On Monday 23rd February the Government published their White Paper on Schools including the SEND Consultation called Putting Children and Young People First linked here. Alongside they shared a series of what people need to know documents that go more in depth than we can here, linked here. 

There seems to be daily news stories and campaigns and a lot of concern about taking away our children’s rights. This makes it very difficult for parent carers to understand what is going to happen and when for a group who frankly have enough to worry about. The Kingston PCF thought it was a good idea to create a list of places of where to get information and a brief glossary of terms that are being used. 

The Parliamentary Process 

White Paper – A White Paper is a government policy document. This document sets out the proposed changes for the future of legislation. It is often published alongside a draft Bill. We are being told that there will be consultation before a Draft Bill is published on SEND Reform 

Bill A Bill is a legislative document with the proposed changes to the law. This Easy Read Guide shows just how many stages there are for a Bill to go through parliament including the Committee stages where discussions will be held 

Consultation This is an opportunity to speak to all parties involved like schools, local government, health and social care. They should also be including parent carers in the consultation which is what the National Network of Parent Carers forum has been working on with the Department for Education. The government has been calling the sessions speaking to parents Conversations which are part of the consultation process. 

Committee One key element is to understand is that whatever the government is proposing at this stage, they still do have to go through Consultation and Opposition. There will be a Committee working on this that sits under the Education Committee. You can follow their work here on the parliament website: Education Committee – Summary – Committees – UK Parliament 

Coproduction Coproduction is the key way we always hope to work. The National Network of Parent Carer Forums describes it as “ An equal and reciprocal partnership where everyone’s experience, knowledge and skills are used to create better outcomes”. This means that the Kingston Parent Carer Forum seek to understand these SEND Reforms and are part of the conversation in the Local area from the beginning, part of change from the beginning. 

Where to Find Information 

To be updated on the Local response	We will be holding a SEND Parent Carer Consortium  – more information to follow  The Kingston SEND Parent Carer Consortium is part of the strategic discussions locally and we will report back in our newsletter, please sign up here. Contact – Kingston PCF
To Read the Key Documents	The government directory of Bills
To learn about the National Network of Parent Carer Involvement	The NNPCF publish their responses here News – National Network of Parent Carer Forums C.I.C Kingston SEND Parent Carer Forum (PCF) attend events and regularly join a consortium of London regional representation. We will provide updates in our newsletter
Explainers about the law	The Council for Disabled Children is the umbrella organisation for the disabled children sector – they have a resources section of their website and a newsletter that shares updates about the reforms  IPSEA is taking a lead on providing information on the law  SEN and disability law | (IPSEA) Independent Provider of Special Education Advice
Campaigning	There are a number of cross-party groups campaigning on “Save our Children’s Rights” and this is their main page Protect the law for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities | Save Our Children’s Rights

Some Key Terms 

This is from our initial reading and should just help with some crucial terms you may hear. They are all potentially what the government wants to happen, nothing has been agreed nor changed at this point 

SEND Code of Practice is statutory guidance for organizations in England working with children and young people (0–25) with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It is noted that the intention of the proposals is this will be updated, including funding research into evidence based best practice 

Ordinarily Available Offer Again this is an offer that already exists AfCinfo website – Kingston and Richmond :: Local Offer / Information and advice / Education / Ordinarily Available It is a way of working and a whole-school approach that also supports those with additional needs 

Targeted support and Targeted Plus from our understanding these terms would apply to those who receive what is now called SEN Support, they will benefit from the universal offer aka Ordinarily Available Offer but may need some extra support from the Experts at Hand which would be a resource of experts available to all mainstream. 

Experts at Hand Speech and Language therapists, Occupational Therapist and Educational Psychologists, offering centralised support to all schools so that they can enhance their universal offer 

Inclusion Bases Currently some schools have specialist resourced provisions or pupil support, it is proposed that schools will all have an Inclusion Base to provide support for those on “targeted plus”. In addition the local authority would create “Specialist” Inclusion bases to deliver specialist support 

Individual Support Plans Children with SEND will need a Individual Support Plan and crucially it is proposed this becomes a digital document. The new system if it were come in to place would be applied from September 2029 and those with EHCPs would be transitioned to this or an EHCP with a specialist support package 

Specialist Support Package would be for those with profound and complex needs and will be the standardised packages agreed and form the content of the future version of the EHCP if this were to come into pass and would be in place from 2029.