Southend SEND Strategy 2023 to 2026

Making it happen – what we will do and core commitments

This strategy provides an opportunity to refresh our planned actions so that children, young people and their families feel the impact of better support, services and intervention.

This section sets out each priority and what we will do over the next 3 years. A strategy action plan will provide additional detail of how each priority will be delivered and how outcomes will be measured.

Priority - Transitions:

Children and young people are prepared and supported to thrive at each change in their lives, helping them to feel secure and confident

We will:

  • ensure assessments are prioritised for children and young people approaching transitions
  • produce and embed guidance that sets out agreed expectations for school-based transitions for children and young people with an EHCP, on SEN Support or with complex medical conditions
  • provide support and training for children and young people parent carers and professionals to ensure all children and young people with SEND are prepared as early as possible for adulthood and the transitions they face
  • develop an agreed set of skills across the education, health and social care workforce so that practitioners work to the same preparing for adulthood principles, awareness of what good health, social care and education transitions look like and what provision is in place and at which level
  • work as a SEND partnership to share (where appropriate) information to ensure children, young people, and families, do not have to repeat their story and that risk or vulnerabilities are mitigated.
  • produce and publish a roadmap of what is expected at each stage for key transition points in a child or young person's journey (health, education and social care) so that all professionals are working towards the same goals and pathway
  • provide clear information to parents, children, and young people about options at each transition stage so they can make informed choices
  • Work with employers and Further Education providers to develop a greater range of options, education, training, and employment, for young people when they move on from compulsory education

Priority - Early Intervention:

Identification, assessment and effective support are provided at the earliest opportunity

We will:

  • ensure there is proactive signposting to early support services so that families experience of the SEND system improves and appropriate support is available at the earliest opportunity
  • continue the review of therapy provision (the balanced system review) and implement the recommendations
  • continually review and improve the advice and support available to schools and settings.
  • undertake a capacity and demand review to ensure effective use of resources
  • embed the Graduated Response across education, health, and care with a range of supportive materials which set out the expectations of how children and young people's needs should be met within mainstream schools and local services
  • build resilience in schools to manage challenging behaviours which will improve the life chances of young people and preventing escalation to crisis and entering the criminal justice system
  • Review SEND decision-making systems and ensure that processes are transparent and understood by families

Priority - Good mental health and wellbeing:

Children and young people are provided with the best chance to achieve positive mental health, be happy and thrive within their family, education and social lives, develop their potential, build strong relationships and contribute to their community.

We will:

  • support community services to be more inclusive to provide better support, improve mental health and life chances
  • improve data collection to support effective commissioning
  • review the provision of Counselling Services for all children and young people and publicise what is available on the Local Offer
  • offer training updates on early identification of need and appropriate sign posting to all frontline practitioners and those that have contact with children and young people
  • develop a person-centred behavioural approach which provides the support, tools and training needed to build resilience for parents, carers, and families to manage challenging behaviour
  • develop a set of agreed expectations for education settings to support children and young people around emotional wellbeing
  • Support the development of mental health services that are inclusive of SEND

Priority - Plans:

EHCPs and other plans for children and their families have the young person at the centre, are well co-ordinated, co-produced, timely, and lead to well informed and effective support, which is regularly monitored and reviewed.

We will:

  • consistently capture and act upon the voice of the child and young person and their families at the earliest opportunity to influence and shape their plans
  • get better at reviewing plans so they grow with the child and reflect their current aspirations.
  • provide support and challenge to providers to ensure the support detailed in all plans is delivered effectively
  • enhance quality assurance processes around EHCPs to ensure a consistent, person-centred approach, unique to each child and young person which raises parental confidence in the quality and impact of plans
  • review the impact and effectiveness of the EHC Hub
  • improve the timeliness of production of draft EHCPs
  • Produce guidance and information on routes and sources of support for families if they experience difficulties that are not being addressed by settings or if they feel that their child's needs are not being correctly identified or met

Priority - The Local Offer:

Southend's Local Offer website is a widely and easily accessible resource that signposts to a range of universal, targeted and specialist support services and high-quality provisions for Children and Young People with SEND and their families.

We will:

  • develop and implement a communication plan which effectively advertises and promotes the Local Offer as the "go to" information source for all children and young people with SEND, their families and SEND professionals.
  • work with local groups and holiday support services to ensure there is advice, support, and guidance on how to make provision for children and young people with SEND
  • finalise the evaluation of the Local Offer website and deliver improvements. If necessary, a new codesigned website will be reprocured to ensure that the website is the best it can be
  • complete a SEND partnership review of provision available for children and young people to close gaps in provision through effective identification of need and joint commissioning involving all partners
  • complete the delivery of the Southend SEND Capital Programme
  • produce a clear map of provision across the city that is easily understood and has clear routes on how to access them
  • complete an audit in reference to inclusion across the local area and educational settings.
  • identify support and resources across settings to better enable children and young people to be educated and participate in activities alongside their peers
  • Promote awareness and understanding of SEND and SEND support services amongst families, practitioners, education settings and our wider communities by recruiting SEND champions

The Southend SEND Partnership have 5 core commitments:

  1. increase the voice and engagement of children and young people with SEND and their families
  2. develop our workforce across the Southend SEND Partnership to ensure they have the right knowledge, skills, confidence, and resilience, with opportunities to learn together
  3. be the best we can by focusing on quality, impact, innovation, and improvement supported by evidence of what works well
  4. improve communications across the SEND Partnership and with children, young people and families, professionals, settings, and the voluntary sector
  5. improve joint working and make the best use of available resources