Lancashire SEND priority action plan

Lancashire SEND Partnership has published the Lancashire SEND Partnership Priority Action Plan (PDF 557 KB) to improve services and support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The plan follows the Ofsted Inspection report, published on 12 February 2025 on the Ofsted reports website.

Approved by the ICB Board and Cabinet on 25 March 2025 and approved by Ofsted on 1 April 2025, the priority action plan takes into account the feedback we have received from stakeholders and inspectors.

As part of the Lancashire SEND Partnership, NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Lancashire County Council, are jointly responsible for the planning and commissioning of services for children and young people with SEND in Lancashire.

The priority action plan sets out our commitment and the steps we will take, detailing the 3 priority areas and 2 areas for improvement identified during the inspection. It also details the expected impact of action, the key indicators of what success looks like, and the measures we will take to monitor and evidence sufficient progress.

New SEND Improvement Board

The SEND Partnership Board has been replaced by the SEND Improvement Board, providing strategic oversight with an Independent Chair. The SEND Operations Group will report to this new board, and workstreams for each priority area will be established.

Priorities

The five priorities set out in the plan are:

  1. Leaders from the local authority and ICB should urgently work together to improve their shared strategic governance, oversight, commissioning, support, challenge and planning of services for children and young people with SEND. They should implement and monitor effective strategies to improve the experiences for children and young people with SEND in education, health and social care across Lancashire.
  2. Leaders from the local authority and ICB should significantly improve the process, timeliness, quality and oversight of EHC plans and annual reviews.
  3. Leaders from the ICB and local authority should continue to work together with urgency to address the delays and gaps in service provision within the current neurodivergent pathway. This is to meet the full range of needs of children and young people with SEND across Lancashire.
  4. Leaders across the partnership should continue to improve their communication strategies at all levels. This includes communicating with children and young people with SEND and their families so that they are kept better informed about the support that they receive, plans in place to improve their outcomes and where to access support and guidance while waiting for assessment.
  5. Leaders across the partnership should continue to work collaboratively to ensure that young people with SEND from across the whole of Lancashire are well prepared for adulthood and transition.

Lancashire SEND stocktake

The Lancashire SEND stocktake with the Department for Education (DfE) and NHS England (NHSE) took place on Thursday 11 September 2025.

The stocktake built on evidence shared at previous SEND Improvement Board meetings and provided clarity on achievements, challenges, and priorities moving forward.

Evidence shared also considered:

  • governance and accountability arrangements
  • workforce recruitment and retention
  • collaboration between the Local Authority (LA) and Integrated Care Board (ICB)
  • quality of provision and impact on children and young people
  • effective partnership working and engagement with key stakeholders, including children, young people, and families

Please read a summary of the progress made in the SEND Newsletter Autumn 2025.

A full update of progress against the Priority Action Plan can be found in the update to the Children, Families and Skills Scrutiny Committee. See item 5 - Update on SEND Priority Action Plan and SEND Strategy & SEND Local Offer and Appendix B for a visual summary.