Decision details

To consider the report of the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services seeking agreement of the Special Educational Needs (SEN) Strategy. The objectives of the strategy have been consulted on widely and it sets out actions to be implemented to improve services to children and young people with SEN and Disabilities.

To adopt the new SEN Strategy for 2013-2016 attached at Appendix 1.

1.  From September 2014 there will be new statutory requirements on local authorities around services and support for children and young people with Special educational Needs. The SEN Strategy will support the local authority to plan for meeting all of the requirements.

2.  Local needs assessments and service reviews have identified a number of areas for service improvement, many of which overlap with the Government’s SEN reforms. The strategy will bring together recommendations from these reviews and provide one single action plan to address them.

It is essential that Local Authorities have an SEN Strategy in place and that services plan for how they will implement the changes outlined in the Children and Families Bill 2013. Alternative options have therefore been considered and rejected as not having an SEN Strategy will make it more difficult to coordinate actions from such a wide range of staff and organisations. Alternative strategic objectives were considered during the consultation period and have been included in the final strategy.