3 July 2026 weekly update

Dear Colleagues,

While our attention systemwide is currently on our ongoing Ofsted inspection, I am very mindful that there is still a considerable amount of pre-existing transformation actively that needs to maintain momentum. I am aware that communication on existing workstreams has not necessarily been as consistent as it needs to be in recent months, so I wanted to address that centrally so there is a better understanding of why that is and what we’re doing about it.

You will of course all be aware that a significant proportion of our collective development capacity has been focused since February on meeting the Department for Education’s mandated SEND Reform Plan, for which a draft was submitted on 19 June. A huge amount of collaboration took place in the development of those proposals, against very challenge timescales from Government that did not properly consider the impact on a sector that already has more things to do than time to do them. My thanks again to everyone that was involved and shared their views and expertise.

You will have heard me say before, that one of the advantages that Kent had was that a number of Government initiatives had facsimiles within our existing change programme. This meant that as a system, we were prepared to come together quickly, with representatives across disciplines already identified and in place to approach that new challenge. But, as a consequence, those parties, including all of us in KCC, were less able to continue to develop and update on those original workstreams contemporaneously.

However, beyond simply capacity considerations, there is a much more fundamental issue that we all need to be aware of. While our local plans have set us on the right path towards the national change agenda, if we just keep doing what we were doing, we won’t fully meet the new expectations placed on all of us. While our “satnav” has been sending us to the right postcode, we now need to refine our thinking to arrive at the right front door, at the right time. This doesn’t mean starting again, but it does mean that there needs to be a period of reflection and further development, which will need to be scheduled alongside everything else. This was not possible to do this fully during the reform plan development window.

I am mindful of the impact this is having on you, but the alternative would just create more work for us collectively down the line. We can’t continue to build things that will need to be changed as soon as they are completed. KCC is in discussion with sector representatives to plan how we manage this as quickly and clearly as possible, but I would ask that you bear with us as much as possible while this is completed. I will ensure that there are further updates before the end of term.

One specific area that I will reference today, is the ongoing work required to build the new Experts at Hand model, which is at the heart of Government’s SEND Reform plan for this forthcoming year. Governmental guidance on the model was only released two weeks before the deadline, which means that every plan across the country needed to make clear that one of the first tasks would be to amend plans where necessary to make sure they were fully complaint. Before we received the Ofsted call, it was our intention that this development work would continue, with a first co-production meeting to take place next week. Things obviously took a different path, but it is still our intention to engage with the sector and key partners before the end of term. At this point, a much more detailed update will be included in the following Kelsi bulletin. I understand this means that there will be information coming out close to the end of term, which we would always strive to avoid, but again, we’re beyond the point where our plans are fully our own to control.

I hope this provides some more clarity around the area of development within the system. National reforms are an opportunity to simplify and strengthen our approach and I am grateful for everyone’s ongoing efforts while that takes place.

Best wishes

Craig Chapman
Interim Deputy Director for Education: Access and Inclusion