1. Implementing the reforms for special educational needs and disability Key Messages May 2014

2. The vision
Children’s SEN are picked up early and support is routinely put in place quickly;
Staff have the knowledge, understanding and skills to provide the right support for children and young people who have SEN or are disabled;
Parents know what they can reasonably expect their local school, college, LA & local services to provide, without having to fight for it;
Aspirations for children and young people are raised through an increased focus on life outcomes, including employment;
For more complex needs, an integrated assessment and a single Education, Health and Care Plan are in place from birth to 25
There is greater control for parents and young people over the services they and their family use.

3. Reforms timeline Early 2013 Late 2013
Children and Families Bill introduced to Parliament
Draft regulations and SEN Code of Practice consultation
Proposal to reduce statutory assessment timescales from to 20 weeks
Early
2013
Second draft of the Code of Practice published and public consultation until early December
In East Sussex, work began on new style plans for school starters in 2014 and young people approaching transition (16+)
Late
2013
WEB LINK: Code of Practice: a

4. Reforms timeline Early 2014 Sept 2014
Royal Assent granted, so the Children and Families Bill became the Children and Families Act
Final Consultation on the Code of Practice until 6th May
Final Code and regulations to be published
Early
2014
Implementation of provisions
There will be a period of transition from statements to new style plans – expected completion by April 2018
Sept
2014 a

5. Our logo a
Our logo, which places the child and family firmly in the centre, also shows the range of support available.
Services for
everyone
Targeted services
Child and
Family
Support from your family and
community networks
Specialist services

6. What’s happening
The reforms will place children, young people (up to the age of 25 if they remain in education) and their families in the centre of our work, using person centred and outcome focused planning. Staff will be expected to work with families to understand their support needs, priorities and aspirations.
The Local Offer is a new term to mean the availability of information about services. This work is ongoing and will be primarily web based.
We will be working across the services which support children, young people and their families to streamline our work and ensure that everyone is clear about who’s doing what and why.
There is a workforce development programme to ensure staff have the necessary practice skills.
More information on the Local Offer is at the end of the presentation
WEB LINK: Person centred and outcome focussed planning. Staff will be expected to work with families
WEB LINK: Local Offer

7. What’s happening
From September 2014, most children with SEN will have their needs met within mainstream educational settings.
Some will need an SEN support plan, which will be drawn up and reviewed by families and schools. Plan templates and guidance are available on the ESCC website.
Children with the highest levels of needs will be assessed for an Education Health & Care (EHC) plan, where evidence shows additional & individual support is needed to support outcomes. The EHC assessment and planning process will include consideration of a personal budget, which many young people and families value as a way to have increased choice and control over their support.
EHC plans are wider than statements in that they cover more than education.
The plan is outcome focused to make it possible to see when a child has reached their goals.
There are more slides about plans and personal budgets below.
WEB LINK: Guidance:
WEB LINK: Education Health and Care (EHC) plan - to be added
WEB LINK: Personal budget – to be added

8. Conversions from statements to SEN support and EHC plans
We are awaiting the final Code of Practice and regulations, which will give more information about the work to convert existing statements to SEN support or EHC plans.
It is anticipated that the work will be phased over a three year period, details of which will be set out in a local transition plan.

9. SEND, Safeguarding and Early Help – the synergies
Although we have different programmes of change
affecting different areas of our work there are key
principles between them:
Acting earlier where we can to prevent things getting worse
Being child, young person, and family centred
Using outcome-focused planning to get the best result for children and young people
Focusing on family resilience and strengths
Working hard to be joined up in our support

10. Assessment, Planning and Review – key points
Where children and young people have both a Special Educational
Need, or are disabled, and also need support to be safeguarded from
harm they may have more than one assessment or plan in place.
This is okay as long as:
No-one starts from scratch if there is an existing assessment or plan, and we avoid asking families to tell their story again and again
Existing plans and assessments are shared between professionals, with family consent
Professionals talk to one another, and make sure things are joined up – for example having joint review or assessment meetings
Actions in the plans don’t overlap, duplicate or cause confusion
We always check, for example when plans are reviewed, whether things can be brought together in to one plan to make things easier

11. Why different plans? Type of plan Purpose Lead SEN Support Plan
(e.g. School, Early Years or
College based plan)
Longer-term plan focusing on one
particular child and their needs to access
learning.
Educational setting
Education Health and Care
(EHC) Plan
particular child and the range of needs
they have across education, health and
care where these require specialist
responses
Coordinated by ESCC,
led by those supporting
the child and family
Early Help Plan
A whole family plan to support families
where children and young people are at
Level 3 on the Safeguarding Children
Continuum of Need. Usually shorter-
term.
Early Help Keyworker or
Targeted Early Help
service
Family Support Plan / Children
in Need Plan / Child Protection
Plan
Level 4 on the Safeguarding Children
Continuum of Need and their a need for
social workers to be involved to protect
children and young people. Usually
shorter-term.
Children’s Social Care
social worker

12. Coordinating support for children and young people
All children and young people who have an EHC Plan will have a professional
leading that plan at some points – and undertaking ‘key working functions’ such
as arranging meetings and assessments, communicating with the family, and
negotiating with other professionals. This might be someone leading the
assessment or it may be someone who is providing ongoing support to that
child or family.
If this is happening they should be talking to any Early Help or Social Care professionals involved with the child or the rest of their family, and the whole family plan should be shared with them.
Where there is a professional leading on support around a child or young person’s SEND then Early Help or Social Care professionals should always consult them and include them in any work that is being done on safeguarding.
The family should be clear who is doing what, and how different professionals will communicate with each other
Undertaking key working functions is a way of working rather than a service model.
It is not the same as being an allocated key worker as in Early Help or the specialist preschool Early Support service.
Any practitioner working with the family, child or young person can use the Early Support principles. For more information see ncb.org.uk/early-support

13. More information East Sussex webpage www.eastsussex.gov.uk/sendreforms
East Sussex address and telephone
number:
Forms, templates and guidance:
czone.eastsussex.gov.uk/sendreforms
National website

14. Optional slides below re Local Offer, Assessment and Planning and Personal Budgets

15. The Local Offer

16. The Local Offer The LO will provide information about
provision available including education,
health and care services, leisure activities
and support groups.
The Local Offer will:
hold information in one place
be clear, comprehensive and accessible
make services responsive to local needs
be developed with service providers and service users

17. The regional framework across the South East 7 LAs
And by level of need:
Universal
Targeted
Specialist
The framework sets out:
1: The vision
2: Area wide offer
This is divided by age group
Pre-school
School age
Post 16
3: Settings and service offer
Viv to add notes

18. Principles for our Local Offer Framework
Empowering for parent-carers, young people and professionals
Principles for our Local Offer Framework
Holistic
Accessible
Co-produced by parent-carers, young people and professionals
Starting
with what is widely available
Factual
Viv to add notes
Sustainable and sustained
Transparent

19. Every early years’ setting, school, college and service will need to publish their Local Offer
What do you need to do
Read the guidance on Czone:
Answer the questions that will be the basis of your Local Offer.
Have the answers reviewed by stakeholders, including families.
Send your answers to
Your own Local Offer will be published on your own website and will be easily identified by adding the Local Offer logo. Service offers will link to the Area Wide Offer.

20. Assessment and Planning

21. Child / Family-centred revise outcomes, continue
A visual of the process
Listen and understand
Agree and allocate
Plan together
Review and learn
Collect information
Child / Family-centred
Allocation questions
Confirm entitlement
Agree allocation of
funding and services -
Child / young person
and family centred
Focus on outcomes
Explore all sources of
support options
Working/not working?
Change,
revise outcomes, continue
This slide shows a process of listening to and understanding the priorities for the family/young person, following which outcomes and any associated resources are agreed and confirmed in the plan.
There are separate slides within this set which give more information about personal budgets

22. Assessment and Planning works like this as well …
Whether it’s for provision mapping, SEN support plans in an educational setting or Education, Health and Care assessment and planning.
Remember:
MOST children or young people with SEN should be supported through high quality, personalised teaching as set out in a provision map or similar
SOME children or young people may need additional support which can be set out in an SEN support plan (Early years, school based, college based plan)
A FEW children with the most complex needs, may need an Education, Health and Care plan.

23. Listen to the child/young person and their family – let their voices be heard
Understand their concerns
Make a note of their strengths and what works for the child or young person
Discuss their circles of support
Understand their aspirations and the outcomes they want to happen.
Have a shared understanding of the language you are using, the information you are collecting and the actions you will be taking

24. Agree when and how you are going to review the outcomes
Work with everyone involved to agree the outcomes you want to achieve for the child or young person – remember SMART
Agree the resources that will be allocated to support the child or young person
Agree the actions that everyone involved will take (including the child or young person and their parents or carers)
Agree when and how you are going to review the outcomes
S – specific
M – Measurable
A – Achievable
R – Relevant
T – Time limited

25. Write down how this is going to be done
It could be in a provision map
It could be in an SEN Support Plan (Early Years/School based/College based plan)
It might be in an Education, Health and Care Plan written after a statutory EHC assessment
Agree and share the plan with all involved
There are guidance and templates to help you with this on Czone

26. Review progress against the desired outcomes with everyone involved as often as necessary but at least once a term for SEN support plans and once a year for EHC plans
What worked?
What didn’t?
What needs to be adapted or changed?
What else could be put in place?
Is a plan still needed?
Is a higher level of support needed?
What actions need to be taken?

27. Provision mapping or similar
Levels of SEN support:
Provision mapping or similar
MOST children with SEN will have their support set out this way
SEN Support Plan
Also called an Early Years/School/College based support plan
SOME children will need these
EHC Plan
A FEW children with the most complex needs will have these
SETTING LEAD
Local Authority lead

28. Personal Budgets

29. Personal budgets
Everyone with an Education, Health and Care Plan can request a Personal Budget. Where agreed, a budget will be given to support the agreed outcomes.
It should be noted however that personal budgets will not be suitable or available for everyone, this will depend on a child’s assessed needs and the outcomes to be achieved. Funding for personal budgets can come from social care, and/or health, and/or education.
It is likely that only a small proportion of families will receive a personal budget.
Having a personal budget won’t necessarily mean that the family/young person will have the money directly, but it’s about families being fully involved in planning and having clear information about what resources are being provided to support a child/young person’s outcomes.

30. Personal budgets
Through the assessment stage of EHC planning, there will be conversations with the family and where appropriate with the young person, to include resource allocation questions, to establish how much support is needed. Consideration is given to eligibility thresholds to establish what funding is available and from which service/s. This available funding forms an indicative budget. This process enables support needs to be considered against the outcomes set out in the EHC plan. It places the family (and young person where applicable) in the centre of discussions with service providers, including education settings.
A personal social care budget will be made available if it is clear that a young person or child is assessed as needing additional and individual support at home and when out and about in the local and wider community.
A personal health budget will be made available should a young person or child have complex, long-term and/or a life-limiting condition/s. A personal health budget may also be made available to help with equipment costs or other health services. Children, who are supported through ‘Continuing Care’ funding, will have the right to request a personal health budget from April From August 2013, the NHS has the legal power to give direct payments.
A personal SEN budget is a sum of money made available by a local authority because it is clear that without this additional (top-up) funding it will not be possible to meet the child’s learning support needs. The school/college involved will already have funding for learning support across the school; only pupils or students with more complex learning support needs are likely to need a personal SEN budget. In some circumstances the head teacher/principal and school or college/learning provider may choose to offer some funding towards a personal SEN budget; this will always be the decision of the head teacher.

31. Personal Budgets work best when making best use of all the supports, activities and opportunities that exist ~ universal, targeted, specialist and family/community. 31 31

32. Personal budgets
There are options for how personal budgets are managed.
Some families choose to have their services provided
directly to them
Some use a broker
Some manage the money themselves to arrange the
support
Whichever option a family choose, they will have the options explained so that they’re clear about what’s available.

33. Personal Travel Budgets (PTBs)
CYP with SEN and disabilities which mean that they cannot use public transport or walk to school or college, have traditionally been offered a taxi as part of the Council’s statutory support. In tandem with the shift towards greater choice and control, parents are now being offered a PTB as a direct monthly payment. The budget can be used however the family would like and without the restrictions of a taxi, as long as their child gets to school or college safely and on time. If this option does not suit the family, hired transport will still be arranged. The question of whether special travel assistance is needed is part of a child’s EHC Plan Assessment and annual review, and is an opportunity to discuss travel options. This should include PTBs and, when ready, the possibility of benefiting from Independent Travel Training (ITT) as an important life skill in the transition to adulthood.
A personal social care budget will be made available if it is clear that a young person or child is assessed as needing additional and individual support at home and when out and about in the local and wider community.
A personal health budget will be made available should a young person or child have complex, long-term and/or a life-limiting condition/s. A personal health budget may also be made available to help with equipment costs or other health services. Children, who are supported through ‘Continuing Care’ funding, will have the right to request a personal health budget from April From August 2013, the NHS has the legal power to give direct payments.
A personal SEN budget is a sum of money made available by a local authority because it is clear that without this additional (top-up) funding it will not be possible to meet the child’s learning support needs. The school/college involved will already have funding for learning support across the school; only pupils or students with more complex learning support needs are likely to need a personal SEN budget. In some circumstances the head teacher/principal and school or college/learning provider may choose to offer some funding towards a personal SEN budget; this will always be the decision of the head teacher.