Blog – from the Assistant Director for SEND, Helen Phelan

Dear Parent Carers,

Welcome to the first SEND blog and updates on what we have been doing to improve the service for our children and young people with SEND and their families.

Each month, we’ll be letting you know what’s been going on behind the scenes and keep you up to date on the progress being made, as well as any challenges we are facing. The blogs will come from me initially, and then as we go on, I’ll invite other members of the SEND team to write about their specific area so you can get a good overview of every aspect of the work we are doing.

I’m really pleased to tell you that the Local Area’s Accelerated Progress Plan has been approved by the Department for Education off the back of the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission revisit in July 2022. I would like to take this opportunity to give you an update on what’s been happening since the inspection, and actions taken to date. 

We know we need to improve the quality and timeliness of our EHCPs, and we’ve been developing a new multi-agency EHCP audit process to do this, which include parent carers every step of the way so the plan for their child is visible throughout. 

We’ve also put in place a new tracking system for all Annual Reviews to make sure these are done on time and have the right people involved.

We bid for and was successful in securing funding for a brand new special free school which will be located in Biggleswade, providing approximately 130 places specifically for children and young people with social, emotional mental health needs.

We have also been training staff across education, health and social care, who attend our Early Intervention panels, so everyone is clear regarding SEND and the law.

We’ve also asked and will fund Autism Beds and the national PDA society to support schools with SEND training requirements.

We will also be participating in the Department for Education’s: ‘Delivering Better Value programme, to identify sustainable changes that will drive high quality outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

And finally, we have also been building capacity in the Educational Psychology Service, resulting in a reduction in the waiting list by 100% in just eight months, as well as delivering Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) training in local schools. 16 Teaching Assistants in our schools are now fully ELSA trained and will receive ongoing supervision from us.

This is just a snippet of what we have been doing and I hope that gives you a flavour of what’s been happening. I look forward to officially bedding in the actions set out in the Local Area Accelerated Progress Plan to continue this journey.

As some of you know, Jackie Edwards our Chief SEND Officer will be leaving Central Bedfordshire Council soon to pursue other activities; we have successfully recruited an experienced Head of SEND to take over when Jackie steps down from her current role at the end of this month.  We wish Jackie all the very best for the future and thank her for all that she has done for the children and families in Central Bedfordshire.

You can read more about our SEND improvements to date.