Lincolnshire's SEND and Alternative Provision Inclusion Plan

We aim to ensure that children and young people in Lincolnshire are well prepared for their next steps and are supported to achieve the best possible outcomes in school and in life.  We aim to use effective support and planning so that children and young people are able to transition successfully to adulthood and independence when they are ready to do so.  We aim to have high aspirations for children and young people and use effective support and planning to meet needs and outcomes that will lead to higher achievement and increased personal resilience.

What we have achieved so far

• the careers hub is providing improved careers provision.  There is a network of over 120 establishments working together to drive progress against the Gatsby benchmarks.  Enterprise coordinators are working with school clusters and employers to facilitate partnership working
• there have been 50 new level three early years SENCo’s developed through the Certsey programme that have joined the existing forty already in place
• termly early years SENCo network opportunities and briefings are embedded that support a collaborative sector led approach with a solution focus and peer challenge.  A pilot sector was completed with outstanding early years settings providing support and sharing good practice to wider settings.  A review of SEN inclusion funding has been completed in collaboration with early years settings and Lincolnshire Parent Carer Forum (LPCF)
• children's health have 100% of the five mandated contacts within the healthy child programme. The skills mix in the team has been extended to include a registered nurse post that is able to support delivery of the healthy child programme and widen the available support and advice for families 
• not all parents take up the offer of the 8-12 month and 2.5 year health and development review delivered as part of the healthy child programme. All families are triaged to ensure those with the most need receive all the mandated contacts
• parents who do not bring their child to an 8-12 month or 2-2.5 universal assessment receive a second appointment offer.  The health visitor will continue to follow the  contact up for those families identified with the most need  
• the transition protocol provides a robust supportive pathway for children and young people that are ready to transition from specialist provision into mainstream.  The enhanced support for children and young people and their families straddles both schools setting to maintain a smooth and seamless transition that maximises successful outcomes  
• pathway plans are written with children in care (CiC) at the age of 16.5 to support preparations to leave care at 18.  At 16.5 support is also allocated from a leaving care worker who works alongside a social worker up to 18 and then takes the support beyond 18.  The leaving care service supports people until the age of 25 years
• Lincolnshire’s SEND employment project has been established to support the ongoing development of the employer market.  Increasing the employment market to provide a range of appropriate jobs and training opportunities for young people with SEND. This can be through supported internships being embedded in special school sixth forms, and a supported employment forum set up and facilitated through DfE grant and internal bid funding 
• the café in Lincolnshire’s county offices, the Quad, is run as an enterprise opportunity, providing on the job training and development for young people with SEND via a supported internship model  
• transition to adult social care is well embedded for those young people open to children with disabilities (CWD), with clear processes for passport to adulthood via our case management system. CWD meet regularly with the learning disability team and also the newly formed physical disability transitions team to support a smooth transition
• the children and young people’s nurses (CYPN) and the community continence service (CCS) have pathways in place for transition of children, including those with SEND, to adult bladder and bowel services to ensure this service, particularly for those entitled to containment product provision, transitions with minimal impact for the child or young person and their families
• we have developed countywide early years partnership meetings with primary schools and professionals to focus on implementing robust and effective transition into school

What we need to do next

• the careers hub will support primary schools through wave three, focussing on achieving higher aspirations among primary pupils in terms of their own thinking about what jobs are possible in the future and challenge stereotypes that may be limiting.  Also developing an increased understanding amongst children and young people of the link between learning in school, skills and the world of work.  Crucially it will also support increased parental engagement in supporting their children to think broadly and with high aspirations about their future careers 
• health visitors will continue to ensure those most in need are seen on a targeted basis to ensure early intervention and prevention, including targeting those most vulnerable
• the SEND team will be expanded by a further 15 caseworkers to improve the annual review process for children and young people with EHC plans, with a focus on improved timely completion of annual reviews.  This will continue to ensure that phased transfers are completed on time for children and young people with an EHC plan that are transitioning at key changes in education, for example, from pre-school to primary education, or primary to secondary or secondar to post-16   
• the pupil reintegration team (PRT) will be expanded by four additional staff. They will have a specific focus on further developing and embedding supported transitions for children and young people transferring from special to mainstream. This will be part of the transition protocol, and for children and young people transitioning into a new mainstream setting following a permanent exclusion or period of time accessing alternative provision
• we will continue to work with the further education sector to support children and young people transitioning from year 11. Focusing on the preparation for adulthood outcomes to improve the rate of 16 and 17 year olds not in education or training for young people in receipt of SEN support
• the leaving care service will be insourced and directly provided by the council from 1st April 2025. The current service offer is being enhanced to increase the support available for care leavers aged 21+ to help their transition to adulthood. There will also more focus on supporting care leavers into education, employment, and training (EET) and increasing support for mental health concerns and substance misuse which can be a barrier to EET
• Lincolnshire’s SEND employment project will continue to develop the employer market and employment opportunities for children and young people with SEND by facilitating quarterly employer forum meetings. This will be alongside SEND careers and employment awards and preparing for adulthood events. The project will continue to increase the employer base to build an offer of experience days, careers talks, work experience, supported internships and paid employment. Developing a training package to support employers to overcome barriers in the workplace and greater promotion amongst children and young people and their families of the employment pathways available and the use of the vocational profiles for all children and young people with an EHC plan from year nine upwards
• gathering destination data for learners with EHC plans and learners on SEN support is proving to be an extensive piece of work for all involved. Further education settings currently do not have the capacity to enable them to gather this data.  We will continue to link with the preparing for adulthood East Midlands group as part of the focused piece of work that is considering possible steps to enable the gathering of this data   
• the intake team will continue to enhance collaborative working with wider stakeholders to ensure that young people transitioning to adult social care have timely assessments and their families are clear about the support they will receive on reaching adulthood.  Ensuring clarity of information for families about transitions will continue to be embedded and reviewed within Lincolnshire’s local offer so that expectations are clear from an early age, including eligibility, most appropriate pathway for transition and what to expect
• building on our early years partnership meetings, we will roll out the home learning environment programmes focusing on school readiness (PEEP,  making it real).  We will also roll out the Lincoln pilot for transition to school portal