1. A DfE presentation pack for staff and governors in further education
The 0-25 Special Educational Needs and Disability Reforms

2. Overview of the slides
The SEND reforms require a whole college approach to students with special educational needs and disabilities. It is essential that the whole college community - governors, teaching and non-teaching staff, young people and parents - understand what the reforms mean for them.
This slide pack has been designed to help college leaders engage staff and governors so that they understand what is changing – and to choose which slides are most useful for different audiences. It is not formal department guidance. Colleges should feel free to adapt and tailor slides to suit their own needs.

3. The reform vision: joined up support across education, health and care, from 0 to 25
Participation of children, their parents and young people in decision- making.
Early identification of children and young people’s needs and early intervention to support them.
Greater choice and control for young people and parents over support.
Collaboration between education, health and social care services to provide support.
High quality provision to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.
Focus on inclusive practice and removing barriers to learning.
Successful preparation for adulthood, including independent living, community participation and employment.
The reforms aim to join up help across education, health and care, from birth to 25. Help is to be offered at the earliest possible point, with children and young people with SEND and their parents fully involved in decisions about their support and what they want to achieve. This will help lead to better outcomes and more efficient ways of working.
The process of engaging young people and parents at every level – from strategic service commissioning through to individual plans is vital. Good engagement is essential to manage expectations in what are tricky decisions. Young people and parents need to know they’ve been listened to, understand the rationale behind decisions and what is intended to be achieved.

4. The case for change
Too many young people have their needs picked up too late.
Employment rates are poor: 46% of people with disabilities are in employment compared to 76% non-disabled. And only 7% of those with learning difficulties are employed.
Families feel they have to fight for the support and co-ordination between services that their children need.
The system is service driven rather than person-centred .
There are two separate systems: one for school and one for FE, with a ‘cliff edge’ for many at 16 and 19.
Young people with SEN are more likely to be NEET (30% of young people with statements of SEN at 16 are NEET at 18, compared to 13% without SEN)
Neither system focuses enough on life outcomes such as employment, community participation and independent living.

5. Children and Families Act 2014: key changes
New 0-25 SEND Code of Practice – applicable to post-16 settings as well as schools
Local authorities must publish Local Offer of services
Joint commissioning between education, health and social car
New Education Health and Care (EHC) plans replace statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments (LDAs)
Personal budgets offered as part of EHC plans
Young people aged in FE can appeal to SEND tribunal
Strong focus on preparing for adulthood, including employment
The Act gained Royal Assent on 13 March this year. Some of the key provisions are:
Putting children, young people and their families at the centre is enshrined in the Act. It places a duty on local authorities, among other things, to have regard to the views, wishes, and feelings of the child and parent, or young person, help them participate in decisions as fully as possible and support them in helping them achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes. This is a really important focus of the Bill. Greater choice and control for families and young people.
All local authorities must publish a clear, transparent “local offer’ of services, so children, parents and young people can understand what is available; this must be developed with children, parents and young people. It must also be developed with providers, including post-16 providers.
A new, coherent system across all age ranges from birth up to 25, with Education, Health and Care Plans for those with more complex needs, replacing the current system of Statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments. These plans must reflect the child or young person’s aspirations for the future, as well as their current needs; this would also mean. There is a duty on health commissioners as well as local authorities to deliver the agreed plan.
The option of a personal budget for families and young people with an EHC plan, extending choice and control over their support.
Focus on preparing for adult life is really important if we are to improve life outcomes. Starts early, but colleges play a very important role.

6. New legal duties for providers
FE colleges, sixth form colleges, Academies and approved independent specialist colleges will have new duties under the Act:
To co-operate with the local authority (a reciprocal duty)
To admit a young person, where the college is named in their EHC plan
To have regard to the new 0-25 SEND Code of Practice
(mainstream providers only) to use their ‘best endeavours’ to secure the SEN provision the young person needs.

7. Reform in practice: The local offer
From September 2014, each local authority must publish a local offer, setting out provision for children and young people with SEN or disabilities.
The local offer must also include services to support children and young people to prepare for adulthood. Local authorities have a duty to involve post-16 providers in preparing the local offer and must include out-of-county provision where appropriate.
Regulations and the SEND Code of Practice outline who local authorities must consult in developing and reviewing their local offer - many authorities are working with their parent carer forums and other organisations, including young people, to ‘co-produce’ their local offer
Colleges need to continue to work closely with local authorities to develop and contribute to the local offer.
The local offer must provide information to all children and young people with SEN or disabilities - support that is available from the college’s own resources should be included.

8. Reform in practice: EHC assessment and plans
From 1 September post-16 providers can request an assessment of education, health and care needs.
EHC plans must be produced with young people, with the young person as the key decision maker.
Young people with EHC plans can ask for a college to be named in their plan – but the LA must consult the college about this and consider its suitability.
The college will contribute to the development of the plan, particularly supporting aspirations and preparing for adulthood.
EHC plans must be reviewed annually and, from age 13 (Yr9) must include preparing for adulthood
Colleges should work with local authorities and schools on the EHC assessment and planning process.
Colleges should inform young people about the EHC plan process, particularly their role in developing the plan.
Colleges need to consider how they will meet duties to use best endeavours to secure special educational provision and to take reasonable steps to ensure inclusion.
In Greenwich, families are setting up password-protected websites personalised with music, short films and written reports to bring their EHC plans to life. Professionals regularly post video clips and other information to keep the plan up to date.
EHC plans will be statutory documents, and will have legal force on education and health support.
The co-ordinated assessment and EHC planning process should:
Promote a “tell us once” approach to sharing information wherever possible
Put children, families and young people at the centre of the process
Have effective co-ordination between education, health and care services, with joint agreement on key outcomes
Have a maximum 20 week assessment and planning process from initial request to issuing the final plan
Parents or young people can request that a particular institution is named in the plan (post-16, this applies to FE colleges, sixth form colleges and independent specialist colleges approved under section 41 of the Act). The local authority must comply with that preference and name the institution in the plan unless it would be unsuitable for the age, ability, aptitude or SEN of the child or young person, or unless the attendance of the child/ young person would be incompatible with the efficient education of others, or the efficient use of resources.
Local authority MUST consult the college and the college has 15 days to respond.
Local authorities must prepare a personal budget for child’s parent or young person when requested.
Colleges are likely to be involved in annual reviews (reviews in school prior to transition into FE, and once they are students at your institution)

9. Reform in practice: Personal budgets
A personal budget is an amount of money identified to deliver parts of the provision set out in an EHC plan. Families can request a personal budget as part of the planning process (in drawing up Plan or at Annual Review).
Can include funding from education, health and social care – in education, funding for personal budgets will be for more specialist or individualised provision (funded through the high needs block) rather than services the college is expected to provide as part of their mainstream provision.
A local authority must secure a college’s agreement where any provision, bought by the parent/young person using a direct payment, will be provided on the college’s premises.
Colleges should personalise the support they provide and may wish to consider contributing their own funding to a Personal Budget (some colleges have made innovative arrangements with young people, giving them direct payments).
Colleges should also inform young people about their right to a personal budget and may need to support them in accessing the funds.
More information around personal budgets can be found on the SEND pathfinders website.
As part of their local offer, local authorities should set out a co-produced local policy for personal budgets that includes a description of the services across education, health and social care that currently lend themselves to the use of personal budgets, how that funding will be made available, and clear and simple statements of eligibility criteria and the decision making processes that underpin them.
Personal budgets will only ever be for agreed provision in the EHC plan – if the LA does not agree with how the parent proposes to use the budget they will not include it in the plan - parents cannot simply use to spend as they wish, other than any flexibility of use written into the plan.
They do not include funding for the college place, and will not include targeted support managed by the college or other learning provider to offer additional learning support to individuals, classes or groups of students – the support that the college is expected to provide as part of the local offer. However, colleges should be encouraged to personalise the support they provide and they can choose to contribute their own funding to a personal budget.
A personal budget can be delivered in one of four ways:
Direct payments. Money is transferred directly into the individual’s bank account, which has been opened for the purpose, to meet the identified outcomes. Where a parent proposes to use a direct payment for provision to be delivered on the school premises, the LA must secure that settings prior agreement – this will be done when the LA consults the school about naming it on the EHC plan.
A (notional) arrangement whereby the LA or school holds the funds and commissions the support as agreed with parent in the EHC plan. In this circumstance the individual does not receive the money directly but are allocated a budget and participate fully in the planning and decision making around how the money is spent.
Actual budget held by a third party. Where a direct payment are paid to, and managed, by an individual or organisation on behalf of the child’s parent or young person
OR any combination of the above
Code of Practice, section 3.38 & 3.39.
In Hartlepool, personal budgets are being used to fund work placements. Claire hopes to work with animals in the future and is using her personal budget to fund a 10 week placement at a local charity with a small animal farm. The LA helped Claire and her mum negotiate terms and Claire is now using the personal budget to pay for support from a member of staff from the charity, at a cost of £15 per hour.

10. Reform in practice: Transition from learning difficulty assessments
Children and young people who have a statement or receive provision in further education as a result of a LDA will be transferred to the new system gradually:
young people in further education with an LDA will transfer to the new system by 1 September 2016; and
children and young people with a statement will transfer by 1 April 2018.
The legislation relating to statements and LDAs will remain in force during the transition period.
Local authorities will be expected to transfer children and young people to the new system in advance of key transition points in their education such as when they move from secondary school to college. Young people and parents should know when they will transfer to an EHCP.
There will be Independent Supporters on hand for families who need them, to help make the transfer as simple as possible.
Colleges will need to review admissions procedures during the transition period and agree referral arrangements with local authorities for young people that come direct to the college with a statement or LDA.
There are about quarter of a million children and young people with statements or LDAs at the moment so it is a significant undertaking for LAs. To ensure the quality of support for children and young people is maintained as we implement the new system, the transfer needs to happen gradually. Some areas may be able to complete the transfer more quickly but 3 and a half years will be the maximum time anyone will wait to move to the new system.
The legal test of when a child or young person requires an EHC plan remains the same as that for a statement under the Education Act Therefore, it is expected that all children and young people who have a statement and who would have continued to have one under the current system, will be transferred to an EHC plan – no child or young person should lose their statement and not have it replaced with an EHC plan simply because the system is changing.
Similarly, LAs have undertaken LDAs for young people either because they had a statement at school or because, in the opinion of the LA, they are likely to need additional support as part of their further education or training and would benefit from a LDA to identify their learning needs and the provision required to meet those needs. Therefore, the expectation is that young people who had LDAs and remain in further education or training during the transition period who request and need an EHC plan will be issued with one.

11. Reform in practice: SEN support
Under the new Code of Practice, SEN support is being introduced into further education, sixth form and specialist colleges. This means that where a student has a learning difficulty or disability that calls for special educational provision, a mainstream college must use its best endeavours to put appropriate support in place. Young people should be supported to participate in discussions about their aspirations, their needs, and the support they think will help them best. Support should be aimed at promoting student independence and enabling the young person to make good progress towards employment and/or higher education, independent living, good health and participating in the community.
In practical terms, this means colleges will have:
worked with students with SEN and disabilities and their families to put in place arrangements (or structures) on how they will regularly engage and discuss progress
explored how they will monitor and track the progress and development of young people with SEN and disabilities and identify and deliver any training needed by staff;
and will be ready in September to:
support new and continuing students through SEN support, using person centred approaches, and working with families
record all those who need special educational provision in the Individualised Learner Record.

12. Reform in practice: Preparation for adulthood
Support needs to start early and should centre around the child or young person’s own aspirations, interests and needs to enable children and young people to achieve their ambitions in relation to:
Higher education and/or employment - including exploring different employment options, such as support for becoming self-employed and help from supported employment agencies;
Independent living - enabling people to have choice and control over their lives and the support they receive and their accommodation and living arrangements, including supported living;
Participating in society - including having friends and supportive relationships, and participating in, and contributing to, the local community; and
Being as healthy as possible in adult life.
High aspirations are crucial to success – discussions about longer term goals should start early and ideally before year 9 (13-14) at school.
Support needs to start early in order that children and their parents and carers can be fully involved in making decisions and planning the right support for their future. For children with EHC plans this must happen from Y9 and as part of the annual review.
In schools from year 9, high aspiration about employment, independent living and community participation should be developed through the curriculum and extra-curricular provision. Schools should seek partnerships with employment services businesses, disability organisations etc.
Some young people, particularly those with more complex needs, need much longer to complete and consolidate their learning. This is why, for those who need this extra time, EHC Plans can remain in place up to the end of the academic year in which they turn 25.
Code of Practice, chapter 8.

13. Reform in practice: High needs funding for Post-16 institutions
For funding purposes, a high needs student is defined as:
A young person aged who requires additional support costing over £6,000; and
Any young person aged subject to a Learning Difficulty Assessment (LDA) or, from September 2014, an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) who requires additional support costing over £6,000.
Students with support costs of less than £6,000 will be funded through the disadvantage pot within an institution’s funding allocation.
High needs funding for 16 to 25 year olds consists of both place funding (Elements 1 and 2) and top up funding (Element 3). In all instances, top up funding (Element 3) has to be agreed by the local authority with an institution, and a contract must be in place between the two parties. If the local authority does not agree to pay top up funding for a student, then they are not counted as high needs for funding purposes. Providers must not charge fees for those aged with LDAs or EHC plans.
For high needs students over the age of 25, the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) assumes the responsibility for commissioning and contracting provision. However, EHC plans can be extended until the end of the Academic year in which a young person turns 25 (the local authority’s decision) in which case they remain within the remit of the EFA.
Further information can be found on the Education Funding Agency website and their Additional Information document (links at the end)
Full information on post-16 high needs funding can be found in our additional information document and it is recommended that Section 1 is read before delivering a presentation on funding.
Place led funding ensures the number and distribution of places in the system reflects need and provides financial stability for institutions (especially specialist institutions) to help with longer term planning of staffing and infrastructure.
Top up funding is paid from local authorities’ high needs budget to meet the individual needs of children and young people with high needs, over and above the funding provided to institutions through place led funding (elements 1 and 2)

14. Reform in practice: other support for 19 to 25 year olds
Colleges are funded by the Skills Funding Agency for all students aged 19 and over who do not have an LDA or EHC plan, including those who declare a learning difficulty or disability.
Colleges are still required to use best endeavours to secure the necessary special educational provision for young adults without a plan.
Students who were funded by the Education Funding Agency and become the responsibility of the Skills Funding Agency for continuing learning aims will continue to receive Learning Support at the same level.
Exceptional Learning Support is available for adult learners with support needs that cost more than £19,000 - colleges seeking to claim support above £19,000 for students aged 19 to 24 without an EHC plan will have to confirm to the Skills Funding Agency why the learner does not have a plan
Apprentices aged 19 to 25 with EHC plans are fully funded on the same terms and funding rates as 16 to 18 year old apprentices.

15. What does success look like?
Positive outcomes for young people and their families
Positive experience of the system for young people and their families
Effective preparation for adulthood
Improved attainment and progression of students with SEND.
Increase in the percentage of KS5 SEND cohort going to, or remaining in, Education, Employment and Training (destination measures)
Young people and their families know what support there is and how to access it.
Planned and well managed transition at key points – particularly from school to college and from college into adulthood.
Parents and young people get the right support at the right time and feel that they are listened to and in control of their choices, decisions and opportunities.
Conversations about future aspirations start early – at least by Year 9 Review (with colleges being involved)
Increase in opportunities for young people to participate in programmes to help employability – e.g. apprenticeships, traineeships and supported internships.
More young people able to live independently post-college and participate fully in the community.

16. What should providers be doing?
A lead should be overseeing implementation of the reforms.
The college should be working closely with local authorities and be reflected in the Local Offer.
Colleges should be using flexibility offered by study programmes to tailor packages for YP with SEND.
The college should be developing partnerships with schools to support transition planning.
Sessions should be held to ensure all staff are aware of the new SEND Code of Practice and how it affects them.
All young people with SEND and their parents should be aware of the reforms and what they mean for them.
Colleges should be considering workforce development needs– e.g. developing person-centred planning.
Colleges should be working with local authorities on the EHC assessment and planning process.
Colleges should be developing links to support the employment and independent living pathways.

17. What the reforms mean for Principals
Principals should:
Take overall responsibility for implementing the SEND reforms.
Ensure the wider college community understands the implications of the reforms – and consider the support and training they may need.
Develop relationships with local authorities, schools, health and social care.
Put in place arrangements to ensure that young people and parents are regularly engaged in discussions about progress and that young people’s feedback is used to improve provision.
Explore the support in place for pupils with SEN and disabilities at key transition points – e.g. from school to college and college to adult life .
Fundamentally review the deployment of learning support staff and their contribution to maximising the progress of students with SEN and disabilities.

18. What the reforms mean for tutors
Teachers and tutors are at the heart of the new SEND support system, with the support and guidance of specialist staff.
Teachers/tutors should:
Focus on outcomes for the young person: be clear about the outcome wanted from any SEN support.
Be responsible for meeting special educational needs: use SEN and disability specialists and learning support assistants strategically to deliver high-quality, differentiated teaching, evaluate the quality of support and contribute to school improvement.
Have high aspirations for every student: set clear progress targets for students and be clear about how the full range of resources are going to help reach them.
Involve young people and parents in planning and reviewing progress: Seek their views and provide regular updates on progress.

19. What the reforms mean for governors
Governing bodies hold the overall responsibility for ensuring that the new legal duties in relation to SEND (slide 7) are met by the college.
Governors must have regard to the SEND Code of Practice, should oversee the implementation of the reforms and provide strategic support to the college Principal and senior leadership team.
Questions that governors may want to ask:
Are young people with SEND being offered the best opportunities to progress into adulthood with paid employment, independent living, good health and community inclusion – for example, does the college offer supported internships, apprenticeships, traineeships etc.?
Are young people with SEND being offered personalised study programmes, and access to mainstream courses?
Is the progress of young people with SEND adequately tracked and is there data to support this (including benchmarking)?
In future years – will the college’s data recording be sufficiently robust to evidence that outcomes have improved for young people with SEND – e.g. destination measures published in 2018 will pertain to students leaving in summer 2015, a year after the reforms have kicked in.

20. Further Information
The SEN gateway provides access to all information, training materials and advice funded by DfE and produced by voluntary and community organisations to develop at
Visit the pathfinder website at for case studies, video clips, evaluation reports and information about delivery partners who are supporting the reforms.
Access the Preparing for Adulthood support materials:
The April FE implementation pack:
Quick Guide to the Code for FE:

21. Further Information (cont.)
AoC – case studies and materials from recent events on the reforms:
ETF excellence gateway SEN platform (good practice examples) -
ACETT FE Networks -
Supported Internships:
EFA HNS webpage-
16 – 25 High Needs Funding: Additional Information -