Thurrock Local Area Partnership Special Educational Needs, Disability and Alternative Provision Strategy 2024-27
Thurrock Local Area Partnership Special Educational Needs, Disability and
Alternative Provision Strategy 2024-27
- We want to work in partnership with our families and other professionals to ensure the child/young person remain at the heart of what we are collectively trying to achieve
- We want to work with our families, we look to identify what will make a difference to the child/young person’s life
Our aspirations for our children and young people with SEND and their families
- We understand that early intervention is the key to what we are trying to deliver using a whole system approach
- We want our children and young people to experience smooth and effective transitions at key points from early years right through to moving into adulthood
- We want to offer a range of supported internships and apprenticeships to support transition into adulthood
What does an ideal outcome mean for you?
Listening forums with parents and professionals
SEND and Alternative Provision Strategic Vision
The Local Area Partnership’s (Lap) strategic vision is that all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and those attending alternative provision across the
Local Area can access high quality support in their early years,
school, college and preparation for adulthood, this will enable
them to be happy and active members of the communities in
which they live and have healthy, fulfilling lives.
Inclusion in Thurrock
Thurrock has a strong commitment to an inclusive system of
education, health and care support, which actively works to
enable children and young people to access and have full participation in any aspects in community life. This is following the Salamanca Statement and Framework for action on Special Education Needs (1994), the Un Convention on the Rights of the
Child and is embedded in the Equality Act 2010.
Developed through a process of co-production with parents / carers, children & young people and stakeholders to fulfil our shared vision for SEND/AP, placing the child/young person at the heart of the system.
Thurrock SEND /AP Key Strategic Priorities
1. Ensure the early identification of and early support for children with SEND.
3. Ensure children, young people and their families are happy and feel well supported, promoting a whole system approach.
2. Ensure that children, young people and families are at the heart of an effective SEND /AP system.
5. Ensure our commissioned services support every child and young person to make good progress.
4. Ensure an effective and responsive approach to assessing and meeting children, young people and families’ needs.
6. Ensure young people are well prepared for adulthood to enable them to engage in local communities.
Thurrock SEND/AP Priorities 2024-2027 Background
The Lap includes elected members, Integrated Care Board, Inspire Youth Hub, Finance, Performance, Quality and Business Intelligence, Executive Director of Childrens’ Services, Children and Adults Social Care, NHS, Nelft, Thurrock SEND Family Forum, schools and colleges representatives, Alternative Provision providers, Education, Health & Social Care. Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) is a broad term and covers a range of needs including behavioral, emotional and social difficulties, autism spectrum disorders and specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia. The Department for Education’s definition in England encompasses all children or young people from birth up to the age of 25 who have '‘significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions” (Department for Education and Department for Health).
We know that Children with SEND/AP face more disadvantage and risks over and above the experience of their counterparts who do not have SEND. Children with SEND are at greater risk of poor educational and social outcomes and therefore are an important group to consider when working to reduce inequalities and ensure that all children achieve their full potential in life. The challenges Children with SEND face can be multi-faceted, which means they often require coordinated and multi-dimensional responses.
Priority Area 1 Ensure that children and families are at the heart of an effective SEND/AP system, co-producing and working in partnership to ensure that the child/young person remains at the heart of the decision-making process.
Continue to drive the work within the Lap engagement & participation strategy for children and young people to ensure they are fully engaged in all aspects of SEND developments, including the joint commissioning framework focusing on the experience of the child/young person.
Further develop the partnership approach when working with the Thurrock SEND Family Forum and support its development through a range of new engagement activities to ensure they have a voice in ongoing developments.
Use the comprehensive feedback gathered through engagement activities, the Local Offer engagement portal and meetings with parents and young people on the EHCP and annual review process, ensuring parents, children and young people are listened to and valued. Thus, allowing further development of programmes to meet child/young people’s needs.
Continue to ensure that comprehensive feedback is obtained from children and young people regarding the services they are currently accessing and that this directly drives future service developments.
Continue to develop a broad representation of child and young person’s views on all areas of Local Area support, through targeted activities with different age groups and with service users reviewing the Local Offer.
Ensure all EHCPs are of high quality and person centered, and reflect the voice of the child or young person
Ensure the early identification and early support for children with SEND/AP
Key Priority Area 2
Further develop and increase the outreach services for SEND and AP so that more children’s needs can be met in mainstream provision through better supported, well informed education workforce.
Work with cross borough partners to map, improve and simplify the neurodevelopment pathway so that children and young people have clear pathways that are understood by parents/carers and professionals.
Continue to support the identification and support for children with speech and language development delay through the Family Hubs.
Ensure the Balanced System Approach supports children and families in Thurrock to have equitable access to therapy services and services are delivered where they are most needed.
Priority Area 3 Ensure children, young people and families are happy and feel well supported promoting a whole system approach.
Continue to quality assure the Local Offer to ensure it accurately reflects and supports services available to children, young people and their families.
Increase parental confidence in mainstream schools across the LA. Work with schools to develop a consistent approach to a high ordinarily available offer through developing more high-quality outreach and staff training.
Review the Sendiass service annually to ensure they meet the requirements of the children and young people and their families.
Ensure all stakeholders know what services are available and how to access them
Improve the short breaks and outreach service so that it meets the needs of children, young people and their families.
Engage with the Balanced System approach which aims to have a better understanding of therapy needs, reduce variation of services and improve experiences and positive outcomes
Priority Area 4 Ensure an effective and responsive approach to assessing and meeting children and families’ needs.
Further develop the Ehm Portal with parents and carers and young people.
Develop parents’ confidence to understand that mainstream settings can meet a wide range of SEND needs across all key stages, embedding the ordinarily available offer.
Continue to support early identification and support for the needs of Children and Young People who may have SEND, through a better- informed education and childcare workforce as a result of targeted and universal Continuing Professional Development.
Develop more effective health, social care and education transitions for all children with SEND.
Support more children to have their SEND needs met without the need of an EHCP through ensuring mainstream settings have the knowledge and confidence to meet a variety of SEND needs.
Priority Area 5 Ensure our commissioned services support every child and young person to make good progress.
Monitor and identify best practice through our quality assurance framework for in and out of borough specialist placements that ensures all settings are providing a high-quality service to children and young people.
Use the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment(JSNA 2024) to understand the current and future predicted need of SEND /AP resources and placements.
Building on the work around our Capital Programme of development of high needs placements based on the JSNA to ensure appropriate local placements are available to meet needs
Strengthen Children’s Commissioning Service