South Tyneside Local SEND Reform Plan 2026

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: South Tyneside Council

Name of Integrated Care Board: North East & North Cumbria

Local SEND Reform Plan Sro: Calvin Kipling, Assistant Director for Education, SEND & Inclusion

Signatories

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

(b) 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

.

South Tyneside’s Local SEND Reform Plan sets out a clear programme of system-wide change to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND, strengthen inclusion and secure a more sustainable system.

The partnership recognises that while there are strong foundations in place, including established multi-agency working and access to a range of support services, delivery remains inconsistent. Variation in practice, workforce capacity pressures, fragmented routes to specialist advice and continued reliance on high-cost placements mean too many children experience late intervention, reactive decision-making and avoidable escalation.

Over the next three years, the partnership will deliver a shift to a more inclusive, confident and evidence-informed system. More children and young people will have their needs met earlier within mainstream and local provision, with clearer pathways, improved experiences for families and reduced reliance on specialist and out-of-area placements.

This approach is underpinned by a strengthened 0-25 pathway, with earlier identification of need beginning in the early years through Best Start Family Hubs and integrated health services. This will support children at the earliest stage by improving school readiness and reducing the need for later escalation, including earlier identification of Speech, Language and Communication Needs (Slcn) through coordinated health and education pathways. Improving the proportion of children achieving a good level of development at the end of Reception will be a key leading indicator, alongside access to early intervention services and timely assessment and support for speech, language and communication needs.

This change will be delivered through four key system aims:

Strengthening inclusive practice and partnerships so that mainstream settings are better able to meet need consistently, supported by shared frameworks, cluster working and earlier access to advice, increasing the proportion of children supported in mainstream provision and reducing avoidable escalation.

Improving workforce capability and confidence across education, health and care, enabling more proportionate and timely responses to need, with greater consistency in decision-making and improved timeliness of support.

Improving the confidence of children, young people and families through clearer communication, co-production and more transparent decision-making, leading to increased trust and a reduction in complaints, disputes and tribunal activity over time.

Stabilising the system financially by shifting resource upstream, improving value for money and reducing demand for high-cost provision over time, supporting reduced reliance on high-cost and out-of-area placements and reinvestment in early intervention and mainstream capacity.

In Year 1, the focus is on establishing the conditions for reform, including strengthened governance, improved data visibility and more consistent approaches to early support, decision- making and placement review. This will increase consistency in practice, improve visibility of system demand and support early stabilisation in escalation and placement pressures.

This will be underpinned by improved data integration and transparency, enabling earlier, evidence-informed decision-making and a more coordinated response to emerging pressures.

From Year 2 onwards, this will translate into measurable improvement, including increased attendance, reduced exclusions, improved timeliness of support and more children supported within local provision and a slowing of growth in high-cost placements. By Year 3, success will be demonstrated through consistently high-quality practice, reduced variation in decision- making, improved outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and sustained confidence from families and partners.

Overall, this plan sets out a coherent and deliverable programme of change, shifting the system from reactive and variable practice to planned, consistent and inclusive support, enabling children and young people with SEND to achieve and thrive. Progress across the three-year period will be demonstrated through measurable improvements in inclusion, experience and system sustainability, with delivery tracked through a shared partnership dashboard aligned to the defined success measures and trajectories set out in this plan, with a detailed logic model (Appendix A) to set out the link between inputs, activity, outputs and intended outcomes.

Section 1 – Vision and Goals

1. 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 vision is that South Tyneside is a place where every child and young person with SEND can access high-quality, inclusive education, health and care support close to home, enabling them to lead full, healthy and fulfilling lives. This includes children and young people with predictable and commonly occurring needs, as well as those with more complex needs. Support is delivered through a joined up, fair, consistent, accountable and financially sustainable system.

By 2029 the Local Area SEND Partnership will achieve:

1. Improved outcomes through inclusive local provision: More children and young people with SEND are successfully supported in mainstream and local settings, evidenced by sustained reductions in permanent exclusions, persistent absence, Elective Home Education and reliance on specialist and high-cost placements. This will be particularly evident at key transition points and for cohorts currently overrepresented in specialist and out-of-area provision. Progress is driven through clear partnership accountability and consistent system leadership.

2. Early identification and effective support: Needs are identified and met earlier through consistent inclusive practice, including effective use of the graduated response, access to Ordinarily Available Provision (Oap) and universally available services. This includes stronger early identification in the early years and more consistent responses to developmental delay and improved workforce knowledge to address needs in older children rather than focusing on diagnosis and looking at the child through a trauma informed lense. Where needs require additional support, children and young people access timely expertise. This is evidenced by reduced escalation to statutory assessment and specialist services, reduced waiting times for assessment and intervention, timely access to specialist services for those who need them, and increased access to early support through mechanisms such as Experts at Hand (Eah). We will strategically align the SEND reforms with Best Start guidance, Social Care Reforms and the Good Level of Development to ensure no child slips through the net.

3. Increased confidence and trust in the SEND system: Parents, carers and children report improved experiences, evidenced through improved survey feedback, reduced complaints and tribunal activity, increased participation in co-production, and clearer understanding of pathways, thresholds and available support.

4. Financial sustainability and effective joint commissioning: Resources are aligned to need through active sufficiency planning and commissioning, evidenced by a reduced proportion of spend on high-cost placements, increased investment in early intervention and workforce capacity, and improved value for money across the system.

Progress against these goals will be demonstrated through measurable improvements in outcomes for children and young people, increased confidence from families, and a clear trajectory towards improved value for money. This will be supported by a shift in placement patterns, with greater use of local mainstream and resource base provision and reduced reliance on high-cost and out-of-area placements over time.

Section 2 – Strategy

2. 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.

Local blueprint for the next 3 years

Where we are Where we will be in the next 3 years

South Tyneside’s local area partnership has a strong foundation on which to build SEND reform, with a significant proportion of the reform programme building on work that has already been underway across the system.

By 2029, South Tyneside’s Local Area SEND Partnership (Lasp) will be operating with clearer leadership, stronger accountability and greater consistency in how inclusion is understood, applied and sustained. This reflects progression from a system where key elements of reform are already in development, to one where these approaches are implemented consistently and at scale across the Partnership.

Building blocks Strengthening inclusion across education settings Access to specialist support and local placements System leadership, local partnership collaboration and co- production Encouraging inclusive culture and behaviours Enablers Aligned workforce, capital investment and data infrastructure, which together translate strategic priorities into consistent system delivery.

In recent years, governance arrangements have been strengthened to support shared problem solving, collective learning and increasing joint accountability across education, health and care. Parent carer and Cyp perspectives are represented within key partnership forums, providing valuable insight and challenge, although approaches to engagement and influence are not yet consistent. Alongside this, there is a clear shared commitment to inclusion, early intervention and relational practice, reflected in an established Inclusion Service, a longstanding graduated response framework, and a broad range of non-statutory support offers, including the jointly commissioned, borough-wide, all-age Talk Boost provision.

The system will have moved from responding to pressure reactively to operating in a more deliberate, planned and transparent way, with leadership routinely using data, lived experience and system intelligence to set clear expectations. We will have aligned Best Start in Life, Families First, SEND reforms and Neighbourhood Health to establish clear, joined-up pathways, with Eah operating as a consistent and clearly defined route to targeted multidisciplinary expertise within the graduated response, supported by explicit pathways into and alongside wider early years, health and community services. This represents a deliberate shift from a system where access to support, practice and decision-making can vary, to one where expectations, pathways and accountability are applied consistently across all settings and partners.

This future state is delivered through core reform mechanisms, including strengthened inclusion across education settings, clearer and more timely access to specialist support and local provision, and stronger system leadership and co-production. It builds on existing universal and targeted provision, including 0–19 services, Family Hubs, and established early intervention approaches, with Eah providing a consistent route to targeted multidisciplinary expertise where additional support is required, alongside enhanced cluster-based inclusion and sufficiency-led commissioning and capital investment.

Importantly, several of the core components of the reform programme are already in development. Over the past 12–18 months, the Partnership has begun to respond to increasing demand and variability in access to specialist support through local analysis, test-and-learn activity and strengthened partnership working. This has included early development of a therapies-in-schools approach, work to design a SEND Cluster Model to support shared ownership of inclusion, and initial alignment of early intervention pathways across education and health. These strands of work have been developed in response to identified system pressures and are now being brought together and scaled through the Local SEND Reform Plan, rather than introduced as entirely new approaches.

By year three, Eah will operate as a clearly defined, partnership-wide, non-statutory route to support, accessible through all early years’ settings, schools, and post-16 providers. It will provide timely access to multi-disciplinary expertise where appropriate, aligned to agreed thresholds and pathways, enabling earlier intervention at SEN Support and reducing reliance on diagnosis-led referral routes and statutory assessment. Delivery of the health components of the Eah model will be supported through a phased implementation approach, with Therapists and Therapy Assistants deployed efficiently through phased recruitment, role redesign and service reconfiguration. This will enable increased capacity for early consultation, advice and intervention, aligned to the expected growth in demand and embedded within a sustainable delivery model. A proposed Eah model, including delivery structure, workforce model and pathways is attached (Appendix B).

Delivery of this model is enabled through coordinated workforce planning, aligned capital investment and improved data and digital infrastructure; each deployed to expand mainstream capacity, increase workforce confidence and consistency, and strengthen evidence-based decision-making and accountability.

Schools are increasingly engaging with system-led approaches as part of a strengthened graduated response, including inclusion panels, Alternative Provision (AP) pathways and revised guidance to support earlier intervention. Early intervention pathways are continuing to develop, particularly in relation to speech, language and communication needs and mental health. Relationships with Additional Resource Base (Arb) provision are generally positive and supported by regular monitoring, providing assurance around quality and standards. Attendance outcomes for pupils with SEND are a relative strength compared to statistical neighbours, and post-16 Neet rates for young people with Education, Health and Care Plans remain below regional averages, highlighting areas of effective practice on which reform can build.

Partnership leadership will be more confident, visible and disciplined, operating as the primary driver of SEND reform. Clear roles, responsibilities and decision-making routes across education, health and care will ensure shared ownership of inclusion and outcomes. Education partners, including schools, multi-academy trusts and further education providers, are actively engaged in governance and system delivery, contributing sector insight to decision- making and leading implementation within their own settings and networks. This ensures that system priorities reflect the reality of practice and are applied consistently across education provision.

Governance forums will operate as active mechanisms for prioritisation, challenge and assurance, supported by routinely shared performance dashboards, integrated datasets across education, health and care, and clear escalation pathways. This will include Sendiass intelligence routinely informing decision-making alongside performance and sufficiency data, ensuring that family experience, early concerns and patterns in advice and mediation activity are used to shape priorities and system improvement. This will be evident through routine reporting against the Lsrp, regular public updates on system progress, and consistent scrutiny of performance, risk and impact at partnership level. This will be underpinned by a strengthened partnership-wide quality assurance framework, including the routine use of Invision360 and multi-agency audit activity, to test practice, identify variation and provide feedback loops into workforce development, commissioning and system improvement. Data on demand, inclusion, attendance, exclusions, placements and workforce capacity will be used proactively and routinely across governance and cluster-

The local area benefits from a relatively small and highly interconnected education system, with established relationships between school leaders, services and partners. This has enabled the development of a range of non-statutory inclusion

and early intervention approaches, with many mainstream settings engaging with support at an earlier stage rather than defaulting immediately to statutory pathways. Partnership working has strengthened in key areas, particularly with the Icb and through elements of joint commissioning, creating early but solid foundations for more integrated system leadership. These developments align closely with the direction set out in the Local SEND Reform Plan, which focuses on strengthening early identification, improving access to multidisciplinary support and building mainstream capacity through coordinated system approaches.

level forums to identify emerging pressures, inform commissioning of provision and access to Eah, and support earlier, evidence-based intervention. Decision-making will be less reactive and less reliant on diagnosis, with a clear shift to a needs-led approach, where leaders work to a shared understanding of proportionality, thresholds and inclusive practice. This shift will be reflected in clearer, earlier resolution of system issues and a sustained reduction in complaints, disputes and escalations requiring formal intervention. This leadership reset will be reinforced through stronger alignment between SEND strategy, inclusion policy, exclusions, AP and commissioning decisions, ensuring that the system consistently delivers what it expects of schools and services. This will be strengthened through the systematic use of shared education, health and care data, including Ehn intelligence, to improve the quality, consistency and timeliness of decision-making across pathways. Data will be routinely analysed and acted upon to identify unmet need, variation in thresholds and emerging pressures, enabling earlier and more proportionate responses.

At the same time, the system is under increasing pressure and does not yet operate with sufficient consistency or confidence to meet rising levels of need early and equitably. Workforce capacity and confidence vary between settings and phases, particularly in relation to more complex needs, and inclusive practice is not yet applied reliably across the borough. This variability is reflected in rising permanent exclusions in primary school, increasing Elective Home Education, growing placement instability for children with complex needs, and continued escalation to statutory assessment and high-cost provision. Too many children continue to experience late identification of need, particularly within early years, and needs that could be addressed earlier through supported mainstream practice often escalate before timely specialist expertise is applied.

Earlier support will become routine rather than exceptional, shaped by leadership expectations and reinforced through system infrastructure. Across all school clusters, education and health expertise will be accessed sooner and more consistently through a clearer graduated response, and non-statutory routes, including access to targeted and targeted-plus support through Eah where appropriate. This builds on the early development of cluster-based and school-embedded models of support, which will operate consistently across all localities. Alongside this, improved use of shared data and system learning will support earlier identification of need, clearer prioritisation and more accurate referral pathways, reducing escalation driven by delay or system inefficiency rather than complexity.

Over three years, this will contribute to a reduction in requests for statutory assessment (where needs can be met at SEN Support) and specialist services. This shift will be sustained by embedded graduated responses/Oap, clearer joint commissioning arrangements, fewer ad hoc or traded models of support, and a workforce operating with greater confidence and consistency. Alongside this shift we will work with parent/carers, schools/settings and other stakeholders to co-produce a communication strategy to promote the new ways of working and highlight the graduated approach to meeting need and the expected outcomes. This dual approach will also support a reduction in waiting times within therapy services and allow greater ease of access for Cyp who require that specialist intervention.

Access to specialist support remains a key pressure point. While there is a strong local specialist offer, access to wider expert advice for mainstream settings is fragmented and uneven, often reliant on traded or referral-based arrangements. Existing outreach and therapy models are not consistently aligned to school demand and lack a single, coherent route of access, limiting their impact on system-wide mainstream capacity. Work has already begun to address this through the development of more integrated, school-based and cluster- aligned models of support; however, these approaches remain at an early stage and have not yet been implemented consistently across the system.

The reformed system will shift this earlier, with identification and support beginning in early years through coordinated pathways across Best Start Family Hubs, health services and education. Delivery will be aligned with the Families First and Best Start Family Hub agenda, ensuring that support for children with emerging needs is delivered through integrated, whole-family approaches, reducing duplication and enabling earlier intervention.

Specialist provision will function as part of a clearer and more accountable system. This will be delivered through more deliberate commissioning of specialist provision aligned to sufficiency forecasting and cohort need, ensuring that placement trends reflect planned system design rather than reactive decision-making. Special school designations and commissioned provisions will have been reviewed and aligned more closely to the profile of need locally, informed by sufficiency analysis, placement trends and cohort level intelligence, ensuring that specialist capacity is shaped around South Tyneside’s cohorts and reducing reliance on out of borough placements driven by mismatch rather than complexity. Agreed quality, inclusion and accountability standards, underpinned by routine review and risk-based assurance, will reduce unplanned placement moves and instability. Specialist settings will be used more consistently for children and young people with the most complex needs, complementing rather than compensating for mainstream capacity. This will contribute to a reduction in out-of-borough and high-cost placements.

System-level engagement and accountability continue to develop but are not yet fully embedded. While partnership working has strengthened and the Parent Carer Forum contributes meaningfully, shared accountability across the full system is not yet consistent. Sendiass provides an established source of independent advice and insight, although its contribution to system-wide improvement and early resolution is not yet routinely used. Decision-making can become reactive under pressure, and despite strong intent, practice can remain threshold-led or diagnosis-driven.

Inclusive practice across early years, schools and further education will be more stable and reliable, underpinned by consistent use of the SEND In Mainstream Settings Framework as the agreed baseline for practice, alongside clearer leadership expectations and shared frameworks. Variability between settings will reduce as inclusive practice is reinforced through peer moderation, access to timely expert advice and greater alignment between policy and practice. This will be supported through strengthened cluster-based inclusion arrangements, access to timely advice, and the development of ARBs and AP pathways to build local capacity.

Data on inclusion, attendance, behaviour and placement stability will be used consistently at cluster and setting level to support professional challenge, peer moderation and shared learning, enabling variation in inclusive practice to be identified and addressed systematically, rather than to drive compliance alone. This will be strengthened by the systematic use of health data (including therapy demand, waiting times, referral patterns and outcomes) alongside

Key system enablers for reform are in place but remain at an early stage of maturity. Workforce development activity is underway, capital investment is beginning to focus on mainstream inclusion, and shared data infrastructure is

developing. A SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework is being introduced to provide a consistent baseline for inclusive practice, alongside strengthened data, sufficiency modelling and multi-agency dashboards; however, confidence and consistency of use across the Partnership varies.

education and care data to inform joint commissioning decisions, align investment to need, and reduce duplicated or inappropriate referrals across pathways.

As a result, services will be better targeted to need, with reduced inappropriate or duplicated referrals, improved flow through pathways, and a measurable reduction in waiting times. A greater proportion of children and young people with SEND will be educated successfully in local mainstream provision, with an increase in mainstream placements and sustained reductions in change of placement requests, permanent exclusions, persistent absence and Elective Home Education (Ehe) for pupils with SEND.

Overall, the system demonstrates clear readiness for reform, with strong intent and significant preparatory work already underway across multiple areas. The challenge over the next three years is not to design new approaches, but to bring these existing strands into a single, coherent system, and to move from pockets of effective practice to consistent, system-wide delivery at scale. This includes ensuring that expert support is accessed earlier and more equitably, that mainstream inclusion is applied reliably across all settings, and that partnership leadership and system enablers actively reinforce inclusive practice rather than responding once escalation has already occurred. This reflects a system where access to support, workforce confidence and the application of inclusive practice currently vary between settings, creating inconsistencies in early identification, response and outcomes.

Capital investment decisions will increasingly reflect this direction of travel, strengthening local capacity through a more deliberate and planned approach to provision. This will include consolidating and co-locating specialist provision where this improves quality, access and workforce sustainability, alongside targeted expansion of specialist and resource base provision in areas of highest need. At the same time, investment will prioritise strengthening mainstream environments, including the development of ARBs and SEN Units, enabling a greater proportion of children and young people to be supported locally and reducing unnecessary escalation to specialist and out-of-area provision. This will be underpinned by sufficiency analysis and cohort-level planning, ensuring capital investment is aligned to patterns of demand and long-term system sustainability.

Workforce confidence and consistency will improve as leadership expectations, commissioning arrangements and system learning become more aligned. This includes the introduction of joint training and development activity between education, health practitioners and SEND services, beginning in Year 1, to build a shared understanding of needs-led practice, thresholds and inclusive approaches. This will be supported through coordinated workforce planning and delivery of Eah, increasing confidence in meeting needs earlier and reducing reliance on escalation. Recruitment, retention and professional development will be strengthened through coordinated workforce planning, Eah delivery and use of system-wide workforce data and quality assurance findings to target investment. Leadership behaviours will actively reinforce inclusive practice, reducing reliance on individual goodwill or informal workarounds.

For parents, carers and children and young people, the system will feel more predictable, clearly articulated, transparent and fair. There will be clearer routes for feedback and escalation, earlier resolution of concerns and visible evidence that co-production with children, young people and families’ shapes decision-making, service design and system priorities. Sendiass will operate as a clearly understood and independent source of advice and support, with a strengthened role in supporting families through early resolution and mediation, and in capturing learning from concerns and disputes to consistently inform system improvement. Feedback and engagement data will be routinely reviewed alongside performance and sufficiency data within governance forums, strengthening accountability and ensuring that system improvement reflects lived experience as well as quantitative measures. This will be reflected in a reduction in SEND related complaints, disputes and tribunal appeals, alongside improved confidence measures through local engagement and survey activity. Co-production will operate as a core system function, with structured involvement of children, young people and families in design, evaluation and governance, aligned to the Partnership’s agreed co-production vision.

Taken together, these changes will ensure that inclusive practice is sustained by leadership, accountability and system infrastructure, policy alignment, commissioning discipline, workforce capability, capital investment and shared, routinely used data and system intelligence, rather than introduced late in response to escalation. This reflects the consolidation and scaling of approaches already in development, creating a single, coherent system. The system will be better positioned to anticipate need, intervene earlier and deliver more equitable outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Progress towards this future state will be measured through improvements in inclusion, experience and financial metrics, including increased attendance, reduced exclusions, reduced reliance on high-cost placements, improved timeliness and strengthened confidence from families and partners.

3. 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 maturity assessment identifies a system with strong foundations, but variable inclusive practice, inconsistent use of shared data in decision-making, fragmented access to early specialist support and uneven influence of lived experience. This assessment informs the priorities and sequencing of this programme: strengthening system leadership and accountability to reduce variation, followed by scaling earlier intervention, strengthening mainstream inclusion and aligning commissioning to local need to improve consistency and outcomes.

Our theory of change is that earlier, more consistent inclusion will only be achieved if system leadership, accountability and decision-making operate differently, resulting in more consistent thresholds, earlier intervention and reduced variation in system response. The partnership will use the Lsrp as the core framework for coordinating SEND reform, aligned with wider system strategies including Families First and Best Start in Life, Neighbourhood Health Teams and neighbourhood-based multidisciplinary teams (MDTs), and underpinned by the development of a shared outcomes framework across the partnership (aligned to Families First), ensuring that education, health and care services are working to a consistent set of measures and priorities. This ensures priorities are consistently applied across governance, commissioning and operational delivery.

The strategy focuses on four linked, sequenced shifts:

Governance drives reform delivery through shared data, performance information and lived experience.

Inclusive practice is strengthened through the SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework, clearer graduated pathways, and earlier multidisciplinary support via Eah, clusters and neighbourhood MDTs

Specialist provision is reshaped through evidence-led sufficiency and commissioning, increasing local availability.

Workforce capability, data integration and co-production are strengthened to sustain consistent practice.

Together, these changes deliver earlier, more consistent intervention and more effective use of shared system resources, reduce escalation improve inclusion, equity and outcomes, measured through a shared partnership framework covering education, health and care.

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

Please see attached: South Tyneside Local Partnership Maturity Assessment Tool

5. 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.

Local roadmap for the

next 3 years 2026/27 2027/28 2028/29

Building Block: System leadership, local partnership collaboration and co- production Enablers

This phase responds directly to maturity assessment findings regarding variability in governance, data use and co-production practice, establishing the consistent system disciplines required before reform can scale.

Year 2 focuses on embedding and scaling consistent governance, decision-making and co-production across the Partnership. Building on Year 1 foundations, the Partnership moves from establishing consistent practice to applying these disciplines to actively reduce variation and improve outcomes.

Year 3 focuses on sustaining governance as business- as-usual and regulating the system through routine disciplines.

Governance SEND governance is fully integrated into the Partnership’s normal operating model. Decisions about commissioning, workforce planning and investment routinely reference the Local SEND Reform Plan, the latest assessment of need and shared system intelligence. These decisions are jointly owned across education and health partners, with consistent participation from therapy services and wider health pathways, ensuring that system leadership reflects shared accountability for demand, thresholds and outcomes. Progress, risk and learning are tracked through established partnership routes rather than discrete reform arrangements, demonstrating that SEND leadership is sustained beyond individual programmes or posts.

Governance Leadership operates through formal, shared and transparent arrangements. Oversight of SEND reform will sit within the Lasp, with a clear distinction between strategic leadership and operational delivery supported by agreed governance routes, reporting disciplines and escalation processes. Health partners, including therapy services and community paediatrics, will be active members of decision‑making forums, contributing to governance, threshold-setting and commissioning decisions.

• Formal and consistent

governance discipline

• Operating model and

process standardisation

• Shared, reliable system

intelligence

• Clear escalation and

dispute resolution pathways

• Strong coproduction

infrastructure

• Practical and sustainable

participation mechanism

• Leadership capability and

confidence to challenge variation

• System learning and

feedback loops.

Governance SEND reform leadership is characterised by consistent challenge, shared problem-solving and evidence-led decision-making. Strategic partnership forums routinely review performance and risk information, agree corrective actions where progress or consistency is insufficient and commission focused deep dives where variation persists. Decision-making routinely reflects joint education and health accountability, including shared agreement of thresholds for escalation to therapy, statutory assessment and specialist pathways. Actions arising from these discussions are clearly owned, tracked and followed up through a single action and risk log, ensuring governance activity translates into operational change. This results in more consistent responses across the system and earlier resolution of issues before escalation, reflected in improvements in complaint resolution and mediation outcomes over time.

The SEND Strategic Board and SEND Operational Group will have published Terms of Reference, setting out decision‑making authority, escalation routes, attendance expectations and meeting cadence. Attendance will be monitored against these terms. Named leads for each reform workstream will be confirmed and activity will be consistently referenced in agendas, papers and reports ensuring accountability is visible.

Accountability is maintained through routine system disciplines. Integrated dashboards and shared evidence frameworks are used consistently to anticipate emerging pressures across agreed demand indicators, including therapy waiting times, placements and dispute activity, test whether reforms are improving outcomes and determine where the system needs to adjust pace, resources or approach. Data quality, completeness and consistency have improved over time, supported by shared standards, clear ownership and routine validation across partners, resulting in greater confidence in system intelligence and more reliable identification of emerging pressures and system gaps. Shared datasets include multi-year health and education data, enabling joint modelling of demand, identification of pressure points across pathways and more aligned commissioning decisions. Feedback pathways between operational delivery and strategic oversight are clear and routinely used, enabling earlier system response rather than post‑escalation correction.

In the first year: The Partnership increasingly uses integrated data and system intelligence to prioritise and adjust delivery. Performance dashboards bring together routinely shared education, health and local authority datasets, including input from neighbourhood health teams and therapy services, so that analysis of demand indicators, including therapy waiting times, early health notifications and placement patterns, reflects whole- system intelligence rather than service-level activity. Data quality, consistency and completeness improve through agreed standards, defined ownership and routine validation across partners, increasing confidence in shared datasets. Governance papers demonstrate a clearer link between evidence, decisions and commissioning priorities.

• Each meeting will receive a written reform update

with progress, highlights and risks.

• A single action and risk log will be maintained and

reviewed.

• Performance dashboards covering agreed

demand indicators (including therapy waiting times, early health notifications and placement changes), attendance, exclusions and placements will be used to inform decisions, rather than post-event deliberation.

This ensures that decisions are evidence-led and consistently applied, reducing variation in practice and improving early problem-solving, reflected in improved complaint resolution and reduced escalation through mediation over time. In practice, this results in more consistent use of performance, risk and lived experience information within decision-making (outputs), leading over time to earlier identification of issues, reduced avoidable escalation and greater consistency in system response (outcomes).

Dispute resolution processes operate more consistently and earlier. Concerns are logged, tracked and resolved through transparent mechanisms that prioritise learning and improvement. The system is able to evidence improving timeliness and effectiveness of resolution across mediation, dispute and complaint pathways, contributing to sustained confidence in local provision and partnership

Education partners, including schools, trusts and further education providers, play a more active role in shaping decisions through governance, contributing sector insight and using system intelligence to inform implementation within their own settings and networks.

The Partnership will strengthen data quality, consistency and use over time to ensure that system intelligence reliably informs decision-making. Initial focus will be on improving the consistency of data capture, defining core datasets, ownership and reporting expectations, and establishing clear baselines across priority areas. This will include the development of consistent, routine data flows between partners to increase confidence in data quality and support early trend analysis and projections. This will include agreement with health partners on core datasets from therapy services, community paediatrics and neighbourhood health teams (once established), ensuring that demand, access and outcome data is shared rather than held within separate service pathways.

Transparency and dispute resolution strengthen. Complaints, concerns and professional challenges are logged and reviewed regularly through governance, with closer attention to where issues are being resolved (school-level, service-level or escalation routes). Mediation and dispute metrics are used to assess timeliness, effectiveness and learning, supporting earlier resolution and more consistent responses across partners. Sendiass plays a key role in supporting families through these processes and in capturing learning from mediation and dispute activity to inform system improvement.

decision-making. Sendiass plays a central role in supporting families through these processes and in capturing learning from dispute and mediation activity, ensuring that system improvement is informed by both outcomes and experience.

This reflects a system where governance operates as a routine mechanism for regulating performance, sustaining improved outcomes over time, including a longer-term reduction in avoidable escalation across complaints, mediation and tribunal activity, recognising that some fluctuation may occur before sustained improvement is achieved.

As a result, governance activity translates more consistently into operational change, supporting earlier resolution of issues, improved consistency across the system and reductions in avoidable escalation over time.

Milestone: Governance operates as business-as- usual, with multi-year system intelligence used to anticipate and manage demand, sustain consistent decision-making and reduce reliance on reactive escalation across the Partnership.

This approach aligns council and partner intelligence, enabling more robust monitoring, forecasting and evidence-informed planning leading to earlier identification of pressure and more timely system response across the Partnership.

Milestone: Governance activity demonstrably reduces variation across the system, with integrated data driving consistent decision-making, earlier resolution of issues and clear alignment between performance, commissioning and delivery.

Coproduction Co-production operates as a normal and assured expectation. Significant redesign and commissioning activity cannot progress without demonstrating meaningful involvement and impact of lived experience, supported by consistent scrutiny through governance processes. Qualitative insight from children, young people and families is routinely considered alongside quantitative performance data, ensuring experience and outcomes shape priorities together. Participation is broader, more representative and supported by predictable feedback loops that demonstrate influence and build trust. Sendiass continues to provide an independent source of insight into family experience, with themes from advice, support and engagement activity routinely informing system priorities and reinforcing accountability for lived experience.

A transparent escalation and moderation process will be introduced so that decisions are open, challengeable and recorded. Complaints, concerns and professional challenges raised by parents, carers and practitioners will be logged, tracked and reviewed, recognising that a healthy system expects issues to surface and learns from them. The Partnership will monitor where issues are resolved and reduce escalation to complaint, dispute and tribunal over time recognising that some indicators, including tribunal appeals, may fluctuate in the short term before longer- term improvements are secured.

Coproduction Co-production shapes decisions earlier in the cycle of change. The Partnership-wide Co-production Charter and rules of engagement are applied consistently across workstreams so service reviews, pathway changes and commissioning proposals evidence how lived experience has informed priorities and options before decisions are taken. Participation broadens beyond a small number of familiar voices through routine mechanisms, including an annual children and young people survey, structured capture of views through 14+ Annual Reviews, and targeted cohort engagement. This is complemented by Sendiass intelligence, which provides an independent source of insight into family experience, emerging concerns and areas where earlier resolution is not yet effective. Feedback from these routes is aggregated and reviewed alongside performance data to inform system priorities.

Milestone: Governance operates consistently across the Partnership, with routine use of shared data, action tracking and escalation processes evident in decision- making and reducing variation in how issues are identified and addressed.

Communication operates as a routine system function, with consistent use of lived experience, outcome data and shared messaging to reinforce confidence in inclusive practice and local provision. This supports sustained understanding of the graduated response across the system and underpins continued reductions in avoidable escalation, complaint and dispute activity.

Coproduction Co-production will move from variable practice to a clear system expectation. The Partnership will develop, agree and publish a Co-production Charter and rules of engagement. Governance papers, service redesign and commissioning activity will be required to evidence how lived experience has informed proposals. This ensures that co-production directly influences system priorities and decision-making, rather than operating as a parallel activity.

The co-produced communication approach is embedded and extended, with consistent messaging across education, health and care reinforcing expectations of inclusion, earlier intervention and needs-led practice. Real experiences and system learning are used to demonstrate impact, build confidence in local provision and support consistent understanding of pathways and thresholds across the Partnership.

Milestone: Co-production is embedded as a routine system discipline, with representative participation and established feedback loops demonstrating sustained influence on commissioning, service design and system priorities.

Alongside this, the Partnership will develop and begin delivery of a co-produced communication approach to

support SEND reform, for families and those working with them, education settings and partners to articulate how meeting need earlier leads to improved outcomes. This will include the use of real experiences and lived voices to build shared understanding of the graduated response, strengthen confidence in local provision and support a shift away from escalation- based practice.

Milestone: Co-production is applied consistently across all workstreams, with broader participation and clear evidence that feedback is shaping priorities, influencing decisions and improving system responsiveness over time.

Engagement with schools, trusts and post‑16 providers will move from variable practice to a more structured and consistent approach. Education partners will contribute through established mechanisms, including Sendco networks, cluster arrangements and targeted engagement activity, ensuring that system design and delivery are informed by practical experience of inclusion within settings. This will support earlier identification of implementation challenges and strengthen the alignment between policy and practice across the system.

The role of Sendiass will be strengthened as an independent source of information, advice and support for children, young people and families, ensuring they are supported to engage confidently in co-production and decision-making processes. Sendiass will also provide a key route for capturing and understanding lived experience, including emerging themes and areas of concern.

Participation is broadened and made routine through practical mechanisms that fit into existing system activity rather than creating repeated consultation exercises:

• An annual children and young people survey will

be introduced.

• Views of all young people aged 14+ will be

captured through Annual Reviews using a short, consistent question set.

• Schools will gather short “micro‑feedback” at

ordinary activities (e.g. sports days, coffee mornings).

• Targeted engagement will be undertaken with

specific cohorts (e.g. Early Years, PfA).

System-level “You said, we did / we didn’t yet / we already are” summaries will be published at agreed points in the year demonstrating how engagement activity influences decisions and building trust through transparency. This results in a broader and more routine capture of lived experience, which increasingly informs service design, commissioning and governance decisions.

Milestone: Co-production is established as a system expectation, with consistent evidence that lived experience from children, young people, families and education partners is informing service design and governance decisions.

Building Block: Access to specialist support and local placements. Enablers

The Partnership will establish a clear, equitable and quality assured system for accessing specialist support, so that mainstream settings can secure timely advice and intervention without default escalation to statutory assessment or placement change. This will provide greater clarity for schools, families and professionals about how and when specialist expertise is accessed as part of the graduated response.

The Partnership will focus on embedding and scaling the early intervention and placement management infrastructure established in Year 1. Eah will operate at greater scale with consistent access and expectations, while the Apst is implemented to support coordinated early intervention, placement stability and reintegration, reducing avoidable escalation across the system.

The focus shifts from refining access and use of specialist support to regulating the system so it remains proportionate, predictable and sustainable as demand fluctuates. This ensures that access to specialist support remains proportionate, equitable and aligned to system thresholds over time.

• Clear and shared access

expectations for the Eah model.

• Standardised access and

decision-making process

• Transparent and consistent

use of access routes

• Stabilising and appropriately

deployed workforce

• Integrated sufficiency and

placement oversight

• AP as a regulated

intervention

• Evidence-led

commissioning and configuration

• Threshold discipline and

escalation challenge

• Governance that links

insight to action

Experts At Hand The single access route will include clearly defined and consistently applied pathways from early years settings; Best Start Family Hubs and early help services into Eah. This will ensure developmental concerns are identified and addressed at the earliest stage, before escalation into statutory systems. It will also ensure that early years practitioners have a clear and aligned route into Eah, rather than operating in parallel to statutory pathways.

Experts At Hand The Eah model operates across school clusters and phases at a greater scale and with tighter system grip supported by stabilising workforce capacity. Clear access arrangements are routinely understood.

Experts At Hand Year 1 focuses on establishing the workforce, clarity, shared expectations and communication required to enable consistent delivery from 2027 onwards. Whereby, the Eah model will operate as a jointly delivered model across the local authority and health partners, with delivery arrangements defined in line with national funding conditions and agreed commissioning routes.

Using learning from year 1, the Partnership will focus on increasing consistency of access, strengthening equity and actively reducing avoidable escalation. Referral patterns, response times and themes of demand will be routinely reviewed through the Eah Oversight Group and wider partnership governance, against defined expectations for timeliness, equity of access and impact. This will inform escalation where performance is not met and identify where access remains uneven, where demand highlights gaps in universal or targeted provision, and where thresholds require clarification. This evidence will be used to:

The Eah model operates as the routine mechanism for testing proportionality before escalation, with consistent expectations that Eah input is considered prior to statutory assessment or placement change where appropriate. Patterns of access, response and outcome are reviewed over multiple years to assess whether specialist advice is influencing trajectory, including reduced emergency reviews, improved placement stability and clearer decision‑making about next steps. This will include analysis of how Eah input supports transition outcomes. This intelligence is used to maintain or adjust access criteria, holding thresholds consistently even as workforce capacity and system pressures change. This will result in sustained, proportionate use of specialist advice and reduced variability in escalation patterns over time.

Speech & Language Therapy (Salt) and Occupational Therapy (Ot) elements of the offer will be commissioned through South Tyneside and Sunderland Foundation Trust (Stsft) via Nenc Icb through existing contract arrangements, supported by a Memorandum of Understanding (Mou) between South Tyneside Council (Stc) and Nenc Icb setting out scope, performance expectations, reporting requirements and management arrangements.

• Adjust access criteria and triage processes.
• Expectations on when Eah should be used.
• Strengthen alignment between Eah and wider health pathways.
• Workforce deployment across clusters and education phases, including alignment to transition points.
• Strengthen how transition planning is supported through Eah, including clearer expectations for when Eah input should inform phase transfer planning and reintegration decisions.

The proposed Eah workforce model is based on a mixed delivery approach, combining redeployment of existing specialist capacity (including the SEND Advisory Service) with targeted new recruitment across Salt, Ot and Ep services. The model prioritises consultative and capacity-building approaches, including group work, training and advice, rather than reliance on individual casework. Initial delivery will rely on more effective deployment of existing services, with additional recruitment phased in to expand capacity over time. This blended model reflects both current workforce constraints and the need to build sustainable, long-term system capacity.

Learning from Eah and the Apst is consolidated and used to shape system expectations. Accumulated evidence will indicate the most effective forms of input to prevent placement breakdown or reduce time spent in AP informs:

Alongside Eah, the Partnership will establish an Apst which will include a range of professionals to support placement stability and reintegration. The focus will be on coordinated assessment, problem-solving and next step planning, including supporting timely and well- planned transitions between placements and phases.

• Commissioning of specialist and outreach services.
• Workforce configuration and role focus.
• Guidance on when AP should be used as part of the graduated response.
• Guidance on how Eah input should inform transition planning at key stages, ensuring

These roles will work closely with the Stsft Eah Clinical Lead and Clinical Educator, who will be employed by Stsft and jointly funded across Sunderland and South Tyneside Local Authorities through Eah funding.

Analysis of Eah and Apst activity will identify which forms of professional input (e.g. consultation,

While detailed workforce modelling will continue to be refined through implementation, the model assumes a progressive increase in capacity over time, with initial delivery focused on high-impact cohorts and settings.

consistent, needs-led decision-making across the system.

modelling, short‑term intervention, workforce development) are having the greatest impact on sustaining placements and reducing escalation. Workforce plans and commissioning decisions will be adapted accordingly to prioritise approaches that strengthen mainstream capability, rather than increasing reactive intervention. This reduces reliance on reactive specialist intervention and supports more needs being met earlier within mainstream provision and more consistent application of thresholds and increased resolution of need within mainstream provision, contributing to a rebalancing of demand across mainstream and specialist provision over time

Milestone: Multi-year data demonstrates sustained use of Eah as a mechanism for testing proportionality, with reduced escalation, improved placement stability and consistent thresholds applied across the system.

This will be supported by the development of clear role definitions and job descriptions across the core disciplines involved (including Ep, Salt, Ot and advisory functions), ensuring a shared understanding of responsibilities, thresholds and contribution within the graduated response.

Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce.

The Apst operates as a core system regulation and learning mechanism, ensuring that AP is applied proportionately, consistently and as part of a planned continuum of support. Drawing on multi-year evidence, Apst activity is used to:

By the end of the year, the Eah delivery model will be clearly articulated and agreed with partners and settings, setting out:

• maintain consistent thresholds for escalation and access to AP
• strengthen expectations for placement duration, reintegration and transition planning
• inform commissioning, workforce configuration and system design.

Milestone: Eah activity is consistently applied across clusters, with evidence that referral patterns, response times and workforce deployment are being actively adjusted through governance to reduce variation and avoid escalation.

• How the offer complements, integrates with and

does not duplicate existing services, including clearer definition of what is in scope for Eah (early consultation, advice, modelling and problem-solving) and what remains within statutory assessment, specialist provision or commissioned therapy pathways (including clear alignment with wider health pathways). This will include clear articulation of the role of each discipline within the model and how these interact across universal, targeted, targeted-plus and specialist levels.

• How education and health expertise (including Ep,

Salt and Ot) is accessed.

• How access is managed to ensure fairness,

consistency and coverage, including settings outside the borough attended by South Tyneside children and young people.

• How Eah supports planning for key transition

points, ensuring that multidisciplinary advice informs earlier planning, reduces crisis-led placement change and strengthens continuity of support.

• How Eah can work alongside other school-based

services such as Mhst and school nursing to create a wider school's approach.

• How the Eah model interfaces with specialist

commissioned services e.g., Salt, Ot, Ep

Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce

The Apst operates as part of an integrated early help and community response, working alongside Eah, clusters, social care and youth services to ensure that responses to emerging need and escalation are coordinated across the wider system. This supports a more consistent and proportionate approach, with escalation challenged and children supported to remain in or return to local mainstream provision wherever appropriate, resulting in more predictable and time‑limited use of AP and contributing to improved attendance, reintegration and more proportionate use of long‑term placements.

Alongside Eah, the Partnership will implement the Apst as a structured multi-agency mechanism for coordinated early intervention, placement stability and reintegration. The Apst will bring together education, health and care professionals to support joint assessment, problem-solving and decision-making for children at risk of escalation. including early help, social care and youth services, ensuring that responses to risk of escalation are coordinated across the wider children’s system and not limited to SEND pathways.

Milestone: Apst operates as a system regulation mechanism, with evidence of consistent thresholds, improved reintegration outcomes and reduced reliance on long-term or reactive AP placements.

Building on Year 1 design and testing, Apst will operate through clearly defined referral routes and thresholds, aligned to Eah, clusters and early help pathways, ensuring a coherent system response. The focus will be on:

Proactive Placement Planning The monitoring and forward-planning process operates as routine practice. Children and young people are continuously identified for potential transition, with target provision and timing considered early. Annual Reviews are consistently used to:

• preventing placement breakdown through coordinated support
• enabling timely reintegration from AP
• supporting proportionate decision-making at key escalation points.

Analysis of Apst activity will be used alongside Eah and sufficiency data to identify themes, gaps in provision and workforce priorities. This intelligence will directly inform commissioning decisions, capital planning and system priorities, ensuring that AP is used as a targeted intervention rather than a default pathway.

A single, transparent route of access into Eah will be documented and implemented, clearly aligned to existing referral and support pathways, so that schools and partners understand when Eah should be accessed as part of the graduated response and how it interfaces with other services. This will provide clear distinction between early advice and consultation, statutory assessment and commissioned specialist provision. This will include consideration of the role of Best Start Family Hubs in early identification and

• Support reintegration into mainstream or Arb/SEN units where appropriate.
• Plan phase transfer transitions with greater confidence; and
• Consider ceasing statutory plans where needs have demonstrably reduced.

Placement evaluation extends where needed to in-borough specialist provision, ensuring that placements remain proportionate and aligned to

Milestone: Apst is operational as a coordinated multi-agency mechanism, with evidence that

access, particularly for younger children and families, ensuring that emerging needs can be recognised and routed into appropriate support at the earliest point. This will be supported by a clear communication approach with parents and carers, ensuring that the graduated response, available provision and routes into support are understood consistently across the system.

placement stability, reintegration and escalation decisions are informed by shared system intelligence and applied consistently.

designation and cohort need. This supports stronger flow through the system and reduces long-term drift into specialist pathways.

Expansion of Alternative Provision The Partnership will expand the AP offer so that it operates more deliberately as a targeted, short-term intervention within the graduated response. This will include increased Tier 2 capacity within primary provision, enabled through estate changes, alongside the development of a more structured offer focused on stabilisation, emotional regulation and planned reintegration to mainstream or local provision.

Milestone: Placement planning operates as routine system practice, with continuous cohort tracking, improved flow through provision and reduced drift into long-term specialist placements.

Expansion of Alternative Provision The AP system will operate as a regulated, evidence- led component of the local SEND system, with clear expectations for when AP should be used, how long placements should last and how children and young people are supported to reintegrate into mainstream or local provision. AP will be consistently applied as a deliberate, time-limited intervention within a clearer three-tier continuum, rather than a reactive or longer- term solution that is aligned with mainstream support, Eah and Apst ensuring that movement between levels of intervention is coherent, planned and based on shared thresholds.

Access, demand and timeliness will be routinely monitored through Eah governance arrangements. This will be supported by appropriate administrative coordination so that demand, access patterns and timeliness can be monitored. Where recruitment allows, early deployment of multidisciplinary capacity will begin, prioritising consultation, advice and system strengthening activity rather than one to one replacement of statutory services, with an initial focus on Reception and Key Stage 1 cohorts to strengthen early identification and intervention at the earliest stages of statutory education and reduce escalation over time.

Alongside this, the Partnership will strengthen commissioning and procurement arrangements to ensure that available provision more closely reflects the needs of children and young people with emotional regulation difficulties and emotionally based non- attendance.

A structured review of provision available through the AP Framework will identify gaps in therapeutic, early intervention and reintegration-focused support. Targeted commissioning activity will then be undertaken to expand the market, moving beyond generalist placements towards defined offers with a clear therapeutic and outcomes focus, including provision that supports emotional regulation, trauma- informed practice and structured re-engagement for children experiencing attendance difficulties.

Commissioning will be increasingly informed by multi- year evidence of impact drawn from shared system datasets, enabling the Partnership to prioritise provision that demonstrably supports improved attendance, reduces escalation and enables successful reintegration. Provision that does not consistently deliver these outcomes will be reduced over time, ensuring that the offer reflects quality, value for money and alignment to system priorities.

Eah delivery will be overseen through a dedicated Eah Oversight Group, responsible for monitoring performance, demand, timeliness, equity of access and emerging themes. They will also monitor impact on specialist commissioned service from a demand & capacity and workforce perspective. They will also ensure joint commissioning is a standard agenda item to ensure sustainability of the model. This group will report into the wider SEND reform workstream governance, with escalation to Lasp structures where performance, capacity or impact requires intervention and learning from early activity will be reviewed to inform scaling and workforce prioritisation including consideration of access routes beyond schools, such as Family Hubs and early help pathways, to ensure equitable identification of need and appropriate access to specialist advice. Arrangements are aligned to the overall governance framework set out in Local Area SEND Governance.

Provision will be defined through clear specifications setting out cohort, intended outcomes, duration and expectations for reintegration, ensuring that AP operates as a targeted, time-limited component of the graduated response, forming part of a continuum alongside mainstream provision and Eah rather than a separate pathway. Procurement processes will be used more deliberately to shape the provider market, including engagement with existing and potential providers to develop offers aligned to local priorities and expectations for quality, data reporting and outcome monitoring.

The Apst will operate as a core system regulation and learning mechanism, using accumulated evidence to maintain threshold discipline, strengthen expectations for placement duration and reintegration, and inform commissioning, workforce configuration and system design. This will ensure that AP is used consistently across the system and that variation in practice is reduced.

Most AP placements will be time-limited and linked to clear reintegration or transition pathways, with improved flow through the system and more consistent and time-limited use of placements. This will contribute to sustained reductions in exclusions, improved attendance (including for children experiencing anxiety-based non-attendance), and reduced reliance on out-of-area Semh provision.

These arrangements establish Eah as a commissioned, performance-managed and governed mechanism for early multidisciplinary support within the graduated response. This results in increased access to early multidisciplinary consultation and more consistent use of advice prior to escalation, reducing avoidable progression to statutory assessment and placement change over time.

Use of AP will be increasingly integrated with the Apst, ensuring that placements are informed by prior specialist input and applied consistently and proportionately. Referral patterns, placement duration, reintegration outcomes and attendance improvement will be more routinely monitored, strengthening system grip and ensuring that AP contributes to earlier intervention and reduced escalation.

Milestone: The AP system demonstrates sustained impact, with more consistent time-limited use of placements, improved attendance and reintegration

Milestone: Eah is operational and used in practice, with a single access route in place, agreed delivery

model understood across settings, and initial data showing how demand, access and timeliness are being monitored through governance.

Milestone: AP is being used as a targeted, time- limited intervention, with monitored referral patterns, placement duration and reintegration outcomes demonstrating more consistent and proportionate use.

outcomes, and a measurable reduction in reliance on out-of-area and high-cost Semh provision.

Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce

Proactive Placement Planning The placement evaluation programme expands systematically:

The Partnership will begin development of an Alternative Provision Specialist Taskforce (Apst) model. Initial activity will focus on defining the purpose, scope and operating model of Apst as a mechanism for early intervention, placement stability and coordinated multi-agency response.

• From out‑of‑borough high‑cost placements to other out‑of‑borough placements; and
• Then focusing on in‑borough high‑cost placements.

The same methodology is used throughout, enabling comparative understanding of where local provision can meet need and what additional capacity or adaptation is required.

This will include engagement with education, health, early help and social care partners to align existing pathways and avoid duplication, ensuring that Apst complements Eah and explicitly aligns with Best Start Family Hub activity, social care, early help and adolescent service pathways ensuring that Apst operates as part of a wider, locality-based response to emerging need rather than a SEND specific intervention. Focus will be given to how emerging needs are identified and responded to earlier through Family Hubs and locality-based teams, preventing escalation into more intensive provision.

Children and young people identified and “seeded” in 2026/27 now move into active transition planning. Annual Reviews are used to formalise planned moves, with receiving settings supported through early preparation, transition planning and monitoring. Phase transfer points are used as the default opportunity for change where appropriate, reducing destabilising mid‑phase moves.

The first year will focus on design and testing informed by a clearer understanding of local patterns of need, including the significant proportion of children and young people presenting with neurodevelopmental differences and those impacted by trauma, adversity and unmet need. The Apst model will therefore be grounded in a needs-led, trauma-informed approach, ensuring that responses focus on understanding underlying need, strengthening inclusion and preventing escalation, rather than solely managing behaviour or placement pressure. Design and testing will include:

Findings from placement evaluation and transition planning inform decisions about special school designations, moving the system from review to agreed adjustments and clearer expectations about the role of specialist provision within the wider continuum.

Sufficiency planning shifts from forecasting to planned response, using real cohort flow data (current and target provision) to identify where Arb/SEN unit capacity or mainstream inclusion needs strengthening. This intelligence directly informs commissioning and capital planning priorities.

• defining referral routes, cohort focus, including

children with neurodevelopmental differences and those impacted by trauma and adversity, and thresholds for Apst involvement,

• aligning Apst with Eah, cluster arrangements

and early help pathway,

• establishing how intelligence from Apst activity

will inform sufficiency planning, commissioning and early intervention priorities and,

• and ensuring that decisions about AP access and

intervention are informed by the same system intelligence used in governance, including attendance, behaviour, need and placement stability data.

Milestone: Placement planning is informing system decisions, with cohort-level data on current and target provision used to drive planned transitions and shape sufficiency and commissioning priorities.

This ensures Apst is developed as part of a coherent early intervention system, supporting earlier

identification and coordinated response to emerging need, positioning this and AP as part of a single continuum alongside mainstream and Eah.

Milestone: Apst design is completed and tested, with clear referral routes, thresholds and system alignment established and early activity demonstrating how multi- agency input informs support and prevents escalation.

Proactive Placement Planning A monitoring and forward planning process will be introduced to identify Cyp who can return to in- borough provision or have their needs met within a mainstream (specialist/support bases) provision. A designated officer will identify children and young people who may be better supported in local provision and establish a clear record of current placement, potential target provision, an indicative target move date and preparatory actions required.

• Annual Reviews will be used as the primary

mechanism for this planning and will be used more deliberately to:

• Identify children who could reintegrate into

mainstream or Arb/SEN unit provision.

• Support planned transitions at phase transfer

points.

• Consider whether statutory plans remain

necessary where needs have reduced or changed.

This approach ensures that decisions about placement change are needs‑led, evidence‑based and anticipated, with transition conversations taking place well in advance.

Learning from placement evaluation and planned transitions will be reviewed through governance and used to inform sufficiency planning, including where additional Arb/SEN unit capacity is required, where mainstream inclusion needs strengthening, and where adjustments to specialist provision are necessary. This supports a more stable flow through the system, reduced reliance on high‑cost I/Nmss placements and improved confidence that local provision can meet need.

Through these actions, inclusion will be reinforced as a system‑wide responsibility, with clearer alignment between policy, practice, places and provision, and more children and young people supported successfully in local education settings. This results in more children being identified early for planned transitions, reducing reliance on reactive placement decisions and emergency escalation.

Milestone: A structured placement planning process is in use, with identified cohorts, forward planning through Annual Reviews and clear evidence of planned transitions replacing reactive placement decisions.

Building Block: Strengthening inclusion across education settings Enablers

Inclusive practice across early years, schools and further education will be strengthened through a clear and consistent approach that begins in the early years. Improved identification of need and support through Best Start Family Hubs and early education will form the foundation of this shift, with a particular focus on improving Gld as a key indicator of early inclusion and system effectiveness, with provision organised so that children and young people are supported as close to home as possible. The Lasp will move from variable understanding and practice towards a more coherent, planned approach to inclusion, spanning mainstream, targeted and specialist provision. This reflects maturity assessment findings regarding variation in inclusive practice, thresholds and confidence across the system.

The focus moves from establishing understanding to actively using system intelligence to deliver planned transitions and reshape how provision is used.

The focus moves to sustaining a predictable, planned system where children’s pathways are anticipated and managed over time.

Embedding the Graduated Approach The SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework is used consistently across key decision-making points, including SEN Support reviews, Annual Reviews, Eah access, Apst involvement and placement discussions, ensuring that decisions are grounded in a shared and applied understanding of need and provision.

Embedding the Graduated Approach The SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework operates as the system’s agreed approach to identifying and meeting need, resulting in more consistent threshold application, reduced variation in escalation and placement decisions over time, and a greater proportion of children and young people having their needs met successfully within mainstream and local provision.

• Shared understanding of

inclusive practice through a single consistent baseline and common language.

• Strong workforce

confidence and capability to meet need earlier and hold proportionate thresholds within mainstream provision.

• Structured monitoring and

forward planning enabling early identification and planned transition to appropriate local provision.

• Annual reviews utilised to

future plan for phase transfer, reintegration and statutory plan requirements.

• Shared data on need,

outcomes, placement patterns, cost and stability to inform placement decisions, designation reviews and sufficiency planning.

• Governance arrangements

ensure learning from placement review and transitions translates into owned, tracked and reviewed system action.

Moderation and governance activity focus on how the graduated approach is applied in practice, reducing variation between settings and ensuring that thresholds are applied consistently across clusters and phases. Practitioners receive more consistent advice and challenge across services, with clearer alignment between education and health on when needs are met through SEN Support, therapy input or statutory processes. This supports more confident and proportionate decision-making, with increased consistency in when needs are met within mainstream provision and when escalation is required.

There is a single, shared understanding of thresholds across education and health, with reduced divergence between service criteria and more predictable escalation pathways.

This approach builds on a strengthened and clearly articulated Oap, ensuring that universal and targeted support is consistently understood and applied across early years, education, health and early help services. This will include a particular focus on children in the early years who demonstrate emerging needs alongside patterns of absence or disengagement, ensuring that these are recognised as early indicators of need and responded to through coordinated support rather than escalation.

The graduated approach is reinforced through routine system disciplines, including moderation, quality assurance, Annual Reviews and governance oversight, ensuring that variation in how needs are identified and responded to is reduced and sustained over time. Decision-making is increasingly predictable and consistent, with clear evidence that more children and young people are supported effectively within mainstream and local provision without unnecessary escalation, contributing to lower demand for specialist placements and greater placement stability over time.

Intelligence from Eah and the Apst is used to identify where the graduated approach is not being applied consistently, informing targeted strengthening of universal and targeted provision. Patterns of demand and escalation are used to refine the universal offer within the SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework, ensuring it responds to the most prevalent areas of need.

Embedding the Graduated Approach A SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework will operate as the shared baseline for inclusive practice across all education settings, setting out consistent expectations for how needs are identified and met within mainstream provision. This is underpinned by a clear and consistently applied graduated response, informed by Oap, so that practitioners across education, health and early help have a shared understanding of what should be in place at each level of need. In the early years, this is aligned with the Best Start and Families First agenda, strengthening early identification and improving Gld as a key indicator of system effectiveness, and supporting a more coordinated, whole-family response that reduces reliance on escalation by addressing need earlier.

System intelligence, including data from SEN Support, Eah, Apst, placement patterns and lived experience, is used to test whether the graduated approach is being applied consistently, to identify where further strengthening of universal and targeted provision is required. This intelligence informs ongoing workforce development, ensuring that learning from Qa, moderation, Eah and Apst continues to refine professional practice and sustain consistency over time. This ensures the framework is continually refined and remains responsive to patterns of need.

Learning from early years development and school readiness is used to strengthen early identification and inform expectations within the framework, supporting a more consistent understanding of need from early years through to statutory education and reducing variation over time. This is further supported through alignment with the Best Start agenda, using Gld as a shared indicator of early need to inform expectations within the framework and strengthen consistency in early identification.

The graduated approach informs commissioning and sufficiency decisions, ensuring that system response focuses on strengthening mainstream capacity and early intervention rather than expanding specialist provision in response to demand, with investment increasingly aligned to interventions that reduce

This operates as the Partnership’s agreed universal SEND offer, co-developed and endorsed through the Lasp with a defined process for review and refresh

Milestone: There is demonstrable reduction in variation between settings, with consistent application of thresholds across clusters and phases evidenced

overtime. The framework sets out what should be available at a universal, targeted and specialist level within mainstream settings, and how inclusive practice relates to specialist advice and statutory processes within a single graduated response.

through moderation, Eah and placement decision- making.

escalation and improve value for money. As a result, the graduated response operates as a reliable and embedded system driver, reducing variability and supporting sustained improvements in inclusion, early intervention and outcomes. This includes sustained alignment with the Best Start agenda, with continued focus on improving Gld as an early system indicator, ensuring that the graduated approach is embedded from early years onwards and informs long-term outcomes.

Specialist Provision Designation Review In the second year, the Partnership will move from review to redesign, using findings from the designation review to define a clearer and more consistent approach to specialist provision. This will include establishing agreed designation criteria for Special Schools, ARBs and SEN Units, linked explicitly to profiles of need and expected outcomes.

Its use will be reinforced through moderation activity using live case discussions to test how the graduated approach is applied. This will focus on whether needs are being met at the appropriate level and identify where escalation could be avoided through stronger mainstream practice. This will be supported by Sendco networks, quality assurance activity, workforce development and system learning. Together, these will strengthen professional confidence and enable earlier, proportionate responses to need within mainstream provision.

This results in more consistent and proportionate use of specialist advice, reducing avoidable escalation and contributing to a shift in placement patterns towards local mainstream and targeted provision over time. Taken together, these changes will be reflected in improved inclusion measures, reduced escalation to specialist pathways and a clearer shift in placement patterns towards local mainstream and targeted provision.

Placement pathways will be refined to reflect these designations, ensuring that decisions about specialist provision are needs-led, consistent and aligned to the graduated approach. This will include clarifying the role of each type of provision within the wider system and improving consistency in how placements are considered and agreed.

Clear expectations will be communicated to all settings about how the graduated approach should be applied in practice, including when needs should be met through SEN Support and when escalation is appropriate. This will be reinforced through advisory and support services across education, health and early help, so that practitioners receive a consistent message about thresholds, expectations and practice regardless of which service they engage with. This approach is underpinned by a shared understanding of the SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework. It is also supported by joint agreement between education and health partners on thresholds for accessing therapy input, statutory assessment and specialist provision. Together, this will reduce variability caused by differing service criteria and limit reliance on diagnosis-driven or risk-averse decision-making. Collectively, these actions support a shift in culture across the Partnership towards earlier, more confident and needs-led decision-making, reducing reliance on reactive or threshold-driven escalation.

Implementation will begin through:

• applying revised designation and pathway expectations within placement decision-making
• aligning commissioning and sufficiency planning to identified cohort need
• testing changes through targeted cohorts and transition planning activity

Milestone: System data shows sustained improvement in inclusion measures, with increased proportions of children supported successfully in mainstream or local provision and reduced demand for specialist escalation.

Learning from this phase will continue to inform refinement of designation, provision offer and capacity, ensuring that changes are deliverable, proportionate and aligned to system demand.

Specialist Provision Designation Review Focus shifts to embedding the revised designation framework as a core component of system planning, commissioning and decision-making. Specialist provision operates within a clearer and more consistent framework, with designation, provision offer and cohort need aligned across the system.

Milestone: Revised designation criteria and placement pathways are actively used in decision- making, with initial cohort testing showing improved alignment between need, provision and placement outcomes.

Placement decisions are consistently informed by agreed pathways and designation criteria, reducing variability and ensuring that specialist provision is used appropriately for children and young people with the most complex needs.

Sufficiency and Local Provision Expansion Focus for mainstream specialist provision will be on extending specialist pathways across key transition points and strengthening local capacity to prevent escalation to specialist provision.

The framework will ensure that support for the most common and growing areas of need, including speech, language and communication, autism and social, emotional and mental health needs, is routinely available across settings. This includes a stronger focus on trauma-informed and relational approaches, recognising the impact of adversity and unmet need on behaviour, engagement and attendance, and ensuring that responses address underlying need as well as presenting difficulties. Clear expectations for classroom practice, environmental adaptations and targeted support will enable needs to be met earlier

The designation framework is integrated into sufficiency and commissioning activity, ensuring that future provision development reflects identified need and reduces reliance on out-of-area placements driven by mismatch rather than complexity.

This will include the development of a Key Stage 3 SEN Unit at Harton Academy (15 spaces) and exploring opportunities to develop the Jarrow Post 11 offer, designed to support children and young people with complex autism and cognition and learning needs who would otherwise be at risk of specialist placement at Year 6/7 transition.

Ongoing monitoring of outcomes, placement stability and demand is used to refine provision over time, ensuring that specialist capacity remains aligned to cohort need and supports a sustainable and inclusive local system.

In parallel, the Partnership will progress feasibility and costed options for Semh provision, informed by Year 1 engagement and sufficiency analysis. This includes:

Milestone: Specialist provision is consistently used in line with agreed designation and pathways, with

• development of smaller, targeted Primary Semh

provision (15 spaces year 1),

• exploration of commissioning AP providers,

including cost modelling to support pupils and reduce reliance on Oob Semh placements and,

• explore the use of Hope Spring under the AP

framework to support repatriation of pupils currently placed out of borough and to prevent future escalation to I/Nmss.

and more consistently within mainstream provision, reducing avoidable escalation to specialist pathways.

reduced variability in placement decisions and improved stability for children with the most complex needs.

Milestone: The SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework is being applied in practice across settings, with evidence from moderation and Qa activity that decisions at SEN Support and escalation points are consistently tested against a shared standard.

Sufficiency and Local Provision Expansion Sufficiency planning functions as an early‑warning and stress‑testing process. Multi‑year data on demand, placement stability, cost and travel is used to anticipate pressure points and adjust local capacity, reducing reliance on out‑of‑area or high‑cost placements driven by system gaps rather than complexity.

Specialist Provision Designation Review The Partnership will initiate a comprehensive review of specialist provision designation across Special Schools, ARBs and SEN Units, ensuring alignment between designation, cohort need and provision offer. This will include a systematic analysis of current designations, placement patterns and outcomes, identifying variation in how provision is defined and used across the system.

Additionally, the Partnership will progress the development of an additional Reception class at Keelman’s Way Mss (8 places), strengthening early capacity and reducing escalation later in the system.

By the end of this period, access to specialist support and local placements operates as a disciplined and learning system, where escalation is increasingly challenged, AP is applied deliberately across tiers, and the system can absorb pressure without repeated reactive response.

Implementation of agreed estate and sufficiency changes will begin, including the reconfiguration and co-location of specialist provision where this improves access, quality and sustainability. Repurposed sites and existing estate will be brought into use to expand local capacity, particularly for cohorts with complex needs and those requiring specialist Semh support.

The SEN Unit at Harton Academy will be expanded to include Key Stage 4, creating an additional 15 places for children and young people with complex autism and cognition and learning needs, supporting continuity through secondary education and reducing escalation at post‑KS3 transition points.

Activity in the first year will focus on establishing a robust evidence base, including:

• analysis of cohort need placement trends and demand projections
• review of how designation aligns to current pupil profiles and pathways
• engagement with education, health and care partners to test current designation and practice

The Primary Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) is relocated to ensure there is suitable capacity (physical and workforce) to expand and rebalance the local three-tier AP model. This enables clearer differentiation between short‑term intervention, stabilisation support and longer‑term provision, and creates headroom to support earlier, preventative use of AP rather than reactive placement. The relocation is explicitly linked to sufficiency analysis, travel considerations and the emerging AP taskforce model, ensuring that changes to estate directly support inclusion and system sustainability objectives.

The primary Semh provision developed in earlier years will be expanded from 15 places to 30 places, informed by evaluation of impact, placement stability and reintegration outcomes, ensuring growth reflects demonstrated need and value for money.

This will be supported by a structured methodology and stakeholder engagement process, ensuring that findings are validated and reflect both quantitative data and lived experience.

These developments will operate alongside school‑determined inclusion bases, commissioned SEN Units and AP, within a clearer, regulated continuum. Learning from Eah, Apst activity and sufficiency monitoring will continue to inform commissioning, workforce deployment and capital decisions.

The output of Year 1 will be a shared understanding of current strengths, variation and misalignment, alongside agreed principles for designation, placement pathways and sufficiency, forming the basis for system redesign in subsequent years. This results in clearer, shared understanding of cohort need and provision alignment, forming the basis for more consistent placement decisions and sufficiency planning.

The new Semh provisions will be positioned as part of a planned local pathway, working alongside AP, SEN Units and mainstream settings to ensure that children and young people are supported as close to home as possible wherever appropriate.

A reconfigured and more integrated estate will support a more efficient and sustainable pattern of provision, with specialist and mainstream capacity aligned to need and reduced reliance on out-of-area placements. Co-location and improved use of sites will enable stronger multidisciplinary working and improved access to local provision for children and young people.

Initial placements will be planned and phased, prioritising children and young people where local provision can meet need with greater stability than out- of-area placements. Transition planning will be supported through multi-agency working, ensuring that movement into local provision is safe, well-prepared and sustainable. This will begin to establish a clear and viable local alternative to high-cost out-of-area Semh placements.

Milestone: A validated evidence base is in place, demonstrating variation between designation, cohort need and placement patterns, with agreed principles for redesign endorsed through the Partnership.

Sufficiency and Local Provision Expansion Local sufficiency pressures reflect increasing demand at key transition points (including early years, Year 6/7 and post-16), rising need within Semh cohorts, and mismatch between mainstream capacity and complexity of need, resulting in placement instability and reliance on out-of-area provision. Planned

The relocated Primary PRU is fully operational. The PRU (primary and secondary) provides the capacity and flexibility required to respond earlier to emerging need and to manage flow through AP at all three tiers more effectively. Patterns of use, outcomes and reintegration associated with the relocated PRU are

Sufficiency monitoring becomes more intervention‑focused. Intelligence drawn from Eah, Apst and placement data is used to identify where local capacity is misaligned and to shape

expansion of SEN Units, inclusion bases and targeted Semh provision is directly aligned to these pressures, increasing local capacity where demand is highest and reducing reliance on reactive specialist placements.

commissioning and capital priorities before reliance on high‑cost or out‑of‑area placements increases. This leads to increased availability of local provision aligned to need, reducing reliance on out-of-borough placements and improving placement stability.

reviewed alongside Eah and taskforce data to inform ongoing commissioning, workforce and capital decisions.

Specialist Semh provisions will be fully operational and embedded within the local continuum of provision, providing a consistent and reliable local offer for children and young people with the highest level of need. Placement pathways into this provision will be clearly defined and consistently applied through governance, ensuring that access is needs-led, proportionate and aligned to system thresholds.

While these patterns are well understood at a system level, improving the accuracy and consistency of recorded primary need will be a priority in Year 1 to strengthen cohort-level sufficiency planning and improve alignment between recorded need and provision pathways to ensure that future commissioning and capital investment decisions are based on more precise and reliable system intelligence.

Milestone: New local provision is operational and being used for planned placements, with early evidence of reduced reliance on out-of-area placements at key transition points.

A greater proportion of children and young people previously placed out of area will be supported within local provision, with improved stability, reduced travel and stronger connection to local services, families and communities. Multi-year data on placement patterns, outcomes and cost will be used to evaluate impact, ensuring that the provision is contributing to reduced reliance on out-of-area placements and improved value for money.

A structured sufficiency monitoring process will operate alongside the SEND Provision Plan, using shared data on demand, placement patterns, costs, travel distance and transport costs and emerging pressures across mainstream, specialist and AP. This will support more proactive and coordinated decision- making, ensuring that capital investment and provision development are aligned to patterns of demand and reducing reliance on reactive, high-cost placements driven by gaps in local capacity.

Learning from the operation of the provision will be used to inform wider system design, including commissioning, workforce planning and expectations for therapeutic input across the continuum. Over time, this will contribute to a more planned, sustainable and locally deliverable system of support for children and young people with complex Semh needs.

Alongside strengthening access to specialist advice, the Partnership will begin targeted expansion of specialist provision within mainstream settings to reduce escalation to specialist placements and improve local capacity for children with more complex needs.

Milestone: Multi-year trends demonstrate a sustained shift towards local provision, with reduced reliance on out-of-area placements, improved placement stability and evidence of improved value for money.

This will include the expansion of an existing SEN Unit at Hedworthfield Thrive to extend provision for Key Stage 2 children and a new SEN Unit at Sea View. This will enable earlier, needs‑led support for children with complex autism and cognition and learning needs and reducing reliance on specialist placements where escalation is driven by gaps in local capacity rather than complexity of need. Travel impact will be assessed through analysis of distance to placement, transport costs and cohort distribution, with mitigation through increased local capacity, improved alignment of provision to postcode demand and use of independent travel training where appropriate.

The Partnership will begin structured engagement with schools and trusts to explore opportunities to expand specialist capacity within mainstream settings. This will include early discussions about the development of school commissioned inclusion bases, where settings choose to enhance their internal provision to meet needs without LA commissioned placements.

All inclusion bases and SEN Units will operate to a clear set of minimum expectations, including defined cohort focus, staffing and expertise, integration with mainstream provision and a commitment to placement stability and reintegration where appropriate. Provision will be subject to routine quality assurance, including performance review, alignment to the SEND In Mainstream Settings Framework and periodic review through partnership governance to ensure consistency, impact and value for money.

In addition, following the decision not to progress a previously planned primary Semh free school, the Partnership will explore the development of a smaller, targeted primary Semh provision. Activity will focus on engagement with schools and partners to identify suitable settings, clarify the intended cohort, and define the requirements for workforce, leadership, therapeutic input and integration with existing AP pathways. This work will establish feasibility and readiness, rather than commit to immediate designation or scale.

To further strengthen local capacity for children and young people with the highest level of Semh need, the Partnership will explore the introduction of specialist provision within the borough, providing a highly bespoke offer aligned to complex therapeutic and behavioural profiles. This will focus on children and young people currently placed out of borough where needs cannot yet be met locally. Engagement with the provider will establish the feasibility, cohort definition and delivery model, ensuring that provision is closely aligned to local need and integrated within the wider continuum of support. This will support planned repatriation of children and young people to local provision over time, reducing reliance on high- cost out-of-area placements and improving stability, continuity and connection to local services and communities.

Alongside this, the Partnership will undertake a strategic review of specialist provision and estate use, identifying opportunities to reconfigure and co-locate provision to better align capacity with cohort need. This will include consideration of how existing and underutilised sites can be repurposed to improve access to local provision and strengthen pathways for children with more complex needs.

Milestone: Sufficiency decisions are informed by shared data on demand, placement patterns and cost, with clear alignment between identified pressure points and planned expansion of local provision.

Building Block: Encouraging inclusive behaviours and cultures Enablers

SEND Clusters Inclusive culture and behaviours will be strengthened by establishing SEND clusters as the primary forum for shared learning, consistent practice and collective responsibility for inclusion, while ensuring strong safeguards and clarity before any devolved decision‑making is introduced.

SEND Clusters The focus shifts from shared learning to shared responsibility, through a phased and moderated introduction of devolved decision-making within SEND clusters.

SEND Clusters The SEND Clusters will extend beyond schools to include early years settings, Best Start Family Hubs and early help services, ensuring that shared expectations for inclusion, early identification and response to need are consistent across the 0–25 system.

• Clear thresholds for funding,

support and escalation to ensure resources are targeted to need rather than driven by confidence or crisis.

• Shared accountability for

funding decisions across the Lasp to reinforce collective responsibility for outcomes and value for money.

• Aligned resources wherever

possible to reduce duplication and enable earlier more coordinated support.

• Investment in mainstream,

Arb/SEN Unit and AP capacity to underpin confidence in inclusive, sustainable viability.

• Deployment of specialist

and outreach workforce (Eah / Apst) to build mainstream capability and reduce reliance on high‑cost, late‑stage interventions.

• Routine use of data on

outcomes, placement stability and cost to redirect funding towards interventions that prevent escalation.

• Forward-looking sufficiency

and cohort analysis to support planned investment rather than reactive spend on emergency placements.

• Governance arrangements

that routinely test whether spending decisions are improving inclusion, stability and outcomes.

Clusters begin to make collective, needs-led recommendations about the use of targeted resources, drawing on shared understanding of need and local context. This includes:

Cluster learning will be informed by early years intelligence and school readiness data, ensuring that inclusion is understood as a system-wide responsibility from the earliest stages.

SEND clusters will be formally established across the borough, with clear Terms of Reference, guidance and operating expectations agreed and published. These will set out purpose, membership, meeting cadence, links to governance and the distinction between cluster discussion, expert support and central decision‑making. The emphasis in this phase is on building trust, shared understanding and readiness, in line with stakeholder feedback that the model must be phased and confidence‑building. This responds to local variation in thresholds and practice identified through system engagement and maturity assessment insights. Clusters will also act as a key mechanism for promoting reform principles, including the graduated response, earlier intervention and shared thresholds, ensuring consistent understanding and application across settings.

• Prioritisation and targeting of Eah support,
• recommendations relating to Tier 2 of the AP model (with clear expectations that graduated approach is followed),
• and involvement in decisions about delegated funding to support inclusion.

SEND clusters operate with greater autonomy and confidence, holding delegated responsibility for defined funding and resource decisions, with decision- making consistently needs-led, transparent and aligned to shared frameworks, resulting in more consistent thresholds and reduced escalation across the system. Central oversight shifts from ratification to assurance, focusing on equity and impact rather than individual decisions.

All cluster recommendations are formally ratified by the local authority, ensuring equity across clusters, safeguarding against inconsistency and protecting the High Needs Block. This staged approach reflects feedback from schools about the importance of moderation, parity and transparency.

The SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework, Eah and Apst continue to act as core enablers of this model, ensuring cluster decisions remain grounded in evidence, early intervention and inclusive practice. Specialist expertise is used to build confidence and capability, not to justify escalation.

The Apst and Eah provide the specialist insight that underpins these decisions, ensuring that cluster discussions are grounded in evidence of what supports inclusion and prevents escalation, rather than opinion or confidence. This leads to more consistent application of thresholds and shared ownership of inclusion decision, reducing variation and escalation overtime.

In this first year:

• Clusters will operate as learning and peer support

forums only, with no devolved funding or child level decision making.

• Structured agendas and templates will support

discussion of need, thresholds and inclusive practice.

• Clusters will be used as a mechanism for sharing

effective practice, moderated discussion and collective problem solving.

Sendco networks and workforce development are oriented towards sustaining practice through workforce and leadership change, ensuring new SENDCOs and leaders enter a system with clear expectations, support and routes for challenge.

Sendco networks and workforce development increasingly focus on:

Escalation processes are trusted and routinely used. Concerns are typically resolved at the lowest appropriate level, with clear evidence of reduced reliance on crisis escalation to statutory escalation processes and greater consistency across clusters.

• professional challenge and constructive disagreement,
• difficult conversations within clusters,
• and sustaining proportional thresholds under pressure.

The SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework will underpin all cluster activity, providing a shared language for describing need, planning support and reviewing impact. This helps reduce variability in how inclusion is interpreted and applied across settings and supports needs led, proportionate thinking.

By this stage, inclusive culture and behaviours are embedded through shared accountability, not individual advocacy, with schools, services and partners operating with a common understanding of inclusion, improved confidence in local solutions and reduced reliance on high-cost, reactive interventions.

Joint training with health and care partners supports consistent multi-agency practice.

Sendco networks and workforce development activity will be aligned to the Cluster Model, focusing on:

Escalation routes are actively monitored. Data on where issues are resolved (setting, cluster or central) is reviewed through governance to ensure the model is operating fairly and as intended, with learning used to refine guidance and support.

• Application of the framework in practice,
• understanding escalation routes,
• and building confidence in early intervention and inclusive decision making.

Taken together, this results in more consistent, needs- led decision-making across the system, with reduced escalation to statutory processes, improved outcomes for children and young people and more efficient use of resources over time.

Milestone: Cluster recommendations are consistently applied and moderated, with evidence that decisions

Access to Eah will reinforce inclusive behaviours by providing timely, practical specialist input aligned to

cluster priorities. This supports a cultural shift away from risk averse escalation driven by uncertainty, towards earlier supported decision making.

about targeted support, AP use and delegated resource reflect shared thresholds and reduced variation across clusters.

Milestone: System data shows reduced variation between clusters, with consistent escalation patterns and increased resolution of need within mainstream provision evident across the borough.

Escalation methodology is clarified and communicated:

Specialist Provision Banding Review

Specialist Provision Banding Review

In the second year, the Partnership will move from review to redesign, using findings from the banding review to develop a consistent and transparent banding framework aligned to levels of need, provision expectations and outcomes. This will be undertaken collaboratively with education, finance, health and social care partners to ensure that the framework supports equitable decision-making, sustainable funding and improved system alignment.

• What should be addressed at setting level,
• what should be discussed through clusters (including consideration of Eah and Apst),
• and what requires central resolution.

In the third year, the revised banding framework will be embedded as the consistent mechanism for funding, decision-making and commissioning across specialist provision. The framework will operate as a transparent and equitable system tool, ensuring that funding, provision and pathways are aligned to need across the local area.

This results in increased shared understanding of need and thresholds across settings, supporting more consistent and proportionate decision-making over time.

Banding will be applied consistently across Special Schools, ARBs and SEN Units, with clear evidence that decision-making is more proportionate, transparent and aligned to agreed thresholds. Joint working with finance, health and social care partners will ensure that investment decisions support system priorities, including early intervention, inclusion and reduced reliance on high-cost placements.

The revised banding framework will: Milestone: Cluster activity demonstrates shared understanding of thresholds and inclusive practice, evidenced through moderated discussions, consistent use of the framework and reduced variation identified through Qa and engagement activity.

• define clear descriptors and thresholds linked to profiles of need and provision expectations
• strengthen consistency in how banding is applied across settings and services
• align funding more closely to need, improving transparency and value for money

Specialist Provision Banding Review

Alongside the review of specialist provision designation, the Partnership will commission an external provider to undertake a system-wide review of banding across Special Schools, ARBs and SEN Units. This will be delivered in collaboration with education, finance, health and social care partners to ensure a shared understanding of need, provision and cost across the system.

The banding framework will be integrated into sufficiency planning, commissioning and performance monitoring, ensuring that:

Implementation will begin through:

• piloting the revised banding framework across

selected cohorts, phases or provision types

• aligning placement decision-making processes to

the new banding structure

• embedding joint decision-making with finance,

health and social care partners to ensure shared accountability for outcomes and investment

• funding reflects patterns of need and outcomes
• variation in application is reduced and sustained over time
• system resources are directed toward provision that prevents escalation and improves stability

Activity in the first year will focus on establishing a robust evidence base and shared diagnostic understanding, including:

Ongoing monitoring and review will ensure that the framework remains responsive to emerging need, supporting a financially sustainable system that delivers equitable outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

Learning from implementation will be used to refine descriptors, thresholds and processes, ensuring that the model is deliverable, proportionate and aligned to system demand.

• analysis of current banding descriptors, thresholds

and funding arrangements and their alignment to levels of need

• review of consistency in how banding is applied

across settings and services

• assessment of how banding supports placement

decision-making, pathways and value for money

• joint analysis with finance, health and social care

partners to understand the relationship between need, provision and cost.

Milestone: Revised banding framework is actively used in testing and early implementation, with evidence of improved consistency in how funding and provision align to levels of need.

Milestone: Banding is applied consistently across all specialist settings, with clear evidence that funding decisions align to need, support equitable access and contribute to improved value for money.

This will be supported through structured engagement with schools, services, partners and families, ensuring that findings are triangulated across data, practice and lived experience.

Milestone: A system-wide diagnostic is completed and agreed, with clear evidence of variation in banding application, alignment to need and implications for funding and value for money.

Success measures These success measures are drawn from the Local SEND Reform Plan data template and wider system metrics, ensuring alignment with agreed national and local performance expectations.

SEND system leadership operates through consistent, transparent and evidence-informed partnership governance, evidenced by routine use of agreed governance processes (including performance reporting, action and risk tracking, and co-production inputs) to inform decision-making and drive agreed system actions.

Co-production is established as a measurable system standard, evidenced by at least 10 services and/or settings achieving a recognised co-production charter, alongside clear evidence that lived experience routinely informs governance decisions and leads directly to service development and improvement.

As a result of strengthened governance, co-production and earlier resolution processes, experience measures will improve over time, with increased confidence from families and reduced escalation to formal complaint and tribunal activity.

Co-production and lived experience are embedded and demonstrably influencing system delivery. This will be evidenced by a year-on-year increase of at least 50% in the number of services and settings achieving a recognised co-production charter, reaching a minimum of 25 by Year 3. There will also be a 50% increase (from baseline) in the number of governance decisions that explicitly reference the views of Cyp and parent carers. In addition, there will be a 30% increase in documented service improvements that can be directly attributed to lived experience input. This progress will be supported by routine “You said / we did” reporting.

The Eah model demonstrates measurable impact on escalation and stability, evidenced by at least 50% of Cyp accessing Eah who do not progress to Ehcna within two terms, a 30% reduction in the of number of statutory requests and referrals to specialist services from Reception and KS1 cohorts.

The Eah model is established as a defined, commissioned and governed system for early multidisciplinary support, evidenced by a clearly articulated operating model, implementation of a single access route, initial workforce mobilisation and early delivery commencing in line with agreed performance and reporting arrangements.

Sufficiency improvements are evidenced by increasing 20% of Annual Reviews for relevant cohorts including clear placement planning and next-step pathways, at least 5 Cyp with an identified return-to-local-provision plan and timeframe, and a 50% reduction in new placements requiring independent or out-of-borough provision as a result of the increase in the proportion of Cyp supported within local mainstream, Arb or specialist provision.

Sufficiency operates as a planned and intelligence-led system process, evidenced by the establishment of a consistent placement review and forward-planning approach, implementation of the banding review and designation work, and early delivery of additional local provision aligned to identified cohort need.

As a result of the strengthened graduated approach, earlier access to support and more consistent threshold application across settings, inclusion measures and placement patterns will improve over time.

SEND clusters are established and operating as consistent, locality-based forums for shared practice and collective responsibility, evidenced by regular participation from schools and routine use of structured discussion to share approaches, build confidence and support a more consistent response to need.

SEND clusters demonstrate measurable impact on consistency of practice and escalation pathways, evidenced by 75% of schools participating consistently, 200 Cyp or cohorts discussed through cluster forums, 30% of cases supported at SEN Support following discussion, resulting in a reduction in variation between clusters in escalation rates.

Attendance for pupils with SEND improves and is sustained, evidenced by attendance reaching 91% for pupils with SEN Support and EHCPs, alongside a reduction in severe absence to 3.5% for both cohorts, reflecting a continued downward trajectory from baseline levels.

The SEND In Mainstream Settings Framework is established as the shared foundation for workforce development and inclusive practice, evidenced by its routine use within cluster discussions to support professional dialogue, build confidence and promote greater consistency in how needs are identified, understood and supported.

Workforce capability and consistency of practice improve, evidenced by a 25% increase in confidence of practitioners to meet needs at SEN Support, ≥75% of schools engaging in framework-aligned training and moderation activity, and a reduction in variation in SEN Support practice identified through moderation and Qa processes.

Suspensions, exclusions and reduced timetables for pupils with SEND are reduced and sustained, evidenced by suspension rates reaching 3.50 per 100 for pupils with SEN Support and 10.00 per 100 for pupils with EHCPs. Permanent exclusion rates reducing to 0.60 (SEN Support) and 0.05 (EHCP). A 30% reduction in reduced timetables for Cyp with SEN with average duration ≤12 weeks, reflecting the impact of earlier intervention through Eah and the development of Apst and the wider AP offer.

Sufficiency improvements are evidenced by a shift in placement distribution towards local provision, reflecting the impact of stronger mainstream inclusion, earlier intervention and more consistent, needs-led decision-making across the system. Whilst demand continues to rise, this is reduced relative to historic trend projections (Appendix C), with ≥21.2% of Cyp supported in mainstream, 14.0% in Arb/SEN Units and reduced reliance on independent and non- maintained provision to ≤5.4%, alongside at least 5 Cyp successfully returning to local provision, reflecting

increased capacity and confidence in local mainstream and specialist pathways.

There is a 15% reduction in the number of children waiting for up to 26 weeks for an initial Speech & Language Therapy assessment. Waiting times for intervention across Salt and Ot services has reduced.

6. 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.

• initial dashboard pack

support shared visibility, challenge and more consistent, evidence- informed decision-making across the system.

Confirm representation and decision-making roles for education, health (Icb / therapy services) and social care within SEND governance arrangements.

processes, identifying gaps, inconsistencies and variation in data capture, with improvement actions tracked through governance.

timescale recorded and tracked.

the action/risk log for Year 2.

≥85–90% of actions completed on time or actively progressed.

≥60% of governance decisions explicitly reference dashboard or lived experience data.

≥80% completeness and consistency across core dashboard datasets, with data issues logged and tracked through governance.

Review data quality and usage through governance, using learning to improve datasets, reporting processes and confidence in data to inform Year 2 planning and decision-making, resulting in more accurate cohort-level intelligence supporting sufficiency planning, Eah deployment and capital investment decisions.

Further +10–15% increase (from baseline) in issues resolved without formal escalation.

Success measure: SEND governance forums are operating consistently to published Terms of Reference, with routine use of reform updates, action/risk logs and performance dashboards underpinned by accurate, consistent and timely data flows to inform decisions resulting in more consistent application of thresholds, earlier resolution of issues and reduced reactive decision-making. Co-production is structured through an agreed and published Charter, with evidence that lived experience is influencing system level decision making, service design and commissioning. Participation activity is routine rather than ad hoc, and “You said, we did / we didn’t / we are” feedback demonstrates increased transparency and trust in how the Partnership responds to feedback.

Provider block contracts will be disaggregated to clearly identify the Salt & Ot contract values delivering therapy to children and young people aged 0-25.

Ensure governance reporting explicitly references how system enablers, including Eah, SEND clusters and the SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework, are being used together to support earlier intervention and more consistent system response.

Reduction in proportion progressing to formal stages (e.g. Stage 2 / tribunal entry).

Implement the “written reform update” template (progress, highlights, risks) and introduce a single action/risk log structure used across both boards.

≥75% of governance cycles include multi- agency (education, health, social care) data and contribution.

Governance reports confirm reduced gaps/inconsistencies in key datasets, with improved confidence in data used to inform system-level decisions.

Quarterly dataflow will be in place from the Icb to Stc to effectively monitor the spend on Salt & Ot contracts.

Baseline established for:

Implement a decision log within governance reporting to record key decisions, the evidence used and resulting actions, supporting transparency and enabling learning from decision-making to improve consistency over time.

• complaints,

mediation and tribunal volumes (single dataset in place)

• where issues are

resolved (setting / service / escalation)

Publish at least one system-level “You said / we did / not yet” summary and evidence how it influenced decisions.

Implement transparent escalation and moderation process (what gets resolved where; how issues are recorded; how learning is applied).

Early impact on resolution pathways with increased proportion of issues raised resolved pre- escalation, reflecting more consistent and earlier decision- making across the system.

100% of governance papers include a co- production / lived experience section

Complete first annual Cyp survey cycle (or minimum viable cycle if timing requires) and summarise themes for governance.

Sendiass intelligence routinely reported and used in ≥75% of governance cycles.

Initial co-production baseline completed (self-assessment across partnership – % score or Rag position).

Launch participation mechanisms:

Define the initial dashboard pack including education, health (Salt/Ot/Ep where applicable), and social care data inputs (demand, attendance, exclusions, placements, workforce) with established baseline measures for data completeness, consistency and timeliness across partners and agree data owners and reporting cadence enabling more

1 system-level “You said / we did” publication influencing a recorded decision.

• Draft Cyp

annual survey questions and distribution plan,

• 14+ Annual

Review question set finalised for aggregation,

• “Micro-

feedback” prompts issued to schools for routine events,

• Targeted

engagement plan for Early Years and PfA cohorts

Participation reach established with Cyp survey issued and ≥30% of schools/settings using micro-feedback prompts at least once.

Agree the Year-2 refinement priorities based on live evidence (dashboard + lived experience).

≥70% attendance across core partners (including education, health, Pcf).

30–40% of issues raised supported through Sendiass advice or early resolution do not progress to formal escalation within 3 months.

Baseline established for stakeholder understanding and confidence, with initial engagement activity reaching ≥25–30% of schools/settings or partners.

Begin implementation of the Charter, focusing on real‑world use rather than compliance.

≥60–70% of schools/settings have been exposed to or engaged with key messaging on the graduated response, Oap and routes to support.

Introduce a light‑touch quality or assurance mechanism, for example a quality

≥80–90% of schools/settings and partners are consistently receiving and engaging with

Initial communication approach in place, with early co-

consistent, evidence- informed decision- making and improved identification of emerging system pressures.

produced messaging tested and used across at least one system forum in each sector (education, health, families).

Begin “You said / we did / not yet” reporting format and schedule.

Early evidence of improved clarity and consistency, with feedback showing increased understanding of pathways and thresholds across education and partners.

mark or self- assessment framework.

aligned messaging, supported through clusters, networks and governance.

Review how the charter is being applied and identify refinements needed for year 2.

Publish the final Co-production Charter, alongside clear guidance on what the Charter means in practice for services, decision- makers, Cyp and families.

Demonstrable improvement in stakeholder confidence and understanding, evidenced through engagement data and feedback, with early signs of more consistent use of pathways and reduced variability in interpretation of thresholds.

Undertake a self- assessment against an agreed co- production standard, developed with the Parent Carer Forum and children and young people. This will establish a shared baseline for co-production across the system and identify priority improvement actions, which will be monitored through partnership governance and refreshed over time.

Use Sendiass intelligence to identify system themes (e.g. delay, escalation, inconsistency), with actions agreed through governance and tracked to resolution.

Ensure that the Charter is implemented within governance templates and paper requirements, commissioning and service redesign processes, guidance for workstreams and clusters.

Embed communication as a routine element of system delivery across partners.

Use lived experience and case examples to reinforce needs- led practice.

Establish a consistent approach to capturing activity and intelligence from health and social care services alongside Sendiass and Pcf regarding themes from advice, complaints and mediation. Agree how this insight will be routinely reported through partnership governance alongside performance and sufficiency data.

Draft the Co‑production Charter and rules of engagement, building from existing feedback, Improvement Plan actions and SEND Reform principles.

Align communication with governance reporting (e.g. “You said, we did”) to demonstrate impact.

Assess improvements in stakeholder understanding and confidence.

Undertake targeted engagement on the draft (parents/carers, Pcf, Cyp groups, professionals, schools) to test clarity, expectations and feasibility.

Agree targeted communication priorities for Year 2 based on system learning.

Deliver co-produced communication across settings and partner organisations.

Define how co‑production will be evidenced in practice, including expectations for governance, service redesign proposals

Roll out clear messaging on Oap,

stage, providing schools with clearer routes to early targeted advice and shared learning, resulting in earlier identification of need, more consistent application of thresholds and reduced escalation to statutory pathways, while capacity and decision-making remain centrally held. Clear pathways will be in place to allow for escalation into specialist services as required. This will be supported by deployment of workforce through Eah, including Salt/Ot, Ep and advisory roles delivering training, triage, group-based and individual support within settings. Success measure: A clearly articulated Eah model is in place with a single access route understood by settings, and early deployment underway where workforce capacity allows, resulting in more consistent and equitable access to multidisciplinary support and earlier intervention at SEN Support. Demand, access and timeliness are routinely reviewed through governance to support equitable use. A structured sufficiency monitoring process is operating alongside the SEND Provision Plan, giving the Partnership earlier visibility of pressure points and informing proactive planning, rather than reactive high-cost placement decisions. There is improved timely access to specialist services.

Central Neighbourhood Team (Nenc Icb)

A Mou between Stc and the Nenc Icb will be in place, with contracting activity taking place to amend the existing Icb contractual arrangements with Stsft to enable delivery. This will ensure a consistent, needs-led approach to accessing multidisciplinary expertise across all settings.

(monthly reporting into governance).

Start phased recruitment/secondm ents (where feasible) of EPs, Ep Assistants, Salt/Ot Therapists and Therapies Assistants to expand delivery beyond initial consultation and advice, increasing capacity for targeted and group-based intervention as workforce becomes available.

Psychology and Therapy services.

capacity from Salt/Ot and Ep recruitment.

Evidence of increased staff confidence in supporting Slcn, informed by pre- and post-training feedback.

Workforce mobilisation started with recruitment activity commenced for priority roles (Salt/Ot/Ep).

≥40-50% of mainstream settings have accessed Eah.

Map existing and EAH-delivered therapy provision, identifying gaps and informing workforce deployment, commissioning and sufficiency planning.

Mixed delivery model in place (initial delivery through existing capacity, with expanding contribution from newly recruited or seconded Salt/Ot and Ep workforce).

≥50% of settings have accessed Eah.

Phased delivery of the Eah model has been initiated using existing system capacity, with further expansion dependent on recruitment of Salt/Ot and Ep workforce. with clear alignment to the single access route and governance arrangements.

Median referral to first contact within 10-15 days.

Use cluster feedback and workforce confidence data to refine training, intervention and workforce deployment priorities.

Recruitment and commissioning have expanded Salt/Ot and Ep capacity, enabling a balanced model of consultation/advice and targeted intervention.

Equity of access is actively manged via monitoring of request distribution and adjusted via triage.

Establish an Eah Oversight Group, defined reporting routes into the SEND reform workstream and Lasp governance, and alignment with clinical / professional governance and contract management arrangements).

Deploy Salt leads into cluster meetings to identify training needs and support priorities across settings.

Review Eah themes, demand and early impact signals via governance to understand where early intervention is reducing escalation and where further system strengthening is required.

All Eah requests are categorised and evidenced.

Develop and publish a therapy training offer aligned to identified needs, including workforce training and group- based intervention approaches.

A proportion of (~20- 30%) of EAH- supported cases do not progress to statutory assessment or placement change within two terms, demonstrating earlier resolution of need without escalation to statutory assessment or placement change.

Baseline established for placement pathways and escalation activity.

Median referral to first contact time established.

An initial cohort of Cyp (20) identified through early placement review / Annual Review processes where needs could potentially be met in local provision.

A proportion of cases (~10-15%) supported through Eah do not progress to statutory assessment or placement change within 3 months.

Design and document a single access route (clearly aligned to the graduated response and existing referral pathways) including triage principles, referral template, admin coordination and core, monitoring fields (demand, timeliness and outcomes) alongside defined links to early years, Best Start / Family Hub and early help pathways as part of early identification and access routes resulting in more consistent and

Refine access criteria, triage processes and expectations for use, and confirm Year 2 scaling plan, including workforce deployment and commissioning priorities informed by Eah activity.

Establish competency framework for Therapy Assistants to deliver group- based support within settings.

Agreed multi-agency representation in place (education, health and social care).

Apst operating model agreed and signed off through governance.

Use early Eah data to monitor equity of access (avoiding disproportionate use by the most proactive settings) and adjust triage rules and expectations for use where required.

Year 2 delivery plan agreed including workforce deployment, capacity assumptions and integrations with clusters and Eah.

Training offer (therapies and education) published and accessed by settings.

Confirm Apst model, workforce and delivery arrangements are in place and ready for scaled implementation in Year 2.

Cluster-informed training needs identified and

Establish operational arrangements aligned to Eah delivery, with early

Clear articulation of how Apst will support escalation

Test proposed Apst operational

transparent access to specialist advice and reducing variation in how settings access support.

consideration of interfaces with wider SEND and AP pathways.

mapped across priority year groups.

processes on a limited basis where capacity allows, focusing on learning and refinement rather than volume.

pathways and AP usage.

A proportion of Cyp within the pipeline (10) have progressed to defined next-step planning.

30% of Annual Reviews discuss phase transfer transition planning and future provision.

Begin structured engagement with AP providers, schools and partners to develop the AP offer, including clarity on cohort, pathways and integration with mainstream and targeted provision.

Complete workforce modelling and recruitment assumptions, acknowledging national workforce shortages and that delivery will be phased, initially utilising existing capacity, prioritising consultation, advice and system strengthening activity, with incremental expansion as Salt/Ot and Ep workforce recruitment is secured.

Define the Alternative Provision Support Team Apst model, including scope, purpose, cohort focus ensuring alignment with Eah, SEND clusters and Semh pathways to support earlier, coordinated intervention and reduce escalation to AP.

≥20% of Annual Reviews include structured consideration of transition, reintegration or next steps.

5 Cyp have progressed to confirmed transition plans to appropriate local provision.

An identified cohort of Cyp with planned next steps and timelines is tracked through governance.

Consider operational arrangements aligned to Eah delivery, with early consideration of interfaces with wider SEND and AP pathways.

Pipeline used in governance discussions about sufficiency.

Families and settings experience clearer forward planning, with evidence from survey responses indicating that there is a clearer direction and next steps for the Cyp.

Develop a detailed Apst operating model, including multi‑agency roles (education, health and social care), case discussion approach, interfaces with existing AP pathways and governance arrangements.

Implement proactive placement planning within Annual Reviews for identified cohorts, ensuring consistent use of the placement planning template and recording of next-step pathways.

A coordinated recruitment and mobilisation approach will be implemented, including alignment to national workforce constraints and phased deployment based on available capacity.

Develop a service specification and initiate procurement or commissioning activity (where required) to secure delivery of the Apst model.

Establish a ‘return pipeline’ of Cyp with current provision, target provision, indicative timescales and preparatory actions.

Establish a consistent “proactive placement planning” approach aligned to Annual Reviews, including development of a standardised process and template capturing current placement, target

Use sufficiency monitoring and to inform review of cases and identify opportunities for earlier intervention or alternative pathways.

Undertake review of current AP usage, cohort profiles and demand patterns to inform future AP development and alignment to sufficiency planning.

Begin reporting through governance on placement

Develop an agreed plan for

deliberately to identify reintegration opportunities, plan transitions at phase transfer points and establish a forward pipeline for local provision, with learning feeding directly into sufficiency planning.

thresholds, consistent language), using moderation and case discussion to build confidence in earlier, proportionate support and reduce variation in practice.

Designation review commissioned, with provider appointed or procurement underway.

thresholds, escalation decisions, request for statutory processes) and target support accordingly.

sessions completed across education, health and care partners.

to identified areas of variation to strengthen consistency in application of the graduated response.

validated with system partners.

Final designation review report produced, including clear recommendations and implementation roadmap.

Evidence of multi- agency participation in workshops and engagement activity.

Agreed methodology and inception plan signed off through governance.

Use the SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework alongside Eah and SEND clusters to ensure that needs identified through moderation and case discussion are responded to through timely access to multidisciplinary support, reinforcing consistent thresholds across the system.

Ensure the framework is referenced within Eah discussions, cluster activity and placement planning processes to support a consistent understanding of need across the system.

Undertake a system- wide review and validation of primary need data across education, health and care datasets, establishing consistent recording practices and improving accuracy of cohort-level intelligence to inform sufficiency planning, commissioning and capital investment decisions.

Emerging findings developed and shared with governance for review.

Baseline dataset established covering designation, cohort characteristics and placement trends.

Evidence of co- produced recommendations (education, health, social care input).

Sufficiency monitoring, ≥1 full pack presented through governance with actions/decisions recorded.

Initial analysis completed and reported to governance.

Recommendations formally received through governance and used to inform Year 2 planning.

Produce draft findings report, including strengths and areas of variation in current designation, (mis)alignment between designation and cohort need and implications for placement pathways and sufficiency.

Sufficiency monitoring pack defined and signed off with agreed reporting cadence through governance.

Sufficiency monitoring, ≥2 packs delivered across the year and used to set Year 2 priorities with recorded decisions.

Undertake detailed quantitative analysis of alignment between designation and pupil need, placement pathways and decision-making process and sufficiency against projected demand.

Initiate procurement and commissioning process to appoint a delivery partner for the specialist provision designation review, aligned to the agreed specification and outcomes.

Hedworthfield Thrive KS2 and Sea View SEN Unit Sla agreed and signed off.

Year 2 expansion programme agreed through governance with named leads, indicative timelines and dependencies.

Facilitate validation sessions with partners to test findings and refine recommendations.

Primary Semh and independent specialist Semh: feasibility scope agreed and initial provider/setting conversations initiated.

Delivery structured engagement with stakeholders, including specialist provision and mainstream leadership, education, health and care partners, parent/carer representatives.

Qa/Monitoring approach agreed and scheduled with at least one cycle of Qa completed for all ARBs / SEN Units.

Develop and agree a detailed review methodology and implementation plan (inception phase), including scope, milestones, datasets required and stakeholder engagement approach.

Develop final report and implementation framework developed outlining proposed designation principles, recommended changes to provision alignment and links to sufficiency, commissioning and capital planning.

Facilitate workshops to test current designation and practice, explore variation in thresholds and use of provision and triangulate data with

Undertake initial desktop review and baseline analysis including current designations across special schools,

Final report and recommendations informing year 2

ARBs and SEN Units, cohort need and placement patterns, demand trends and sufficiency pressures.

lived experience and professional insight.

delivery and system redesign developed.

Run the sufficiency monitoring process routinely (at least one full cycle), using it to identify immediate pressure points and set Year 2 priorities.

Confirm Year 2 provision expansion plan.

Complete and sign off through governance the minimum expectations and Qa approach for ARBs / SEN Units including how they will be monitored, what data will be reviewed and how underperformance and escalation is managed through governance.

Establish data requirements and begin collation of relevant datasets (education, health and care) to support quantitative analysis.

Define monitoring approach for new/expanded SEN Units/inclusion bases (e.g., performance review and alignment to framework; governance reporting points).

Stand up the structured sufficiency monitoring process alongside the SEND Provision Plan, defining the pack contents and reporting cadence, using shared data on demand, placement patterns, costs, travel distance/transport costs, and emerging pressures across mainstream, specialist and AP.

Specialist Semh provision shortlist setting options, cohort definition, workforce / leadership / therapeutic model requirements and pathway integration.

Complete feasibility outputs for Semh provision with indicative costs and implementation requirements.

Specialist Semh cohort definition agreed and outline integration within local continuum.

Begin structured engagement with schools/trusts to scope “school‑commissione d inclusion bases” opportunities (identify likely candidate settings, indicative cohorts, and what support/Qa would be required).

.

Finalise detailed planning for Year 1 provision expansion, including design and readiness activity for Hedworthfield Thrive KS2 expansion and Sea View SEN Unit

(cohort definition, staffing model, integration with mainstream and timeline for delivery).

Workstream 4: Encouraging inclusive behaviours and cultures Outcome: SEND clusters are embedded as trusted forums for shared learning and collective responsibility, supported by clear safeguards, aligned workforce development and consistent escalation routes. Success measure: SEND clusters are established across the borough with agreed Terms of Reference, operating as learning and peer-support forums only. Common frameworks, structured agendas and aligned workforce development support consistent inclusive practice and professional confidence, while Eah provides timely specialist input to reduce risk-averse escalation. Escalation routes are clearly understood and used appropriately, and readiness criteria for phased devolution of responsibility in Year 2 are agreed.

Andy Ritchie, Head of SEND, Access & Inclusion (Stc)

Establish the Cluster Model Task & Finish Group and codesign the Phase 1 operating pack (ToR, membership expectations, meeting cadence, agendas / templates).

Cluster model designed with agreed expectations for participation, escalation routes and decision boundaries.

Launch Phase 1 clusters (learning/peer support only; no devolved funding or child-level decision-making).

70% of settings attend cluster meetings consistently across the term.

Review cluster participation, equity and workload impact; refine templates and support offer accordingly.

85% of settings attending clusters regularly (maintained or improved from Q3).

60 Cyp / cohorts discussed through cluster forums.

Reduction in proportion of cases escalating beyond cluster discussion compared to Q2 baseline.

Baseline established for how decisions are currently made across the system, including:

Establish proposed readiness criteria and safeguards for Phase 2 (moderated recommendations on resource targeting), aligned to governance.

Use structured agendas/templates to support moderated discussion of thresholds, inclusive practice and emerging patterns of need.

100% of cases discussed have clearly recorded actions with named ownership.

Settings engaged in Task & Finish design activity or early cluster mobilisation activity.

• proportion of

cases escalated beyond setting level

• routes through

which escalation occurs (informal/formal/ statutory).

Reduction in variation between clusters/settings in escalation patterns (compared to Q2 baseline).

100% of actions are shared with settings within an agreed timeframe (e.g. 5–10 working days).

Document learning and priorities to carry into 2027/28, including how cluster activity has influenced system thresholds, escalation patterns and workforce priorities.

Ensure design addresses feedback and aligns to governance expectations, escalation routes and agreed system thresholds.

Align Eah input to cluster priorities, ensuring cluster discussions inform Eah deployment and reduce duplication between system processes.

Aggregated feedback demonstrates that cluster advice and guidance is contributing to improved outcomes for individual Cyp and cohorts, including clearer next steps, earlier support and reduced need for escalation.

A proportion of cases discussed at cluster level (30%) are supported without escalation to central or statutory processes (within 3 months).

Banding review scope and methodology agreed and signed off through governance.

Align cluster approach with SEND In Mainstream Settings Framework as the common language for need/threshold discussion.

Undertake detailed analysis of banding application, including consistency of banding decisions across similar cohorts, alignment between banding level and recorded need and relationship between banding and provision type.

Produce draft banding review findings outlining strengths/areas for development in current framework., areas of inconsistency in application and implications for funding, equity and placement decision- making.

Baseline analysis completed for banding distribution across settings and variation in allocation patterns.

Detailed analysis completed identifying variation in banding allocation across settings and (mis)alignment between need and banding level.

Findings of banding review completed and validated through stakeholder engagement.

Align Sendco networks and workforce development support to Phase 1 cluster operation.

Data pack established for banding analysis (education + financial datasets in place).

Proposed banding framework produced and agreed through governance.

6 stakeholder engagement sessions completed with partners.

Undertake qualitative review through stakeholder engagement with education, finance, commissioning, health and care partners.

Initiate banding review as part of the commissioned designation and banding work, confirming scope relating to banding descriptors,

Develop a proposed revised banding framework including clearer descriptors linked to levels of need, aligned thresholds across

Year 2 implementation plan agreed including approach to roll out and links to

Emerging findings presented to governance including key variation themes

7. 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 enabled through clear governance, sufficient delivery capacity and strengthened data and analytics capability, embedded within existing partnership arrangements, supporting more consistent and timely decision-making and enabling earlier identification and response to system pressures.

Capacity has been reviewed against the scale and sequencing of Year 1 activity. Roles, responsibilities and additional resource have been aligned to ensure delivery is achievable and reportable on a quarterly basis but also, to maximise alignment with wider system transformation programmes, including Best Start in Life and Families First. This will support in reducing duplication and streamlining delivery across the partnership, ensuring that resource is directed towards activity that strengthens early intervention and reduces escalation.

Oversight will sit within established SEND governance, operating to published ToR and supported through routine reform updates, a single action and risk log and shared performance dashboards to track progress, manage dependencies and respond to emerging risks, ensuring that performance and system intelligence are used to challenge variation, prioritise activity and enable earlier resolution of issues. Delivery is coordinated through existing programme and project management capacity within Children’s Services, including dedicated oversight through the SEND Improvement function, which manages workstreams, milestones, interdependencies and delivery risks, ensuring alignment across workstreams and timely identification of issues where delivery or system pressures require adjustment. Dedicated operational leadership will be in place to oversee delivery of Eah and wider transformation activity, ensuring day-to-day coordination, system alignment and clear accountability for implementation across workstreams, and consistent implementation across settings aligned to clusters, workforce deployment and early intervention pathways.

This capacity is strengthened through transformation funding, which provides additional project delivery resource and access to specialist technical expertise, including commissioning support for the Specialist Provision Designation and Banding Review. This ensures that complex reform activity can be delivered alongside business-as-usual pressures, with capacity targeted to areas of greatest delivery risk and dependency. Within the Eah model, clinical leadership will be provided through commissioned health partners, including Stsft, ensuring professional oversight, quality assurance and alignment with therapy pathways. Additional recruitment is required to ensure we have a robust and functioning offer. This will be complemented by education-facing roles to strengthen relationships with schools, support implementation of interventions and ensure consistent application of the graduated response in practice. While this provides a viable starting position, long-term sustainability will depend on the progressive realignment of commissioning arrangements and reinvestment of resources released through reduced escalation to specialist and high-cost provision. The Partnership will review funding sufficiency and sustainability annually through joint commissioning arrangements with the Icb to ensure the model remains deliverable within available resources.

Data and analytics capability will be strengthened from an existing baseline through the development and routine use of a shared partnership dashboard, improved data quality and consistent data flows across partners, supporting more accurate and consistent system intelligence, including improved confidence in cohort-level data to inform sufficiency planning, commissioning and investment decisions. Dedicated analytical capacity will support the production of insight, performance reporting and quarterly returns, ensuring that data is actively used to inform decision-making and adjust delivery in response to emerging pressures. This will include alignment of data and intelligence from key delivery partners, including 0–19 services, Mental Health Support Teams (Mhst) and wider early help services, ensuring that decision-making reflects a whole-system view of need and provision.

While Year 1 includes significant activity, delivery is prioritised towards establishing the core system disciplines and infrastructure required for sustained reform. Activity will be sequenced and adjusted through governance to ensure delivery remains achievable and aligned to workforce and system capacity. Key risks relating to workforce capacity, data integration and system readiness are recognised within the partnership risk framework, with mitigations including phased implementation, prioritisation and use of external expertise where required. To underpin this approach a key communication strategy will be co-produced with parent carers and partners to ensure we build trust in this new approach and parents are assured that their child's needs will be supported across all education settings.

8. Other funding Local Authorities.

Block Transfers: above 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.

The local area has agreed a transfer from the Schools Block to the High Needs Block.

This funding will be used in a targeted way to strengthen system capacity to meet need earlier and more consistently within mainstream education. It will support workforce development and the consistent application of the SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework, improving confidence and reducing variation in how needs are identified, assessed and supported across settings.

The transfer will also support the establishment and facilitation of SEND clusters, enabling shared problem-solving, earlier decision-making and increased consistency in how needs are responded to across the system. This will help schools to hold and plan for need more effectively, increasing the proportion of needs met at SEN Support and reducing reliance on reactive escalation to statutory assessment or specialist placements.

A proportion of the funding will be used to provide non-statutory, short-term targeted support for children and young people requiring exceptional provision, where needs cannot be met through universal and targeted support alone but do not require immediate escalation to statutory intervention. This will support placement stability and enable needs to be met without escalation where appropriate.

Overall, this approach ensures that funding is directed towards strengthening inclusive practice, improving consistency and enabling earlier intervention, with a clear focus on reducing demand for high-cost and specialist provision over time and improving the sustainability of the High Needs Block.

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.

South Tyneside will use high needs capital funding to place inclusion at the core of its sufficiency and place planning strategy, responding directly to rising demand for EHCPs, particularly for autism, cognition and learning, and Semh needs. Forecasts indicate sustained growth across all phases, with the most significant pressures at Early Years–KS1 and KS2–3 transition and within secondary Semh cohorts. These pressures are reflected in increasing reliance on specialist and out-of-area placements and limited mainstream capacity to meet need locally. Capital investment is therefore targeted to increase local mainstream capacity in these areas and reduce reliance on specialist provision.

Capital funding will prioritise the expansion of ARBs and SEN Units in phases and need areas where sufficiency gaps are most acute. The SEND Provision Plan sets out a clear trajectory to increase Arb/SEN Unit capacity across early years, primary, secondary and post-16 provision, aligned to demographic forecasting and placement analysis. This includes targeted expansion of primary and secondary provision to address transition pressure points and specific cohorts of need, including autism, cognition and learning and Semh, alongside early years development to support inclusive environments from the earliest stages and reduce later demand for statutory and specialist provision

This reflects a cohort-based approach in which a growing proportion of children with autism, speech, language and communication needs and emerging Semh needs can be supported within mainstream and resource base provision, while specialist placements remain focused on a smaller group of children with complex and enduring needs requiring highly specialised provision.

The Partnership is working collaboratively with maintained schools, early years providers, colleges and multi academy trusts to identify suitable sites and develop high-quality inclusion bases. This includes early engagement to define cohort focus, integration with mainstream provision, workforce requirements and quality assurance expectations, ensuring that provision is needs-led, sustainable and consistently delivered across the system. This approach supports the trajectory that all children and young people who require an inclusion base place can access one locally over time. This includes a more strategic approach to estate planning across the system, ensuring that decisions about site use, expansion and development are aligned to sufficiency analysis, cohort need and long-term sustainability.

While specialist provision remains essential for children and young people with the most complex needs, current patterns demonstrate disproportionate reliance on special schools and independent/non-maintained provision. Where additional specialist capacity is required, proposals will be supported by a clear rationale demonstrating why needs cannot be met through inclusive mainstream or resource base provision and how investment supports long-term system sustainability. This will include opportunities to reconfigure and co-locate specialist provision where this strengthens quality, workforce sustainability and access, enabling a more flexible and integrated use of expertise across sites. This approach ensures that specialist capacity is organised around cohort need and system sustainability, rather than historic arrangements, and supports more consistent delivery of high-quality provision.

Capital planning will maximise use of the existing estate, including opportunities arising from falling rolls and the repurposing or rehabilitation of vacant or underused sites to meet identified areas of need. This will include adapting mainstream settings and specialist environments to improve accessibility, provide flexible learning environments, and develop sensory-informed and therapeutic spaces. This will improve the suitability of mainstream environments and enable settings to meet a wider range of needs.

All capital investment is informed by sufficiency analysis, placement data and travel impact metrics, with a clear focus on reducing travel distances, transport costs and reliance on distant placements. South Tyneside’s compact geography and place-based approach support more localised, accessible provision contributing to improved outcomes and more efficient use of resources. This includes ensuring that estate configuration supports efficient service delivery, reduces duplication and enables better integration of specialist and mainstream provision.

Innovative use of capital, including assistive technology and digital solutions, will also be explored where this strengthens inclusive practice and supports earlier intervention.

9. 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.

Delivery of the Local SEND Reform Plan will be underpinned by structured, ongoing engagement and co-production across the full local SEND system, ensuring that partners share ownership of reform and that change is implemented collaboratively and sustainably. Engagement and co-production operate through a single, coordinated model across the partnership, bringing together children and young people, parents and carers, schools, early years providers, post-16 settings and partners through aligned engagement routes. This ensures that feedback is gathered systematically, triangulated with performance data and used consistently to inform decision-making, service design and system priorities.

This will be supported by a strong, co-produced communication approach that underpins all elements of the reform programme. This will include the use of real experiences and lived voices from children, young people and families, alongside education and professional partners, to articulate how meeting need earlier and more effectively leads to improved outcomes. This approach will reinforce shared understanding of inclusion, build confidence across the system and support a cultural shift away from escalation-based thinking towards a more consistent focus on needs-led support and positive outcomes.

Schools, early years settings, alternative provision and further education providers are engaged as core system partners, not consultees, with defined roles, expectations and routes for influence. Headteachers, SENDCOs and trust leaders are actively involved through established governance forums, SEND clusters, Sendco networks and targeted engagement activity linked to key workstreams, including Eah, inclusion base development and alternative provision reform. This includes structured engagement with early years providers and post-16 settings, including those attended by South Tyneside children and young people outside the borough, ensuring that system design reflects the full 0–25 education landscape.

As roles and responsibilities evolve in line with the Schools White Paper, engagement focuses on shared accountability for inclusion, clearer expectations of mainstream provision and collective problem solving. SEND clusters are a key mechanism for this transition, providing a structured, moderated forum for shared learning in Year 1, before progressing to shared responsibility and delegated decision making in later phases.

Health and social care partners, including the Icb and commissioned providers, are engaged through the Local Area SEND Partnership (Lasp) and aligned operational groups. Joint training, shared data and coordinated service development support consistent multi-agency practice, particularly in relation to early intervention, Semh and preparation for adulthood. Alternative provision providers are engaged through both the AP framework and targeted development discussions to strengthen local capacity and reduce escalation to high-cost placements.

Co-production is embedded as a system expectation, not an optional activity. The partnership is implementing a Co-production Charter, setting out clear principles, roles and expectations for involvement. The Parent Carer Forum is represented within governance structures and provides regular challenge and insight, with evidence that this directly informs governance decisions, service design and commissioning priorities. Formal responses are published using a transparent “You said, we did / not yet” approach and used as part of wider communication to demonstrate impact and build trust.

Children and young people’s voices are captured through multiple, routine mechanisms, including an annual survey, structured capture through 14+ Annual Reviews, targeted engagement with priority cohorts, and accessible feedback routes embedded in everyday activity. This ensures children and young people’s views inform both individual planning and system-level priorities. Qualitative feedback is routinely reviewed alongside performance data through governance to inform prioritisation, decision making and service adjustment.

The partnership recognises that reform involves changes to roles, responsibilities and ways of working. Transition is managed through phased implementation, clear communication, workforce development and moderation, reducing risk and building confidence. Governance forums provide oversight to ensure equity, consistency and clarity as responsibilities evolve.

Across the North East, we will work collectively, using the strength of our established regional partnership to drive consistent, high-quality support for children and young people with SEND. Through strong collaboration between local authorities, education, health and care partners, we will share learning, align approaches and deliver at scale to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities. By working regionally where it adds most value, we will accelerate improvement, strengthen local delivery, and create a more coherent and sustainable system for children, young people and their families.

Department for Education engagement will be used to reinforce shared accountability and confidence during early implementation, particularly through engagement with education leaders, trust boards and Parent Carer Forum representatives, supporting consistent messaging and collective ownership across the system.

10. 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.

11. 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

The delivery of South Tyneside’s SEND Reform Plan is closely interdependent with several national and local reforms across health, local government, social care and early years. These reforms create both opportunities and risks which will be actively managed through partnership governance, integrated planning and aligned delivery.

Within the NHS, ongoing pathway development across the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board provides an opportunity to align health delivery more closely with SEND reform priorities. This includes aligning therapy, paediatric and wider health pathways with the Eah model, enabling clearer, more consistent and fluid access to multidisciplinary support and supporting a shift from referral-led models to more integrated, needs0led and locality-based expertise. The development of Neighbourhood Health models and multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) will further strengthen this approach in practice, bringing together health, education and community services at a locality level. This will support earlier identification of need, more coordinated responses across services, and more consistent access to support without reliance on fragmented or referral-led pathways. Health practitioners will operate more closely alongside schools, clusters and early help services, enabling timely consultation, shared decision-making and more integrated delivery of support. Partnership working remains strong, with health colleagues actively engaged across governance and delivery structures, ensuring that pathway design, workforce planning and commissioning are aligned to the graduated response and early intervention priorities.

At a local authority level, strengthened and stabilised leadership provides improved capacity to drive reform delivery at pace. Permanent senior leadership appointments and refined governance arrangements are enabling stronger oversight, clearer accountability and more consistent decision-making. This improved leadership grip will be essential in maintaining delivery momentum and ensuring SEND reform remains central to wider system transformation.

Reforms to children’s social care, including the implementation of Families First and locality-based Family Help models, present a significant opportunity to strengthen early intervention. SEND pathways will be aligned with these reforms to enable earlier identification of need, coordinated support and consistent thresholds across education, health and care. This will support a shift away from fragmented responses, reducing duplication between services and ensuring families experience a single, coordinated plan.

The Best Start in Life agenda, including the development of Family Hubs, is a key enabler of the SEND reform strategy. Best Start Family Hubs and inclusion practitioners will form a core part of the early identification system, enabling earlier recognition of emerging needs and coordinated support prior to school entry. This will support improvements in school readiness, with the proportion of children achieving a Good Level of Development acting as a leading indicator of system effectiveness. Strengthening early identification in this way reduces the likelihood of needs emerging later at greater complexity, supporting improved outcomes and reducing long-term demand on statutory and specialist services. The development of Neighbourhood Health models will further strengthen this approach, aligning paediatric and health input more closely with SEND clusters and enabling earlier identification and coordinated response to emerging needs.

The national Curriculum and Assessment Review may influence expectations of inclusive teaching, assessment and curriculum flexibility. The partnership will ensure that local approaches, including the SEND in Mainstream Settings Framework, remain aligned to emerging national expectations, supporting consistent and inclusive practice across all settings.

Across all these dependencies, the partnership will maintain active oversight through governance, shared data and regular review cycles. This will enable early identification of delivery risks, proactive adaptation of plans and sustained alignment between wider system reform and local SEND priorities, ensuring that delivery remains coordinated, effective and focused on improving outcomes for children and families.

Section 3 – Monitoring and Evaluation

12. 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.

Delivery of the Local SEND Reform Plan will be monitored through a combination of shared data systems, routine governance, and structured feedback loops, ensuring that progress is visible, measurable and informs decision-making at all levels, with monitoring explicitly aligned to the defined success measures and trajectories set out in the Year 1 Delivery Plan.

Monitoring tools and processes

The partnership will use a shared SEND dashboard and performance pack as the central tool for tracking delivery bringing together the agreed metrics and target trajectories across each workstream to assess both progress against milestones and expected system impact across education, health and care, including:

• Demand: EHCP requests, assessments, conversions and timeliness
• Service delivery: access to specialist advice (e.g. Eah), placement types and sufficiency metrics
• Service quality: complaints, mediation and tribunal activity, and parent/carer feedback, quality assurance and moderation activity.
• Outcomes: Good Levels of Development (Gld), attendance, exclusions, reduced timetables, placement stability and Neet measures, improved access to specialist services.

Data will be reviewed monthly through the SEND Operational Group and formally reported to the SEND Strategic Board, enabling leaders to identify trends, challenge variation, agree corrective actions and assess progress against defined outcome measures across inclusion, experience and system sustainability. This includes triangulation of performance data with sufficiency information (placements, capacity, cost) to ensure decisions are informed by a single, shared view of the system.

At an operational level, data will be used routinely to:

• identify emerging pressure points (e.g. rising demand or placement instability),
• monitor equity of access to support (e.g. specialist advice and cluster input),
• track whether more needs are being met earlier without escalation and,
• identify any new trends or comorbidities

This ensures that monitoring is not retrospective, but actively shapes delivery, prioritisation and resource allocation enabling timely adjustments in response to emerging pressures and variation across the system.

Feedback and adaptation mechanisms

Alongside quantitative data, the partnership will use structured feedback loops to understand lived experience and adapt delivery.

This will include:

• Parent Carer Forum (Pcf) reporting, with formal responses provided through a “You said / we did / not yet” approach
• Children and Young People feedback, captured through surveys, Annual Reviews and targeted engagement
• Sendiass intelligence, including themes from advice, complaints and mediation
• Cluster-level feedback, including learning from peer discussions, case tracking and action follow-up

These sources will be reviewed alongside performance data through governance, ensuring that qualitative insight is used to interpret trends, identify gaps and refine delivery.

The partnership will operate a continuous plan–do–review cycle, where:

• data identifies what is happening
• feedback explains why
• governance determines what changes

This approach ensures that delivery remains responsive, that system learning is acted upon, and that improvements are sustained over time with overall impact assessed through trends in key indicators, including increased numbers of children supported at SEN Support, reduced progression to statutory assessment, improved placement stability and reduced reliance on high-cost or out-of-area provision.

13. 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.

Please see attached data template: South Tyneside The Local SEND Reform Plan Data template

Section 4 – Governance

14. 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.

Senior representation aligned to key transformation programmes. Health and partner representation where appropriate.

Sets direction on key transformation priorities and dependencies

financial recovery plans)

Icb Internal Governance is being worked up and will be included in the next iteration of this plan – all of which will be aligned under the Neighbourhood health Sub committee.

If you have a diagram to show the relationship between these governance mechanisms, please upload this here.

Please see Appendix D

Section 5 – Central Government Support

15. 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

The partnership would welcome targeted support from central government to strengthen delivery capacity and ensure consistent implementation of reform.

The partnership recognises that the pace of capital delivery will be a critical enabler of inclusion over the next three years. While national investment is essential, constraints in programme capacity and delivery may limit the speed at which provision can be brought forward. There is an opportunity to strengthen regional collaboration, working through Dcs networks, to explore collective approaches to capital planning and delivery, supporting more timely expansion of local provision.

Workforce capacity remains a key constraint. Support with nationally scalable workforce models and development approaches, particularly in relation to early intervention and inclusive practice, would support recruitment, retention and consistent delivery across education, health and care.

The partnership would also benefit from nationally developed tools and frameworks to support data collection, evaluation and impact measurement, particularly in evidencing the effect of early intervention and non-statutory support. This would strengthen local monitoring and enable benchmarking across areas.

Further clarity on national expectations and policy parameters would support confident implementation, particularly in relation to thresholds, the interface between statutory and non-statutory support, and the use of funding flexibilities to meet need earlier and reduce escalation.

Targeted opportunities for peer learning with areas implementing similar models, particularly in relation to cluster approaches, co-production and strengthening mainstream inclusion, would support system learning and accelerate delivery.

Finally, continued support to strengthen alignment across education and health commissioning arrangements would support more consistent and coordinated delivery of specialist support within a reformed SEND system.