Our SEND improvement journey so far
BCP Council Local Area Partnership is working hard to ensure that your child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) has a brighter future, a fulfilled life and is part of our local community. We recognise the importance of providing support for their health, wellbeing and development from birth, throughout early years, their education and into adulthood and our strategic and operational planning and delivery will reflect this.
In July 2024, we revised our SEND Improvement Plan and set out eight themes around which our actions have been based over the past year. A copy of this plan can be found here SEND Improvement plan 2024
Our progress is monitored by the SEND Improvement Board and detailed under the following pages:
1 Leadership, management and governance
Leaders have a vital role in our improvement journey. We must listen to and gain feedback from our parents, carers, children and young people to help shape the design and delivery of our services and to ensure a culture of learning and improvement in our daily work.
2 Communication and co-production
We must continue to improve our communication and ensure your voice is heard when shaping services and setting our priorities. We will be responsive and respectful when communicating with you and adhere to our agreements with you (we could add a link to the SEND Service Charter here).
3 Early identification and intervention
We will ensure there is a good partnership approach and consistency across the service, to identify your child or a young persons needs at the earliest opportunity, whilst managing overall demand and financial pressures. Our mainstream schools and collages will be more inclusive, with a full range of support to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND, alongside their friends and peers, in their own communities.
4 Inclusion
We are working with our mainstream schools to support them to be as inclusive as possible, to reduce the number of suspensions and permanent exclusions, by ensuring staff are knowledgeable and skilled to provide the support required by children and young people with additional needs.
5 A clear and agreed journey (pathway) for your child
As parents, you are the experts in your child or young person’s needs, or, you may be a young person working with us directly regarding your own needs You should only need to tell your story once, so professionals within the system can work together to support you and your family’s needs. Each service has a shared responsibility for your support, so it will be easier to access services when you need them.
6 The right number and type of places (sufficiency of placements)
Every child and young person in BCP, will have a place in school or college which meets their educational needs and we will work to ensure you experience a more joined up service.
7 Preparing for adulthood
We will provide high quality information and guidance for families, to support each young person to prepare for their transition from childhood to adulthood confidently, through achieving their preferred outcomes and aspirations.
8 Managing resources
We will ensure the correct resources are allocated to provide the appropriate support for your child or young person. Our policies and practice will always be child-focused first and foremost, not money focused.
Timetable for delivery
We have set ourselves an ambitious timetable to deliver our improvements and have made progress during 2024 -2025. If you would like to learn more about our achievements so far, please follow this link.