Assessing our local SEN Sufficiency and our provision plans
The 0-25 SEND Partnership and Cheshire East Council are committed to providing the best quality education and support for all our children and young people to ensure they achieve the best possible outcomes. Having the right educational placement is key to supporting children and young people to achieve their potential and to develop the range of skills and experiences they need to equip them for adulthood.
Previous Sufficiency Work (2017)
In July 2017, we completed a sufficiency statement (PDF, 2.9MB) of our educational provision for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) to:
- assess the needs of our children and young people in Cheshire East
- evaluate how well our current provision meets young people’s needs, and identify any gaps
- support us to plan how we will continue to develop our provision over a three year period starting in 2017-18 so that we can achieve the best outcomes for our children and young people.
In response to the needs and provision gaps identified in our SEN Sufficiency Statement, we developed a Three year plan to develop our specialist SEN Provision in Cheshire East (PDF, 330KB).
Updated Sufficiency work (2020)
During 2020, a refresh of our SEN Sufficiency data was undertaken in order to produce the following refresh documents:
If we deliver all the places outlined within the updated SEN Provision Plan, we will have achieved a 48% increase in local SEN Provisions with a minimum of 232 additional places for Cheshire East pupils with SEND.
A consultation period was undertaken on the updated SEN Sufficiency Statement and proposed Provision Plan with local schools during November 2020 – January 2021. The results of the consultation have been analysed and schools have been contacted for discussions around future provisions based upon their submitted expressions of interest.
Special Provision Capital Fund
In 2017, the Government announced that each local authority would receive capital funding to invest in provision for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) aged 0-25 in order to improve the quality and range of provision available.
Local authorities can invest their share of the special provision capital fund in:
- creating new (additional) places at good or outstanding provision
- improving facilities, or developing new facilities, in educational settings
The last few years have seen considerable capital investment into our Cheshire East Schools to increase both the places for children and young people with SEND, but also to improve resources in our specialist settings.
The Cheshire East Special Provision Capital Fund Plan (PDF, 174KB) show how our previous monies have been spent through a dedicated bidding round, as well as the plans we put in place for the 2019 allocation, which focused upon improving provisions within our Resource Provision settings. A 2021 update has been added to this document to describe the projects that are currently underway.
Access to SEND Services Framework
The local authority is facing a rising trend of demand for SEND services. In December 2020, we finalised our Access to SEND Services Framework Document (PDF, .2MB). The aim of the document is to strengthen our understanding and approach to increasing levels of demand on SEND services. Also, to identify and implement practical strategies to ensure effective access to SEND services (with improved support at SEND support level) for those children and young people who will benefit most from the services.