SEND and alternative provision improvement plan: right support, right place, right time

In March 2023 the Government published an Improvement Plan setting out their proposals to create a sustainable SEND and alternative provision system that is easier for families to navigate and will improve outcomes and experiences for all children and young people across education and care.

Here is a summary of the key proposals

• National SEND standards (not until 2025 at earliest)
• Accountability to ‘ensure expectations met’
• EHCPs to go digital – but trialled first
• Local Inclusion Plans (LIPs)
• Mandatory mediation process
• New NPQ for SENCos (leadership level)
• 33 new special schools
• National SEND tariffs to come alongside standards, i.e. national system of funding bands and tariffs to ensure more “consistent” funding.
• AP funding to be reviewed.
• Inclusion dashboard
• ‘Adjusted’ intervention in failing areas in line with the new Ofsted and Care Quality Commission area SEND inspection framework.
• New AP performance framework – a “bespoke national alternative provision performance framework”
• Fair access panels review to ensure “transparent and effective movement of pupils without EHCPs, such as those requiring alternative provision, to address behavioural needs”
• ‘Comparable’ expectations for independent schools
• More ‘joined-up’ work with NHS England
  SEND and AP Implementation Board will drive reforms.

Thanks to SEBDA member Dr David Colley for this summary.