SEND Partnership news

The Lancashire SEND Partnership Working Together Strategy 2023-2025 outlines how the Lancashire SEND Partnership will communicate, engage, encourage participation and partnership working with children, young people, their parent carers and practitioners in order to improve outcomes for families.

If you have any feedback about the strategy, please email SENDPartnership@Lancashire.gov.uk.

On 2 March 2023 the government published the SEND and alternative provision improvement plan on GOV.UK, including an easy read version of the plan.

It sets out the government's plans to change the SEND and alternative provision system in England.

The plan follows a review of the SEND and alternative provision system in 2019, and paper published in 2022 about the review. The paper was called SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper.

You may remember in May 2022 the Lancashire SEND Partnership held events to discuss the government's consultation on the green paper (SEND Review: Right support, right place, right time).

The events were attended by over 60 participants including professionals from education, health and care and parents and carers.

The Lancashire SEND Partnership response to the government green paper - SEND Review: Right support, right place, right time provided a summary of these discussions.

Alternative provision strategy

Our inclusion teams have been busy updating our Alternative Provision Strategy for 2023-26. This includes our Outreach First delivery model (based on a three-tier system of support), how we will implement the strategy and how we will ensure we are delivering improvement for children and young people in the county.

The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Sufficiency Strategy 2019 – 2024 has been developed to help the county council meet increases in demand and support more children and young people to be educated within their local community.  As part of this strategy several SEND Units are being opened across the county. 

What is a SEND Unit?

A SEND Unit is a supportive environment within a mainstream school for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) who need additional specialist support at times during the week.

It enables children and young people with SEND to attend and enjoy the benefits of a mainstream school by accessing the mainstream curriculum and taking part in other activities with their peers.  It includes specialist facilities and staffing and can draw on specific expertise when needed, such as therapists.

SEND Unit provision benefits children and young people by supporting them to:

  • attend their local school or one near to their home
  • attend the same school as their siblings
  • play and learn alongside peers
  • join in mainstream lessons and activities where appropriate

Lancashire SEND Units

Lancashire currently has 9 SEND units open for up to 144 children, with 4 more due to open in 2023.

  1. St Leonard's Voluntary Aided Church of England Primary School, Burnley, opened in September 2021 and provides specialist support for children with social communication and interaction needs.
  2. Barrowford Primary School, Barrowford, opened in September 2021 and provides specialist support for children with social emotional and mental health needs.
  3. Delph Side Community Primary School, Skelmersdale, opened in January 2022 for children with social communication and interactions needs.
  4. Highfield Community Primary School, Chorley opened in February 2022 for children with social communication and interactions needs.
  5. Barden Primary School, Burnley, opened April 2022 for children with social communication and interactions needs.
  6. Walverden Primary School, Nelson, opened April 2022 for children with social communication and interactions needs.
  7. Morecambe Bay Community Primary School, Morecambe, opening September 2022 for children with social communication and interactions needs.
  8. Seven Stars Primary School, Leyland, opened September 2022 for children with generic learning difficulties.
  9. Ashton Community Science College, Preston, opened September 2022 for children with social communication and interactions needs.

Plans for more SEND Units are in development for Lancashire and updates will be provided as these progress.

View open and planned SEND Units in Lancashire

A further 88 SEND unit placements should become available by the start of the 2024/25 academic year and another 40 are under consideration.

Admission to SEND Units

  • All children and young people attending SEND units will have an education, health and care plan.
  • The special educational provision identified in a child or young person's education, health and care plan will be more than can reasonably be expected to be provided by a mainstream school without a SEND unit.
  • Young people and/or the parents or carers of children can request a place at a SEND unit. It is expected that a request will be after an education, health and care needs assessment has been completed or following an annual review.
  • Careful consideration will be given to all assessment and review information provided as part of the request by a multi-agency panel. The panel will decide whether a particular SEND unit is appropriate to the age, stage of development and ability of the child or young person.
  • All relevant information on the child or young person’s needs will be forwarded to the school as part of the formal consultation on the placement in line with the SEN Code of Practice 2014.
  • The local authority will seek the views of the school on the suitability of the placement before making a final decision. The local authority will have regard to the number and profile/balance of needs within the SEND unit.

Review, Monitoring and Evaluation

The headteacher and governing body of the school will have overall responsibility for the day-to-day management of the SEND unit.

Successful outcomes for child or young person will include clear progress in their learning and development.  Progress will be measured through the statutory annual review process.

Transfer out of the SEND Unit to mainstream provision

Recommendations for a child or young person moving from a SEND unit to another mainstream school may be made following an annual review meeting. Where a recommendation is made, the following would normally apply:

  • the child or young person has made more than expected progress in comparison with other children and young people attending the SEND unit
  • measurable progress has been made in the child or young person's areas of identified needs to meet his/her outcomes
  • there is a noticeable improvement in the child or young person's ability to participate in the mainstream curriculum, with reduced levels of support, and to manage the social demands of the school environment

Transfer out of the SEND Unit to a different specialist provision

Recommendations for a child or young person to move to a different specialist provision may be made following an annual review meeting. Where a recommendation is made, the following would normally apply:

  • the child or young person has made less than the expected progress in comparison with other children and young people attending the SEND unit
  • the special educational provision required by the child or young person cannot be provided within the SEND unit
  • limited progress has been made in meeting the child or young person's outcomes and in developing the independence, social and behavioural skills required to move towards greater participation in mainstream activities
  • there is evidence that the child or young person’s social and emotional wellbeing is becoming adversely affected

Assessment and other relevant information presented at a child or young person's annual review will be used to inform a decision about whether a change of placement is needed. This decision will be made by a multi-agency panel in the same way as for admission to a SEND unit.

Ofsted and the CQC carried out a SEND Local Area revisit in Lancashire in March 2020. The revisit was to evaluate the effectiveness of Lancashire's progress in improving SEND services for children and young people against the twelve areas of significant concern identified during the November 2017 SEND Local Area Inspection.

Inspectors identified seven of these areas as having sufficiently improved, and although there had been improvements in the remaining five areas, further on-going work was required, which was monitored by the Department for Education and NHS England through an accelerated progress plan.

Following the final monitoring visit in September 2021 it was agreed that sufficient progress had been made in the remaining areas. The SEND Plan 2021-2025 had been developed following co-production and the Lancashire SEND Partnership have implemented a major improvement programme across the county.

The Continuous Improvement Plan is being developed for 2023 -2024 detailing our current action plan in preparation for the next full inspection.

The SEND Plan 2021-2025 was approved by the SEND Partnership Board in June 2021. Thank you to everyone who contributed to and shared views on the plan.

The SEND Plan is the strategic document that provides high level priorities, the benefits we expect to achieve, and the ways in which we will work together.

The SEND Plan was produced using information and feedback provided by over 160 people through 'Think SEND' events held in April and May 2021. People engaged with the process and gave meaningful and useful information that helped us develop the plan as we continue to improve SEND services across the partnership.

In June 2021 the draft of the plan was shared with the SEND Partnership, and more than 100 people attended a range of 10 consultation events, or responded using an online survey or via email, providing feedback and suggestions for further improvement of the document.

The SEND Programme Management Team is working with partners to identify how to deliver the plan, initially for the next 12-18 months.

One of the priorities for the SEND Partnership was to review Lancashire's SEND local offer, which is the information, advice, support and services available across Lancashire, for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

Following an extensive review, work has been carried out over the last six months to revise the local offer website, which provides a central access point to this information. You can find the revised SEND local offer website at www.lancashire.gov.uk/SEND.

To help spread the word about the new local offer, please share this link or our electronic flyer (PDF 101 KB) with anyone you think may benefit from accessing the local offer. The flyer can be reproduced if required and included in newsletters, social media or on your own websites.

We will continue to share more about the changes taking place via regular updates on the SEND local offer website and Facebook page. In the meantime if you have any questions please get in touch with the SEND Partnership, SENDPartnership@lancashire.gov.uk.

Lancashire Parent Carer Forum works as the SEND Partnership strategic partner for parent carer engagement, participation and co-production.  The independent, parent led forum works with the SEND Partnership to hold regular parent carer engagement events to gain feedback on services and to provide information around services and support.

The Lancashire Parent Carer Forum open event in February 2023 celebrated parent engagement and participation inviting parent carers to join the forum as members and representatives to help grow and develop the forum.

To sign up please visit the Lancashire Parent Carer Forum website.