North Yorkshire Local SEND Reform Plan 2026

North Yorkshire Local SEND Reform Plan

Name of Local Authority: North Yorkshire Council

Name of Integrated Care Board: Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board Local SEND Reform Plan SRO: Amanda Fielding, AD Education and Inclusion, North Yorkshire Council

Signatories:

Role Name Date Local Authority Chief Executive (CEx) – North Yorkshire Council Richard Flinton 18/06/2026

The Integrated Care Board (ICB) Chief Executive – Humber and North Yorkshire Amanda Stanford 18/06/2026

The Integrated Care Board (ICB) Chief Executive - West Yorkshire Jonathan Webb 18/06/2026

The Local Authority Director of Children’s Services (DCS) - North Yorkshire Council El Mayhew 18/06/2026

The Integrated Care Board NHS Place Director – West Yorkshire Matt Sandford 18/06/2026

Chief Executive Integrated Care Board (ICB) Humber and North Yorkshire

Teresa Fenech 18.06.26

The Local Authority Chief Financial Officer (Section 151 Officer) - North Yorkshire Council Anton Hodge 18/06/2026

Executive Summary

North Yorkshire’s vision for all children and young people is to belong, be healthy and safe so they are able to achieve and thrive, reaching their personal goals. This will be achieved by ensuring that education is available and integrated support is provided within local communities in a way that families can access and navigate more easily. Our ambition aligns with national reform expectations for improving inclusive practice, strengthening partnership working and delivering effective, timely support.

We are committed to shaping a whole system support offer that prioritises early identification, inclusion and co-production with children, young people and their families. Progress to date includes developing robust governance, embedding stakeholder engagement and expanding partnership working across education, health and care services. However, we recognise continued pressures including rising requests for statutory assessment and EHCPs from 6,451 in 2025 to 9,151 by 2029, variability in inclusive practice across settings and financial constraints within the High Needs Block.

Outcomes are improving but gaps remain, particularly in attendance, attainment, exclusions and preparation for adulthood.

Our strategy sets out a clear shift from a reactive, request-led approach to a proactive, needs-led model. Our ‘Experts at Hand’ offer will provide timely, multi-disciplinary support at the earliest opportunity, strengthening both universal and targeted provision while reducing escalation and reliance on statutory processes through a targeted plus offer. Education, health and social care partners will work together to understand local need, plan and commission services, develop workforce capacity and monitor outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Success will be evidenced through measurable improvements in attendance, inclusion, EHCP demand and parental confidence.

Over the next three years, we will ensure that increasing numbers of children and young people with SEND are effectively supported in their local mainstream settings. This will be achieved through enhanced Ordinarily Available Provision (OAP), expansion of local support and specialist bases, and a skilled workforce across all sectors. Our Best Start in Life Plan and Family Hubs model will underpin earlier identification and intervention, contributing to improved long-term outcomes.

We will invest in workforce development to ensure inclusive practice is a shared responsibility across education, health and social care. All settings will be supported to deliver consistent, high-quality provision, reducing reliance on specialist placements and improving the lived experience and outcomes of children and young people with SEND.

Building trust and confidence remains central to our approach. Through routine co-production, transparent communication and “you said, we did”

feedback, children, young people and families will see their voices shaping how services are improved, with clearer pathways, timely local support and a positive experience throughout their journey.

Progress will be tracked through clear headline measures including improved timeliness and quality of EHCPs, higher proportions of children supported in mainstream settings, reductions in exclusions and out-of-area placements, increased school attendance and improved family confidence.

By 2029, we expect to see sustained progress across all indicators, a stabilised demand profile and more efficient use of resources, delivering an inclusive, sustainable and high-quality SEND offer for North Yorkshire’s children, young people and families. Delivery will be tailored to local contexts, including rural and coastal areas, through locality-based models, school clusters and integrated services that improve access while managing transport and system costs.

We will achieve financial sustainability by investing in early intervention, mainstream inclusion, and local provision, thereby reducing use of higher cost independent placements and ensuring best value for public resources.

Section 1 – Vision and Goals

What the local area partnership is trying to achieve?

Our shared vision is a consistently inclusive 0–25 system where children and young people with SEND feel they belong and are safe, happy, healthy and able to achieve and thrive with effective local support. Our existing SEND Strategy (Appendix 1) includes five priorities which align to the principles of the Schools White Paper. These are:

Identifying needs early
Working together (communication, co-production and engagement)
Improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND
Preparing young people for adulthood
Achieving best value

The council has just completed the second year of our High Needs Block transformation programme, initiated during the 2024-25 DBV project. This has focussed on four priority areas aimed at improving outcomes and mitigating the pressures on the high needs block.

Strategic funding and resource allocation
Inclusive Education Initiatives
SEND Provision

4.Service Improvement and Quality Assurance. This programme has already contributed to improved timeliness for assessments, improving confidence and reduced complaints and has seen a shift towards inclusive practice through a focus on transitions and the launch of free training alongside an ‘Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit’ (Appendix 2). Ongoing activity in the programme includes digitising the statutory assessment and review system. The work undertaken has not only improved the experience of young people and families but also significantly reduced the unmitigated forecast overspends on the high needs block; the three goals below would see this programme moving from a council-led to a partnership transformation programme over the next three years.

Goal 1: Improved outcomes for children and young people through early and effective support and training. We will see more children and young people with SEND learning well, attending their local setting regularly and progressing into adulthood with improved independence and positive destinations. We will achieve this through joint needs assessments, clear graduated evidence-based approaches, and responsive multidisciplinary support that strengthens inclusion and is built on comprehensive multi-agency workforce development.

Goal 2: Increased confidence of parents, carers and young people in the local system through shared aims and consistent coproduction. Families and young people will experience a joined-up system from birth to 25, with clearer routes to help through Best Start Family Hubs, education

settings, health and SEND services working together. Co-production will be routine, communication will be timely and transparent, and families will report greater confidence that decisions are fair, consistent and based on evidence of need. SENDIASS and Parent Carer Voice are core partners within the North Yorkshire children and young people’s system delivering high‑quality, accessible and timely information to children, young people and their families. Both of these partners will support coproduction and building confidence of families.

Goal 3: Financial sustainability and value for money through fair funding arrangements that are targeted to support early and effective intervention. We will reduce High Needs pressures by continuing to shift investment earlier and into local settings. We will grow our inclusive mainstream capacity, expanding local specialist places in mainstream settings and strengthening joint commissioning and quality assurance across agencies. We will increasingly target resources using shared insight and evaluation, reducing and ensuring that spend is outcomes-focused and delivers value for children, young people and the public purse.

Financial sustainability remains urgent. The data template shows total net HNB expenditure increasing. This reinforces the need to reduce reliance on the highest-cost provision, particularly independent placements, where average unit costs are projected at over £77k compared with around £17.7k for specialist bases

In the pursuit of these goals our partnership commits to education, health and social care partners to work together to understand need, plan services, develop workforce capacity and monitor outcomes

Section 2 – Strategy

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

The following blueprint demonstrates how the five principles—local, effective, early, shared and fair—will be embedded across our local system. This reform plan is being implemented in a context where the overall 0–25 population is projected to fall slightly, from 156,384 in 2025 to 152,798 in 2029, while EHCP numbers continue to rise. This underlines that demand pressures are not simply a function of population growth and require a systemic response through earlier intervention and stronger mainstream inclusion.

	Local blueprint for the next 3	Where we are	Where we will be in the next 3 years
	years
Building block: Strengthening inclusion across education settings		The partnership has established strong foundations for strengthening inclusion across mainstream education settings. These foundations provide the base to build national standards and develop the Experts at Hand model. • The Local Area SEND Strategy and associated action plans have prioritised retention and development of free targeted support through local Inclusion Support Hubs delivering early and effective in-school support to mainstream settings. • The Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit is already in use and is being embedded with partners, schools and families to support our shared expectations of ordinarily available provision. • Educational Psychology capacity and the wider training offer for schools and early years settings have recently been strengthened - now have an offer of systemic support to 71 schools and 16 primary clusters • OT and SaLT forms part of the existing LA commissioned offer across the county and is integrated so that the SEND Hub offer dovetails with the core NHS offer and providing system capacity, mainly at targeted level but including some universal support • 1245 EY practitioners are already accessing training through our work with Dingley’s Promise	• Inclusive practice will be consistently embedded across North Yorkshire’s early years’ settings, schools and colleges. • A quality-assured Experts at Hand offer will be implemented providing a consistent core offer across the local area with flexibility to provide a tailored offer to address outcome gaps for particular communities. There will be agreed service standards, regular review and refinement from first-phase implementation. In Y1 impact will be partly measured by a baseline SENCO confidence and perception of support survey, with targets set for increase each year. • The offer will include EPs, OTs, SaLTs, specialist teachers and advisers and will be coordinated in locality patches to support school groups, inclusion support bases and specialist bases to build local capacity, with access based on need rather than diagnosis. This will boost parental confidence in mainstream provision, building capacity in school staff and increasing the proportion of children whose needs are met through group and cohort interventions in school. We will also enhance levels of multiagency support for targeted groups, e.g. expanding the current transition support for vulnerable Y6 pupils to secure mainstream secondary placements • This will dovetail with the Best Start in Life programme, increasing by 100%, the number of children accessing early intervention via Portage groups and 1:1. We also

	• Comprehensive free training offer for schools and settings, both online and as well as a traded face to face offer The partnership recognise challenges remain in our local system. • There remains variability in inclusive practice across settings: too many children with SEND are being suspended or excluded from mainstream settings and many EHCP consultations for placements in mainstream schools result in negative responses • Requests for statutory assessment and EHCPs remains high, alongside increasing elective home education and attendance concerns for children with SEND • Parents report a lack of confidence in the mainstream offer and continue to seek specialist places through mediation and appeals	intend to trial in Y1 of PACT/iBASIS early intervention for autism before school in Y1. This is an ICB and council jointly commissioned project. The offer will be based on: • Current SEND hub arrangements, transforming into Inclusion Support hubs which already align with health provider boundaries and reflect locality board groups of schools/settings that work together to support local priorities. Current arrangements will be subdivided into local clusters (proposed 16-24) and will seek to align with other services and the wider children’s services reforms. • 4 navigators – new roles of Locality Inclusion Support Leads who will act as conveners for the EaH model in each locality and will be the main link between the education providers, and the Experts and Hand offer. • Most children and young people with SEND will have development needs identified and met earlier through well embedded inclusive mainstream provision and timely targeted support. By the end of Y3 we expect a 50% increase in S23 health notifications to enable earlier support • Families will experience clearer, more joined-up routes and transitions through support from birth to 25. • Preparation for adulthood will be a central focus for the partnership • Education, health, SEND services and Best Start in Life Family Hubs will work together more effectively to deliver integrated support within local communities. • Variability in practice will reduce as professional and family confidence in inclusive mainstream provision strengthens. • Attendance, participation and placement stability will be improving, with the introduction and quality assurance of ISPs, and will result in reduced escalation to statutory assessment and EHC plans.
Building block: Access to specialist support and local placements	• Prior to the reforms, North Yorkshire had proportionately fewer special school places than many comparable local areas.	• Special school capacity will be sufficient through to 2030, supported by delivery of the remaining free school schemes including the recently reviewed SEMH provision in Northallerton

	• Since 2018/19, strategic planning has increased special school places in maintained and academies from around c.820 to c.1,400, with further specialist free school capacity still to be delivered in Selby, Harrogate and Northallerton. • Mainstream capacity has been strengthened through reforming our alternative provision offer, development of 16 SEN resource bases (Targeted Mainstream Provision - TMP) and establishment of specialist teams within local SEND Hubs. • 26 schools applied in April 2026 to be part of the next wave of TMP, specialist resource bases and 16 are progressing to delivery by September 2027 creating over 100 new places. • The local planning approach already reflects a universal, targeted and specialist continuum, while continuing to respond to current system pressures. • High Needs Capital allocation is being prioritised for mainstream inclusion places with a new round opening in the Autumn of 2026 The partnership recognises however that there remains some challenges: • Our commissioned AP offer is not yet providing the 3 tier model • Exclusions continue to divert resource away from preventative work of our PRU’s; restructuring of SEND Hubs began in January 2026 • Demand for special school places remains high • Use of Independent special school places has risen to 6.2% of our EHCP cohort	• High Needs Block pressures will reduce as reliance on independent special school placements falls. E.g. expanding the offer of transitions support is predicted to avoid costs of £1m per year based on this year’s cohort and evidence from earlier pilot in DBV programme, • High needs capital investment will have been used to increase specialist places within mainstream settings. • All secondary schools and around one in eight primary schools in the county will deliver either a local inclusion support base or specialist base by 2029/30. • A coherent three-tier alternative provision offer will be embedded across the continuum of provision, including a trial of an AP Task Force, which will have its own target of reducing permanent exclusions • More children and young people will have needs met earlier, closer to home and without unnecessary escalation into statutory processes. • The sufficiency model is based on a significant expansion of local mainstream specialist capacity. The data template projects specialist base capacity increasing from 142 places in 2025 to 450 by 2029, with the number of children with EHCPs educated in specialist bases rising from 142 to 405 over the same period.
Building block: System leadership, local partnership collaboration and co-production	• The local area partnership utilises a range of fora to support communication and engagement and where appropriate, shared oversight and improvement, including locality boards, CYPS briefings, SENCO networks and the High Needs Funding Sub Group. • Where information is shared effectively, partners report constructive challenge, stronger local planning and clear commitment from partners. • There remains variability in how consistently partners understand and engage with SEND governance arrangements.	• Governance and partnership arrangements will be transparent, consistent and accessible across all localities. • Decision-making and escalation routes will be clearly described and routinely communicated so that partners and families can navigate the system confidently. • Agreed dashboards and data-sharing protocols will support timely operational oversight, planning and multiagency problem-solving. • Communication standards and improved digital systems will reduce reliance on informal escalation and improve equity of access to support.

	• Collaboration is constrained by inconsistencies in data sharing and access to timely information • Child and parent voice is captured well in some settings and services but is not yet consistently visible across the wider partnership. • Leadership changes across the local authority, ICB and Parent Carer Forum provide an opportunity to restate the partnership pledge and strengthen connections between governance, local leadership and operational delivery.	• Co-production will be embedded through visible and structured mechanisms for parent/carer and young person voice. Specific training will be given to education providers to set out the skills and raise expectations about gaining child/young person’s voice as part of the EHC and annual review process to ensure their voice is heard • Collaboration with Multi Academy Trusts and wider partners will be strengthened through more coherent local partnership arrangements that reflect local groupings beyond the current locality level.
Building block: Encouraging inclusive culture and behaviours	• The council has ‘Inclusive’ as the first of its staff values and behaviours (IACT- Inclusive, Ambitious, Creative, Together) • Existing plans and strategies are intended to promote inclusion and shared accountability across the system. • Work is underway to align SEND reform with Best Start in Life and Families First so connected opportunities are optimised • North Yorkshire has maintained a long-standing free support offer for schools and SENCOs, alongside inclusion-focused leadership induction, transition work and school improvement activity. • Learning from recent inspection activity is being shared through established engagement routes with schools. • The Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit is already in use as a local foundation of ordinarily available provision and now needs to be embedded consistently by partners, schools and families ahead of the published national standards. • Locality Boards are established across the county and provide a positive base for peer support, challenge and local planning in response to local needs. • Further work is needed to ensure broad membership across all boards, strengthen data sharing, extend impact across board areas and embed lived experience more consistently in locality planning. • The reform case is also strengthened by projected increases in children and young people with SEN in elective home education, from 477 in 2025 to 580 by 2029, and in those not in education, from 206 to 280.	• Inclusive culture and behaviours will be consistently embedded across North Yorkshire’s education system supported by agreed values and behaviours developed by the partnership. • National standards, local expectations and shared accountability will provide a clear framework for inclusive practice. • Leaders, governors and practitioners will have a stronger common understanding of inclusion, supported by high quality training, coaching and practice development. • Inclusive practice will be routinely quality assured through a fully established Experts at Hand offer and refreshed Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit. • Earlier, needs-led support will become the default response across education settings. • Locality Boards will operate as broader multi-agency forums, informed by lived experience and stronger data sharing. • Attendance, participation and placement stability will improve, with reduced escalation into statutory processes. • Complaints and concerns will reduce as confidence improves • Progression into adulthood will reduce the reliance on EHCPs due to better defined pathways into supported Internships, apprenticeships, employment and community inclusion. • Health and Adult Services demand management will be supported through young adults being better prepared to travel independently and access support and provision in their own communities

This reinforces the need for a stronger inclusive mainstream offer and more confidence in local support.

Enablers: Capital – investment strategy across EY, mainstream, FE Workforce Data/digital systems

Capital investment strategy across the continuum

Targeted use of high needs capital to expand inclusion support bases and specialist bases (alongside local specialist capacity) to cover early years, mainstream, AP and post-16 settings.

Our refreshed capital plan will be presented to councillors for their approval by August 2026 Workforce capacity and capability

A workforce development plan will be developed across education, health and care.

We will continue to build Educational Psychology, SaLT, OT and specialist lead capacity to support the Experts at Hand offer (Total planned LA spend on professionals increasing by 22% in 4 year period. £2,584,530 in 2025-26 to £3,154,888 in 2028- 29)

Training, coaching and leadership development will be used to embed inclusive practice as standard. Data, digital and intelligence systems

Continue work post Ofsted Inspection on development of shared dashboards to support the partnership to track demand, delivery, quality and outcomes. Currently data is too fragmented

Review and update data-sharing protocols to remove barriers so insights is available across LA, ICBs, schools and locality boards.

Implementation of a digital EHCP to aid transparency, reduce manual handling of information and improve accessibility which can be adapted to accommodate national standardisation

Implement learning from regional SEF peer challenge incorporating progress towards reforms and operation under the existing legal framework Joint commissioning and resource alignment

Reviewed and refreshed Joint Strategic Needs Assessment to support stronger LA/ICB joint commissioning arrangements

The Experts at Hand model will be jointly commissioned by the local authority and ICBs, with agreed governance, funding, workforce deployment and outcome measures to ensure a consistent and integrated multi-disciplinary offer across localities, which dovetails in with existing services and wider reforms inc. curriculum, SEND, Best Start in Life and Families First. Programme governance and delivery programme

Strengthen the alignment between Local Area Partnership Board, locality boards and operational workstreams.

Ensure service capacity exists to manage multiple workstreams that have clearly defined milestones, project leads and quarterly reporting cycles

Ensure system wide reforms are reported and visible to all to ensure join-up and cohesion between reforms Co-production and communications plan

A structured co-production model with Parent Carer Forum, children and young people and partners
Consistent communication standards, including visible “you said, we did” feedback loops.
Clear route maps so families and practitioners understand what the partnership is doing and when regarding reforms delivery

Quality assurance and standards

Continue embedding North Yorkshire inclusion standard through the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit, which is already in use, as national standards are developed.
Routine QA of ordinarily available provision, Experts at Hand and inclusion bases (specialist and support).
Peer review through Yorkshire and Humber regional support networks.

Success measures: Drawing on metrics from the accompanying data template Improve attendance of pupils in all maintained schools (mainstream and special) with SEN Reduce reliance on independent special school places Mainstream settings with increased access to Education Psychologists/SaLT/OT Reduced NEET rates for SEND YP at age 16

Baseline (current position) Target metrics (3-year)

% attendance of pupils with SEN Support and with an EHCP (primary and secondary, mainstream and special)

Suspension and permanent exclusion rates for pupils with SEN Support and with an EHCP

Rate of new statutory assessment requests and rate of new EHCPs issued (per 10,000 CYP 0–25)

% of CYP with an EHCP educated in mainstream settings (including mainstream with additionally resourced provision/bases)

% of settings engaged with SEND Hubs / Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit / locality training offer (reach)

Median time from request to first multi-disciplinary advice/intervention (Experts at Hand pathway, once established)

Parent/carer confidence in inclusive mainstream support (from local survey/PCF feedback)

% attendance of pupils with SEN Support and with an EHCP (primary and secondary): SEN Support: 90.09% EHCP: 84.6% SEN support Primary 93.24% SEN support Secondary 86.10% EHCP Primary 88.98% EHCP Secondary 80.73%

Suspension and permanent exclusion rates for pupils with SEN Support and with an EHCP Perm Ex SEN Support – 31% Suspension SEN Support – 26% Perm Ex EHCP – 31% Suspension EHCP – 21%

GLD improvement (system-wide)

Good Level of Development (GLD): ≥ 80% of all children achieving GLD by end of Reception (2027/28)

GLD – disadvantaged cohort (FSM): ≥ 56.5% of children eligible for Free School Meals achieving GLD

Improved attendance for pupils with SEN Support and with an EHCP; narrowed gap to all pupils year-on-year

Early Learning for 2-year-olds (targeted entitlement): Increase uptake from 72.3% → ≥ 81.5% including increased proportion of children with SEND

50% increase in S23 health notifications

Reduced suspension and permanent exclusion rates for pupils with SEN Support and with an EHCP

Reduced rate of new statutory assessment requests and new EHCPs issued (with greater proportion of needs met through strengthened ordinarily available provision)

Increased % of CYP with EHCPs educated in mainstream (including resourced provision/bases) and reduced use of independent/out-of-area placements

All localities operating a consistent Experts at Hand offer, with an agreed service standard for response times and multi-disciplinary input across all schools

65% of schools/settings that have formally adopted the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit (IMT)

Demonstrable impact of IMT and training/coaching offer (e.g., % settings completing priority modules; improved self-assessment against inclusion standards)

50% of school improvement / inclusion review visits showing toolkit-informed practice

Rate of new statutory assessment requests and rate of new EHCPs issued (per 10,000 CYP 0–25) EHCNA 2025 = 1257 New EHCPs 2025 = 1122

Improved parent/carer confidence and satisfaction with early, inclusive support (with “you said, we did” feedback loop evidenced)

70% of targeted transitions cohort remain in mainstream

Low proportion of children accessing EaH and Inclusion Support Hub support progressing to statutory assessment

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

North Yorkshire’s strategy for change is built upon firm foundations across a 0–25 education, health and care system, reflecting our shared responsibility to deliver coherent, joined-up support from early years through to adulthood as reflected in our Maturity Matrix and supported by our existing Local Area SEND strategy which has prioritised the broad intent set out within the reforms for a number of years. This includes strengthening mainstream inclusion across all phases from early years to post-16, a focus on delivering more specialist places in local mainstream settings and delivering best value under the existing legislative framework. The intended reforms will help North Yorkshire’s Partnership to deliver for children and young people by addressing some of the structural issues within the current system.

Evolving existing strengths such as our Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit, county wide workforce training offer, expanding our roll out of resource bases and further extending the expert support offer across 0–25 settings and services, so that it meets the requirements of the Experts at Hand offer will allow children and young people’s needs to be identified and met earlier, including through early years settings, schools, colleges and community-based services, and manage demand for statutory assessment and high-cost placements. Further work will be done to underpin the evolution of our support to children and families through refining data and information sharing across a fully integrated 0–25 system, supported by governance structures that maximise alignment across schools, SEND, Best Start in Life, Families First and post-16 pathways.

Our Local Partnership Maturity Assessment Tool confirms solid foundations to build upon whilst also recognising areas to improve which will be used to shape and monitor the effectiveness of our partnership moving forwards. Recognising variability in inclusion, inconsistencies in data sharing and co-production not yet being systemic, our partnership will prioritise strengthening enablers that support a consistent 0–25 journey. A particular focus will be placed on strengthening key transition points within the 0–25 pathway, including early years to school, primary to secondary and preparation for adulthood, ensuring continuity of support and reducing escalation at points of change.

Performance monitoring will incorporate financial data alongside service and outcome measures, providing the Partnership Board with better sight of demand, spend, activity and impact. This will enable the partnership to track key financial metrics alongside outcomes and demand data ensuring that decisions about service development, commissioning and resource allocation are data-led and aligned to both outcomes and financial sustainability.

Local Partnership Maturity Assessment Tool (Appendix 3)

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

	Local roadmap for	2026/27	2027/28	2028/29
	the next 3 years
Building blocks Strengthening inclusion across education settings		• Co-produce and confirm the North Yorkshire Experts at Hand model, including commissioning arrangements, thresholds, response standards, locality delivery mechanisms, named leadership and links to the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit. • Confirm how the Experts at Hand model will operate alongside the inclusion support bases and specialist bases, including shared cohort definitions, referral pathways and joint	• Embed a consistent operating model in which Experts at Hand and Inclusion Bases function with integrated pathways, supporting defined cohorts of need and reducing duplication across services • Increased roll out of health offer within EaH following recruitment • Embed quality assurance of ordinarily available provision and inclusion practice. • Target support and challenge to settings where inclusive practice	• Fully embed a county-wide inclusive practice model across education phases. • Ensure inclusion across a local group is routinely quality assured through governance, peer review and performance reporting. • Demonstrate reduced variability between groups and settings and stronger confidence from families and practitioners. • Show measurable reduction in statutory escalation, improved

	workforce deployment, ensuring that support is coordinated across universal, targeted and specialist provision. N.B. 60% of support bases supporting primary needs of Autism in line with needs profile. See 7.3 of Data Template • Align inclusion improvement work with Best Start in Life, Family Hubs and wider Children’s Services reforms. • Embed the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit more consistently and align workforce development, QA expectations and locality inclusion improvement plans to the core minimum requirements. • Test and align the Experts at Hand model alongside the refreshed Inclusion Support Hub role in localities. Quality assure inclusive mainstream provision through local authority- and trust-led local reviews.	remains a challenge e.g. exclusions, attendance concerns and EHCP request rates. • Review alignment of inclusion improvement work with Best Start in Life, Family Hubs and wider Children’s Services reforms. • Use shared dashboards and locality data reviews to drive support and challenge interventions • Demonstrate the impact of the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit through increased consistency in ordinarily available provision, reduced variation between settings, evidence of improved SEN Support outcomes and increased practitioner confidence supported by both quantitative data (e.g. requests for assessment, attendance, exclusions) and qualitative evidence (e.g. case studies, SENCO feedback and coproduction activity).	attendance and participation, and greater proportion of children’s needs being met in mainstream provision. N.B. Current projections show a 42% increase in placements in mainstream provision (including specialist bases), from 2025 total (3020).See Q6 of Data Template.
Access to specialist support and local placements	• Agree and implement a shared framework for understanding different types of need across the partnership, based on both national reform principles and local data. This will include clear groupings such as communication and interaction, sensory and physical needs, SEMH including anxiety and EBSA, and areas such as executive functioning. This will be used to plan and target support more consistently across the system. N.B. SEMH considered to continue to be second most prevalent primary need after Autism, (currently 23% of total EHC plans) with some variation	• Use cohort-level data to target delivery models, workforce deployment and provision design, ensuring that inclusion bases and EAH respond to clearly defined patterns of need • Deliver the agreed expansion of inclusion specialist bases (TMPs) so that specialist support is increasingly available within mainstream schools, EY and Post 16 settings across localities. • Bring the remaining free school projects through key delivery milestones so that additional specialist capacity comes on stream in line with forecast demand.	• Complete the planned free school delivery programme so specialist sufficiency is secured through to 2030 and the system is better able to manage demand locally. • Realise the planned growth in mainstream specialist capacity, with all secondary schools and around one in eight primary schools contributing to the local base offer by 2029/30. • Demonstrate a coherent continuum of provision in which specialist support, inclusion bases and alternative provision enable more needs to be met earlier and closer to home. • Show sustained reduction in reliance on independent special school placements and improved financial

across county. This is accounted for in projections, See Q7

Confirm the specialist sufficiency trajectory to 2030, including delivery assumptions for the remaining free school schemes in Selby, Harrogate and Northallerton.

Agree the next phase of High Needs Capital investment and identify which schools from the April 2026 applications for targeted mainstream provisions (specialist bases) wave will progress forward. Scoring of applications will be weighted in favour of primary need and cohort trends, geographic access, sufficiency gaps in existing provision and population/projected demand

Test implementation of the three-tier alternative provision model and early specialist access pathways through PRUs, Inclusion Support Hubs and specialist teams in priority localities.

Begin phased implementation of agreed resource base (TMP) expansion and AP pathways, using early impact data to reduce avoidable escalation into statutory assessment and high-cost placements.

Track the impact on independent special school use and out-of-area placements using this intelligence to refine commissioning decisions.

Establish contingency sufficiency plans to respond to potential delays in free school delivery, including accelerated development of inclusion bases, alternative provision pathways and increased locality-based support.

sustainability through a stronger local offer.

Embed the three-tier alternative provision offer as a consistent part of the county’s continuum of provision, with clearer thresholds, pathways and locality access.

Implement commissioning arrangements to ensure local provision is maximised, including working with remaining secondary schools to ensure a specialist base is achievable by 2029

Development of AP to include an outreach offer and established Primary age offer

System leadership, local partnership collaboration and co-production	• Review and restate the partnership pledge, clarify the role of each governance forum and agree clearer expectations for shared ownership of reform delivery. • Set communication standards, datasharing expectations and escalation routes, and establish the structured co-production model with families, children and young people. • Test the refreshed governance, reporting and co-production arrangements through LAP, locality and operational forums so information flows more consistently across the system. • Move to routine implementation of agreed governance and communication arrangements, using feedback from partners and families to refine how the system is navigated and understood. • Develop and implement a shared needs analysis and cohort-based resource allocation model, enabling targeted deployment of workforce and resources to support areas of highest demand and risk.	• Embed transparent governance arrangements across all localities so partners can navigate the system confidently and understand decisionmaking and escalation routes. • Use agreed dashboards, reporting cycles and protocols to support realtime operational grip, constructive challenge and joint planning across agencies. • Strengthen the connection between partnership forums and locality delivery so co-production, service intelligence and performance information inform the same improvement activity. • Deepen collaboration with Multi Academy Trusts and wider partners as school groupings and inclusive trust arrangements become more established. • Use cohort-level data and locality analysis to actively target resources, including EAH support, training and inclusion capacity, towards settings and groups with higher EHCP request rates, exclusion risk and attendance concerns N.B. E.g. approx.50% of all requests for statutory assessment are for children in the 5 to 10 year old age bracket in North Yorkshire. See Q10	• Demonstrate a mature partnership model in which governance, data, communication and co-production operate consistently across the county. • Ensure family and practitioner confidence is supported by clearer system navigation, visible accountability and timely information sharing. • Show that locality and strategic governance arrangements together provide effective oversight of reform delivery, performance and risk. • Evidence stronger joint working across education, health and care, with co-production routinely shaping priorities and service redesign.
Encouraging inclusive culture and behaviours	• Continue embedding and promoting the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit (IMT) as the shared articulation of inclusive practice across education, aligned to core minimum requirements and national expectations. • Strengthen Locality Boards by broadening membership, improving access to data and planning how lived	• Embed inclusive behaviours through sustained multi-agency approaches to training, coaching and leadership development linked to agreed standards and local expectations. • Use Locality Boards and partnership forums to support peer learning, problem-solving and challenge for example where attendance,	• Show that inclusive culture is consistently embedded across education settings, with shared accountability understood by leaders, governors and practitioners. • Demonstrate that Locality Boards are functioning as a meaningful multiagency forum for local planning, challenge and improvement.

	experience will inform local peer support and challenge. • Test locality-led peer challenge, inclusion messaging and transition support approaches in practice, linked to school improvement and wider education and Children’s Services reforms. • Begin wider implementation of agreed inclusive practice expectations, informed by first-phase feedback on what is improving confidence, participation and consistency.	exclusions or elective education rates remain high. • Quality assure inclusive practice more routinely so early, needs-led support becomes the expected response in all phases. • Use better data transparency and lived experience feedback to reinforce accountability and improve confidence in mainstream inclusion.	• Evidence stronger family and practitioner confidence that early support, inclusion and fair decisionmaking are the norm across the system. • Show reduced escalation into statutory processes alongside improved attendance, participation and stability in mainstream placements.
Enablers:	• Finalise the refreshed capital plan, develop the cross-sector workforce plan and agree the programme governance, joint commissioning and communications/co-production architecture. • Design the shared dashboards, datasharing protocols and digital EHCP improvements needed to support transparent delivery monitoring. • Test the first phase of workforce deployment, dashboards, digital processes and reporting arrangements across priority workstreams and localities. • Move to early implementation of the agreed delivery infrastructure so reform progress can be monitored more consistently across the partnership. • Build system capacity through expanded multi-disciplinary workforce aligned to EAH, targeted training linked to identified cohorts of need, strengthened SENCO networks and locality peer support	• Embed the agreed workforce model, with improved specialist capacity and a sustained training and coaching offer across the partnership. • Use shared dashboards and digital processes routinely to track demand, delivery, quality and outcomes and to support locality decision-making. • Strengthen LA/ICB joint commissioning and resource alignment using refreshed needs analysis and performance intelligence. • Operate a partnership programme infrastructure with clearer milestones, reporting and quality assurance across the reform plan.	• Demonstrate that capital, workforce, data and governance enablers are working as a coherent delivery infrastructure for the reformed system. • Show that digital systems, shared intelligence and reporting are enabling more timely decisions, better performance management and greater transparency. • Evidence stronger joint commissioning and better alignment of resources to local need across education, health and care. • Maintain a sustainable programme structure that supports ongoing improvement, assurance and adaptation beyond the initial reform period. • Demonstrate increased mainstream capacity through reduced reliance on specialist placements, improved inclusion outcomes and greater consistency in provision across localities. N.B. Current projections show a 42% increase in placements in mainstream provision, from 2025 total (3020)Grow the Experts at Hand workforce over the three-year reform

period, with phased recruitment, development and deployment of Educational Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, specialist teaching and support roles so that each locality has a financially sustainable multidisciplinary offer aligned to need. Success measures: Drawing on metrics from the accompanying data template Improve attendance of pupils in all maintained schools (mainstream and special) with SEN Reduce reliance on independent special school places Mainstream settings with increased access to Education Psychologists/SaLT/OT Reduced NEET rates for SEND YP at age 16

Establish baselines and reporting for attendance, exclusions, statutory assessment requests, new EHCPs, mainstream placement rates and independent placement use across locality areas

Agree the leading indicators for Inclusion Support Hubs, Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit uptake, training reach, parent/carer confidence and Experts at Hand response times.

Test routine locality-level data reviews and early feedback loops so variation, implementation issues and confidence measures are visible.

Use first-phase trend data and co- production feedback to confirm whether delivery is moving in the right direction and reset priorities for the following year.

Delivery will be underpinned by data- led planning, clearly defined cohorts of need, and integrated models linking Experts at Hand with inclusion bases, ensuring capacity is built where it is most needed and impact is demonstrable across the system

Evidence sustained improvement against headline metrics, including attendance, exclusions, mainstream placement rates and reduced independent special school reliance.

Show that Experts at Hand, inclusive mainstream support and local specialist capacity are having a measurable impact on outcomes and demand management.

Demonstrate higher parental confidence and satisfaction, with visible evidence that feedback has informed service improvement.

Confirm that the partnership is on track to a more stable demand profile, better value for money and a more inclusive local system.

Use case studies, SENCO feedback, and co-produced evaluation alongside quantitative metrics to evidence system impact, including examples of earlier intervention, reduced escalation and improved outcomes for defined cohorts of need.

Show year-on-year improvement in attendance and reductions in suspensions, exclusions and placement instability for children and young people with SEND.

Demonstrate lower rates of statutory escalation and a greater proportion of needs being met through ordinarily available provision and targeted support.

Evidence consistent locality delivery of Experts at Hand, stronger mainstream placement rates and reduced reliance on independent and out-of-area provision.

Track improved family confidence and stronger engagement of settings with training, toolkit and multi-disciplinary support.

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

2026-27 Local delivery plan				Q2				Q3				Q4
				July-Sept 26				Oct-Dec 26				Jan-March 27
	Workstream outline –	Responsible lead per workstream	Milestones per workstream What key milestones will enable you achieve your targeted trajectory	Milestones per	Target trajectory per workstream Where do you expect your data to be?	Target trajectory	Milestones per workstream What key milestones will enable you achieve your targeted trajectory	Milestones per	Target trajectory per workstream Where do you expect your data to be?	Target	Milestones per workstream What key milestones will enable you achieve your targeted trajectory	Milestones per	Target trajectory per workstream Where do you expect your data to be?	Target
	mapped to building			workstream		per workstream		workstream		trajectory per		workstream		trajectory per
	block			What key milestones will		Where do you		What key milestones will		workstream		What key milestones		workstream
				enable you achieve your		expect your data to		enable you achieve your		Where do you		will enable you		Where do you
	Outcome - what you			targeted trajectory		be?		targeted trajectory		expect your data		achieve your targeted		expect your data
	want to achieve with									to be?		trajectory		to be?
	this workstream
	– how you measure
	progress drawing on
	metrics from the
	accompanying data
	template
Building block Strengthening inclusion across education settings Workstream 1 Consistent highquality inclusive practice Experts at Hand, Inclusion Support Hubs and Best Start / Family Hubs Outcome: Children and young people experience earlier, more consistent and higher-quality support through		Head of Inclusion Support NYC - supported by named ICB lead (yet to be confirmed)	Conclude the restructure of the Local Inclusion Support Hubs with finalised implementation date and key coordination role of Locality Inclusion Support leads Appoint Locality Inclusion Support Leads and refresh the oversight arrangements for the Locality Boards. Review feedback from the use of the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit in Q1 and consider any revisions for the 26-27 academic year		Baseline position agreed across localities, with first measures in place for Inclusion Support Hubs Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit taken up and evidenced in requests for further support or assessment Number of Ed. Psychologists increased from Jan 2026		Local cluster/groups mapped and to be agreed with schools and settings Continue promotion of IMT so localities show increasing engagement with the toolkit and how it can be used to shape practice Data dashboard specification agreed, with baseline reporting established for demand, attendance, exclusions, EHCP requests and Experts at Hand response measures.		IMT Evaluation from SI visits shows uptake and application improving Begin phased implementation across the county, prioritising settings with higher EHCP request rates, exclusion risk and attendance concerns, with baseline response times		NHS commissioned SALT and OT capacity will form a core part of the EAH model with ICBs working with NHS provider services to deploy AHP expertise into locality based MDTs Embed EaH QA framework countywide: • Case audit • School and setting feedback • Outcome tracking		Increases in SEND Support Cohort and early signs of requests for assessment stabilising AP referrals remain broadly stable, with improved turnaround into mainstream through Fair Access Protocols and return to home school where appropriate.

inclusive mainstream practice, locality-based multidisciplinary support and improved confidence in mainstream provision.

Continue school improvement Inclusion focussed visits in Maintained Settings utilising the IMT Training offer developed for Trust Inclusion Leads and Schools on Imt Qa (Train the Trainer approach) Job descriptions and recruitment processes underway as necessary to establish SEND professionals within Best Start offer Begin recruitment of ACP Speech and Language Therapists based within the ICBs.

Ensure EAH offer extends the support available across 0-25 via Inclusion Support Hubs / Best Start / Family Hubs and Mission Coastal footprint Define for each locality: Named EaH lead, EaH composition (EP, SaLT, OT, specialist teachers)

and school feedback in place for the Experts at Hand offer. Prepare for 2027/28 rollout.

Evaluate first-phase delivery and confirm the adjustments needed for 2027/28 rollout, including thresholds, response arrangements, training and QA. A consistent first- phase county EaH model is operating, improved practitioner confidence and early signs of reduced avoidable escalation into statutory pathways across localities. Targeted SEND and Inclusion reviews and auditing of IMT use in schools Extend the Community Navigator Travel Training model to additional localities, informed by pilot learning and agreed delivery standards. Refine and extend the Community Navigator Travel Training model to additional localities, informed by pilot learning.

Success measures: Increasing proportions of children supported at SEN Support Increasing proportions of children with EHCPs in mainstream settings Improved reintegration rates into mainstream settings from AP Number of new EHC needs assessment requests Number of new EHCPs issued

School clusters

/ trust groupings

PRU/AP links

and escalation routes

Commence

enhanced Portage groups and establish EY SENCO clusters Align the workforce development and training plan to the agreed model and confirm priority actions for rollout.

Core minimum requirements, service standards, training priorities and locality implementation expectations agreed for the Experts at Hand offer, including: Core functions of EaH (consultation, triage, direct work, system support) Thresholds and eligibility (aligned to IMT and graduated approach)

Test the refreshed toolkit, training offer, Inclusion Support Hub pathways and locality- led QA in selected settings/localities, including transition points and settings with highest need. Audit and design a careers guidance offer

		Response standards (e.g. time to initial advice, MDT involvement) QA Framework Joint workforce training and development plan agreed for hard to recruit posts including Ed. Psychologists, Speech and Language Specialist and Occupational Therapists Continue roll out of EY practitioner training through Dingley’s promise Enrol next group of EY settings on Dingley’s Promise Mark of Achievement Pilot Community navigators delivering Independent Travel Training through a Train the Trainer approach		delivered in partnership with adult learning		Establish the yearone workforce baseline, plan a financially sustainable phased three-year growth trajectory for the Experts at Hand workforce, including recruitment, training, supervision and deployment arrangements across education and NHS-delivered AHP roles.
Building block Access to specialist support and local placements Workstream 2 Inclusion and specialist bases Outcome: Children and young people are supported effectively within local, cost-effective	Head of SEND and Resources NYC	Confirm the specialist sufficiency and capital plan to 2030, including assumptions for remaining special free school delivery Agree the next phase of High Needs Capital priorities and take forward 16 schools to full feasibility stage.	Baseline position agreed for universal, targeted and specialist sufficiency Independent placement use will remain at around 6.3% AP and placement turnaround will be improving	Map existing and intended school, college and Early Years settings Inclusion bases across all localities Coproduce with schools a baseline specification for Support Bases to aid consistency of offer including admissions criteria for school commissioned bases	Pilot areas show clearer pathways into AP and specialist advice, improved visibility of sufficiency gaps and first evidence of more needs being met locally rather	Agree Inclusion Support Hub and/or EAH wraparound offer for Inclusion bases including training, network support and QA of practice Test implementation of the three-tier AP offer linked to PRUs, Inclusion Support Hubs and	Reduced rate of Independent Special School places named for September 2027 transfers Additional 180 places available in local academy special schools

Define the 3rd tier of AP support that compliments the existing model of preventative and longer term placements within PRS Review our existing SEN Resource Bases with schools operating these and make any changes required to meet new guidance on Specialist bases including entry and exit criteria Take forward wave 2 significant change processes with mainstream schools that are implementing specialist bases. Take forward wave 2 significant changes processes With mainstream schools implementing a specialist base Open wave 3 of the specialist resource base roll out Begin delivery of the 1st 3 primary AP bases in Northallerton, Scarborough and Harrogate

placements and through alternative provision that enables turnaround and support. Success measures: Reducing reliance on high-cost independent provision and other local authority provision at distance from home, which also reduces pressure on home-to-school transport.

Review High Needs revenue funding implications for outreach support from PRUs and/or Special Schools Continue implementation of the first 2 of 5 new primary age AP bases across the county Develop the scope and data set to baseline and assess current capacity within post-16 settings (0–25) at universal, targeted, targeted plus and specialist levels, including agreed measures for inclusion, destinations and preparation for adulthood. Continue delivery of pre agreed special free schools in Harrogate, Northallerton and Selby alongside the DfE and named Trusts Confirm wave 2 delivery decisions for SEN Resource bases (Specialist Bases) and align commissioning activity

than escalating immediately to higher-cost provision.

mainstream settings. Form a working group to consider the role of special schools support to mainstream settings e.g. supporting alternative curriculum and vocational pathways and other pilot projects Use delivery evidence from Q2 and Q3 to confirm sufficiency priorities, commissioning decisions and implementation sequencing for 2027/28.

SEN Resource (specialist bases) capacity increased from 16 to 24 with 8 further moving to Sept 2027 delivery date

Head of SEND and Resources NYC

Local Areas SEND Partnership to review and begin redesigning the Local Area SEND Strategy as previously planned and now in formed by national reform Develop and implement a shared needs analysis and cohort- based resource allocation model, enabling targeted deployment of workforce and resources to support to areas of highest demand and risk Review and restate the SEND partnership pledge, explicitly recognising and committing to reform principles (local, early, effective, shared, fair). Map and clarify the role, remit and decision routes of each governance forum (LAP, locality boards, Health and Wellbeing Board and operational groups). Redefine and agree system-wide communication standards

Baseline established for governance participation, decision-making routes and co- production activity across all partner forums. All governance forums operating to clearly defined roles, remits and escalation pathways Initial compliance with communication standards and data-sharing protocols evidenced across priority forums Co-production activity mapped and recorded, with early evidence of involvement of Parent Carer Voice, children and young people in key workstreams Early partner feedback indicates improving clarity of system navigation and accountability

Introduce standardised reporting templates and dashboards across forums, with a routine monthly reporting cycle established through the SEND and Inclusion Transformation Board.

Consistent use of governance structures across LAP, locality and operational forums, with increased attendance and engagement from partners Standardised reporting templates and dashboards in routine use, enabling more consistent performance discussions across agencies Increasing proportion of priority workstreams demonstrating active co- production, with feedback influencing design and delivery decisions Partner and family feedback shows greater confidence in

Fully embed agreed governance arrangements across all localities and workstreams. Ensure consistent application of decision-making, escalation and reporting processes. Introduce routine QA of governance effectiveness, including:

Governance arrangements embedded and operating consistently across all localities, with clear accountability and decision- making at each level Demonstrable impact of co- production on service design and delivery, evidenced through “you said, we did” reporting and feedback loops Routine use of dashboards and reporting to support system-wide oversight, performance management and joint decision- making Sustained improvements in: Partner engagement and attendance

Building block System leadership, local partnership collaboration and co-production Workstream 3 Transparent partnership governance and co- production Outcome: Partners, families and children and young people experience clearer governance, stronger co- production, more consistent information flow and greater confidence in how the system works. Success measures: Improved partner engagement, clearer accountability, stronger participation in co- production and increasing confidence from families and practitioners.

Implement the refreshed co-production model in priority areas and workstreams, using year-one learning to test and refine the approach. Gather partner and children’s feedback on their involvement and experiences on coproduction Use feedback and early performance insights to refine governance, communication and co- production arrangements before year 2.

Attendanc e and engageme nt levels

Decision- making timeliness

Impact on outcomes and system flow Dashboards fully embedded to support system-wide performance oversight. Co-production embedded

Refine governance arrangements

Adjust co- production mechanisms

Clarify any remaining ambiguity in roles or thresholds

Move to routine, visible co- production aligned to

		Develop a more structured coproduction model with PCV, Youth Voice and Locality groups Set data-sharing expectations and protocols Review and implement a new SEF format building on peer challenge and reflecting how we are doing in implementing reforms alongside current BAU			communication , involvement and understanding of the system.	all major decisions and service changes. • Ensure consistent application across all localities, reducing variation. • Demonstrat e evidence of impact of lived experience on decisions.	Decisionmaking timeliness Families and partners report increased confidence in system transparency
Building block Encouraging inclusive culture and behaviours Workstream 4 Inclusive culture, leadership and behaviours Outcome: Inclusive culture, leadership and behaviours are more consistently embedded across education settings, with stronger shared expectations and earlier, needs-led responses. Success measures: Improved practitioner confidence, stronger use of the IMT, better	Head of Education Standards NYC – supported by Education and Inclusion Heads of Service NYC	Continue embedding and promoting the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit (IMT) as the shared articulation of inclusive practice across education, aligned to core minimum requirements and national expectations. Deliver targeted leadership briefings and training for headteachers, SENCOs and trust leaders to build a common language and understanding of inclusion expectations. Consider strengthening Locality Boards by: Broadening membership (including	• Increased engagement with IMT evidenced through training attendance and early adoption in settings • Baseline established for locality board participation, inclusivity of membership and use of data • Early feedback shows improved consistency in understanding of inclusion expectations among leaders	Embed multi-agency training, coaching and leadership development to reinforce inclusive behaviours across all partners. Use locality boards and partnership forums to: • Review data on attendance, exclusions and elective home education • Provide structured peer challenge and support to priority settings Introduce routine quality assurance of inclusive practice, including: • IMT-based selfevaluation	• Increased proportion of settings actively using IMT to influence practice • Evidence of locality-led peer challenge resulting in targeted support for priority settings • Early improvemen ts in practitioner confidence and consistency	Fully embed inclusive culture expectations across all education phases, aligned with national standards and local accountability frameworks. Ensure Locality Boards operate as mature multi-agency forums, routinely using data, lived experience and peer challenge to drive improvement. Establish routine system-wide quality assurance of inclusive behaviours, linking IMT, Experts at Hand and	• Consistent understandi ng and application of inclusive behaviours across settings and partners • Improved confidence from families and practitioner s, evidenced through feedback and coproduction activity • Early signs of improved

Peer review and moderation approaches

Strengthen visibility of lived experience by embedding co- production feedback loops at locality level. Use shared data dashboards and lived experience feedback to confirm what is improving confidence, participation and consistency, and to set priorities for 2027/28.

locality-led challenge and early signs of improved attendance, inclusion and placement stability.

health, PCV and wider partners) Improving access to local SEND data Agreeing how lived experience will inform local planning Test locality-led peer support and challenge approaches, focusing on attendance, exclusions and EHCP request variation. Begin embedding consistent inclusion messaging across education and Children’s Services reforms (Best Start, Family Hubs and Inclusion Support Hubs).

of inclusive approaches across localities

inclusion review processes. Demonstrate integration of inclusive culture across SEND, Best Start and wider service reforms. Use evaluation of year 1 delivery to refine inclusion strategy, training and governance arrangements for 2027/28.

attendance, reduced exclusions and more needs being met through inclusive mainstream provision

Projected Investment Spend per quarter- indicative costs for Y2 only

Proposed Experts at Hand Offer			2026/27
Service	FTE	26/27 Annual Cost	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total	27/28 annual costs

Attendance and Engagement 7 506,333 42,194 126,583 168,778 521,523 Early Development 11 739,700 0 61,642 184,925 246,567 761,891 Cognition, Learning and Autism 8 595,500 0 49,625 148,875 198,500 613,365 Lead for SEMH 8 595,500 0 49,625 148,875 198,500 613,365

Educational Psychology 922,000 0 76,833 230,500 307,333 949,660

Total Inclusion Service	3,359,033	279,919	839,758	1,119,678	3,459,804
ICB requirement	1,500,000	125,000	375,000	500,000	1,500,000
AP Task Force	480,000		35,000	35,000	480,000
Total Costs for Delivery	5,339,033	404,919	1,249,758	1,654,678	5,439,804

Admin (Up to £381k) Leadership support 50,000 25,000 12,500 12,500 50,000 51,500 PCV 30,000 15,000 15,000 30,000 30,900 Youth Voice 30,000 15,000 15,000 30,000 30,900 Central administration eg finance, data and leadership 150,000 50,000 50,000 50,000 150,000 154,500 ICB Support Costs 50,000 25,000 25,000 50,000 51,500 Total Admin Costs 310,000 75,000 117,500 117,500 310,000 319,300

Transformation (Up to £381k) Lead SEND reforms officer 83,000 20,750 20,750 41,500 85,490 SEND reforms graduate pos 40,000 10,000 10,000 20,000 41,200 Comms officer and supported internship 30,000 7,500 7,500 15,000 30,900 SEND and Inclusion support officer 60,000 15,000 15,000 30,000 61,800 PfA workstream lead 70,000 17,500 17,500 35,000 72,100 ICB Supervision 50,000 12,500 12,500 25,000 51,500 333,000 0 83,250 83,250 166,500 342,990

	333,000	0 83,250 83,250 166,500 342,990
Total Expenditure against Experts at Hand Grant			75,000	605,669	1,450,508	2,131,178	6,102,094

The proposed model is multi-disciplinary and brings health and education specialists into mainstream settings. The core expert workforce is described in the guidance as:

Admin support for Experts at Hand £50k - Workstream 1 Providing admin capacity centrally to the Locality Inclusion Support Leads and Health Partner Leads PCV and Youth Voice - supporting Workstream 3 Co-production additional capacity £30k PCV and £30 Youth Voice Contribution to Council finance, HR, D&I and leadership functions £150k

Lead SEND Reforms Officer - £83k Developing further iterations of the plan, liaison with DfE, regional liaison, partnership coordination SEND Reforms Graduate Post– workstream 3 Coordinating co-production, engagement and managing the comms and supported internship activity Comms officer and Supported Internship post Part time posts - aim for both is to recruit someone with lived experience to support clear, regular and positive comms SEND and Inclusion Support Officer– PfA Workstream 2 and 3 lead

Educational Psychologists (EPs)
Speech and Language Therapists (SaLTs)
Occupational Therapists (OTs)
Specialist teachers
A pilot Alternative Provision Task Force- full staffing to be determined

The intended model at this stage (subject to wider engagement) is based on the existing multi agency SEND hubs, drawing in additional professionals and tilting that offer in the direction of capacity building in schools and settings, ensuring ongoing support at cohort or group level and adjustments to adaptive teaching. It will also offer a rapid response to the needs of individual children and young people through observation, assessment and identifying that appropriate targeted support. In the first year colleagues across agencies will work to:

ensure agreement of the model, and that it fulfils guidance
ensure the model builds on and interfaces with existing support, so children requiring more specialist support receive that seamlessly
reduce reliance on referral-driven models

Each ‘cluster’ in the locality will include a mix of professionals (EP + SaLT + OT + specialist teachers) who are assigned to groups of settings and who have regular scheduled presence. Their core functions will include: drop-in consultation, cluster group support and communities of practice, reflective supervision for SENCos, environment audits (e.g. communication, sensory), staff training cycles and on-site modelling of strategies. In North Yorkshire we need to ensure we: Reach all settings including:

o Small schools, supporting federations appropriately o Rural settings o Early years (including the significant numbers of PVIs and childminders) o FE/post-16 providers Year one will see an additional 135 dedicated days from the EP Service to secondary and PRU settings and 192 days to clusters. High level proposals from HNY and Wy Icb leads - £1 140 198However, we are working with a budget plan of £1 500 000; risk that recruitment to intended workforce establishment may not initially be achievable without the further workforce development, e.g. establishment of more local apprenticeships. AHP Establishment Costing: Indicative workforce model, place-based allocation and implementation plan for North Yorkshire for Y1

Ban d		Role		WTE			Top of		Annual	35% Oncosts			Total
							Band		Salary				Annual
							Salary		Cost				Cost
8b		ACP lead			shar							£40K for both ICBs
					ed
					acro
					ss
					ICB
8a		AHP Clinical Manager		1.0		£64,750		£64,750		£22,662		£87,412
7			AHP Clinical /	4.0		£56,515		£226,060		£79,121		£305,181
			Team Lead
6		AHP Practitioner		4.0		£48,117		£192,468		£67,363		£259,831
	5		AHP Practitioner		0		£39,043		£0		£0		£0
4		AHP Assistant Practitioner / Technician		8.0		£31,157		£249,256		£87,239		£336,495
3			AHP Assistant /	3.0		£27,476		£82,428		£28,849		£111,277
			Administrator
Tot al				20.0		-		£814,962		£285,237		£1,140,198

Total establishment (excluding the ACP lead posts): 20.0 WTE Total Y1 cost (including 35% on-costs): £1, 150,198 Existing plans carry some surplus to be allocated for leadership and transformation costs. Spend against the grant is subject to North Yorkshire Council’s Executive approval on 14th July 2026. Please see appendix 5

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

Year one delivery will be driven through a strengthened partnership programme infrastructure under clear system leadership and governance from the Local Area SEND Partnership Board. A dedicated partnership transformation programme will operate under the named Senior Responsible Officer, supported by programme management capacity, to coordinate delivery across existing and new workstreams. This will ensure consistent oversight of reform implementation, including performance monitoring, risk management and regular reporting through the Local Area SEND Partnership Board and wider council and ICB governance arrangements.

Prioritisation will be explicitly aligned to improved outcomes and financial sustainability, with resources focused on earlier intervention, strengthening inclusive mainstream provision and reducing avoidable escalation into high-cost placements.

Targeted investment will support the key enablers of reform, including workforce, data, digital, finance and programme delivery. A shared, multi-agency SEND and Inclusion data set will provide a single view of demand, activity, quality and outcomes, enabling stronger operational grip and more informed decision-making across the partnership. Corporate functions, including HR, finance and commissioning, will be fully integrated to support workforce planning, market development and joint commissioning.

Operational delivery will be locality-based, aligned to Inclusion Support Hubs, Best Start in Life and Family Hub and wider children’s services reform arrangements. This will include the deployment of multi-disciplinary teams, including HNB-funded Inclusion Practitioners alongside additional Educational Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and specialist teacher capacity to deliver the Experts at Hand model, providing timely, targeted support to schools, settings and families within their communities, which is integrated with and builds on existing services across agencies.

7. Other funding Local Authorities.

Block Transfers

North Yorkshire Council has adopted a transformation approach to High Needs funding and provision, identifying and implementing mitigating actions to manage the growth in financial pressures. This includes co-production of an Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit, or ordinarily available provision (OAP) framework, designed to systematically strengthen mainstream inclusion and enable more pupils with additional needs to be supported in their local settings.

Improvements to SEN administration, assessment and co-ordination have contributed to better timeliness of assessments, with further plans to introduce a digital EHCP system to improve efficiency and transparency which will help to build confidence in decision making whilst we continue to operate under the existing legislative framework.

The local authority has also expanded specialist provision across the continuum, including both special school capacity and specialist bases within mainstream settings. This includes significant capital and revenue investment at Welburn Hall School, Brooklands Skipton, Lighthouse (former Woodfield) Harrogate and Springwater Harrogate, alongside planned new special schools in Selby and Northallerton.

Against this backdrop, the local authority requested a transfer of funding from the Schools Block to the High Needs Block for in 2025-26 which was rejected. School’s Forum reluctantly approved a transfer in 2026–27 to support the implementation of mitigations identified by the local authority to address cost pressures in a more sustainable way – particularly through (i) embedding the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit (ii) supporting locality boards to pilot and/or develop local inclusive approaches relevant to their locality. The current High Needs Block transformation includes an expectation of a block transfer request in Autumn 2026 for the 2027-28 financial year. We have reviewed this and do not intend to make a future block transfer from the Schools Block to the High Needs Block at this stage.

Capital

North Yorkshire Council will use high needs capital investment to deliver a sustainable, inclusive system where more children and young people with SEND can have their needs met locally, earlier and within mainstream provision wherever appropriate.

Over a number of years, North Yorkshire has prioritised both the expansion of special school capacity and the development of inclusive capacity within mainstream settings. Starting from a position where the county had fewer special school places per head of population than other areas, significant investment has been made in expanding existing special schools and the delivery of three new special free schools in Selby (approved 2018), Northallerton (approved 2022) and Harrogate, due to open in late 2026. We anticipate very limited further expansion of specialist capacity beyond these major schemes.

Alongside this, the local authority has developed specialist provision within mainstream settings. Sixteen SEN Resource Bases (locally referred to as targeted mainstream provisions -TMPs) have been commissioned and are operational, with a further 16 progressing through a phased “wave” approach. These bases will flex with the release of any future guidance on specialist bases and double specialist base capacity by September 2027, ensuring increased access to specialist support within local mainstream settings.

Inclusion at the core of sufficiency planning

Capital investment is prioritised to expand specialist inclusion bases across early years, primary, secondary and post-16 phases, ensuring that more children and young people with SEND can access appropriate provision within mainstream settings. This is aligned to the wider reform programme, including the Experts at Hand model, strengthening mainstream capacity and reducing reliance on specialist placements over time.

Every Child and Young Person who needs an inclusion base can access one

The planned expansion of specialist bases is based on demand and cohort need working in partnership with schools, trusts, early years and post-16 providers. Weighted application scoring is used to ensure provision is prioritised where it is needed most (Appendix 4). A consistent specification supports delivery and strong links to mainstream classrooms to maximise inclusion and outcomes. The phased expansion programme is critical in ensuring that over time an equitable offer will exist across the significant geography of the county.

Reducing travel and reliance on distant placements

By increasing local provision through inclusion bases and maintaining growth in specialist capacity, the strategy will reduce reliance on out of area placements and long-distance travel in a large and rural county. Delivery of new special schools and expansion of local mainstream provision will

enable more children and young people to be educated closer to home, improving experience for families and supporting better outcomes. Preparation for Adulthood will also play a role in ensuring young people are equipped for the world of work, receiving high quality careers guidance, Supported Internship opportunities and support with travel training.

Improving the suitability of the mainstream estate

Capital funding will also support adaptations to the mainstream estate, including improvements to accessibility, sensory environments and inclusive design. This forms part of our existing roll out of provisions where environmental audits are carried out to identify improvement that can be made.

Expansion of specialist provision remains necessary due to the continued rise in the numbers of children with EHCPs whilst reforms are implemented, it is forecast that this rise will continue until 2030. However, investment in specialist provision is targeted forming part of a balanced approach that supports both sufficiency and long-term system reform. The revised capital programme will also make modest investments to modernise and improve the environment of some existing special schools.

The need to grow provision locally and closer to children’s homes is reinforced by transport pressure, elevated due to significant areas of rurality and population sparsity cross North Yorkshire, with SEN transport expenditure projected to rise from £26.2m in 2024–25 to £34.2m in 2027–28. Expanding local specialist and inclusion capacity is therefore important both for family experience and for system sustainability.

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

The local area partnership will continue to engage all partners through the collaborative structures already established in North Yorkshire’s SEND Strategy. Delivery and impact will be led and reviewed through the SEND and Inclusion Transformation Board, Local Area SEND and AP Partnership Board supported by education Locality Boards, SENCO networks, trust and school leader forums, Parent Carer Voice (PCV), the Early Years Forum, PfA and FE College networks and participation routes for children and young people. This provides the engagement infrastructure to co-design, test and implement reforms for all aspects of SEND provision.

Engagement will be used to communicate expected changes as reforms progress, coproduce and test delivery models and provide assurance on how reforms are being implemented within the current legal framework. Engagement with schools, early years settings and colleges will focus on strengthening inclusive practice, embedding the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit as our local foundation for ordinarily available provision and aligning this more explicitly with the core minimum requirements and future guidance. Having engaged and consulted extensively since the publication of the reform proposals we will continue to work with school leaders, trusts, PCV, early years providers and colleges to co-produce and review the North Yorkshire Experts at Hand model, including thresholds, service standards, locality delivery arrangements and how support links with and extends that of Inclusion Support Hubs, Best Start and Family Hub arrangements.

Mainstream school, alternative provision and PRU leaders will be engaged through the continued design and testing of the county’s three-tier AP model, so that AP operates as part of a broader continuum of early intervention, turnaround and reintegration. This will commence with a secondary age focus and will include young people’s voice. FE and post-16 providers, including providers outside North Yorkshire attended by our young people, will be engaged through a dedicated post-16 workstream to baseline current universal, targeted and specialist capacity, clarify expectations for inclusive practice and specialist bases and strengthen preparation for adulthood pathways from age 14 onwards.

Parents, carers, children and young people with SEND will be involved through a more structured co-production model with Parent Carer Voice, locality engagement and targeted participation activity facilitated by our dedicated youth voice and creative participation team. We will make co-production more visible and consistent through agreed communication standards, clearer decision-making routes and routine “you said, we did” feedback, so that lived experience shapes service improvement and implementation of reform.

Additional support from the Department for Education would be particularly valuable in two areas. First, senior official attendance at summer/autumn term events with education leaders and parent carer forum leaders would help build shared confidence in the national direction of travel and support constructive discussion about changing roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. Second, further national clarity on school groups, inclusion standards, post-16 expectations and pooled approaches would help us engage partners consistently across a large and diverse local area.

9. Risks and Mitigations

Risk	Impact	Likelihood	RAG	Mitigation	Residual RAG
1. Reforms are still under consultation and guidance is being released slowly and out of sequence with what local areas are being expected to plan for. Any guidance that does exist frequently uses ambiguous language such as “like” or “for example”.	High	High	Red	Maintain flexibility in planning, align to emerging guidance, regular DfE engagement and horizon scanning	Amber
2. Financial uncertainty: It is unclear whether reform funding streams can be reliably factored in for subsequent years or whether it is sufficient to deliver on the expectations	High	Medium	Red	Financial scenario planning, early clarification from DfE, cautious assumptions in planning	Amber
3. Potential unintended consequences: Some reform proposals could lead to unintended impacts such as a rapid rise in requests for assessment prior to legislation change.	High	Medium	Amber	Robust consultation response, risk identification workshops, systemwide engagement to surface impacts	Green

4. Unclear data requests: Many of the required data points are vague or seeking data in such a way that is not already collected. Some mitigation is underway through a national working group supported by DfE-approved partners.	Medium	High	Amber	Engage with national group, seek clarification early, agree local interpretation and assumptions	Green
5. Delivery timeline constraints: True co-production cannot realistically be achieved within a three-month timeframe. The programme reflects what is feasible in the period.	High	High	Red	Focus on proportionate coproduction, prioritise key stakeholders, clearly communicate constraints and approach	Amber
6.Delay in delivery of planned special free school places impacting sufficiency and financial sustainability	Medium	Medium	Amber	Regular monitoring of delivery timelines with DfE and trust partners Flexibility within capital and commissioning plans to respond to delays Targeted use of Experts at Hand and inclusion support to reduce escalation into specialist placements	Amber
7. Workforce supply and recruitment challenges could limit the pace and consistency of delivery of the Experts at Hand model and wider inclusion reforms, particularly in shortage roles such as Educational Psychology, Speech and	High	High	Red	Joint workforce planning across the local authority, ICBs and providers; phased implementation; targeted recruitment and development; and regular review of deployment, vacancy	Amber

Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy.				levels and service impact.
8. Inconsistent partnership engagement or variable implementation of governance arrangements could weaken delivery grip, accountability and shared ownership across agencies and localities.	High	Medium	Amber	Clear governance roles and escalation routes, routine reporting through the SEND and Inclusion Transformation Board and Partnership Board, named leads, and regular review of partner attendance, actions and followthrough.	Amber
9. Variable take-up of inclusive practice across schools and settings could limit the impact of the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit, Experts at Hand and locality support arrangements, reducing progress on attendance, exclusions and demand management.	High	Medium	Amber	Targeted support and challenge through locality arrangements, training and quality assurance, stronger communication of expectations, and use of performance data to identify and respond to variation between settings and localities.	Amber

10. Dependencies

North Yorkshire’s SEND future state and delivery roadmap are interdependent with wider national reforms. The partnership will use these reforms as an opportunity to accelerate system improvement, while actively managing risks through integrated planning, exploring greater levels of joint commissioning and adapting delivery.

The Curriculum and Assessment Review and Best Start in Life (including Family Hubs) present a clear opportunity to strengthen inclusive practice and embed early, needs-led support. The partnership will actively test and align the Inclusive Mainstream Toolkit with emerging national expectations, using this as the foundation for consistent ordinarily available provision across all education settings. Workforce development, coaching and quality assurance will be aligned to these changes, supporting schools and settings to respond confidently to evolving curriculum and accountability frameworks. Risks relating to inconsistent implementation will be mitigated through locality-based support, shared training and routine assurance activity. Experts at Hand, alongside School Improvement professionals will be able to support schools and settings to review and improve their inclusive practices.

The partnership will use the health reforms to shape and refine the Experts at Hand model, ensuring earlier, joined up access to Educational Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy as well as other specialist support and provision. Joint commissioning arrangements will be extended to secure sustainable service models and clear response standards. Risks relating to workforce supply and system change will be mitigated through shared workforce planning, phased implementation and continuous review of service impact through the monthly SEND and Inclusion Partnership Board and the quarterly Local Area SEND and AP partnership, ensuring capacity is deployed where it delivers greatest benefit.

Reforms to Children’s Social Care create an opportunity to align SEND delivery more closely with early help and family support. The partnership will test and embed integrated locality delivery models aligned to Inclusion Support Hubs, Best Start and Family Hubs, strengthening pathways across and reducing duplication for families. Additional capacity will support a structured approach to co-production will be implemented and tested through priority workstreams, ensuring that lived experience directly informs design and delivery of education, health and care services.

The Best Start in Life Plan reinforces the shift towards prevention, inclusion and family-centred practice. The partnership will capitalise on this by embedding consistent expectations of inclusive behaviour across education, health and care, supported by leadership development and system-wide communication. Co-production and “you said, we did” approaches will be used to build trust and confidence, ensuring that cultural change is visible and sustained. Risks relating to variable adoption will be mitigated through locality peer support, leadership engagement and the use of performance data to identify and address variation.

Across all four building blocks, the partnership will take a test-and-learn approach to implementation, using shared data, dashboards and regular review to assess progress and adapt delivery. This ensures that emerging national reforms are actively translated into practical local delivery, while maintaining a clear focus on improved outcomes, stronger inclusion and long-term financial sustainability.

Section 3 – Monitoring and Evaluation

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

Monitoring tools and processes

Progress will be tracked through a shared SEND performance dashboard and agreed KPI framework, bringing together finance and outcomes data from across education, health and care.

The dashboard will be used:

Weekly by operational teams in the council’s education and care teams and by the ICB and their health providers to manage demand and delivery.

Monthly by partnership leadership through the SEND and Inclusion Transformation Board to review performance, risks, milestones and recovery actions, and to support proactive intervention and adaptation where required.

Termly by education provider locality boards to review local progress towards the reforms: delivery and impact and to receive feedback from representatives of education providers.

The partnership dashboard will track:

Demand: EHC assessments, EHCP volumes, tribunal activity, service demand, waiting lists across providers.

Service delivery: EHCP timeliness, workforce capacity and deployment across education, health and care services, sufficiency (places created, reliance on out-of-area provision), programme delivery milestones.

Service quality: Co-production activity across education, health and care, parent/carer feedback, CYP voice, relevant education, health and care service audits and action plans, and EHCP multi agency quality audit findings and follow up reviews of impact of any activity in response to findings.

Outputs/outcomes: Attendance, exclusions, education outcomes and preparation for adulthood, workforce capacity, relevant workforce training across education, health and care teams.

Governance

Delivery will be overseen through a streamlined partnership governance approach, with the local authority, through the Corporate Director Children and Young Peoples Services (DCS), acting as system convenor. Strategic oversight and assurance will be provided through the Local Area SEND

and AP Partnership Board with the partnership SEND and Inclusion Transformation Board driving operational implementation and delivery of the reforms.

Quarterly reports will be presented to the Local Area SEND and AP Partnership Board and across related management and partnership boards ensuring alignment across existing education, health and care governance structures

Existing Local Area SEND and AP Partnership Board will meet on a quarterly basis to ensure:

Strategic and system-wide oversight of SEND reform within wider children’s services transformation
Visibility of progress, impact and risks across all partners and all reforms
Progress, risks and delivery issues are reviewed and revised as necessary
Benefits realisation and impact on outcomes are tracked
Resources are aligned to priorities
Deep dives are commissioned where improvement is needed
Clear alignment between performance, transformation, finance and strategic leadership.

SEND and Inclusion Programme Board (new group – ToR attached in Appendix 6), chaired by the SRO brings together delivery partners on a monthly basis to:

Monitor delivery against milestones and KPIs within the LSRP

Review operational risks, issues and partnership performance (Demand, Service delivery, Service quality and Outputs/Outcomes – as detailed above)

Agree actions and prioritisation across education, health and care, and across the partnership as a whole

Ensure joined up reports can be shared /escalated to Local Area SEND and AP Partnership Board and partner management boards as necessary

Feedback and adaptation mechanisms

Progress will be continuously reviewed and strengthened through systematic feedback loops Co-production with families and young people, ensuring lived experience shapes delivery and priorities Regular engagement with schools, settings and health partners to identify pressures and implementation challenges Quality assurance activity, including multi-agency audits and themed reviews A clear plan–do–review–adapt cycle, using data and feedback to refine delivery

12. 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.

Section 4 – Governance

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

North Yorkshire Council will implement an overarching Children and Young People’s Strategic Plan in 2026 which sets out the vision, values and priorities for North Yorkshire’s children and ensures alignment across the wider reform agenda (Appendix 7).

Governance arrangements for SEND and the High Needs Block will be strengthened to support delivery of the Local SEND Reform Plan through a clear partnership model, consistent with the government’s expectation that the local authority, through the Corporate Director of Children and Young Peoples Services (DCS), acts as system convener while all partners proactively respond to that leadership and fulfil their responsibilities. North Yorkshire Council will continue to hold its statutory responsibilities as the accountable local authority, including duties in relation to SEND, stewardship of the High Needs Block and formal convening of the partnership. The Local Area SEND and AP Partnership Board will be strengthened and provide strategic direction, oversight and assurance.

Operational delivery of reform will increasingly be overseen through shared partnership governance across education, health and care, so that accountability for progress, challenge, risk and impact is more clearly distributed across the local area partnership. This reflects the reform principles and the need for stronger partnership working, clearer accountability and visible co-production within a 0–25 system. Shared education, health and care intelligence will support understanding of local need, inform planning and commissioning decisions, and enable partners to monitor outcomes and drive continuous improvement.

The transition to this model will take place in two phases. In phase one, the SEND and Inclusion Programme Board, chaired by the SRO, will continue to provide the main forum for routine NYC programme oversight and delivery management. This is necessary because some activity required to implement reform remains within North Yorkshire Council’s internal governance and cannot appropriately sit within partnership decision-making alone.

This includes internal transformation activity such as staffing restructures, service redesign, resource alignment and other changes needed to ensure the local authority is organised to deliver reform effectively within the current statutory framework. During this phase, the NYC Inclusion and HNB transformation board will maintain oversight of milestones, risks, interdependencies, performance and delivery across workstreams, while distinguishing between areas that must remain within council governance and those appropriately subject to wider partnership oversight. This ensures that the programme board role described elsewhere in the governance framework remains clear: it is the mechanism for operational grip, performance review and escalation, not a substitute for strategic partnership accountability.

In phase two, oversight of those elements that are properly partnership business will increasingly sit within the Local Area SEND and AP Partnership Board and related partnership governance routes. This will include strategic oversight of delivery of the Local SEND Reform Plan, review of progress against agreed priorities and measures, oversight of risks and dependencies, and constructive challenge on whether the partnership is delivering the intended shift towards earlier intervention, stronger inclusion, improved confidence and better value. This phase is intended to secure a more active model of shared accountability, including stronger involvement from ICB partners, moving beyond collaboration to a role that is proactive, supportive and appropriately challenging in relation to delivery, quality and system impact. It will also provide a more robust and legitimate governance route for the structured involvement of parent carers and, where appropriate, children and young people, so that co-production is embedded within governance, reporting and review rather than operating in parallel.

High Needs Block governance will evolve alongside this transition: while formal financial accountability will remain within council governance, strategic oversight will increasingly be informed by shared partnership intelligence on inclusion, sufficiency, commissioning, demand management and outcomes. Taken together, this two-phase approach provides a realistic and transparent route from internal programme control towards mature partnership governance, with clear decision rights, escalation routes and alignment between the Local Area SEND and AP Partnership Board, the SEND and Inclusion Programme Board, council governance and ICB governance.

Governance Mechanism This may be a governance group, or an individual (e.g. SRO).	Purpose/ Responsibilities What is the function of this governance mechanism? What are they accountable for overseeing? What information is reported to this governance mechanism?	Membership Who does this governance mechanism comprise of? [should include health and PCF representation] What stakeholders are represented at this governance mechanism? Please indicate who chairs this. (Include n/a if an individual).	Cadence How regularly does this governance mechanism meet?	Decision Rights What decisions can this governance mechanism make?	Escalation Route Where can this governance mechanism escalate issues or decision to?
North Yorkshire Local Area SEND and AP Partnership	The North Yorkshire SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Partnership Board provides strategic leadership, partnership accountability and system oversight for children and young people aged 0–25 with SEND and those who require or are at risk of requiring AP. It oversees progress against the Local SEND Reform Plan, receives assurance and escalation from the SEND and Inclusion Transformation Board, reviews key risks and dependencies, and provides constructive challenge on delivery, quality, impact and value. The Board exists to ensure that North Yorkshire Council, health partners, education providers and other system partners collectively meet their responsibilities, improve outcomes and experiences for children and young people,	• Chaired by Corporate Director Children & Young People’s Services (DCS) • North Yorkshire Council (including named SRO) • NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB • NHS West Yorkshire ICB • NHS provider organisations • Locality Board chairs representing mainstream, special, AP, early years, post 16 settings • Children’s and adult social care • Parent Carer Forum • Children and young people representatives • SENDIASS • Public Health	Quarterly	The Board will set and maintain the shared strategic direction for SEND and AP, agree partnership priorities and outcomes, oversee progress against the Local SEND Reform Plan, commission deep dives where needed, and provide challenge on risks, dependencies and delivery confidence. Formal statutory, organisational and financial decisions remain with the relevant partner bodies.	Health & Wellbeing Board, North Yorkshire Council governance, relevant ICB governance, partner boards and formal decision-making routes as required.

	and deliver a coherent, effective and inclusive SEND and AP system across North Yorkshire. The Board exists to ensure that North Yorkshire Council, health partners, education providers and other system partners collectively meet their statutory duties, improve outcomes and experiences for children and young people, and deliver a coherent, effective and inclusive SEND and AP system across North Yorkshire.
North Yorkshire Council Management Board – chaired by CEx	Provide corporate oversight and challenge Ensure quality, compliance, and readiness of reports and act as a gateway before Executive decisions (as applicable) Support joined-up governance across the organisation / directorates	Chief executive Corporate directors (including DCS and S151 officer) Assistant Chief Executives (including monitoring officer) Meetings are attended by Assistant Directors (including named SRO) when relevant items are presented	Weekly	Pre-decision review and challenge. Supporting decisions of the Council in line with the council’s scheme of delegation, making decisions in line with the delegations to the CEx incl emergency powers	Council
North Yorkshire Council – Children and Young Peoples Leadership Team (CYPLT)	Provide strategic and operational oversight, assurance and challenge of CYPS matters. Ensure quality, compliance, and readiness of reports and act as a gateway before Management Board and Executive decisions (as applicable) Support joined-up governance and operational activity across CYPS and Council	Chaired by Corporate Director Children and Young People’s Service Attendance includes: CYPS Assistant Directors Assistant Director Resources Head of HR – CYPS Assistant Director Public Health Meetings are attended by operational Heads and leads	Weekly	Pre-decision review and challenge. Supporting decisions of CYPS and the Council in line with the council’s scheme of delegation, making decisions in line with the delegations to the Corporate Director Children and Young People’s Services (DCS)	Management Board, Executive Lead Members for Children and Education

		where relevant items are presented.
North Yorkshire Council – ‘SEND Deep Dives’	This is an additional layer of internal governance that has been added as part of the monitoring of the HNB deficit Presentations are shared as part of assurance gathering relating to SEND transformation activity relating specifically to the HNB	Convened by Corporate Director Resources (S151 officer) and CEx Attendance includes: DCS AD, Education and Inclusion (named SRO) AD, Resources (CYPS) Head of HR (CYPS)	Quarterly	Decisions relating to strategy and resource allocation within the scheme of delegation	Transformation Board (part of Management Board – above)
HNYICB SEND Committee	The Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Committee (the Committee) is established by the Integrated Care Board (the Board) as a sub-committee of the Quality Committee of the Board in accordance with its Constitution. The Committee will have collective oversight of integrated SEND matters across the ICB/S to ensure the ICB delivers its statutory functions relating to children and young people with SEND aged 0-25 years	Executive Director of Nursing (Chair) Director of Nursing- Core Statutory Partnership/Deputy Nurse (Vice Chair) Deputy Director SEND, CCC and Personalisation HNY ICB Head of SEND Place Director representative Designated Clinical Officers - North Humber, South Humber and North Yorkshire and York. Six place Leads for Children and Young People commissioning Deputy Director Children and Young People's Transformation Mental Health and Learning Disability Lead Clinical Lead, Learning Disability and Autism Programme	Quarterly	The Committee does not have formal decision-making authority relating to budgets or other organisational resources. The primary responsibility of the Committee is to undertake assurance and escalate risks to the Quality Committee and System Quality Group.	ICB Quality Committee
West Yorkshire ICB SEND	Provide strategic oversight, assurance and accountability for SEND delivery across West Yorkshire, ensuring a	West Yorkshire ICB senior quality, nursing and SEND leadership, place representatives, provider	To be confirmed in final Terms of Reference.	Strategic oversight, scrutiny, assurance and escalation. Can review performance	Escalates through the West Yorkshire ICB governance structure,

governance arrangements	clear line of sight from ICB governance to place-based delivery. Oversees performance, quality, risk, reform delivery, workforce planning and joint commissioning, and aligns West Yorkshire-wide strategic commissioning with place SEND and AP partnership delivery. Reports include SEND performance, quality, risk, improvement plans and progress against reform implementation.	collaborative representatives and links to place SEND and AP Partnership Boards and wider stakeholder forums. The wider architecture also connects to the ICB Board, Quality, Safety and Experience Committee, Nursing Business Meeting, CPP and place-based partnership arrangements.		and risks, oversee improvement activity, strengthen joint commissioning alignment and provide system challenge on SEND delivery, but is not the forum for day-today operational delivery decisions.	particularly to the Quality, Safety and Experience Committee and ultimately the ICB Board, with links to CPP and place SEND and AP Partnership Boards for cross-system delivery and assurance.
North Yorkshire Council – Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee	Overview of the Council’s activity relating to the interests of young people, including education, care and protection and family support.	Contact details - Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee \| North Yorkshire Council Reports are presented by ADs and senior officers (including named SRO)	Quarterly	The Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee reviews and scrutinises services affecting young people, including education, care and family support. It can monitor performance, question decision-makers, and make recommendations to the Executive or Council, but does not take decisions itself.	Full Council
*NEW* SEND and Inclusion Transformation Board	The SEND and Inclusion Transformation Board is the main monthly partnership forum for delivery grip, performance review and implementation oversight of	Chaired by the named SRO Senior leads from North Yorkshire Council, relevant ICBs, health providers and nominated locality	Monthly	Can agree recovery actions, request assurance and deep dives, review performance and recommend	North Yorkshire Local Area SEND and AP Partnership

	the Local SEND Reform Plan. It will track milestones and KPIs, review risks, issues and dependencies, agree recovery actions, commission deeper review where required, and ensure joined-up reports can be shared or escalated through partner governance routes as necessary. Review risks, issues and performance Agree actions and prioritisation across the system Ensure joined up reports can be shared /escalated to partner management boards as necessary	representation, with other members by invitation for specific items		escalation, while recognising that statutory and organisational decision-making remains with partner bodies.
Education Providers’ Locality Boards x 5	Locality Boards provide locality-level partnership dialogue, peer challenge and shared oversight of inclusion, demand, pressures and local delivery. They use local intelligence and performance information to identify issues, support joint problem-solving and feed risks, barriers and improvement priorities into the wider governance structure. They select and lead on test and learn inclusion programmes and feedback learning to the partnership board.	School and trust leaders, early years, AP and post-16 representation, with local authority links and wider partners increasingly included over time.	Termly	Can inform local planning, peer challenge and improvement priorities, but do not hold formal statutory decision-making powers Funding for the test and learn projects is through NYC.	SEND and Inclusion Transformation Board and Local Area SEND and AP Partnership Board.

Section 5 – Central Government Support

14. How can we help you?

We will continue to access support from the SEND adviser and the DfE finance adviser. We will also access the DfE-funded regional (Yorkshire and Humber) network for education and inclusion and will engage in peer activities, training and development opportunities as they arise. We have offered to contribute advice to others in the region about the development of our specialist bases (targeted mainstream provision) and we will learn from others who have similar offers of support in other areas. We would welcome advice about the Experts at Hand model, and also any learning from local areas who have taken steps to strengthen partnership and governance arrangements during periods of transformation eg the change programme.

We would appreciate national government support for recruitment and retention of staff in shortage roles including EPs and S&LTs to ensure that local areas are not competing for a small number of staff, this includes in setting new career pathways that support roles in local government and NHS (eg transferable terms and conditions) and the introduction of recognised apprenticeship / training routes that are flexible and attractive to those at the beginning of their careers and those with experience gained in similar roles.

As detailed above, additional support would be particularly valuable in two areas. First, senior official attendance at summer/autumn term events with education leaders and parent carer forum leaders would help build shared confidence in the national direction of travel and support constructive discussion about changing roles, responsibilities and accountabilities. Second, national clarity on school groups, inclusion standards, post-16 expectations and pooled approaches would ensure consistency and confidence across the region.

Annex B - Supporting Documents

Document		Link
	The Schools White Paper		Every Child Achieving and Thriving
SEND Consultation Document		SEND reform: putting children and young people first.
LA and Schools Budget 2026-27		Schools Operational Guide 2026-27
Local Partnership Maturity Assessment Guidance and Tool		Included in commission pack
Local SEND Reform Plan – Data template		Included in commission pack
Local SEND Reform Plan Quality Assessment Framework		Included in commission pack
Local Inclusion Partnership Grant 2026-27		To be published Spring 2026
Experts at Hand Guidance		To be published Spring 2026
High Needs Capital Allocations 2026-27		To be published Spring 2026
Guidance on Inclusion bases		To be published Spring 2026