Update from East Sussex County Council on developments in SEND education
Would you like to know more about developments in East Sussex that aim to improve the educational experience of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities?
We asked Jessica Stubbings, Head of Education: Participation and Planning in the Education Division of East Sussex County Council, to tell us about the programmes and projects that happening right now to try and address some of the challenges facing SEND education.
Amaze meets regularly and works with East Sussex County Council, East Sussex Parent Carer Forum and other local stakeholders to understand and help shape changes in education for our children and young people. We will continue to keep you up to date with changes and improvements as they happen.
SEND Provision Planning
In recent years, East Sussex County Council has taken action to address the increasing demand for special school and specialist facility places by delivering new places. The SEND place planning strategy is set out in the School Organisation Plan which is updated annually. Whilst three new special schools have opened creating 335 new places (at Ropemakers’, Flagship and Summerdown) the focus is now on the development of more specialist facilities.
Specialist facilities provide additional support for pupils with SEND alongside access to mainstream provision and social opportunities with peers, promoting inclusion. The council has created 72 new specialist facility places at seven mainstream schools (five primary and two secondary). Two mainstream schools have extended the designation of their existing specialist facilities. This is to reflect the growing demand for provision for children with autism.
New provision in development includes a proposed project to reorganise and expand Grove Park School to increase capacity at secondary, and more specialist facility places at primary and secondary schools. Two new specialist facilities have been approved which will both open in January 2025, one at Chailey St Peter’s CE Primary School and one at Ocklynge Junior School. The facility at Uckfield College will also be expanding in September 2025.
The need for more specialist provision for post-16 learners has also been identified. The council is working with special schools, FE Colleges and other post-16 providers to explore how to deliver this.
Universally Available Provision
Universally Available Provision forms the foundation for all other provision or support in schools, colleges and other settings. It includes high quality teaching that is made available to all children and young people, including those with SEND. In addition, settings may consider strategies, resources and adaptations to the curriculum and environment that teaching staff use to remove barriers to learning for children and young people. You can read more about this here: Expectations on All Settings (Universally Available Provision) | East Sussex Local Offer
East Sussex County Council’s Education Division is preparing for a Universally Available Provision (UAP) event in June. This event will help to update the East Sussex UAP to meet the latest educational standards and practices. It will be a chance to gather feedback from different stakeholders including schools, health and parent carers, and align the UAP with upcoming changes from the Department for Education (DfE).
East Sussex Parent Carer Forum (ESPCF) will be attending the event to feed in the views and experiences of families. Contact [email protected] if you want to get involved in ESPCF’s activities. A parent survey is also inviting parent carer feedback on accessing universally available provision for their child or young person. See https://forms.office.com/e/MdreW83RDh.
Universally Available Provision is part of the SEND and AP Change Programme. To find out more please visit: SEND and AP Change Programme | East Sussex Local Offer
Alongside UAP work, the local authority is also updating the self-evaluation tool used by schools, the East Sussex Quality Mark for Inclusion (ESQMI). This update will align with potential government changes to Inclusion and the new Ofsted Framework. The revised ESQMI will help schools improve their inclusive practices, ensuring all students get the support they need.
Enhancing Inclusive Practice Projects
The Enhancing Inclusive Practice projects are funded from a one-off investment to support inclusive practice in schools. The project has three key aims:
- To improve early identification of SEND – so the correct provision can be put into place sooner, before gaps in progress and development between children with and without SEND become too wide.
- To improve the mainstream offer for children with SEND – to achieve consistently high quality SEND provision countywide. Research suggests that children with SEND do better with the correct provision in mainstream than in special schools.
- To improve parental confidence in the mainstream SEND Offer – although many parents in the county are positive about their child’s education setting, too many continue to report that their children’s needs are not always being met.
Eight EIP projects started delivery in the first academic term 2023, three projects started mid-year and a final eight projects started in September 2024. In total there are 19 projects across 135 schools. Read more about Enhancing Inclusive Practice.
The initial feedback from lead organisations and schools from the first round of projects is that all strands have had a positive impact on pupil outcomes, attendance, progress, behaviour for learning, mental health, and wellbeing for many of the referred children they are working with. Participants also report improvements in pupil and parent engagement and improved parental confidence in the school being able to support their child’s progress. Some schools have told us that the good practice has been noted in recent Ofsted inspection reports.
Key headlines of the Enhancing Inclusive Practice Projects
Development of an enhanced family support offer for children with SEN
- Projects under this strand employed Family Support Workers (FSWs) to provide additional support and guidance and are reporting that they provide valuable additional advice, support and capacity to the families they are working with.
- FSWs are helping schools understand their pupils and the influences on them as well as help teach learning behaviours and supporting behaviours in the home.
- At the end of the first year, Uckfield has worked with 50 children from 45 families across their partner schools. 15 cases have been closed. 19 of the families when they started with them had requested an EHCP; since, 11 families have stated they now feel confident in their school and recognise that an EHCP is now not required.
Early identification and early intervention in nursery provision to support transition into school
- Earlier identification is allowing teachers to put in place effective provision sooner and help them to a ‘soft landing’ at transition.
- Identifying children with speech and language disorders and delays earlier, means they make faster progress and have a better chance to catch up to same-aged peers.
Improving expertise and availability of SEN support for local school alliances
- Modelling good practice working alongside teachers and teaching assistants (TAs) has been effective and is helping to retain staff
- Working in teams is an effective way of supporting individual members of staff to improve the quality of inclusive provision
Creating a workforce development programme for support staff
- There are real benefits of bringing staff from different schools together for continuous professional development as this enables good practice sharing and problem solving
- The staff feel valued and make better contributions to SEND support and work more closely with the teacher
- It fosters a learning culture and environment across the school
Supporting transition to secondary school and post-16
- Transition staff can help individual students make a successful transition including by providing tailored, young person-centred support with planning and settling into new placements, helping them to plan for and manage their move
- Continuous professional development and increased understanding of transition has helped raise the profile of emotionally based school avoidance across the schools and contributed towards a whole school ethos around developing a sense of belonging
- The transition programme can have an incredibly positive impact on parental confidence. They feel supported and understood.
- Visits to their current school from secondary/college staff that will be collaborating with them in the future can build relationships, confidence and understanding.
EHCP Transitions Team
The EHCP Transitions Service supports SENCOs with the annual reviews for children and young people with Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) in Years 4 to 6 and 9 to 11 who attend a mainstream setting, or a facility within a mainstream setting.
The team of advisers within the service support SENCOs to prepare pre-annual review paperwork, to chair the annual review and collate and submit the post-Annual Review paperwork. The aim is to ensure that the annual review is person-centred and that all parties feel actively involved. Also, to ensure that the EHCP is updated to be an accurate reflection of the child or young person and that appropriate, early discussion and planning around preparation for adulthood takes place.
The practitioners within the service work directly with children and young people in their current settings, to plan and prepare for the upcoming transitions to their next phase of education, for example from primary into secondary and from secondary in Post-16. This academic year, to date, the practitioners have directly supported 394 children and young people.
There has been overwhelmingly positive feedback about the EHCP Transitions Service, in what is only its first fully operational year.
- 100% of children/young people felt positive about their annual review with the EHCPT involvement.
- 100% of schools/settings and parents/carers agreed or strongly agreed that ‘The annual review was person centred’.
- 100% of schools/settings and parent/carers agreed or strongly agreed that ‘The annual review was focused on the child/young person’s future aspirations.
- 100% of parents/carers agreed or strongly agreed that ‘My needs, feelings and wishes were listened to’.
Amaze resources to support your child’s education
Online information:
Downloadable resources:
- In-depth guides – Amaze Sussex: detailed downloadable guides that break down what the law and legal guidance says about SEND and education, and give you step by step guidance on how to navigate the process.
