Plan for better, fairer access to high quality special educational needs and disabilities support.
Children and young people across England with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) or in alternative provision (AP) will get high-quality, early support wherever they live in the country.
The SEND and AP improvement plan published Thursday 2nd March confirms investment in training for thousands of workers so children can get the help they need earlier, alongside thousands of additional specialist school places for those with the greatest needs – as 33 new special free schools are approved to be built as of today.
The transformation of the system will be underpinned by new national SEND and AP standards, which will give families confidence in what support they should receive and who will provide and pay for it, regardless of where they live.
There will be new guides for professionals to help them provide the right support in line with the national standards but suited to each child’s unique experience, setting out for example how to make adjustments to classrooms to help a child remain in mainstream education.
This package forms part of the government’s significant investment into children and young people with SEND and in AP, with investment increasing by more than 50% compared with 2019 to 2020 – to over £10 billion by 2023 to 2024.
There will be expanded training for staff, ranging from up to 5,000 early years special educational needs co-ordinators to 400 educational psychologists, covering a wide range of educational needs. The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education will develop an apprenticeship for teachers of sensory impairments.
The £70 million change programme will work over the next 2 to 3 years with selected local authorities in 9 regions, working alongside families to implement, test and refine longer-term plans – including new digital requirements for local authority EHCP processes and options for strengthening mediation.
For more information visit Transformational reform begins for children and young people with SEND – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
