SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper

The SEND Review is a piece of work by the Department for Education (DfE) that looks at improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND. To ensure that the DfE’s proposals will reflect the needs of children and young people with SEND, CDC have been gathering their opinions to create a children and young people’s response to the SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper.

Our national young SEND advisory group, FLARE, has been in consultation with the DfE for the review and as part of the Youth Voice Matters Children and Young People’s SEND Conference 2022, CDC led a workshop focused on Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) to support the development of the SEND Review in this area, providing an opportunity for children and young people to be heard by the SEND Review Team. The workshop gained insight into how children and young people feel that they are included within their support, how this could potentially work better through digital EHCPs and captured the group’s vision for what person-centred support could look like in the future.

A Young People’s Priorities Event was held in March for the Disabled Children’s Partnership (DCP) steering group provided the opportunity to meet with some young people and hear their priorities for health and social care. These priorities ranged from funding for outside of school activities to highlighting some of the shortcomings in healthcare, these will help inform the DCP’s responses to the SEND Review.

The first Making Participation Work Practitioners Conference of the year asked participation, co-production, engagement practitioners and strategic managers from across children and young people’s health, education and social care to share their views on the SEND Review. The event focused on how the proposals in the Green Paper must include children and young people’s voices.

CDC then co-designed a consultation session plan and resources with our FLARE group with the aim to focus on the issues raised in the Green Paper that FLARE members felt were most urgent to the ongoing engagement of children and young people in the review process. The session was delivered to a wide range of individuals and organisations across England, including those who have not previously been able to strategically engage at a national level.

Following the consultation period we have published a children and young people’s response to the SEND and Alternative Provision Green Paper and an accessible version. An easy-read version of the report will be coming soon.