SEND Policies

The SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan published on 2 March set out plans for reforming the system. The DfE are committed to testing, refining and in some cases developing the most significant reforms to ensure they get the changes right via a £70m Change Programme. Testing will take place in up to nine Change Programme Partnerships (CPP) each made up of three to four local authorities and their partners.

The DfE shortlisted up to three local authorities per region and invited them to express an interest in leading the CPP in each region.

Department of Education’s vision for the future of SEND and AP

Leeds was chosen to Lead the Yorkshire and Humber partnership working with Bradford, Calderdale and Wakefield.

A national delivery partner, The Reaching Excellence and Ambition for all Children (REACh) consortium, led by PA Consulting in partnership with the Council for Disabled Children, Olive Academies and IMPOWER. REACh was appointed. They will support the DfE and our CPP with delivery of a two-year programme to implement, test and refine reforms introduced by the Improvement Plan.

Highlight reports

• September 2024
• July 2024
• June 2024
• May 2024
• April 2024

What is ‘Everyone’s Included’?

Leeds published ‘Everyone’s Included: the Leeds SEND (special educational needs and disability) and Inclusion Strategy’ in January 2023. It sets out our shared plans across services to improve experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and those with additional needs due to their circumstances, including children who are: looked after (by the local authority); in need (of support from a social worker); living with financial disadvantage; and who have experienced trauma. Our plans focus on improving outcomes for these children and reducing any inequalities they may face in relation to their learning, health, and wellbeing.

Work to plan and deliver some aspects of the strategy started in 2022; other projects have been agreed and are in the early stages at spring 2023.

Why do we have a strategy?

Children and young people with SEND and their families often tell us about positive experiences of living and using services in Leeds. However, they also tell us that some things need to change to give children and young people with SEND the best possible experiences and outcomes. Our local strategy aims to respond to what children and young people with SEND, their families, and the people who work with them have told us.

Our strategy also aligns with a new national improvement plan for SEND announced in March 2023. The national improvement plan responds to the national SEND review Right support, right place, right time which reported in summer 2022. Our local strategy lines up with the with the findings of this review, for example, the need for consistent, high quality early support, as well as investment in more high-quality specialist and alternative learning places, and the need to make pathways to support more joined-up and less complicated for families.

How was the strategy developed?

The strategy was ‘co-produced’ with a range of partners, including children and young people with SEND and their families. It was important for people who will be affected by this strategy to have a voice in it. The name Everyone’s Included was suggested by members of our SEND Youth Forum, who wanted to share the message that ‘everyone’s included’ in making our city a child-friendly and inclusive place.

The strategy was developed through a range of co-production activities, including:

• An early survey of families to identify their key priorities, with follow-up focus groups to explore themes in more detail.
• Online workshops for partners (over 500 people), with tailored/ bespoke activities for specific groups and discussion items at meetings, including head teacher forums, the Early Help Board and the Leeds Health SEND Steering Group
• Activities for the Leeds SEND Youth Forum, which was established during the co-production period; and
• Support from the Voice and Influence team to maintain an active forum for parent and carer participation during the development and implementation phases of the strategy. A new forum is being established to contribute to the implementation, governance and evaluation of the strategy.

Feedback reports: 

• Parent, carer and partners report  
• Children and young people’s report

What does the strategy say?

The SEND and Inclusion Strategy contributes to the outcomes and ambitions of Leeds as set out in the Children and Young People’s Plan, the 3As plan (Attend, Attain, Achieve) and the Health and Wellbeing strategy. It sets out the ‘3Is’ - broad outcomes for an inclusive child friendly Leeds:

• Inclusion—children and young people are supported to live, learn, have fun and be included in their local communities, with their peers, wherever possible. They can access high-quality support to reach their full potential. 
• Integrated practices and pathways—partners across different services work together, with shared values, a shared language and shared practices. They provide integrated pathways to identify, assess and meet needs holistically; and
• Individualisation—children and young people’s individual needs, circumstances, goals and identities are respected. Support plans reflect the individual and services are personalised as much as possible.

The strategy identifies six shared priorities for action:

1. Promote and support early identification and holistic assessment of needs and quality planning to meet needs from the earliest time
2. Continue to build a skilled, confident, resilient workforce able to meet children and young people’s educational, social and emotional needs
3. Embed high-quality, meaningful plans for children and young people, recognising individual needs, circumstances and identities
4. Increase our focus on children and young people whose circumstances may make them more vulnerable to inequalities in their outcomes
5. Develop a continuum of high-quality provision (learning places and support services) to meet diverse needs, enhance choice and improve outcomes; and
6. Integrate practices and pathways; working together, across services and with families, to identify, assess and meet needs.

It also identifies six shared values and behaviours which underpin the work:

1. We respond to and reduce the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic
2. We work with families as partners and enable their voice and influence
3. We support children from their earliest years. We support young people to prepare for adulthood from the earliest time
4. We personalise support and services as much as possible to recognise unique needs, circumstances, identities and goals
5. We work together across agencies to identify the services we need, plan how to deliver them and use money wisely (joint commissioning); and
6. We use quality data to understand local needs and improve outcomes.

The Leeds area SEND Partnership Board includes partners across education, health, and social care services, as well as representatives for children and young people and their families. The Board will hold services to account for delivering the actions in this strategy, using a shared outcomes framework developed across education, health and care services, to help measure the difference it is making. It will set out ‘indicators’ of success for this strategy, covering improved health, wellbeing and participation outcomes for children and young people in Leeds.

Further information

Click here for a more detailed guide to the Everyone’s included strategy. If you have any questions about the strategy, or you would like to be involved in work to make it happen, please contact us via LLO@leeds.gov.uk

Our Future in Minds Strategy is a plan for Leeds that explains how people are working together to improve mental and emotional health for children and young people.

click here for more information about the strategy

The 3A's Plan (attendance, attainment and achievement) will help us become the best city for children and young people.

click here for more information about the plan

The Care Act 2014 sets out the vision for adults in England who need care and support.
The aims of the act are to:

Make care and support clearer and fairer;

• Promote people’s wellbeing; to enable people to prevent and delay the need for care and support; and
• Put people in control of their lives so they can pursue opportunities to realise
  their potential.

More information can be found at: http://www.leeds.gov.uk/docs/Care%20Act.pdf

The Children and Families Act brings together a number of changes to legislation around services for vulnerable children and families. The changes cover the family justice system, virtual schools for looked after children, adoption, childcare, shared parental leave and flexible working, and Special Educational Needs and disability (SEND) services.

The provisions in the Act which relate to SEND came into force in September 2014.

More information can be found at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/6/contents/enacted 

The SEND and alternative provision improvement plan sets out the Governments plans to change the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and alternative provision system in England.

Click here to view the plan

A Deprivation of Liberty is currently defined as ‘under continuous supervision and not free to leave’. This for many is related to those living in provisions were there are for example locked doors, staff supervising residents or where if they left the residence they would be brought back.

Those who ‘lack capacity’ to consent to these sorts of restrictions currently require a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS). Currently DOLS are agreed by the Supervisory Body for adults who are residing in hospital or a care home when aged 18+ who do not have the capacity to consent to their treatment. This requires a Mental Capacity Assessment to take place to test the individual’s ability to understand, retain, weigh up the information and communicate the decision. If they are assessed as not having the capacity to consent, consideration is given to whether decisions are in their ‘Best Interest’. For anyone under 18, decisions need to be made by a judge under the Court of Protection (COP) as to whether these deprivations are necessary and proportionate. It will also decide if these deprivations are in the Best Interest of the child.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards are changing. The government are aiming for April 2024 for full implementation to new Liberty Protection Safeguard’s (LPS):

• LPS is about safeguarding the rights of people who are under high levels of care and supervision but lack the mental capacity to consent to those arrangements for their care.
• LPS will apply to people in care homes, hospitals, supported accommodation, Shared Lives accommodation and their own homes.
• LPS will apply to anyone aged 16 and above.
• The Key Principles of the Mental Capacity Act will still apply.
• Local Authorities and NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) can authorise LPS as the Responsible Body.
• LPS authorisations can be portable and made across settings (for example in a care home and short break centre).

At this stage we are asking professionals to be aware of these changes and how they may impact on the young people they work with.

Updated October 2022

What are joint area SEND inspections?

In January 2023, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) adopted a new framework for jointly inspecting local area arrangements to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). These inspections assess how effectively education, health, and social care services in the area work together to improve experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND aged 0 to 25 years, and their families.

The new inspection framework builds on the framework first introduced in 2016. This was focused on how effectively local areas deliver new statutory duties introduced by the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice 2015. Leeds was inspected under this framework in 2016; click here to see the letter from inspectors.

click here to view the information for parents and carers Ofsted easy read document

What does the inspection framework cover?

The new inspection framework continues to assess how effectively education, health, and social care services in the area deliver statutory duties. However it also responds to the national SEND review 2022: Right support, right place, right time with some new features, as follows:

• A greater focus on the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND and their families. Inspectors will meet with children and young people with SEND and their families. They will also send a survey to every child or young person with SEND in the local area, and their family, asking about their experiences.
• Greater focus on partnership working, joint arrangements, and clear accountabilities across the local education, health and care partnership. Lead inspectors for education, for health, and for social care, will lead multi-disciplinary inspection teams.
• A new focus on alternative provision (which provides education for children who cannot attend a mainstream school) and how it is commissioned and overseen locally.

A new cycle of inspections, based on 3 new judgements to be made by inspectors:

• The local area partnership’s SEND arrangements typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The local area partnership is taking action where improvements are needed.
• The local area partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements.

There are widespread and/ or systemic failings leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND, which the local area partnership must address urgently.

Each local area will be inspected at least once during a 5 year period, with more frequent re-inspection for areas where arrangements do not typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes.

Local areas are also subject to themed inspections, and to an annual engagement meeting.

How are the inspections carried out?

Inspections take place over three weeks. In weeks one and two, the local area must provide a range of local data and information. This includes person-level data (lists of all children and young people with SEND who live in the local authority area, including those educated out of area) and information about how local education, health and care services commission and deliver services for children and young people with SEND and their families. Inspectors will also select specific children and young people’s cases for ‘tracking’, and will require data and documents relating to those cases. They will aim to talk to all the children and young people who are ‘tracked’, and their families. They will also ask for surveys to be shared with all local children and young people with SEND and their parents or carers.

In week three, inspectors are on-site for fieldwork, including meetings with leaders and practitioners and visits to a sample of local education, health, and/or care settings. During visits to settings, inspectors will evaluate children and young people’s experiences and outcomes by reviewing documents and records, and talking to practitioners. The settings visited are not subject to evaluation or judgement under this inspection, as they are subject to their own inspection arrangements, but their records and practice will be scrutinised. The joint SEND inspection is focused on how effectively local education, health, and care partners work together to improve experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND, with shared accountability.

How will inspectors judge local areas?

The inspection framework and handbook set out in detail the evaluation criteria inspectors use to judge the area. In brief: inspectors evaluate the effectiveness of the area’s partnership SEND arrangements in improving experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND, including the extent to which:

• Children and young people’s needs are identified accurately and assessed
• Children, young people and families participate in decisions about plans and support
• Children and young people receive the right help at the right time
• Children and young people are well prepared for their next steps, and achieve strong outcomes; and
• Children and young people are valued, visible and included in their communities.

Inspectors also evaluate how effectively local area partners work together to plan, evaluate and develop the SEND system, including the extent to which:

• Leaders are ambitious for children and young people with SEND
• Leaders actively engage and work with children, young people and families
• Leaders have an accurate, shared understanding of the needs of children and young people in their local area
• Leaders commission services and provision to meet the needs and aspirations of children and young people, including commissioning of alternative provision
• Leaders evaluate services and make improvements; and
• Leaders create an environment in which effective practice and multi-agency working can flourish.

Further information

The full inspection framework and handbook is available online. An ‘easy read’ document setting out changes to the Framework is also available here.

If you have any questions about how the inspection will work in Leeds, please contact us via SENDBestPractice@Leeds.gov.uk