Education, health and care plans
The Children and Families Act 2014 has put in place significant reforms to how the needs of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are identified, assessed and supported.
One of the key features of the act was the extension of the age range of those children and young adults with SEND who must now be assessed and supported by education, health and care up to 25 years of age.
Statements and learning difficulty assessments for those with the highest needs have been replaced by an education, health and care plan (EHCP). EHCPs have the child’s (or young person’s) voice at the very centre, along with that of their parents (or carers), and include contributions from the family, school/college, health and care professionals, and other relevant people.
Through the introduction of education, health and care plans we are launching a programme of training on person-centred reviews. This is aimed at our staff, staff in health services, schools and other settings, and post-16 providers to ensure that the voice of the child and their family is central to this process.
'Local offer'
The Children and Families Act has imposed a new duty on local authorities to set out the provision we expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in their area who have SEND, including those who do not have EHCPs. This is called the 'local offer'. We published our local offer in 2013 and this is now part of help and support Manchester. A local offer review board, which reports to the SEN Reform Board, has been established to:
- develop and review the local offer
- provide the mechanism for parents and carers to influence strategic developments.
The local offer review board membership is made up of representatives from health, education, schools and social care, as well as parent representatives. The Board is working to develop ways to improve how we include the voice of children and young people in service design and delivery.
Joint commissioning
The Children and Families Act also requires local authorities and health professionals to jointly commission services for children and young people with SEND. One of the functions of the local offer is to inform commissioners about gaps in provision. In addition, Manchester is developing a children’s joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA), which will include an overview of the needs of disabled children and young adults in the city and identify gaps in provision.
Personal budgets
The right to request a personal budget to deliver the provision in an EHC plan was introduced through the Children and Families Act 2014. This enables children and their families to have more choice and control over how their support needs are met. In Manchester we have a number of families currently accessing a budget for their short break, home-to-school travel or health – we have a smaller number accessing a budget for education.
Short breaks
Maximising the leisure activities available in the city – especially in local neighbourhoods – gives disabled children and young people more opportunities. Manchester’s approach to short breaks for children and young people with SEND starts with exploring universal opportunities and making them as accessible as possible.
We want to ensure that increasing numbers of disabled children and young people are accessing universal play, leisure youth and arts activities as part of their short break. A further challenge for the city is to increase access to specialist short breaks within the city, as many families eligible for overnight respite or highly specialist short breaks are currently only able to access this outside the city and through the independent sector.
Education
Manchester aims for children and young people with SEND to attend their local preschool setting and to be educated in their local mainstream school wherever possible. Where specialist provision is required, this should be within schools based in the city. The vast majority of pupils’ SEN are met within the following:
- fully inclusive mainstream provision
- mainstream with support
- resourced mainstream provision
- special school provision.
Manchester’s special school provision is located in purpose-built schools and has been awarded ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted. The facilities all have an outreach offer, which can be accessed by mainstream schools and settings to ensure that every school can identify and meet the needs of those children with SEND who choose to attend a local school or setting. This support helps to close the gap in outcomes when compared to young people without SEND.
Young people post-16
Manchester is providing high-needs funding (where the cost of providing education/training exceeds £10,000 per year) for 481 students in school sixth forms, sixth-form colleges, further education colleges, training, and adult education.
This number includes 30 students on supported internships with employer partners: us, Central Manchester Foundation Trust, and Manchester Airport. A key challenge is to increase the number of young people able to access supported internships or other forms of training and move them on to employment.
Travel
We have recently reviewed our home-to-school transport policy for children and young people with SEN, and it is now called 'travel support to access education'. This new policy focuses on the child and their family, looking at all aspects of an individual and their family situation using a family-based model. The aim is to develop a travel solution for the child to enable them to access education in the same way as their non-disabled peers. This includes travelling independently for young people, and family-based travel solutions for younger children. Our challenge is to increase the number of families accessing a more personalised travel solution, and increase the number of young people accessing independent travel training.
Case study
The young person’s journey on transport started with a taxi and two passenger assistants, moving to a taxi with one passenger assistant, travelling on a bus with no passenger assistant and, finally, completion of the travel-training programme. This took place over a five-year period through primary school, secondary school and college. The young person now has a skill for life, and is accessing their community studies independently.
The role of young and adult carers has been recognised in the past by the government (Recognised, Valued and Supported: Next Steps for the Carers plan), and by us and our partners through the carers plan and the carers’ forum. From 2010 we included carers as a ‘protected’ group when considering the outcomes of changes to commissioning and funding. The wellbeing of carers is a golden thread running through our work and that of the Manchester Partnership. The Care Act 2014 enables us to build on existing foundations and establish more personalised services for carers. The act also gives us the opportunity to commission services that not only support carers but actively seek out ‘hidden’ carers.
Through consultation with carers, the carers plan team identified three key priorities for future development and commissioning:
- Supporting those with caring responsibilities to identify themselves as carers at an early stage, recognising their value and involving them from the outset in designing local care provision and planning care packages.
- Enabling those with caring responsibilities to fulfil their educational and employment potential.
- Giving personalised support to carers and those they support, enabling them to have a family and community life.
Next: Part four: our approach