North Northamptonshire Local SEND Reform Plan 2026

Classification: Official

The Local SEND Reform Plan

March 2026

Contents

1. Introduction 3

Document Overview 3

The Local SEND Reform Plan 4

2. Laying the Foundation for Reform 6

The Experts at Hand Offer 7

Embedding the Experts at Hand Offer Within a Broader Reform Strategy 11

Strengthening Effective Partnerships and Practice 13

Governance 17

Funding 18

Structure of the Local SEND Reform Plan 20

3. Submission, Review, and Monitoring Process 21

Submission 21

Review 22

Monitoring 22

High Needs Stability Grant 24

4. Questions 24

Annex A: Local SEND Reform Plan 25

Executive Summary 28

Section 1 – Vision and Goals 30

Section 2 – Strategy 31

Section 3 – Monitoring and Evaluation 50

Section 4 – Governance 53

Section 5 – Central Government Support 56

Annex B - Supporting Documents 58

Annex C – Risk Matrix 59

1. Introduction

Document Overview

This document is designed to support local area partnerships develop a Local SEND Reform Plan with most sections pertaining to the local area partnership as a whole, in particular, local authorities (LAs) and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), multi- academy trusts (MATs) and schools. Sections that pertain solely to local authorities are clearly marked Local Authorities.

While this document addresses local area partnerships, the government’s expectation is that the local authority is the system ‘convener’; taking the lead to bring together all system partners and ensure they work together to develop and deliver the Local SEND Reform Plan. Similarly, the government has clear expectations on all system partners to proactively respond to the local authority’s leadership, ensuring they commit resources and fulfil their responsibilities in the partnership. Central government will actively engage where system partners are not responding to the local authority’s leadership.

The document contains the following:

1. The Local SEND Reform Plan Guidance

Overview and a practical guide to help local area partnerships complete the plan.

• Local SEND Reform Plan Template – Annex A

The delivery plan that local area partnerships are expected to complete and return to the Department for Education and NHS England by 19 June 2026.

3. Supporting Documents – Annex B

A list of key resources and references including links to relevant policy documents, tools, and guidance referenced throughout.

The Local SEND Reform Plan

The 0-25 SEND system has been under significant and prolonged pressure, resulting in a system that is failing too many children and young people. Local services are overstretched, some children’s needs are escalating unnecessarily to crisis point, and financial pressures have become unsustainable. Yet within this challenging landscape, many local area partnerships have demonstrated determination and leadership - working very hard to improve their local services and often developing compelling and innovative approaches to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND. The government is committed to collaborating with local area partnerships to build on and scale what is working well.

We recognise that system-wide reform and investment is needed to deliver an inclusive and sustainable system that stands the test of time. However, realising this vision will only be possible if every local area takes full responsibility for driving significant improvement in the sustainable delivery of local services. It is imperative that all local areas begin this essential work through robust action plans that demonstrate clear ownership, ambition and accountability. This step change in the delivery of local services cannot be optional; it is a critical expectation of all local area partnerships.

As set out in the Schools White Paper, the government will reform the current SEND system, building on ongoing work to create a system that’s rooted in inclusion, where every child and young person receives high-quality support early on and can thrive in their local early years setting, school or college. The government’s plan is to ensure opportunity for all by delivering an excellent, inclusive education for every child with a world class education and highly trained workforce. This will be based on an inclusive mainstream education system, with professional support for children and young people that need it, and improved, efficient and effective local delivery, as detailed below.

• Inclusive mainstream system: most children and young people with SEND

will be supported to achieve and thrive in mainstream education settings through high-quality teaching, inclusive practice, and targeted support.

Settings will be equipped to create the right environments, and multidisciplinary professional support services will be commissioned at a group level to address needs efficiently.

• Specialist support for children that need it: Specialist settings will continue

to play a vital role for children and young people who require a substantially different curriculum or highly individualised approaches that cannot be delivered in mainstream educational settings.

• Efficient and effective local delivery: investment in and improvement of

local services, including health, care, and wider workforces and resources, will support the delivery of joined-up, place-based provision. Local authorities will work with Integrated Care Boards to commission multi-disciplinary professional support across early years settings, schools and post-16 providers, taking a whole school approach at group level, so children and young people can access the help they need. Improvement of local services eases the pressure on home to school transport, ensuring fewer children and young people with SEND need to travel a long way from home to attend a school or setting. Local authorities will work with all settings to plan and deliver the right physical spaces in mainstream nurseries, schools and colleges.

Delivering lasting change will take collective commitment and sustained effort from all of us; government, local authorities, health partners, early years, MATs, schools and colleges; working together with parents and carers to build the inclusive system our children and young people deserve.

The Local SEND Reform Plan is the key delivery and accountability vehicle for this collaborative commitment, with expectations that it is revised annually as proposed reform is rolled out. We recognise that delivery of the plan will be within the current statutory framework, as such, local area partnerships will not be required to implement any policy that is being consulted on or that will require legislative change.

This first iteration is about building on existing foundations and putting in place the groundwork for reform. It aims to:

• Support central government to understand how the SEND system is being

transformed nationally, understand how investment funding is being used to achieve reform priorities, identify innovative practice that can be disseminated and scaled up, and identify where additional support may be required.

• Support local areas - local authorities, health partners, early years, MATs,

schools and further education - to develop and deliver a clear pathway toward an inclusive and sustainable local SEND system that identifies and supports needs early, meets needs within the local area, is fair, effective and shared; building on existing work and tailored to the unique context of the local area.

• Support local authorities to unlock investment funding and access support for

historic and accruing deficits.

The Local SEND Reform Plan provides a framework that partnerships can use to establish a baseline for their local system and metrics against which transformation progress can be tracked.

The government, working alongside local area leadership, will use the plans - and the insights from regular progress reviews - to understand delivery, support decision‑making on investment funding and access to the High Needs Stability Grant, and reflect progress on target metrics. The Department for Education, in particular, will use the plans - incorporating the data returns, local partnership maturity assessments and core local reform plan – to establish a baseline and ongoing monitoring of local area performance.

Throughout this process, DfE officials, health regional leads, SEND and financial advisers will support local area colleagues with access to tailored guidance and emerging insights to help shape and strengthen their plans. The Local Government Association (Lga) will also provide additional system leadership and transformation support through the children’s and SEND improvement advisers.

2. Laying the Foundation for Reform

A central focus of this first iteration of the Local SEND Reform Plan is the introduction of the Experts at Hand (Eah) Offer and a strengthened approach to ensuring there are sufficient high needs places within mainstream settings, alongside a continued strengthening of effective partnerships and practice. Together, these initiatives aim to build a more inclusive and sustainable SEND system by ensuring mainstream settings, supported by collaborative and maturing partnerships, are equipped with both the right infrastructure and the specialist expertise needed to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.

The Experts at Hand Offer

The Experts at Hand Offer is a core pillar of the SEND reform programme, designed to strengthen the capability of mainstream education settings to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND more effectively and inclusively.

Local areas should provide a defined route for mainstream education settings to access specialist support, including from a range of experts with specialisms in education & health, such as in, educational psychology, speech and language therapy, and occupational therapy, as well as through outreach from specialist settings. By adding support to shift to increased group-based models and whole setting advice and support, health and education professionals can deliver evidence- based support and intervention with greater impact and value, ensuring, where possible, needs do not escalate. This not only makes better use of a limited workforce but also reduces dependence on costly, individualised provision. There will continue to be children and young people with complex needs that will require individualised and tailored support to meet their needs.

We know that strong practice and effective joint working already exist in many local areas where settings are supported to strengthen inclusive practice. We are keen to ensure that local areas are building on these as they develop and scale up their offer.

Local area partnerships (Local Authorities, ICBs, and system partners including settings) are expected to build their Experts at Hand Offer so that it becomes an ongoing and embedded element of the SEND system.

In order to achieve this, as well as to support a more effective SEND system overall, we need:

• To maintain access and referrals for those children who need specialist

referral pathways identified at triage based on educational and clinical need.

• Better joint working across ICBs, LAs, and local system partners including

education settings, Best Start Family Hubs, Parent Carer Forums (PCFs), health providers and children and young people.

• More effective joint commissioning between LAs and ICBs, including strategic

planning and co-production with children, young people and families and local partners.

• A strong universal offer and fluid layers of support which can be accessed

from day one, one of which should include an offer of support for mainstream education settings giving them access to universal and targeted support from services across health and education – the new ‘Experts at Hand’ offer.

The aim of this offer is for mainstream early years settings, MATs, mainstream schools and further education providers to improve across the following areas:

• Understanding the needs of children and young people in their setting.
• Putting structures in place to build relationships and co-production with the

parent/carer community.

• Strengthening the baseline level of capacity of settings and staff to meet

commonly occurring SEND needs.

• Reviewing practice regularly to ensure current approaches are the most

suitable.

• Improving knowledge of when and how to draw down additional expertise

when required.

This model allows for more efficient deployment of multidisciplinary professionals, promotes broader skill development across settings, and supports a more dynamic and sustainable workforce. It also puts a stronger focus on collaboration between health professionals and education settings, enhancing the role of health professionals in education and enabling them to focus on strategic support to schools and settings as well as system-wide impact.

The offer is designed to build capability within mainstream settings through joint working, empowering education staff to identify and meet a wider range of needs and enabling more children and young people to thrive in inclusive environments; and is expected to be jointly owned and resourced by the Local Authority and Integrated Care Board.

Local areas should consider how they will develop this offer to ensure there is support and appropriate provision across early years, primary, secondary, and further education settings. This should include developing effective models and partnerships for supporting young people with SEND who access further education in a different local area.

Local areas1 have flexibility in how they commission or employ the multidisciplinary workforce required to deliver the offer. They are encouraged to explore, alongside other options, deployment through special schools and colleges, alternative provision schools, Neighbourhood Health Services, Best Start Family Hubs2, and Multi- disciplinary Family Help Teams. Local areas will need to work with neighbouring local area partnerships and representatives of the further education sector to consider how best to deliver this service to all colleges and other post-16 providers their young people attend – including those out of their area.

Local systems are expected to begin building this offer using allocated investment funding as a core focus of their delivery in the first year, with the aim of having all Experts at Hand offers established and operational as the new reforms are introduced.

Guidance relating to the Experts at Hand offer is due to be published in Spring 2026.

Core minimum requirements

Experts at Hand Offer Local area partnerships will be expected to clearly and succinctly set out in their plan:

• The delivery approach for this offer and the rationale for why the outlined

approach is optimal for the local area. This will include setting out if delivery will be local authority-led, contracted to the Icb, in partnership with another area or through an external partner, and setting out the role of Best Start Family Hubs. Where delivery involves an Icb or external partner, please specify the partnership vehicle (such as an Sla or Mou) and how performance will be assured.

1 Local areas who have been involved in Elsec and Pins can use the structures they have in place and the learning they have gained to support the design of their offer. 2 New guidance to be published 23 March 2026.

• A summary of the partnership approach to agreeing an optimal delivery

model including how all system partners were engaged and how the approach was informed by needs-based data.

• How the Eah funding will enhance existing routes to access specialist input,

and how the delivery model will be integrated with other services or offers funded separately.

• Proposal to collaboratively recommission alternative provision to align with

the 3-tier model and best practice identified through Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforces (Apst) models.

• Where alternative provision capacity is constrained, whether the LA will

contract provision, partner regionally, or share expertise and the route chosen.

• Proposals for commissioning outreach from high-quality specialist providers,

where appropriate.

• Proposal for timely access to health and education professionals (e.g., in

educational psychology, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy) for early years, schools and colleges based on assessed local need.

• A detailed year 1 implementation plan, including recruitment approach and

success metrics (e.g. coverage, scale of support available), and a high-level plan for years 2–3.

• A proposed governance and accountability arrangement, as part of the

Local Area Partnership Board, including oversight routes, budgets and funding arrangements, reporting cadence and escalation processes. This should include a single, named LA-based Sro to drive improvement and reform.

• Clear expectations for joint governance, monitoring and shared

accountability across education and health partners.

• Proposed approach to settings accessing support which ensures support is

not disproportionately accessed by the most proactive schools and settings and includes out of area mainstream further education settings attended by local young people with SEND.

Embedding the Experts at Hand Offer Within a Broader

Reform Strategy

Local Authorities

While the Experts at Hand Offer will be a key building block to reform, it is not sufficient on its own to deliver the scale of change required for SEND. Local authorities are encouraged to continue to take a strategic approach to place planning and capital investment to ensure inclusive provision is available and accessible. Guidance relating to inclusion bases (formerly SEN units, resourced provision and pupil support units – Su/Rp/PSUs) is due to be published in Spring

2026.

To support this, we expect that local authorities will:

Set out how High Needs capital funding will be used to invest in new places and adaptations to the physical environment so that needs of children and young people with SEND are met in alignment with the reform aims of mainstream inclusion.

Use capital investment to improve the inclusivity of provision in all settings, considering a range of interventions that could better support children and young people with SEND through the physical environment, working with professionals who can advise and support e.g. special school/alternative provision practitioners, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, specialist nurses, mental health practitioners and support workers.

Identify where inclusion bases (formerly Su/Rp/PSUs) in mainstream schools or nurseries, or specialist provision in colleges, currently exist, where additional capacity is needed, and how this varies across planning areas.

Engage proactively with early years providers, schools, multi-academy trusts and further education providers as well as health providers, to co-develop strategies for enabling more children and young people with SEND to access mainstream education.

Engage with parent carer forums and children and young people forums to co- produce strategies that work for children and families.

Ensure that decisions about the location and type of new SEND provision explicitly consider the proximity to where children and young people live and

the implications for transport, recognising this may not always be possible when commissioning SEND provision in large, further education colleges.

Ensure that all sufficiency and capital investment decisions include an assessment of transport impact, with a focus on reducing long-distance travel and increasing access to local, inclusive settings.

Core minimum requirements

Sufficiency and Place Planning Local area partnerships will be expected to clearly and succinctly set out in their plan:

• A summary of local sufficiency pressures and how planned place growth

addresses demand trends, including EHCP drivers and opportunities to meet need through capacity in mainstream settings.

• How the planned increases in capacity across setting types will reduce

reliance on special schools, especially out-of-area placements and independent specialist provision.

• How collaboration between LAs and MATs could be strengthened to identify

suitable sites and jointly plan the development of inclusion bases.

• Assurance that proposed inclusion bases in early years settings, schools,

and colleges would reflect local demographic need, maintaining high quality standards and clear expectations on type of provision.

• How existing school premises are factored in when planning new inclusion

bases, including opportunities created by falling rolls.

• Detailed plans to meet need for specialist places, by increasing capacity in

mainstream settings through inclusion bases, and to improve the suitability of the physical environment. This should set out how the investment would align with local need and reduce future pressure. Where plans propose use of high needs capital to create additional special school places, this should clearly explain why need cannot be met in mainstream, including how the investment would align with local need and reduce future pressure.

• Proposals for flexibility to accommodate rurality and local variation, ensuring

provision remains viable and context appropriate.

• Evidence that an impact assessment of travel arrangements has been

carried out for any capital, inclusion base or special school expansion proposal, demonstrating expected changes to travel distances, journey times, and reliance on out of area placements. Including any explicit travel related mitigations.

Strengthening Effective Partnerships and Practice

Effective collaboration across all system partners, including local authorities, ICBs, health provider organisations, Parent Carer Forums, Best Start Family Hubs, early years settings, mainstream and specialist schools, further education, dioceses, multi- academy trusts (MATs), parents carers, and children and young people with SEND, is essential to delivering meaningful transformation.

A transformed system that works for children and families must include co- production, collaborative partnership working and stakeholder engagement. Strong relationships at system and setting level are central to this.

The success of this transformation depends on shared ownership of decision-making, design and delivery of the local offer, and responsibility by all system partners, particularly local authorities, Integrated Care Boards and education settings.

The department is clear that MATs and schools have clear responsibilities in the development and active deployment of a strong universal offer of support to children and young people with SEND in their settings. They are expected to proactively collaborate with their system partners, including local authorities and ICBs, drawing on up-to-date understanding of the needs of children and young people in their settings to deliver consistent and robust support, particularly for the most commonly occurring and growing areas of need.

In the long term, MATs and schools will work together to pool some funding from their Inclusion Share for a more collaborative, efficient system to meet needs across their group and allow for better sharing of expertise and resources across an area. Local school groupings will need to be actively engaged with the local authority and Integrated Care Board. We will look to local authorities and their partners to shape the formation of groupings in their areas and have an oversight role for these groups. In designing local systems, local authorities, MATs, schools and other system partners should start to consider how they might integrate school groups into the bigger picture, to work closely with their Experts at Hand and wider reform offer to provide a comprehensive SEND system.

We would like to work with school and local authority partners to understand how these groups are best structured while we move long-term to a system where all schools are part of strong groups. Guidance relating to school groups and pooled funding will be published in due course.

Core minimum requirements

Local area partnerships will be expected to clearly and succinctly set out in their plan: Effective Practice - Universal Offer

• Proposal to co-develop, and regularly refresh, a partnership-wide universal

offer agreement with schools, MATs, early years settings and post-16 providers which will be underpinned by up-to-date, needs-based data and signed off by the local authority, Icb, Mat and school representatives and Parent Carer Forum (Pcf). The agreed universal offer should draw on approaches that will be set out in the National Inclusion Standards.

• Evidence of the processes and mechanism through which MATs and PCFs

are engaged in the development of the universal offer.

• How early intervention services will be strengthened, with enhanced

mainstream support to prevent escalation of need.

• How a strengthened universal offer will support mainstream settings to meet

the most commonly occurring and growing areas of need. This should include how well evidenced early intervention approaches focused on speech and language (e.g. ELSEC3/NELI4), autism spectrum disorder (Asd) and social, emotional and mental health difficulties (Semh), could be deployed.

3 Early Language Support for Every Child 4 Nuffield Early Language Intervention

• How a strengthened universal offer and group level specialist support will

reduce escalation into out-of-area placements with significant travel- assistance requirements.

Early Years (plans should align with LA Best Start in Life plans)

• Proposal for assessing sufficiency of current level of childcare provision for

0–5s, detailing: (a) availability of early years places; (b) availability of specialist SEND early years places; and (c) any local gaps for children with complex and emerging needs and plan to address these including the role of wider partners such as Best Start Family Hubs.

• Proposal to improve early years identification and intervention strategies,

including the role of Best Start Family Hubs.

• Proposal to strengthen transitions from early years to primary school,

ensuring effective information flow and timely specialist input.

Post-16

• Proposal to strengthen pathways to adulthood, supporting young people to

access education, training, employment and supported internships.

• A clarification of pathways into and out of post-16 settings, informed by

consistent information flow and timely, effective specialist support.

Effective Partnerships

• Evidence of effective, shared, partnership leadership and governance

across all system partners, with clear and mutually understood accountability arrangements.

• Evidence of formal representation from early years, schools, MATs and

further education on partnership boards, with appropriate links to Schools Forums to support coherent engagement across all settings.

• Proposal to underpin partnership working with shared, high-quality data,

including joint dashboards and use of a partnership maturity matrix to assess effectiveness.

• How proposed/agreed mechanisms for engaging all schools, early years

providers and post-16 providers (including out of area mainstream colleges accessed by local young people with SEND) would support collective responsibility for inclusive practice.

• Proposal to strengthen dispute resolution and decision-making processes so

system partners can address issues early and consistently, supported by transparent escalation routes.

• A single named Sro who is part of the leadership team, to provide

operational leadership and drive reform across the partnership. The Sro should be a senior local authority official.

Effective Co-production Practices

• Proposal to strengthen co-production arrangements so that parent carer

forums are properly resourced and consistently engaged in shaping decision making.

• How the voice of children and young people is captured directly and

distinctly from parent voice, with clear evidence of how their views influence decisions.

• How Sendiass will be used to support parents carers with high quality,

independent information and guidance, and how the local area will address variability in service quality where it exists, with reference to the minimum Sendiass service standards. Please include proposed mitigation to any parental concerns about the perceived independence of Sendiass within mediation processes.

• Proposal to adopt a minimum co-production benchmark (based on Nhse

guidance) and self-assess against it in year one, identifying improvement actions where needed.

Mediation

• A description of local mediation and dispute resolution arrangements,

demonstrating how they incorporate the voices of parents and children and young people.

• Proposal to maintain metrics for timeliness, resolution rates and

effectiveness to support monitoring and accountability.

Governance

The Local SEND Reform Plan should be a local area partnership plan. The local authority, as the system convener, has an oversight role over the process of preparing, submitting and delivering the overall Local SEND Reform Plan with active participation from all system partners.

Governance arrangement is expected to include active representation from all key partners, including ICBs, PCFs, MATs and schools, with clear roles and accountability. Where local area partnerships involve multiple education partners – including those not always located within their area such as further education colleges – or may commission therapy services from different health providers, they should agree how those institutions/providers can be represented and have a fair voice in decision making.

The local area partnership should agree a single, named Senior Responsible Officer (Sro) for the Local SEND Reform Plan and local area transformation who will be responsible for overseeing SEND improvement and reform for the area. The Sro should be a senior local authority official and part of the local area partnership leadership.

The Local SEND Reform Plan should be discussed, agreed, and signed off at the relevant SEND Governance Board. As a minimum, the plan should be formally signed off by the Local Authority Chief Executive (Ceo), the Integrated Care Board (Icb) Chief Executive, the Local Authority Director of Children’s Services (Dcs), the Integrated Care Board NHS Place Director, and the Local Authority Chief Financial Officer (Cfo/Section 151 Officer), reflecting the joint statutory responsibilities for SEND across the system.

We expect your Local SEND Reform plan to be aligned with other local strategic plans you are currently developing, including your Best Start local plan. Both plans sit firmly within the government’s ambition to improve child development and health outcomes, and to create a more inclusive, high-quality system of support for all children and young people with SEND. Together, they should provide a coherent local approach to raising outcomes for children, young people and families.

Funding

To deliver our ambition for an inclusive and sustainable SEND system, the Department has secured targeted funding through the Spending Review. Some of this funding will be delivered directly to LAs and ICBs, other funding streams will be delivered to settings and will need to be considered when developing plans.

LA and Icb Funding

to embed inclusive practice into everyday provision, reducing the need for individual applications or formal diagnoses.

Local areas should consider how these funding streams will be used strategically and effectively to support reform priorities, build capacity, and ensure priority outcomes are realised.

Other Inclusion Funding

We are also investing in mainstream settings to ensure that they are able to meet the needs of more children with SEND effectively.

Structure of the Local SEND Reform Plan

The Plan is structured into five key sections:

• Vision – What the local area partnership is trying to achieve

The vision and goals for your local system in line with the national vision set out in the Schools White Paper.

• Strategy – How the local area partnership plans to achieve it

Where the local system expects to be in the next 3 years, its theory of change, roadmap for the next 3 years and delivery plan for the first year.

• Monitoring and Evaluation – How the local area partnership will know

delivery is on track The processes for tracking progress against milestones and outcomes and reporting to decision-makers.

• Governance – What action the local area partnership will take to stay on track

The governance and processes for monitoring progress and taking action to ensure delivery remains on track.

• Central Government Support – How we can help the local area partnership

An opportunity to identify practical support from central government that will help you deliver your plan.

The Local SEND Reform Plan is set out in Annex A.

3. Submission, Review, and Monitoring Process

Submission

Local areas are expected to submit the first iteration of their Local SEND Reform

Plan by Friday, June 19, 2026.

A month prior to final local leadership sign-off and formal submission of Local SEND Reform Plans; SEND and financial advisers will be available to review a final draft of local area plans to flag any significant gaps or concerns, and together with health regional leads and DfE officials, will offer intensive support if they believe a plan is at risk of not meeting the minimum quality threshold. Local area partnerships will then have an opportunity to action these concerns prior to formal submission to the department.

Local area leadership are encouraged to self-assess their plans using the Local SEND Reform Plan Quality Assessment Framework prior to sign-off and submission.

Further guidance on the submission and review process will be shared closer to the submission date.

Review

DfE and NHS England will use the plans to help identify effective, innovative practice and barriers, and identify how to effectively target support through the period of transformation.

The government will use the Local SEND Reform Plan Quality Assessment Framework to assess the quality of plans and facilitate access to the High Needs Stability Grant for local authorities.

The department will apply a consistent multi-tier assessment and moderation process to ensure that the review and assessment of plans is rigorous, consistent and fair.

DfE officials, health regional SEND leads, SEND and financial advisers will support local area partnerships in reviewing the plans using the Local SEND Reform Plan Quality Assessment Framework in the first tier.

Assessment tiers will include Regional Directors and independent senior civil servants from across the department. A SEND Delivery Board chaired by Regions Group Director-General, Tim Coulson, with DfE non-executive directors, DfE Performance and Risk Committee members and Sir Kevan Collins, the Secretary of State’s delivery advisor in attendance will sign off final ratings and agree recommendations to the Secretary of State.

The Secretary of State will make the final decision to approve or not to approve a plan with assessment outcomes will be communicated in September

Monitoring

DfE Officials, health regional SEND leads, SEND and financial advisers will support local areas to develop iterative reform plans and, together with the local area leadership, jointly monitor the implementation of plans as reforms are rolled out.

The purpose of the joint monitoring is to: i. provide assurance that funding is spent in line with reform priorities and that local area partnerships are working together to co-design and implement key changes to local service delivery, including changes to roles and responsibilities; and ii. provide assurance that the implementation of reforms is delivering the anticipated changes and outcomes, by rebalancing the system towards early intervention, inclusive education, and sustainable local services.

DfE officials, health regional SEND leads, SEND and financial advisers will join quarterly review meetings with local area partnerships (utilising existing governance forums) to understand implementation progress and provide appropriate support and challenge as needed. Where applicable, these review meetings will be consolidated with other engagement or monitoring meetings from DfE or health regional SEND leads.

Local area leadership and officials are expected to discuss progress against the plan, including:

• Progress against key metrics
• Whether key milestones are on track to be achieved
• Whether risks are being effectively mitigated
• Identifying effective and innovative practice that can be shared; and
• Identifying where additional support may be needed or barriers unblocked.

Local area partnerships are required to provide quarterly data returns to DfE against the selected metrics outlined in the accompanying data template. DfE will, in turn, provide quarterly data reports with visualised analysis and benchmarking that will support local delivery, monitoring, and evaluation.

DfE officials and health regional SEND leads will use these data returns and discussions at review meetings, alongside submission of this Local SEND Reform Plan and the Local Partnership Maturity Assessment, as well as Area SEND inspection reports, to assess performance and delivery at the local level. These assessments and this ongoing monitoring will ensure that support and engagement is best allocated and targeted throughout this period of reform.

High Needs Stability Grant

The government will address long standing SEND financial pressures by covering 90% of local authorities’ High Needs-related Dsg deficits accrued up to the end of 2025–26 through the High Needs Stability Grant. This grant will be paid subject to each local authority securing the Secretary of State for Education’s approval of their local area’s Local SEND Reform Plan. Payments will be made in Autumn 2026 for local authorities whose plans are approved. Local authorities whose plans do not meet the threshold for approval will be required to revise their plans to ensure they meet the required threshold, with appropriate support. Local authorities whose plans are subsequently approved will receive the grant payment in Spring 2027. Local authorities will not receive any payments until successful approval of their local area’s Local SEND Reform Plan.

Review and payment timeline outlined below.

4. Questions

For any questions relating to this document or the Local SEND Reform Plan more widely, please get in touch with your DfE SEND Lead or contact Implementationsupport.SEND@education.gov.uk

Annex A: Local SEND Reform Plan

Developing a Local SEND Reform Plan is an important first step for local areas to set out how they will lay the foundation for reform, and design an approach tailored to their local context. A shared plan which focuses on co-designing the local approach as system partners and with children, young people and families will help foster collective responsibility for delivering the reforms.

It is critical that all system partners, including health, education and childcare settings, work together to design and deliver the Local SEND Reform Plan, under the local authority’s leadership. It is also crucial that representative family carers e.g. the local Parent Carer Forum, are involved in the development of the plan.

The expectation is that this plan is discussed, agreed, and signed off at your relevant SEND Governance Board. As a minimum, the plan must be formally signed off by the Local Authority Chief Executive (Ceo), the Integrated Care Board (Icb) Chief Executive, the Local Authority Director of Children’s Service (Dcs), the Integrated Care Board NHS Place Director, and the Local Authority Chief Financial Officer (Cfo/Section 151 Officer). We encourage other colleagues and partners who have contributed to also review and sign-off the plan, particularly early years, school, college and trust leaders.

Name of Local Authority: North Northamptonshire

Name of Integrated Care Board: Northamptonshire

Local SEND Reform Plan Sro: Annita Gray Assistant Director Education, SEND and Inclusion

Signatories

Executive

Director of

Claire Edwards claire.edwards@northnorthants.gov.uk

15/05/2026

Finance (Section

151 Officer)

Executive Summary

A brief summary of your local system ‘change story’ – your local context, where you are now, where you want to get to in the next 3 years, how you know you are succeeding and how you will know you have achieved your vision for the next 3 years. Please include a brief qualitative summary. This summary should also include your assessment of current and forecast performance against the headline metrics.

Please structure your ‘change story’ using the following aims:

• Build a 0-25 system where children and young people receive support to achieve and thrive through (a) more inclusive settings and
• stronger local partnerships
• Improve capacity and capability of the mainstream and specialist workforce to identify and meet need
• Improve confidence of children, families, and stakeholders in reform and readiness of the system
• Stabilise finances and improve value for money

.

Our Local Area Partnership is committed to delivering an inclusive education system where every child and young person, including those with SEND, can achieve and thrive within their local community.

We recognise that the current SEND system is under significant pressure, with rising demand for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), driven by a combination of factors including gaps in early identification and intervention, variable inclusive practice across mainstream settings, and families struggling to navigate a complex and fragmented system. In addition, demand is being further amplified by increased inward movement of children and young people with existing EHCPs into the local area, placing additional pressure on local provision and services. Too often, issues that could be addressed early through effective universal and targeted support escalate into statutory need.

Our plan sets out a shift from a reactive, assessment-led system to a proactive, inclusive, and locally delivered model that prioritises early intervention, high-quality mainstream provision, and integrated multi-agency support.

We will deliver reform through locality-based Inclusion Partnerships, aligned to Best start in Life family Hubs, the Families First Partnership reform, and health neighborhoods, bringing together education, health and family services into a single, coordinated system. Within this approach:

• Early identification and support will be embedded through Best Start Family Hubs, acting as the front door for families and ensuring needs are identified and supported

from the earliest point.

• Inclusive mainstream provision will be strengthened through a consistently applied Ordinarily Available Provision (Oap) framework, aligned to emerging National Inclusion

Standards, ensuring most children’s needs are met without escalation.

• Timely access to specialist expertise will be delivered through our Experts at Hand (Eah) offer, providing multidisciplinary support (e.g. educational psychology, speech

and language therapy, occupational therapy) through a tiered offer of support at universal, targeted, targeted plus levels, reducing reliance on statutory assessment.

• This clear graduated response (universal, targeted, specialist) will ensure a coherent and consistent pathway of support across all settings.

Over the next three years, we will deliver a system where:

• More needs are identified and met early, reducing escalation to EHCPs
• More children and young people with SEND are successfully supported in mainstream settings
• Provision is consistent and evidence-informed across all localities, reducing variation in experience
• Families experience a simpler, clearer system, with accessible pathways and coordinated support

Our success measures will be aligned to improving outcomes, including:

• Increased proportion of needs met without EHCPs
• Reduced time from concern to support
• Improved attendance, inclusion and outcomes for children with SEND
• Increased access to early specialist support
• Reduced reliance on independent and out-of-area placements
• Improved parent and carer confidence in the system
• Stabilisation of EHCP growth and high needs spend

By 2028/29, we will have established an inclusive and sustainable SEND system in North Northamptonshire, where:

• Support is delivered early and locally
• Mainstream settings are equipped and confident to meet need
• Families experience a transparent and responsive system
• Resources are used effectively to improve outcomes for all children

Word count: 488

Section 1 – Vision and Goals

• What the local area partnership is trying to achieve?

Please set out your goals for your local system. These should be clear, aligned to the vision set out in the Schools White Paper, small in number and measurable. These goals should include clear reference to:

• Outcomes for children
• Confidence of parents, carers and young people in the system
• Management of finances to secure value for money

Our partnership’s ambition is to create a SEND system where children and young people receive the right support, at the right time, in the right place, enabling them to thrive, achieve, and lead fulfilled lives within their communities. This will be delivered through a locality-based model of Inclusion Partnerships, aligned to health neighborhoods, bringing together education, health and family support to provide early, coordinated intervention.

We will deliver this through a shift towards earlier intervention, stronger inclusion in mainstream settings, and a more coherent, accessible system for families and practitioners, integrated with wider reforms including Best Start in Life, Family Hubs, and Family First Partnership.

We have agreed three measurable system goals:

1. Improved outcomes for children and young people Children and young people with SEND will experience improved educational progress, attendance, preparation for adulthood and wellbeing. Through Inclusion Partnerships and earlier access to specialist support via Experts at Hand, more needs will be met effectively at universal and targeted levels, reducing reliance on statutory intervention. 2. Increased confidence in the SEND system Parents, carers and young people will experience a system that is easier to understand, locally accessible, and consistent. We will improve satisfaction with communication, involvement in decision-making, and confidence that needs will be met through coordinated local support rather than escalation. 3. Financial sustainability and value for money We will achieve a more sustainable system by reducing demand for high-cost specialist placements and EHCPs through effective early support, inclusive practice, and strengthened local provision. Resources will be aligned to need across the partnership, delivering improved outcomes within available funding.

Together, these goals reflect our commitment to a more inclusive, integrated and sustainable SEND system, shaped through coproduction and focused on effective delivery.

Word count: 285

Section 2 – Strategy

• Where the local area partnership expects to be in the next 3 years

A description of what your local system would look like in the next 3 years in line with the national vision set out in the Schools White Paper and set within the context of where you are starting from as a local system.

In particular, as commissioning system partners, you should reflect on and agree what your fully fledged Experts At Hand Offer model should be and how this will be deployed via mainstream settings and providers (including those not based in your area – e.g. further education colleges attended by your young people) to build their capacity as well as identify and meet the needs of children and young people earlier and without the need for a statutory assessment for Education, Health and Care.

To help you fully consider the scope and scale of change required, you may find it useful to structure your response using these 4 building blocks of an inclusive system, reflecting on what is working well in your system, what you are most worried about, what needs to change, and how the enablers will help you achieve your 3 year vision.

When summarising where your local area partnership currently is, please include an assessment of where you are in reference to the core minimum requirements above and how you bridge the gap, making reference to and attaching additional documents that provide underlying evidence for your summary.

• What is the local area partnership’s strategy for delivering on the above?

A brief summary of your local system’s theory of change or reform strategy. Reflect on the output of your Local Partnership Maturity Assessment Tool, particularly your Local System ‘change story.’

Our reform strategy is rooted in a shared local “change story”, the SEND system currently reflects a need to rebuild trust between families, services, and education settings, alongside a shift in culture towards genuine partnership working. Our theory of change is based on families at the heart of system delivery; our model seeks to reposition families as equal partners in shaping services. The parent carer forum will act as one of the critical connectors between schools, services, and communities—ensuring that lived experiences are systematically captured, understood, and translated into actionable insight. As trust builds, relationships between families and professionals will become more collaborative and less adversarial. Services will become more responsive, inclusive, and consistent, reducing the need for escalation and increasing satisfaction. This cultural shift will lead to improved engagement, better tailored support, and stronger outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

Our strategy is to move from a reactive, assessment-led model to an integrated, locality-based system, where support is delivered earlier and closer to communities.

Delivery is aligned to our corporate Transformation Strategy: Opportunity Identification: Using data, system diagnostics and coproduced insight to define priorities and target need. Proof of Concept (Test and Learn): Piloting Inclusion Partnerships and Experts at Hand in priority localities. Scale: Expanding effective models across all areas and phases, supported by workforce development and aligned commissioning. Embed and Sustain: Embedding delivery through integrated governance, data systems and sustainable funding.

This phased approach enables systematic, evidence-led reform, improving outcomes, experience and value for money.

Word count: 250

• Please upload a completed copy of the Local Partnership Maturity Assessment Tool.

***Insert Document Upload Link***

• What is the local area partnership roadmap for the next 3 years?

Reflecting on the broad timescales and expectation for deliverables set out in the Schools White Paper, key documents and core minimum requirements set out in this document, please provide a high-level roadmap for the next 3 years. Please highlight key milestones and a trajectory to the target metrics identified above, including leading indicators.

In the 2026-27 column, in particular, please reference how you plan to meet the core minimum requirements in your narrative, including details and evidence in supporting documents.

You can insert or upload supporting documents including graphics/visuals that illustrate your data trajectory.

Integrate delivery with Family Hubs and Families First Partnership

Slowing growth in EHCP requests

Increased access to specialist advice without EHCP

Improved attendance for pupils with SEND

Early reduction in reliance on independent placements

Plateau in EHCP growth relative to forecast baseline

Reduction in independent placement spend

Increased % of needs met in mainstream settings

Improved parental confidence and experience measures

Demand aligned to mitigated forecast scenario (not unmitigated growth)

Stable EHCP rates

Reduced Neet rates for young people with SEND

Sustained financial stability within High Needs Block

Success measures

Leading Indicators:

• Increase in non-statutory requests for

support via Eah

• Increased uptake of Eah by schools and

settings

• Reduction in time from concern →

support

• Improved school workforce confidence
• Reduced repeat referrals/re-escalation
• Improved parent-reported experience

navigating system

***Insert Document Upload Link***

• What will the local area partnership deliver in the first year?

Please outline the key workstreams, milestones and trajectory your local area partnership will deliver and achieve in 2026-27 as well as how you plan to spend the investment allocation that will help fund this year’s delivery. Please share key milestones and anticipated dates, success measures, cost breakdown and category. These should incorporate the core minimum requirements, be mapped to the building blocks above and should reflect a more detailed trajectory to the narrative, milestones and target metrics outlined in the 2026- 27 column above.

2026-27 Local delivery plan Q2 Q3 Q4

• How will the local area partnership deliver the first-year plan?

Please set out how you will ensure the required capacity and capability is in place from organisational corporate functions to support implementation of the plan. This could include reference to how you plan to build or bring in project delivery capability to manage delivery against the plan, support prioritisation, and effective use of resources; and how you plan to build the capacity and capability in data and analytics to support effective tracking against the measures in the plan and reporting that informs decision making.

Delivery of the first-year plan will be supported by strengthened system capacity and capability across children’s services, education, health, transformation, workforce development, and performance and intelligence functions.

A SEND Reform Programme will be established as a transformation project, aligned to the partnership’s Transformation Strategy. This will include senior responsible ownership, programme management capacity, and governance to oversee delivery, manage dependencies, and support prioritisation across partners. Governance will be aligned with current governance for SEND and Family hubs, ensuring delivery is coordinated at both system and locality level. This responds to workshop feedback highlighting the need for stronger coordination, clearer accountability, and reduced fragmentation.

Delivery capability will be built through a combination of internal resource and targeted external expertise, particularly to support the design, mobilisation and evaluation of Inclusion Partnerships and Experts at Hand pilots. Workforce capacity will be strengthened through coordinated planning across education, health and care, with specialist expertise (e.g. Ep, Salt, Ot) deployed through Inclusion Partnerships and into Family Hubs, schools, Fe and Family Help teams to support earlier intervention and build system capability.

Investment in data and analytics capability will be a priority, with performance leadership embedded from the outset. A shared performance dashboard will track demand, service delivery, inclusion and outcomes, providing real-time insight at both locality and system level. This will enable evidence-led decision making and support a “test, learn and adapt” approach.

Together, these arrangements will ensure delivery is disciplined, integrated and responsive, demonstrating early impact, scale what works, and embed sustainable system change.

Word count: 250

8. Other funding Local Authorities.

• Block Transfers: If you have made a block transfer (Schools Block to High Needs Block)

for 26-27, please set out how your plans for this funding align with the activities outlined above.

The amount of £1.617, 471. 87 million transfer to the High Needs Block will be used to strengthen the delivery of Tier 2 (Targeted) and Tier 3 (Targeted Plus) support within the Expert at Hand model, ensuring that children and young people with exceptional needs receive timely, coordinated, and effective intervention within their local communities.

Mainstream schools will be able to bid for inclusion funding, triggered by SEND indicators. It would help schools to support pupils who might otherwise progress towards statutory assessment. It could also help to support the continuation of advisory support and training for SENCOs and classroom staff. Research consistently shows that 1 early intervention and inclusion funding is one of the most effective strategies for improving outcomes for children with SEND and reducing long-term costs.

Targeted support in the early stages helps schools meet emerging needs without resorting to statutory Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), thereby preventing escalation and reducing demand on the High Needs Block. In addition to financial benefits, early intervention improves developmental milestones, supports inclusion in mainstream settings, and reduces exclusion rates, creating a more sustainable and equitable system for pupils and schools.

This work has the potential to dovetail into very closely related work that Nnc is actively investigating with neighbouring LAs, about how they implement a ‘cluster model’ of funding early intervention, whereby localised panels – often chaired by Headteachers – oversee delegated High Needs Block funding for activity within a school cluster.

Word count: 241 Capital: We have announced at least £3 billion in high needs capital between 2026-27 and 2029-30 to support children and young people (Cyp) with SEND, or those requiring alternative provision (AP). This funding is intended to support place delivery across the full 0-25 age range, including early years and post-16. We expect funding to support the following outcomes: a. Inclusion at the core of high needs sufficiency strategy, resulting in more children and young people with SEND accessing suitable places in mainstream settings, across all phases of education b. Every child or young person who needs a place in an inclusion base can access one c. Fewer children and young people with SEND needing to travel a long way to access a suitable placement d. Improved suitability of the mainstream estate to support children and young people with SEND, with adaptations to improve inclusivity and accessibility of the physical environment We also welcome innovative uses of high needs capital to drive inclusion, for example, investment in assistive technology for use in mainstream settings.

Please outline your strategy for how this funding will meet the outcomes above, with reference to the core minimum requirements and other workstreams in this reform plan where appropriate. We would like to see detail around your plans to increase capacity for inclusion bases (formerly known as SEN units, resourced provision and pupil support units – Su/Rp/PSUs), such as schools, colleges or early years providers identified, engagement with relevant settings and trusts, and target cohort of needs.

If your plans include increases to places in special schools or specialist post-16 institutions, please include a clear rationale, showing the need that is being met, and why it cannot be met through other types of provision, such as inclusion bases.

If you are receiving additional capital funding to replace one or more planned special or AP free schools, please set out how this funding will meet need in your area, and plans for engaging relevant trusts in your sufficiency planning.

Our capital strategy is geared towards ensuring a truly inclusive, evidence based, locally sufficient and financially sustainable model that is outcomes led. Therefore, shifting the system from a reactive reliance upon high-cost specialist placements, towards a strengthened sustainable mainstream provision, underpinned by earlier intervention through our Inclusion Partnerships and Experts at Hand model.

We will prioritize investment in inclusion bases within mainstream settings across all phases, including early years and post-16 providers. These will be developed in partnership with schools, trusts and providers through early engagement, data transparency and aligned to Inclusion Partnership footprints. Our initial focus will be on areas of highest demand and cohorts including speech, language and communication needs, autism, and social, emotional, and mental health.

Alongside this, we will invest in adapting the mainstream estate and early years environments, including Family Hubs, to improve accessibility and flexibility. This will enable more children and young people to have their needs met locally and earlier, supporting school readiness and smoother transitions. Investment will include physical adaptations, sensory environments and assistive technology to strengthen inclusive practice.

We will build upon proven delivery of existing capital collaboration projects with school leaders to address placement pressures by increasing local capacity within communities, reducing reliance on independent and out-of-area provision, minimising travel distances, and improving outcomes for children and families.

Where any expansion of specialist provision is required, this will be considered only where other options within a mainstream or inclusion base setting have been exhausted, it will be supported by robust demand modelling and aligned commissioning through the partnership.

The strategy seeks to ensure sufficiency planning is responsive to any identified gaps in local provision and prioritises mainstream-first placement pathways, supported by the necessary targeted infrastructure investment. Word count: 286

10. System partner and stakeholder engagement, and co-production.

Please outline how the local area partnership plans to engage system partners and stakeholders to develop and implement the plan – include planned engagement with schools and early years settings, alternative providers, Fe and post-16 providers (including those your young people attend that are not within your local area), Parents and Carers and children and young people with SEND, with reference to the core minimum requirements. Consider changing roles and responsibilities in the context of the Schools White Paper and how you work collaboratively to manage the transition. Please indicate where additional support is required to engage partners or stakeholders - senior officials at the Department for Education will be available to contribute to summer term events with education leaders and parent carer forum leaders.

Coproduction and partnership working are central to both the development and delivery of this SEND Reform Plan. Our approach builds on extensive engagement to date and sets out how we will embed meaningful, ongoing collaboration across the system in line with the core minimum requirements and our integrated delivery model.

The plan has been shaped through a structured programme of workshops involving education leaders, early years providers, health and care partners, alternative provision, Sendiass, public health and Northamptonshire Parent Carer Voices. This has ensured the plan reflects both operational realities and lived experience, with consistent feedback highlighting the need for earlier support, clearer pathways and more consistent inclusive practice.

Looking ahead, engagement will be delivered through a coordinated partnership model aligned to Inclusion Partnerships and the Families First Partnership, ensuring that collaboration is embedded at both system and locality level. Best Start Family Hubs will also play a key role as a front door for engagement with families, particularly in early years and emerging need.

This will include: Schools and Early Years Settings: We will work with schools, trusts and early years providers through Inclusion Partnerships, which will act as the primary delivery vehicle for reform. Schools will be active partners in the design and delivery of the Ordinarily Available Provision framework and the Experts at Hand model, with engagement supported through locality networks and targeted support for settings with higher levels of demand.

Alternative Provision, Fe and Post-16 Providers: Engagement will extend across all phases, including providers attended outside the local area. This will ensure that the AP, post-16 pathways, transitions and preparation for adulthood are fully integrated into reform activity and local inclusion approaches.

Parents, Carers, Children and Young People: Coproduction will be embedded as a core delivery principle. We will work in partnership with Northamptonshire Parent Carer Voices and other representative groups to co-design key elements of the system, including Inclusion Partnerships and Experts at Hand. Ongoing feedback mechanisms and participation in governance will ensure that lived experience continues to shape delivery and evaluation.

Health and Care Partners: Integrated delivery across education, health and care will be strengthened through joint commissioning, shared pathways and locality-based working aligned to Inclusion Partnerships, Family Hubs and the Families First Partnership.

In line with the Schools White Paper, partners will take on increasingly collaborative roles, with shared accountability for outcomes, demand management and resource use. This represents a shift from organisational ownership to collective responsibility for system performance.

We recognise that sustaining this level of engagement requires dedicated capacity. We will invest in engagement and programme support and would welcome involvement from Department for Education officials in planned engagement with education leaders and parent carer forum representatives to support shared understanding of reform expectations and strengthen system alignment.

This approach ensures that reform is co-produced, locally owned and delivered through a coherent, integrated system, underpinning successful implementation and long-term sustainability. Word count: 477

11. Risks and Mitigations

What are the key risks that could affect the successful implementation of your Local SEND Reform Plan, and what mitigation strategies are in place to manage these risks? Please include a maximum of 5 risks with impact and likelihood Rag for each risk. See Annex C for suggested risk matrix.

12. Dependencies

Please detail the key areas of the local area partnership’s proposed SEND future state and roadmap that may be impacted by wider reforms nationally and locally and outline how you will manage these. We expect these will include but not be limited to:

• NHS reforms
• Local Government Re-organisation
• Reforms to Children’s Social Care
• Best Start in Life, including Family Hubs
• Best Start In Life Strategy
• Curriculum and Assessment Review

Delivery of our SEND Reform Plan is interdependent with wider national and local reforms. These present both opportunities and risks, and the partnership will actively manage alignment to ensure continuity of delivery and maximise system benefit.

NHS reforms: Changes to NHS structures and Integrated Care Board (Icb) priorities may impact commissioning arrangements, workforce availability and delivery of therapies. We will mitigate this through strong joint governance with health partners, aligned commissioning intentions, and embedding health delivery within Inclusion Partnerships and the Experts at Hand model, ensuring continuity of provision within locality-based delivery regardless of structural change.

Local Government Reorganisation (Lgr): We are an established unitary council and are not directly impacted by Lgr. However, we will continue to work closely with neighbouring areas and system partners to ensure alignment where cross-boundary provision and commissioning arrangements are in place.

Reforms to Children’s Social Care: National reforms, including developments in Family Help and safeguarding arrangements, will shape early intervention pathways. Our approach is closely aligned, with SEND fully integrated within Family Help, Inclusion Partnerships and the Families First Partnership, ensuring children and families receive coordinated, holistic support through a single system.

Best Start in Life and Family Hubs: These programmes are critical enablers of early identification and support. Family Hubs will operate as the front door for families with emerging SEND needs, embedding identification and response within universal and targeted pathways and supporting improved school readiness and transitions.

Curriculum and Assessment Review: Changes to curriculum and assessment may impact expectations of inclusion and identification in schools. We will maintain close alignment with education partners, adapting our Ordinarily Available Provision framework and inclusion support through Inclusion Partnerships to reflect national developments.

Across all dependencies, our mitigation approach is underpinned by strong partnership governance, integrated planning and locality-based delivery, enabling us to respond flexibly to change while maintaining focus on improving outcomes, experience and system sustainability.

Word count: 312

Section 3 – Monitoring and Evaluation

• How will the local area partnership know delivery is on track?

Please set out how you will monitor and track progress referencing:

• Monitoring tools and processes - the specific tools, systems, and data you will use to track delivery milestones and measure

the impact on outcomes.

Some Local Area Partnerships hold data in a central SEND operational dashboard. This is used by teams on a weekly basis to identify trends in demand or inform conversations with local school or setting leaders.

In some Local Area Partnerships, a view of the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is reviewed monthly by a SEND Board to take decisions on prioritisation, resourcing and delivery of services informed by regular data.

Please set out how you will use data to track demand (e.g., EHCP applications for assessment), Service delivery (e.g., Speech and Language Specialists deployment; places created), Service quality (e.g., parental satisfaction) and outputs (e.g., pupil attendance; pupil exclusions)

• Feedback and adaptation mechanisms - what feedback loops and stakeholder input you will use to review progress and adjust

your approach.

The partnership will implement a robust, multi-layered monitoring and evaluation framework to ensure delivery remains on track, supports timely decision-making, and enables continuous improvement across the SEND system.

Monitoring tools and processes A central component of our approach will be the development of a shared SEND performance dashboard, bringing together data across education, health and care. This will provide a single version of the truth and be used at both system and locality level, including within Inclusion Partnerships, to monitor progress against delivery milestones and system outcomes. The dashboard will track performance across four key areas:

Demand: EHCP requests for assessment, total EHCP volumes, tribunal activity, and referral patterns into services. This will enable early identification of pressure points and assess whether reforms are reducing escalation.

Service delivery: Workforce deployment (e.g. Educational Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy), number of children supported through the Experts at Hand model, activity within Family Hubs and Inclusion Partnerships, timeliness of assessments, and the number of additional places created across mainstream and specialist provision.

Service quality and experience: Parental and young person satisfaction, feedback from schools and early years providers, complaints and resolution times, and participation in coproduction activity. This reflects stakeholder feedback that experience and communication are critical system measures.

Outcomes: Attendance, exclusions, educational progress, school readiness (including Gld), and Neet rates for young people with SEND, demonstrating whether system changes are improving life chances.

Data will be reviewed at multiple levels:

• Weekly operational reviews within services and locality teams to identify emerging trends and respond quickly
• Monthly SEND Partnership Board oversight of KPIs, trajectory and system performance to inform prioritisation and resource decisions
• Quarterly strategic reviews aligned to the reform roadmap, assessing progress and informing scale and commissioning decisions

This enables both strong operational grip and oversight of long-term transformation.

Feedback and adaptation mechanisms Alongside quantitative monitoring, we will embed strong feedback loops and coproduction mechanisms to ensure delivery remains responsive and grounded in lived experience.

This will include:

• Regular engagement with Northamptonshire Parent Carer Voices and representative groups
• Structured feedback from schools, early years providers and practitioners through Inclusion Partnerships and locality networks
• Direct engagement with children and young people, including through Family Hubs and targeted participation activity

Insights from these channels will be systematically captured and triangulated with performance data at both locality and system level. This will enable the partnership to identify what is working well, where barriers remain, and where adaptation is required. In line with our Transformation Strategy, we will adopt a test, learn and adapt approach, particularly in the first year through Inclusion Partnership and Experts at Hand pilots. Evaluation findings will inform decisions to scale, refine or redesign elements of the model. Together, this combination of real-time data, locality-based insight, structured governance and ongoing stakeholder feedback will ensure delivery is transparent, responsive and focused on achieving measurable improvements in outcomes, experience and system sustainability.

Word count: 480

14. Reporting to DfE

Using the attached data template, the local area partnership is required to provide quarterly data returns to DfE against selected key metrics. DfE will, in turn, provide quarterly data reports with visualised analysis and benchmarking that will support your local delivery, monitoring and evaluation. This will include data the department holds on Attendance, Exclusions, and Unauthorised

absence.

Please use the attached data template to upload your initial data return to DfE.

***Insert Document Upload Link***

Section 4 – Governance

• How will the local area partnership ensure delivery of plans remain on track?

Please outline the governance structures in place to oversee delivery. Clearly set out who is responsible for overseeing reform delivery, what each governance group or individual is accountable for, and how these arrangements ensure progress is monitored and decisions are made transparently. Please identify where the named Sro for the Local SEND Reform Plan sits within the governance structure and ensure your response incorporates the core minimum requirements.

Ensures alignment across education, health, and care services Reports regularly to the SEND Accountability and Improvement Board through structured escalation and assurance processes Tier 3:

Implementing agreed actions and achieving defined outcomes Monitoring performance at an operational level Embedding co-production and capturing lived experience Reporting progress, risks, and impact to the Operational Programme Delivery Board

Chaired by workstream responsible officers

4-weekly Implementing agreed actions

Escalations Operational Programme Delivery Board / Sro

Workstreams Schools Forum As set out in Schools Forum Operational Guide Schools Forum will have a role consultative role in monitoring the impact of the SEND reform plan on high needs block of the Dsg Chaired by Ceo 5x per year As set out in Schools Forum Operational Guide N/A If you have a diagram to show the relationship between these governance mechanisms, please upload this here.

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Section 5 – Central Government Support

16. How can we help you?

Please outline any practical support you need from central government to implement your plan effectively.

This may include:

• Access to specialist expertise or advisory support
• Help with workforce development or recruitment challenges
• Tools or templates to support data collection, reporting, or evaluation
• Facilitation of peer learning or regional collaboration
• Support with system-level coordination across education, health, and care
• Guidance on navigating regulatory or policy barriers

Successful delivery of our SEND Reform Plan will be strengthened through targeted support from central government across the following areas: Workforce development and recruitment: This remains a key challenge, particularly in specialist roles such as Educational Psychology and therapy services. National initiatives to expand training pipelines, improve retention, and support flexible workforce models would significantly enhance our ability to scale earlier intervention through our Experts at Hand model.

Access to national tools and data frameworks: Access would support more consistent monitoring and evaluation. Further development of shared templates, benchmarking data, and digital infrastructure would strengthen our ability to track demand, measure impact, and make evidence-led decisions.

System-level coordination across education, health and care is also critical. Continued support to align NHS reforms, Children’s Social Care reform and education policy expectations would help reduce fragmentation and support coherent local delivery.

Facilitated peer learning and regional collaboration e.g. opportunities like the Change programme Being part of these programmes would enable us to share practice and accelerate learning from areas implementing similar models.

Finally, financial flexibility will be essential to enable transformation at pace. Our system continues to manage historic high needs pressures, limiting the ability to invest in early intervention and inclusion. Greater flexibility in addressing legacy deficits—particularly in the context of Local Government Reorganisation, where approaches have varied nationally—would allow us to redirect resources towards preventative support, improving outcomes, experience and long-term sustainability.

Together, these forms of support will enable us to deliver meaningful, sustainable SEND reform.

Word count: 248 Annex B - Supporting Documents

Annex C – Risk Matrix