young People with SEND

We will shortly be publishing an updated Kent Strategy for SEND. Although we have made good progress, we are ambitious to achieve more as outlined in last week’s bulletin. For example, we want to continue to increase the range of specialist SEN resourced provision in mainstream schools from 2017 onwards.

We are keen to hear from mainstream schools and academies willing to host SEN resourced provision, either as a satellite of a Kent Special School or as a specialist provision for pupils with Education Health and Care Plans. We are particularly interested in hearing from schools willing to host provision for autism and social emotional and behavioural needs which are highlighted in the Kent Education Commissioning Plan. If you are interested can you please send expressions of interest to Julie.Ely@kent.gov.uk, Head of SEN.

Thank you.

Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director Education and Young People’s Services