Message from Lisa Linscott, Director of Education and Skills, Children's Services, BCP Council - May 2025
Dear parents, carers, children and young people
The BCP Area Partnership is taking a robust approach to strengthening systems for all our children, young people and families.
Our vision is to provide quality learning pathways within local networks of support, from your child’s early years right through to adulthood.
At the heart of this our focus is to create SEND services that are responsive, child-led, offer earlier identification and support, and are inclusive for all children and young people.
Our SEND Improvement Plan is jointly owned across Education, Health and Social Care. It was approved by the SEND Improvement Board, chaired by the Department for Education, in February 2024.
Our progress against this plan is monitored by the SEND Improvement Board to make sure we deliver what is needed. We will keep you informed of our progress and involve and engage with you as we develop new ways of working with you.
Our SEND Improvement Plan has eight key themes which focus our work. A copy of this plan can be found here SEND Improvement plan 2024
- Early identification and intervention - working together and collaboratively to deliver early help to ensure a ‘right people, right conversations, right time’ approach
- Inclusion - having a more consistent ethos and commitment to inclusion across all our learning places and services, looking to keep children in mainstream provision wherever possible
- A clear and agreed pathway - working together, with a clear pathway for children, young people and their families ensuring they do not have to repeat their story to multiple professionals.
- The right number and types of places - delivering improved educational and life outcomes for our children and young people within their local community.
- Preparation for adulthood - enabling young people to confidently plan for their future, work collaboratively to reduce barriers and optimise opportunities for positive change in our systems
- Communication and coproduction - developing effective co-production processes and clear effective communication plans, using the lived experience of children and young people with SEND and their families to inform our work.
- Leadership, management and governance – improving our strategic leadership to drive sustainable, impactful change across our SEND System.
- Managing resources – making sure we have the correct resources allocated to the wider SEND system, as well as the wider improvement journey.
I am pleased that we are already starting to see improvements to our services. We know more needs to be done to ensure every child and young person and with SEND start to experience the change when accessing and receiving our services.
There are still challenges ahead however we believe we have much stronger foundations to drive sustainable improvements to our SEND service in the years now and in the years ahead.
By working with and listening to you, we will develop services based on your lived experiences and what you have told us you need and, what your children need, to support them to achieve their full potential.
Thank you for your continued support and involvement with our work. If you would like to see our full Self Evaluation Framework please follow this link.