SEND news

Updates Transforming SEND services in Hertfordshire

Hertfordshire County Council is investing in a significant programme of change over the next two years to transform support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families.

The programme aims to deliver services faster and more effectively as well as meeting the needs of more families in Hertfordshire.

The programme is focusing on three key areas in particular:

(1) Enhancing local delivery networks

Parents, schools and SEND professionals have said they would like local networks of joined-up support with clearer pathways to effective help when needed. The specialist provision working group (see article in this newsletter) has been busy focusing on plans to use funding from our SEND Capital Programme to deliver an additional 80-100 places for next academic year have been identified and are beginning to move through the necessary decision making and implementation stages. Potential sponsors for the new free special school for 60 secondary age pupils with very complex needs In Hertfordshire submitted bids at the end of September. These will now be evaluated by the Department for Education, HCC and HPCI with the successful bidder expected to be announced early in 2020. We’re also developing more specialist provision across the county in mainstream schools for Social and Communication needs and will be sharing more about this during the next few weeks.

Many parents – along with schools – contributed over the summer to the review of Hertfordshire’s Exceptional Needs Funding which is now nearing completion. Since April, an evaluation and review has taken place of the current arrangements for schools and settings to access top-up funding for children and young people with complex needs and will now identify recommendations and options to better support them to achieve successful outcomes in mainstream schools and settings. We’ve also been exploring how to better coordinate the way services from across social care, education and health work together locally. After half-term, we’ll be looking to test some of this out focused in the Stevenage area in particular.

Transforming SEND continued on next page ."Enabling parents and  families . . ."

 (Updates on all Transforming SEND work will be available in each edition of SEND news)

 

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