SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan published
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 according to the Department for Education's press release shared on 2nd March 2023.
"The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision Improvement plan 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.
Under the plan, sub-titled Right Support, Right Place, Right Time, 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.
To improve parents’ and carers’ experiences of accessing support, the plan will cut local bureaucracy by making sure the process for assessing children and young people’s needs through education health and care (EHC) plans is digital-first, quicker and simpler wherever possible.
BASE is supportive of the emphasis through the plan on employment outcomes for your people and is proud to be one of the partners delivering the Internships Work project along with NDTi and DFN Project Search, which will enable 4500 young adults, aged 16-25 with additional needs, to benefit from a supported internship per year by 2025.
However we need to also consider what will happen to those young people whose ambitions we've encouraged once they transition to adulthood. Access to local supported employment services is needed across the country if we are to fully realise the talents of those facing barriers to work. It is important that this and future governments continue to invest in the evidence-based models, that ensure Everyone Who Wants To Work, is given the opportunity to dream, has access to the right support and the possibility of a career.