Consultation on Devon’s Strategy for Children & Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

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The way that education, health and social care services are delivered to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and their families has undergone significant change, both nationally and locally. Since 2014, changes from central government have driven the need to re-design services and review working practices. These changes have come at a time where increasing demand, both in numbers and complexity of need, is being placed on education, health and social care services. In Devon, we have been implementing the SEND reforms and have recently refreshed the way in which we monitor our performance to ensure that we improve outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities and their families. As part of our improvement work a draft SEND Strategy has been developed which aims to set out Devon’s vision and strategic priorities for the next few years, demonstrating our commitment to joint working across all partners, including Education (schools, further education settings, Babcock and the local authority SEN team), Social Care, Health (Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and NHS Trusts) among others. The Strategy focuses on six key priorities: 1. Working Together 2. Inclusive Education 3. Preparation for Adulthood 4. Choice and Control 5. Engagement 6. Health Our priorities have been informed by Devon parent/carers ‘burning issues’, the local areas self-evaluation, feedback from a range of groups and individuals and also the findings from a Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Review in November 2016. We want to know what you think about our SEND strategy, in particular the six key priorities areas. We are working with Healthwatch Devon to ensure the consultation reaches as many people as possible. Your views are really important in helping us to ensure we focus on the right things which will help us to improve the experience and outcomes for all children and young people with SEND and their families. View the consultation http://healthwatchdevon.co.uk/speak-out/send-strategy-consultation/ The consultation runs from 17 January to 17 March 2017, so please make sure you respond in this time to have your views taken into account. If you have any questions on this, please contact sendstrategyconsultation-mailbox@devon.gov.uk Keywords: Children, SEND, disabilities, young people, special educational needs