Oct 28, 2020, Harborough Mail: New plans to help strengthen support for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Leicestershire are to go ahead https://www.harboroughmail.co.uk/education/new-plans-help-strengthen-support-children-and-young-people-special-educational-needs-and-disabilities-send-leicestershire-are-go-ahead-3017573 Central England New plans to help strengthen the support for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Leicestershire are to go ahead. Leicestershire County Council, East Leicestershire and Rutland Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and West Leicestershire CCG worked with schools, parents, carers and young people to draw up the scheme…. Although a number of positives were highlighted, inspectors did say that urgent action was needed to improve Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans and develop a joint commissioning strategy. Now education watchdog Ofsted has written to the council and CCGs approving the Written Statement of Action which it says is comprehensive, provides clear timescales and focuses on tackling the two concerns raised in their inspection report. Improving the experience for children, young people, parents and carers who go through the process of needs assessment for EHC plans is a key focus of the changes… She added: “Improving SEND services here in Leicestershire is one of our very top priorities. “That is reflected in the £30 million [$39M U.S.] we are making to build new schools and specialist SEND-resourced bases in our schools. “We are also working very hard to ensure SEND reforms that were introduced back in 2014 continue to be central to our practice by drawing on the lived experiences of families as they journey through a system that, for some, has been challenging…. “It has focused our attention on improving services for children and young people with education and health needs. “Joint working with local authority partners, schools and, most importantly, the co-production with those affected has been key and has resulted in a robust and deliverable plan.” There are nearly 203,000 children and young people aged up to 24 in Leicestershire. More than 11,000 have SEND support and 3,801 have an EHC Plan.
