Following a successful bid led by East Sussex County Council, a partnership of councils called the South East 7 (SE7) has been chosen to be a pathfinder trial area for the potential reforms to the way disabled young people, those with learning difficulties and other special educational needs are assessed and provided with support.
The Government unveiled its proposals for change in a Green Paper on special educational needs and disabilities earlier this year. Today it announced that the SE7 and its partners in the health service and the voluntary sector, will be asked to pilot those changes.
The SE7 is a collaboration of councils involving East Sussex County Council, Brighton & Hove City Council, Kent County Council, Hampshire County Council, Medway Council, West Sussex County Council and Surrey County Council. The area serves 1.3 million children including more than 24,000 with special educational needs (SEN).
The news that the Government has asked the SE7 to trial the changes to special educational needs and disability policy was warmly welcomed by the Leader of East Sussex County Council, Cllr Peter Jones, and the council's Lead Member for Children's and Adults' Services, Cllr David Elkin.
Cllr Elkin said: “These will be significant changes to the way we support young people with special needs and disabilities and their families. It will be about redesigning the system to put the child and their families at the centre of the process, giving them more choice and control, and looking at all of a child's needs.
“The changes will lead to better outcomes for children in East Sussex and the rest of the country and many of them are changes local authorities have long argued for. I am delighted that we will get the chance to play a key role in shaping and influencing the reforms and the new policy.”
Cllr Jones added that it was also very good news for the SE7 collaboration. He said: “This decision is also an endorsement of shared services and the partnership we have created within the SE7 as well as the leadership we have shown in the SEN field. The SE7 collaboration was set up to look at where we could share expertise and some services to make public services in the region as effective and efficient as possible.”
Within the Government's Green Paper on special educational needs reform, there are many proposals that will be tested by the SE7 members over the next few years. Each will be involved with piloting different aspects of the reform agenda.
The reforms are aimed at making sure the child and their families are central to the process and fully involved at each stage. They will lead to simpler assessment processes which will look at all of a child's needs including their learning needs, their health needs and their care needs. In many cases this will lead to single support plan.
New processes will be trialled aiming to ensure earlier identification of a child's needs, and for some there will be trials of personal budgets, giving families more control over the services they receive. Families will also be involved in reviewing how we set out what support is on offer for disabled children and how to make best use of the services available.
Further information
Details on the Government's Green Paper on special educational needs reform can be found on the Department for Education website.
The policies under scrutiny are those for children who have disabilities, and those with learning, emotional or behavioural difficulties. It applies to children and young people aged up to 25 years.
There will be 30 areas in the country trying new approaches to special educational needs and disabilities, and the SE7 is the largest.
East Sussex County Council is one of seven major councils across the South East to have entered into the formal SE7 collaboration to achieve potentially massive savings whilst improving the quality of local services.
East Sussex County Council, Brighton & Hove City Council, Hampshire County Council, Kent County Council, Medway Council, Surrey County Council and West Sussex County Council – which between them cover a population of 5.3 million people, including 1.3 million children and young people, and are responsible for net budgets worth £3.4 billion per annum – have signed a ‘Memorandum of Understanding'.
By working together through joint contracts, sharing information, skills and resources the South East authorities will actively seek opportunities to reduce costs and improve services.
A range of different council services are being examined by the SE7 and East Sussex County Council is leading on potential reforms to special educational needs.
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East Sussex County Council