Children and Young People with Specialist Needs (SEND)

The Essex Local Offer

The Essex Local Offer has been published as part of the SEND reforms under the Children and Families Act 2014.

Under the Children and Families Act 2014 each Local Authority was required to publish a Local Offer detailing what provision and services were available in their area for children and young people with SEND by the 1^st September 2014. The Local Offer is a living and organic resource that will be developed over time with the assistance of our partners, parents and young people.

The Essex Local Offer will:

Give you information about education, health and care services
Give you information about leisure activities and support groups
Hold all the information in one place
Be clear, comprehensive and accessible
Make service provision more responsive to local needs and aspirations
Be developed and reviewed with the service providers and service user

Please see the link above for more information and how to join if you represent an organisation that provides services to support Essex children and young people.

Essex Local Area SEND Inspection 2019

Between 30 September 2019 and 4 October 2019, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), conducted a joint inspection of the local area of Essex to judge the effectiveness of the area in implementing the disability and special educational needs reforms as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.

Inspectors:

spoke with children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), parents and carers, local authority officers and National Health Service (NHS) officers
visited a range of providers and spoke to leaders, staff and governors about how they were implementing the special educational needs reforms
looked at a range of information about the performance of the local area, including the local area’s self-evaluation
met with leaders from the local area for health, social care and education. They reviewed performance data and evidence about the local offer and joint commissioning
considered the views and comments from parents and carers from the open meetings, the webinar, emails and letters

Read the findings from the inspection, including some areas of strengths and areas for further improvement.

Maze - A community for parents, carers and families of children with additional needs

SEND survey video on Biteable.

We would like to hear your views about health and care services for children with special educational needs and disability. You can complete the Long Term Plan survey online or call 01206 918653 or email neeccg.comms@nhs.net to request a paper copy.

The Multi Schools Council Fundraising

In July 2019 the Multi Schools Council walked to every special school in Essex, in just 5 days. That’s 150 miles, which is more than a marathon a day!

The walk raised awareness of special schools and raised nearly £3,000 to fund student voice ideas, which will help break down the perceptions towards children with special educational needs and mental health difficulties.