Special Educational Needs
Reforms
What is happening in Wandsworth
Summary
• Working in partnership with parents and
young people
• Progress so far in Wandsworth
– Local Offer
– Assessment, Education, Health and Care Plans
(EHCP)
– Personal Budgets
– Preparing for Adulthood
– Joint Commissioning
• Resolving some myths and misconceptions
Partnership with parents / carers
Ladder of involvement
Co-production
Participation
Consultation
Information
Progress so far in Wandsworth
Involving families:
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Parent co-chair and representatives on each working group
Parent representatives support group
Joint conference with Positive Parent Action
Jointly developed information leaflet
Engaging young people working group
Involving Children and Young People
• Our local approach
– Small working group which includes representatives from
mainstream and special schools is working on this
collaboration
– One of the SENCOs is pulling together the good practice
around young person involvement that is already taking
place in schools
– A residential weekend is taking place in April for a group of
young people to contribute to key issues
Involving Children and Young People
• What we want to understand:
– What kind of information young people in Wandsworth want
– How they would like to receive this including where they are
likely to look for it
– How they want information to be presented (including
testing out some of the suggestions for the Local Offer – use
of symbols / icons)
– How they want to be involved in discussions about their
future and who they see as the key people in supporting
them
Progress so far in Wandsworth
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5 multi-agency and cross age group workstreams
Transformation plan
Family Information Service web site host for local offer
Regular input and feedback to existing team and
professionals meetings (e.g. SENCo forum; headteachers;
community paediatrics; management teams within the
council)
• Proposed “dry run” of assessment and planning process for
education, health and care plans
• Accessing support provided by “pathfinder” authorities both
through events and published materials
• Sharing a half termly progress update
The Local Offer
• A comprehensive offer covering all services that
children and young people with SEN and
disabilities aged 0 to 25 and their families might
use both within and outside Wandsworth
• Developed in collaboration with parents, children
and young people
• A transparent offer, with clear information about
eligibility and who is entitled to services
• Opportunities to influence service development,
give feedback and make complaints
Assessment / EHCP
• New process – what have we been working on?
– A new pathway
– Early collaborative planning between parents and
professionals
– Shaping professionals’ roles and responsibilities – lead
professionals
• Education health and care plan (EHCP)
– Template for the plan – agreed contents
– How the plan will actually be brought to life through
the process
Personal Budgets
• What have we been working on?
– A key facts sheet to help clarify what personal
budgets are / are not
– Identifying areas where we would be able to
consider a personal budget in the “dry run”
– By the summer developing clear guidance for
parents / young people on personal budgets,
including consideration of how multi-agency
budgets would work
– System to manage / monitor financial
arrangements
Preparing for Adulthood
• What have we been working on?
– Working out how some young people who will be
moving on to college in 2015 could be included in
our dry run
– Developing shared principles for preparing young
people effectively for adulthood
– Ensuring clear information is available about the
services in the borough and eligibility for services
– Specific project work on the transition between
children’s and adults’ social services
Joint commissioning
• What have we been working on
– Establishing a group with broad representation
• Ensuring there is a good understanding of different
organisational responsibilities and how the duties in
the new legislation will impact on these
– Developing an action plan and identifying our
early priorities
• Arrangements for multi-agency decision making
• Arrangements for responding to complaints where
there are education, health and care issues
• Arrangements for resolving disagreements between
agencies
Common misconceptions or myths
• “Fewer children and young people will get an Education,
Health and Care plan than get a statement of special
educational needs.”
– The criteria for an Education, Health and Care plan will be the same as
the current criteria for a statement.
• “After a child turns 16 a parent CANNOT be involved in
decisions about their child’s support”
– Young people can continue to have their parents involved as much as
they want. The difference is, when a person with an Education, Health
and Care plan turns 16 years old, they have the final say (subject to
their mental capacity).
Common misconceptions or myths
• “All parents and young people with a plan will be
able to access direct payments”
– All parents and young people will be able to request a
personal budget where an EHC plan is in place. A personal
budget is an amount identified by the local authority as
being available to secure particular provision that is
specified, or proposed to be specified, in the EHC plan.
Once identified parents and young people can then
request that some or all aspects of the personal budget be
converted into a direct payment, but the local authority,
and the education provider where relevant, must agree to
this and have significant discretion about what they agree
to.
Common misconceptions or myths
• “ALL young people who have the new Education,
Health and Care plans in school will have a plan until
they are 25”
– An Education, Health and Care plan will continue only for
young people who stay in education or training. For most
young people this will be to go to further education
(college), or to get an apprenticeship.