BCP Council is working hard to ensure that your child or young person with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) can have a brighter future, a fulfilled life and be part of our local community. We want to provide support for their health, wellbeing and development from birth, throughout early years, their education and into adulthood.
In February 2022, following our SEND inspection, we produced an improvement plan identifying eight key areas for improvement, with an action plan to support this. We have focused on progressing these outcomes, but there is clearly a need to speed up processes and support for our local families.
In July 2024, we revised the improvement plan and have set out eight themes around which our actions will be based throughout 2024 and 2025. Our progress will be regularly updated and detailed under page:
1. Leadership, management and governance
We need to improve leadership of the service, with a focus on continuous improvement, working with our local families to ensure we are learning from you and respecting your views.
2. Communication and co-production
We need to improve our communication and ensure your voice is heard when shaping our services and setting our priorities. Our services must be responsive and respectful in listening and answering to your emails, phone calls, etc.
3. Early identification and intervention
We need to ensure there is a good partnership approach and consistency across the service, helping to identify needs at the earliest opportunity, whilst managing demand and financial pressures. Our mainstream schools and collages will be more inclusive, with a full range of support to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.
4. Inclusion
We need to improve mainstream schools so that they can be as inclusive as possible and reduce the number of suspensions and permanent exclusions, by ensuring staff are knowledgeable and skilled towards the needs and support required by children and young people.
5. A clear and agreed journey (pathway) for your child
As parents, you are the experts in your child's need and you will only need to tell your story once, so professionals within the system can work together to support your family's needs. Each service has a shared responsibility for your support, so it will be easier to access services when you need them.
6. The right number and type of places (sufficiency of placements)
Every child or young person, will have a place in school or college which meets their educational needs as appropriate and we will work to ensure you experience a more joined up service.
7. Preparing for adulthood
We need to provide better support for a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood and help them confidently plan for their future by achieving their preferred outcomes.
8. Managing resources
We will ensure the correct resources are allocated to provide the appropriate support for your child or young person. Our policy should always be child-focused first and foremost, not money focused.
Timetable for delivery
We have an ambitious timetable to deliver our improvements plan and are keen to make sure we deliver our promised as quickly as we can.
We plan to deliver most of our activities over the next 12 months to ensure that we are supporting our children and young people with SEND and that families will feel more trusted and are confident with our services.