Lincolnshire’s shared ambitions and objectives for CYP with SEND
Lincolnshire County Council’s children’s services vision is: “putting children first – everyone working together for all children, young people and families to be happy, healthy, safe and the best they can be.”
Lincolnshire County Council (LCC), Lincolnshire ICB and Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF) have jointly developed and are committed to this strategy.
The strategy reflects the shared ambition of all partners to work together to improve support pathways and outcomes for Lincolnshire CYP with SEND to ensure they have the best possible start in life.
It also ensures they have the right support through all stages of development and in preparation for adulthood, whilst at the same time making best use of all resources. This can only be achieved through a strong integrated approach.
Inclusive aims are:
- to remove any barriers and reduce inequalities that CYP with SEND may experience compared to their peers so they can receive the right support, in the right place, from the right people at the right time, as close to home as possible
- to help CYP, parent or carers and professionals to understand in a clear way what support is available, including support that can be self-accessed
- to ensure education settings have expert knowledge and understanding of how best to support and meet CYP’s additional educational needs, making necessary reasonable adjustments where required. Settings and families should work together to ensure consistency in the home environment and education setting
- to reduce education exclusions of CYP with SEND; to recognise behaviour is a communication of need and that CYP may need multi-service support wrapped around them to meet their needs in an inclusive way
- to have high aspirations for CYP with SEND and help them to achieve academically, have personal resilience, develop social connections and live as independently as possible
Shared objectives are:
- to have an accurate and shared understanding of the needs of Lincolnshire CYP
- to engage CYP with SEND and their families, and professionals from all relevant sectors in the co-production of service design, development and evaluation
- to improve joint working between organisations, with local leaders coming together to agree a shared vision and priorities
- to clarify current resources, financial and other, across the system and identify if there are better ways to integrate or maximise resources to improve outcomes for CYP with SEND
- to champion investment in support that will improve outcomes for CYP with SEND
- to provide a single point of access for CYP, families and professionals to clear information that will support CYP with SEND
- to reduce the number of families seeking mediation services and escalation to tribunal by providing clearer information about the SEND system and helping CYP get the support they need
- to improve information and data sharing across organisations to prevent CYP and families from having to explain their need multiple times
- to improve transition between stages in education, different services, and in particular from children’s to adult services, where applicable
- to improve the offer of community based support by increasing SEND training for nursery and school staff, commissioned and voluntary sector community groups
- to reduce or remove organisational barriers such as poor communication, lack of consistency, IT etc
